News

Good Afternoon Everybody!
I hope everyone is doing well and are having a blessed week.
We have had a wonderful week. On Saturday we went to the snake farm. We learned which snakes are poisonous and which snakes are not. We also saw alligators and turtles. One turtle was 110 years old. Amazing!
On Sunday we went to a different church that was out in the bush. The church building was made of mud. There were probably thirty members. The women sat on one side and the men on the other. Chad and Landon did a small sermon. Chad did most of his in Swahili. He did a wonderful job and everyone was impressed. For the Lord’s Supper, we go up one by one starting with the eldest person. After services, the church wanted to fix us lunch. They cooked us rice and coconut chicken. It was very good and so nice. By the time we left, we had been there 4 hours. Lunch takes a long time to prepare. We were so blessed by their hospitality. They are SO welcoming! And to cook for us when they are living in poverty. We definitely felt the unity of Christ among them.
On Monday we visited two different ministries. The first was an African, Mike, who started an orphanage program. Children are considered orphans if the father dies (because the father has the power in the family) or if both parents die. It is tradition for the other family members to take care of the orphan children but many times the extended family does not have enough resources to take of the orphans. Mike, working with Christian Relief Fund, has given the extended family the resources so that the orphans may stay in their village. This is a wonderful thing. The children will get to grow up with their actual extended family, grow up in their culture, with their tribal language, and live in the same house they have always lived in. Many of these things are lost when orphans are taken away and put in an orphanage. Mike makes sure all the orphans attend church and go to school. Mike started this himself with the help of others including Jim Beck. He has made such a big difference in these orphans’ lives. The orphans are now educated, living in good conditions, and are getting medical care. We also visited with Anderson, another African, who has started self-help groups. The groups form their own bank and then use the money to take out loans and start their own businesses. It is very detailed and would be hard to explain in writing. Anderson also started the work himself. Both Mike and Anderson gave us advice. They told us: Don’t go into a village with a plan on how to help the people. Instead, go into the village and ask the people what they really need help with.
It was great advice. Sometimes we think we know the best way to improve something, even though we don’t live in that place, but we can be wrong. It is better to ask the people who actually live there and work with them on what they really need than to assume you know.
On Tuesday, Courtney and I went with Margaret. Our goal was to encourage singe mothers to go to the medical camp. We first went to a woman’s home that had a growth on her arm. The growth hung from her arm and was about a foot long. We prayed with her and encouraged her to go the medical camp to get the growth removed. She is very scared to go. Most of these women have lived out in the bush their whole lives and are scared of medicine because they have no experience with it. The next woman we went to was blind and has a skin problem on her face. This woman had been raped 3 times and had conceived children from each rape. So all 3 of her children were from rape. We again prayed and encouraged her to get help with her skin condition. Margaret explained that this woman is still strong. She sells firewood to make a living and encourages people herself. The whole situation was very moving. It broke my heart to see her situation and how she was abused but it was amazing to see her faith in God and the trust she has in Him to keep living. It put me in my place. My problems did not seem so big any more. I will never forget her. We then drove an hour out in the bush to see a woman who has a 3-year-old daughter that has her reproductive organs outside her body. We prayed with her and she said she would come and take her daughter to the camp. All these women just needed some love to make them change their mind about going to the camp. It made the woman feel very important that we drove an hour to pray with her. I saw the power of God’s love. I want to challenge you to go out of your way to show love to someone because the rewards are worth it. It was an amazing day! The boys helped get the medical camp ready by setting up tables and chairs.
Today, Wednesday, we are getting ready for the medical camp. Some of the doctors have arrived and the shipment of medical supplies came in. So all today we unloaded boxes of medical supplies and sorted them into the different sites they will go. There are going to be 3 different medical sites. We are all getting very excited for the camp! Please pray for the medical camps.
Life in Africa…
1. Be careful when spraying bug spray on a tile floor. I have come very close to falling several times!
2. We have no T.V. and Internet is limited. So in the evenings we just sit and talk or play card games. It gets dark here around 6:30 p.m. and everything starts shutting down. It has been very enjoyable to be away from technology. Everyone should try a night of no technology and just sit around and talk!
3. Chad learned he is a bad judge at distance. He decided to walk to town with a friend because he thought it was close and pick up some groceries! They arrived home 3 hours later! (Town is only 10 minutes away when driving!) Let’s just say lesson learned!
4. It takes 4 plumbers to fix a toilet. Jim’s toilet over flowed. It took 4 different plumbers and all day for the African’s to fix it. Jim said he could of fixed it himself in an hour if he had tools ☺
5. Chad and I ate at an African cafe for lunch for 240 shillings in other words $3 dollars.

We are learning so much! So many people we have met have blessed us and shown us more about who God is! It has been wonderful! We love you all! Please pray for our health, especially as we are about to start the medical camps. Please pray for our future. Please pray that God’s light is shown through us.
Many Blessings to You All,
Chad and Whitney