Welcome Home

Sorry for the lapse in communication - I have been busy enjoying having my hubby back! He made is safe and sound without any problems on Sunday afternoon. We had a nice supper with my family and then Monday he wanted to do something with just our little family, so we took Avery to the Ft. Worth Zoo. It was great - I'll post some picts later. Yesterday, Tuesday, we drove back to Abernathy and it is great to be home again. Things are good here - Brownie has grown, and so have the weeds in the garden! But we got most of those pulled last night.

Today Gabe is back to work. I know he will want to post about his trip - it has taken 3 days of talking and I'm still getting bits of information and stories. There is just so much to say and it takes time to get it all out. You may hear things bit by bit like I have. The trip was a success in many ways.

And Avery and I had a BLAST with my family - they really took good care of us.

Thank you again for all your prayers and love during this month! We are ready to move onto the next phase of our summer - guests! Robyn and Vernon will be here soon and then my sister and her boys are coming for a week. Sounds like fun!

Love, Jill

Safari Update

Just a quick note to let you know that I heard from Gabe by phone last night and this morning, and they had a wonderful safari. They said their morning drive was AWESOME - they saw hippo, 5 cheetah about 20 feet from the truck and..........drum roll..........yes, even lions mating. That's something we were never "blessed" to see as residents there! In fact, I only even saw a male lion once in all of our many safaris.

When Gabe called a few minutes ago, he had left Vince & Trent at the airport to catch their flight out to London tonight. Gabe will attend the graduation on Saturday in Nairobi and then head out Saturday night. We are very anxious to see him!!!

Thank you all for your prayers as they travel home.

Jill

Update June 20

Gabe called today, so I got to talk to him for a few minutes. They were in Mombasa for a night, and will be on a short safari Thursday all day and Friday morning, so I know they are really looking forward to that. I hope they see lots of wildlife and that they leave Kenya with positive thoughts.


Monday Gabe & Jaime took Vince & Trent to the "nice" (even by American standards) Kilifi Bay Beach Resort hotel to spend some time at the beach and relax after their grueling weekend. They didn't figure Vince & Trent they would enjoy sitting through a day-long meeting with the Board of Directors of the Kilifi Christian Resource Center, which was what Gabe and Jaime needed to do. Let me tell you, a group of African men can sit and discuss, discuss, discuss til you think the thing cannot be discussed any more, and then they will discuss it again. And, most likely, it was in Kigiriama, and an all day discussion in a foreign language could drive anyone to insanity, so...I'm glad they took Vince & Trent to the resort. Gabe said the meeting went well and it was a good day for everyone.


Tuesday they went to Malindi to meet with many of the leaders there and discuss the Orphans Project, but I don't have a report on that. Then Wednesday they made their way to Mombasa, which is where Gabe called me from this morning.


Gabe said the trip has been successful and they are really glad they went, but I think it has been very hard on all of them, especially Vince and Trent. It may take coming home, getting some rest, and processing everything in the coming days and months to make sense of it all.


Africa is a rough and shocking place. It is also a simple and beautiful place. It is full of paradoxes. While living there, I struggled at times with my own cynicism, negativity, and hopelessness with the way things were. The whole "losing the wallet" episode caused that feeling in me to rear it's ugly head. I doubt the wallet was "lost". I know a huge part of why the guys are exhausted is because of the horrible public transportation system they have been subjected to the last 2 weeks. Why can't they fix the roads? Millions of dollars are given each year for roads and it never ends up filling in a pot-hole. And those people can't just get on a plane and fly away to a country where they drive their own air-conditioned cars on smoothe, well kept roads. So much corruption.... makes me furious.

I don't like to feel that way about Africa.

I want to remember the beautiful people we knew there, and the friendships that are dear to us. I want to remember the joy of greeting a Giriama woman in her mother-tongue and seeing her face light up. I want to remember watching Giriama women learn to read so that they can read God's Word for themselves. I want to remember the gifts and blessing that so many people there were to us. I want to imagine many familiar Kenyans being among the great multitude from every nation in heaven some day. So...I look forward to hearing from Gabe about his trip and about what God is doing in Kenya. I know He is working amazing things through people there and that the stories will bring us much encouragement.


