Wrapped around a dream

Last Sunday a few of our GCM team members, Jona, Cassandra and Joylyn came through Bungoma on their way to Sudan. It was really great to see them. Jona brought me some things from home I was really blessed by. The team was here for less than 48 hours which was kind of a bummer but it was god to have them.

Since I got here I’ve really been wanting transportation. First I was thinking about getting a motorcycle since they’re cheaper and better on gas. The problem is I want a Japanese bike which are hard to find and cost as much as a small car. I’ve just been seeking the Lord on the situation. A friend of ours has been on the lookout for a small car that will fit our needs. Last Thursday we went to Eldoret with him to look at a few cars. I ended up putting a deposit on a 2003 Toyota Corolla. It was still difficult to make a decision like this even though I really feel like it’s been directed by the Lord. What made it difficult was the price of the car. Vehicles here cost double what they do in the states.

I’ve been working on preparing some beds for a garden. I’ve never really done any gardening before but it’s always something I’ve wanted to try my hand at. It’s been crazy hard work because of type of bed I’m preparing. They’re double-dug raised beds for biointensive growing. It’s something I’ve learned about from my organic farmer friend Ryan in Kitale. I just finished two beds 5’ wide and about 20’ long and I have two more to go. I’ve got two hands full of blisters and I tried to take my toe off with jembe (large hoe) yesterday. I’ve been working barefoot which may not be the best idea but I enjoy it.

God’s just really been giving life to all theses dreams I’m finally pursuing. I’ll tell you more about all that later. I think I’ll leave you with a quote I just heard from Lou Engle that Bill Johnson recited in one of his sermons. It went something like this:

“God doesn’t take a man and put a dream in him. He’s starts with a dream and wraps a man around that dream”

Oh, Jesus

A Canadian couple living in Kitale were badly beaten and robbed on Thrusday. They've been in Kenya for about 4 months working with orphans and widows. I haven't met the couple but have ties with much of their team living in Kitale. I've felt very safe here so far but when something like this happens it really makes me wonder how safe I really am. Although I'm broken hearted ove the matter I won't let this discourage me because MY GOD IS BIGGER! Please keep the John and Eloise Bergen in your prayes.

Here's a link to one of the more complete articles I found.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=43583b69-3794-42c4-b0ec-72b90f91bdf2

Long overdue

So, it’s been way too long since I’ve made a post. Soooo much has happed in the last few weeks. I’ll try to keep it short and too the point for all you fellow ADD people...um...now what was I saying?...oh yeah keeping it short.

The first month here was really tough for me. The culture, food, people, environment, basically everything was difficult for me to adjust to. I was also starting to feel a little trapped here at the compound and I think I was starting to get depressed. I spent a night in Kitale and it was just what I needed. I got to see familiar faces which helped a lot. But the big thing for me was I remembered all the dreams that really came alive for me the first time I was there. I’m really excited about what the Lord has for me to do here in Bungoma.

I got to speak at our church two weeks ago. God gave me a word I was supposed to give the church and just a couple of hours later I was told they wanted me to speak the next Sunday. The word was on prosperity. It has to do with giving and receiving. It was very difficult for me to deliver this word for more that one reason. But at the end the Holy Spirit showed up and gave everybody gold coins (in the spirit) which symbolized a blessing of prosperity. I found out later that the Lord had given Noah a similar word for the church just a few weeks before. Some pretty awesome stuff is coming to our little church.

OK. I think I’m going to break this up into a couple of posts because it’s already getting long.

We’ve finished the roofs for four houses and we’ll be starting the foundations for two houses very soon. I’m anxious to get started.

Noah bought a new cow just a couple of weeks ago that was just about to calf. Well on Saturday morning just before 6am she gave birth. I was hoping to be around to see the birth but at least I got to see the little one’s first steps. It was pretty cool.

I still haven’t milked a cow yet but I did slaughter my first chicken the other day. It didn’t freak me out like I thought it would. It really wasn’t much worse than gutting a fish. I guess there’s a few ways to kill the chickens but here they prefer to cut the head off so it doesn’t suffer as much.

Well, I think I’ll leave you with that. I’ve still got a bunch of stuff to say but I’m just tired of typing.

By His Stripes

For some reason I haven’t been able to wear my contacts since I’ve been here. The right one irritates my eye. It seems to be some sort of allergic reaction or something.

Well, on Sunday I tried to wear them again and wore them too long. On Monday I woke up with a very irritated eye. I tried to go outside and work but the sunlight was just too much for it. It progressively got worse through the day and by the afternoon I was in horrible discomfort. A bump had formed on the inside of my eyelid and it was swollen halfway shut. It felt like there was something in my but was unable to find anything. All I could do was cry out to the Lord a this point. By the time I felt I couldn’t take it anymore it seemed to get a little better but I was still in a lot of discomfort so I decided to try and go to sleep early.

Almost every night I pray with Noah and Anisia before bed. Noah prayed for my eye to be healed. Almost instantly my eye was about 95% better. It was wonderful to experience relief after the day I had. God rocks.

Today it’s at about 99% and I’m expecting complete healing.

Living, Working, Learning

We’ve had a crew here for two weeks now digging and mixing mud. Today they started forming bricks. We’re going to bake them right here on site. The metal roof system should also be arriving any minute. I just hope the truck can make it to the back of the property without sinking in the mud. It’s been raining like crazy until the last couple of days.

We had to fire our architect because he wasn’t doing his job. We hired another architect yesterday and he seems to be on top of things. He’s much more experienced and he’s helping to “Africanize” our plans. We plan on meeting up with him this afternoon.

Well I just got a call that the truck is just up the road so I will have to resume this later…

…Ok it’s later.

We have our steel, we have our plans and we have two fundi (the guys helping us erect the buildings) that will be staying with us for the next couple of weeks. This house is getting pretty packed full of people.

So my main job here to help with this building project. Problem is I really feel like I don’t have a clue what I’m doing. Sometimes I really don’t know what the heck I’m doing here. I’m learning a lot, but I still feel completely under equipped. Please keep me in your prayers. I’ve spent a lot of time crying out to the Lord for guidance lately. He always comes through, just not always when I want.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I don’t do much manual labor anymore which is what I’ll be doing.

I give up...

on this stupid internet today. The main reason I came to town today was to use the internet and it's completely packed with people so the connection is horrible. I sure do complain about the internet a lot. It's wonderful when it's working well but very frustrating when it's not.

OK, so just getting to town today took about two hours. The cops were doing checks on the road just up from the house so the matatus weren't packing people in like they normally would. When we did finally have a person offer to give us a ride the cops saw us get in his car so they decided to pull him over and harass him just because he picked us up. So Noah and I got out of the car to search for other means of transportation. We ended up getting a ride on a couple of piki piki (motorbike) down a muddy back road to avoid the cops.

All that and now I can't even really get anywhere with this slow connection. I only hope this is able to post. Other than than everything is great. Thank's for your prayers and encouraging words. I'm so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.

I'll try to get to the cafe early on Friday and beat the crowd.

New pics

Gotta make this fast since my battery is about to die. Been on the net for two hours now try to get a bunch of stuff accomplished and due to the poor connection today I was only able to finish half of what I wanted to do. O well, another day. I've just sent out my first update email. Had some errors on some addresses so I'll see if I mistyped some things. If you would like to receive emails from me or if you're expecting an email an haven't received one let me know. Email me at jijeremy at gmail dot com. OK gotta go!