We are home for the holidays!  After our recent miscarriage and trip to the hospital, Cammy’s and my parents got together and decided to fly us back to California for Christmas.  I will be here until December 31, but Cammy and the boys are staying through most of January.

I wanted to be careful not to post anything here so I could surprise a few people.  I had a great time at SCEA (my old job) on Tuesday.  Some of them were pretty surprised to see me.  I got to eat a carne asada burrito off the lunch truck and enjoy a few (4 maybe) Dr. Peppers with the guys.

We had the pleasure of sharing with our church, Calvary Chapel of El Cajon, on Wednesday night. It was a day that I had looked forward to for a long time.  From the beginning of God calling us to work in Africa, I knew that a big part of our ministry was going to remain here.  God could have called anyone, from anywhere, to do what we are doing.  But He chose us, and I know there is purpose in that.  So it was a real pleasure and joy to go back to our church family and share what God has been doing, and that He has allowed us to be a part of what He is doing.

As some of you have noted from pictures and now seeing me in person, I have lost some weight living in Kenya.  Some of it is the diet, you eat less when it is not as appealing.  Some of it is the reoccuring stomach bugs that I seem to pick up often.  I have already had 2 double doubles at In-N-Out and 2 carne asada burritos.  It should work out well that I came to California in good shape, and I’ll go back to Kenya looking “healthy” as they say.

November seems to be a wedding month in Nairobi.  I am not sure why.  It is spring, but that means it rains a bit.

Saturday we went to the wedding of Eventino, the worship leader my mother wrote about.  The wedding was in the church in Kawangware, and the chickens were there as well, the rooster even made a ruckus every time the “pre-wedding singers” had any sort of lull.

We were told the wedding was at 11AM and I was a bit upset we were about 15 minutes late.  It was fine, but it was a good thing we did not arrive much later because then seating would have been an issue.  They always want to give good seating to the wazungu (white people).  We found the back seats of the “guests of honor” section.  Then we waited, for about 2 hours.  Petr and I found some entertainment in watching two circles of sunlight pass over his body from two nail holes in the mabati (corrugated iron sheets) roof.  They move a long way in 2 hours, 30 degrees.

When the wedding party did arrive, it got quite interesting.  When it was time for the bride to come in, the ladies in the wedding party came in very slow, maybe that was normal, but what followed clearly was not on the program.  There seemed to be some hold up at the door, and then the Emcee asked a bunch of the pastors to go out the door to help.  I had a bit of trouble following what was going on, since it was all in Swahili.

We later found out that the parents of the bride refused to allow her to enter the church until they received more money.  This was something of a breach of etiquette because the man had already agreed on a price with the parents months before.  Apparently they had second thoughts.

After the wedding, Pastor Benson relayed to us what had happened, and how he went out there to resolve the issue.  He was lamenting the cultural hurdles so many people have to go through to stay within God’s will in Nairobi.  Many people, especially in the slums, never get married because they cannot afford to pay the parents.  Because there are not too many arranged marriages in the city, the parents of the girl really have the guy in a jam.  He loves her, he would be willing to sacrifice the world for her, and the parents know it.  In the end, they usually just live together.

It got me to thinking about it.  I had had a conversation earlier that day with Ken, my kinyozi (barber), who was telling me of a South Sudanese man he had just had in his chair.  He is 56, and he just bought his sixth wife, for 100 cows.  That is a huge price, in Nairobi equivalent to almost $14,000 (where a daily wage is $5.33).  I wonder how he felt toward his wife, and if she upset him, does he think, “You know, I paid 100 cows for you…”

I began to think of what a mess the whole bride price was.  But then I realized, Christ paid the highest price for His bride.  And, we the church, ought to realize the great price that was paid for us in love, and respond in love back to Him.

What God created, man’s selfishness has corrupted.

I just finished up my Basic Computing class.  The guys did really well.  Everyone passed (except for one test which was answered in Somali and I could not effectively grade it… long story).

