Highlights

I know, I know 6 weeks in between blog entries is unacceptable! So we will give you a rundown of just the highlights and hope for a quicker entry next time.

Isaac turned 1 on May 31^st!

It seems like just yesterday he was surprising us all and coming a month early. He still brings such joy to all he meets. He lights up any room he enters. We celebrated by going to Nairobi. We ate at the Simba saloon where they serve wild game. Then we took Isaac and the boys to meet the giraffes at the giraffe center. It was so fun! He also just started walking last night! It’s not just 1 or 2 steps, but like 10 or 15!

Moved

We moved to another house on the missionary compound. It has been a great move for us. The house is the biggest house we’ve ever lived in. We even have 2 bathrooms. The view is incredible from our backyard and we even have a swing set now! We’ve been painting and my friend Amanda has been helping me with some décor. So pictures will come when it is complete I promise. For now here is a preview of the view from our backyard. I know you all are on expedia.com right now booking your flights for a visit toKenya!

Pets

We have 2 tortoises now. The first is named Toby and the 2^nd is Goliath. A man from the valley came all the way up here in hopes of selling some turtles he captured in order to buy food for his family. We happily accepted these low maintenance pets.

NO MORE PACI!

Jude gave up his paci and is doing just fine without it. Grandparents have been praying for this one for a while J!

Preaching

Kyle has been preaching a lot lately. He was able to preach on father’s day and encourage the father’s in Kenya to look to our Heavenly Father to guide them as they lead their families. He did an incredible job! He has been invited several other times to preach as well. We are so thankful the Lord is allowing us to invest spiritually to our community here. We are continually being stretched to serve beyond our own abilities.

Ladies Bible Study

I have been desiring to start a Bible study for my Kenyan friends since we arrived. The Lord opened the door just within this last month and we had an incredible turn out and the women seem to be hungry for the Word and to fellowship with one another! Christina has helped me get it going and I’m so thankful for her friendship. We also started a study for just the missionary women on the compound. It is encouraging. It also helps me feel a little less lonely at times when we get together and study the Word with each other.

Duininck Girls

We welcomed our first visitors from America! Emily and Hanna arrived on July 2! They both have naturally fit in and have been such servants here in Kapsowar. Emily is working hard in the hospital teaching the nurses some excellent nursing skills. Hanna has also spent some time at the hospital, but a lot of time here with me and the boys. She has an incredible energy and gift for teaching. Hudson loves it when she teaches him school! We stay up late talking, playing games or watching movies! I’m really enjoying having some girls around!

Pokot land here we come again!

Kyle spearheaded another trip to the valley to minister to the Pokot people. We had a team of 18 go this time. Including Christina, the OBGYN, 3 nurses, vaccinations, surgical specialist surveying needs for cleft palate repair (we have a grant that allows us to do the surgery here for free), pharmacy and local missionaries and pastors! We stayed the night this time. We had a full day of clinic and Kyle was able to encourage the elders of the Pokot church with the Word by fireside the night following the clinic. He did an amazing job. We have located some more Bibles in their language to distribute to them the next time we come. The translation was just completed last September. We definitely feel the Lord moving there and in our hearts to continue to serve this underserved community.

Homegoing of Grandpa Smith

We received word just before we left for our outreach trip that Kyle’s Grandpa Smith passed on into Glory! It was so very hard for us to be away from family during this time. Kyle’s grandpa was an amazing servant of Christ. He had a passion for the underserved and unreached peoples of the world. He translated the New Testament into the Chinantec language (a remote tribe in Mexico). He and Grandma have inspired us to obey the Lord’s calling in our lives to go to the Nations and preach Christ! We thought we would best honor his name by continuing our trip to the Pokot people and serve them and teach them from the Word of God. We promised the next time we came we would bring Bibles in dedication to Paul Smith, our beloved Grandpa who is now singing praises to our Lord with people from the Chinantec tribe! Our prayer is that Pokot believers will join Him in Glory as well as their lives are touched by God’s Word.

We miss you all so very much! Thanks for not forgetting about us! We remember you in our prayers and are so thankful for your friendship and partnership!

Community Health trip to the Pokot People

Last Friday our family had a big adventure. We went on my second community health trip to visit a village among the Pokot people group, which is one of the most rural and most unreached people groups in Kenya.

Pokot lady

They were also the group of people that have been fighting off and on with the Marakwet people, who are the ones who live around us in Kapsowar. There is currently peace between them, but I just heard a story today of one of the lady's that I work with whose brother was killed by the Pokots. Also on the road down to the village, which is an extremely treacherous road at times where you are literally driving over big rocks on the side of a mountain, we saw the remnants of the houses in a village that were burned by Pokot raiders and many people died. In spite of this tension, when I mentioned that I wanted to go minister to them and do a health clinic I had plenty of people who wanted to come with me to help. One of them was a local Kenyan missionary whose target area is among the Pokot people. Praise the Lord for laborers sent to this difficult field.

