Fund raiser and fun coming!

Hello all,
I've only got 5 minutes here, sorry. For a nice description of the fund-raiser go to nick's blog at www.nicknkenya.blogspot.com . Summary: good, not great, not terrible. Over double the money that was put into it came out, though only 1/10 of what we were hoping for came in (about $500 worth of stuff). God is wise, though, it's making me pray for our potential income generating project even more!
Please pray for it! Starting next week we're going to be dipping our feet in an avocado collecting business. After all of our research on chickens, rice fields, and what not, this seems to be the best opportunity to help us get food on a more sustainable basis (by getting us more money to buy the food!). I'm trying not to get my hopes up, and also trying to walk with faith, believing that what I pray for will happen (I'm terrible at that).

IN OTHER NEWS: KAREN HARTMAN IS COMING TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D

I'm excited beyond words. She's gonna chill here for 3 days, meet a million people who want to meet her, and then we're going to hike up Mt. Kenya!!! Pray for all of these things, please (and that I don't wear Karen out with my excitement!).

Thanks for the one person who posted they were going to fast for the fund raiser- you rock!

Fast Food

Our much-anticipated and greatly needed fund-raiser is here! It will be held on Sunday at 12:00 noon and we are praying for around 100 people to come. Including the 40 of us already at AMCC, we'll be feeding 140 people ourselves, and all for about $1.25 per person!
This fund-raiser is the first one that AMCC has ever held, and is a really good sign for them. We are stoked to see John and Nancy taking initiative and trying to engage the community around them to be involved with AMCC, rather than relying on Nick and I (and people we know) for the financial needs at AMCC. The money from this fundraiser will be spent exclusively on the needs that exist for AMCC. Food, rent, firewood, school fees, salaries (John and Nancy have not been paid in their 2 years of work at AMCC and have no other source of income!), income generating projects, transportation, phone bills, etc... We'll also be setting aside the amount of money that it put to put on this fundraiser so that when we need to have another we already have money saved for it. This is a BIG change in thinking and Nick and I are pretty stoked to see it happen!
I am writing here to ask people to PRAY- not give money! This fund-raiser is very much about what AMCC can do here, on their own, and is kind of a guage for us about what is possible here. I think that there's a lot more potential here than people give credit for. Anyway, I am asking people to please PRAY for God to move and for AMCC to be greatly provided for from this fund-raiser. The number that I've decided to ask God for is: at least 200,000 Kenyan shillings. That's about $2,500. It's a lot, but I figure that God is rich and creative so it's not beyond His hand to give it to us. Plus, the reality is that amount won't cover costs for even a full three months, so it's actually low in comparison with our need.
In particular, I am asking you if you'd fast one meal before Sunday, devoting that time to praying for AMCC and this event. Since it's pretty self-righteouss to tell people you're fasting, don't! However, I would like to get a sense of how many people are doing this. If you're going to fast, then please leave a comment under this blog post saying something like "I'm going to fast" or "Me and 35 friends are gong to fast", etc... Just make sure that you leave the comment as "Anonymous". I'm quite excited to see what happens when many people come together to pray for something. Thanks for praying for us, we'll be updating you on the fund-raiser next week!

Oh, and John and Nancy and the children say that they love you. :-)

Cuttin Time!

We got our hairs cut!
Thanks to God's divine orchestration, we now have our own hair clippers and celebrated by having out first hair-cut yesterday! It was pretty cool. A professional guy came in to do it, charged 30% what he normally does, and taught two of our boys how to do it so that we can just do it ourselves in the future. The only thing we need now to do it is a generator, but thankfully John knows a man who lets us borrow one! So it now costs only 70 kenyan shilling (about 90 cents) to buy gas to fuel the generator, to cut our hair. Here are some select shots:
1. Me, lookin like Freddie Mercury (don't worry, the stache is gone already)
2. A live picture of someone getting their hair cut!
3. Joseph, David, and Dennis lookin "smart" with their trim heads. I think Joseph (far left) looks like Micheal Jordan.
4. The total amount of hair that was cut, about 1 inches tall and 24 wide.

Praise God! This thing will work for years and is a great investment for us. :-) Now we're all lookin smart for the fundraiser!

