What is our response?

The Sunday before Christmas we had a beautiful outdoor service with Jason and Lisa's congregation.

 The kids acted out the Christmas story and we heard an amazing message about the three part story of Christmas. The first part of the story is our sin - how sin entered the world through Adam and Eve and how we live in sin every day. The second part of the story is Christ's redemption - through his birth, life, death, and Resurrection. When we celebrate Christ's birth, we are only seeing a small peek at the BIG STORY. And the third part of the story is our response. How do we respond to such an extravagant gift? We can't find words or actions or things that are enough to give back. But we can give our lives to God as our thank you. It was a beautiful reminder of why we celebrate Christmas - that Christ came to earth as a baby and made himself nothing.

Here are the lyrics to a great song by Andrew Peterson that pretty much sums it up:

Gather ‘round, ye children, come
Listen to the old, old story
Of the pow’r of death undone
By an infant born of glory
Son of God, Son of Man
Gather ‘round, remember now
How creation held its breath
How it let out a sigh
And it filled up the sky with the angels
Son of God, Son of Man


CHORUS


So sing out with joy for the brave little boy
Who was God, but he made himself nothing
Well he gave up his pride and he came here to die
Like a man
Therefore God exalted him
To the place of highest praises
And he gave him a name above every name
That at the very name of Jesus, Son of God


CHORUS


We would sing out with joy for the brave little boy
Who was God, but he made himself nothing
Well he gave up his pride and he came here to die
Like a man
So in heav’n and earth and below
Every knee would bow and worship
And ev’ry tongue would proclaim
That Jesus, He reigns with the angels


CHORUS


So sing out with joy for the brave little boy
Who was God but he made himself nothing
Well he gave up his pride and he came here to die
Like a man
So gather ‘round, ye children come
Listen to the old, old story
Of the power of death undone
By an infant born of glory
Son of God, Son of Man 

Family Time!

These past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity....but so much fun! We are SO BLESSED to have family here. We are blessed to have Jason and Lisa and family only an hour away all the time, and then to have my parents visit this month has been an extra bonus! We have been filling our days with outings, games, and fun foods.

One of our first outings was to Lake Naivasha (near Jason and Lisa's house). We had a picnic lunch and went fishing and took a boat ride. It was Lisa's birthday so we were able to celebrate with her.  We enjoyed the bountiful bird life and wildlife we saw there.

A Kenyan Feast

Last Sunday we had the pleasure of having some of our Kenyan friends over for lunch. We had 27 people in all around our table. Fortunately, the sun was shining (thanks for praying!) and we ate outdoors. Another big bonus: My friend Joyce who works at the local restaurant catered our lunch! Talk about a Kenyan feast: stew, chapatis, irio, cabbage, peas and carrots, rice, and soda! YUM! We have enjoyed getting to know these families because they work here at RVA and help us in so many ways. Our kids love playing with their kids and look forward to annual Christmas party each year! Here are some shots of our fun day:

The kids table

The serving table. Esther and Virginia (in red and in the patterned dress) have known our family for nearly ten years! They are very dear to us.

Megan and Esther - two peas in a pod!

Lyndsey and Maureen

PS- My parents have arrived! Next blog entry: all about "Babu and Tita's" visit!

Medical Adventures in Africa

The title sounds scarier than our story. Really, this post is just about Megan getting tubes in her ears last week. However, any mundane procedure turns into an adventure here in Africa.

For instance, even though the ENT has been following Megan's repeated ear infections for the last few months, we scheduled the ear tube procedure the day before it actually took place...as we were standing casually on the porch of the RVA Cafeteria after lunch on Sunday, waiting for the rain to stop so we could walk home.

"How about 7 am tomorrow?" he says. And there, our appointment was made. You gotta love Africa.

