Blog numero uno

Hello potential readers.  This is my very first blogging experience, so please ignore my ignorance.  First I would love to give a shout out to all of my friends and family at home.  My thoughts and prayers are with you all.  I have now been in Kitale, Kenya for nearly a week.  This is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my entire life.  The people are extremely kind and hospitable.  I rejoice in their utter joy and my heart breaks in their hardship.  They are so content as a body of Christ.  They find happiness in all of the Lord's blessings, no matter how small they may be.  I pray that God continues to shape my heart and soul to better serve all of the people here.  Nothing would please me more than to come home as a young man who sees and looks for the raw beauty of Christ in others.  To help others find their value and purpose in Jesus and nothing else.  I thank God every day for the life-changing opportunity to be His hands and feet in Kenya.  I also pray that I will be able to keep coming back to this majestic place in future years and possibly even live here for a time.  Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to my heart.  May the peace and Joy of Christ Jesus be with whoever is reading this.  God bless.

Good morning readers. I want to first give a shout out to Jim and Jackie Gillen, who are a couple of my roommates back home who have been demanding a blog post. Without them and a lot of others, I wouldn't be hanging out in Africa with old friends, new friends and a million beautiful Kenyans... so I owe them this at least. First of all I am having a great time with the people in my group. So far they don't seem to mind that I am a weirdo. I guess it's only a matter of time before they make me sleep outside with the goats. But for now, I'm hangin' in there. Right now Dan, Chris, and myself are outnumbered by a huge number of girls, but they are very lovely... so far. We are all having a good time in the house. More importantly, I think I can speak for every person in this group when I say that we are having the most incredible time being a part of this community. As you can tell by everyone else's posts, we are meeting amazing people and going to amazing places every day. I came here for the first time about 6 months ago and being back now I have been able to experience the feeling I get when a tiny kid runs up to me yelling my name because he had missed me from my first trip. "Mac! Mac! Martin! Mott!" close enough, it is an indescribable feeling that is truly a "foretaste into heaven." It broke my heart, then put it back together, then melted it, reformed it, smashed it, fixed it back up, then shattered it. All in one motion. You can imagine what my face looked like when that happened. Anyway, I am going to use the word "we" instead of "I" (because we are a community) when I say that we are so excited to see what God has for us during the rest of our stay. I think that God has been continuing to prepare our hearts for what we will come across from day to day. He is moving in big big ways and I can't express my love and appreciation in words for the blessings he has given us and will give us. I am honored to be a part of this group and I am humbled to be able to serve these wonderful people. Please continue to pray for our safety and attitudes and our hearts and minds. And of course, never stop praying for the wonderful people of Africa.

Parents, be proud of your children that are here.
Chris Wohlers is the man.
Steve Rutenbar is even better.

-Matt

The team from down south...

In case you didn't know, earlier in the trip we had a group of five students from the Horizon School of evangelism doing their practicum with us. It has been a couple weeks since they left, and unfortunately they were not around when the Internet was working, so I asked them to write a short blurb about themselves and the experiences that they had here in Kenya. Three of the five completed the request, and if the Sarahs are reading this...EMAIL ME YOUR BLOGS. (I am not really angry, just thought the capitals would add a little something.)

********************************************************************************************************************************

My name is Christina and I came here to serve from San Diego, California these past few weeks. I am a student at the Horizon School of Evangelism, and it was a blessing to get to join the summer team at the compound as my practicum experience along with my fellow classmates. I have never been to Africa before so I experienced many new things here in Kitale, Kenya.

Chris introduced us to so many people and ministries, but the place I enjoyed serving at the most was Sister Freda’s hospital. It was neat to experience her mission to give quality health care to the people of Kitale in a peaceful, healing environment. I had a chance to serve by going around and talking with the patients and their families and praying over them for healing and spiritual renewal. Also, in the short time I spent with Sister Freda and her husband Richard, I experienced their genuine kindness and hospitality, and really felt at home there.

I had such a great time and I really hope to come back and serve here again someday!

********************************************************************************************************************************

Hi all,

My name is Chad and I had a great time with Chris in Kitale, Kenya. I currently attend the Horizon School of Evangelism in San Diego, California. Through God’s Grace, a connection was made with Pastor Steve and I was able to stay at the Kitale Compound. This visit to Kitale, Kenya has been a highlight of my life.

