Greetings from Kenya! This time next week I'll be hanging out at the Nairobi airport, waiting for my flight to London, en route to Miami, with a final destination of Orlando, Florida, U S of A.

This has been a l-o-o-o-o-o-n-g week.

The week started off early, when I heard Pastor George drive off in the van at around 3:30am on Thursday. Turned out that his aunt was involved in a bus accident earlier that evening and the hospital they took her to wasn't as good as the ones in Nakuru, so his uncle asked if he would come and get her and transport her to a city hospital instead. Later that day we visited with her and prayed with her before she was transported to a Nairobi hospital (they have a home in Nairobi as well as a home in the country, which is where she was at the time of the accident).

Later that day, We took Willie (Pastor George's oldest boy) to a different hospital to have "the cut" done. In Bungoma, where George's family is, they are currently celebrating the "season of the cut" which happens every even year in August and is when the 12-13 year old boys get circumsized.

It's done with an elaborate ritual, which unfortunately doesn't always include a clean knife, although they're trying to educate the men who perform the cut itself. There are also no novacaine used, no painkillers, no ibuprophen, etc. Since Willie is 13 and about to spend a week at Grandma's (with his cousin of the same age, also named Willie), it was time for him to get his done in a more hygenic and pain-free manner. When we arrived in Bungoma, we had an unscheduled rest stop (one of many, as I'll explain in a bit). As we sat by the side of the road, under the bright Kenya moon and stars, we could hear the tribal chanting of a nearby cutting ritual taking place. And yesterday we passed by young men lounging or walking in bright colored sheets wrapped around them like dresses.

Willie is wearing one as well, with a t-shirt on top and his socks and sneakers below. Putting on trousers just isn't going to happen for a while! We also passed by a few young men during the day yesterday, with their faces covered in mud, wearing elaborate breast plates and carrying switches that they swung in time to the chanting of their older male relatives as they prepared themselves for their ritual.

Thursday was a day when George got to practice patience and blessing everyone. And learning that everything is unfolding in divine order. We started out at the bank, where George was attempting to get a replacement atm card (his had expired) and cash out of his account to pay the hospital bill. When we got back outside we had gotten "booted" for not bribing the "parking boys" to let the parking meter maids know not to give us a ticket. When we went to pay the ticket, Pastor George practiced blessing everyone on our way, and saying thank you to everyone who was part of this process (which he wasn't really excited about since we had just dropped Willie off at the hospital and were trying to get back there quickly. In Kenya, to pay a parking ticket, you go to the meter maid, get a piece of paper, take that to the parking ticket office, sign a register and get a different piece of paper, then walk over to the Town Hall, and get in the Billing Line, where they give you an official bill, then you go around the corner to the Cashier's line, to actually pay and get a receipt, which you then take back to the parking office, where you turn it in and a nice man with a ring of keys comes back and unlocks the boot on your car.

Not exactly a 10 minute experience. When we got to the Billing Line, Pastor's phone rang and it was Pastor Evans, checking on us, since he was with Willie and the other children at the hospital. Pastor George explained what had happened and said we'd be there as quickly as possible.

And then the man in front of him turned around - underneath his sportscoat he was wearing a Barcley's Bank t-shirt. Turns out he was an executive at the bank - and he intervened with the parking people and got the ticket revoked and the boot removed. Thank you, God.

We drive out to the hospital and as we pull into the parking lot, the car's reverse gear fails. And a car was coming out of the lot, so we couldn't move forward either. They graciously moved out of the way, and the lot attendant told us to go to the back of the hospital where there was room to turn around - with a little help from the gardeners and the head doctor, who had come out for a breath of fresh air and offered to push us. Turns out the gardeners were removing all of these daffodil bulbs (thousands of them) and were going to throw them away - if we hadn't had to go to the back, Pastor George would have never had an opportunity to ask the head doctor what they were planning on doing with the flowers - and there wouldn't be thousands of newly planted flower bulbs all around the Nakuru Community Church and School! Always a blessing in everything!

