A Stretch
5-4-16
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Luo land. The land where when you see
a white person you look at them and feel you have something in common! I spent
most of my life in Montezuma, Ga. And we had many African American’s around us
and then I moved to a part of the country where there were very few and now we
mazungus are outnumbered majorly! Merle Beachy shared with me that I will
likely truly feel like a alien and then his next statement challenged me. He
said “we should feel just as much as aliens in the State’s as we do here” I
understood what he meant – it is so easy to become a part of the world system
that we forget who we are and what we have been called to.
We felt God’s call on our lives to come to Kenya
and without that call we would not have wanted to embark on this journey. God
has been good to us in many ways and we are grateful for that. We have a good
team to work with and we have felt welcomed by our fellow missionaries and
native church people that we will worship with. We have been thick in language
class and it has been a stretch. We feel that we have learned much more than we
expected we could learn and that is God at work. The technical aspects of our
own language has not been a gift of mine and to learn another tongue, various
tenses, various meanings to the same word has been challenging. On Monday we
were taught Luo time. Friends, turn your clock upside down and you have it! Oh,
another thing you will also need to know how to say these numbers and remember
them. I will admit that Monday at the end of class I felt I had almost had more
than I could handle. The Luo time is the same as Bible time. The day starts at
(7:00am) and it is 1:00. So, the 3rd hour is nine in the morning,
the 9th hour is at three in the afternoon and so on.
Today the language teacher wanted to teach the ladies
to cook and she sent us men to go buy chapte’s and beans from a roadside vendor
(duka) and she wanted us to talk the Luo language. We found what we were
looking for but they were needing to make more chapte’s. We were able to watch
them make the chapte’s there. Gerold and the 3 boys then took me across the
street to see other vendors. I spied a pair of nice flip flops that Tiffany
could wear and I ask the lady how much. She said 150 shillings. ($1.50) I have
heard that people bargain and so I tried it. Yes, the price was discounted to
130 shillings and Tiffany is all into her flip flops. She is such a girl,
loves to wear peoples shoes etc.! Gerold’s talk like they walk down along the
street on ring road with all the vendors there and speak to the people etc. You
know, Gerold’s make such good missionaries and I am still freaked out by this
part of town to think of walking through it. I told Gerold that sometime I
would like to go along. The time came this evening. Gerold hollered in the gate
and said he and Sylvia are going on a walk and do I want to go along. Sure! I
will go, Glenda wanted to but felt she should make supper. Tiffany wanted to go
in the stroller and the 4 of us go on a walk. (you former missionaries may
smile or laugh or pray as I relate our walk) We get to ring road and head down
the side walk with various foods there to entice our appetites, vegetables,
fruits, grilled chicken, raw fish, cooked fish etc. and scores of people.
(smells haunted me even after I was homeL)
As we walked can you guess who people looked at? Tiffany! A few children and
adults wanted to touch her and she was just taking the sights and sounds in.
Chickens, baby chicks, cows, calves, bike’s motorcycles, tok tok’s and on and
on. We come to a stand with fish and Gerold said, “That is some real fish
there.” I said, “Let’s Go!” The sight, and the smell made me want to continue
on. We come to a ‘fund raiser’ that was across the street with loud music and
here comes this guy with a wireless mic pleading his cause to Gerold. I
continued around him and Gerold managed to get loose. On the way back Silvia
stopped at a booth and Gerold waited with her and Tiffany and I continued on.
As we approached the ‘fund raising’ area I tried to not look over there to
avoid the guy with the mic. I thought I got past without him coming over to me
and all of a sudden here he is, bumping my arm, trying to get me to put
something in. I told him no thank-you and he asked why you say thank-you you
did not put anything in! I told him No and proceeded on my way. (he
approached Gerold as he returned). After that a man befriended me and towards
the end he needed to ask for a little money. We made it back into the compound
safe and sound.
We saw scores of people on our short walk. Each one
had a soul. The children with their smiles, the friendly mamma’s, the men with
dark sad expressions, the man that tried to scare Tiffany twice, the beggars,
the many in school uniforms, The Luo’s, the Mosi tribe members….. they all have
a soul. How honest should I be to you? I still face fears here in Kenya. We are
in a culture where mob vengeance is a possibility and I admit that our short
walk took me out of my comfort zone tonight and I desire that those fears
leave. I understand we have our part to do with being careful but our God does
not give us the spirit of fear. Friends, I welcome you to join me in prayer
that these fears would be conquered and that Christ would be glorified in my
life and the life of my family.
I also will take this opportunity to thank each of
you for the part that you have in our lives. Thank-you for your friendship,
prayers, and many acts of kindness we have been shown.
God Bless each one!
JoeAllen for the Yoder crew
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