God's light continues to shine on Mt Elgon

Jambo Sana from Kenya. Yesterday was an amazing day. I did a girls conference on Mt. Elgon. I talked about issues that all teenage girls face including abstinence. Towards the end of the conference the rain began and the sound of the rain on the iron sheet roof of the church was deafening. We had to stop and wait. I had a strong sense that I was to extend an invitation to accept Christ. The problem was, no matter how loud we shouted (me and Rispa my friend and interpreter) the girls could not hear. When the rain falls on Mt. Elgon, it lasts for a very long time and does not let up. I prayed that if this was something God wanted me to do, He needed to provide a way. Suddenly the rain stopped!! I asked the girls to bow their heads and if they have never accepted Christ into their lives and if they wanted a relationship with God and to live God's way vs. the worlds way to raise their hands while their heads remained bowed. About 50-60% of the girls raised their hands. I thought they must have misunderstood so I asked again for those who have never made this decision, to keep their hands raised. Not one girl lowered their hand. I then asked if their were any girls who had not remained sexually pure but wanted to renew that commitment from today forward to remain pure until marriage to raise their hand, almost every remaining hand in the room went up! It was incredible. As soon as I finished praying for these beautiful young ladies, the rain started to pour again. God is so amazing!

We are having a wonderful time with Lucy. We have had some great conversations. The more time we spend together, the more she is talking-some English, some Swahili. We got Lucy into a new school, the one we were wanting to get her into so today we took her school shopping. She is always so grateful and only asks for the things she needs. She is a good girl!

We took the boys from the first boys home that we started along with Philip Hamer to our traditional dinner at Pinewood. The amount of food they consumed was insane. They are such great boys. Bramwel won't eat Chinese food because they eat dogs in China but he ordered a whole fried fish, plucked the eye out and ate it!! UGH!!!!!!! We had a great time with them.

We are having a great time and accomplishing a lot. Please continue to pray for us. So far, we have remained healthy but I should not call the elephants until we are up in the tree!

Don't Go Calling the Elephants Until You Are Up In The Tree

We are continuing to have great experiences in Kenya. Mike and Butaki did 2 business conferences on Mt. Elgon at 2 different churches. They did a great job. They were able to explain that they will be receiving the miracle maize and that they will be trained on companion planting and how to make their own compost. They were able to realize further ways to reduce costs and increase profits. Most people did not understand how to calculate expenses to determine profits. They were so excited to hear about how the Planting Seeds Project will help them become self-sustaining. The business management side will further assist them. I had the privilege of giving the sermon at Harry's church last Sunday. It was an honor to have him interpret for me. I spoke about how no matter how impossible our circumstances are, God is bigger. I used the lives of David (David and Goliath), Daniel (den of lions) and Joseph as part of the message. Before I got up to speak, Butaki shared briefly with the congregation that God had put it on his heart to encourage them that God was doing great things on the mountain and that they must have great faith like David when he faced Goliath and Daniel in the den of lions. He had NO idea what my message was on. It was great confirmation to me that God had prepared this message for this congregation on this day! After the service the women were serving us lunch when all of a sudden the rain hit which meant we had to go! We ran out and discovered we had a flat tire!! We had a spare, but no tools! It took about an hour but the tire was changed. About 12 men physically lifted the van so the tire could be replaced. We were not sure we were going to make it down the mountain but what we did. We have a saying here, when ever someone says, "It looks like it will not rain", the response is, "Don't go calling the elephants until you are up in the tree." In Mt. Elgon, you never know when the rain will hit and when it does, you are not going anywhere. We were very careful not to call the elephants on Sunday but they came just the same. We have spent some time with Lucy. We were able to get her enrolled in a new school. It is a private Christian school. We have a peace that this is where she is suppose to be. She has been very unhappy at her current school. She is not at the bottom of the barrel as they say but she has a pretty good view! We are praying that she will receive the encouragement she needs to bring her grades up at this new school. Tomorrow I will be doing a conference on Mt. Elgon (where else) for teenage girls. As usual, I did not find out about it until last week. Please pray for me. You all know how I like to be well prepared. God is teaching me to trust in Him. I am actually excited as I love ministering to teens. Lucy will be coming along. We have also spent time at Freda's feeding program playing with the kids and assisting in serving them lunch. The kids are so cute. I love spending time with them. I know so much more has happened but I need to sign off for now. Thank you for your prayers and comments. We love you all.

It's always an adventure on Mt. Elgon!

Well, we made it to Kenya. After 2 days of travel we woke up early our first morning here and headed up to Mt. Elgon with Butaki, and Philip and Dalene Hamer. We are very blessed to have the incredible talent of Philip to put a video together of the Saboat People giving their testimonies of how they have benefited from Fruited Plains. We will show this at the benefit on October 4th. It was also a blessing to spend time with Philip and Dalene in a place we love so much with people we love so much. The ride up to Mt. Elgon is always an adventure and the roads are even worse. It is more like off roading than anything else. Unfortunately, Dalene and Philip were a little under the weather which made the ride up a challenge for them. Every time we go to Mt. Elgon it is a new experience and this time was no different. First, the starter on the van came loose due to all the banging around we did. No one knew exactly how to fix it so we had to park each time we arrived at a new homestead on a down slope so we could get a rolling start and then jump start it. Thank God we were on a mountain where there were plenty of hills! We then were eating lunch in one of the churches we assist when we were hit with thunder, lightning, RAIN, and hail! Philip decided to use this as an opportunity to teach the children Spanish and Japanese. Once the rain stopped, we waited to determine if we could make it up the mountain to ICM where we planned on spending the night. We played out front with the children in the meantime. Mike and I entertained them with our "stupid human tricks" which they seemed to appreciate. We knew our talents would come in handy one day. Butaki determined that there was no way we could make it to ICM but there was a school we could walk to and stay the night there. School was out of session so we could sleep in the dormatory. A new adventure! There was no running water or electricity and of course the restrooms were nothing more than a tin shack with a hole in the ground. We sat in the staff room as day turned to night. We took out our flashlights and Mike entertained us with unrecognizable hand puppets. They put a small pot of charcoal (not what you are thinking. It is actually pieces of burnt wood) to keep us warm and they cooked some maize on top of it. Around 8:30 pm some of the women waked in with a lantern carrying pots full of food for us! Their hospitality is amazing. Cooking is not an easy process for these women and they took it upon themselves when they heard we were stranded to pull together and prepare food and bring it to us. We then headed for our sleeping quarters for the night. Mike and I had the "Pent House Suite" as you had to walk up some steps to get to our section of the dorm. The door to the dorm house had iron bars but no glass, their were window panes missing in our rooms, it was cold and we had no mosquito nets. I know we should have been miserable but Mike and I could not have been more full of peace, contentment and joy. It has to be a God thing because any where else, I would have been MISERABLE. Unfortunately, Philip and Dalene were not feeling well and this was definitely not the place to be when you are sick. We felt so bad for them. They were such troopers and despite everything, we laughed a lot and had a great time. During the night We were woken several times by a baying donkey that lead a chorus of barking dogs and other unidentifiable animals. We discovered the next morning that the donkey had been right outside our window the whole night. I know I am a vegetarian but I was tempted to have a little cooked donkey for breakfast!! We heard some amazing testimonies from the people both days on the mountain. The children who were once afraid of us were now excited by our visit. There was one exception to this however. As we crossed a farm, there was a very young girl, maybe 2 years old. She did not seem scared so I slowly approached her. Suddenly from behind me I heard another child shouting and suddenly the toddler with a stricken look on her face "ran for her life", screaming and crying. I turned around and Butaki was almost lying on the ground he was laughing so hard. Apparently, the girl saw me approach her little sister and thought she was in danger and screamed to her, "My sister is in danger. She will be gone forever." On Mt. Elgon, the people tell their children ghost stories. Guess who the ghosts are in these stories? Yep, it is us Mazungoos (white people). We made it down the mountain safely. I should also let you know (Kathleen) Philip and Dalene are both feeling much better today! We have not been able to see Lucy yet but will go get her this afternoon. I can't wait!!!! I miss her soooooooooooo much. I will blog again soon!

Heading back to Kenya

Hello friends and family,

We are leaving for Kenya on Friday the 15th. We look forward to sharing with you all that God is doing there. Please keep us in prayer.