7/31

July 31

Today was our second day of construction on the "school in the barn" project at Gituamba IDP camp. The five wall building teams finished the first two courses of mortared block on the footings and began dry stacking the levels above that.  These will be the walls that define the classrooms. We got all the walls built up to about 4 feet each, plumbing each block as the wall went up. We will continue building these tomorrow up to a height of approximately 9 feet. The walls will all be tied together by concrete beams and columns that will be formed and poured with rebar frames constructed inside then. We have begun wiring rebar together and wiring it to the short sections of rebar protruding from the footings.  One team drilled holes into the existing stone walls and began wiring rebar supports to tie the new walls into the existing structure. This is probably a lot more construction detail than you really ever wanted to know, but it just want to point out that there a lot more steps than you would think to just "build a wall". I also want to emphasize that our teams that are doing this are everyday men, women and young people who do all sorts of jobs at home on an everyday basis. None of them work in construction as their daily job except myself.  And yet you should see the work they are doing! It just goes to show that the Lord doesn't call the prepared, He prepares the called.  If we give him the chance by saying "here I am, send me", He'll take care of all the rest. It is amazing to me to see teams of all ages and skill levels getting out of their comfort zones and achieving great things.

The other activity that is ongoing is the preparation of the troughs and supports for them to construct the beam across the barn main opening.  A group of Kenyans has been doing this work, lead by our driver/construction engineer/tour guide/energizer bunny, Rufus Ngata. He is truly a jack-of-all trades and invaluable. The forms and supports, made from trees and crude building materials, are nearly complete, and once we put the rebar "trees" in them and complete the troughs tomorrow, they will be ready for the concrete to be mixed (by hand) and carried up 13' ladders and dumped in the forms. Stay tuned for tomorrow.........

July 29/30

Internet access is more of a challenge this year than it was last.  I was not able yesterday to get on long enough to type a report, so this one will be for two days.

Monday was a great first day. We left the Presbyterian Guest House in Nairobi to go to Deep Sea slum. We played with about 100 children, doing crafts, blowing bubbles and just spending time with them and showing them love. It's tough to fathom the joy they have in deplorable conditions with so little to look forward to. When the pastor asked them in Swalihi if they love Jesus, everyone of the  said "Yes!" and they all raised their hands. Their joy is so evident with so little, and yet our joy so often seems to be dependent on our circumstances.  The other most noticeable act was their willingness to share, when they have so little. They take their turn. They don't take what someone else has. We got the opportunity again this year to help serve them a hot lunch.  When we were here last year, the church/school was able to serve 3 hot meals per week to the children, and it was more than likely the only hot meals the children got in a week. Through the contributions and support that has increased for their program due to support from you and others like you, they have been able to increase the program to 7 hot meals per week. PTL! We formed an assembly line to fill and distribute plates of hot rice and gravy with meat and pass the plates to the +/- 75 children assembled patiently on the floor. I did not see one child take a plate and eat it until it was his/her turn and they had passed the plates on to their neighbor.  I saw older children (but still probably 6-7 years old) be sure their younger brother or sister had received theirs before taking a plate for themselves. I saw an older sister assure her younger brother got his because she fed it to him before taking any herself.  I saw not one act of selfishness the entire two+ hours that we interacted with the kids. As described by Leslie Hinderliter, the level of activity with the kids was "like VBS on crack", but it was an awesome morning! We can learn so much from little children, and these children taught us a lot about how we should treat our brothers and sisters, regardless of their age!


When we left the Deep Sea slum, we drove by multiple vans to Amani Ya Juu, the boutique which sells beautifully made items primarily for women made by local women who are learning a trade and becoming self-sufficient. We had our late lunch in their garden restaurant and then headed north for the long (4 hour) 90 mile ride to Nakuru.  100000 trucks later, we were there! I'm sure that's probably an exaggeration, but it seemed like it. It's rough roads and a harrowing ride with fun passing slow trucks with crazy traffic.  We arrived at the wonderful Tumaini Cottages and Conference Center around 7:30 and got settled into our rooms in time for a late dinner. This will be our home for the next 10 days. It's very comfortable and takes the stress out of long hard days working.

