Seeds To Plant

March 12, 2013 I’m back in Kenya and people here are so glad that they can now go back to work.   They have stayed in for a week waiting to see if peace would remain in Kenya.  Many went without food as they did not want to travel outside. In some areas they didn’t have vegetables to buy as the vehicles were not bringing any in to the city. I was the first customer for my taxi driver in a weeks’ time. Nairobi became a ghost town but is now life is back to normal.

This morning I was up before the birds and on my way to the bus station. It is good to be back in Kenya. The traffic and crazy drivers brought me back to this realization very fast.  This morning we are a bit ahead of any traffic jams so we are moving right along.  Schools have reopened and today the children are traveling back to their schools. The bus station is full of children in their uniforms representing their school colors waiting for the right bus to carry them out of Nairobi.

My ticket is bought without any problems and soon I am on my way to western Kenya.  The 9 hour bus ride takes me through the beautiful rift valley.  There are zebras, baboons and gazelles that are feeding in the open as we ride by. 

The road way now not so smooth bounces us around in our seats and the taste of dust becomes a normal.

 

Returning to Kitale is returning home for me and I welcome a good night’s sleep at the lodge. The soldiers remain on duty here and caravans continue to form to travel north into the well drilling area of Turkana.

 There has been a report of one death here during a time of celebration for one of the candidates, a young boy named Ian.  There was also the discovery of 300 machetes that were ready to be handed out in a slum area for the purpose of bloodshed.  They were recovered and dealt with before anything happened.

At the lodge we now have a little one.  While I was in Rwanda a two week old Pokot baby boy was brought to the lodge and left. He came hungry, unwashed and wrapped in cloth. He is now being very loved and well cared for.  This little guy’s mom had died two days before he arrived.  She was very young. Marriage generally consists of purchasing the girl for a certain number of cows and a Pokot man will not marry her unless she is circumcised. Those within his tribe now believe this little one carries a curse because of the death of his mother. 

March 17, 2013 This Sunday I will be traveling back to Rafiki a village about 30 minutes outside of Kitale. It was not announced that I was coming and the surprised and happy faces were many.  I heard some fast speaking Swahili and “Mama Linda” in the middle of it.  They have so many young people attending now and they have a part in the service too!  They sing and dance along with giving a message in skit form.  I see how proud the older ones are of their youth as their eyes light up when they enter.

One of the elders stands to his feet and greets me and then proceeds in Swahili to tell me how they had been praying for my mother because I had said she was sick.  He wanted to know if God had heard their prayers.  I was happy to report that God had indeed heard their prayers! 

When they saw the slipper socks she had made for their children they were delighted.  Here in Rafiki each day is a survival day and the needs are “food” so a gift for their children brought much joy to their hearts. 

We continued with the service and prayed for a young man who was blind.  He left seeing a small light something he had not seen before.  We continue to believe that the Lord will totally remove his blindness.  Two mamas, one teenager and two children about ten years old asked the Lord into their heart today.  We rejoice as five more have seen the truth and found Jesus.

I walked a bit while I was waiting for the lunch that was being prepared by the church ladies. They showed me the chicken business that we started last year and the progress they are making.  Soon they hope to have 30 more little chicks!

The rainy season is fast approaching and many are tilling the soil in preparation of planting.  This is impossible for so many here in Rafiki because they can’t afford to buy seed.  This planting season they will have seed to plant and in time a harvest.

1 Corinthians 3:5-9 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe-as the Lord assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.  The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.  For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.