Our Kenyan Journey Continues

                Dear Friends,  

            Greetings to you on this LORD’s day. You are important to us and we hope you are blessed today.

 

I am learning that greetings are important in the Luo culture. In America, we mostly bypass much pleasantries at the beginning and ending of our conversations. We aim to quickly accomplish our goals. Time is very important in both cultures. In America, we aim to accomplish much in a short time. In Luo culture, a very important use of time is building relationships – asking the right questions and ALWAYS acknowledging someone’s presence, no matter how late you are for church or other time scheduled events. We have been reminded of the importance of relating well with Kenyan people by Linford and Kay Bontrager, former CBF missionaries who are back to help for a little while. (They plan to leave this week, and we are so sad to see them go. Their wisdom and wonderful example has been a HUGE benefit to JoeAllen and me!)

 

            My sister Clara wrote a well-worded epistle of our past week on their blog: luolandchronicles.blogspot.com. I will not repeat everything she wrote.

 

            We are happy to be finished with Language classes in the mornings! It will be marvelous to use our mornings for other important projects again. We now have the responsibility to continue learning Luo on our own, and I hope we will accomplish!

 

            Monday, June 6, 2016…

 

            I’m back again. Weariness set in, and I gave up trying to write last evening after Tiffany was in bed. She has been a bit sick again. She was hit hard with a stomach virus the night several weeks ago when there was an attempted break in here in our compound at Dean and Barbara Jean’s house. She was feeling better within twenty-four hours. PTL! Since then she has been battling a cough and runny nose off and on. When she coughs, she says, “Hi, Russell!” or “Good Morning, Russell!” in memory of Russell Lewis’s famous cough. (She obviously hasn’t forgotten Redbud yet.)

 

We had a few interrupted nights after the attempted break-in at Deans, mostly because we naturally were sleeping with one ear open for unwelcome guests, and it was unnerving to have an ironing board crash to floor outside our back door in the early morning darkness one night, and our motion sensor alarm going off several other nights, due to cats and a mongoose, etc. Our motion sensors have been desensitized since then, and we are sleeping much better.

 

Thursday, June 9, 2016

 

I will try again. Maybe today, this e-mail will be sent. It is a challenge for me to write e-mails when Tiffany is awake. She loves technology too much and we try to limit her time spent with it, and it causes a problem when Mom is spending time with it.

 

Monday was a rough and evil day in Kisumu, but Psalm 61 and 62 became very precious that day. Psalm 61:3 says, “For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.” The mission compound that God has given us is our safe haven from the howling war going on just outside. As I listened to the gun shots, tear gas booming, and the yelling going on outside the hedge, with my whole body rebelling against the smell of smoke of burning tires, etc.,  I was amazed how peaceful I felt and everyone else in the compound seemed calm too. It was a blessing to not be alone that day. These evil days of violence occur on Mondays, and as of this week they have started demonstrating on Thursdays too. Today is peaceful enough to be out of the compound some, but they are warning us that next Thursday could be bad again. How long will this go on? The point of conflict is the election next year in August. We are hoping our baby arrives well and safely on a peaceful day in Kisumu, but God knows what is best for us. The safest place to be is in the center of God’s will. For pictures of the destruction we see when we go outside the compound, google Kisumu, Kenya News. I also may forward some pictures my sister Clara sent to their e-mail group. We will probably be adding our own pictures to our blog: joeskenyanjourney.blogspot.com.  

 

This past Sunday was a rather difficult day for us. Clara, Bradlyn, Tiffany, and I did not get home from church until nearly 3:00 PM, and Joe and Wayne did not get home until nearly 4:00 PM. No, there was no lunch at church either! We had a members meeting that took a lot of time, and then a much needed lady in the church called a meeting with Bishop and Pastor because she was disgruntled with two sisters in the church. Another man wanted Bishop and Pastor to come to his home to pray for his sick wife, but it was getting so late already, Wayne and Joe decided to pray with him about the situation at church instead of going to his home. They explained that God hears our prayer at church, just as well as at his home. He then asked Clara and I to come to his home to pray, but Tiffany was beyond caring about being brave or good. Tiffany was so sleepy and she and her cousin were both terribly hungry. I learned my lesson the hard way to always take plenty of food to church when there is a members’ meeting. It is hard to know how to handle all the requests!!! Joe came home with the sad news that the disgruntled lady absolutely refused to forgive the two sisters who seemingly were doing their best to repent of what they had done to offend the lady. I feel almost desperate for her to forgive. Her personality when guided by God is a huge blessing to the Lela church. The responsibility of the Lela church now rests mainly on Joe’s shoulders as of this past Sunday. Wayne will now take his role of area wide Bishop, and he does not have plans to be at Lela again until August. Pray that we would relate well with the people and would grow in our love for God and the church.

 

Tiffany is now awake, so I will hit the send button. I plan to do a picture update soon. There are so many cultural experiences I could write about, but it will need to wait.

 

God bless you. Go with God.

- JoeAllen & Glenda and our little/big blessings