Today, July30, was our first day of physical work. After breakfast at Tumaini, we made the hour-plus drive to the Gituamba IDP camp, where we had done several days of construction work last year.  I didn't think it was possible, but the condition of the roads has gotten worse since last year! You could lose a decent size car in some of the pot holes! The road has widened to three lanes, only out of defense so cars/trucks can go further afield to escape the crevasses! We are working on an old stone barn structure that will be converted into a school for the children at the camp, who now have to walk 6 km (3.75 miles) each way to get to school. It will also have multi-purpose rooms that will be used for church for members of the camp. We broke into six+ teams, with each of five teams mortaring bricks on concrete footings that had previously been poured by another team. These five walls will create the first two classrooms, which are planned to be functioning as school in January. Another team worked cutting rebar and wire and constructing the steel support beam that will go in forms and be poured into concrete 12 feet overhead (stay tuned for a later report!)  to be the main overhead support for the building entry.  We worked alongside hired Kenyans to construct wood supports to hold the framing for the concrete to be poured in, and had to build our own ladders out of thin trees to access the top of the walls. Their construction techniques are quite crude by American standards, but they work. It was great for returning team members to see and visit with residents who remembered them and with whom relationships had been built.  It was also great to see and work again alongside Kenyan members of SWOK (Start With One Kenya), the ministry whom we partner with here.  For those who might not know, that's their name and also their philosophy. The needs and opportunities here are so vast, where do you even begin to try to make a difference? You can't do it all at once - you start with one!
Well, I'll end for now, since it will soon be time to get up again if I don't get some sleep. And here's to praying that I have enough internet access to get this posted! I'll try to post again tomorrow but no promises on the technology. At this point, I'm not able to get photos up, but I'll also try again tomorrow.
Jim

We made it!

Well, after a 7 hour flight to London, a 4 hour layover, and a 9 hour second flight, we arrived in Nairobi tonight at around 9:30.  Immigration control went off with no hitch, other that taking over an hour to get all 27 through. And once again, not one piece of lost luggage for all of us! It was great to see the smiling familiar faces of Bill and Chat Coble and Rufus Ngata. We got all the luggage and people packed into vans and over to the Presbyterian Guest House by midnight and got settled in. It's been a long two days! We'll be off at 9:30 tomorrow to visit the Deep Sea Slum in Nairobi and visit with the kids there in the Methodist church and school. After a visit to Amani Ya Juu, we'll head north west on the 90 mile trip (4hours!) to Nakuru. I'll post an update in the evening. Now, I'm going to bed!

Welcome to my blog!

This is a new experience for me, having my own blog.  It has been a harrowing experience for me, trying various complicated steps with Ipage, WordPress, Mojo, etc. over four days to establish it.  And then after talking with daughter Rebekah, she led me through it with none other than GMail, and low and behold, in THREE MINUTES I had my blog up and running! God bless you, Rebekah!

When we went to Kenya in 2013, I got started posting a daily update on the Bethlehem United Methodist Church blog. It was a rewarding experience for me, and it really got me thinking each evening when I typed up the post how blessed each day was. I realized how awesome an experience this trip was, and it gave me an opportunity to hopefully give others a glimpse into what we experienced. Not everyone has the desire or opportunity to go on a trip like this, but many friends have given resources and prayer support that allow us to go.  But we go as your representatives, and it is my desire to bring you feedback on what your support has allowed the team to accomplish.

It's not my MO to be a preacher, and in a lot of cases, I don't know where you are coming from spiritually as individuals.  I hope I don't offend anyone who is coming from a different faith perspective.  But I would be disingenuous if I didn't give the Lord credit for what He did for us and through us.  His hand of blessing was so evident on our trip last year, it was unmistakable.  The experiences we had working and serving in Kenya were remarkable enough by themselves, but just the logistics of our actual trip were no less remarkable.  We had 29 of us on the trip last year, flew from JFK to Amsterdam with a second flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi and returned the same route, no lost luggage coming or going, and the Jomo Kenyata International Airport international terminal burned to the ground two days before we were to fly home and we nearly left on time (only two hours late, as the first international flight after the fire!).  Some may try to explain that as coincidence, but to me, there is no question where the praise belongs!

This year, there are 27 of us going, including 12 newbys and 15 veterans.  We will be flying from Philadelphia to London Heathrow, and on to Nairobi after a 4 hour layover.  We will be in Nairobi for just one night and then moving on to Nakuru for the remainder of the 10 days on the ground in Kenya. As always on missions, the activities are subject to change on a daily basis. At this point, we anticipate that we will again be doing hygiene training associated with our distribution of personal water purification systems, work at the Springs of Hope orphanage, and our major focus is to be construction of a church at the Gituamba IDP camp. For those of you who don't know the history, the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps were formed in about 2008 as squalid tent camps for people who had been uprooted from their homes by ethnic fighting after a contentious presidential election. Those uprooted people have now been permanently settled on

small parcels of land in these camps with their own timber, mud and corrugated metal roofed huts. Last trip, we worked on two of these camp locations, and it looks like this year we will be focusing primarily on work at Gituamba.

Stay tuned, and I'll keep you posted as we get underway.  My first post from Kenya will probably be Monday night when we get to Nairobi, just to let you know we arrived safely.

May God bless you for your interest in what He is doing in Kenya!

Jim