Church at Tenwek

 

Church was great this morning! Services are held in a meeting room right on the hospital campus. There are about 150-200 people there weekly. About 5-10% are American. Many work at the hospital, are residents, nurses, or even patients wander in wearing their hospital gown! The Western influence is evident in the way the service is structured and the songs that are sung. The services are in English, and we even sing and do responsive readings from an old hymnal in addition to the contemporary praise and worship.

Eric McLaughlin led worship from the piano this morning and Logan played acoustic guitar and helped out on the vocals. They first sang a song in Swahili, mainly led by a Kenyan who also plays the guitar. By the way, his young son goes up on stage every week and "plays" this little plastic toy phone that has a strap attached to it like a guitar. Adorable. He never cracks a smile, or even sings, but buddy he strums that toy phone like he was a rockstar!

I loved seeing Logan leading worship today. The guys introduced a new song for this congregation, "Mighty to Save" by Hillsong.

Savior, He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save,
He is mighty to save

Forever author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave,
Jesus conquered the grave!

We have sung it a million times at James River, so it was a welcomed taste of home. Logan did an awesome job playing it as well. He's pretty much the best looking guitar player I know of!

We also took communion this morning. A first since we have been here. It was great to pause and remember the Cross and how our Savior conquered the grave. (Not to mention it was interesting trying to take communion with a one year old on my lap!)

Soon Logan will start playing for the Sunday night youth services, and I will help out in the kids Sunday School class. We are looking forward to the opportunity to get more involved in our local church while we are serving here.

Sharing the Love

Last night we had a unique opportunity to bless our friends Eric and Rachel McLaughlin. It's Rachel's birthday! The thing about living in rural Kenya, there are no restaurants, flower shops, or any other place a guy can go to or use to make their wife's birthday special. So, I decided to offer to be the "restaurant" that Eric could take Rachel to for her birthday dinner!

So I did some "shopping" at Theresa Manchester's house. She is a long-term missionary who has really reached out to me. Plus, we both share the love of "go big or don't go" for parties, presentation, and the like! I borrowed a tablecloth, candle holders, large goblets, cloth napkins with napkin rings, and a couple food items.

The McLaughlins put Maggie, their 9 month old, down for the night and Logan went and sat at their place for the evening. When they arrived at Restaurant Banks, the lights were dim, candles were lit, and romantic music was playing off our computer (which had a picture of them on the screen saver!) They were greeted with Ugali chips, queso, and homemade salsa. I mixed chopped tomato, onion, garlic, hot green chilis, red, green, and yellow bell peppers, fresh cilantro, vinegar, lemon juice, and cumin, salt, pepper, and sugar. It turned out pretty well and I don't even have a blender! I served Pina Coladas in the chilled goblets as well. I had poured coconut and pinnapple juices into a mini muffin tin to get frozen chunks. Then I added coconut milk, milk, water and real coconut until I was happy with the taste and consistency. Little did I know, Pina Coladas are a favorite of Rachel's!



I served Verde Chicken Enchilladas wrapped in homemade tortillas. They turned out slightly thicker than a normal tortilla, because it is an art to rolling them thin like the store bought variety. I made Mexican rice in oil and chicken broth with onion, garlic, cilantro, tomato, cumin, and peppers. I used canned corn I still had from our Nairobi trip two months ago, but added fresh bell and chili peppers to make my own Mexicorn.

Our kitchen has a swinging door, so it was perfect for our little "restaurant!" After dinner they enjoyed decaf coffee. It is a rare treat. It is available in Nairobi, but is outrageously priced. Something many missionaries feel bad about using their money to buy for themselves. I borrowed a little from Theresa, with a promise to repay her when Luke and Riley arrive with some for me! With their coffee they were served chocolate cake with coconut icing. We even sang to Rachel and she blew out a little candle I had brought from home.

They had a leisurely dinner together enjoying each other's company. I am not sure who enjoyed it more though, them or me! I really love hosting events, showers, dinners, etc. and I was able to use my creativity in the way I love. I picked large and small leaves off our trees outside and scattered them on the table under the candles. Our plates we use here have blue flowers and green leaves on them. So as much as I could, I kept with the blue and green theme, and it actually worked! This was Rachel's first of many birthdays abroad, so I hope it was one she will remember fondly.

We are thankful for our friends and Missionary community here at Tenwek. We were able to take the Safari trip with the McLaughlins and look forward to getting to know them and the others even better while we are here.

Happy Birthday, Rachel!

More Liam Birthday Pics

The kids sang "Happy Birthday" to Liam several times, including once in Swahili! Liam bounced and clapped as the kids continued to sing more songs in both English and Swahili.


Liam waits patiently for his turn to have a piece of cake. He wants to run and jump and play with these kids!


We sat the kids on the steps right in front of our apartment so we could see them better. Our place is right behind them on the first floor. We live under the lawyer for the hospital. All of our neighbors are Kenyan. At first I was disappointed with our location, as we are a small hike away from the main compound with the other missionaries. The other young couples here with Samaritan's Purse live in a similar building all together and can freely go from one place to another, watch each other's kids, etc. But, we now realize how it is good to be a little more submersed in the culture.

This girl in the front above and behind Nancy below, holding a baby wrapped in pink, is named Sharon. She hangs around and peeks inside our windows the most. But she sure has a beautiful smile! She was their little song leader as well. We are thankful for our place and all the neighbors God has given to us.


When Kenyans sing "Happy Birthday," they have a second verse. It is is the same tune, but they sing "how old are you now?" One person (Sharon of course) yells out "ONE!" How old are you now? ONE! Happy Birthday to Liam, how old are you now? ONE!


