So appearantly all of my blogs are going to be pretty long
since I don’t know when I’ll have the chance to post one again and there’s a
lot of ground to cover, so I apologize.
Where to begin? We’ve only been here in
Lodwar (northwest
Kenya) a week but it feels like so much longer. Lodwar area is straight
up middle of nowhere, desert! We arrived late Sunday evening
from the craziest and longest bus ride I’ve ever experienced and have
been
trying to adjust to various things this week such as 100+ degree heat,
food
we’re not used to, bucket showers, and using a squatty potty filled
with
cockroaches. The most insane thing is that none of it is really phasing
me. God has definitely been preparing me for this because if I were in
this same place four months ago, or even during month one, I don’t know
if I
could have done it. Seeing how simply everyone lives causes you to
appreciate
even the little things we are given here because we know they probably
come
with great sacrifice. We are staying with a missionary family who has 5
children, along with 3 orphans they’ve taken in, as well as 3 of their
nieces
and nephews. Throw in a grandma, an aunt, and various other relatives
and
you’ve got a pretty full household (not to mention us, their 12
visitors!) It has been really fun experiencing their
culture and how they do life just by playing with their children or
helping the
women with laundry or cooking.
Lodwar is home to the Turkana tribes people and they are one
of the main focuses of our ministry this month. On Monday we visited the
children’s home that missionary John helped start and also got to visit his
offices and hear about the various ministries and churches he works with here.
On Tuesday we were taken out way past all of the villages to the middle of the
desert and were told we were going to do “door-to-door evangelism”. When we
arrived at our location we could see one little family household (which
consists of two or three huts and a pen for goats, chickens, etc.) and not much
else in sight. We ended up walking all over the desert to various family
households, sharing the gospel (through a translator) with those who haven’t
heard and praying with and encouraging those who are already saved. Most people
say they are saved out here and sometimes attend the closest church (which is a
2 hour walk for some) but they don’t have much knowledge of the Word or
anything else. They are so hungry and eager to hear anything we read them out
of our Bibles and love to be prayed for. The most common prayer is for sickness
and everyone we visited asked us for “dowa” (medicine) because there have been
huge outbreaks of malaria and many other diseases. Mostly all of the children we
met were ill as well as their mothers who were trying to care for them with the
little food they have to give them. For the Turkana people the women do all the
work except for watching the goats and other livestock, which is done by the
men so they are gone all day. The children are so weak and we could see the
sickness just looking at most of them. They also all asked that we pray for
rain. They received 2 days of rain in November (which brought most of the
sickness since they were not used to the sudden change in weather) but aside
from that, they haven’t had rain in 2 years. These people are crying out for
physical water as well as Living Water and we are excited to bring them at
least half of that request. After the villages we went back to the pastor’s house
who leads the churches out there and found out he had to lead a funeral all of
a sudden. The Africans bury their dead usually on the same day that they pass
because of the heat and many other reasons so our plans changed and we ended up
going to a funeral. It was not extremely different from what we are used to but
it was interesting to see the cultural additions they have. After the funeral
we briefly visited an IDP (Internally Displaced People) Camp. These were set up
after all of the violence following the election here in which many were forced
out of their land and sent to refugee type camps. Now they receive (very
little) aid and some types of counseling at these camps and each family lives
in a tiny little tent. As soon as we entered the camp every single child ran to
us and surrounded us, holding our hands (4 or 5 kids per hand) and pulling on
us. They were so excited we were there and unfortunately we were only able to
walk through and tour it since it was about to close the gates but hopefully
we’ll be able to go back another day. There was so much hopelessness and
desperation in all of the adults eyes that I saw and I would love to be able to
go back and encourage them and spend more time with them.
On Wednesday we went back to the same desert location to
hold a church service for women and children of the area. Many walked all
morning to get to the service on time. We got to experience African worship and
teach them some of our favorite songs. Their worship definitely puts us to
shame! A few of our team gave a short message while a few of us took all the
children out where we taught them some games and songs (all through a
translator which makes it pretty hilarious) and learned some of theirs as
well. On Thursday we went to a different
community way out in the desert to do another service for women and children
but first walked around to different households and people outside to share the
gospel and pray with believers. The same requests were made for sickness and
rain and it was almost overwhelming how many sick children we met. My heart is
definitely broken for these little ones and I ask that you would join in
praying for a healing of this land, both physically and spiritually. Yesterday
(Friday) we climbed a mountain for a morning of prayer, which they do every
Friday, some people all day long. The rest of the afternoon was spent back at
the Children’s Home where we got to love on the kids and get to know them more.
Today (Saturday) is our day of rest and oh how excited we are to have it!
Thanks so much for all of your love and prayers! I’ve been
praying for all of you as well! I believe Ian will be posting some videos so check those out too!
Quipro Yesu! (Praise Jesus!)