The saddest part of the day happened a few hours later, when we returned home and Pastor George got a phone call that the 2 1/2 year old son of his late brother passed away after a 2 day illness. He lived with Pastor George's mom, who we visited yesterday. To get to her place, you go down a dirt road, which then becomes a one lane road, which then becomes a bike path, and then a foot path, and then you're on a bit of grass between two corn fields, and then there's a clearing, with 5 houses and a latrine.

There's no electricity, no car or bike and they are 40 kilometers from the nearest hospital right now (about 25 miles). Which is part of the reason why Pastor George has started building a hospital in that area. By the time they realized the boy was seriously ill, it was too late to get him to the hospital. There is no great mourning when a child dies here. It's so common, they just accept it as part of the process of life and go on with the business of the day. We decided at that point that we would leave very early Monday, to arrive in Bungoma in time for the boy's funeral.

Friday, we prayed with two of the praise and worship team members at their homes today (Jen Rose and Judith), and then had sodas with Pastor's entire family and Pastor Evans at the Nakuru National Park. Got some great pictures of baboons about 3 feet from me. The people who lives adjacent to the National Park have a challenge with leaving any windows open and any food around, especially produce. We watched the baboons enter the neighborhood enmass (about 20 of them) and then they came scampering across 3 tin rooftops, making their getaway and scooting back under the national park fence.

We dropped the children off and then went to lunch at the school administrative aide's house (Mary) with her family, an old co-worker of Pastor George's (holding Mary's daughter) and the school cook (Mary Njere). I was scheduled for a cooking lesson at the home of one of the women from the women's ministry, but we didn't get to lunch until after 4, so by the time we we got back it was too late for a cooking lesson, but we did enjoy a great dinner at Mazey's house.

Saturday was spent running errands and getting the van's gear box fixed, among other necessary repairs. I expanded my ministry to include "radiator leak" ministering.

Sunday was a big day at church. I came home from the first session wiped out and slept from 1:30 until 3pm; then left at 3:30 for lunch, and then 4-7 church again. One of Pastor George's neighboring pastors, Nixon, had a church which was destroyed during a recent land dispute. Nixon was passing by with his wife and some company that was in town and he was guided to tell them to go on home that he was going to go to church. He got up and did the closing prayer and shared that he had come in very sad and downtrodden and when I shared the story about the man whose mules ran away and he was looking to replace his mules and God had a tractor for him, he said, that story was for him, to remind him that God has an even greater blessing for him and he should stop feeling sorry for himself and start getting on with God's business. It was very touching.

They announced that after the morning service next Sunday we're having a birthday party and that instead of having a fellowship where everyone brings food, this Sunday I'll be giving food away. We received a gift of $1000 for food to distribute, which will provide about 3350 meals. Pastor George said folks should make sure that if their neighbors can't come that they take food back home to them. Very cool.

When you meet someone here, you always shake hands, and if they're a friend, you continue to hold their hand as you talk, for at least a good 30 seconds, as a symbol of your connection with each other. And the children play with each other, and help each other and laugh with each other. There's no retreating to separate rooms or headphones, there's no running off to do things.

Here, having less doesn't necessarily mean being unfortunate - it just means being more resourceful. And all the things we take for granted in cleanliness, when you have to choose between food and cleaning products, well, things are as clean as they get with water and faith....

Monday, we got up at 5am and were on the road by 6. The sun hadn't come up yet as we bounced our way out of Nakuru and the children were bundled in their parkas. We had a full load - the speakers and keyboard and amp, the keyboard player/interpreter (Ken), Pastor Evans (finally getting to go home to his wife and 5 month old daughter after 3 weeks in Nakuru!), and Mary Njere, the school cook, who has family Kitale. Crossed the equator early in the morning.

I'm burning up from either too much Kenya sun or a fever and the computer has crashed twice now as I've gotten ready to write details of my trip on Monday until today. So I'll write more later.

Upendo ne Amani,

Love and peace,

Paula