This is Liam's first taste of his Mommy's cake she baked for him. He liked it! Hopefully I can make him into a fellow chocolate lover! Actually, I will make sure he loves vegetables, especially ones from his MiMi's garden this summer.

Little ones to Him belong...

 

These were the two littlest walkers. She is 2, but Liam is about as big as she is! He liked sharing his cake with her.

The Center of Attention

 

Today I asked Nancy what the kids said about the birthday party for Liam. She said for them, the highlight was getting to hold Liam! I do not usually let the kids hold Liam, but it was a special occasion, and we had three adults right there. They just love being that close to a little white baby.

Back at ya!

 

Kari's blog for Liam's birthday meant so much to me! Here we are giving the ONE right back at cha!

Happy Birthday Liam!

[We have pictures but internet is tricky now, we'll try to upload them later.]

Today Liam turned ONE! I can not believe it has been a year since he was born. How far we have come and how much we have gone through! Liam is such a joy. We are really happy with how his little personality is turning out. He is a pretty laid back, happy kid. So independent! He has been walking since 9 months. He signs about 10 words and says about 20. Now, some of those 20 are not perfect. Such as "dut" for "duck". But I know what he is saying, and he does too. Just a few of his spoken words are duck, dog, juice, cup, ball, mama, dada, bye, night-night, more, and of course, no-no. He knows that one very well!

He had a great day today. He wore a new pair of 12 month jammies and looked adorable. I am waiting to have a party with our missionary friends when Luke and Riley are here. That will be fun to celebrate with family, but of course I had to make today special!

We invited Nancy and Alfred back over to our house for lunch today. I was feeling a little homesick, so I made the most Southern meal I could! Cornmeal oven-fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and sweet tea! Alfred said he liked our sweet tea, but Nancy would not even try it. It is so strange to them that tea would ever be served cold. They "take tea" literally boiling hot! It is scalding almost. So, the whole idea that chai would ever be cold is very foreign to them.

I baked two chocolate cakes with coconut icing. Basically I just made regular icing, but where it called for milk I substituted coconut milk. Speaking of milk... We are now using fresh cow's milk. As in it was milked from the cow fresh this morning! We boil it and scrape the cream off the top. I am feeling more Kenyan these days! This cake (made with fresh milk) was Liam's first "sweet" so I wanted it to be chocolate, which is my fav! I think he liked it. He managed to get it all over his face and hands. He seemed more interested in figuring out what was all over his hands than what was on his plate! That is the Banks in him coming out. Those men do not like anything sticky on their hands! Maybe he will be a doctor after all.

After our lunch, he took a long 1 1/2 hour nap, which is longer than usual. He partied till he dropped! But that was only the beginning of his celebrations!

With Nancy's help, this evening we invited all the kids who live in the tin roof "village" near us to come to a little party for Liam. There were about 15 kids. As they walked up the hill to our house, we quickly noticed that they had dressed up for the party. They all had their best dresses and sweaters on. They looked like they were dressed for church. At first, they stood shyly in front of us, not sure what we had in mind for the "party." Then they sang "Happy Birthday" to Liam , multiple times, one of which was in Swahili. It was so fun listening to them sing, we asked if they had any other songs. There was about a two second pause, and then one girl, Sharon, boldly led them in about 3 or 4 more Swahili songs for us. Liam clapped and cheered right along with their singing.

Then we moved on to the real reason they came: BIRTHDAY CAKE! I cut the cake into small bite-sized pieces and put one chocolate chip on each little piece. Chocolate chips are a delicacy here, even for the American missionaries, so I know it would be a treat for these kids. They ate right out of their hands, as I do not have that many plates, and no paper goods. There was enough for everyone to have two pieces. To get the first piece of cake, they came up to me one by one very politely and patiently. But by the time the second piece of cake was being handed out, I found myself swarmed by little palms outstretched ready to get one more bite! We finished the evening by taking pictures and video of the kids. They were camera-shy at first, but quickly warmed up to the idea of being photographed!

It was a fun way to reach out to our neighbors and share this special day with them. Liam was wide-eyed the whole time. Seeing Liam in the middle of his Kenyan friends reminds Logan and I of the Sesame Street song "one of these things is not like the other." If you would like to see pictures of Liam's birthday, feel free to check out our Picasa web almbum at www.picassaweb.google.com/loganandjulie

We have gotten many loving emails for Liam today. My sister made me bawl with her amazing blog post on her sweet.and.sowers blog. Please check it out. She had family members from Oregon to Florida and many states in between send in a picture of their birthday wishes for Liam. They all held up a #1 to show Liam how old he is. So, we had all the Kenyan kids do them same right back at them.

Thank you to all of our family who is thinking of us today. It is difficult to be away for Liam's first birthday, but we know God has us here for a reason. In fact, we were reminded of that even today. Logan was late for Liam's birth celebration because he was in the hospital with a baby who was born today, but unfortunately did not make it. Logan is now doing a Pediatric rotation and witnessing firsthand signs of malnutrition, abuse, neglect, severe burns, and many diseases kids in the States may not ever have to worry about.

Please continue to pray for Logan and his ministry in the hospital and for Liam and I at home. May we show God's love in all we do and say. Speaking of showing God's love, Liam will put his little hands together sitting in his highchair while we pray for our meals. We did not even prompt him, or teach him to do that! Logan and I "peeked" one day recently during our prayer, only to see our small son watching us with his hands pressed tightly together. We were almost brought to tears! Now when Logan says, "Liam, let's pray," he looks up at us and puts his hands together. How sweet. He is watching and learning from us, even when we do not know we are teaching. May we be able to honestly say to him, "Follow me, Liam, as I follow Christ."