Chris was a great host as he showed us different ministry opportunities. One of my favorite ministries were the Oasis of hope.

********************************************************************************************************************************

Christians going on a missions trip to Africa is so cliche! I began this trip with a purpose in my heart to make sure it was different, and to prevent it from becoming just another "missions trip to Africa." This trip was anything but typical, but that was no thanks to me:) God really taught me what it looks like and means to be a humble servant on this trip, but not in the way that I expected. I was on this trip to practice servant hood but instead I was served, I thought I would practice helping people change their lives but instead I was changed. I thought I would be used to teach others about The Lord but instead I watched, listened, and learned. This trip was not "my idea" of typical,...honestly it wasn't "my idea" of anything, and I am so glad!

The sweetest memory that I will take home from this trip happened while I was at Oasis of Hope. I was talking to some of the younger kids and eating my lunch when I noticed a little boy named Isaac watching me. Feeling completely guilty for eating in front of him, I asked him if he would like to have my lunch, and he took it happily. As soon as I handed him the bowl I noticed the other kids sitting around. I thought to myself "Oh no! Now they will fight over it!" I cringed as I watched the kids in the room reach out their hands to Isaac asking him for food. I watched in amazement as one by one (before taking a bite himself!!) Isaac gave each of them some of the food I had given him. And he did it with the biggest smile on his face, EXCITED that he had something to share with his friends! He made sure that everyone got some before taking the last bite for himself. What a lesson to take home! God is sooo GOOD! I hope this story blesses you as much as it has blessed me:)

Sarah Bestwick:)

I am not sure what happened to Chad's blog but it seems unfinished. So if you are out there Chad and you would like me to re-post your blog, shoot me an email. Thanks so much to the entire team from San Diego, and everyone who supported them. I could not imagine this trip without you guys, you did amazing.

Chris Wohlers

1 month down and 2 more to savor!

The past month that I have been in Kitale has been quite an experience! I have seen some of the most beautiful landscape and not 10 minutes later witnessed some of the most terrible living circumstances.

As I look back at the past month, I am overjoyed at the experiences that God has blessed me with. Day to day, we go out and serve at our chosen places of ministry but at night we come back to Pastor Steve’s compound and eat dinner and share about events that happened throughout the day and enjoy each others company! We have a great group out here that seems like it is constantly adding and subtracting members but still seems to get along great!

If all goes to plan, I will be entering medical school within the next year. Since I’m interested in the medical field, I volunteer most of my days at Sister Freda’s Cottage Hospital. It’s incredible to see Sister Freda work- she inspires me to be a kind and caring medical professional. My first day at the hospital we visited a 7-month old baby name Ann that was suffering from severe tuberculosis. Ann was incredibly emaciated and about the size of a newborn baby. My heart broke watching this little baby struggling to breathe. Many of the things I see here are very hard to rationalize and process. Sometimes it’s the medical emergencies at the clinics that impact me but overall it’s the tragedies that are the realities of these people’s lives. My worldview is changing and I hope that I don’t lose any of the insight that I have gained thus far.

I say y'all...yes, it's true.

To piggyback off of Dan’s comment about truly living with and amongst these Kenyan people, one of the biggest blessings found in the length of our stay is that we can break from our weekly routines of investing in specific children and/or ministries in order to reach more remote, desperate areas outside of town….like today’s trek into the glorious land called Mt. Elgon. We traveled two hours up into the mountains (and yes, I nearly thought we were going to die on more than one occasion) in order to reach a group of people who have been devastated by the tribal conflicts over the past year. To put it into perspective, 7,000 refugees are living with their relatives in this tiny village, and such an enormous excess of people, combined with a famine, has led to serious starvation. It was a very eye-opening day mixed with lots of laughter…and bumpy roads. I couldn’t help but realize, as we were singing with these joyful people, that it is times like these that give such a foretaste of heaven…yet there will be no difference in language, nation, or economic status. Ah, I can’t wait...but until then, just picture a group of dirty, happy, twenty-something-year-olds learning more and more each day what it looks like to live in a community that seeks to be filled to overflowing with love for these wonderful Kenyan people. On that note, I must say goodnight, y’all.

