Kisumu Yoder's: Whispering Hope...

"Hope is seeing light in spite of being surrounded by darkness."

"He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings." Ps.107:35

"For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:" Isa. 44:3

A big thing on our minds is the oppressive heat of dry season. For me, it's hard to function well. The heat saps energy and tends to discourage me. Temperatures have been in the upper 90s every day. The dust rolls and my house would be dirty even if I'd clean 24/7... or so it seems. We ladies are not critical of each other's dirty houses because we all understand so well. The smell of dust is almost constant and my sinuses act up. How I long for refreshing water from Heaven! How wonderful it would be if God would water our plants rather than we buying city water to keep them alive. One thing dry season does for a person is make you extremely thankful for rainy season!! I didn't get over it all last year!! Many times I found myself thanking God for rain! But in spite of this dry, hot spell we have hope. The rains will come in God's time and He will give grace to go through this dry spell. Yes God is good and we look forward to better days ahead! :)

On Jan. 30, exactly 2 months after Wayne's Grandpa Kore Yoder died, we got word that Wayne's other Grandpa, Steve Yoder, from Nappanee, IN, passed away in his sleep. The next morning all lights seemed to be green for Wayne to fly "home" to attend the funeral. I didn't want to leave our children alone here but I wanted Wayne to be able to go if he wanted to. It was NOT easy to see him go!! A weeks separation seemed VERY long, but after the hard "goodbye" was over we tried to keep each other cheered up. Things went quite well in his absence and I was so thankful that there were no major catastrophes. Life continued on pretty well as normal here with the children going to school and Clarissa and I kept busy with household duties. We spent a day cleaning Stacy's house in preparation for her return back to Kenya. It's been GREAT having her back and she seems glad to be here. We missed her cheery presence while she was gone. We ate a few meals at Joe's house while Wayne was gone and Brians invited us over for a Sunday eve. Another time Brians treated us to ice cream cones at KFC! That meant a lot!! Wayne told us before he left that we could go out to eat one evening for something special. But unfortunately we had to give up those plans because of demonstrations in Kisumu that day. The political situation in Kenya is still very unstable. Joe and Joseph were in Kericho for a meeting that day and they had a good bit of trouble getting home. A trip that should've taken only an hour and a half took 3 1/2. They could tell you stories... such as having panga's waved at them. People hitting their vehicle with sticks, a man jumping out right in front of them. They bumped him a bit with the vehicle before he finally moved away. They had to drive over a pile of branches on the road and I'm not sure what all... but thank God they arrived home safely!! And we hope for a better political climate in the days ahead as well!!

Wayne was very thankful for the privilege of attending his Grandfather's funeral. He saw a lot of cousins, uncles, and aunts, that he rarely sees. It was special for him to spend time with his mom and dad as well! One morning he had the privilege of spending time with Linford and Kay Bontrager at a coffee shop. He experienced some brutally cold weather while he was in IN and seemed to be glad to come back to the warmth of Kisumu. His flight out of Chicago was delayed due to snow so his return was a bit later that planned but we were thankful it was only 6 hours or so later than scheduled. We were delighted to watch his plane land at the Kisumu airport. What a grand reunion! :)

The day after Wayne arrived home we had a special 40th birthday surprise for Joseph at Kiboko Bay. After returning to the compound we had some special dessert at Joe's house along with a short prayer meeting. It was Joe's turn to host and they helped plan the surprise for Joseph.

On Friday Wayne visited Paul Juma again who is very low with cancer. That eve. Kore joined us for supper as he was here for a few days doing CAM work. Stacy also joined us.

We enjoyed the church service at Kajulu on Sunday. We were blessed that old mama Elizabeth has finally freely confessed her smoking addiction and seems to be doing well. The ban on her excommunication was lifted that day. We were so happy to discover that the road to church has been worked on and is in much better shape than its been ever since our arrival in Kenya! It sure cuts down on the amount of time it takes to reach the church!

Monday evening was our annual KBL meeting at Jake's. It's a good time to connect with some of the non CBF neighbors who live in this compound as well. We had a good evening and Jake's provided a nice snack and drinks.

The week after Wayne's return from America he spent a good bit of time fixing things. I thought I might scream if anything else quit working around here. There were a number of different water problems and well... I won't go into all the gory details of everything that happened... but come to think of it, I can be VERY grateful that all that stuff didn't happen while he was gone! Pake Yesu!!

On Wednesday Wayne and I and James and Christina headed to Ugunja for Bible study at Anna's house. It was SO warm in her house that day and I thanked God when I felt a light breeze. We enjoyed learning to know the Ugunja members a bit better and we were served mandazis and chai afterward.

Tony and Judith's family came to Kisumu on Thursday morning. Tony needed to spend a few days working on well projects for CAM. We enjoyed having them here. We served a special birthday supper for Bradlyn on Thurs. eve. He chose grilled chicken, potatoes, and pasta salad. And of course there was cake and ice cream. Hard to believe my baby is 8 years old!! We needed to hurry a bit with cleaning up dishes because we were on schedule to host prayer meeting at our house that eve. We enjoyed that as well! The power went off during prayer time like it does so many times!

On Friday afternoon Wayne spent more time visiting in Ahero. Please pray for Tobias and Emma. Their marriage is really struggling and Emma has not been attending church. The same afternoon Judith and I went to the school for a while to take a Birthday snack in honor of Brad's birthday. Janice also helped with food since Mahlon had a birthday the same day. On Fri. eve. we were treated to some of Judith's yummy cooking! She wanted to make paneer butter masala for us and also invited Joseph and Becky and Joe and Glenda. It was delicious!!! And Becky's dessert was great too!! That night Bradlyn and Jamie and 3 of Brian Mast's boys slept in the tent on our lawn. They had a great time by the sound of things.

Yesterday Wayne and Joseph had a Bishop's meeting in Kericho. They met the AMA delegation there, Jonas and Wanda Beiler, and Phil and Sue Beachy. They came along back to Kisumu with Joseph and Wayne and now we look forward to spending some time with them this week! God bless all of you and thank you for your prayers and support!! Clara for the Yoders