Kyle and Musa

It all started when I took care of a little 6 month old Pokot boy who was very sick with meningitis. We were not sure if he was going to make it at first, but through prayer, God miraculously brought him back from being unconscious and near death to playful and smiling. I found out his parents (Samual and Mama Musa) were Pokot new believers and I also met their local missionary pastor (Stephen) who was visiting them in the hospital.

Missionary Stephen and Isaac

Before they left the hospital I told them, "Why don't I just come to you to do baby Musa's follow-up visit?" They were very excited to hear this and told their local church who must have then told the whole surrounding community because when we came to do this "follow-up visit" I found about 100 more patients wanting to be seen.

Clinic

Of course, I kind of figured this would happen so I did bring along some medicines and we had a great time. We started our clinic with a time of singing, preaching and prayer. I gave a gospel presentation as well as the other chaplain that came with me and we had quite a few raise their hands to accept Christ. Praise the Lord. We did the clinic at the little church where the missionary pastor serves so they will be able to follow-up. They face many difficulties as you can imagine and one of them is that we found out they only have 1 Bible in their Pokot language for the whole village. We are planning to go back and find more ways to help. Where we were has no access to health care for many miles away.

Sick lady on road

On the way to get to where the church was we were actually flagged down by a very enthusiastic young man who was screaming, "Stop! Is there a doctor in the car? This woman is dying." And so we stopped and treated a lady right there on the side of the road. At the end of the day I found out she was already starting to feel better. Can you imagine, though? What are the chances that we would be passing by at just the right time? God is so good and He gets all the glory.

Jude and Pokot hut

Vanessa and the boys had a good time as well. They enjoyed playing and visiting with the other moms and kids during the clinic. I really enjoyed having them there with me and I think when we go the next time we will stay longer than just one day since we had to leave at 5am and didn't get back until after dark.

Hudson with a bow and arrow

So please be praying for the Pokot people and our ministry to them. God is doing wonderful things among them.

Shambas and Snapshots

Many of my closest girlfriends have started their own "shambas" or gardens, so I thought I would share a few photos of ours here in Kenya. It's a little primitive, but we have the perfect weather for optimal growth.

Moses, our friend, and one of the groundskeepers here on the missionary compound has been showing us the ropes. Hudson loves helping work the "fields".

What an opportunity to share many Biblical truths with Hudson as we talk about the harvest of souls and our role here in Kenya to tend to God's garden.

The Lord has definitely planted many seeds here in Kapsowar that need some watering and tending to.

So Hudson has started his own little ministry. He takes his Spidey backpack full of art supplies, stickers, paints, etc. and goes up to the children's ward all by himself to make friends and spread some joy to those that are suffering. Some who are just suffering from "boredom" as they wait for their parent's to raise enough money for the hospital bill so that they can go home. He really loves his afternoons at the hospital.

Some other good news is that we received the diaper grant from "Cotton babies"! We received 17 of the best cloth diapers on the market- Bum genius. They are so cute and actually pretty "user friendly". They wash up nicely. Which is always a bonus since we do our laundry in the bathtub. Isaac has been working on his Swahili as well.

We also celebrated Kyle's 31st birthday! He was on call, but a Kenyan medical officer covered his shift for 4 hours so we could have a date. And some medical students from Hong Kong watched the boys. We went to the Kerio Valley View restaurant again in Iten. It was nice to get away and have a peaceful dinner. Here is Kyle with his other date.

So here are a few snapshots into our lives here in Kenya. We covet your prayers. Days can be long and hard for everyone, but we trust and hope in the Lord. He is doing a good work here and in our hearts as well.

Firsts

The past few weeks have been filled with all sorts of first times for us. For one, I got to meet and shake hands with the Prime Minister of Kenya, Raila Odinga. He was here at the hospital because he donated us a new hospital ambulance. It was a big event around this small village. He flew in on his helicopter landing on the local school soccer field then drove over for his 45 minute ceremony which included lots of speeches from different people. Then he flew off. If you know anything about Kenyan politics he was the man that 2 years ago during the election sparked a string of rioting in Kenya. They now share the leadership with an acting President and Prime Minister. It keeps things interesting around here, but fortunately the violence has calmed down. It reminded us to pray for the leadership of this country and for peace. Right now they are debating the issue of abortion in Kenya which is currently illegal, but still done in secret. Pray that they will continue to protect life here.

The next first involves the new vehicle that God has allowed us to purchase. We are excited about using it in so many ways. The first few days we had it we enjoyed exploring the community around us. Many of the roads are like narrow mountain roads so it is good we have 4 wheel drive.

We drove down to the river and found a nice spot to have a family picnic. Of course, it was a quintessential missionary picnic because we were joined by several cows who were coming to get a drink and eat the grass by the river.

