Kisumu Yoder's: Our Greatest Need...

"If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, "God sent us a Savior." Roy Lessin

Thank you God for meeting our greatest need!! Forgiveness is a wonderful gift! Let's give everyone around us the gift of forgiveness as well, if we feel we've been wronged. It's the best gift we can give!

Kisumu is VERY warm these days! Dry season has come. I'm already anxious for rainy season. I think I'm going to need to exercise a lot of patience in the next several months.

We enjoyed having Mark and Mary Ellen Beachy around the last several weeks. They spent a good bit of time visiting their friends at Dienya. One day we compound ladies were invited to Jan's house for a tea party. The outdoor table was nicely decorated with Christmas accents. We enjoyed some American goodies that Mary Ellen shared with us and she also shared encouraging words with us. It was great being together!

We are finally finished with clothing sales! We had a good sale with the Kasongo and Ombeyi churches recently. It was a bit nerve-wracking at times though. We are still learning ways to help the day flow more smoothly. I always enjoy seeing the ladies get their new dresses and other needful items from the clothing room. They seem to enjoy the day immensely! Please pray for former Pastor Peter and Irene from Ombeyi. It's been really hard, especially for Wayne, that Peter needed to be excommunicated because of having taken a second wife. How we would love to see repentance and healing in their home!

Dishon finally graduated from medical school on Thursday the 7th! He came around with his graduation gown one evening and wanted pictures taken with us. He says it is hard to believe that this dream has finally been realized. There were a lot of obstacles on the journey that were overcome by his faith in his Heavenly Father. He is hoping to do his internship here in Kisumu area but is not sure yet where he will be working. James and Jake were able to attend the graduation in Nairobi, which made Dishon very happy.

Wayne has spent hours recently working on land issues. Several of our churches have never been given a title for the land that was purchased years ago. It's a long process that takes a lot of patience! He has been working with the land offices in Awasi and Ahero and for the most part they've been workable. Wayne also spent a good part of a day taking some Ahero members to a burial in the Nyakoko area. It seems he has been awfully busy lately. Maybe someday life will slow down...

Sunday a week ago we were at Lela for Church. While Wayne was preaching I heard a plane fly overhead and I told Bradlyn that it might be Kore coming home from America. (He had gone home for Grossdaudy's funeral.) In case some of you don't know... Kore and Wayne are first cousins. Sure enough! Kore said later that the plane flew over the Lela area. We were glad he could join us for lunch. He brought with him something VERY special for Wayne. It was one of Grossdaudy Yoder's German-English Bibles. The first verse that Wayne laid his eyes on when he opened the Bible was a verse that Grossdaudy had marked with brackets... "And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age." Gen. 15:15 It describes him so well. It would be interesting to know how long before his death that he marked that verse.

Last Monday our family headed to Nakuru where we stayed for almost a week. Wayne was asked to share Revival messages each evening for 5 nights at CBYC. (Christian Believer's Youth Conference) We had the privilege of having our own place to stay while we were there. The 3 school teachers from Nakuru live together in the house that Marcus Burkholder's vacated, and since they were all staying at the youth conference and the house was empty, they kindly allowed us to stay there. We loved it! It was almost like vacation for the children and I since we needed to do very little cooking. We ate our evening meals at CBYC. Wayne didn't really have vacation though!! He spent many hours studying and preparing messages. The messages were powerful and we hope and pray that the seeds sown will bring forth fruit! A real highlight for us was the awesome singing!! We rarely hear really good congregational singing in our churches so it was wonderful to hear such lovely singing led by Mark Beachy. He has a real gift in song leading! It felt strange to have a daughter attending the conference for the first time. Clarissa very much enjoyed her time there! She had a bit of trouble with eating Kenyan food every day for 10 days... in fact she lost a good bit of weight! It's not that she doesn't like the food it's just a bit hard on her stomach. We had ugali and sukumu almost every evening that we were there. On Sunday we had a nice change to our diet... rice and stew with chapatis. The national students seemed to LOVE the conference! At least the ones I talked to! I love to see them enjoy it so much and I hope it will help shape their lives and make them strong in Christ.

On Thursday Judith planned a special cookie baking day. Sue Ann Zook, Maria Wagler, and Judith and I were together making Christmas cookies. We had all done some baking ahead of time so there were lots of cookies to exchange that day. It was fun to spend time with some of the Nakuru folks since we don't get the opportunity very often. We were happy to see Joe and Glenda on Friday. They came to show support to some of the Lela members who attended the conference and also wanted to hear the chorus sing. They stayed overnight at Tonys. Gerold and Becky also came to Nakuru for the program on Sat. afternoon. On Sat. we were invited to Tony's for Brunch as well as supper that eve. Judith's food is always looked forward to! And the pizza that eve. was extra good after so many meals of ugali and sukumu! :)

Wayne preached again on Sunday morning and the chorus sang most of the songs they sang at the program the day before. They did even better the second time around!! CBYC is a LOT of work, especially for the Nakuru folks. Marlin and Anna Yoder with their 7 children moved into a small house on the property at Lamp and Light and took charge of countless things that needed to be done to keep things running smoothly. Their were 4 national sisters who cooked for those 10 days and they worked very hard as well! But in some ways the way they do things is SO much simpler than our American ways of doing things. The menu changes very little and they don't need large kitchens with many cabinets and utensils. Only big cooking pots and firewood with a few simple ingredients to make the food is necessary. We are glad to be home again and getting settled into Kisumu life once again. There's no place like home!

We were shocked this afternoon, when Consolata (Kajulu); told Joe and Glenda that she had just received word that Pheobe (Rabuor), passed away. Consolata said that she had been very sick with TB. We didn't even know that she was sick. Susan Amata had visited her on Thursday to see why she had not been in church for the last several Sunday's. I don't think anyone expected this. She must have gotten worse fairly quickly because she died at home. Pheobe was at the compound fairly regularly over the years, selling baskets made out of plastic bags and samosa's. Thomas told us that Mama Florence (Rabuor) was admitted to District Hospital with TB as well.

While we were in Nakuru, Bradlyn stepped on a bone and hurt his heel fairly badly. He has been soaking it on occasion and we were putting antibiotic cream on it, but he still was not walking on it right. This evening after soaking it Clara was pushing around on it and out popped a triangular piece of bone! He immediately said it felt better.

We wish all of you a WONDERFUL Christmas and New Year!! We're so blessed to have so many friends!! God bless, Wayne, Clara and family

"He became like us, so we could become like Him."