Kisumu Yoder's: September 2017

"If we fully comprehended the brevity of life, our greatest desire would be to please God and serve one another."

"Time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters in life."

"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom." Ps. 90:12

We've been reminded of the brevity of life again lately. On Wednesday Wayne and I and Clarissa were at Rabuor for the annual clothing sale. An older member, Elisha, was there that day and I took more notice of him than usual for some reason. I was surprised that he knew as much English as he did. And I remember that he didn't buy anything but he took a pair of free trousers that had a tear in them. I was happy for him that he found something for free that would serve him well. I also noticed that he laid on one of the benches for a while... maybe he was tired? The next day we heard that Elisha went home after the sale but then left again and as he was crossing the highway he was struck by a speeding matatu. He was still alive and was taken to a number of different hospitals, given an Xray at one, but was refused admittance because of the ongoing nurses' strike. He was finally taken to a private hospital but could not be immediately admitted because they lacked the 50.00 (approximately) admittance fee. They put him in a bed and a young man that was with him said he would go home to find the money needed for admittance. The next morning when someone came in to check on him, they found him dead. Poor soul!! But if he was ready to go, then he is much better off now!! His mind wasn't clear anymore. Oh how I hope that this nurses strike will soon be finished!! It's awful to think about all the people who die because there is no one willing to care for them!!

There is also another member from Rabuor who is lying in the mortuary right now. His name is Walter and he has had a lot of health issues in the last year or so. Now there is a BIG bill for the church or family to pay and they don't know where the money will come from. There was a significant amount of money that had been raised for his hospital bill that never made it for the bill but was swiped by a unscrupulous relative instead. Oh God, please give wisdom to know when and where to help!!

Last week there was another reminder of how suddenly life can be taken from us! Wayne and I and Brian and Mary Jane were at Dienya for Bible Study at Maria's house. We had a very nice time and dear mama Maria was so thrilled to have all of us there that she almost danced! :) On the way home as we were coming through Kisumu on Industrial street we came up to an accident that had just happened. A small box truck hit a piki. The driver, a young man, was lying sprawled out on the road, face up, with blood running down his face. He was dead by all appearances. So quickly his life was gone!! Oh I hope he was ready to go! Jake and Janice also came up on an accident in the last week or so where 4 members of the same family were killed in a piki accident. They saw some very gruesome things!

Yesterday Wayne was at the burial of Bishop Eric's grandson, a sweet 3 year old boy, who was murdered. He appears to have been strangled, and then his body was thrown into a deep well. His body wasn't discovered until a day after he disappeared. The boy's aunt, is the one who is suspected of committing the crime. She LOVED that boy, or so everyone thought. She took care of him so often that people would have thought she was his mother. I just wonder what caused her to commit such a crime!! I was praying for Wayne, I'm sure it wasn't easy to preach at a funeral like that!! And so... life is fragile! God help us to be ready when our time comes to go!

Last Saturday our family headed to Nakuru to be there for a special commissioning service at the Free Area church on Sunday. We spent time with Tony's Sat. eve. and then our girls stayed at their house overnight while Wayne, Bradlyn, and I stayed at the apartment by the school. That was special for me because that's the house that Mahlon and Ruth lived in 17 years ago. We have lots of good memories of our visit to their house in 2000! The service at Free Area the next day was a LONG one! It started at 9 am and was finally finished sometime after 5pm. There was a break over lunch time. But in spite of our tired "seats" we were VERY blessed and encouraged by our time there! How exciting to think that the church has been blessed with two new leaders!! Sammy Meshack was chosen by lot to be the new Pastor, and Enos Kalos was chosen to be the Deacon. I was amazed by the beautiful 4 part singing at that church! Moses does a tremendous job leading the singing. The message bearers were Wayne, Samuel Njogu from Engashura, and Lorne Keupfer. We were richly fed and inspired! Bishop Freeman Beiler was in charge of the Ordination. The cooks did a good job of serving LOTS of people at lunch time! I believe almost all of the Nakuru AMA, CAM, and Open Hands staff were there. For those of you who know John Newton, he was quite happy that day and did a good job of ushering, organizing, and making announcements. :)

Sunday evening we were invited to Johnny and Sue Ann's house, along with Tony's, and Lorne Keupfers. Sue Ann served us some wonderful food!! We really enjoyed being there! The next day we were invited to Tony's for breakfast... some more good food!! Monday was family day so it was really nice to be able to travel home and not worry about our children missing a day of school. Joe and Glenda had a bad experience that day as they were enjoying family time at Impala Park. The monkeys were very much enjoying some of their leftover food and one of the monkey's was too close for comfort for Tiffany so she kicked at it, and ended up being bitten close to her ankle! The Impala staff didn't seem too concerned but just said, "she'll be ok, just take her to the hospital." Hmmm... But when Dr. Sokwala heard about it she ordered them to come to her office immediately. Tiffany was given antibiotics for infection and began a series of rabies vaccines. Tiffany is being so brave and hasn't even cried when they give her shots! So I guess the moral of the story is... be careful when feeding monkeys!

On Tuesday Joe's family and Wayne, Clarissa, and I went to Mama Zilpa's house. Every year she invites the Pastor's families to come celebrate the year she was healed from her sickness and thank God for giving her another year of life. We helped a bit with food preparation and very much enjoyed her tasty cooking! We sang some songs and Wayne encouraged her with a Scripture reading.

We were blessed with a nice, fairly cool day, for the joint unit meeting here in Kisumu on Friday. It even rained some, but not enough to cause problems. Joe and Glenda were the hosts and did a good job of having their place nicely cleaned up and inviting for all of us. A lot of work and food preparation goes into days like that but we sure enjoy the fellowship! It's great to have the opportunity to be with the Nakuru folks once in a while too! In the evening we spent some time with Stacy and her visitors, Troy and Raquel Witmer. Raquel's parents are Tim Millers from Belize. It was interesting to make those Belize connections and share some stories from there! Saturday eve. we were together again enjoying a pizza supper at our house. Rhoda Wengerd was here as well.

This morning Wayne and I, Shonda and Bradlyn attended church at Ahero. Clarissa and Vanessa attended at Lela to help care for Tiffany and Elliot. They enjoy helping Glenda with babysitting! The message was preached before Sunday school, at Ahero so that we would have time to go to Rabuor for a members meeting. The main purpose of the meeting was to introduce the idea of Bishop ordination to the church. We have been blessed by how brothers, Thomas and William have been working together and carrying on the work at Rabuor. Several weeks ago Wayne met with the pastors and they agreed to begin pursuing ordaining a national Bishop for the Rabuor congregation. Ballots were passed out and are to be handed back in 2 weeks. He is wanting to hear the voice of the church in the matter. How exciting it would be to have another National Bishop! It would also free Wayne from one of the 7 churches he is responsible for. Wayne does not believe it is the perfect plan of God for one man to be responsible for so many churches, but neither do we want to rush things. He also introduced a long range goal of adding a Pastor to the team there. Please join us in prayer that this work could continue according to the will of God and that He would continue to raise godly leaders to carry on the work of His Kingdom in Kenya.

Thanks to all of you for your interest in our lives and for your prayers!! Wayne and Clara Yoder