Plus we also got lots of stares from the local farmers passing by who probably had never seen crazy white people eating on the ground with blankets. The boys had a blast.

We are excited to use the vehicle for our first community health outreach on May 11th and look forward to using it for God's glory. Thank you to all those who have helped with the purchase of the vehicle.

Finally, yesterday we got to attend our first Kenyan wedding or should I say weddings. It started in the morning when one of my Kenyan friends asked to borrow our car. I said let me come with you. We went to a house where immediately people started putting flowers and ribbons all over my car. About an hour later the bride, maid of honor and several others came and got in the car. We took them to the church about 10 miles away. Then I had to hurry back to make it to the other wedding that we had committed to go to. I made it just in time for them to ask me to do the closing prayer. I have learned I have to be ready for anything here. The wedding lasted all day and it was quite an experience with the whole community there. We were reminded of how amazing it is to see how each culture celebrates weddings differently and how beautiful the people are whom we came to serve.

Easter Blessings

Praise the Lord! We hope every one of you had a wonderful Easter weekend. We had a great time here in Kapsowar. On Friday Kyle had the chance to do a little devotion for the Pediatric Ward and shared about the cross in Mark 15. He emphasized the curtain that was torn from top to bottom in the temple and how it represents God's desire for us to have our sins forgiven by Christ's death on the cross and come to have relationship with Him. He asked if anyone would like to begin a relationship with Christ to talk with him and 3 people expressed their desire to know Christ. "Mama Ian" accepted the Lord and "Mama and Baba (dad) Evans rededicated their lives to the Lord. It was great to then be able to offer them a Bible in their own tribal language.

On Easter Sunday we started out with doing a little Sunday School for the kids in the hospital. We had a time of singing and Hudson sang a solo of his favorite song "I have decided to follow Jesus." Kyle shared a special Bible story from a kid's book called "Clip and Tell Bible stories" which talked about the Cross and the Empty Tomb. Then the kids watched a video about Jesus. Everyone loved it. Then we went to our church and Kyle was met by one of the church elders who told him that their guest speaker could not make it and asked if he could fill in. He felt like God had really prepared him with a message to share and he really enjoyed it. It was so wonderful to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord with the Kenyans.

We enjoyed a wonderful Kenyan lunch with one of Vanessa's friends in her home. Hudson and her son Brian had a fun time playing together. She is a single mom and doing the best she can to support herself and her son. We are planning to help her go back to a cosmetology school so she can get a special trade doing hair designs which are very popular for African women on special occasions. One of the girls that lives near us has even started coming around asking to braid Vanessa's hair. I'd say she looks pretty good in all braids.

Later that evening we enjoyed a special dinner among the fellow missionaries here on station. We even had a turkey which was a real treat. We also got some plastic Easter eggs filled with candy to hide for the kids. We all had a blast. Then we had our weekly Bible study which was amazing. We talked about how Jesus as the Messiah really was all throughout the Old Testament. Take some time and look at the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, Psalm 22, and Isaiah 53. Our hearts were encouraged as we remembered our precious Savior.

Little Things

So I will be honest and share with you I had a bad day. Yes, it was bound to happen. Nothing specifically bad happened. I just was missing the "little things" of home. I kept thinking how I missed our:

Our families. Our friends. Fridays with Leah. Spontaneous lunches with Kelly. Cousin's birthday parties. Worshipping at Tulsa Bible Church. The nursery and Sunday school at TBC. Victory Mom's Day Out. Did I mention our family and friends? I could almost taste a Sonic Cherry Limeade. Being able to call Kyle on the way home and say, "It's been a hard day. Could you stop and bring something home for dinner?". Getting in a car and going to Wal-Mart when I run out of something. Hot water. Consistent electricity. Knowing that all those I loved I could reach by phone anytime. Or better yet just a short drive away. Dates with Kyle and the list could go on.

So then I remembered the "little things" I love here:

The beauty I see of God's creation from every window of my house. Watching my kids' imaginations flourish as they learn to live with minimum. Watching my kids' make friends in a culture that finds joy even in the midst of great poverty. Afternoons with Edna as we laugh together and share openly and honestly the deeper things of the heart. Getting to have breakfast, lunch and dinner with Kyle everyday. Sending Hudson off to the hospital all by himself to be dad's big "assistant". Worshiping our Lord together with another tribe and tongue. Smiles from Kenyans you can see miles away. Walking up the path to buy a dozen fresh eggs. Walking a little further to buy fresh fruits. Mangos (I think of Shannon and Marlene everytime I eat one. I wish I could share one with you right now!) The elderly guy who knocks on my door and brings me fresh lemons and grapefruits straight from his "shamba" (garden) for only 2 shillings a piece. Seeing a new exotic bird everyday. Seeing the local children play outside my door making windmills out of twigs and leaves. The laughter and joy that is always present in their faces. