Continue Praying for Kenya...

If all that has happened in Kenya has truly broken my heart, I can't imagine how those must feel who call it home, or who have been there and built relationships with people there for years instead of weeks...
The area where the most violence occurred - western Kenya/the Rift Valley, and particularly the large town of Eldoret - was quite close by to where I was living, working, coming to know the students and teachers and staff at the training center, as well as the surrounding area and community.
Praise God that peace is returning to the area, things are calming down, people's needs are beginning to be met, food and medical provisions are slowly making their way to the people who desperately need them. However, A LOT MORE needs to be done... and things that aren't so easily fixed need the powerful healing touch of the Lord's hand. Neighbors have burned each other's houses down, fought against and killed one another... and based on the violence done against one another, claimed that one tribe's blood is somehow better than another's. Each has taken justice into their own hands... claimed to be the victim and so justified their violence against the other. Yet no one has escaped the tragedy - there are perpetrators and victims on both sides. So pray instead, that people would understand justice as Jesus understood justice... in love and in grace... in forgiveness.

Stories in pictures...

A small sampling of students. :) The girl to the left of me is Helen, and the girl to the right is Nelly. The first time they REALLY opened up with me was when a group of us girls all started talking about boys. hahahaha I did find out a lot of cultural bits on dating and what kinds of boys Kenyan girls like and what happens surrounding marriage... grins


Bagging maize with Jemayo (my first friend, beautiful voice, huge heart) and some of the other students during one of my first days at the training center.


Justice is the boy biting the smirking girl's ear. He is Cosmas the Nightwatchman's son. Cosmas was like... my African dad. He's amazing. Olivia is the little girl front and center (red sweatshirt), one of the many orphans who now have a home at the Kipkaren Children's Home. The day I took this picture we had all gathered at the soccer field to watch the guys play - students vs. staff. Olivia, whom I'd never met before, came up to me and gave me a HUGE hug, and then stuck by my side for the rest of the game. Beautiful kids, eh? So so easy to love.


Linet (quiet and shy, yet funny), Jentrix (absolutely crazy! hehe). Two of my sisters.


Lelei, my little brother. He's pretty awesome. :) He sat behind me in class, and every time I didn't understand something that was being said in Kiswahili, I'd ask him about it later and he'd laugh and tell me what we were doing. The common line went: Lelei, kiyaene?! (Kinandi for - What are we doing?) And he would laugh because I'd spoken in Kinandi and then tell me what was announced or what was said - quite often it was about what we were doing next... Like, "Cherotich (my Nandi name), kiwendi kabungui!" (Kinandi: we're going to the garden). Or whatever variation of that! :)


Me, Joel (quiet and sweet), and Kiruwa (one of the most motivated and hardworking of all the students) - friends and students from the Ag program. This day we spent in the Agro-forestry unit (when you combine forestry and agriculture to create more environmentally sustainable conditions for growing crops, raising animals, etc) preparing baggies of dirt to transplant seedlings. We did something like... 3,000 baggies?!


All of these names and faces... they're all my friends, my brothers and sisters, my neighbors. I love them as I love myself. As they're still on Christmas break, each one is scattered across Kenya - some near, some far, in their own homes and communities with their families and friends. I don't know how any of them are, or how they managed through the post-election violence. I am moved to prayer on their accounts again and again, and I would love for you to join me!

"To: Dan.... Love, Rachel"

Background: My brother, Dan, just moved out of the house and into his own a few weeks ago. His new room just happens to be a very brilliant and altogether wretched shade of PINK. hehehehe So being the very sensitive and loving sister I am *ehem* I wrapped his Christmas present in pink tissue paper with a pink bow...

"To: Dan
Love, Rachel
grins I thought the PINK would compliment your room."



Sisters have to find SOME way of lovingly dishing back the jokes our brothers have so lovingly dished us. hehehe

Merry Christmas!! (literally!) ;-)

Worn Soles

Today (Saturday) I sat under a tarp, brown from dirt and use, with what seemed like millions of holes in it, some big, some small. And light shone through the holes. Light and blue sky. And it struck me that those holes seemed like millions of twinkling stars, and the background of the tarp the deep night sky. Under this sky of tarp and holes I sat behind an old man with splashes of white intertwined throughout the frizzy black strands. The collar of his suitcoat was frayed and threadbare at the neckline, a walking stick held loosely in his stiff crumpled strong black hand, the skin on his feet dry and cracked with age and caked with the dust of paths tread. On those feet were falling-apart sandals made of discarded tire fragments. And as he crossed his ankles underneath his white plastic armchair, I saw that the heels of his soles were worn on the outside edges... Just like mine.

Humility "Part 2"

There is great humility to be learned in being a "foreigner". To be a foreigner is to be dependent. You are dependent upon those around you to open their lives and hearts to you, to welcome you into their midst, into their communities, into their circles of friends, into their families. You depend on these people to be bridges of understanding to their culture and traditions. You are dependent upon their willingness to be teachers of their languages and patient as you stumble about in your journey of learning. You depend on them for a great many things like these, and then, as you have started on that path to becoming one with them (I stress WITH them and not one of them. To be one OF them simply isn't possible. Nor should you seek it, as that would mean losing those things that make you who you are, largely coming from culture, from how you were raised, the education you received, etc. God has made you who you are for a reason and a purpose, and it is not for us to divorce from ourselves that which God has molded and shaped us into being as a result of our own unique backgrounds. However, it is so sooo important to engage in being ONE WITH THEM. This is being their sister, being their brother, walking in their shoes, eating their food, speaking their language...), you begin to depend on them for other things... Things like love and acceptance... like the extended family that the body of Christ is able to offer, because when it really comes down to it, we're all foreigners. You depend on these people who you are building relationships with, friendships with, to be your mother to comfort you when you're sick (because your own mom isn't there to make you chicken soup or ginger tea). :) You depend on them to encourage you when you're having a rough day, laugh with you as your joy shared is doubled, and cry with you to bear some of the burden of whatever pain you are going through. To be dependent is to know humility - a humility that is sweet to taste, full of love, and abounding in grace.

a mix of pictures (and more to come) :)

Preaching on the "maui" (stone) in "Kenya 2" (the people here are very hostile, and almost all are engaged in brewing illegal alcohol). My third weekend in Kipkaren, the students and staff at the training center went from house to house in our surrounding community to invite the to "the rock" for an afternoon of preaching and music. A lot of people are found deeply imbedded in poverty (not only economically), and have no church to turn to or to have turn to them. So out we went. It's the intention of the spiritual leaders at the training center to make these meetings a weekly happening, as people are responding to the Word and to the love being shown them. We've only just begun though, and there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done.

Listening.

Eating sugarcane (my first time) with Rashid and Henri (2 public health interns). The dairy unit is behind us.

Up before 5am to milk the cows. grins (they have 2 cows: Istoria and Nenile)

HIV/Aids Testing

Yesterday (Monday), I went with the public health workers and interns to an area called Osorongai (near Kipkaren) to test people for HIV/Aids. Betty (the worker), Rashid and Henri (interns), Miishak (driver) and I piled into the landrover/ambulance with our supplies and kits and headed out over the bumpy roads to Osorongai. The back of the "ambulance" acted as a sort of office/area of privacy, as those who were willing climbed in and out to get their fingers pricked, blood tested, results read, and personal information written for records. Of the 44 people we tested, most of whom were youth, all 44 were negative (yay!). And one of the opportunities of catching, testing, and educating people when they are young is that you can teach them how to protect themselves from getting HIV, as well as help erase some of the stigma surrounding the virus. And for some comic relief, we ended the day with loading the back of the truck with a couple bundles of squawking smelly chickens to bring home with us for supper for some visitors at the training center. grins Never a dull moment. ;)