The trip is almost over. Plans to come home have been moved up. Vince and Trent will be flying out of Nairobi Friday night. This will put them into Lubbock on Saturday night and allow Vince to rest for a day before going back to work on Monday. Gabe will attend the graduation for Duncan in Nairobi on Saturday, and then will fly out of Nairobi Saturday night. He had planned to do some things in Nairobi on Monday and Tuesday, but the plans didn't work out. He will arrive in Dallas on Sunday afternoon and we are excited because we plan to pick him up there. We will spend a night or two with my parents in Dallas and then drive home together. It will be good to see him sooner than expected.


Thank you all again for your prayers and concern for Gabe and for us while he is away. Of course we are busy here and having a great time with family, but I often think of you all and appreciate your prayers for Gabe. I will let you know if I hear more before he gets home.

Jill

Monday Update - June 18

Well, it sounds like they are very busy and that it has been a complete emersion in the culture over the weekend. On a personal note, something Gabe didn't include in this email - his wallet was either lost or stolen over the weekend. It included his debit cards with which he can get cash out, several hundered dollars in cash, a backup credit card, and his drivers license. I have already cancelled the cards, and fortunately Jaime is there with them right now, so if I can transfer money to his account, they should be able to get it out with his card. I'm not sure what they will do for their travels home, but I'm sure they will figure something out. Gabe called me yesterday and we were able to talk for about a minute and a half and didn't get to say much of anything before his phone card ran out. He didn't call back because he couldn't get another card - all the shops were closed. And I didn't find out til his email this morning about the wallet thing. He is supposed to call today, and I hope he does. We are having fun and are doing fine here in Allen. Will head to Sulphur Springs today and spend most of the week there. Love, Jill

Monday Update - June 18

WOW. What a weekend. We had quite a trip out to Kaloleni and Maziachenda over the weekend. Trent and Vince got a HEAVY dose of Kenyan life and I'm proud they survived and did so with dignity! We left Friday morning on the public bus to Kaloleni. we had to wait at the stage for about an hour as they packed, and loaded, and packed and loaded the bus. Once it was more full than we imagined possible, we headed out - we being us three, Jeremiah Muramba and Duncan Ziro. The journey was two hours of tortuous bumping and grinding up and down the rutted road. We arrived hot and sweaty in Kaloleni and proceeded to walk about a mile to the MCRC youth center where we were warmly received by Fredrick Kaingu. After taking a tour of the facility, which is a simple stone structure with a metal roof, we walked back into town and had a lunch of beans and chapati. That cold Coke sure tasted good. We picked up a couple of things in town and then returned to the youth center. We discussed what MCRC is trying to accomplish in the area and made some plans to build benches to help them prepare for an August Youth Retreat. The guys returned to town to purchase the lumber while our team remained at mcrc. We played Frisbee with some boys there and set up the tent. That evening the guys slaughtered a duck for supper and we helped cook that. We sat around the campfire and had some good discussions as well. That weekend there was a Provincial Soccer Tournament at the high school which is adjacent to mcrc. They played loud music, watched movies and generally made a LOT of noise ALL NIGHT long. We didn't sleep much at all. The next morning we went into town to buy tools and pick up the lumber from being planed. We got back about lunch time with a few boards, the rest weren't ready of course, and were able to make 5 benches before time to go. We purchased supplies to build 15 and left money to hire a carpenter to finish the job. We left MCRC and returned to town to catch a matatu to Maziachenda. Luganje met us there to escort us as Duncan and Jeremiah needed to return to Kilifi. We waited for 3 hours for a car and finally managed to find one. It took an hour to get there and we arrived way after dark - about 8pm at Luganje's house. We set up the tent, visited and ate supper about 10. Sunday morning, Charo Gunga and his uncles came by to visit. It was good to see them and catch up. We went to church about 11am and it lasted the usual 2 or 3 hours. All the ladies really sent their greetings to Jill. Bendera, especially, wanted to make sure that I greeted you using her name. They enjoyed seeing pictures of Avery and hearing about her. After church, we packed up and started the long journey back. We reached Kilifi at 8pm, had supper at the hotel and crashed for the night. We were all more than exhausted. We are back in Kilifi this morning. Jaime met us for breakfast and we took the guys out to Kilifi Bay Resort for a day of resting at the beach. Jaime and I have a board meeting for MCRC today in Kilifi and didn't figure they wanted to sit through that. Tomorrow we got to Malindi and then back here on Wednesday. We'll update you again soon! thanks for the continued prayers - they mean a lot. grace and peace, Gabe

Gabe's email on Friday 6/15

This is part of Gabe's email to me today (minus his sappy greetings to me!) I have tried to add in parenthesis things which need interpreting or explaining. Jill

Friday 6/15

We finally got a minute to pop in and email again. Yesterday we walked straight from Mnarani to John's house via Seahorse Road and cut across behing the Institute. It took about 1 hour to walk and the guys got to see some good Giryama farming culture.

