Resurrecting Pastors?

This story was in tuesday's newspaper. When I heard this, I was not completely shocked. People do funny things in the name of Christ but they seem to not really know who He is.

To summarize this article for you, two pastors of a certain church in Nakuru died in a car accident last week. The church came together and decided to hold big prayer meetings to resurrect the two dead pastors. I am not sure where they got this idea. They said that with faith anything can happen which the bible does say. They said that if Ezekiel, an Old Testament prophet, spoke to dry bones and they came back to life then even today's christians can do the same. Hmph. Funny teaching but big faith. They were hoping that during the prayer sessions was when the pastor's would resurrect but it didn't happen. They resorted to shaking the coffin and were encouraged to become more emotional. In the end they decided to burry the bodies today if they hadn't resurrected today.

I hate to say this, but this doesn't surprise with churches here in Kenya. There are some funny things going on in churches here. This country claims to be 80% Christian. I am pretty sure that if 80% of the population were true believers in Christ, they would not have been slaughtering each other in 2007. It's sad to say that many preachers don't teach the entire gospel. The prosperity gospel or the shortcut gospel are usually preached. Kenyans tend to want instant results. They seek instant healing or money rather than seeking Christ. Ultimately they are all looking for the truth, for hope, for happiness just like everyone else. They seem to just be looking in the wrong places.

My Favourite Moments of the week

I love this picture as it shows the hearts of the boys. They are huddled together in a word of prayer before they started their game last thursday.

In Kenya there is no such thing as personal space especially when it comes to vehicles. There are no rules. You just fit as many people as you can. Here are 3 of the boys squeezed in the back of a tiny tiny car. The poor boys are tall too. They were such troopers. I usually get front seat since when cops see me they don't stop us. Sometimes it pays to be white.

On sundays we go into the city and often end up at this mall to get ice cream. This mall has escalators and 2 glass elevators. It's funny because many of us had never tried an escalator before so they were quite nervous. This is Gabriel, one of my classmates. This was his first time in an elevator let alone a glass one. We went up and down several times as if it was a ride. He thoroughly enjoyed. He was a brave one. Some of the other boys wouldn't dare get in with me.

Our first football match

On thursday, our boys played their first football match against a team from a local slum. It was so much fun to see them play intense and watch them show all their best moves. My boys took the victory 2-1! It was a fun afternoon. 

Here is my football superstar Peter.

The fans were rowdy! 

This is our newest fan, Baby Theo. He was born the same day I arrived. His father is one of our teachers and plays on the team. Memo (pronounced Nemo with an M) is mama Theo. The girls have bible study with her on tuesdays and we love it. It is the highlight of our week. We love Theo and Mama Theo!

We are the champions! 

Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines day was an exciting event here on the campus. We had been waiting for weeks for this day constantly wondering which boy would ask us to be their valentines. We have a funny ratio of 1 girl to 3 boys so technically we could have had 3 dates. We had a few tables set out and the girls were told to spread out and allow boys to sit where they choose. It worked out well and I got to sit with a lovely family who work here on the property. They have the most adorable twin boys who I call my boyfriends (just to get a rise out of them). Anyways it was an amazing night with AMAZING food! I can’t praise our chef enough.

These boys came and volunteered to serve and wait on us. As you can see, we had an abundance of food. I was especially excited for the watermelon! I don’t think many people liked it, which was good for me. I must have scarfed half of it down myself.

Here we are, the fabulous girls. I have to admit, they looked gorgeous. They made the boys go crazy.

If I had to choose a date, I would have choosen Peter by far. I can’t tell you how much I adore this young man. Our first day, we sat beside each other while eating supper and he proceeded to tell me jokes which were honestly not that funny. 4 weeks later, he is a brother. He has an amazing heart. He just inspires goodness in everyone. He doesn’t have a bad bone in his body. He is very mature for just finishing high school. He is an absolute delight to be around. And you can’t tell in this picture, but he is tall! He must be at least 6’4. He is also one of our star soccer players.