Here are few pics of the pots that we bought on Friday! Woohoo! Thank the Lord for how He moved to provide these! The word on the street is that these are of a tougher breed than the ones that we had, so they should last us longer than the last ones (which took us about two years). In one of them you can see our current pots in the background- that black is the soot that results from cooking stuff over an open fire. We're also wanting to change that situation. The smoke is pretty terrible in the kitchen and it's a serious long-term healtch concern. Maybe the Lord will just give us new land! But that would still take a while to move on to. So we pray and wait, that's pretty much the name of the game around here. Adios!

Money Talks 2

Hey all! So I wrote this in an email last Thursday. Sorry my delinquency in posting it, and THANK YOU to everyone who has prayed! Please continue to pray! We are hosting a fund-raiser this Sunday, here in Kenya. We want the money from this fund-raiser to go to:
- Begin funding sustainability projects
- Pay John and Nancy's salaries (at least something!)
- Buy food for the kids
- Cover rent for the next 3 months (and this month!)
- Pay for school fees for the kids to go to extra tutoring so they can get into High School (half of the kids last year didn't because of low test scores, i.e. half of the kids in the entire school!)
- Paying daily costs for AMCC, phone bills, transportation costs, etc...

So we're basically wanting God to move in people here and for a fair amount of money to come in (Around $800 would be awesome, twice that would be better, ten times that would be best. :-). Please join us in praying for God to move in people's hearts, get them safely to AMCC, and to only give if He tells them to.

Here's the recent update about money talks:

Yesterday, when Nancy and I came together for staff prayer (which
we want to happen every day but has happened 15% of the time, that's
frustrating for Nick and I) I asked her how she was feeling. She said
she was feeling well and was encouraged, and I followed up by saying
that sometimes Nick and I feel that we have been more of a burden to
she and John than a help. We've felt this way because we know that
they were expecting us to be coming with lots of money and we have
come with very little to none, including their own salaries. It began
a wonderful conversation where we both shared important things, things
which were shared at a slower pace (and in a softer way) that accounts
for Kenyan culture, but which I don't want to take the time to slowly
share with you right now.
I said that:
1. Nick and I feel like it has been harder on each of you for us to be
here than when we were gone.
2. Nick and I feel bad when you share needs with us because it seems
that it is an indirect way of asking for it. This is awkward because
we have already said that we will not be giving money, and we feel
that you may be either not believing us that we won't be giving more,
or that you're trying to pressure us into it.
3. In our culture, if someone is silent about something, that
generally means that they are not happy about it. We are an expressive
people, and if we enjoy something we make sure to let others know so
that they will understand that it's not that we don't care that they
have done it, and so that they would know to repeat it!
4. Nick and I have not heard either of you say anything like "I'm glad
that you are here because now I can sleep more/rest more/have a day
off/don't have to cook all the time/don't have to walk to charge the
cell phones/etc..." The only words that we have heard are things like
"The kids will all be expecting meat on Good Friday, so what do you
think about that?" or "We will be needing house rent next Monday"
etc... and so it has seemed to us that you are not happy that we are
here and mostly wish that we would give more money.

SO, just sharing those things at all was
A. Exactly what needed to be said!
B. An amazing thing that it could be said in a non-awkard way.
C. Not a planned conversation.

Nancy's response was better than I could have imagined! She said
that basically:
1. She and John are very happy and thankful that we have come. They
tell others this often, and have not said it to us because it is not
normal in their culture to do so. But we should be sure that they are
thanking God because of our coming.
2. They not been sharing financial needs as an indirect way of asking
us for money, at least not since we've had conversations about it
(which happened explicitly last Sunday). They have shared the needs
with us because we said that we had come to share the burden with
them. So they tell us so that we will also know, and share the burden,
and pray with them.

