mike grober

what if you are the answer to the questions you are struggling with?

2011-03-09T10:14:00.001-06:00

Lessons from Boot Camp

2011-03-08T16:18:00.000-06:00

In 2002 Michael, my oldest son, spent 10 weeks in boot camp at Fort Leonard Wood. I was able to visit him one time while he was there. I checked him out, took him to lunch, took him back to my hotel and watched him sleep until it was time for him to return to the base! Even more than a good steak, Michael relished the chance to sleep.

He still looks back on this time as one of the toughest, most life-changing experiences of his life. I recently came across a note I wrote after my visit. In it I jotted down some lessons from boot camp that reminded me a lot of the Christian life.

1. Michael was not allowed to talk in the mess hall. If he did, his drill sergeant would jump all over him. Why? Because everything Michael did or said reflected on the reputation of his drill sergeant. In a similar way, our actions and words reflect on the reputation of Christ. When was the last time you considered this before saying or doing something?

2. Michael was a "pusher" during his squad's 15K marches. When someone fell behind, his was the backpack they grabbed on to in order to keep from falling further behind. Michael was then tasked with dragging his fellow recruit to the front of the line. As a Christian, Christ is your "pusher." He is the one who is always there when you fall behind. He is the one you can count on to get you to the front of the line. When was the last time you reached out to Christ instead of something else to move you forward?

3. When you are in boot camp the drill sergeant wakes you up every morning at 4 AM. It is his responsibility to make sure you wake up on time. At AIT (Advance Individual Training) the soldier is given an alarm clock and it becomes his responsibility to get up at 4 AM. As baby Christians, God opens doors for us. However, as mature Christians, God expects us to open a lot of the doors ourselves.

Boot camp transforms civilians into warriors through a comprehensive and intense 10-week training cycle. The Christian life is meant to transform us into Christ-centered men and women who reflect Him in all we do and say.

Crystal Davis' Kenya Mission Journal

2011-03-07T10:09:00.001-06:00

Crystal's journal will give you a feel of what it is like to be on a mission trip in Kenya.

KENYA JOURNAL

Before I begin this journal, there are some things I need to write about our preparation for this trip. Since I was a teenager, I’ve wanted to one day go to Africa on a mission trip. I just didn’t ever think I was ready or knew enough about the Bible to be of any help to anyone. But, when I saw the announcement in our church bulletin that our church would be going to Kenya, something told me to go to the meeting and at least hear what all it was about.

So, at this first Kenya meeting, I found out we’d be partnering with Light Ministries and this would be the first time Light Ministries would be doing a medical mission in Kenya. That’s when I knew this trip was the one I was supposed to go on (because I am a RN). I found out the trip cost $3,000 and knew I couldn’t afford that. I spoke with my missions’ pastor and he told me it was acceptable to send out letters for donations. I prayed over the letters before I mailed them and told God that if he wanted me to go on this trip, that I was trusting him to touch the hearts of those who were going to receive these letters and allow me to raise all the funds I would need through donations. Within just a few weeks, I’d received greater than $3,000! I was positive God was paving the way for me! Our church decided to go to a game reserve for a safari while we were in Africa so I elected to pay for that. Although I’d received enough money through donations to cover that cost, I thought that was a fun thing and not really part of the mission trip, so everything that I raised over the $3,000 was invested in the ministries in Kenya. I am so glad we got to go to the game reserve. Not only so I could see some of God’s beautiful creatures in their natural habitat, but also because we needed the physical, mental and emotional rest that this day brought us.

In November, we still hadn’t received many medical supplies and didn’t really know what we’d need over there anyway. Brooke, one of the other nurses going from Rock Creek, submitted applications to three different ministries that donate medical supplies and medications for mission trips. We’d hoped to get approved by at least one…we got approved by all three! And, one of the ministries sent a letter that they’d received an extra donation and had been praying over which church they should send it to. God told them to send it to us! Every day when Brooke got home there were boxes and boxes stacked up on her front porch! I went over to her house about a week before we were to leave for Kenya and we began sorting through all of the boxes. I could not believe how many donations we’d received and we began praying that God would show us exactly what to take because we knew there was no way we could take it all. Brooke told me she’d gotten to select some things that she thought we’d need when submitting the applications. So, she’d seen “erythromycin pledgelets” on the list. She knew erythromycin was an antibiotic and she assumed the pledgelets must be something like alcohol prep pads that we use in the hospital…the small squares we use to wipe off someone’s arm before we give them an injection. So, she ordered 500. When they came in, there were 500 jars of 60 wipes!!! We knew God must know why we’d need all those, but we had no idea what it would be! In America, those pledgelets are used for acne…why would the people in Kenya care if they had acne and would we really see that many people with acne that bad? So we prayed over them and decided to take 6 bags of 12 jars. And, actually, we ended up packing 27 more jars right before we left just because we had some extra space for them….and we used them all!

Our missions’ pastor had told us that we were not going to do any injections while we were over there since this was our first trip to Africa and HIV/AIDS is so prevalent there. We were a little disappointed with that decision, but knew he probably was correct and we should just see what it was like this first trip. BUT, God had different plans and several bottles of injectable Rocephin, an antibiotic were donated to us. We knew there was probably a reason we’d received it, so we took it just in case.

As we started packing our seven duffel bags we jokingly talked about how these bags had better be magic bags because there was NO WAY they were going to hold all the supplies we had. We prayed that what God wanted to get to Kenya would get to Kenya. As we packed, we realized the joke was on us because they were, indeed, “magic bags.” We were amazed at how much stuff we fit into them and we didn’t have to leave much behind at all. In fact, the things we did leave behind were things that we had an enormous amount of, so we took at least half with us and left the other part behind. I could feel God’s hand moving over this trip in a big way! As we all began to get to know each other a little better, I realized that each of us had a characteristic that seemed to contribute to making our team whole…Mark: he’s the dad or grandpa that likes to joke around and keep the mood light. Gail: she’s the center…like the grandmother of a large family who holds everything together…she also says the most heart-felt prayers I’ve ever heard and she knows just what to pray and when to pray for it! Brooke has extreme organizational skills and remembers everything! I wish my memory was half that good! If I couldn’t remember what med to use for what skin disorder, Brooke could! Danni is the free-spirit, fun-loving girl next door who reminds you to just have fun and laugh! Mike is the intelligent, logical thinker that keeps us all calm when we start to panic! Greg is the compassionate man who helps us see things the way God wants us to see them. And as for me…I really don’t know. I think I was just the observer…a sponge. I tried to learn something from each of these people on my team and become a better Christian from what I learned and saw. I don’t know that I brought anything to the team, but I think that I got to show my compassion to the people of Kenya and I think a lot of them actually saw it.

Day 1…February 6, 2011

We are almost to Amsterdam and as we all complain about the horrible breakfast on our flight and our lack of sleep due to the small amount of space we have, I can’t help but think of how ungrateful we must all sound. People in Kenya….what do they have? How much space do they live in? What are they eating for breakfast? Is there anything to eat? I bet the majority of those people would be so happy to be where we are now.

I just found out it costs $10K to upgrade to a first-class seat on this flight! $10,000!!! You get a seat that folds out into a bed, but still……what would $10K do in Kenya?

I’m already feeling pretty drained. I took an Ambien, and three hours later, I still wasn’t sleeping…So, I took another half of an Ambien. Now, I’m a walking zombie! ;-) I miss my husband a lot already and can’t wait to text him when I get to Amsterdam.

This is my prayer this morning, “Oh Lord, I pray that you would forgive us for our ungrateful nature and I thank you for opening my eyes to this. Thank you, God, for your protection, mercy, and love. Continue to protect us as we travel this week and as we serve for your glory. Help keep us going when we are tired. Please comfort our loved ones who are back home. Thank you, God, for providing me with the opportunity to come on this trip and for providing me with the means to make it possible. Please help me know what you want me to say and do while I’m in Kenya. Thank you so much for all your wonderful blessings and for showing me things I normally wouldn’t see and things I’d normally take for granted. I love you so much, God. Amen.”

Day 2, February 7, 2011

We arrived in Nairobi tonight. Getting our VISAs and going through customs was seriously a breeze! God is so good! We have seven extra bags full of medical supplies and not one of them was searched! The temperature is perfect!!! It reminds me of flying into West Palm Beach at night at the beginning of the summer. The air feels humid, but there’s a good breeze, so it’s nice. There are lots of palm trees and bougainvilleas, too. My mom hates those plants because of their thorns, but they are so beautiful to me! Zachary and Pastor Harrison picked us up. We also got to meet Pastor Harrison’s wife, Christine. She works at the airport and rode with us to the Hampton House Guest House. I couldn’t get used to the fact that they drive on the left side of the road and the driver sits on the right side of the car! Once, Christine was sitting in the front passenger seat while we were driving and she turned around and I was thinking to myself, “Oh my gosh! She needs to turn back around and put her hands back on the wheel! We are going to wreck!!!!” Then it hit me that she wasn’t the driver! In my defense, I was very tired!

I felt scared as we drove to the Hampton House. When we got there, it was gated…I know that’s a good thing, but it made me realize that we must be in a dangerous area for it to need a gate. Our room was OK. Sort of like a really old college dorm. There was a bunk bed – I slept on the top and Brooke took the bottom bunk and there was a twin bed that Dani slept in. I fell asleep quickly, only to be awakened by a bunch of dogs barking! It’s strange – we heard lots of dogs in Kenya, but rarely actually saw any. I think it was at this point that the “jet lag” and pure exhaustion began catching up with me. I tossed and turned all night. I didn’t want Dani and Brooke to hear me, but I cried my eyes out that night into my pillow. Finally, I began texting my husband and that made me feel a little better. I guess that’s what 26 hours of travelling will do to you! Daylight came too early and we had to get up and get back on the road!

Day 3…Tuesday, February 8, 2011

We ate breakfast at the Java House in Nairobi. It was pretty good…I didn’t eat much, but had an espresso to try and wake up a little. Their coffee is so good! I didn’t even need any cream because the flavor was so wonderful! I think this is when we started calling Grober “Daddy” because he would get the ticket from the waitress and pay for our meals.

After breakfast, I started getting really nauseated! We drove to the Nairobi airport and again, made it through security with no problems! We’d been told that a lot of flights were being cancelled, so Gail led us in prayer, and thankfully, ours was not cancelled. However, it was a very turbulent flight from Nairobi to Kisumu and my nausea only got worse. I’d never truly understood what it meant to “feel green” or “look green” until now! Luckily, the flight was only about 45 minutes. When we landed in Kisumu it felt as if we’d stepped into a sauna! It had heated up a lot outside since we left Nairobi. Bernard, our driver, met us at the airport and took us to eat lunch at the Imperial Hotel restaurant in Kisumu. The restaurant was situated around a swimming pool outside and I had to refrain from jumping in! It was so tempting because I was so hot and nauseated! I tried to eat a grilled cheese sandwich just to keep up my strength, but I could only choke down about half of it. Grober ordered “tilapia” and the sight of it made me even more nauseated! I’ve never seen tilapia like that! It was a whole fish with some sort of horns and teeth that appeared to be sautéed. After lunch we had to drive all the way to Kakamega – I think that was about a 3 hour drive. The roads are terrible there! Some are nice, smooth highways, but inevitably that smooth highway runs out too soon and you feel as though you are on a backroad in south Arkansas that was created way back in the day and the driver is doing at least 50mph over and around bumps and potholes while dodging on-coming traffic that is also swerving around all the potholes! Of course, about ¾ of the way into the drive, I needed to use the restroom. I’d made the driver aware of this once and he told me we were very close….about 40 minutes later, we still weren’t there. Luckily, Greg Kirksey has a daughter and realized I reeeeaaally needed to go so he asked if we could pull over and we did. He told me that he’d once waited so long to stop when his daughter needed to use the restroom that she started crying. It had made him feel so bad that he’d promised to never do that again! Oddly enough, we stopped at “The Crying Stone!” It really is beautiful! It’s a tall stone with another smaller stone balanced on top of it that has water slowly flowing from the top. Brooke and Dani walked up the hill with me and kept a look-out while I squatted behind a bush and tried to hide from all the kids walking down the road. Later on in the week, Dani asked a native if there were many snakes in the area and they replied, “Ohhhh yes….many poisonous snakes….especially in the area around the crying stone!” Thank God they stayed away that day! We finally made it to our hotel in Kakamega. It wasn’t too terrible. I had a room to myself. The toilet was in the shower, the hot water was a “widow-maker” (more on that later), and the mosquito net had a few holes in it. I was right next door to the office, so people were usually gathered right outside my window until around midnight, and then they were back again at 4 am. I know it seems as if I’m complaining…I’m really not…just stating facts and painting a picture. But, I’m not going to lie, I’d much rather stay at the Hyatt any day! I took a shower and by the time I was done with that, I was so physically spent that I started crying at the drop of a hat. I went to find Grober just to let him know that I was going to rest and would miss dinner and I kept telling myself, “I’m not going to cry…not going to cry…not going to let Mike see me cry….” As soon as I saw him, a faucet turned on in my eyes and I could barely talk! He told me I needed to rest and that the reason I was so emotional was because of my lack of sleep. Honestly, I wasn’t sure. I started thinking that maybe I was just homesick. Maybe I wasn’t cut out for this and shouldn’t have come. Maybe I should just call my husband and tell him to book me a flight home and never show my face at The Church at Rock Creek again….So I prayed. I knew God had called me to do this, so I knew I had to give it a chance. I called my husband and my mom and had two very short, very expensive conversations! But, I got some more of my crying out and let them reassure me, then took a Phenergan for my nausea and an Ambien to sleep and hit the sack. Brooke told me not to take both, but I really wanted to make sure I slept!

Side note: A widow-maker is a type of hot water system. All Grober told me was to flip the switch on the wall, give it about 5 minutes to heat up, and then turn on the shower. The lower you have the water pressure, the hotter the water will be. With my thick hair, this made my showers last about 30 minutes! On the first day, I almost reached up and adjusted the shower head, but something told me not to … to just leave it the way it was. Three days later when I was asking Grober why it’s called a “widow-maker” he explained to me that there’s a coil in the shower head that heats up the water and if you touch the showerhead while the water is running, you will get shocked! Thank God I didn’t adjust the shower head that first night! Mike has now decided that he might better start explaining the widow-maker a little more to people who don’t normally travel outside the U.S.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011:

I woke up at 4:00 am when all the workers began gathering around my room, but at least I’d gotten in about 6 hours of sleep. I still felt nauseated, but the crying had stopped. I laid in bed until around 6am, and at 7:00 I went to breakfast and tried to eat a bowl of their version of cornflakes. But, they rarely serve anything cold over there, so with my nausea and the warm milk, I decided to just skip breakfast. After breakfast we took a short drive to the Light Feeding Station. Along the way, I discovered that the people of this town were just as poor as all the other little villages we’d driven through along the way. There were little shacks standing along the sides of the road where people were selling all sorts of things like furniture, sheets, clothing, eggs and meat! I began to notice, even at the feeding station, that the tall, cement fences had broken glass or razor wire in the top to prevent people from climbing over…. A little unsettling. When we pulled through the gate, all 150 children were waiting on us and singing! What a beautiful sound! Light Ministries had recently donated money to the feeding station to build a new kitchen, so we got to see the ribbon cutting for that. They showed us the old kitchen, outside, in a small one-room shack. There were holes in the ground with burning coals that they sat the big pots on top of. They also showed us a spot right outside the new kitchen/dining hall where there will soon be a water pump so the children can wash their hands and clean up before they eat. The children did many dances and sang many songs to welcome us. They got Brooke, Gail, and a few others up there to dance with them. Brooke has absolutely no rhythm so she hated that! (not that I can talk!) After the programs, we split the children up into 3 groups. They rotated through a class, then a craft room, then the medical clinic. We had 3 RNs and 1 APN who specialized in dermatology…such a blessing because we ran into lots of skin problems! The most common problems we saw that day were eye infections and colds. We administered de-worming meds to all the children as well. We’d stored all our meds and supplies in the sewing room and while I was looking for something, Rebeccah, the head mistress (I guess that’s what you’d call her), came and gave me a bracelet. She also gave Brooke one that day and since Brooke already had one exactly the same as the one Rebeccah gave her, I traded bracelets with Brooke. So, now I had a beaded bracelet that said “Kenya” on it. I love it and I hope it lasts forever. After we assessed all the children and the workers there, we headed back to our hotel, Sayai Guest House, for lunch. Lunch was sakuma wiki, ugali, a sort of cold-slaw salad, chicken and rice. This was my first time trying all of this since I’d been sick the night before. The sakuma wiki tasted sort-of like turnip greens, only more bitter and they were a little gritty…probably didn’t get washed well enough. The ugali was a grits-type of food all mashed together that had no taste but served as a good source of carbohydrates. You put the sakuma wiki on top of the ugali…..the first day this was OK. By the second time I had to eat it…ugh! I decided not to eat anymore of those two! A lot of people liked the cold slaw, but I’m just not a fan of cold slaw period, so I couldn’t eat it. The chicken barely had any meat on it, but had plenty of feathers! Therefore, I couldn’t stomach it either! Thank God for rice and salt! After lunch, we went back to the feeding station. The pastors had told Rebeccah to tell a few people in the community who needed medical attention to come there that afternoon. They told her only 35 could come…there were 48 on the list when we got back, but several of those 48 had their sibling, mother, grandfather, or children with them as well…I didn’t mind at all and would have stayed right there seeing people all week if I’d needed to. These people were much sicker than the kids we’d seen earlier. I’m assuming that must have something to do with their level of nutrition. There are a few people who stand out to me from this group. Although many of these diseases we couldn’t treat, simply because we didn’t have the material to do so, the placebo effect of just giving them some Tylenol probably helps them a lot. One lady told me she had been diagnosed with diabetes. We had absolutely nothing to help with the treatment of that…it broke my heart to have to tell her that. A little boy, probably 5 years old, came up with his mother and she said he’d been coughing, having a runny nose and a fever. I took his temp under his arm and it was around 101 degrees. When you take an under-arm temp, you add one degree to get a more accurate core body temp. So, this meant his temp was actually probably around 102 degrees. He was the first patient on this trip to receive an antibiotic injection. I cleaned his little arm off with some alcohol and pinched up his tiny muscle while his mom held his arm still. As the needle went in, I could feel that his skin was much tougher than most patients I’d given shots to. So was his muscle…sort of a rougher feeling. Probably because there was less fat in his arm. He screamed at the top of his lungs and tried to pull away but luckily his momma had a pretty good grip on him and I got all the medicine in! Another lady brought her 18-month old baby to us and told me she’d been running fever and sweating and had a runny nose. I took the baby’s temp under her arm and it was 104.1.….which meant this baby had a temp of 105.1!!! I’d never seen a body temp that high and it hit me that if we didn’t do something ASAP, this baby would probably start having seizures soon and possibly even die within the next few hours. I gave the baby a dose of infant Tylenol and Brooke gave her an injection of Rocephin, the antibiotic we brought, in her leg. We also removed her socks and applied an ice pack (wrapped in a towel) to her abdomen to start cooling her down. Greg texted his wife and daughter about this incident and they both replied, “God must have big plans for that baby.” I agree with them! I also remember seeing Brooke getting ready to administer an antibiotic injection to a little boy who was wearing a uniform from the feeding station. He looked to be around 8 years old. He stared off in the distance as she got ready to give him the injection and he never made a sound! He was so good and such a tough little boy. After she was done, we all clapped for him and told him how “big” he was! He just smiled. One thing I noticed about these children was they are not like American children. When you tell them to take some medicine, they just do it…no complaining or whining or back-talking. They just take it. There was only one little girl who made a face and pursed her lips as I was getting ready to give her some cough medicine. But, as soon as her teacher said something to her in Swahili, the little girl opened up and took it! Danni told us she’d had one patient who had recently been diagnosed with TB but couldn’t afford the medications so he was coming to us to see if we could treat him. Unfortunately, we couldn’t. She also had a patient who she was quite certain had a worm coming out of his eye…which actually could be possible. When I worked for the retina clinic in Little Rock, I’d seen a girl once who had a worm in her eye. It had long been dead though. I’d learned that after you accidentally ingest the worm or larva, they sometimes travel up your blood vessels and end up at your eye. They attempt to “swim” through the vitreous in your eye toward your pupil because they see the light and are attempting to find a way out. Danni didn’t know at the time that I’d been an ophthalmology nurse so she didn’t show the patient to me. But, again, there wasn’t anything we could have done for him anyway. He needs surgery to remove the worm.

Although all of these patients made me realize how blessed we are in America to have such easy access to medical care, there was still one other patient that my heart cried out for even more. During our afternoon medical clinic, we’d kept all of our supplies and meds in a room where they normally made uniforms for the children. Jeff Moser, the minister from Bellevue Baptist in Memphis, was in this room acting as our pharmacist. I’d just gone in there to get something, and when I returned to the place where I’d been assessing patients, an old man sat in front of me holding a cane. He was very thin and by the distant expression on his face, I immediately knew he was blind. He didn’t know any English so an African lady translated for each of us. She told me, “He is blind and would like for you to give him his sight back.” My heart broke into pieces right then and there and I felt a burning sensation in my chest as I held in my tears. I looked closely at his eyes and noted that he seemed to have a film over them…it looked as if he had cataracts, but it also looked milky like an infection. The whites of his eyes were not white, they were bright red. I asked if his eyes were causing him any pain and the translator told me “No.” I figured if he had an infection, he’d probably have some pain… We’d seen several children that morning who had eye infections and I knew we were low on drops. We’d already discussed this and decided that if we saw any more eye infections, we’d just have to give one dose of drops and that was it…we couldn’t send a bottle of drops with anyone because we were down to one last bottle…I just didn’t have the heart to do it. I went to our supply room and picked up the last bottle of eye drops and just stared at it. I had to give myself a little pep-talk just to get back out there. I put the drops in his eyes, knowing they might not help, and stuck the bottle in my pocket. He just sat there….waiting. Something told me to just give him the bottle. But I knew if I did, we wouldn’t be able to treat anyone else with eye infections. The feeling was so overwhelming, though, so I put the bottle in his hands and told the translator to tell him to put one drop in each eye every day until the bottle was empty. The man nodded his head and smiled, then the translator helped him to his feet and led him away. I noticed he could barely stand up and his feet were so dirty and swollen from walking around barefoot. I ran back to our supply room and a flood of tears came out my eyes. I wanted to cry out in desperation but I didn’t want anyone to hear. Not that I was embarrassed, I just didn’t want the African people to wonder what in the world was wrong with me. They don’t know how underprivileged they are. They’re happy. And I didn’t want to put a damper on their spirits. As I wept for that man, God spoke to my heart and told me to pull myself together. He said to me, “This is how it is all over the world. You see it now, as I see it. There are some things you can do nothing about. And there are some things you will not understand.” I prayed for that man and still do. I cannot give him his sight back, but God can. And those drops I gave him may have worked a miracle. I should mention here, that a few minutes later I saw Dani using some eye drops! I asked her where they came from and she said, “They were on the table. This is our last bottle.” I knew I’d already taken “the last bottle” so I knew then that God had provided just what we needed. I still wish I’d done more for that man. I told the other nurses that I wished I’d washed his feet before he left and we decided that if we ever get the opportunity to do this again, we will take basins and soap and wash the feet of every patient we see after we treat them.

At the end of this long day, after all the people there had been tended to, I stood by our van and reflected on all we’d seen that day. As I looked over to my left, kids at the feeding station were running and playing and laughing. As I looked to my right, there were four boys on the other side of the fence just watching with yearning eyes. Grober walked up and I said to him, “I hate to say this, but life is so unfair.” He replied, “Life is unfair…but if it weren’t, you wouldn’t be here.”

After dinner we went to the conference room where Pastor Greg Kirksey preached. He told the story of how his first wife lost her life to breast cancer. It was an extremely sad story, but I was glad that I got to learn how he healed after that event. Again, I had to fight back tears.

Thursday, February 10, 2011:

Remember on day one when I asked, “What would $10,000 do in Kenya?” Well, today I found out!

Today we went to another feeding/teaching station. It is called Bread of Life Feeding Stations and was about 30 minutes away from our hotel. We were packed in our van like sardines in a can! There were 12 of us packed in there. Juliette, wife to one of the pastors rode with us. She and her husband are the overseers of this feeding station. Juliette insisted on sitting in the floor of the van. Finally, Phyllis forced Juliette up into a seat made her stay there!

This feeding station isn’t funded as well as the first one we went to. It’s also newer, which is probably why it isn’t funded as well. This was reflected in the buildings on the property, the clothing the children wore, and in their health. There is no well or pump at this feeding station. There are two cooks, who walk to a river to get water…drinking water. According to Juliette, this water makes the children sick. But, unfortunately, they have to choose between dehydration or possible illness from the contaminated water. And, guess how much a well costs? $10,000!

Since that time, though, I learned that a couple from our church have some money that they’ve been wanting to do something with…thanks to God and this couple, this feeding station will soon have a well!

Again, the children put on a program for us. One little girl performed a sort-of poem where she said she needed to get a book, but in order to get a book she needed to find a job, but in order to get a job, she would need a book…it was really cute, but also sad because it was true and so many children cannot afford to be educated and therefore cannot get a good-paying job.

After the program, we set up another medical clinic. We administered de-worming pills to all 180 children plus the workers and volunteers. At this clinic, we didn’t see all the eye infections. Almost every child complained of a tummy ache, though. This was most likely because they had worms. And almost every child had a fungus on their scalp or bumps on their skin…this is what all those erythromycin pledgelets were for!!! We scrubbed their scalps with betadine, then wiped them down with the erythromycin pledgelets, then applied anti-fungal cream. We also saw a lot of kids with coughs and runny noses. Luckily, we had been blessed with plenty of cough medicine!

We saw the children in 3 groups. So while one group was in the medical clinic the other two groups were doing other activities. When the adults brought the second group in, Joseph was carrying one little boy around the age of 3. The little boy was screaming and crying and you could tell he just didn’t feel good. We got the teacher to sit in a chair and hold the little boy. He was scared to death of me because he’d never seen a white person. The closer I got to him, the louder he screamed! He had abscesses all over his head, some sticking up an inch off his scalp. He also had a low-grade fever, a cough, and a runny nose. I got Katie, the nurse practitioner, to take a look at his head and she suggested that we give him Rocephin. I knew that was going to be a tough job with him already so scared. I gave him some Tylenol for his fever and some cough medicine for his cold. It took three adults to hold him down. I cleaned his little leg and injected the antibiotic and boy did he scream then! However, about an hour later, I saw the same little boy running around playing and laughing! I knew we’d helped him and I just smiled and thanked God when I saw him feeling better!

Another toddler was brought to me. The teacher told me that they really couldn’t tell me what was wrong with him…he had no complaints, but he just seemed to not feel well for a couple of weeks, then he’d start feeling better for a few days, but inevitably, he’d start feeling bad again. It was just a vicious cycle. I took his temperature under his arm and he was actually hypothermic. His skin felt cool to the touch. This was a first! And odd…it was extremely hot there and no one’s skin had felt cool. I tried taking his temperature under his tongue but he was crying so much he wouldn’t leave it in his mouth. The temperature I got that time was 97.5, but I’m not sure that was even accurate since it was only in his mouth a few seconds and not actually under his tongue. So, I really felt that the first temperature I took under his arm was probably the one that was accurate... I assessed his body and couldn’t find any rashes, cuts, scrapes, abscesses, fungus, bites, or anything that looked abnormal. So, I asked his teacher if he was HIV positive and she said she didn’t know. Because I couldn’t find anything that I could treat, I couldn’t do anything for him…except pray. A few minutes later the teacher returned and told me she’d contacted someone and found out that the little boy is HIV positive.

On the way back to the hotel for lunch, Juliette told us that 120 of those 180 children are orphans. She said that some of them have grandparents or another family member who lets them sleep at their home but those family members cannot afford to feed or take care of the children. Juliette and her husband have also built a one-room building where some of the orphans can sleep. She told us that the majority of those orphans have either lost their parents to HIV or they were left in the bush by their parents when they were younger because their parents couldn’t afford to feed them or take care of them. In Kenya, if you find a child who has been left out in the bush and you take it to the police station, the police just tell you that the child is now your responsibility. Maybe I should go looking around in the bush of Kenya! J

After lunch we took a pretty long drive to the boys’ orphanage, named Family Life. We had to drive a pretty good way down dirt roads. We went through several small, very poor communities along the way. We saw lots of children walking up and down the road. They would all wave and yell, “Mzungu!” as we drove by. (Mzungu means white man). We saw two little girls who had jumped into the bushes on the side of the road trying to hide from us…they looked so cute, though! And they did a pretty good job at blending in with their surroundings. We also saw a lot of clay huts with thatched roofs. I later read that these are most commonly built by members of the Kikuyu tribe. One of our drivers, Bernard, was of the Kikuyu tribe, so we learned a few things about that tribe! The country along the way to the orphanage was beautiful! Huge rolling hills lay in the background and lush greenery covered the fields. As we arrived at the orphanage, all the boys ran outside to greet us as and I could tell that this place had much better funding and the boys looked pretty healthy. They, of course, put on a program for us! Some recited scripture. As they got up to introduce themselves they would always say, “Praise God!” We would respond, “Amen!” Then they would say, “Praise God, again!” and we would respond, “Amen!” again. This was very common among all of the Christian Kenyan children. One of the 8^th graders there had recently taken a national standardized test and was ranked first in the nation! Another boy, who was 8 years old, had composed 13 songs! He and two of his friends sang one of them for us. I couldn’t understand the language, but it was a beautiful melody. After that, we got a tour of the orphanage. In the dining hall I saw a poster up on the wall with a list of their prayer requests…things like “a modern gate, a dairy cow, a fish pond, books & teaching supplies,” and many more. I took a picture of it. While walking to a separate building we saw some puppies, chickens, a cat and a cow there. They were all very malnourished, but the puppies provided them with companionship. There was a well with a pump and they used it for bathing. The water was treated, but still had too many chemicals in it for them to drink from. Mike Curry later told me that he believes there is a chemical plant near there that has run-off going into the boys’ well. Their drinking water came from a large reservoir they’d set up to catch rain water from the gutters. In the bedroom there were bunk beds lining the walls and some even sticking out into the room (for 53 boys, I believe). Only three beds had mosquito nets over them and some of the beds had metal boxes/suitcases sitting on them. The overseer told us that they didn’t have any storage closets for the boys’ clothes so they had to keep them in the metal boxes. He said they are currently praying for enough money so they can build some cabinets because sometimes the boys trip and fall over the metal boxes and get hurt. Above the door we noticed a large cubby hole in the wall filled with old shoes. When we asked why all the shoes were there, he told us that a lot of the boys prefer not to wear their shoes so they just throw them into the cubby hole. When they are ready to wear shoes, they climb up the bunks and retrieve them! He also showed us a room that had a door on it and had been made into their medical room. It had one set of bunk beds in it with a mosquito net and a bunch of empty shelves. This room also served as an isolation room if any of the boys became ill. The only medical supplies they had in there was a half-empty bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a few alcohol prep pads. I immediately felt that we should stock their shelves. I looked at Brooke and could tell she was thinking the same thing. With tears in our eyes we walked outside and began discussing what we would leave. So we wouldn’t make a scene, she and one of the guys from the Memphis team pulled supplies from our bags and stocked the room for the boys. While they were doing that, we played with the boys outside. The older boys played soccer – barefoot! They were really good! We painted their faces, blew bubbles and took pictures. They, like all Kenyan children, love to look at pictures! Dani shared her family photo album with the boys, which they loved! Each time we took a picture of one of the boys they had to look at it immediately! I think they could’ve spent hours doing that! Gail and Mark got to know one of the older boys pretty well and he ended up sending them a letter later on in the week. They’ve decided to sponsor him. I think it costs about $75/month. I spent a lot of time visiting with Collins, Eugene, and Kevin.

Before we left, I had to use the bathroom….of course! Brooke walked with me to the outhouse where there was a “squatty potty!” I’d never seen one of these before. It looked like a urinal stuck in a hole down in the ground. There were mosquitoes swarming over it, so I opted to make my own “squatty potty” outside behind the building!

On the way back to the hotel, Joseph, our driver (and also the overseer of a girls’ orphanage in Eldoret) stopped at the Nakumatt for us. It’s sort-of like a miniature Wal-Mart Supercenter. I got a Snicker Ice Cream Bar, some freshly popped popcorn and a cold Coke! I felt like I was in Heaven! Some of the other members of the team bought other food products and when we got back to the hotel, we had a picnic on Dani & Brooke’s patio that consisted of Pringles, Ritz crackers, peanut butter, cheese, Fig Newtons, and my popcorn! It was wonderful! We were so sick of sakuma wiki and ugali we could barely stand the thought of it!

All week, while we were out at the feeding stations, Light Ministries and GFE had been putting on a pastors’ conference for all the pastors and their wives that had established churches with the help of Light Ministries and GFE. We’d been approached by some of those pastors and their wives regarding medical problems, so we finally decided to just do a medical clinic for them. This was the last night any of us would be in Kakamega, so it had to be that night. During worship service that night, some of us went to my room and Katie’s room and started pulling out supplies and meds that we could take upstairs to the conference for our clinic. At the end of the worship service, Mike Grober announced that we’d be doing a medical clinic. They were sooo happy! They cheered and clapped for us as we walked into the room. The medical clinic went on from about 10:30pm until about 12:30am.

Among those patients, I seemed to have a lot of women complaining of symptoms of urinary tract infections, yeast infections, and menstrual cramps. We also had a lot of complaints of headaches and indigestion. Luckily, we had Cipro to treat the UTIs, Diflucan for the yeast infections, Ibuprofen for the headaches and menstrual cramps, and ranitidine for indigestion. We’d been expecting some of these complaints, so we’d bagged up several small bags of 10-20 counts of ibuprofen, Tylenol, cipro, and ranitidine! We came prepared! We also had a good system going by this time. The nurses would see the patients, and then write a prescription for them, then the patients would carry it over to the pharmacy table, where they’d receive their meds and instructions. Gail and Sam, from Memphis, were our pharmacists! What a wonderful job they did! Poor Gail was so exhausted, but she worked hard all night long! I also came up with a great use for the ABD pads we’d brought. (An ABD pad is a very large absorbent bandage.) I gave some to a lady who complained of terrible menstrual cramps along with some Ziploc gallon-sized bags. She said she had access to hot water, so I told her to wet the pads with hot water, put them in the bag, then lay on it or lay the bag on her lower abdomen – instant heating pad! She was very grateful! As we were packing our supplies before we left, I had wondered what these would be used for. I also ended up giving her some ibuprofen to help with the pain. Naproxen sodium (aka Midol and Aleve) would have been better, so I am going to add that to our list for next time!

Brooke had a pregnant woman come to her and said that she’d been to see the doctor and they’d told her that they couldn’t feel her baby move so they thought her baby was dead and they needed to perform a D&C to clean out her uterus. The woman said she just had a feeling that her baby was alive and that although she hadn’t felt it move lately, she didn’t believe it was dead. At first Brooke thought the woman was in denial, but she remembered something she’d heard in the past. She sent Mike Grober downstairs for some sugar. While he was gone, Brooke used a stethoscope to listen for a fetal heartbeat. Our stethoscopes were the cheap, disposable kind, though, so it wasn’t much help. When Mike returned, Brooke instructed the woman to eat two tablespoons of the sugar. About 15 minutes later, the baby was kicking up a storm! The sugar had made it hyper!

This is also where I met Pastor Fred. This is kind of a funny story! He sat down in front of me and said he had a very large hernia and pointed to his stomach. When I asked if I could see it he looked away and looked humiliated…so, I thought, this must not me in his abdomen…this must be an inguinal hernia. He began to laugh and so did the other African men sitting around us. I asked him if it was in his abdomen and pointed to his stomach and he replied “no.” So I said, “never mind…I don’t need to see it then!” We both laughed at that and moved on. He also said he’d been told he had a prostate problem and that had been hurting him a lot lately. When I asked how long it had been since he urinated, he replied, “A couple of days.” I was shocked! A doctor had told him in the past that he needed surgery to repair both the hernia and the prostate. We didn’t have anything to help him…but because he described symptoms of a burning and frequency, I gave him some Cipro on the off-chance it might just be a UTI. I told him I’d pray for him and talk with Mike Curry in the morning to see if there was anything more we could do. He was very grateful, but I could see that the hope he’d had in his eyes was quickly fading away. I did talk with my pastor and Mike Curry the next day and there just wasn’t any funds there to pay for the surgery. This bothered me a lot, but all I could do was pray.

After the medical clinic concluded, all of us nurses went back to my room to sort through and re-pack the supplies into our duffel bags. We’d been told that we’d just leave all the supplies there the following morning and they’d be divided up by the over-seers. We knew, however, that we needed to pull some stuff to be taken and donated to a medical facility. Like the needles, antibiotics, sterile drapes, scalpels, etc. And we really wanted to send some things with Joseph, our driver. He was also the over-seer of a girls' orphanage in Eldoret. So, we packed up one bag for Joseph’s girls and put in things like first-aid items, fungal cream, de-worming meds and toothbrushes. We filled up a whole bag for him! We then divided up the other supplies and meds and much to our surprise, we still had seven bags full!!! We’d already treated close to 800 people by this time! God was continuing to multiply our supplies! We’d been instructed to hold out 200 de-worming pills to take to Mathera Slums in Nairobi. Again, to our surprise, we found an extra bottle of 500 de-worming pills! We knew it was an extra because we’d inventoried everything before we left Little Rock to show to the people in customs and this bottle was not on our inventory!

By the time we’d finished up with our sorting, it was about 1:30am. We were all so deliriously tired and we could not stop laughing! It was the kind of laughing that makes your abs hurt and makes me cry! Dani was especially delirious, so she was really acting up and cracking us up! Katie had gone back to her room about 45 minutes before this time, so Brooke and Dani headed up to their room, and I headed to the shower! I took the hottest shower I could stand and it was great! Then, I had to re-pack my own suitcase. I decided to leave out most of my dirty clothes and donate them to someone. At 2:30 I crawled into my bed and closed the mosquito net around me…but I couldn’t go to sleep. My mind was swarming with pictures of all I’d encountered that day. I turned on my I-pod and listened to it for a while. I think I finally fell asleep around 3:30.

Friday, February 11, 2011:

As usual, people started gathering outside my window around 4:00! I put in my earplugs and slept off and on until about 7:00. We said our good-byes to our new friends who’d been at the pastors’ conference and I gave my clothes to Christine. She is Pastor Harrison’s wife (who met us at the Nairobi airport). She visits the slums in Nairobi and she told me she would find someone who could use my clothes. After finding Dani and Brooke, I learned that they hadn’t gone to sleep until 5:00am because Dani was so delirious she couldn’t stop talking! She’d begged Brooke not to make her go to “The Rock,” which is what she called the bed! Evidently, everyone in Kenya believes mattresses are supposed to be just as hard as a cement floor!

We set off to Nakuru to stay at the game park. We traveled the holey road again to Kisumu and had lunch at the Imperial Hotel Restaurant again. This time, they had a buffet upstairs so we all ate from it. I can’t remember what I ate, but it was better than what I’d been eating! They had sakuma wiki and ugali but none of us touched it! I tried passion fruit there for the first time. It was actually really good! And so was the pineapple! They also had some kind of soup that was really good…mushroom I think.

After lunch, we got back on the road to the game park. The roads were actually very nice and smooth! We drove through Kenya’s tea country which was absolutely wonderful. The climate changed almost immediately. It was cool and the air was a little wet. You could smell the tea plants as we drove past them. People were selling tea leaves and bottled water on the side of the road and I was tempted to buy some and make me some sweet tea! But, I wasn’t sure how safe the tea leaves would’ve been, so I opted not to do that. The country was beautiful there…rolling hills and bright green plants everywhere you looked! The villages around the tea plantations were in a little better shape than the other villages I’d seen. I assume their economy was better because of the tea.

While driving, we saw a baby baboon cross the road while the mother sat on the side of the road watching! It was so cute! I texted Cale what I’d just seen. We began to pass a lot of eucalyptus trees, which prompted Pastor Greg to start talking about Koala bears and Panda Bears. We had a debate about which one ate bamboo and which one ate eucalyptus. After the debate was over, I got a text back from Cale. I told everyone, “I texted Cale earlier that we saw a bamboo cross the road….” Everyone busted into laughter then Greg told me what I’d just said. He thought it was hilarious and said, “Yeah I bet Cale’s never seen a bamboo cross the road! That’s pretty scary!” So, the joke was on! Anytime we were talking about baboons, we’d substitute bamboo for baboon and we’d all start laughing. Then, it got to the point that even when we weren’t trying to say bamboo, we would by accident, and people would look at us like we were crazy! Then we’d all laugh about that once we’d realize what we’d said. So, from here on out we will probably all call baboons “Bamboos!” Mike Grober even decided that the baby baboons would be called bamboozeenies! You don’t think we were delirious do you?

When we arrived at the game park, the staff gave us each a hot washcloth and some juice. I had the pineapple juice which was wonderfully refreshing. Now, I’d known for some time that I’d be rooming with Phyllis, a 78-year old woman from the Memphis group. Earlier in the week she’d told me that because she snores so loud her roommate in Kakamega could only sleep if she took an Ambien and Phyllis took cough medicine!!! So, since I hadn’t been sleeping much, I’d been praying about this all week. When Phyllis and I walked into our room, the two twin-sized beds were pushed together to make one big bed. I just looked up toward God and thought, “Really? Is this funny to you?” Phyllis turned out to be very sweet!

We watched an African program put on by the hotel staff about circumcision…these people are so proud of their circumcision! They consider it an act that shows you have become a real man. According to Bernard, his tribe performs circumcisions on males when they are 17. It’s a big event and everyone sings songs and dresses up and they take the boy down to the river. He has to put his hands on his head while an elder circumcises him. If the boy makes a single sound during the process, he is disgraced and not considered a man.

After the circumcision program, we all went to dinner…now this was good food! They had a wonderful soup, lots of veggies and meats to choose from, and several desserts as well. Then my group went down to the bar area and had some coffee. When I returned to my room, Phyllis was in her bed wearing long-sleeves and pants and laying on a heating pack that the hotel staff had laid out on our beds! There was no A/C!!! I couldn’t believe it…I was sweating just looking at her! We visited a few minutes then I decided to get ready for bed. The shower was awesome! There was so much water pressure and the water was hot, hot, hot!!! I took about a 20 minute shower and then got in my bed and took an Ambien…just in case. About 4:30am, I woke up to Phyllis snoring! It was almost as loud as my dad’s snoring! I put in my ear plugs and pulled my pillow over my head and slept off and on until 5:45.

Saturday, February 12:

When we woke up, Phyllis asked if she’d been snoring. I told her yes but that it wasn’t too bad and she didn’t start until about 4:30. She said she figured she must have been when she saw the pillow over my head. I later learned that my pastors, Greg and Mike, had woken up at 3:00am and prayed for me to get some good sleep! I was so grateful! That’s when I learned that I seemed to be sleeping better when others were praying for me to get good sleep. I’m not really sure why, but Mike suggested that maybe that’s something God is trying to show me I can’t take care of all by myself.

We met up with our groups and got in the vans and set out for our first safari at 6:30am. It was actually cold outside! The tops of the vans rose up, so we could stand and get a better look at all the animals. We saw a couple of giraffes that seemed to dance with each other. They were so graceful. Odd looking creatures, though. We also saw four lions. We were told that it was very rare to get to see any lions. We’d seen two couples and Dani and Brooke later found out that it was their mating season. The first week is called the “honeymoon week” because they mate 360 times in that first week! Everyone got a kick out of that! Around 9:00 we went back to the game lodge and had breakfast. This was by far the best meal I ate the entire time I was in Kenya! They had a buffet again and I ate a waffle, a boiled egg, some bacon, and some sort of cheesy vegetable casserole and drank Passion Fruit Juice with it! Yum! Until this meal, I’d probably been eating about 500-700 calories per day…well, except for our picnic on Brooke and Dani’s balcony!

After breakfast we went out for another safari. Brooke and Dani stayed behind and got massages. I started to get one as well because my shoulders were aching so badly, but I really wanted to see more animals and decided I could get a massage when I got back home! I was so glad I decided to go on the second safari because we saw lots of animals that we hadn’t seen on the morning safari. We saw marble storks (ugliest creature I’ve ever seen), rhinos, warthogs, jackals, hyenas, and a hippo! We also drove to the top of a mountain and got to look down on the game park and the lake. It was stunning! While we were up there, some girls were sitting at a picnic table fixing their lunch when, all of a sudden, a baboon runs out of the woods, jumps up on their table, grabs all their food and takes off back into the woods! On our way back to the lodge, we stopped to get a closer look at some baboons on the side of the road. One of them saw some food through the windshield of the van behind us, so he jumped on top of the van and tried to climb in with them. Luckily they swatted him away and then the driver pulled forward a little and hit the brakes so the baboon jumped off the van! The screams that came out of that van!!! Luckily, someone on our team got a picture of it.

This time when we got back to the lodge the staff had cold wash cloths waiting on us! We ate lunch and got back on the road headed for Nairobi. We stopped at a souvenir shop in Nakuru where nothing was priced/tagged and we had to negotiate a deal with the owner. That was tough, but I think I got a good deal on my stuff!

When we arrived in Nairobi, we ate dinner at The Java House, which is where we’d eaten breakfast Tuesday morning. I spotted a “Chicken Burger” on the menu and wondered if it would be like a fried chicken sandwich here…so I asked my group, “What do you think a chicken burger is?” Dani replied, “You know! A chicken burger is a vegetarian burger!” I looked at her like she was crazy and said, “What?!” About that time it donned on her what she’d said and we all just started rolling laughing….I guess Dani was delirious again! Well, I ended up ordering the chicken burger and it was similar to our chicken sandwich, only there was no breading on it and it was drier. After dinner we headed to our hotel. We ended up staying at the Hilton because the Hampton House was over-booked or something…and I didn’t complain! As we pulled up there was a gate and guards and they walked around the van with a mirror that they held underneath the edge searching for bombs. We were later told that was because there was a big bank right beside the hotel. The Nairobi Hilton was not as nice as our Hiltons, but it was still pretty nice and it had A/C! I had my own room but again, didn’t sleep well. For the first few hours, I woke up every 30 minutes! I think I did finally manage to get in a couple of hours of straight sleep.

Sunday, February 13:

We went to church this morning at a church Pastor Harrison had started. As we were getting close to the church, I asked Bernard if we were in the slums now. He said this wasn’t the slums…it was middle-class people. I couldn’t believe it! If the slums were worse than this, what would they be like? There were open sewers everywhere and people everywhere! Tons of people! We stopped at the church and went in. The church was basically a shack with a tin roof that had holes in it. But it did have a cement floor and plastic chairs. Gail gave her testimony and Mike preached about fear. He referenced the Israelites and how they were afraid to believe God when it came time for them to take The Promised Land and talked about how that ended up getting them nowhere except stuck in the desert for 40 years. So his point was are we going to trust God and be with him? Or are we going to be so afraid of what God is leading us to that we end up dying in the desert without him? The way these people worshipped was awesome! You could feel the Holy Spirit filling up that room. I think it’s because that’s all they have to depend on…and they draw on the Holy Spirit so much. We were told that one little boy there was a prophet. He actually came forward and told a lady in the back in a blue dress to stand up that God had spoken to him about her. He told her God knew what she was going through and although she was scared, God wanted her to know that he was always with her and he would bring her through this. The lady had the biggest smile on her face when she sat back down. Before we left, Christine asked us if we could give her any de-worming pills for the Sunday School classes at their churches. She told Brooke there were over 200 children, so Brooke took out our last bottle of de-worming pills and gave Christine 300 of them. That left us 200 to take with us to the slums on Monday.

After the church service, we went to lunch at a hotel. We all ordered chicken and chips…except Bernard. He ordered sakuma wiki and ugali! Yuck! My chicken was pretty puny. There was hardly anything but skin and bones. But the “chips” aka French fries were really good! At lunch, we got to hear about how Bernard got his wife to marry him. This is a Kikuyu tradition. In Kenya, you cannot let your parents ever see you hold hands, hug, kiss, or anything like that until after you are married. One night his wife tied a string around her finger and threw the other end out the window. In the middle of the night, Bernard snuck up, found the end of the string outside, and pulled it to wake her up. She then snuck out the window and left with Bernard. He then had to hide her in his room for 3 days. He wasn’t allowed to tell anyone what he’d done, but had to tell his mother that he had a visitor so his mother would be bring extra food to his room. After three days, he brought her out of his room and told his parents what they’d done. His father, then, had to go get two elders in the tribe and the three of them had to go to the girl’s parents’ home and sing songs until her parents let them in. At this point in time, the girl is referred to as a “goat” for some reason. After they were let in, Bernard’s father told the girl’s father that his “goat” was safe and at his home and to stop looking for her. Then, her father had to come up with a dowry for Bernard to pay him. The dowry is determined based on the girl’s education and all of the Kenyan tribes have this dowry tradition. A few days after that, Bernard’s family and friends went with him and the girl back to her parents’ house. They bring a butchered goat, fruit, beer and other gifts and have a celebration. The girl is wrapped in sheets along with several other girls who are the same size as she is, then Bernard has to pick out which one is his soon-to-be bride. The girls are not allowed to speak. Bernard said his fiancée had told him ahead of time that she would wiggle her toes so he would know which one was her! This is something that the women enjoy doing for fun. After all of this, they were finally married! I can’t remember exactly what her dowry was, but it was something like 2 cows and 6 goats. Pastor Harrison said he didn’t have to do any of that, but did have to go to Christine’s house and tell her father that there was something in his home that he liked and wanted to have. Christine’s father approved of him and gave him a dowry. He still owes his father-in-law three cows, I believe.

After lunch, we went back to the church for a little bit, then we were led down the street and around the corner to do an Open Air. This is where people from the church go out into the center of a neighborhood and set up speakers and start playing music and singing to draw up a crowd. Once there is a large crowd, the pastor will deliver a message and then they will have a sort of benediction. When we got there, there were a ton of kids already gathered around dancing in the street. We all got out there with them and danced. After about 10 minutes of this, I had one toddler on each side of me and each of them was holding my hand. They were so cute! Another girl walked up and stood beside me. She was older, maybe 8-10 years old. She was wearing a pink sweater that had holes in both shoulders. She kept staring at me, but when I’d look at her and smile, she’d shyly look down, embarrassed that I’d caught her looking at me. She finally asked me if I could speak Swahili. I told her no and she seemed to be very surprised by that. So, she asked again, “You really can’t speak Swahili?” I said, “Well, I know a few words, like Jambo!” (Jambo means hello). She laughed. So, I asked her if she could teach me Swahili and she nodded yes. I’d thought that we’d have time after the open air where we could visit and maybe she would be able to teach me a few words…I was wrong. I asked what her name was and it sounded like she said “Ronboy.” I knew I probably wasn’t understanding correctly. When I told her what my name was, she looked at me with a puzzled look on her face. At the time, I wasn’t sure why. Later, I learned that Crystal means Christian in Swahili. I asked her if I could take her picture and she said yes. The music stopped and Pastor Greg gave a sermon about playing Hide & Seek with God. She kept brushing her hand against my arm. I’m not sure if she was just checking out my white skin or what…a lot of the kids over there will do that. They pick at your skin to see if the white will come off. The little girl then looked up at me and whispered, “I like you.” I replied, “I like you, too.” I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and we listened as Bishop Ben gave a short sermon in Swahili. All of the children began raising both hands high up to the sky. She said, “Do your hands like this.” So I put my hands up and asked, “What is he saying?” She replied, “He says to put your hands up like this if you are a Christian.” Then, several adults started walking up closer to where Bishop Ben was standing. I asked the little girl what they were doing and she said, “They’ve all just asked Jesus to come into their hearts.” There were probably 30-40 people who’d gone up there. They all prayed, and then all of a sudden Mike Grober was yelling for me to come on! “We’re leaving!” Everyone else was ahead of me and they were all moving very fast. I didn’t know what was going on. I said goodbye to the little girl and took off. I still don’t know why everything seemed so rushed. We had to cross over an open sewer and before I turned the corner I looked on the other side of the sewer and the little girl was running after us, waving! I waved back and said, “God bless you! I’ll pray for you!” Right around that corner the van was waiting for us and just as I was about to get in I turned around and she was standing right in front of me. She had tears in her eyes and said to me, “Please don’t ever forget me! Remember me always! I love you very much!” I told her I loved her, too and took off my watch and handed it to her. I told her I was giving it to her so she’d have something to remember me by and I asked her if she’d keep it forever and she said, “Yes.” It was just a cheap watch from Wal-Mart, but it’s the only thing I had on me…All of this happened very quickly – within just a matter of seconds. Everyone was saying that we had to go so I got in the van and we drove away. I looked all around, but didn’t see her again. It was at this time that I realized she was the girl from my dream. All of a sudden, the images from my dream started coming back to me. I began telling everyone in the van about her and Bernard told me her name was Wamboi and that her name was a Kikuyu name. He didn’t know her; he just recognized what I was trying to say when I was saying her name was “Ronboy.” He said that the name didn’t mean anything, but that their names are passed down from relatives. When I got home, though, I looked up her name online and it means “singer.”

I was pretty quiet on the drive back to the Hilton and wanted more than anything to turn around and find Wamboi. The rain was making a horrible mess on the streets and we drove by a large building that had the worst smell I’d ever encountered. It was a public restroom! I also got to see where the old U.S. Embassy was. The one that was bombed back in the 90s. There’s a memorial there now. When we finally got back to the hotel, Dani, Brooke, and I all got Café Mocha from the coffee shop and went to the gift shop to buy some souvenirs. We showered and then all met in the hotel restaurant for dinner. By this point, we were all exhausted. Brooke and I split a pizza and Dani had a fruit bowl with ice cream! It looked amazing! At dinner, I told Bishop Ben and his wife, Mary, about Wamboi. They told me that was extremely rare for a child to tell a white person that they loved them and that she must have truly felt a connection to me. They told me to e-mail them her picture when I got back home and they would look for her so maybe I could sponsor her or something. I’ve prayed for her every day since I met her and I wonder if she still remembers me…I still believe that she’s the little girl from my dreams, and although I may not adopt her, I think God led us to each other for some reason and I think he is responsible for connecting our hearts that day out on the dusty streets in Nairobi.

Bishop Ben also told me that Pastor Fred had to go to the doctor that day because he still was having problems urinating. The doctor was supposed to give them an estimate for the cost of surgery, so I told him to let me know what it was as soon as he found out.

Monday, February 14:

Last night I shared a room with Hannah Hamilton from the Memphis group. I was completely exhausted and got a really good sleep! We ate breakfast in the coffee shop downstairs and then drove to the Mathera Slums. You haven’t seen poverty until you’ve seen this place. And, I’ve been told there’s a slum in Nairobi that’s actually even worse than this one. There are all these tin and wood shacks joined together and people wearing rags for clothes. It stinks and there are open sewers everywhere! We were led to three different shacks that were the newest of the feeding /teaching stations. They’re just getting them up and running so there’s not much to them and there’s not a lot of food to go around. When we walked in the second building, I walked around to the front of the class and a group of boys started reaching out to touch me. I said to them, “God bless you.” One little boy looked at me with piercing eyes and said, “No! God does not bless me!” I was really caught off guard because the children here were not like that…they were all so kind and thankful and happy and when you told them “God bless you,” they always replied “Thank you!” or smiled. So I looked at the little boy and said, “God loves you!” And he replied, “God does not love me! You go! You go! You go!” He just kept shouting that over and over and I kept saying, “God does love you.” A little later all the children gathered in one room and I took his picture. You can see how angry he is in the picture. However, when I turned the camera around and showed him the picture of himself, he smiled. I’m not sure if it made him happy to see the picture or if it made him happy to see how mean he looked in the picture. He kept giving evil looks to Brooke and she just kept blowing him kisses! Shortly after that, the children went back to their own classrooms and we began dividing up the de-worming pills. We knew we had 200, but we also knew there were a lot more than 200 people there. So we all joined hands and prayed over the pills. We prayed that everyone that God wanted to get one of these pills would get one. We then divided them up and put them into gloves so we could each carry some around. We started passing them out and as we walked from classroom to classroom we kept encountering more and more people on the streets who we felt compelled to give a pill to. When we got to the room with the angry little boy, I handed him a pill and he pretended to throw it. He wouldn’t take it. The teacher was coming around the classroom making sure all the children understood they were supposed to chew up their pill, so I told him that the little boy wouldn’t take his. He instructed the boy to take it, and he did. I told the teacher that the boy seemed very angry and he replied, “He will feel better after he gets some food.” It didn’t really seem like the little boy would feel better after getting food though…this seemed like a deeper problem…he had an angry heart. But, I don’t know what it feels like to starve, so I can’t say for sure how one acts when they rarely get to eat.

After we administered pills to all the children, we all looked at each other and realized our gloves were still almost full! We poured all the pills back into the bottle and it looked as if it had just as many pills in it as it had before we started! Again, God was multiplying things for those people in Kenya! We sang and played with the children, then we had to leave so they could eat lunch and we could get back to the hotel and get ready to head home. When we got back in the van I told Bernard about the little boy and showed him his picture and Bernard said, “he is demon possessed. There are many here who are.” As we drove out of the slums, I prayed for that little boy and continue to do so.

We drove through a very nice neighborhood that Bernard said would be our neighborhood if we lived in Nairobi…I highly doubt that. The homes there were at least 10,000 square feet and this was the same street where all the embassies were. We got to drive by the new U.S. Embassy on this street. We also passed a pretty nice hospital that Bernard said was a Children’s’ Hospital. We ate lunch at the Java house again…it was good, though. I had a bowl of soup and a half of a ham sandwich. Mark bought all of us a rose because it was Valentine’s Day! He is so sweet!

We got back to the hotel, cleaned up and packed up. Several months beforehand, Dani’s church had hosted the Deraja Children’s’ Choir from Kenya and some of the children had stayed at Dani’s house. Their chaperone, Dan, lived in Nairobi, so he came by for a visit before we left. It was great to meet him. We discovered that his brother, Joseph, is Bishop Ben’s associate pastor! What a small world! I stopped by the gift shop one more time and got to talking with one of the employees, Samuel. He is the one who told me what my name meant in Swahili. I told him that we were so thankful that everyone had been so kind and welcoming and that I was surprised at how happy everyone was, despite their poverty. He told me that they are always happy to see the white people because they know the white people will teach them something and help them and that they are raised to be happy and not to show their problems on their faces…

I ran into Mike Curry and asked about Pastor Fred. He said that the doctor had told them he did need surgery, but it was going to cost $2,500 U.S. dollars. I told him that after I got home, I’d discuss it with my husband and see if there was anything we could do to help.

It started raining again so we left the hotel a little earlier than planned because we knew traffic would be bad in the rain…and it was! It took us forever to get to the airport. While we were stuck in traffic, two ladies walked up with babies on their backs at two different times. They were begging for money, but Bernard told us not to give them anything. He said they were liars and that they go and “rent” the babies then go around collecting money and later take the babies back and pay their “rent.” It was still sad though.

When we got to the airport, we said our goodbyes to Bernard and George, the drivers, and then endured the longest flights of our lives! I wanted to get home and see my family, but I wanted to stay and serve these people who were so appreciative.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

When I got home, I told Cale about Pastor Fred. I knew we couldn’t afford to pay for the surgery by ourselves, but I wanted to do something. I e-mailed Mike Curry and told him I wanted to make a donation but I couldn’t pay for it all and I asked if he had any ideas about how I could raise the money. He wrote me back and said that because he didn’t have any medical knowledge he wasn’t sure how much help he would be to me, so he was turning this over to me and for me to do whatever I felt God leading me to do… At first I was like, “What?! That’s it? What am I supposed to do?” So I prayed…really hard. Then I e-mailed all the members on my mission team and put a post on my Facebook page requesting help if anyone felt God telling them to help with this. I know that sometimes, some people are out there just waiting for an opportunity to serve and when an opportunity presents s itself, they want to be a part of it. Cale and I decided to donate $500. It would make things tight for the next month, but it would be worth it! Then, I got an email from a lady who went to Kenya with us and she donated $100…then, I got a message on Facebook, and a friend from high school was donating $100…then, I got an e-mail from a man who went with the Memphis team to Kenya and he had somehow heard about all this. He told me that whatever I didn’t raise, he’d pay! We all mailed our checks to Mike Curry and I e-mailed Bishop Ben to let him know the money was on its’ way! He e-mailed me back and said he’d already heard and had set up the surgery for the following day (which was today). I haven’t heard anything yet but I am still praying for him!

I’ve also e-mailed Wamboi’s picture to Christine, Bishop Ben, and Mary. Bishop Ben has promised me they’re going to do everything they can to find her. I haven’t heard anything yet, but I am continuing to pray for her, too.

Now, I feel God telling me to find the man who was blind and check up on him. I have no idea how I’m going to do that, but I’ll find a way!

Sunday, February 20:

Bishop Ben e-mailed me today and said “Behold! What a joy he has! Even through his surgery pains, Pastor Fred is feeling much better and wanted me to tell you how grateful he is to all who contributed.”

I’ve e-mailed Rebeccah about the blind man with the cane to see if she knows who he is…still waiting to hear back. I also remembered a picture we took when we were almost to Kakamega. It was in front of a sign at the crossing of the equator. It just so happens it was an advertisement for an eye hospital! I e-mailed them today.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011:

The eye hospital’s CFO e-mailed me back! A cataract surgery with artificial lens implantation is only $115 for both eyes! If I can find that man with the cane, I will pay for him to have the surgery. Also, this hospital would like to partner with us on future medical missions! I’ve forwarded his e-mail to Grober and Curry! I think this could be a wonderful opportunity! Still waiting to hear back from Rebeccah…

Still no word on Wamboi either…still praying about all of these things!