However, working our way through the system down at Kijabe Hospital was not as easy. Megan's chart cannot be found. Long wait in the "Theatre Reception" (a.k.a. the Operating Room Lounge). Detours down crowded hallways to take vital signs. Another detour to the Casualty Department  (a.k.a....the ER) to take more vitals, amid very sick patients. Still can't find Megan's chart. More waiting. "Mom, I'm hungry!" (sorry, no food until it is over.)  Reading a book. Playing on Dad's Ipod. "Do you have Megan's chart?" the nurse asks me. (No, that is what you are looking for.) Wearing mismatched "hygienic" flip-flops to accompany Megan back to the Theatre. No chart - they used a piece of paper to record her procedure. Prayer with the Doctor. Hugs to Megan. Waiting. All went well (except for a fussy waking up from anesthesia.) Collecting dawa (medicine) from the pharmacy (Why are there 7 people behind the counter and only 1 working?) Never found the chart. Back home again.

Ahhh....So that is it in a nutshell. Trying to be patient in a different culture is hard. Especially when we are used to a customer service society. But in the midst of the waiting and the lost chart, I was reminded how blessed we are to have Christian doctors and nurses caring for us. It was so meaningful to have them pray with us before taking Megan back to the Theatre. And next time I ran into the doctor (on the cafeteria porch again!) he asked how she was doing and said we could pop in any time for a check up.

You gotta love Africa!

A Manly Day

Living as the only brother of two older sisters your whole life (all four years so far) can have its ups and its downs, like this:

I think I was more worried by the expression on Ian's face than I was about the fact that he was wearing a dress. He looks like he's enjoying it way too much. With these lovely photo ops becoming all to common, I decided to take things into my own hands and take this boy on a really manly outing.  About a week ago the East Africa Safari Rally Classic was passing right by Kijabe, down in the valley below us.  This was part of a 4000 km race that ran through Kenya and Tanzania.  What makes this "classic" is all the cars in the race are about 30 years old or older.  When I told Ian we were going to a race to see some fast race cars like "Lightning McQueen" he was on board and ready to go.  We packed up the truck with our chairs, tarps, and all the gear we needed for a real African bush breakfast and headed off.  We pulled out about 6:30am to get down to the course area and find an ideal spot to see some action and get some good pictures. ...

We found a nice spot right next to a rather deep mud hole.  With the recent rains the course was pretty sloppy in places which always make for some great photo ops. Not to mention that it tends to slow the cars down so you get a really good look as they pass by.  We set up the tarp and table and made our bush breakfast of eggs, sausage, cinnamon buns, bananas and coffee and chai.  Ian enjoyed every bite as we awaited the arrival of the first car. ...

It wasn't too long after breakfast the first car arrived at out watering hole.  It was Bjorn Waldegard and his son Mathias. Bjorn is a legend in the East African Safari Rally.  The father son team eventually went on three days later to win the rally.  He was one of the few drives that barley lifted his foot off the accelerator when he hit the water.  Great start to the rally, just what we wanted to see. ...

Bjorn Waldegard

That's a camera mounted on top.

Each cars location was tracked on Google Earth
 in real time during the race.

We even had a visit from one of the team's chase helicopters.
He  landed to tells that one car was stuck about 1km down the course from us.
About half our group took off to pull them out of a rather large hole.
Ian went along to "help" as well.

Ian's favorite car in the race was car number 1.  Driven by Ian Duncan, a local Kenyan rally favorite and hero.  Our Ian was so excited that there was a driver with the same name as him.  He kept asking when he was going to come by again. He hasn't quite grasped the concept of point-to-point racing as opposed to track racing. Since the race Ian's asked about 20 times (a day) when we can print a picture of Ian Duncan's car and take it to Nairobi so he can sign it for him.  He desperately wants to meet Ian Duncan in person.  Looks like I have another outing to do soon. ...

Ian Duncan

In my efforts to have a manly day with my son, the poor living dress-up doll of his two older sisters, this car came along.  Its' the all female team of Khan and Irwin.  I won't mention that they were the last car of the day.  Maybe they stopped to ask for directions. Also the only car with a tow rope fixed and ready on the front. Hmmm. Nothing against female race teams, I'm just sayin'.  I'll give it to them though, they did finish 29th out of 52 who started the race. ...

All in all it was a great day.  Ian had a great time.  That's him on the roof of the Landie scouting with binoculars for the next car to arrive. If the pictures don't speak loud enough of his approval listen to what he says at the end of following video clip. ...

This was shot on the frist day the cars passed by. 