This conversation brought so much joy into my heart, and such
freedom!!! We basically repeated the conversation today with John and
Nick present, and then allowed each of them to elaborate on it. It was
just wonderful! I felt comfortable sharing all of the different things
that I had written down as needing to be shared. They were received
well because most of them are taken care of by the understanding that
when John and Nancy share needs they are NOT asking for money in an
indirect way, it is so that we also know and can experience with them
the things that they experience and pray with them (which is pretty
much exactly what Nick and I came to do!). The main problem has been
that it seems to Nick and I like John and Nancy think that God will
only provide through us, but in conversation today I believed them
when they said that was not so.
As we prayed at the end of our talk I was giddy, truly giddy! Very
much feeling the freedom to simply be obedient and faithful to what
God has called me to and trust Him with the fruit! I am so confident
that He has called us to be here and not give money, but I have felt a
great amount of pressure to take on financial responsibilities, which
made today so sweet. It was also a very enlightening thing when I read
an email from Nancy Love (tx-kenya missionary lady) who said that Nick
and I are not the only people whom God will use to provide for them.
It clicked for me that I was believing that lie, and that's where my
feelings of responsibility were coming from. If we don't, who will?
That's what I thought, and I wasn't trusting the Lord to use someone
who was not the mzungu! So I was doing the very thing that I was
frustrated with them for doing.
I feel very free here now, and am excited to see God move!! I
believe that we are formulating good plans about how to get out of the
cycle of continually running out of money, and I believe that God will
provide in the mean time. Scripturally, He said that if we seek His
Kingdom and His righteousness first then He will provide for us (and I
think that each of us are, though imperfectly, seeking His Kingdom and
righteousness first). He has also said that He is the father to the
fatherless, and there are definitely a lot of orphans here. The way I
see it, we've got two strong scriptural passages going for us, and I
REALLY DO BELIEVE THAT HE'S GOING TO PROVIDE BECAUSE OF THESE THINGS.
I've never believed it so strongly before, and it is just a freeing
thing! I'm going to bed now knowing how He will do it, and knowing
that our rent was due 10 days ago, and we'll have to borrow food on
credit if we don't get any by Tuesday, but I just KNOW that He will
provide! We've been praying that we would grow in faith (Ryan has been
praying that for over a year, and it's been inspiring for me to see
him praying for it so consistently), and I sense that God has been
doing that in me as of late.
I feel like a big corner has been turned, as we've now clearly
spelled out the things that we are going to give money for
(sustainability projects, but ultimately whatever He tells us to) and
what we're not going to (day-to-day and recurring needs, food, rent,
salaries, talk time, matatu rides, etc...) and we are at peace about
it all. John and Nancy both elaborated that it was good for us to talk
about the differences in culture and that "surely we were doing this
because, in our place, it is the best thing to do". Mostly, I believe
them, but I'm waiting for time to fill in the last 10% of that belief.
I really think it will though, and I'm so encouraged!!! Nick and
mine's task now feels very possible, and I will feel much more
comfortable leaving Nick here when this way of relating becomes normal
and I don't sense that they'll constantly be pressuring Nick to give
money that He sense God doesn't want him to give.

So we're really happy about that! Praise God alone. He is the One who makes things like this happen. Woohoo.

Chickens and Packages

We're ordering chickens this Tuesday! Pray for this project to go well and for us to get lots of eggs and for it to be sustainable!

Also, we got two packages this week! THANK YOU SO MUCH to my Uncle Brian and Aunt Pat and my mom and dad for sending spices, sunscreen, pencils, hats, etc...

Money Talks

Recent pics unrelated to this blog post:
1. Beautiful sunrise out the back door of AMCC.
2. A pic of Mt. Kenya, zoomed in from about 100 miles away.
3. Nick lookin good in a suit that he recently bought for himself.
4. Me in my new suit. They're pretty cheap here, we got 'em custom fitted. However, since the style here is different I had to get mine changed afterwards anyway. Oh culture.
5. Kids throwing a party after receiving some spices in the mail this week. They'll run out soon because there are 41 of us, but we're stoked to have them!!!

Here's ths post about money. Please pray for wisdom for all of us, and unity, and for the Lord's provision!