We took chai rangi (black chai without milk) na mahamri at John's and they got a good culture lesson like John always does. We went to Elizabeth's to look at some traditional Giryama things. She really greeted you and loved seeing the pictures. From there we went to find Harrison Shida and visited Esther, Janet, et al. on the way. They all really greet you and enjoyed the pictures. We didn't find Shida, so we went on to Philip Safari's house. He moved to Fumbini - you can see our old house from his plot. I went there before we left to look at the farm with him so now he lives there and is building his little duka (store). He cooked a chicken for us and we stayed the afternoon there. Trent tried 7 new foods yesterday - samosa, mahamri, cassava, sugar cane, wari, kuku local, and something else I'm forgetting. We returned to John's and had beans/chapati for supper.

It was getting dark, so John walked us to Kibaoni where we got a tiktik back to Mnarani. We were tired. This morning we met Jeremiah and Duncan at the office and after these errands, we are headed to Kaloleni. We'll be there today and tomorrow, then to Maziachenda and Kadzitsoni. I hope we'll be back on Monday in time to email you then. We are taking the bus to Kaloleni so that should be an adventure. Hope all is well there and I'll write more when I can. We are having fun and it has been a great time so far. Thanks for all your prayers that lift us up. Gabe

Silence

Just to let you all know that I haven't heard from Gabe in a couple of days. I figure he is out in the bush, or with friends and is not able to get to the Stationer during open hours to write. I will post again next time I hear from him! Thank you for continuing to pray for their safety and work. Jill

Gabe is Safely in Kenya

It's so great to know they are there safely and that they've gotten some rest now! I was more worried about their exhaustion than anything else! Here is Gabe's email that he sent last night - I figure Jill has forwarded it to most of you, but I'll be trying to post what I hear from him too. Avery and I are doing well and having fun at Mimi's and Grandad's house. They had to put down Scooter, their dog of 18 years on Tuesday morning, so it is sad for him not to be around. Avery misses him. Talk to you all soon!

Jill

From Gabe Wed. morning, 6/13

Well, we made it! Sorry I haven't emailed before now. It's Wednesday morning our time and we finally made it in to town. Our Virgin flight arrived just in time to catch our KA flight to Mombasa. We had to wait in line FOREVER to verify the online booking, but we made it. The guys thought it was hilarious that we just walked across the whole airport on the runway side to board our plane. The weather in NBI was perfect - so cool and crisp. It was really nice when we arrived in MBA too - about 80 with a cool breeze. We got a taxi to Kilifi - it was $70 but well worth it. That's hard to pay when you know a matatu for all of us would have been about $5 but with the luggage there isn't much option. it's amazing how comfortable i feel. Language is coming back easily and everything feels like it did when we were here. The smells are the same, the people are the same and everything, but it feels very surreal to actually be sitting here again. I've made great friends with all the staff at Dhow's Inn, so we'll be fine there. They, of course, are all shocked that I speak their language. I even met the night watchman this morning - his name is Jefwa Mwanzaro. Imagine his shock to find out I have the same name!

We went to bed about 1pm yesterday to take a nap and planned to walk into Kilifi for supper. I woke up at 930pm! The guys woke up about 630 and knocked on my door but i didn't even hear it. I don't think i moved the entire time. They were already back asleep by that time, so i ordered pepper steak and chapati for supper at the Inn. it took about an hour to cook and I just read and journaled while I waited. I probably got to bed by 1130 and slept all night until daylight this morning. We were all exhausted, i suppose

We got up and walked into town this morning. we got breakfast at the Arcade Cafe (an old favorite of Jill and I's). Gladys (the owner) wasn't there, but we had good chai (hot tea). i had samosa and the guys had omelets and toast. Trent ordered milk and when the girl delivered our tea, she asked if the milk was to be hot or cold. i thought she meant the tea milk, since she brought it seperate, but she meant Trent's milk - so he got a piping hot glass of HOT milk! It was funny and he enjoyed it anyway.