News from the Dark Continent!!!

Let me first start off by explaining that the above term was used by the first explorers to Africa and referred to the fact that the majority of said continent (save the coastal regions) remained relatively uncharted for quite a long period of time, and were therefore considered "dark". It should in no way be seen as an offensive term. That being said...

It's official, Matt and I are here and Kenyan! The move has transpired! I use the term "move" very specifically because it has certain implications that a mere trip doesn't carry. The fact of the matter is that Kitale is now our home, and will be for the next two months. This means that the street kids are not only our new friends but they are our new neighbors as well, and that being the reality requires a different approach to ministry, a ground up approach. So, we will be living side by side with, taking up the yoke with, and climbing up the steep and narrow shoulder to shoulder with our new African neighbors, and I couldn't be more excited about anything in the world.

That being said, perhaps I could take a moment to regale you with the hellish tale of Matt and my 48 hour, transatlantic, dirt road trodden, trip to Northwest Kenya:

Upon arriving at John Wayne Airport we were immediately met with what would be the first of many real and superficial inconveniences. Our return flight had not been reissued correctly, leading to our standing in at the ticket counter for close to an hour trying to rebook them. We finished with literally moments to spare, and we then high tailed it to the gate as it was commencing boarding. (Imagine the Airport scene of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York with less talk boy and Run Run Rudolf.) This lead to some rather rushed goodbyes to my tearful parents (out of joy not sadness, at least I hope because if there's one thing I can't stand it's wimpy parents. Of course that last statement was a joke, and I love my parents very very much), as are often experienced at airports, and we sat down for our first leg. We soon found out a rather funny (and uncomfortable) fact about what were to be our seats on every flight we were to take over the next two days. Now, this part perhaps requires a bit of back story. Steve Rutenbar is not a small man. This of course should come to no surprise to any of you who know him. In fact, I think that my size in proportion to his is roughly the same as David compared to Goliath, no joke. And you could imagine my terror when I saw Steve emerge from his dimly lit room at the Kitale house wielding a Masai Machete. Needless to say, I reached for the nearest smooth stone and sling and started twirling. It did nothing. HAVE YOU SEEN TALL/BIG HE IS? (Ok that story was a bit of an exaggeration, we came out of his well lit room with a cane and no fear was actually realized. I made it all up. But as the author of this post I feel fine doing so. There. Conscience cleared.) So, as our flights were booked by the aforementioned Philistine (again a joke, Steve is the perhaps the greatest/ nicest living human), we were reserved the seats with the maximum amounts of leg room, the dreaded EXIT ROWS! So, our seats failed to recline for the OC to Hotlanta flight, and we were frozen out by sub-zero wind blasts through the emergency door from Hotlanta to Paris. I caught a cold, Paris stank, and then we flew to Nairobi. This is the part of the story when the Lord really answered constant and snot-nosed prayer. The flight to Nairobi was empty and Matt and I were afforded entire rows to ourselves and were able to sleep the 9 hour flight away almost entirely, waking refreshed and snot-nosed. Then when the 36 hour air travel ended and after a good night's rest in Nairobi, we set out for the 9 hour bus ride to Kitale. We saw Zebras ten minutes out and the rest of the drive was through truly the most unbelievably beautiful landscape my eyes could ever hope to see. The Lord is truly Good and his creation can't help but point to that fact. Now we are here, spent a day with some ridiculously awesome street kids at a free washing (via Oasis of Hope) and now up early writing this down. Morning tea here I come.

Also, I'm aware that this post is rather long, but I figured I should make up for the near radio silence heard (seen) on this blog for some time now.

Daniel Patrick Spain... over and out.

Technical difficulties

Sorry for the Lapse in blogging. We don't have Internet at the house currently, although we are looking into solving that problem soon. Everything has been going great. Torie, Delia and Sammy got in this week and have been touring the different site around Kitale. The other teams are real Kenyans now. They have chosen their ministry sites, and are traveling daily to each of them. Hopefully soon we will get another member of the team to post something on here, but for now know that we are safe, happy and that the Lord is moving in big ways.


Chris