21 hours

Hello Fellow Bloggerets-
Wanted you all to know that we are here safe and sound and we arrived in a record 21 HOURS! Seriously, we got off one plane and boarded another. AND we both slept on the plane! I know mom told me her Sunday school class was praying for that. That is the first time I have ever really slept on a plane- Thanks guys! We are unpacking and unloading. All the suitcases made it and we were about 10-15lbs UNDERWEIGHT! I think that made me more upset that we had wasted poundage than it would have been had we gone over. Oh well! So my tropical medicine book did get to come... big deal.
Thanks for the prayers!
Team Thompson

Home...

We're home!!  We had the most eventless trip to Kenya this year!!  No (serious) delays that kept us from making our connecting flights.  Just a frosted plane in Amsterdam.  But Chris said they had a really cool machine to defrost the plane.  I was too busy trying to catch some sleep BEFORE the plane took off- seeing as I can't sleep during the flight,,,, ever.  Want something to make you laugh?  Of course you do!  My boarding pass and passport almost fell out of my pocket and into the commode.  On the flight to Nairobi- I needed to wake up my Kenyan friend I met who was sitting in an isle seat.  I tried to let him sleep as long as I could, but eventually I HAD to get out. So I unbuckled myself amd stood up, bumping his arm on purpose.  Still asleep, I proceeded to shake him a bit on the shoulder.  Still nothing.  Being a bit rusty of my nursing skills, I presume he could be dead.  So naturally, I shake him vigorously as though the plane is crashing.  Startled, his big brown eyes open with a terrified expression on his face.  Did I mention he had ear phones on?  Poor man. He didn't even know what I was trying to tell him.  Note to self: do not ever assume someone is dead that quickly.  At least check to see if they are breathing before shaking them that hard- (nursing 101)

Thank you again to all you precious people who poured and poured and poured out your hospitality to us the whole time we were home.  Though, it's so wonderful to be back "home"- we still miss the mess out of all of you.  We love, love, love you so much.  We're going to get to bed so that we can hit the ground running tomorrow!  We are excited to get our hands dirty with the group here from Baptist Home Baptist Church.  Pray our bodies adjust quickly to the time change so we can be nice and alert tomorrow.  YAY!!!!  

As soon as I see my Paul, Brian, and Sylvia- I'll post some pictures of how they've grown!  Oh- I hope they haven't forgotten their Auntie Lindy! 

Love you heaps!

Lindy

PS- Obviously this is being posted a bit late.  what do you know- the internet doesn't work.  So be patient with our responding to emails until we get the bugs worked out.  TIA- people...  (This Is Africa!)

A taste of Kenya

Last night we had friends and family over for an authentic kenyan meal.  Complete with Dengu, Ugali, Succumawiki, and Chapatis.  Everyone... for the most part, enjoyed it. 

We even had people eating with their hands.  But the wimps broke down and used a spoon.... Pfff!  Americans!

Levi even got in on the action.  Matt, pretty much just piled everything on his plate on the chapati.
Beth was such a trooper.  She makes me laugh.  She kept saying- "now Lindy, what is the right way to eat this?  How should I mold my Ugali into the perfect spoon?"  She was NOT among the weak.  
Sam really enjoyed himself as well.

Ol' CT making the chapatis.  Succuma and Chapatis- EVERYONE liked!  

    (please note Thomas' bird that flew in just to pester us-  he heard we had a great garden)

Ma, what did you really think?  She claims she liked it, but she was not a member of the clean plate club. Shame, Shame...

She always taught me to eat everything on my plate.  Who's cleaning their plate now?

 I guess what matters is that Chris and I LOVE Kenyan food and we miss the home cooking in Kibera.  The succuma tasted EXACTLY the same though, so we were VERY excited that we can still have a taste of Kenya- even here in America.

Home Sweet Home (or Africa Sweet Africa)

Showers in Amsterdam- $51
McDonalds Lunch- $28
Destroyed piece of luggage- $84
Arriving safely in Kenya to learn a close friend back home has given his life to Jesus...Priceless!

Thank you for all your precious prayers! We have felt them all. We are reminded of why we fell in love with Kenya in the first place... THE PEOPLE! We have been able to catch up with all our Livingstone team here at the house and they are doing well. We are now ready to get our feet dirty! (and our teeth clean after all that time without a toothbrush...)

