Daylight Savings

If you are keeping track of what time it is here, you may have noticed that the time difference between where you are and where we are is now different. This is just a reminder that Kenya doesn't observe Daylight Savings time. That means that if you are on Central time, we are now 8 hours apart instead of 9.

Kenyans don't even understand the concept. There is simply no need to save daylight here. All year long the sun rises at about 6:30 every morning and sets at about 6:30 every night. Sunrise is as early as 6:20 in the summer and as late as 6:40 in the winter.

We're only about 7/10 of a degree south of the equator here. When I look up at the huge expanse of sky at night, not only are the stars brighter here, but you can see a greater number here than you can in the States. Because of our relation to the equator, you can also see stars that are common in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Here the Big Dipper lies close to the horizon in the North, and it's bucket points to the North Star, which lies just below the horizon (since we're below the equator). The Southern Cross also lies just above the horizon on the opposite end of the sky. I would walk right toward it every morning as I walked up the hill to the hospital. You can see Orion brightly overhead, although he is leaning more to the side, instead of standing upright and being closer to the horizon, the way the Greeks pictured him years ago.

The Milky Way shines brightly here, and is a testimony to the awesome expanse of this galaxy and this universe that God created. For some, the bigger they realize the universe is, the smaller God seems, and some refuse to believe altogether. But for me, knowing how incredibly huge this physical world is, makes the God that spoke it all into being with one word all that much more awesome and mighty.

The Bible says that "since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen." (Romans 1:20) In Colossians 1:16, Paul writes that "by him (Jesus) all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." Jesus was there in the beginning, with God, speaking everything into existence.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. John 1:1-3

When I read that and think of Jesus holding "all things together", I think about Physics. The strong and weak nuclear forces, these unseen and unexplainable forces that hold together everything from atoms to galaxies. You see, it really doesn't make any sense that in an atom you would have a bunch of positively charge particles stuck together in the middle of a nucleus. Like repels like, so the nucleus should explode! But for some reason it doesn't. Also, when you put a positively charged proton and a negatively charged electron next to each other, they are attracted to each other and the electron should just fly into the nucleus. But somehow this doesn't happen! Because of these counter-intuitive interactions, matter can exist. Physicists talk about smaller and smaller particles to help explain this phenomenon (quarks, gluons, and my favorite, neutrinos!), and have created the concepts of the strong and weak forces. And you can really get a physicist's mouth watering if you talk about the Higgs Boson, the Holy Grail of particle physics. But without Jesus holding all things together, this world would simply fall apart!

And one day, the Bible says it will.

All the Stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll;
all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree. Isaiah 34:4

Jesus, who was there at the beginning putting it all together, will take it all apart. In Revelations 20, John speaks of Jesus at the end of all physical matter. "Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them."

But this is all part of God's plan to have eternal fellowship with all believers who put their faith in Him. John goes on to say in Revelations that after all that has passed, then "the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

Boy, I really went off on a tangent there. I just meant to remind you about Daylight Savings time.

Mosop Orphanange

On Monday, Riley, Luke, Liam and I rode out to Mosop, an orphanage and school about 20km away. We arrived just before the kids got out of school. There are about 250 children, boys and girls, ages 5-17. Over half are orphans and live there, but the other half just come for school during the day.

They divided the kids according to age. From there, the older ones split up boys and girls. Luke spoke with the older guys while two social work girls here from Kentucky spoke with the girls. The girls talked about guys, sex, telling them they have a right to say no and guard their hearts and bodies, and just spoke openly about starting their periods. These are taboo subjects, and it is likely a young girl might start bleeding and have no clue what is happening, and never tell anyone. Especially if they are not at home with a mother close by. These kids kind of raise each other. As I understand, there are only about 3-5 adults who live there with the kids. Riaka and Kaitlyn said the talk went very well. They opened the floor for questions. Of course the girls were too embarrassed, so the girls said to write their questions down. This was brilliant, so they got their questions answered without having to be singled out. They were amazed that American girls have to go through the same things with their bodies.