It's been so fun showing them around. Vince has already said he wished he could take it in faster - but that will come with time. There are a few things different about Kilifi. I'm most excited about the Italian Gelati (ice cream) that is right next door to our old office! We'll be trying that out! Omar's is closed (this was my favorite place to get an ice cold Coke), so I'll have to find the new "cold" coke machine in town.

We are planning to tour around town this morning and maybe head to the MCRC and see if John is around. I'll probably make some calls and let guys know we are around as well since it's time to jump in and get busy! We'll send some more news when we have. In the meantime, thanks for all your prayers. Even though we missed our flight in London, God was good and we got another flight that got us here in time to not delay our time in country. The devotional book has been wonderful and so appropriate each day. The Spirit was really leading Steve as he put that together and we really appreciate it. Amani na dheri (grace and peace) Gabe

Flaming Arrows!

It happens every time. When you get ready to do something you think God wants you to do, Satan is right there to discourage and try to take away the joy and hope you have. This has been a CRAZY week for all 3 of the guys going on the Kenya trip.

• Things have "blown up" at work for Gabe and it is a very stressful time of trying to mediate several imminent crises.
• Vince's brother has been sick in the hospital with something wrong with his lung
• Cars have broken down
• Trent's passport still had not come, as of yesterday. They got an email saying it had been DENIED because his parent's signature had not been witnessed by a Public Notary.

So....Vince, Michelle, and Trent are currently in their car driving 10 hours to Denver, CO to get his passport. All 3 must be present. They have an appt. at 10am tomorrow morning at which, if everything goes smoothly, they will come away with Trent's passport. We are very glad they even have this option, as there are NO appts. available at the Passport agency in Houston, and there is no other way to expedite this except for in person at a Passport Center. Please pray that all goes well at the appointment and he comes home with Passport in hand.

Makes me think of this passage:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Ephesians 6:10-18

Harambee - Let's all come together for Kenya!

Sunday night we got to experience something really cool - one of those times when we had a small idea and God made it into something really big. Well, most people would probably not consider an 80-person get-together in po-dunk Abernathy Texas "really big", but in our book, it was.

In Kenya it's called Harambee - it means to "pull together". We wanted everyone in our congregation to "pull together" for the trip Gabe, Vince and Trent are about to make to Kenya. We asked everyone to bring something to contribute, whether it be a written prayer or note of encouragement, books or teaching materials to be taken, monetary gifts, or whatever else anyone wanted to bring. We prepared Kenyan food, which I will describe in the photo.

Planned for about 50 people.

I lost count at 82.

Prayed for God to take the 5 loaves and 2 fish and make it enough, and somehow he did! I'm sure some people would have eaten more if it had been there, but it seems that everyone got to taste the things they wanted to taste and people seemed to have a great time.

Some of the things given at the Harambee-

Beanie Babies, lollipops, cards, books, and about $850.

Gabe, Trent (17), Vince

The participants (my good friend Arnie Faye in her African garb)





Our Spread - top left to right - Beans with Coconut, chapatis (like tortilla), Coconut Chicken.
botton L to R: Samosas with lime, Mahamri (like fried Indian flatbread). We also had Chai - hot tea with milk, sugar and spices.

What fun to see new life breathed into a congregation which has, by all appearances been a little sleepy for the last few years. Everyone was excited and you could feel the energy. We are thankful that God can use this trip for his glory on both sides of the world.

Steve Gauntt, our preacher, wrote a devotional book specifically for this trip - each day has a Scripture and some thoughts. He printed a copy for everyone who wanted one. There is a group meeting each day at the church building here in Abernathy to go through the devotional thought, and spend time in prayer. We started this past Sunday and will continue until they day they come home. Gabe, Vince, and Trent will also be going through this devotional book in Kenya, at around the same time we will be reading it here in the States each day. It's pretty neat to feel the love and support of so many for this venture.

I plan to post as I hear from Gabe while he's away, so keep watching.