FUN STUFF AND HEART STRINGS

So much has happened since I posted my last blog and I’m not really sure where to start to catch you up to speed with God’s activity here at Tumaini and in my heart. So I just wanna tell you some fun stuff and some things that pulled on the strings of my heart! Enjoy ☺

FUN STUFF
Just to keep things consistent I wanted to first of all give a Leroy update. For those of you who are not followers of my blog you may want to refer to the 2 previous blogs… for those of you who know who Leroy is, we did find his grandfather in the shower the other day. We’ve also seen several of his relatives still lurking around the house. His cousin the cricket really liked the movie we were watching the other night as he would sing when the movie was on but as soon as we stopped it to figure out what and where the sound was, he would stop singing. I finally found him behind my laundry basket and we disposed of him and continued our movie in peace. Fun times!!!

Recently I had a photo shoot with my girls and Moses with our Tennessee shirts on. I brought them back for all the workers at Tumaini, plus baby Sara, Moses, Sophie, and Sylvia… We are still working hard to get everyone together for the full photo shoot so I will keep you posted when this happens… Fun times!

This past weekend Lacey celebrated her 24th birthday in Kenya and we decided to have a girl’s weekend in Kisumu, about a 2 hour matatu ride from Tumaini. We arrived in town and found the cutest little tuktuk driver named Sadik who provided stellar transportation all weekend. He was precious! We stayed at this cute little Bed and Breakfast near the lake. We were pleased to find comfortable beds, fast free internet, a hot shower, and the icing on the cake… air conditioner. It was fabulous!!!!! After we checked in we called our driver Sadik to take us into town for lunch. I took Lacey to my favorite restaurant and we had pasta, pizza, and MILKSHAKES!!!!! Need I say more??? After that we walked to the immigration office to renew her visa… YES, she has decided to stay and come home when I do in March. Woo hooo…. Anyway she renewed her visa with no problem and I finally got my alien card… that expired Dec 16th, 2010. But hey, at least I now have a cool souvenir right???? From there we walked to the Maasai Market and visited with my friends there and bought some more souvenirs. It was an awesome day where we just got to be tourist. I am so thankful for a day to just be “normal”, with no agenda about how to minister to the people. When we arrived back at the hotel we realized that we forgot to buy hair dye for Lacey… yes she is a brave woman for trusting me to dye her hair with Kenyan hair dye. So we went back out to make some final purchases for the evening. We came back to the hotel just in time for dinner and there was this precious man named Abraham who was serenading us with a variety of songs including You Raise Me Up. This lead to Lacey joining him in song. It was too cute. One thing led to another and several hours later we found ourselves singing with him and the hotel manager. We covered everything from country, to Kiswahili songs, to John Denver, and finally praise and worship. We had a blast and as much as it was nice to get away from ministry that day, we realized that the call to take the Gospel to the nations is not something you can take a day off from. The Lord gave us an opportunity to encourage our Kenyan brothers with scripture that night and we too were encouraged by their kind words. When we returned to the room that night we realized we still needed to dye Lacey’s hair… Let’s just say it was a late night and if you must know her hair turned out well… Fun times!!!

This past Sunday my favorite taxi driver showed up at Tumaini and wanted to show me his new car. He actually wanted me to drive him, so of course I said Yes!!!!! I got behind the wheel… on the right side of the car ☺ and laughed as I heard the song, Amanda The Light of My Life, playing on the radio. I think he played that song just for me. Fun times!!!!

The stars have been so beautiful lately and I’ve spent many evenings just admiring God’s creation. Our night guard, Ezekiel, came and greeted me as I was looking up at the stars and I started to point out some constellations to him. He asked me why wazungu always like looking at the stars, and then he said that Kenyans never really pay much attention to such things. I told him that I liked it because it reminds me of how big God is and how amazing His creation is. Then I accused him of being an angel because he never sleeps… I see him guarding us all night and then working on the compound all day. He assured me that he was very much human and then we laughed together…. Fun times!!

Heartstrings

On the way to Kisumu for Lacey’s birthday, we stopped in Mbale to wait on more people to board our matatu. It was a crazy busy Friday and I was just observing the hustle and bustle of town. I looked over to my right and saw a lady in the distance just sitting out in front of a shop. She had her head down and looked to be sick. As I continued to watch her I noticed she could hardly hold her head up. It broke my heart as people just passed her by and did nothing to help. As I sat in the front of the matatu God began to stir in my heart to take some kind of action. The lady was far away and the matatu was about to leave the stage, so I grabbed this man who was standing outside my window and said… do you see that lady over there? The one that looks like she is sick? She is sitting down over there. Can you take this water and just give it to her. The guy looked at me kinda funny and this other guy stepped forward and said yes I will do it. I handed him the bottle and Lacey was able to look back and see him place the water in her lap as we drove away. I’m not sure if that lady lived to see another day. She looked like she could die any minute. I just said a prayer as we pulled away that she would know that the good and perfect gift of that water came from her Father above and that she would know that she was loved. God pulled on my heartstrings!!!!

It’s been over 2 weeks since we have seen a drop of rain and people are going without water and food. We have a well here at Tumaini but it has been dry and someone is suppose to come and repair it… I think they are on Kenyan time. In the mean time we have been dealing with water that is brown and undrinkable. Unfortunately many do not have a choice but to drink and bathe in this water. Just the thought that we don’t have to struggle with this in the US pulls on my heartstrings. We take so much for granted!

I’ve been teaching life skills class and the kids seem to love it. I love it too. I’ve notice that the kids write about me in many of the assignments I give them. Today I was teaching the kids to encourage each other with positive words and we went around the circle saying good things about one another. The last student, Ruth, stood up and I told her that I still hadn’t gone. Do you have something good to say about teacha Amanda? She said, I love you. Need I say more… HEARTSTRINGS!!!!