While the older ones were learning, Riley and I took the younger kids under 11. We listened to them sing loudly and beautifully, and we taught them a couple games. In the picture Riley is leading them in a game of Red Light, Green Light. They thought it was hilarious when she would say "redlightgreenlight" really fast! They loved it! When we were not playing the game, the kids swarmed Liam (who was on my back) and Riley. They want to look, touch (especially hair), and listen to our funny accents!



Riley is having an amazing time. She brought a whole suitacase full of toys and gifts. She and her friends and family made about 200 gospel bead bracelets that she will hand out, and share the meaning of them. She has made many sacrifices to come. She did not open any presents on Christmas morning from her parents, because any money that would have gone toward her Christmas went toward this trip. She also kind of "gave up" receiving any presents for her 13th birthday. She asked all her friends at her party to instead bring something for the children in Africa for her to pass on. She and her friends also made blankets and tied ribbons on them with their favorite scripture verse written on it. She is missing a full week of school, plus her Spring Break. I don't know if missing school is a "sacrifice", but she does have to make up the work when she gets back! Luckily she is a very good student, so her teachers are understanding.




Riley is just doing amazingly here. Even after a near fainting experience, she has not complained once. She is game for whatever we are doing! Before we went out to the orphanage, we were told by several people that this place is "really nice." Just to keep things in perspective, there are no showers, and to go to the bathroom, you stand over a hole in the ground. So Riley is getting the "squatty potty" experience for 4 days!

She is soaking the whole culture in. She is trying to pronounce words and phrases, willingly eats the local food, and jumps in a laughs and plays with the kids. This will be an amazing growing experience for her.



The Tenwek team, as well as the Mosop staff, is also excited to have a man spend time with the kids. As you can imagine, going to the orphanage is something the visiting wives do while their husbands work at the hospital. And trust me, most visitors do not sleep there with the kids! These boys specifically do not see many strong, Christian male influences. In fact, Luke spoke to the older ones about something that is not done in their culture: respecting women. In Africa, it is not "ladies first," but men first. In everything. Women are mostly there for having babies, raising them, and housework. So, for Luke to talk about treating a woman with respect, loving his wife and sleeping with her only, would not be something they would hear. He had a translator, but what was funny was that the translator spoke in English, but just the African accent! They could understand Enoch's English better than Luke's! Luke has offered to help however necessary around the place. He was on such a high when I left them!

I would have loved to stay, but it would not be a great idea with Liam. All four will return to the hospital on Thursday. I'm sure they will want to take a good shower, have a nice meal, and rest. The three girls are sharing two twin beds at Mosop! For Riley's fans reading this blog, she likely will not be able to add to her blog until she returns. But keep praying for her and for Luke. They are doing a great thing, even if it is just playing with kids! I know I am missing them, and looking forward to their return to Tenwek so we can enjoy our last couple days together.

"Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there." Matthew 19:14

I know Riley and Luke will not be the same as they "go on from here," now that they have placed their hands on these sweet children.

More Masai (pictures)

All the Masai children loved to see Liam walk. The rest of the group was inside one of the mud huts with the Chief. Liam was so fussy and mad at me because I would not let him touch the puppies. They were adorable, and just his size. He kept saying "Dod" which is dog. I would love to let him play with a puppy, but just not where we were. Probably all the dogs not only have fleas, but who knows how many types of worms. So, we played with the kids instead! I just tried to turn him away from the "doddies."


This was one of the young men who jumped really high. He loved Liam, but Liam was not too sure about these Masai people. He just looked closely at them and their adornments. Plus, he was actually missing nap time to be here.

Below is a picture of one of the men jumping really high. If you look at his head compared to the other men's heads you can tell how high he is. On the left are the women. They stood in a line and sang in high voices while the men chanted in very low tones made in the back of their throat. I wished we could get closer to them, and just about that time, they came over a grabbed us by the hand!
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Riley and I got to jump right along with them! Before I knew it, I was singing right along with them too! It was a memorable day!

Experiencing the Masai

This weekend we went to Masai Mara with Luke and Riley. The Masai people are very interesting. When you think of Africa, in fact they may be one of the main people groups that you picture. They jump very high, are tall and slender, drink cow's blood in their milk, have many wives and children, and live in mud huts. The safari that we went on is one of the most famous safari locations in the world, Masai Mara. We had a chance to "experience" the Masai culture, and took advantage of it. Of course, they play it up a little for the tourists as you could imagine, but it was a fun day nonetheless. The Masai did their tradition singing, chanting, dancing, and jumping for us. They "snaked" their jumping line toward us slowly and grabbed Riley and me to come jump with them. It was really fun! They jump several feet in the air, so I really felt like "white men can't jump!"