Meet Makau (pronounced ma-cow). He is our bible school registrar/mentor/counselor/teacher/friend. He picked me up from the airport when I arrived 4 weeks ago and has been a great friend to me. He is often the one to lift my spirits when I am having a rough day or take me out for ice cream if I am craving some food other than rice and beans. He has made these last 4 weeks extremely enjoyable for me.

We girls were each given a beautiful rose. Rahab gave me hers since she hates flowers and thinks they are nothing more than weeds! The only problem was that we couldn’t find a vase to put them in so we improvised with a water jug where they sit in the middle of the room.

All in all, it was a lovely evening. It was a treat to get good food, great company and chance to celebrate loving others and the Jesus’ abundant love for us!

One of these things just doesn't belong

Half a cow

For some reason, cows really fascinate me. I find them so interesting with the funny things they do and how they are such a part of life here. They are often tied up around the compound during the day to feed on the grass. They stand there all day just watching the world go by. Last week, one of them thought that my favourite sweater was something yummy to eat and so he pulled it off the line and began to chomp on it. Luckily, he didn't think it was very tasty and didn't do much damage to it. I washed it thoroughly, stitched up the two small holes and it was good to go. 

I walked into the kitchen the other day only to find a huge carcass of a cow. The chef had literally bought half a cow. He got two legs and the left ribs which also included the heart. It was huge! I guess I am so used to steak nicely cut and packaged ready to be bought in the supermarkets. Here you get everything except the skin. So it took till late at night to chop it all up and prepare it to be eaten. The whole thing cost less than $200 and will feed us 25 people for the next two weeks. I think its a pretty good deal. Here is our chef, Sylvester "de-boning" it. I just need to say that Sylvester is an amazing chef! He loves little details so often I find pineapple in the coleslaw or cinnamon in the chapattis. These are things that are foreign to most kenyans. My favourite food he makes are hamburgers. They are so juicy and full of flavour. I think he needs to sell the recipe to MacDonalds. 

Chef Rahab is not really a chef but helps out when it is chapatti day. It is a lot of work but she's the master. She is such a hoot and even dresses the part. I can't tell you how much I love this girl. 

I have enjoyed playing our evening football (soccer) games although at times I can get discouraged because I can be more of an obstacle than an asset. But I love watching the boys play. I have never seen boys play like this before with all the fancy footwork and aggressive play. Some of them don't even have proper shoes. We have one guy who wears about 4 socks on both feet to play. 

If they don't have "soccer boots", which we call cleats, they play in simple rubber shoes or barefoot.

 

This cute little boy came to watch the big boys play.

Today was my first afternoon off since I arrived. I have not had a big chunk of time to just relax since I got here. It's been a good time catch up on emails, reading, and laundry. This is my washing machine. 

Washing is getting easier for me and I am getting quite fast at it. I washed half of my clothes today and then went outside to put them on the line to dry. Just as I got back inside, it started to rain so I ran outside and pulled them all off the line again. I hurried inside and hung them up around my room. As soon as they were placed nicely in my room, it stopped raining. So I packed them all up headed outside to hang them all up once again. It hasn't rained since so they are hanging outside nicely drying.

I am ready to start a new week now. Last week was tough as I was getting quite tired and antsy and really needing a break. I am praying that this week will be more energetic and joyful. I am loving what I am learning. We started the topic of African Traditional Religion. It's a really fascinating topic and very relevant today in Kenya. As much as many kenyans claim to be Christian, many of them still resort to traditional practices like witchcraft. It hurts to see so many people fall into these funny practices. In Tanzania, they have a big problem with murdering albinos. Albino body parts are high on demand in witchcraft circles. Continue to pray for these funny yet very real practices here.

Life on the compound

These are my two roomies Rahab and Tswilah. 

Here are some of the boys Defense, Jack and Benson. We were getting ready to leave for an afternoon at a bible study at Limuru Girls School. It was a great afternoon.

And this is little Micah and Michal. They are twin sons of one of the maintenance guys here on the compound. They look cute but if you get too close, they will attack. Here, Loma decided to play but they started attacking her with a dead palm leaf.

Life here is never boring here. We played with a gigantic slug this morning before class. It was interesting. There is always someone to talk to or at the least, a cow. The birds are always chirping. The sun is always shining. Its Wonderful!