Thus the rain.  They came by again two days later, 

that was out breakfast outing.

I have to say Ian's favorite part of the day, (okay mine too) was when we got to take our turn rallying through the mud hole on our way home.  Maybe Ian Duncan will want an autographed picture of me now. Or better yet, maybe Ian and I will be the next father son team to run the rally.

Giving Back

Last Friday I had the opportunity to drive a bus full of nationals up north for the day.  Each year RVA tries to give back to its National Staff employees who work day in and day out to make what we do here possible.  Usually this entails piling everyone in the busses and heading off to one of the game parks for the day to see some animals.  Many nationals never get the opportunity to visit their own national parks or travel much outside their home area for that matter.  This year however our staff requested to go to Lake Bogoria National Park.  Not for wildlife though.  In fact we saw more zebras, gazelles and antelopes and ostrich along the highway than we did in the park.  Nope, they wanted to go to Lake Bogoria to boil eggs.  Lake Bogoria is a spring fed lake.  The springs are natural hot springs that bubble up through the volcanic soil and drain into the lake.  Due to the high content of volcanic salts and minerals in the water the lake produces lots of algae, which in turn attracts the thousands upon thousands of flamingo that call Bogoria home. Most of the men and women I talked to had never been to Bogoria, but had always heard about the boiling water so hot you can boil an egg.  Well, they were right.  The water is hot, very hot and with 100+ staff members on 3 busses we had plenty of eggs.  One of the men who works in our cafeteria gave me his explanation of the source of boiling water.  "I think during creation, there was a kitchen down there.  When he was done God forgot to put off the stove."  As Steven, one of our custodians, and I stood there next to the springs staring at the crystal clear boiling water, waiting for his egg to finish he turned to me and summed up the experience, "We serve an amazing God."

Arriving at Lake Bogoria National Park.

Natural hot springs spilling down to the lake.

Admiring the wonder of creation.

Naturally boiling spring water .

(notice the egg in a bag at the bottom of the photo)

Happy to be off from work.

Boiling eggs in the springs. 

 Lake Bogoria is also known for its abundant population of Flamingos.

Thankful

This past week we celebrated Thanksgiving....twice.

The first celebration was on the actual Thanksgiving Day, but since we live in Kenya, celebrating an American holiday isn't all it's cracked up to be. For one, the kids had school that day. And two we didn't eat any turkey. But our table was full of family and for that I am thankful.

We are so blessed to have my (Joyellen's) brother and family live only 45 minutes away from us. They were already coming to school to pick up their oldest child the next day, so we had a fun family dinner and they spent the night.

We had a lovely feast of Indian food - Butter Chicken, Palak Paneer (A spinach and cheese dish), Curried Lentils, Naan Bread, Coconut Rice, etc. YUM!

(the thankful poster the kids and I made)

(the family feast!)

(Yum!)

(The cousins playing after dinner)

We did eventually have our turkey - on Saturday - once the students left and life settled down. We had a full thanksgiving feast with our small group. We have enjoyed this fun group of people for two years now - we meet weekly for prayer and praise. This year we started doing kid's praise songs with our families once a month and it is a highlight for me - doing all the motions, etc!

Anyway, our small group divided up all the meal items and we had a great feast! We borrowed a "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" DVD (from 2006) and it was great to hang out and relax!

(our small group)

(the kids' table)

(the feast)

(the grown up table!)

The same day that school let out..and the students left...and we had our dinner...was also the beginning of our Africa Inland Mission Spiritual Life Conference. It is held here at RVA, so it is a quick turn-around for us to gear up for the conference after a busy school term. But we really enjoyed it! The speaker, Pastor John Talley, was excellent. He spoke about the sovereignty of God, which is a huge topic, but was very thought-provoking and challenging.

The kids had an amazing kids' program. A team from California came and brought t-shirts, crafts, snacks, music, etc. The kids had a blast and we enjoyed the final night of conference where they sang a few of the songs they learned during the weekend. We felt so blessed to have this wonderful team that really invested in....and loved on....our kids!

 So.....family, friends, feasts, conference, great kids' programs, vacation.....we have a lot to be thankful for!!!!