We had an amazing time on Safari, and are looking forward to a great week back at Tenwek. Riley and Luke are going to spend a couple days at an orphanage as well. Sorry if I have not been blogging as much, but we have been busy, busy busy! Check out my neice, Riley's blog to get a chance to see Africa through her eyes! We will post when we can because we have some amazing pictures and stories to tell!

Hope you all made it through the time change ok. In case you are wondering...Kenya does not go through daylight savings time, so we did not have to wake up any earlier this morning!

Liam's Birthday Party!

What a joy it has been having Riley and Luke here! I teared up this morning just thanking them for coming. It is as if they are representing all of our family from the US on both sides. Many family members sent gifts and toys and decorations with them for his party which we had last night.


We had an awesome time with all the Missionaries and their kids. There were over 40 people there to celebrate with us. I made a chocolate giraffe cake. I used the food coloring sent from my Mom to get just the right color! Tracy, you picked out perfect plates with a safari theme! All the little kids loved the noise makers, and of course balloons are always a big hit! So thanks to Jan there. Showing in the picture is an impromptu game of "hot potato" about to go down.

Liam had a great time! He walked around clapping and laughing and watching all the big kids play. The kids sang to him and helped him blow out his #1 candle. We were so happy there was a great turn out! We held the party at the McLaughlin's house because their place is right in the middle of all the action. Our house is a small hike away, so it was just easier for us to bring all the food and supplies up there.

I also made fresh salsa and guacamole that Luke and Riley helped me taste-test along the way of making. We used ugali chips to dip. They were a big hit as well. We don't get chips very often around here!

We miss everyone who was not there, but know that we had a wonderful party and every inch of the giraffe got eaten! It was cute how the kids would say "I want the foot." or "Can I have part of his mouth?" They picked out the perfect piece and came back for seconds if their mom wasn't looking!

Overall, it was a great time and will be a great story for Liam! What a birthday week he has had! And it is only beginning, because this morning we are off on Safari! Happy Birthday Liam!

Mennonite Guest House

I wanted to upload a few more pics from the Mennonite Guest House. This is where we stayed in Nairobi.

We stayed here when we arrived in January. But at that time, it must have been full, because we had a very small room. Just like a small dorm room. But this time, we had what must be one of the best rooms. We didn't know how big it would be, and we tried to reserve another room for Luke and Riley to stay in, but they were all booked up. So we thought we might have to put them up in another guest house which is nearby. But when we got there and saw our room, it was huge! It had a double bed, and two bunk beds. Liam even got his own room with a crib!


Eating at Java House

We are now back at Tenwek. I've had very little time to blog, but you can read about what we are all doing at Riley's blog. Luke came on rounds with me today on the pediatric ward, and Julie and Riley went and fed the babies this morning. We also had a fun birthday party for Liam tonight (thanks to my mom for sending party decorations). I'll let Julie tell you more about that.

In Nairobi!

 
We just arrived in Nairobi. We're here to pick up my brother, Luke, and my niece, Riley. They should be landing in about 10 hours, so we'll meet them at the airport in the morning. We are so excited! I don't know if we'll be able to sleep tonight. Partly because of the excitement, but also because of the gecko we saw on the wall just now. I saw it first, and had to warn Julie not to freak out and scream when she saw it, so she wouldn't wake up Liam. We really do have a sweet room here, much nicer than the first one we had. We'll take some more pics of this room, as well as the rest of the Mennonite Guest House tomorrow and upload them for you.

We're excited to show Luke and Riley around Nairobi (the little bit of it that we are familiar with). Tomorrow is just shopping, and then Tuesday we head back out to Tenwek. Please pray for their (and our) safety while they are visiting. That they wouldn't get any kind of illness, that jet lag wouldn't bother them, and that they have an amazing experience while they are here, and the Lord will speak to them and draw them both closer to Him.