Back in business...

Well, I’ve been on a bit of a blogging sabbatical since I went back to the U.S. and starting a real paying job. Just for the record, I am so glad to be back in the blogging world! Obviously all 5 of us made it to Kenya with only a few… minor glitches. (Maybe we got booted off our flight from G-boro and had to be driven to Raleigh airport.) Like I said, “minor”. For those of you to live for the play-by-play- here is a recap of our first few days in Kenya:

Wednesday night we arrived back to our Kenyan home about 11pm. Like scavengers we searched the house for food and found some sauce in the freezer I froze about 8 months ago and some noodles in the pantry so we made up some spaghetti. Just as we were about to sit down and eat- I look over and behold a container with 3 fresh loaves of sour dough bread. I thanked Jesus for my sweet Zippy! Dottie taught Zippy how to make sour dough bread. :) So we gobbled our food up, showered, and unpacked. We were out early the next morning (after a [loud] reunion with Zippy and Thomas) delivering food to a few schools in Kawangware and seeing the saint boys. I would give anything to have had a video of the st. boys reaction when Chris came walking up. A boy named Daniel (not the st. boy "Dan" who lived with us) was returning from the choo (restroom) and saw Chris. He took off in a bolt running at Chris while yelling his name. Daniel threw his arms around him and began speaking swahili so fast I don't know how Chris understood him. Suddenly, we heard a roar from inside their new classroom building. All the boys came running out the door and jumped all over Chris. It made this wife’s heart so happy to see these boys mauling a man they have such tremendous respect and love for. Why were they so excited? B/c they recognize his love for them no matter how tough or strict he has to be at times. And maybe they missed him a little in the past 6 months.

After we visited with the boys and played games Chris showed the interns Hope Center in Kawangware while I played games with the kids in the schoolyard. I think I almost forgot how great it is to have 30 kids treat me like I'm a walking petting zoo. ::sigh:: After the pet fest we went to the grocery store to restock the pantry and fridge. Our neighbor/landlord brought us dinner- what a blessing! We were all pooped out and our speech was beginning to slur a bit due to our jet lag. J After discussing the day and praying we were all more than happy to hit the sack.

Friday morning we were off to deliver more food and deliver our picture poster the girls put together for the st. boys (Maybe GK will put up a picture later of it.) I LOVED watching the boys get excited about showing me their work and all they had learned. I worked through a few math problems in their exercise books. After I corrected a few of their "wrong" answers they soon corrected ME! Apparently my subtraction skills aren't as sharp as I thought! We left from Kawangware so Grace and Ct could take shots. Typhoid and Yellow Fever shots that is. Both did well and got stickers bandaids. Our last stop of the day was FINALLY getting to see our friends in Kibera. We showed the bible college to the interns and volunteered our services for a bit. Beatrice, Pastors Indiazi, Meshack, and Vitalis were so gracious for the books donated to the college! Thanks all who contributed! We have even decided that the 5 of us would like to sit in on some classes (something I have ALWAYS wanted to do)! We drove over to Berith school and saw the kiddos- SO BIG! I think I got at least a million hugs. Here are the updates in Kibera:

A good friend is pregnant- guess who?

Teacher Esther is pregnant and going to have her baby any day now! She is radiant!

Brian has lost FOUR teeth!

Isaac has run away from school. Please pray that he would come back. He is still living with his grandmother as far as I know. My fear is that when/if something happens to grandmother he could become a street boy. I can't bare the thought of that. We saw him today and he waved at me. I called his name a went after him. I think he was afraid we would be mad at him. Finally he stopped and Chris was able to draw him close to the van with food. We simply told him that we loved him and gave him some protein. His frown became a sweet smile. Chris told him when we'd be back and he walked off.

It just so happens that the Helsby’s are in town and staying with us for 3 nights! We are so excited! We haven’t seen them in 2 years! Saturday we will be doing some things around the house and cooking some meals ahead of time so I can go out to ministry sites with everyone this week.

Hopefully we’ll get to post some pictures soon.

We will be switching blogging duties so check out the blog every other day or so to check on us frequently!