When we were visiting in America, I talked a lot to people about doing the everyday- mundane activities. Even though I live in Kenya, I do many of the same things as a mother in the States does. Including getting my children dressed, doing my daughters hair, wiping runny noses, putting band aids on boo boos, I teach home school 1st grade and Kindergarten, I clean up toys, books, crumbs all through out the day, and the list goes on.
What I do not want to ever forget in the midst of everything is why we are here. To love and serve the Lord by loving and serving people. There are days when I only focus on teaching Math, Science, Reading, and History. We have been learning about World Religions and Righteous and Nevaeh are finally understanding about where we are living and have so many questions about Muslim people. It is fascinating to see it on their faces as something "clicks" when we hear the call to prayer 5 times and can find certain food items like dates and cannot find other food items like pork. As they read about this in books, it is also learned on a practical level, because of the place we live.
Once a week we travel into "the bush" to be apart of a clinic. Righteous, Nevaeh, and Charis now get to take the patients temperature. My kiddos just adore being able to help in this way. What a practical way to learn and serve. I look forward to also being able to lend a helping hand. Right now my time is consumed with paying attention to Samara's needs. She often falls asleep on the way to the clinic and last week I got to sit with the women and children waiting to see the doctor- as I kept checking in the car to see when Samara would wake up. With my very little Swahili we were able to discuss how many children each woman has, and one had one that was just 3 weeks old. The mother had asthma and was afraid that her newborn also suffered from it too. When we get home and the children share stories about what we have seen, sometimes they get very concerned about hearing all the different sicknesses. We go to the Lord in prayer and thank Him that He is a great God who made us and made all the people that come to the clinic. God loves them very much.
Sometimes we have been here when individuals have been aggressive and have harmed others. It is impossible to keep these realities from my children. With their many questions they have, I do not have answers for all of them. What I try to always communicate is God is here with us when they are feeling scared. God loves those that have gotten hurt physically and emotionally. God also loves and made the people who have done bad things. We need to pray for them too. I get worried that I need to go more in depth or give more details. Then I look to the Bible- in which the message is very simple and clear. Love the Lord God. Love people. Not always easy or comfortable. But we can do this. One day at a time we can practise living this it out.
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| Brenna and Drew came to visit! |
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| Jason caught, killed, and cooked several fish from the fish ponds. |
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| If you zoom, you can see tiny fish that the momma fish spawned. |
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| Grace teaching Righty to record temperatures. |
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| Charis taking a woman's temperature. |
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| Nevaeh helping Grace to cut and bag medicine. |
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| Samara:always curious, sometimes, whiny, not afraid of most things. |
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