Kisumu Yoder's: More Visitors, More Blessings...............

"If I settle on the far side of the sea, your right hand will hold me fast." Psalm 139:9,10. Someone gave me a motto with this verse on it and I keep it in the kitchen as a constant reminder. It reminds me of the quote... "If God brings you to it, He'll bring you through it". I have found this to be SO TRUE!! I've been amazed at what God is giving me strength to do... things I would not have thought possible.

How do I describe life in Kenya right now? Well its HOT! We are BUSY and life is exciting with all our visitors! :) A week ago today was Bradlyn's birthday and now he is 6!!! How can it be? And his big sister Clarissa turns sweet 16 tomorrow!! Amazing! Bradlyn decided that he wanted a shoofly pie for his birthday supper rather than the traditional chocolate cake! :) That was great by me but some of the others preferred cake. I guess he takes after his Dad... Wayne likes pie better too. I recently started doing Kindergarten work with Bradlyn and he seems to like it quite well. I hope he doesn't get tired of it long before he's finished. He is such an outdoor boy. He LOVES it here and plays outside with his friends almost all day long.

Monday eve. a week ago we hosted a compound meeting here at our house. That includes all the missionary couples as well as our non Mennonite neighbors who live in the compound. The main topic of conversation was how much to pay the gate men who man the main compound gate 24/7, and such like. I was glad to finally meet some of our neighbors and to have names for them. We served them cold sodas, juice, and mandazis. Wayne was elected to be the secretary/treasurer for the compound. He is responsible to collect gate fees, pay the gate men, etc... His plate keeps getting more and more full!!

On Wed. afternoon more visitors arrived!! Hurrah!! Marty, and Justin, and David, as well as Tonys. Jess, April, Lynita, and Kath also came back from their trip to the Mara that afternoon. Sounds like they all had some excitement at the Mara!! Ask them about the mad elephant! :) That eve. we all planned to eat at the Yacht Club by Lake Victoria but when we got there we discovered the kitchen was closed due to an electrical problem, so we headed down the road a bit further to Kiboko bay which is also by the lake. We finally got to see hippos!!! They were fairly close to the dock where we were standing. So interesting!! It was a very windy eve. but felt good to get some relief from the heat. Sometimes I bout had to pinch myself because it was so hard to believe we had visitors from HOME! :)

Thurs. was a very interesting but tiring day! We took 2 vans with Wayne and Tony each driving one and headed out to two different schools to pass out Bible story books. There were around 300 students at the first school. One of our members at Lela is a teacher there. The students were SO happy to see all the mzungus! They all sat on the ground in front of our group while we sang a few songs for them and then they sang some for us. I LOVE to hear them sing those African songs! After that Wayne told them the story of the Good Samaritan while Marty, Justin, David, Kath, Lynita, Judith, April, and Jess and Tony acted out the story. They did a great job and the children loved it! It was especially funny when Tony, who was the donkey, crawled on the ground with Justin sprawled across his back ( the hurt man). After the story, the teachers had the children line up by classrooms and they were given their books. It was obvious it made their day! :) At the second school there were only a hundred children or so and their school rooms were pretty decrepit. I can't imagine living in the dirt like they do with only very crude desks, dirt floor and only partially done walls. Some of the children did a song\dance for us while one of the boys beat on a "drum". It was actually just a plastic jug... but he sure had the beat! :) By the time we finished at the schools we were very WARM and tired. Some of the group went to the Animal market after that but Wayne brought Vanessa, Brad, and I home for a while to recuperate and I wanted to get some work done before eve. because we were hosting the prayer meeting at our house that eve. Wayne came to pick us up later that afternoon and then our whole group went to William and Rosemary's house for a wonderful Kenyan meal. Rosemary is a very jolly lady and her and Marty were great friends when Marty served here, so as you can imagine we had a lot of good laughs! :) We were served chicken, beef, rice, beans, ugali, sukumu, fried cabbage (my favorite), and chapatis. It was excellent!! We barely got home in time to be ready for prayer meeting at 7. By that time two of Ivan Peachey's boys, and their future brother in law had arrived from VA and we also welcomed home 3 of Marlins children who had been in Greeneville for Bible school for 3 weeks. We had quite a crowd and the singing that eve. was AWESOME!! I wasn't nearly ready to quit when it was time!

On Fri. we had to say goodbye to Kath, Lynita, Jess, and April. Judith took them to the airport a little before we needed to leave to go to the food court for supper. Tommy's, Tonys, Joe Fisher, and the rest of our visitors all ate there that night. I hadn't realized before that eve. that you can see the airport from there! So soon after the time that we knew the ladies flight was leaving Kisumu we saw a plane taxi and head down the runway! We assume it was their flight. That was neat to be able to watch them and know that they had a safe take-off.