Glassy-eyed Christians

2010-12-16T10:37:00.002-06:00

Earlier this year people were pulled off planes, ushered out of the secure area, corralled into a jam-packed waiting area and re-screened at Newark Liberty International Airport. Why? A man went the wrong way through a checkpoint exit.

So how can someone just walk past a TSA guard and into a “sterile” area without being noticed? One news reporter suggested the guard was glassy-eyed. His routine kept him from spotting anything unusual.

There are a lot of Christians who are glassy-eyed. Settling into a routine that looks for God to show himself in the usual ways and places, they miss him when he doesn’t. They don’t see Him when he goes the wrong way through one of their checkpoints.

Question: how can you avoid getting glassy-eyed? Expect God to surprise you – to show himself to you in new and unexpected ways. Expect Him to use the mundane commonplace things in your life (your job, working out, going to the store, hanging out with friends) to pull off the miraculous.

God loves to go the wrong way through our checkpoints. Will you detect him when he does?

Rules of Engagement

2010-12-14T22:46:00.000-06:00

My 10 year-old son, Zane, was sitting in church with me. Our pastor was starting a series called “Rules of Engagement.” Zane was drawing so I tapped him on the back to get his attention. When he looked up, I told him to pay attention. He looked at me and said, “but I’m not engaged.”

Marriage is not what I am talking about when I say Get Engaged. Think police in hot pursuit of a criminal or a hunter patiently scouting out a wild turkey.

God is very interested in the details of your day. Your life consists of a series of moments, each of which has the potential to be used by God to fulfill his purposes.

To be engaged is to position yourself to recognize and seize these God-given opportunities to join him.

Let me suggest to you three keys that will help you stay engaged:

1. Learn where to look for these moments. Don’t look for them to light up the sky like fireworks. Instead, look for them in the ordinary circumstances of your day. Elijah thought God was in the earthquake and the strong wind. Instead, God revealed himself in a whisper (1 Kings 19:11-13).

2. Choose to join these moments. Will you join or ignore the moments God gives you? In 1 Samuel 14 Saul chose to stay under a pomegranate tree waiting on the battle to come to him. Jonathan, on the other hand, chose to cross over to the Philistine garrison. Either you make the choice or the choice will be made for you.

3. Step into the moment. Try as you may, you cannot follow God in neutral. These moments look so ordinary from the sideline. Only when you step into them do they become extraordinary. God clarifies in the midst of obedience, not beforehand. It is fair to say that God informs us on a need-to-know basis.

Stay engaged and the extraordinary will become an ordinary part of your life. Don’t waste your life under a pomegranate tree!

Making the Most of your Mistakes

2010-08-09T14:21:00.000-05:00

Herbert Simon (1978 Nobel Prize for contribution to organizational decision-making) said it is impossible to have perfect and complete information at any given time to make a decision.

It is pretty much a given that we are going to make mistakes! The fact that we seldom if ever have all of the information makes it all the more inevitable.

So what do you do when you make a mistake? What can you do to prevent mistakes, to minimize the damage of your mistakes, and successfully move beyond your mistakes?

In Joshua 9, Joshua makes a huge mistake that will haunt Israel for many generations. The Gibeonites trick him into making a treaty with them.

Fearing that the Israelites will wipe them out as they continue the conquest of the Promised Land, the Gibeonites pretend to be from a distant land. They show up with worn-out sacks on their donkeys and old wineskins, cracked and mended. They are wearing old, patched sandals and threadbare clothing. Their bread is dry and crumbly.

Joshua quizzes them but fails to see through their deception. A treaty is signed. Three days later Joshua discovers he has been tricked.

The first lesson we can learn from this passage is: avoid being tricked. Sometimes it is not so much what we do as what we do not do that causes all of our problems. In verse 14 we read, “Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but did not seek the LORD’s counsel.”

Joshua thought he had all the facts he needed to make a good decision. This is where we can also go wrong. As Herbert Simon said above, we never have all of the facts. We are not as smart as we think we are. In addition, the Bible says that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). He will do everything he can to convince us we have all the facts AND will distort the facts we do have.

To avoid being tricked, we should always seek God’s counsel (pray before any major decision), give God time to point out any deception, and recognize that Satan can easily deceive us.

Once Joshua has been tricked, the next potential mistake revolves around how he responds to being tricked. He musters his troops and marches to the Gibeonite cities. The Israelites want to destroy the cities but Joshua won’t let them. He reminds them of the oath they had sworn “before the LORD.” To violate the oath and destroy the Gibeonites would be to take the name of God in vain.

This leads us to the second lesson from this passage: limit the damage caused by your mistake. Seldom if ever do two wrongs make a right. What Joshua does here is a sure sign of a good leader.

Instead of destroying the Gibeonites, Joshua recruits them as woodcutters and water carriers. He takes a mistake and uses it in such a way as to benefit the community.

And so should we. The next time you make a mistake think about how you can minimize the damage. Think about how you can give it a positive spin. What benefit can be had from your mistake? You will be amazed by what God can do with your mistakes if you will only give Him a chance.

A number of years after this incident with the Gibeonites, Joshua stands before the Israelites. He reminds them of the story of the conquest of the land and challenges them to choose whom they will serve – the god of the Amorites in whose land they were living or the god of their fathers. He then sums up his speech with these words in Joshua 24:15, “As for me and my family, we will worship the LORD.”

The third and final lesson from this passage is this: continue to serve the LORD. Joshua did not let his mistake get in the way of his total devotion to God. As a result, God continued to use him throughout the duration of his life.

Satan will do anything he can to seduce you away from serving God. One of his favorite weapons is your attitude towards your mistakes. When Christians make mistakes they feel like God can no longer use them, like they are no longer qualified to serve Him.

What you need to keep in mind is that you were never qualified in the first place. You didn’t present God with your resume and demand a position in His kingdom. Romans 12:1 reminds us that everything we are and do is “by the mercies of God.”

If you think that God only blesses what you do that is right, you don’t really understand all that God has done for you. God specializes in taking what is bad and making it good. This is what he does with you and me every day of our lives. So why would He not do this with our mistakes?

It is not so much your mistakes as it is your attitude towards your mistakes that takes you out of the game of life. So learn from your mistakes, limit the damage caused by your mistakes and let God continue to use you through your mistakes.

You will continue to make mistakes. The key to a fulfilling life is what you do with your mistakes.

Homebound

2009-08-01T18:36:00.004-05:00

It is 6:37 pm. We just flew in to Lima from Cuzco. In a few hours we head for the Lima airport to board our flight to Atlanta. As is the case with all trips, once we are done, being "beamed" back would be a great but unrealistic option. The option we do have is to take a shower and head for one of the greatest steakhouses in Lima, O Rincon Gaucho.

Yesterday we climbed Machu Picchu. Don't have time at this moment to fill you in on all the details. I will say that this experience is one that few people have. Those that have experienced this, and we can now include ourselves, will never forget it. Hiking at 11,000-12,000 feet makes Mount Magazine feel like a speed bump. The majesty of the mountains cries out for worship of the one true God. I know the Incas didn't have Ipods but, if they had, it would have made the trek up and down the mountain paths much more enjoyable:) There is nothing like listening to Christian music as you hike the Inca trails in awe at the wonder of His creation.

Today we got up early, caught the 5:35 train from Aguas Calientes to "O" town (can't spell the Quechua name), got a van and visited 4 more archeological sights on horseback! We are hoping the seats on the plane are very, very soft. Otherwise, we will look a litte odd trying to sleep on our stomachs.

Sixto picked us up at the airport and brought us over here to the church. The girls are so much easier to be around after a shower. We are trying to ration what remains of the hot water for the six guys and then on to dinner. I was just told there is no more hot water!!!

We fly out tomorrow morning at 12:30 am. Please pray that Phillip gets on his flight and makes it all the way to LR without any glitches. Pray that we catch an earlier flight out of Atlanta to LR. We are now scheduled for a 6-hour layover on top of an all-night flight.

Claudia had her daughter, Valeria, on Thursday. Gamaliel was all smiles today as we congratulated him. Valeria weighed in at just over 7 lbs. 8 oz. She iis 19" tall.

Once I get back to the USA I will catch you up on our photos. Zane and Gavin told Lana that I probably took around 1000 photos. I'm going to say 1000 is a conservative estimate.

See you guys in a few hours.

Thursday July 30

2009-07-30T07:13:00.005-05:00

Wednesday morning we had breakfast with Jed Benoit, his wife Jamie and their 2 little girls. They are with www.meltdownministries.com. They work with the vast international crowd that invades Cuzco year round to hike the Inca Trail and to visit Machu Pichu (one of the seven wonders of the world). This world of ours is amazingly small. Found out that Abbey's parents know Jed's family from their time in Africa. Abbey's eyes lit up when she discovered this.

We visited Tipon. It is one of the most important architectural complexes found in Cuzco. This old town is located 23 km. southeast of the Inca capital at a height of 3,560 meters above sea level. It is characterized by vast terraces and well built canals that channeled the water perfectly.
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From Tipon we traveled to Pikillaqta. Pikillaqta was constructed at the height of the Pre-Inca Wari culture circa 500 to 900 A.D. This great urban and ceremonial center nearly 2 Km. long is conformed by a citadel surrounded by terraces and walls up to 7 meters high. There are numerous storages, qolqas and barns and almost all the constructions are made of stone bonded with mud.

Well, I am at breakfast. The hotel has an incredible buffet that we are doing our best to maximize:) Today we visit the Sacred Valley and end up in Aguas Calientes (Hot Springs). This small town is at the base of Machu Pichu. On Friday we climb to Machu Pichu. The team is stoked about this.

Lima Cuzco

2009-07-29T07:42:00.002-05:00

Monday the team visited the Inka Market in the morning. The guys played soccer with the men from Gracia Divina in the afternoon. I thought we would play for an hour but they had other plans. About 2 hours into the scrimmage I suggested to Sixto that we may need to go. I'm not sure what the score was butit felt like we were there long enough to score at least 100 goals. If I'm going to play soccer, I have to do it more than once every 2 years.

We said good bye to Lima at the San Antonio Restaurant. This is one of the few restaurants in Lima where you can eat the salads. Everyone ordered salads:) Andrew ordered a 5-course meal that included a huge salad, tamales, a frozen drink, ice cream, coffee and bottled water. He also finished before the rest of us. Going to be hard to maintain him on these mission trips!

Tuesday morning we flew on LanPeru to Cuzco. It is a 52 minute flight. Cuzco sits at 13000 feet in the Southeastern Peruvian Andes. As recommended, we spent the afternoon getting acclimated to the altitude. It is amazing how you can lose your breath just by walking too fast. A couple of us got all the symptoms of altitude sickness: nausea, fatigue, and dizziness. We all drank tons of coca tea. This is supposed to reduce the effects of the high elevation.

This morning we have supper with a local missionary and then are off to visit the area around Cuzco including the ruins at Piquuillacta and the water system at Tippon. The sun is very bright so sun glasses and sun screen are the order of the day.

Struggling again with the photo uploads but will get them to you as soon as I can.

Monday, July 27, 2009

2009-07-27T09:06:00.003-05:00

Sunday morning we worshiped at Gracia Divina. Our team was asked to sing (no advance notice) and to share how God brought them to Peru (no advance notice). I was asked to preach (2 days notice). A few of the songs alternated English and Spanish verses. Abbey said that singing in both languages reminded her of how our God reaches across man-made borders to gather his people in worship.

I spent quite a lot of time with my friend Gamaliel and his wife Claudia. Within the next two days they should have a new addition to their home. They think it is a girl but some of the older women in the church are convinced it will be a boy.

We had lunch with the members of the church and then packed in two buses for the ride to Nuevo Pachacutec. Many of the people we gave eye glasses to showed up for the service. There were over 50 children and just over 110 adults at the service. The service celebrated the independence of Peru with a flag processional and the singing of the national anthem. Seven people gave their lives to Christ - all seven had been through our eye clinic.

After the service we had dinner with the members. The ladies of the church prepared 4 different Peruvian dishes for us: lomo saltado, seco de carne, frijoles and carapulcra.

These last few days have brought a few more smiles into this world. The people in Neuvo Pachacutec are smiling because they have had a taste of hope. Our team is smiling because God allowed us to taste what it is like to be messengers of hope. And finally, God is smiling as those he loves are cared for by those he loves.

"Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! (Psalm 34:8)

Today we play soccer with some of the guys from Gracia Divina. This will be a great way to wrap up the incredible time we have enjoyed with our Gracia Divina family.

Tomorrow we leave early for Cuzco. Cuzco is located in the Southern Peruvian Andes at 13,000 ft. Good thing we are playing soccer in Lima!

2009-07-26T07:48:00.002-05:00

Jana was walking through the dirt streets of Nuevo Pachacutec. Our team was helping the community pick up trash. We were also distributing Peruvian flags in anticipation of the Peruvian "4th of July" on the 28th. As she walked along this lady (see picture) approached her and began to talk with her. Jana called over Evelyn to translate for her. The next thing Jana knew, she was in Catalina Moso Ramos' home. It was a 2-room wooden house with dirt floors, no furniture (everything hangs from nails on the walls) and no electricity or plumbing.

As they talked, Cataline suddenly stopped, said something, and began to sing. Evelyn told her that Catalina was singing a praise song in Quechua, one of two primary indian dialects of the Peruvian highlands. Though she couldn't understand a thing, Jana worshipped as Catalina sang.

Phillip was helping an older man with reading glasses. As Phillip fitted him for the glasses, the man asked him how much the eye glasses cost. Phillip told him that they were free; that they were our way of showing him that God loved him and wanted a personal relationship with him. The old man smiled and said, "Oh, a gift from God."

These are just a couple of examples of the encounters we had yesterday as we served alongside the members of the Iglesia Gracia Divina. Walking the streets, visiting in homes, and putting up flags allowed us to meet and engage the people of Nuevo Pachacutec. The members of Gracia Divina were discovering new ways to get the message out of God's love. Instead of calling out to the people of the community to come to us, we went to them. The result was that they in turn came to us.

All morning we picked up trash and put up flags. In the afternoon we set up the eye clinic. In the course of two hours we gave out 34 eye glasses, prayed with 34 people who God loves passionately, and inspired the members of Gracia Divina who worked alongside us.

This morning we will worship with Iglesia Gracia Divina and have lunch together. This afternoon we head back to Nuevo Pachacutec for a Peruvian Festival. The community has been invited to join us. I'm thinking the place will be packed with our new friends.

2009-07-25T07:12:00.002-05:00

44 people received eye glasses Friday. All but two of these wanted someone to visit them in their home and talk to them about a deeper relationship with Christ. In our prayer for them, our team thanked God for the relationship he offers us in Christ, for the meaning he brings to life, and for the assurance he provides that he cares for us out of love not obligation. I believe God used these prayers to prompt these people to invite us into their homes.

Jana, Allison, and Abbey played games with the kids, taught them songs and showed them what it means to have Jesus in your heart. There were close to 50 kids smiling, running, shouting, and fighting for hugs.

We worked out the details for the Feeding Center that will be funded by the quarters Rock Creek kids raised this Spring. 30 children (18 families) will participate in the program. The children will be fed a nutritional breakfast Monday through Friday. The parents are required to help with the preparation of the breakfast and must attend a seminar every two weeks. These seminars will focus on character, parenting, values, relationships, etc.

One lady came up to me at the eye clinic. She looked me in the eye, smiled and thanked me for the glasses that would deliver her from darkness. My prayer for her was that God would use the gift of these glasses to help her see that God is head-over-heels in love with her.

The team continues to confirm God's brilliance in choosing this team for this time. I am in awe at the interaction, the love and grace that is being poured out, and the power of the truth that is being proclaimed.

This is Saturday morning. We leave the hotel at 8:00 for Nuevo Pachacutec. Today we join members from our partnering church to clean up the streets of this slum. This is a major undertaking that will raise a lot of questions and create much dialogue. Can't wait to see what God is up to today.

I will post pictures tonight when we get back. Thanks for your prayers.

Nuevo Pachacutec Thursday

2009-07-24T07:33:00.002-05:00

Sixto met us at the hotel Thursday morning with a micro-bus. We all piled in and drove about an hour to Gracia Divina Church. Some members of their church joined us and we all headed to the slums of Nuevo Pachacutec.

We based ourselves out of the building the church owns in this area. Throughout the day we gave out reading glasses and played with the children. We painted the faces of the children, made very "abstract" balloon animals (a lot of fun was had trying to figure out what our creations really looked like), and handed out some stuffed animals Shane gave Mike Gross. The kids, OK, we had a blast!

We spent a lot of time visiting with the people. All those who received eye glasses were asked if they wanted us to pray with them. Invariably they said yes. A few of them, including one man, wept as we prayed with them. The personal interaction was phenomenal.

Little trouble uploading photos this morning. Going to try to do it now before Sixto arrives.

Back at the hotel we dropped off our supplies and walked to Larcomar, an open-air shopping center overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We had a great meal at a chicken restaurant called Pardos.

This morning we leave the hotel at 8:00. We will work in the eye clinic and go further into the slums (we are on the western edge in clear sight of the Pacific Ocean).

No one is sick. We are all are excited about how God is going to use us today to minister to the people of Nuevo Pachacutec.

No Room for Error

2009-07-23T07:46:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we had no room for error ... something I do everything I can to avoid on these trips.

We arrived in Atlanta with 15 minutes to catch the flight to Lima. They were announcing that the doors were closing as we arrived at the gate. No room for error!

Phillip flew to Newark to catch his flight. He was on standby with 8 people in front of him. He sent us a text saying he was not going to make it. Next thing he knew someone ran up the jet bridge and announced that there was one more spot. The gate agent grabbed him and told him to go. They opened the door to the plane and let him on. No room for error!

On the flip side the flight from Atlanta to Lima was overbooked. 6 out of the 8 on our team were bumped to first class. A lot of room to spread out!

When we arrived in Lima Phillip was waiting on us in customs. His phone was not working. He was playing out scenarios of what he would do if we did not make our flight. No phone. No Spanish. No room for error!

God got all of us to Lima and through customs without any problems. With no room for error, only God could get us to Peru. This experience was one more reminder that the God of the universe does not need to make room for error. If he wants it to happen, it will and it did!

Got to the hotel in Miraflores about 1 AM and in bed by 2 AM.

This morning we head to Nuevo Pachacutec. We have an eye glass clinic scheduled at the church. The team is up and ready to go.

Pray for us as we minister to the residents of this slum. You know how to pray: check out the Prayer Guide that was in the Worship Guide.

We'll post pictures tonight.

Peru Here We Come

2009-07-21T09:42:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow our team leaves for Peru. Unlike most trips, this one has a very strong "up in the air" feel to it. Yes, I always plan extensively for mission trips. Yes, God inevitably makes major changes to these plans. But this one is different ... for the past 60 days I have tried to nail things down. As of today I really do not have much nailed down.

Of course, God has taught me much during this period. A couple of lessons he has taught me are:

1. Like it or not, God gives us what we need, not what we think we need.

2. Be ready to chunk your to-do list. God may have something much better in mind for you to do.

This team is as prepared as any team to walk this path. The fact that I cannot seem to nail it down does not mean that God does not already have it nailed down! We can't wait to see what he has planned.

Pray for us. We leave tomorrow at 1:48 pm. Pray we make a very, very tight connection in Atlanta. Pray that Phillip gets on his flight (he is flying Continental) ... it is overbooked at this point.

a child's worldview

2008-11-15T13:00:00.006-06:00

a few years ago i had the opportunity to spend a week in a seminar at yale university with one of the most renowned christian anthropologists of our day. the experience was one of those that will forever change how i see life and missions. one of the myriad things i learned from dr. whiteman was that most of us form our view of life (worldview) and reality by the time we are five years old. unless something dramatic takes place in our lives, like a personal encounter with christ, this understanding of life will guide us till the day we die. if a child feels loved and important, the adult will feel the same way; if a child feels abandoned and isolated, the adult will too. if a child feels like the world is his/her oyster, the adult will to; if the child feels grateful, the adult will also feel grateful.

ever since my children were very little we have always done service/mission projects as a family. everything from kidzrap to the rock creek 10K to partnering with an inner city church.

this past week our family took our first foreign mission trip. we traveled 6,000 miles to florianópolis, brazil. gavin (our 5 yr old) carried school supplies his class has collected. gavin and zane (our 9 yr old) handed out the supplies to kids in the slums of frei damião. the boys were amazed at how excited the kids were about getting a ziplock bag with an eraser, two pencils and a few crayons. zane commented on how these kids were as excited about these school supplies as he would be if we got him a wii game.

zane and gavin may not fully understand the magnitude of the impact they had on the kids of frei damião; mom and dad may not either. however, all four of us returned to the usa thankful that we could again drink out of water fountains and say "hi" instead of "oi." in gavin's case he was excited to find urinals that didn't hit him in the chest!

this afternoon our family heads for kidzrap ... another chance to make a difference ... another reminder to be grateful for the little things in life.

Dear God ...

2008-11-04T14:05:00.003-06:00

it was a typical school day ... boys up at 6:00 in order to play ... cuddle time with mommy at 6:45 ... baths ... dad prepares and serves breakfast ... dad makes zane's lunch ... boys eat breakfast as they watch cartoons ... mom reads the newspaper as she drinks her coffee. dad, the clock nazi, announces it is time to pray and leave for school. mommy puts down her newspaper, zane mutes the tv, gavin gets on his knees, bows his head and puts his hands together.

dad begins to pray ... "help the boys in school ..." as i pray, gavin walks over to me and whispers in my ear: "you forgot to say 'dear god.'" he walks back to his position and as he walks i begin again, "dear god ..." i wrap up the prayer with a solid "amen" and, as i look up, there is gavin looking at me ... a smile on his face, a thumbs up sign, an approving nod and a wink for a dad who sometimes lets his schedule get in the way of his relationship with god.

Trip to Ukraine

2008-10-09T16:45:00.006-05:00

This was my first trip behind the old "iron curtain." It was also the first time in recent years that I have been in a place where I did not speak the language, recognize the alphabet nor understand the culture. what I got to do was experience first hand what others experience when they travel with me to countries they have never visited before.

Needless to say I took hundreds of photos. I was intrigued by the architecture, the food, the transportation, and the way in which people never make eye contact with you unless they know you.

You always take your shoes off when entering a home; none of the churches have bathrooms in them and you give an odd number of flowers if it is a happy occasion and an even number if it is a sad occasion. In the course of 5 days I ate more dumplings than I have eaten in all my life. We stayed in the homes of some incredibly gracious and hospitable families.

The history of the Ukraine is stained with blood. I was shocked by the millions of people who were starved to death or sent to the front lines with one weapon for three soldiers. The people of the Ukraine have been through so much because of their strategic location and vast natural resources. They are a people who have suffered much.

I believe that part of the success of the churches I visited has to do with the Ukrainian's history of suffering. Suffering is a given for them. To sacrifice for Christ only makes sense.

One church of 300 members in the city of Vinnitsa ( a city of 400,000 about 4 hours south of Kiev) has a vision of starting 3 new churches a year. The pastor, Vladimir, believes that for every 100 members a church has it should start one new church a year. As evidence of this Vladimir has 30 missionaries who go out each weekend to oversee churches they have started.

We met with these 30 missionaries. I listened to their stories and then dialogued with them about missions strategy. They were very receptive and had a lot of questions. What amazed me was the sacrifices they were making on a regular basis. Not once did I hear a complaint about "sacrificing"their weekends. For them, imagine this, missions was a privilege not a sacrifice!!!!

Is it any wonder that God is at work in the Ukraine? Imagine what it would be like if a church of 5000 determined that they should start one church for each 100 members? What if we believed that to follow Christ is to sacrifice? I wonder what impact that would have on our world?

from the mouths of children ... Psalm 8:2

2008-10-06T09:37:00.001-05:00

i expect god to speak to me through the people who are a part of my life ... i have seen it time and time again ... my wife, lana, is one of god's favorite spokesmen. another is my 5-year-old son gavin.

the other night i was putting gavin and his 9-year-old brother zane to bed. i was asking them how their day went: did they make anyone smile? did anyone hurt their feelings? did god say anything to them? gavin leaned over on my chest and tapped my cheek with his finger and said, "dad, can i tell you something?" anytime gavin starts a conversation with this phrase i get ready to hear from god. so gavin said, "dad, did you know that we don't always get what we pray for?" he then says, " but god always gives us what is best for us!" next he sits up, begins to wave his hands and says, "that's scary!!!"

as a father i felt like all my prayers and family devotions were paying dividends! amazing how a little 5-year-old was able to understand what so many adults will never understand: that god can be trusted even though it can be a "scary" experience to do so.

i know from personal experience that it is "scary" to trust god. i also know that it is even more "scary" to not trust him. gavin and i are banking our lives on the fact that "god always gives us what is best for us!" what about you?