Since I last wrote more tension has come with money. Here in Kenya (as in America) money can bring a lot of tension. Most of the problems here have to do with culture, not John or Nick or I individually. The last 200 years of Kenyan history have led most Kenyans to believe that if they become friends with a white person then that person will take care of all of their financial needs. This is because it's largely what has happened. In more recent history there have been important strides taken to dispell this belief, but mostly among whites, they haven't really made a dent in the general Kenyan belief that the white man means money, smells like money, is made of money, and has an unending supply of money at his or her disposal.
Because of this, John was thinking that when Nick and I came we'd be able to help (and by help I mean completely take care of) AMCC's financial needs. Helping him understand that we're here to build relationship and help with physical daily taks, but NOT to give money has been a difficult task, but not as difficult as convincing the community! We've had a few honest and important conversations about this subject that we all agreed were really healthy. It's awkward and honestly difficult, but this is very much what Nick and I believe that we were called here to muddle through, and we're encouraged with how they have gone and everyone's good attitudes. Time will tell how well these really went, and if the things we've said have really sunk deep.
The hardest part of it for John and Nancy is that they have been volunteering at AMCC for two years now without pay. But it's been their ONLY job. They don't have part time jobs, and certainly didn't have a lot of money saved up before they began. They have gotten to live at AMCC, and eat what the kids eat, but they received no outside compensation for their work. Meaning that they don't have a way to pay for their own medical expenses, or the $3 fare to go see their families, or go to a restaurant, or give to one of their own friends/family members who are in need.
Culturally, this is even more difficult than in the states, because here children are expected to be providing for their parents after they leave the house. Not everything, but they should at least be bringing SOMETHING home whenever they come. And they should visit about once a month, more if they can. Since John and teacher Nancy don't have gifts to bring with them, it has created a lot of tension in their families, who don't understand that they feeled called to this and don't receive pay for it. It's doubly hard on John because male-breadwinner-ness is the assumed and strongly held belief here. It is difficult on his relationship with his wife and children for him to not come bringing things with him (a 40 lb bag of rice, and 3 pineapples, maybe 5 lbs of flour... total about $10 worth of stuff). Since he can't bring, it's culturally better for him to just not come. This grates at my soul and frankly infuriates me. I believe very much that John has been doing lots of work, work which should be paid, and work which he believes he has been called to by God. But it's not an easily understood thing (not in the states, and way more so in Kenya), so the tension continues. John's wife also works, and she and her kids are fed with the money that she earns. I don't know how Nancy's parents are doing.
Two years is a reeeeeally long time to not have income, and John and Nancy both know that they could burn out. In the conversation that we had with them, I just hate the tension in it. I don't feel that I am supposed to supply their salaries, nor could I even if I wanted to because I couldn't sustain it, but I believe strongly that they should be paid for their work. This is the current largest tension which we have. So add salaries onto the list of needs at AMCC. The suggested number is $100 a month for each of them. Blows my mind.

So we still need prayer for the fund-raiser, and will officially run out of food around this Thursday. Plus our rent was due three days ago, and our fire-wood will run out tomorrow. The local gov't has said that they'll give us 10 bags of maize, and we're supposed to get a large tree cut down and given to us this week, and we'll be having a meeting with out board to figure out what to do about rent, but none of these things have a definite date of arrival, especially because we're in Kenya/Africa/the 2/3's world. Please pray that the Lord will provide. There are probably other things that are about to run out that I don't even know about. So pray for those too (gas for our lamp at night, kerosene for lanterns, etc...).
Nick and I are bracing ourselves to go without food for a time; pray for unity for all of us, and for the Lord to surprise us all.

Adventure Day!

Here's the pics from the trip!
1. The kids who came on the trip, from l to r: Simon (9th grade), Agape (8th grade, also John's oldest child), Ann (8th grade), Joseph (5th grade), and Jeffrey (7th grade, the one who ran away from school a few weeks ago).
2. Here's a pic of the water hyacinth covered river, with Kilimambogo in the bakground. The distubed section of green in the foreground is where the hippos have been eating it.
3. One view of 14 Falls
4. Check out the tree growing out of that rock- sweet roots!
5. All of us, me in the foreground, and about 60% of the falls in the background.

So...
I'm planning/hoping/praying to hike up Mt. Kenya in about four weeks. It's a 17,000 ft. mtn (although I won't be topping out because the last few hundred feet are technical rock climbing and I can't do that anymore) so I figured that it would be wise for me to do some training/see where my knee is at before I attempt such a venture.
So, with that in mind, yesterday I led a trip of myself, teacher Nancy, and five of the best academically performing kids from AMCC to Kilimambogo, the highest mountain around. I've been looking at it since I got here, and had spoken with many people about wanting to walk to the top. It actually doesn't look that big, but since it's in the middle of a plain it sticks up pretty well. I thought that by myself it would be about a half-day of hiking, but since I had Nancy and the kids I planned for the trip to take the whole day.
Boy did it.
Yesterday was definitely an adventure, and a reminder that I'm actually not as adventurous as I had thought. Things started out normally (we left late and took too long in town gathering supplies), but as we came upon the hill there were a number of surprises in store for us:
1. The matatu does NOT drop us right at the gate to the park.
- So all seven of us got on 3 motorcycles and paid a dollar each to get to the gate to the park.
2. It's a Kenyan National Park. Meaning that it is not so expensive for Nancy and the kids to get in (the kids were about 60 cents each) but is for me ($20) b/c I'm not a Kenyan citizen or offical resident.
3. In order to be in the park, Kenyan or not, I have to have a Kenyan Wildlife Service Guard with me the whole time, which costs $20 for the first 6 hours, and $40 if I go over that.
- All of this meant that I didn't have enough money for us to get into the park. This was pretty deflating for me, because I was wanting to hike, but mostly because we had told the kids that this trip was a reward for doing well on their recent end-of-term exams. I had taken them on this 2-hour long trip to get to the gates and get turned away. Bummer.
So, we called the motorcycle-taxis to come back, and paid them again to take us back to where they had picked us up in the first place.