Attached is a PDF of the test.  Feel free to mail me your answers.  Please note, however, they were not allowed any notes or other helps on the test.  One guy even got a 91%.  I am really proud of them.

Basic Computing Final

There are times in life when death seems to be prevalent.  Since coming to Africa we have heard about many people who have lost their lives just in the last year. The first was the death of a lady’s husband who attends our church, shot by a thief (which happened during our second month here while living with Pastor Stephen).  Then the lady who sells us vegetables lost her son-in-law, killed in a car crash.  Soon after, Paul’s friend, Ken (who cuts his hair),lost his brother. Not that long ago, our neighbor’s daughter, Nina, passed away after being hospitalized for being sick – she was only 11 years old. It was a shock to us all. Recently, our gardener’s mother died…and two days later an AIM AIR plane went down…

Now our hearts are mourning the loss of two dear men who have dedicated their lives to serving the Lord.  Frank Toews and Ryan Williams, both missionaries with AIM AIR, went home to be with the Lord as a result of the plane crash.  Paul worked with them every day and I was in a Bible study with the wives.  It is hard to imagine that their time on earth is over…each father leaves behind four young children. Words are inadequate to sum up emotions we are going through – we feel for the ones left behind.  Frank and Ryan’s death was a tragedy in every sense of the word. It is painful to see the grieving of those close to them, especially their children.  It breaks the heart.  Frank and Ryan’s lives glorified God…and now we witness glory in death – God is being glorified in all of this.  We see it in the lives of those who knew these two precious men, and even in the lives of those who didn’t personally know them.  People from all over the world have been joined together in prayer for the families.  There has been constant support as people have stepped up, allowing God to use them as His hands to minister to various needs of the families – from meals to babysitting, running errands to sitting with the wives.  From the beginning there was a commitment that the wives would not been left alone, including scheduling another lady to stay with them over night.  The missionary family is tired but God has given the strength to push on and help – it has been a beautiful expression of God’s love.  My thoughts through out this time are toward a Compassionate, loving God who is more than able…and in complete control of all things.  In the midst of sorrow, we all can rejoice because Frank and Ryan are ALIVE in Christ Jesus, living in the everlasting presence of the ALMIGHTY GOD.

Our boys are processing this tragedy since they know the children who “lost their daddy”.  Shortly after hearing the news that Frank was dead (Ryan died a week later, suffering fatal burns), Petr came into the kitchen and said, “Mom, I am praying that Jesus will raise Frank from the dead – He did it for His best friend, and Jesus can do anything!” (Petr was referring to the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead) Oh, the faith of a young child!!!  Petr had a smile on his face that showed he believed Jesus could do it!  I explained God already answered his prayer as Frank has been raised from the dead because the Word of God says, “…whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”  Praise God!!!

There is now a page on AIM AIR’s website regarding the accident.  It will have all the updates we put together.  Your prayers, as always, are very appreciated.

We serve a loving God, but sometimes the expression of that love is hard to understand.

We at AIM are having a pretty difficult time right now.

The Basic Computing class has started and I have 7 student. It should be fun, some seem very motivated.

Exciting news today.  I just received 4 laptops for my computer school.  Thanks to a generous donor (Thank YOU) and our tax return, I was able to purchase 4 laptops for the Firm Foundation School of IT.  We will be starting up a “Basic Computing” course in a couple of weeks and I think it is going to be very well attended.

I just posted that I haven’t been writing much, and part of that reason is that I have been programming. I find that when I am in the middle of a programming multi-week, or longer, project it uses up a lot of my brain, even when I am not actively working on it. I have 3 medium sized database projects going on to help how things work at AIM-IS. I am hopeful I will get some help soon.

I finished up the first class at the Firm Foundation School of IT.  It was a very tough class and we covered a lot of materiel in just 10 weeks.  I had two students who passed, one of them with a very high score on the exam.  He got over 80% right, but like most great students he was not overly excited and had wished he had done better.  I was very impressed.

If you are interested in IT, and curious, here is the exam.  If you want to take it, I will happily grade it and let you know how you did compared to the class.