Kisumu Yoder's

"... as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." This verse in Joshua 1:5 "jumped" out at me on the morning Wayne was commissioned to be Bishop. It has been giving me strength ever since and I'm so thankful for the promises of God!!

As most of you probably know by now there was another robbery here in the compound soon after Gerold Millers arrived from America. Wayne and I woke around 2 am one morning and heard a strange sound... what is it?!! Oh no!! Its the siren! Someone in the compound is being robbed! Wayne quickly got dressed and prepared to leave the house while I tried to calm my fears. I was afraid to let him go in case the thieves were still around and were armed. But then Cedric, Tommy's son, came by and told us that Gerold's were the ones who were robbed and it seemed obvious that the thieves had run away by then. We feel SO bad for Gerold's!! What a welcome to Kisumu! The thieves entered their house through the back door which unfortunately had been left unlocked. We don't understand why it had to happen on the very night that they missed locking the back door. The motion sensors were going to be installed the next day... but it was too late. I'm sure God has a reason for allowing it to happen, but it hasn't been easy for them, or any of us!! When Gerold entered the hallway that night to go check email, because he couldn't sleep... he saw the thief go speeding past him and then he ran out the back door. The thieves took most of their electronics and some cash. Maybe God is trying to teach all of us something. We want to learn the lessons He has for us. We thank God for giving us peaceful sleep in spite of whats been going on. God is good! Thanks for your prayers!

A week ago today we were very happy to welcome John and Linda Beiler to Kisumu!! What a wonderful blessing to have someone here from home!! We served supper that eve. to Johns, Tony's, Kore, and Joe. Its so much fun to have Kore, (Wayne's first cousin) here in Kenya now as well. He is serving with CAM and living in Nakuru but we see him occasionally because of doing food drops here in Kisumu. That eve. we sat on the lane for a while and watched the youth play volleyball. It was a nice opportunity for Johns to see the rest of the compound folks here. On Saturday John, Wayne, and Tony went to a funeral in Nyakoko for a while. I think they were there while Tommy was preaching. Then they headed to Oroba to see where Kore and Joe were doing a food drop, and then came back to Lela where the church brothers were together to wet down our gravel church floor to settle the dust. Meanwhile Linda, Judith, our girls, and I went to visit the Muslim shops and buy some fabric. We also went to the leso shop to buy some scarves, etc. And we were happy to find some nice pottery along one of the streets for a very good price. I was thankful Judith was here to do the driving. I feel rather handicapped since I'm not used to driving "manual" vehicles. I think Linda got a good taste of how different our shopping experiences are here than in America! :) That eve. we all headed to the Food Court to eat supper. The sunset over the lake and the city was very nice and we enjoyed the food and fellowship very much!

Sunday was a full day! Marlin Stoltzfus kindly offererd to teach the Instruction class for Wayne and that was much appreciated! We didn't have to leave the house that morning until around 9:10. Our members were ON TIME that morning and seemed excited about the service. Marlin preached the first message and encouraged the church in how to care for the Bishop. After the message John went ahead with the commissioning. And now Wayne feels the weight of his responsibility even more! After that John preached a good message on the Bishop's responsibility to the church. We had a full house that day with Marlins whole family, Tony's, Kore, and Joe. Our church members wanted to celebrate the "special" occasion with bread and juice. Our culture looks at an ordination SO differently than they do here. They congratulated us and told us how happy they are. To us it did NOT feel like something to celebrate... rather it was like a weight on us. But thats ok. We decided to let our people celebrate if they want to, so we took 25 loaves of bread to church and lots of drink. 24 loaves were eaten and they would've eaten all 25 if we'd have opened the bag. Some of them had 4 pieces of bread stacked and were eating it all at once. At least we knew they weren't going home hungry. Sunday was the day that Marlin told the church that they will be getting a new pastor. I thought they handled it real well and I think they will accept Joe and Glenda very well. Some of them said things like... "we want YOU!" But at least we will still see them fairly often such as at Bible studies on Wednesdays. Our van was VERY full of Kenyans on the way home and I'm sure John and Linda got a good taste of what its like to be squashed like "sardines". :) We were all invited to Marlins for the noon meal that day. Lavina insisted on making ALL the food! Bless her heart! I felt like giving her a big hug! It made my day so much lighter. In the eve. we hosted the compound activity at our house. One blessing with having visitors is that you have plenty of help! The men helped Wayne gather the compound chairs from all the different houses and set up tables for food. Judith helped me a lot too with washing dishes and cleaning up the house. I had made sloppy jo's beforehand so I just had to heat that up and then after the service the ladies helped me make sandwiches. We had a great time singing that eve. The singing was awesome!! We had several special groups... a men's group as well as the youth group. John preached a very timely message for us about "Peace". How fitting right now with the things that have been happening around us!!

On Monday John and Wayne went to Kericho for a Pastors meeting. And a very long one at that!! We ladies spent part of the day at a pool in honor of Marji who will be leaving us soon. :( Unfortunately the schools had holiday that day and so there were quite a few people around. We didn't stay too long. Tony's left that afternoon to go back to Nakuru.

Tuesday we had a great time with Johns at Impala Park. We stopped at a bean shack on our way to pick up some beans and chapatis which we ate then at the park. The monkeys were hilarious that day. We had a hard time keeping them out of our food! But they provided lots of entertainment for us. I think Linda got some good videos of them. They were eating out of Johns hands sometimes. Once when Wayne and Johns went walking to see the other animals, I stayed beside the lake to relax and watch all our stuff. I was quite entertained by a "mama" who had a baby monkey hanging onto her. I fed her some nuts and then she came and sat down right beside me. Her tiny baby was nursing and sleeping. SOO AMAZING to watch

them! :) As we were relaxing by the lake and watching the animals a group of school students was close by and one of the teachers came and told us that they (the teachers) want to take photos with the Mzungus. So Wayne humored them and took photos with several of them. Then some of the ladies came to me and wanted to put beads around my forehead and take pics with the lady teachers. :) Life is interesting here... you never know what will be next!! That eve. we were invited to Joseph and Becky's house for supper along with the single ladies. We really enjoyed that!!

Wed. we took Johns with us to Bible study at Lena's house. She is a very poor widow who really wanted us to come because they feel like there is a literal blessing on their dala when Believers fellowship there. During the Bible study the house filled with smoke and it was starting to burn our eyes and noses. Some of the men thought we would have to try to find fresh air somewhere else. The smoke came from rice fields that were being burned off. But Wayne said," We will pray." So we told God our predicament and asked Him to change the direction of the wind. We kept on with the study and before long the air cleared and we continued in peace! Thank you God!! We were served chai and nyoyo that day. The ladies sang a traditional song of thanks for Johns before we left. They were very happy as they were singing and clapping. Visitors mean so much to them!

Yesterday was Johns last day with us. Linda and I stayed around here doing laundry and some cleaning and also took a tuk tuk to Nakumatt for some groceries. I think Linda enjoyed that although our ride home was so bumpy we thought we may have been better off walking. :) John and Wayne went to Lela to visit a number of different members, spray bed bugs, and do an Instruction class interview. We took Johns to the airport right after supper last eve. and now I'm sure their children are eagerly awaiting their arrival back home!! Thanks to all of you who encouraged them and allowed them to come!! They were a REAL BLESSING to us and we hope they have good memories of Kenya!

Today we are very excited about Waynes parents being enroute to Kenya at this very time!! We don't know when we will get to see them though... maybe not til April 13 when we take Tommy's to Nairobi for their flight home and pick up Joe and Glenda! Thank you for your continued prayers and support! We plan to leave this afternoon for Rondo Retreat to be with Tommy's family for a bit before that fateful day when we have to say goodbye! Blessings, Clara