4. The fourth thing I found out was good news: Fourteen Falls is very close to Kilimambogo!
So close, in fact, that we decided God was telling us to go there instead of Kilimambogo! So we took a short matatu ride, got out, and enjoyed the day at Fourteen Falls (see pictures). We got to see a river covered 100% in water hyacinth, Hippos feeding (though really we just saw like the mouth of one for about three seconds), a 140 yd-wide, 25 ft. tall waterfall, a tree growing out of a rock, and more mzungus than I've seen in this area (4 total). We had a nice day, ate peanut butter and honey sandwiches and fruit for lunch, and had a really fun time playing on the rocks in the river.
We also noticed that Kilimambogo (about 4 miles away) was rained on but we stayed pretty dry, so that was cool to see that if we had gone there we would have gotten soaked but were dept dry at the waterfall (ironically).
Other things that I found out about Kilimambogo also made it apparent that it was good we didn't go:
- It's a 1800 ft. ascent from the bottom to the top
- It's 6.4 miles from the gate to the top, making it almost 13 round trip.
- It's completely forrested except for a small area at the top. I had thought it was completely bald (that's what I get from judging the mtn. from 30 miles away).

So it turns out that we wouldn't have been able to do it like I wanted to anyway (I had thought it would be like 5 miles max). In the end, the kids had a good time, as did Nancy, and we were all safe so it was a succesful day.
Except that this whole trip originated as an opportunity for me to test my hiking ability, and that didn't happen at all. Therefore, I'm thinking of going back to Kilimambogo this Thursday and trying to get to the top and back in under 6 hours (so I don't have to pay an extra $20). I haven't done much touristy stuff since I've been here, and I'm spending my own money, and it's my day off, so I'm feeling good about it. Feel free to pray for me! It'll be just me and the guard, and will be the longest hike I've done since my knee got jacked.

Nothing clever to put here.

Note: Take a virtual tour of AMCC on Nick's blog! www.nicknkenya.blogspot.com

Awwwwwwww yeah! Yo Yo Yo! This is Mark Dawson, releasing a deep lunged holler from deep in the Kenyan hill country! I'm sending out a call to all the friends and the lonely, the posers and true, and all who are drawn to mammon as the end of our problems- be free!
Okay, that was pretty ridiculous. :-) It's just that listening to Switchfoot puts me in this awesome and grand mood. Since I hear music of my choice for about an hour each week it makes it pretty special. So please excuse my excitement, but this is my blog, so I get to do that...
This week I finally felt like not much craziness of note happened! It could also just be that I'm getting used to the constant stream of craziness. Rent for us was due last Sunday and we haven't paid a shilling of it. John said that our landlord consented to give us 5 days to get stuff together, but we won't be able to call a meeting with the Board until later than that because of the Easter holiday. Nick and I are learning how to be patient and in many ways, feel very right about this situation. We're here to go through this tension with them, not bail them out every time because us bailing them out is not a long-term solution.
Today was a pretty encouraging time for Nick and I about our approach here. We're not here to give lots of money, and we're both refreshed and energized to pursue our real tasks here wholeheartedly (form relationship with John and Nancy, help with day to day tasks). We've been reminded recently by some wise friends to let go of the tension to "do something" or make sure that we see results for what we're doing here. God has called us to be here to speak love with our hands and our presence, whether anything changes or not. Nick and I feel renewed in our call being here, and are just stoked that the Lord will do as He wills.
Lately I've been really impressed (or scared) by the story of the beginning of Saul's reign over Israel. Basically, Samuel tells Saul to organize sacrifices to God and then wait for Samuel to come before he does anything. Saul waits the number of days that Samuel told him to, and when Samuel doesn't show up all of the Israelites begin leaving him. So he does what seems to make sense, he offers sacrifices to God as the Philistines loom nearby in large number. Bad move. Two quotes stick out to me from this and are very pertinent to me here,
"Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, of obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams."- 1 Sam. 15:22
"Saul said to Samuel, 'I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice." - 1 Sam 15:24
I'm hoping that's kind of self-explanatory, cause this isn't a sermon blog. But those ideas have been really big for me lately. And honestly, they're pretty freeing.
In other news, we're stoked because there will be a fund-raiser hosted here, at AMCC, by AMCC, in just over two weeks (April 26th!). We got some snazzy lookin cards printed up and have been stoked by cool happenings with them.
1. The print shop made a mistake and printed way too many of the cards. Since it was their mistake though, they just gave us all of the extras for free.
2. When we went to Bidco Oil's company headquarters they asked for 50 cards, which is 20 more than we were planning on giving them!
3. We're already given out over 120 cards! And by we, I mean John and Nancy. We've got a schedule now, and they have been on "office" duty so far this week. It's part of being in the office to do stuff like that, and they've done wonderfully.
In a related-yet-unrelated note, while John was visiting some of the guardians of kids at AMCC yesterday to hand out cards he was in a region where they grow pineapples... and found them selling for less than a quarter each! He picked up 11 of them for $2.50! CRAZY.
John also wrote an official letter to the District Officer yesterday requesting the gov't to give us some food (like 1,500 lbs of it) and seems pretty hopeful that we might actually get something out of it! I took it to the Chief this morning, who stamped it, and Nick will deliver it to the D.O. tomorrow morning. I don't know why we haven't done this at all in the last two years, but I'm pretty glad that we're pursuing it now! We're praying for this and want you to also.
MY GIRLFRIEND IS COMING TO VISIT ME IN THREE WEEKS!!! This has actually been an incredible thing, because I'm pretty nuts about her but I haven't been going crazy missing her since we've been separated (again). I can't give a nonsupernatural answer about the reason for that, but my culture makes it difficult and cliche to explicitly say Why I think that is (that God helps us in some subjective and unquantifiable way). She and I are both pretty involved in our different locations (Zambia and Kenya, respectively) and yet aren't feeling like something is just being lost in our relationship either. It's one of the first times in my life that I've been so confident that God wants me to do something that I'd just rather not. Yet I'm just so okay with it because I know that even if we were together right now it wouldn't be right... so it makes me even more excited for her to come visit for a short time because I do sense that God thinks it's good and it's a blending of two of my greatest affections in life. Hopefully she's not blushing like mad at me posting this on the internet (hey Karen!).
Maureen (14 yrs old) got a tetanus shot yesterday and some antibiotics to take because... she might have tetanus! I don't know the details, but my guess would be that few of the kids here have a tetanus shot. So, when one of them gets a half-inch cut on the metal trunk that they keep stuff in, and a week later their ankle and foot swell up like they've been injected with petroluem jelly, we have her walk to the closest clinic (about 2 km away, up and down 300 ft. hills) and get her some medical attention. Thankfully, medical care in Kenya is MUCH cheaper than in the states. Maureen's visit plus the shot, dressing her wound, and the meds cost $3.10. I took Mary (7 yrs) to the gov't run hospital today and the whole visit cost $1.25. She has "p-cells", which are some bacteria that I don't know but makes the skin in her face get lighter in splotches. It's such a strange thing for Nick and I to do. We go to the clinic, looking "smart" because it's culturally appro-pro, and try to act like we know what's going on. Even though everybody in these places speaks English we can't understand their accents very well, and we normally end up having someone half our age translate for us. Thank the Lord that the kids at AMCC know English really well. The girl who translated for me today, Sarah (13 yrs) wants to teach English at the University level. And I think that's cool, because she's an orphan and doesn't have many resources, but I believe her when she says that she wants to be a professor. She could be, if she's able to stay in school. Well, she needs to study a little harder too, ;-)
The rains came back on Monday-woohoo! It was the biggest rain so far and filled up our water-catch tank, which had been emptied in order to install a faucet at the bottom so that the kids don't break it by having to climb on top to get water out of it. I found out on Sunday that it's normal for the rain in this season to come for a few days, then be dry for a few days, then rain again. I'm glad! I was also glad because the guy who told me was from...
Bidco oil! That's right, Bidco stopped by again last Sunday! They AGAIN brought food with them (not as much as last time, but still a whole lot- 5 cabbages, 20 lbs of potatoes, the 4 biggest loaves of bread I've ever seen, sugar, 20 onions, 20 tomatoes, and a few other things including "Lucozade"- Kenya's version of Gatorade) and this time they also did two fantastic presentations for us: one on HIV/AIDS, and another on TB (Tuberculosis). Honestly, the guy who did them (James) was fantastic. I was amazed he was just a volunteer with this "Educate the Public" program that Bidco has going on, because he was just awesome. It was really good to hear good stats and info on both subjects (75% of HIV infections in Kenya happen from unprotected sex, TB is an epidemic in Kenya, just to give you a little taste). After they left John told me that one of them said "If you pray then we'll come on Good Friday and be able to give some more stuff". This statement is Kenyan and makes me laugh/offended. But I'm praying anyway, and will welcome Bidco no matter when they visit us next.
Speaking of Good Friday, I'd like to say something about Jesus' death here on my blog. I don't know what I could say right now that would be honest and literarily stimulating (i.e. I could list things about his death in a Creed-style format, but no one wants to read that, but doing my prose about Jesus' sacrificial death is woefully cliche). I am thankful that Jesus died. I know that although I, as a finite being, will never be able to fully appreciate His love for me, it is possible for me to appreciate it more than I did in the past. And I know that that my life gets richer the more that I believe Him when He said that He loved me and that He forgives me. As my life continues I probably won't be able to articulate anything that profound or different from what those who have preceded me in Faith have said, and I think that's actually expected. This truth of love is deep, but simple, and I think that God intended it to be like that. Being a simple thing, it can be worded in an easily cognizant form and embraced by persons of all intelligence and social classes. Being a deep thing, it is has an ineffability which requires that each person to individually discover it in order to understand it. So Good Friday to all of you, may you grow in your appropriation of His ineffable grace.