As soon as we got up to our bedroom we started opening our suitcases to unpack when we looked at one another then stopped to drop to our knees to commit this to our Savior. My prayer is that this NEVER EVER becomes about Chris and Lindy Thompson- that it be only about the great commission and lost and weary souls coming to know the saving grace and refuge of our Lord. I pray our knees become calloused and our rugs under the bed becomes bare. We thank our God every time we remember you!
We love you all so very much and cannot thank you enough for doing WHATEVER IT TOOK for us to get here. Thank you for the countless hours of cleaning; the late nights before the silent auction; the emptied pockets, dry eyes, and snotty noses. Only God knows the joy of our hearts through your service.

We had a video but it's taking FOREVER to upload... maybe later.... stay tuned!

ETA... unknown! :) but we're all smiles!

So we are sitting on the plane right now... EVERYONE must be sleeping, but me. Love it! I feel sorry for CT b/c he keeps waking up trying to get me comfortable so that I can catch a few Z's. But I'm like a little kid right now i guess...

Where to begin catching you all up! I'll start with all the little servants that popped in to help "fluff" our house Saturday. I mean- these people were NOT messing around! We had youth getting up early to show up only to have their hands stained with furniture polish (sorry CB- we blame naivety), and their fingertips eaten by a poor ratio of Clorox to water. THey have no idea what a difference they made. You all made it so much easier to "go"...

Everyone has been asking me for about 2 weeks now "Are you excited?" I never knew how to answer that b/c I hadn't really had time to figure out what I was! Well, to answer your questions... THE EXCITEMENT HIT! It hit the minute Jana and Richie walked in the door. I knew at that moment that whatever wasn't done... just didn't matter! Most of you know, I said "I don't want anyone at the airport- we are not making a scene!" We chose Jana and Richie because we are pretty used to going long times without seeing one another. I knew there wouldn't be tears. :) Some people like to be rebels (Special K) and show up anyway... but I decided he and Skyler were a God send b/c our luggage was over 2-3 pounds on all 4 pieces (I thought I had just lost weight on our home scales- to my disappointment they were off) so we had to take some stuff out to give them to take back home. But I did manage to keep my ice cream scoop! We got through security and sat down. I was so relieved to sit down knowing that those things that didn't get done we actually going to get done by precious friends. (BTW, didn't know they were going to do it like... RIGHT THEN- Gez!) So we got on the plane with fellow servants at home cleaning and tending to paperwork and turning in modems etc. We couldn't be more rich...

Sunday-
Whew what a doozy! We cried a whole lot. We went to bed about 1:30am with massive headaches from our sobs.
I loved Michael's sermon last Sunday (he hasn't been messin' around either. Go on brotha! He tells it like it is and I LOVE IT). I'll give you guys a tid but, but you really need to go to the website and just listen to it. He was using scripture out of Luke (14:25-27) about the cost of being a Disciple. I didn't recognize it or really get it at first. In this scripture Jesus, being Jesus, had a big fan club following and traveling with him- he turns to the crowd and says this "If anyone does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters- yes, even life itself- such person cannot be my disciple." Bottom Line: We have to expect there is a cost to follow Jesus Christ. If you don't give anything up, how can you sacrifice anything for the kingdom? [He also made a comment about how it would be hard selling stuff and getting rid of alot- Let us assure you THAT was NOT the hard part of leaving. The hard part was leaving YOU...reading this blog]

The scripture goes on to say "And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." Let's think about carrying a physical cross.. I mean that would be tough, right? It would be heavy, painful, there would be splinters, cuts, sweat, maybe even tears: sacrifice, right? Now figuratively, to bear the cross means to support it, take responsibility for it- but you have to know and expect there is some cost involved. I rest in knowing that any sacrifice I ever attempt to make will never touch the sacrifice of our Savior. Didn't Jesus walk around teaching and preaching EXPECTING THE COST and sacrifice of his body to be broken in two so that we could truly live. So why shouldn't be give all we can so that we have to Him so that we can be completely free?

(several hours later...)
okay- so we missed our connecting flight in Amsterdam, yet again. So we have a pretty big layover now here in lovely Amsterdam (chuckle). CT was able to check our carry on baggage all the way through to Nairobi at the beginning of the last flight which was a great idea, except I had some stuff in it that I really needed. So looks like I'm gonna be wearing the same clothes and have morning breath forever! It's all good though, I just keep reminding myself that William Cary (first missionary to India) went in a boat and it took him 3 months. Yikes! How blessed are we?!

Love you guys and we'll let ya know when we get there!