A Piece of the Puzzle

2008-09-10T09:12:00.004-05:00

i was at my sister's house over labor day weekend eating my brother-in-law's famous smoked ribs. my sister loves to put puzzles together. on her dining room table she had set out the pieces for a 2000-piece puzzle. i could see how she had started by putting the "edge" pieces together. she would randomly place loose pieces in the middle of the puzzle. these pieces were not connected to any other pieces ... they were just there waiting for another piece that would fit.

what i found interesting about this was that my sister did not spend much time trying to find out exactly where that piece should go. in time she knew she would find the place for this piece.

when it comes to god's will this approach can save us a lot of heart ache. as you seek god's will pieces of the puzzle will surface from time to time. you know god is trying to tell you something; you just don't know what. you get anxious and immediately try to figure out what he is trying to tell you.

a better approach would be to place this piece of the puzzle on the table and continue to work on the edges. in time you will discover where this piece goes. for the time being focus on the edges.

bible study olympics

2008-08-21T11:13:00.004-05:00

"Phelps lends a new spin to the phrase "Breakfast of Champions" by starting off his day by eating three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise.

He follows that up with two cups of coffee, a five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar and three chocolate-chip pancakes."

this is the first of three 4000 calorie meals michael phelps ate daily in order to keep his energy levels high during the olympics. understandable considering he swam 17 times over 9 days of competition.

believe it or not, this got me thinking about how we read the bible ... i know i'm nuts ... always have been; always wiill be. anyway, every so often i hear someone complain that they are not being fed enough at their church. what they mean is that the preacher is not getting deep enough in to the bible. my first thought when i hear someone say this is, "what are you doing with the bible 'scoop' you are getting?"

people tend to forget that bible study is not an end in itself; it is preparation for impact...for making a difference ... for joining god on mission.

my point is this: if you want 12000 calories of bible, you better be ready to join god at whatever pace it takes to burn those calories.

do you study or live christianity?

2008-08-06T17:10:00.002-05:00

i came across this quote from soren kierkegaard that speaks volumes to the state of american christianity:

the matter is quite simple. the bible is very easy to understand. but we christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. we pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. take any words in the new testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. my god, you will say, if i do that my whole life will be ruined. how would i ever get on in the world? herein lies the real place of christian scholarship. christian scholarship is the church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good christians without the bible coming too close. oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living god. yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the new testament.

blind faith ... really?

2008-08-05T10:41:00.010-05:00

as christians our lives are shaped by how we read the bible. this is good if we read it as it was intended; it is bad if we read it as it was not intended.

for example, consider hebrews 11:1 ..."now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." this passage is a classic text for the belief that for faith to be real, it must be blind. in other words, how can you have faith if you are certain about the object of your faith? for many, faith by its very nature is uncertain.

we talk about faith in jesus and say, "you just have to believe it even when it doesn't make sense." "if you had all of the answers, it would not be faith." and so on ... does this mean that those who actually walked and talked with jesus did not have faith because they were too certain of who he was, because jesus gave them the answers?

i don't think so ... one reason people end up thinking this way is that they confuse how the word "faith" is used in american culture with "faith" as it is used in the bible.

faith in our culture is about believing something when everything you feel and know says you should not believe it. biblical faith, however, is different. it has 3 components: 1) understanding the content of the christian faith, 2) trust and 3) mental acceptance of a truth. what this means is that biblical faith involves placing trust in what you have reason to believe is true.

faith is not a blind, irrational leap into the dark. faith is, as the bible says, "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." for you to be "sure" and "certain," your faith must be based on the understanding and personal experience of jesus and his mission.

when someone says that you "need more faith," they are saying that you must close your eyes and ignore the circumstances. when jesus says that you "need more faith," he is saying that you must open your eyes and see him in the circumstances.

the more we see him at work in our lives, the more we will see our faith shape our lives.

the medium is the message

2008-07-29T14:52:00.001-05:00

when most people use this phrase today they usually mean that how we present the message impacts how the message is interpreted or understood. in other words you cannot totally separate the message from the medium. like it or not, all of us convey a message and we all are the medium by which this message is conveyed. the impact we have has a lot to do with how well we understand this about ourselves.

sometimes the message is ignored because of the medium. if i choose to use a chalk board instead of a video clip to reach young adults with my message, it is very probable that they will tune me out without ever giving my message a chance.

sometimes the message is misread because of the medium. if my message is discipline and i, the medium, am out of control with my weight and my money, the message will never get out.

sometimes the message is the medium. jesus once said, "i am the way, the truth and the life." in jesus we see the message and the medium come together. he wasn't pointing to the way, he was the way.

as a follower of jesus you and me are the medium for the message (jesus). the question we must ask every day is this: when people see us do they ignore the message, misread the message or welcome the message? do our actions and our words distance people from god or draw them to god?

like it or not, as christians, the medium is the message.

determined to make a difference

2008-07-24T12:37:00.007-05:00

it was created to make a difference; to be unique, distinct, a port in a storm, a catalyst for change, a purveyor of second chances, an advocate for the widows, orphans and the aliens, and a champion of all things that bring a smile to the face of god. who is "it?" you, me ... the church, wherever it/we are ... little rock or santos dumont, brazil.

this past week "the church" in little rock joined hands with "the church" in santos dumont to rock that town in southern brazil with the incredible news that god knows you and loves you just the way you are! together, 15 young adults from rock creek and 15 from santos dumont got the word out that there was an Espaço Alternativo, an alternative space, created for them; a "space" that was drug-free, alcohol-free and hate-free ... where all young adults could gather and listen to music, dance and be themselves. a "space" where they could make friends and consider the claims of the real jesus.

for a little evangelical church shaped by a tradition that values isolation over insulation, rituals over redemption, judgment over mercy ... a space for "sinners" flew in the face of every one of these values that, unbeknownst to them, kept them from influencing their culture, from bringing heaven to earth.

by boldly breaking with this 30-year tradition, inspired by 15 young adults from rock creek, pierre's church gave 326 young adults a space where they could be heard and be engaged by the real jesus who always has "space" for sinners.

think about that ... in the course of a little less than one week, 15 young adults from little rock, determined to make a difference, helped 15 young adults from santos dumont, brazil create an "alternative space" that reaches out to young adults where they are with the incredibly good news that they matter to god.

determined to make a difference ... are you?

not what we are made for

2008-07-14T17:54:00.003-05:00

i vividly remember my life falling apart before my very eyes. when i stop long enough, i can still feel the pain that hammered me when i lost so much of what i cared most about. the picture that captures best what i was experiencing is that of a ship staggering back into harbor after weathering a massive storm.

when you go through that and finally arrive in a safe port, is it any wonder that you don't want to put out to sea again? one of my favorite brazilian authors, paulo coelho, in his book the pilgrimage, says this, "the ship is safest when it's in port. but that's not what ships were made for."

as christians we all too often forget what we were made for. god did not make us for a comfortable, safe and lazy life. he made us for the open sea where rogue waves, a blistering sun, and an uncertain course are the order of the day...

yes, the safety of a port has it's place but it is not what we were made for.

Across the Universe

2008-07-07T13:09:00.005-05:00

I first met Ney 18 months ago when we started sending mission teams to Brazil. Ney was our bus driver on our very first trip. Since then, he has been our driver every time. From the beginning he and I hit it off. I would sit up front with him and talk about life, family, sports, work and God.

In the course of these trips we had a number of conversations about how God had a personal interest in each of us. It was evident that this "personal interest" thing was something new to him. However, it wasn't until our trip this past February that it finally hit home...

Ney began to talk with me about the problems he was having with his wife. I talked with him about how God wanted him to fight for his marriage; about how God wanted him to shape the spiritual culture of his family ... to take the lead in drawing his wife and children to God.

That night Mark Evans spoke. After the service, as we drove back to the ranch, Ney asked me if I had shared his story with Mark because he felt like every one of Mark's words was directed to him. I told him I had not. Instead, I suggested to him that this could be the God of the Universe sending someone all the way from the USA to Santos Dumont to show Ney how important the details of his life were to Him.

It was that personal interest that led Ney that same evening to entrust his life to this God who spares no effort to express His love in a personal way no matter who or where we are.

Not for Sale

2008-07-02T09:43:00.004-05:00

You won't find God for sale in some dusty old flea market. Despite this, people are always scrounging around, looking for a cheap imitation of God to take home with them. In their search for this counterfeit God, they pick and choose passages out of scripture, mix them with a dash of cultural awareness and top it off with their own incredible insights. The result of this concoction is a God that tastes and looks a lot like themselves...

What people are really looking for is a divine stamp on a life of self-indulgence.

Cheap imitations always fall way short of the real thing. A cheap imitation of God is no different. It will fall way short of the original.

Could it be that people's frustration with God has more to do with the cheap imitation they bring home with them than the real God of the Bible whom they accuse of not living up to their expectations?

Valuable in His eyes

2008-02-29T11:13:00.004-06:00

I am always reminding people as we wrap up our mission trips and prepare to return to the USA that, even though we are leaving, God remains on the field pouring his love into the lives of those we have grown to love. What I often forget is that when we leave our loved ones to serve God overseas, he remains back home pouring his love into the lives of our loved ones.

When I returned from Brazil last Wednesday, Lana, my wife, told me an interesting story. The other day, while I was in Brazil, Lana dropped by Starbucks for a break and ordered her usual "tall skinny mocha." When she pulled up to the window to pay, the barista told her that a person two cars ahead paid for her coffee. What is interesting about this is that the very same thing happened the last time I was in Brazil!

Jesus encourages us in Mtt. 6:26 to "look at the birds of the air; they do now sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"

As our "heavenly Father," God is always coming up with poignant and perfectly timed ways to show us how valuable we are to him. A "tall skinny mocha" is just one more reminder that when I am away on a mission trip, God remains behind, loving on my family in ways that shows each of them how valuable and special they are to him.

I may not always know when Lana needs a "tall skinny mocha." I may not always be able to get her one even if I do ... but God can and he does.

Change Agent

2008-02-28T09:36:00.006-06:00

12 months ago we began our work in Santos Dumont, Brazil. Our goal: to help a church of a little over 100 members become a major influence and source of hope in this community of approximately 45 thousand. Last week our team began year two of our partnership with Pierre's church. Mark spoke to over 400 businessmen about "the secret of a winning team." We also took part in the graduation of 90 students from our Care Center's first computer class. We worked in an extremely poor neighborhood of Santos Dumont distributing food boxes, cutting hair and offering chiropractic help. The response was phenomenal. One of the judges in town asked to visit with us. He invited us to help him fulfill a vision he has to deliver people from the hopelessness of poverty and joblessness.

It is exciting to see how this little church is becoming known in Santos Dumont as a major catalyst for change, a major source of hope. God has allowed us to be a part of this because we have chosen not to parachute in for a week of meaningless activities that do nothing but create "warm fuzzy" experiences for our team. Instead, our teams build on the work of previous teams as we show this little church that they are not alone and that together we can make a difference.

Disaster Relief in Clinton

2008-02-16T08:47:00.005-06:00

When Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the gulf coast, our Disaster Relief Recovery Team traveled into Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas to offer help.

When Arkansas was hit by devastating tornados this month, our DR team was deployed to Clinton to help that community get back on its feet.

The devastation was staggering. One survivor described a massive dark cloud from which a dozen smaller tornados darted out like "fingers" destroying everything they touched.

I initially thought that our team would be deployed to Clinton for an extended period of time. I was wrong... we deployed for three days and were sent home. Why? Because the people in Clinton care about each other. Everywhere we went neighbors were helping neighbors. It was thrilling to witness the way this community came together.

As expected, I walked away with "lessons learned." One is that hiding in a bathroom is a poor defense against an F-4 tornado. The other lesson is that life gets a lot harder when we try to do it on our own. Counting on other people is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of strength and a basic biblical truth.

Reminds me of how dangerous it is to try to ignore or spurn God's gift of the church as we try to take on life... sort of like relying on a bathroom to protect us from an F-4 tornado ... not a good idea!

Wrong and Dumb

2008-01-29T15:33:00.001-06:00

2007 was a year I devoted to sin. I get some strange looks when I tell people that. "Yeah, whatever" they say. "So you devoted 2007 to sin and now you want us to believe that you are closer to God than before?"

Well, "yes." I now know why I wear sin so well; why it looks so good on me yet at the same time feels odd, like it doesn't belong on me.

Sin is both wrong and dumb! I have seen it described as the wrong recipe for good health, the wrong gasoline to put in the tank, and the wrong road to take in order to get home. You can look into your own life for countless examples of sin as both wrong and dumb.

The fact of the matter is that sin will never get you where you want to go. One book I read described sin as "not the way it's supposed to be." Instead of making life better, sin makes life worse. Not only is it wrong, it is dumb.