Support update

Hey all, just wanted to give my latest support update: $1,123 still needed. Give only if you feel that God wants you to. :-)

It's RAINY SEASON HERE FINALLY!!!
It only came a month late (meaning that if it ends at the normal time then we've lost a third of rainy season!). This was the first day of rainy season, and it was awsome. It rains here now pretty much every night, is cloudy in the morning, and then gets partly cloudy by the afternoon. Stark contrast to the clear skies that happened pretty much right up until the day the rains came. The rain is reeeeally good for the community here and needed for people to do the farming that supplies a lot of their food. We're hoping maybe people will be able to have some to share with us!
BY the way, this is the courtyard at AMCC. The girls' bedrooms are on the left, the boy's on the right. It's a real cozy place, and I like it quite a bit. :-)

Second picture is of the outside of the kitchen. Do you see all of the smoke coming out from the chimney? Me neither! This is a problem! Maybe 5% of the smoke created when we cook goes out of the chimney (even though it is located directly above the fire). The rest flows sideways (though there's no wind!) and has enveloped the walls in that room with soot. A whole year of it, 3 times a day. It's nasty, coughy, sooty stuff and we really want Nancy and the kids to stop having to breathe it all the time! Any suggestions that cost little money (and a little money to buy it!)?

Third picure is Reverend Mark. Not really much of a story to this. I get asked to 'have a word' a lot more here than I did in the US, and it's just funny to me. I normally either find a passage, read it, and then comment loosely on it, or talk about how nothing will satisfy us except for healthy relationship with Jesus (which I believe is true but sounds suuuuuuuper lame posed as a one-liner on my blog). I have to dress up here a lot more, maybe that's the other thing about this post.