Saturday was another FULL day! We were in charge of serving Brunch to the AMA delegation, which includes Ivan Beachy, Ronald and Brenda Miller, and Mark and Rose Wagler. We served breakfast in 2 shifts since Tony, Joe, Justin and David needed to leave early to go do a food drop. We served biscuits, gravy, scrambled eggs, and coffee cake. While we were eating the 5 little Gingerich children came to our house with big smiles and later with some candy to treat all of us because they had BIG news!! A new little brother was born that morning at the Aga Kahn hospital. His name is Jediah Kenya! How exciting to have a newborn in the compound! Right after Brunch Wayne and I sat down for with the Board for our Interview. It took several hours I think, and we had a great time sharing together. They are a wonderful group of people and we have really enjoyed them. I made a bunch of pizza for supper that eve. and then I was VERY glad to call it a day!!

Sun. morning Mark Waglers, as well as Tony's, Marty, Justin, and David accompanied us to Lela to church. Mark preached which was a very nice break for Wayne. Sometimes I just had to look over at the Zook boys and marvel that I'm seeing someone from home. :) I'm sure they're not used to having sheep in the church and such like but I guess that's alright. There's more than one way to have church. :) One of the Jaduong, (old men) fell off the bench that morning... don't know if he fell asleep or what but he seemed fine. After the message all of the mzungus went up front and sang "Its not an easy road." The members seemed to appreciate it very much! They LOVE having visitors... it makes them feel so honored! When we got home we ate some of Judith's yummy ricardo chicken, rice and beans. Carolyn made some pretty cakes for dessert which helped me a lot too! That eve. the whole compound and all the visitors were invited to Tommy's for a special service. Ronald Miller had an interesting topic. I'm not used to hearing such fine speaking anymore. We hear so many simple child-like messages so the people can understand. He did great and we were encouraged to be faithful!! We were served some yummy wraps that eve. as well. A windstorm came up and the temperature dropped amazingly!! I was actually cold!!!!!!!!!! It felt pretty nice for a change.

Monday morning found us wearily getting out of bed at an early hour to meet at Jake's house at 6:00 to butcher about 175 chickens! What a blessing to have plenty of good "home grown" chicken again. Once again the heads, feet and various internal workings were bagged up for the benefit of our native brothers and sisters who love such things. Things went well and we had extra help with all the visitors who so willingly availed themselves to help us. God bless them! While we were working, Charity, Judith, and Marty were busy behind the scenes making us some super yummy donuts, and CREAM STICKS!! They looked and tasted like home!! It was wonderful!! Lavina served a great breakfast casserole as well. That afternoon Tonys, Marty, and the Zook boys headed back to Nakuru and our house seems quiet and empty. But its nice to get a bit caught up with things again. We served lunch to the Board again today. I made a simple stir-fry which they seemed to like and a pineapple cake for dessert. Wayne has been busy most of the afternoon fixing a water problem in the house where the Board is staying. I think the problem is taken care of finally! PTL!!

Well this is long enough! Thanks for listening to my ramblings! I won't be offended if you don't read everything. :) Thanks again to all of you who have shared wonderful treats with us!! We feel so indebted to all of you!! Just the other day Matthias Peachey stopped by with some more yummy treats!! Thanks so much Ivan and Kay!! I could tell that you know what the missionaries here like to receive! God bless you all and keep you in His care! Clara

Wayne has a story that he wants to share with you yet... :)

Bishop Marlin reported that he saw something at the Kajulu church on Sunday that he had never seen before; an auction in church! Before you get too concerned, listen to the details. It seems at offering time when the ushers were counting the offering someone had an additional offering to add. Only it wasn't cash, it was a small chicken! As I understand the Superintendent went back and received the chicken. What would you do next? How do you receive a chicken and yet meet the need the offering was for? If you take it home how does the church or the donor know what happened with it? Being a resourceful Luo, he took it to the front of the church and had an auction! This brother held the chicken up for all to see and asked if anyone would offer 100 shillings for the chicken. He immediately received several bids, so he asked, who will give 150 shillings? This time only one old mama raised her hand. Thus the auction ended, he took the chicken back to the old sister and collecting her money returned to the front to deposit it with the rest of the mornings offering. Problem solved! Did Jesus have a problem with the auction? I don't think so. Somebody gave what they had to the work of the Kingdom, (probably out of their poverty) and a resourceful brother turned it into a useful form. I'm not suggesting Sunday benefit auctions in America,

but I'm guessing God may have received more glory from this simple gift and the way it was taken care of then our sometimes "showy" ways of giving out of our abundance.