Well when it rains it pours… But God is faithful. The last week has been a stretching one and God is teaching me more and more about His faithfulness but it’s also been full of distractions and flat out attack. Here are some examples:

· Just 5 minutes before I was suppose to receive a phone call from the US about some final arrangements for the coming team, my phone code failed and my sim card locked causing me to lose my phonebook, alarm clock, etc. The information I needed to unlock it was with SaraBeth in the US and I had to go to great lengths to fix the problem. It involved getting on the very limited internet to find SaraBeth’s phone number, taking the sim card out of my computer and placing it in my phone, which also meant that I had a new phone number. I called SaraBeth and left her a message to call me on the new number. It was after midnight when she called me back and we discussed the final trip details. We also talked about her finding the information to reactivate my phone and she was not hopeful. The following morning she called me to let me know she could not find the information I needed. I would have to get a new phone number and new sim card. This would mean a trip to the city, spending some cash I didn’t have , and telling everyone at home that I had a new number. It would take all day… time I didn’t have. I was really upset, although looking back at it now seems kinda silly, but nonetheless I was UPSET. I just began to journal these words…

“So long story short I lost all my numbers and now the only one who has my number is SaraBeth. I’m going to Kakamega today in hopes that my friend at Safaricom (the phone store) can help me restore my number. If not I will just have to get a new one. This is about the worst time ever to lose the use of my phone, but I just have to know in my heart that God will work it all for the best… we will see!

GOD IS FAITHFUL… just as I wrote these words I received a call from SaraBeth and she said in her last minute packing she found the card with the number I needed to reactivate the phone. The Lord’s provision Rocks, Even when Life is Rocky. Glory be to God!

· So as I began to prepare for the team I started to get sick. First a sore throat, then congestion and such. This just made everything more complicated. The worst part… sores in my mouth and it tasted like acid. I thought this is a weird symptom, but I just tried to grin and bear it. As my sickness gave way to the double doses of Benadryl and good sleep, the blisters in my mouth remained. I began to notice that the symptoms were really familiar… just like the “African funk” I had in my mouth last year after my return home. After some investigation my amazingly awesome nurse friend Amy discovered it could be the Malarone… the malaria medication. Turns out it can cause mouth sores and an oral yeast infection. Now I am faced with a great dilemma, keep taking the malarone and keep a constant yeast infection, which is NOT good for the mouth, or stop taking malaria prophylaxis. Neither are good options! My only other choices: a med that causes some to have psychotic episodes or a drug that I’ve had an allergic reaction to before. Again none of these are good options. GOD IS FAITHFUL… My wonderful friends and family went to great lengths to make sure I received a medicine that would clear up the infection in my mouth. And when I say great lengths I mean it!!! My friends went above and beyond to assure that my medicine arrived with the team this week.

· Many of the kids are sick, and I just found out we had a mumps outbreak at the school and Vivian has the mumps… please pray for her. She is doing okay, but she is super sad that she can not participate in the VBS this week. Also pray that those in the Children’s home would be resistant to the mumps. I have a feeling that they will run their course and keep all the workers at Tumaini very busy in taking care of sick kids. GOD IS FAITHFUL… no miraculous story of healing or anything of that sort although God is completely capable of this, but I just think about how he has provided the team from the US at just the right time, allowing them to take care of the kids who are well and allow the staff to give extra attention to those who are sick.

· It was so good to see the team arrive but it’s been hard adjusting to the “sprint paced” lifestyle and structure a team of Americans bring with them. I want to be completely honest and transparent, so I will say without hesitation that this has been one of the most difficult weeks so far. I was full of emotion and excitement as I stared at the faces of my friends and brothers and sisters in Christ as they walked thru the gate at the airport giving me hugs from my mom… how cool is that. I love sharing Tumaini and Kenyan culture with them and each and every volunteer has so much to give. Once they arrived at Tumaini I was encouraged to see how much more we could get done with more hands to love on the kids, teach, fetch water, make mortar, etc. But all of a sudden, my marathon had become a sprint. I found myself acting like I was only going to be here for a couple of weeks, pouring out in abundance, snapping pictures left and right, trying to capture every moment and detail, and trying to spend every single moment with the comforts from home… spaghetti, poptarts, talking fast and without an accent, catching up with friends who came to visit, and the list goes on. What I did not realize was the extreme conflict this would cause within me. I’ve been here for a month and a half or so and the lens through which I view my surroundings has changed. I expected to embrace the things from home, and while I am greatly appreciative, all the STUFF was overwhelming. I found myself wanting ugali and cabbage more than macaroni and cheese…. Now don’t get me wrong I still like some mac and cheese from time to time, but that much culture from home so fast was just too much. GOD IS FAITHFUL: He provided today for me to get away and collect my thoughts, to resubmerge myself in the “Kenyan way” and take a break from the VBS schedule.

· FINAL THOUGHTS and MY PRAYER

I think you can be prepared to experience some reverse culture shock to a certain extent when you are preparing to come back to the US, but when the US came to me, it just caught me off guard. I’m not quite Kenyan but I act as the Kenyan’s act in many ways. I am making a conscious effort to blend in as much as possible. So I can’t completely relate to someone who is just here for a couple of weeks looking at the picture on the surface. And I can’t relate to the Kenyan’s who call this their home and have an intrinsic understanding of the picture. I’m somewhere in the middle. At first glance the picture is exciting a full of brilliant vibrant colors. But the longer I look at it I see what I consider flaws in the composition and I can’t fully grasp what the picture is trying to communicate. It’s hard to decipher what’s a flaw and what may have been an intentional mark by the artist. As I continue to look at the picture I pray that God will teach me how to interpret the picture before me. May I make it a point to not just look at things on the surface anymore, but to spend more time with the artist in order to dig deep into the culture to find the true expression of his/her work. May I be able to discern the marks that are intentional and the marks that are counterfeit. May I view this picture through the lens of Christ.