Now on to more news that has no related picture!
This week we developed a rotating schedule of daily responsibilies for John, Nancy, Nick, and myself. Nick and I were pretty stoked about it, and upon reflection so glad that we waited a month before to created one because it helped us have a better grasp on what is really needed and healthy for this place. Nick and I alternate being "errand boy". Meaning that we go places that someone is needed, but not for a culurally specific task. Ex: I walk 50 to the closest source of electricity for our cell phones to get charged.
Yesterday I had my best errand adventure yet: school parent meeting!! I was told it would start at 9, I showed up at 9:10, then left for an hour because I was the only one there, then returned and waited in the shade until it started at 11. The meeting was conducted in Kikuyu (the mothertongue here, not Swahili, the national language of Kenya which Nick and I are learning), and I sat through 5 hours of it.
BUT, the middle 2 hours were an end-of-the-term ceremony, where they announced the placement of every single student in the school and had them all get in order according to their placement in their class! The fun part of this was that AMCC students pretty much kicked butt, AND, since I was the rep for AMCC, I got to go up whenever it was time for a parent to accept an prize, or pin an award to a kid's shirt. Pretty much the closest I've ever felt to being a parent, and honestly, I was pretty dang proud of our kids here at AMCC! We have the 1st ranked kid in 5th grade, 3rd in 2nd and 7th, and 2nd ranked kid in 8th grade. And we got prizes for these kids (a thermos to keep chai warm, a washing basin, and two juice pitchers). Everyone laughed when I would go up to accept these awards, because it was obvious that I was not the parent of any of these children. I'd love to go to another, because our kids are doing well and it is pretty encouraging to get some recognition for it!
The bummer of it was that I didn't know that the meeting would last more than 30 minutes, and I didn't know it would be outside, so my nose got FRIED. It's the worst sun-burn I've had here yet and will take a while to go away. Though hopefully it will all be gone in a month because my girlfriend is coming to visit!! Woohoo! Lord willing, Karen will arrive in Kenya on April 30th and leave May 7th. We're going to try to ride some rhinos and other stuff. In reality, she'll chill at AMCC and then, hopefully, we'll hike up Mt. Kenya!!! (google it, that thing is awesome)
We'll see. I'm stoked about this, though not being able to be physically affectionate with her in public will be difficult (word on the street is that we could get arrested for such indecent acts!).
Welp, I'm out for now! Thanks for everyone who reads this and contacts me somehow! Your energy is like multiplied a hundred times by the time it gets to me and it means a heap. Adios.

Hey! More comments on my sweet pics! The first one here is from my trip to visit John's place. This is mostly John's family in front of the shanty that his wife Nancy (pictured) sells stuff from. She makes covers for couches and tabletops. Anybody want one?! She does the embroidery and cutting herself in this "shop" and sells them here as well. With the money she gets from this she pays rent on her place, and buys food for herself and their 4 kids- which also enables John to work at AMCC for no pay.
The biggest bummer is that they live about 80 miles away from John, and since transport costs is equivalent to a week's worth of day-labor around here, he doesn't see her very often (i.e. it's happened once in the 6 weeks Nick and I have been here). Please pray that they would be able to be together... and that John won't leave AMCC. ;-)
The second picture is all of the food that Bidco oil donated to AMCC last Sunday. WE'RE SO HAPPY ABOUT IT!!! Praise God for this, as it is an answer to many prayers (provision, variation in food, health food, kenyans to support amcc).

Hey! Here are a few pics finally on my blog! The first is of John's entire family (and me)! Nick and I went on a lovely 2 hour journey to visit JOhn's wife and children two weeks ago. They live close to Mt. Kenya (well, about 40 miles away, but that thing is so huge it feels close) and the trip in general was really enjoyable! We ate wonderful food prepared by John's wife, Nancy, and enjoyed great conversation with friends as well. I "looked smart" for the occassion, as it is actually how I should look for almost everything I do around here. Right now it's my day off, so I'm in a t-shirt and shorts. Woohoo.

Second picture is me balancing firewood on my head. It stayed on for about two seconds. WE cook all of our meals over an open fire here, so we have to pay about $40 a month for firewood. It's a lot of wood, and all of the kids walk about a quarter of a mile with it on their backs to bring it back to AMCC once a month. That's on the day's when they're not fetching water from the well across the courtyard...

The last picture is when Bidco oil company (as in, cooking oil) came to visit us last Sunday. It was AWESOME! The kids just started running around and yelling and laughing and clapping and it was just one of the coolest things I've experienced here. I also got pretty stoked about it, because God answered our prayers for other sources of input for AMCC, especially for ones to come from Kenya! They brought foods which Nick and I have never eaten at AMCC, and honestly I got crazy happy also. It was so much fun to see God providing this stuff, and for it to be coming from Kenyans was so cool to see- something which others in the community think will never happen since Nick and I are here (i.e. white people= money, so no one will help AMCC out). We're praying for that stereotype to chance and are stoked to see steps toward it!
Also, since I'm on the picture that has people all happy, let me say that AMCC is now very close to completing the 2 year process of becoming a gov't recognized children's center! The public health officer came last week and said it was "very clean", which apparently is pretty rare. We're stoked about this approval and are looking forward to the legal benefits that this status will grant AMCC. Due to fantastic Kenyan bureacracy, it might take a year for this to happen, but I'm hoping it'll only be a few months. Literally, all we need to to file the correct paper work. Oh waiting!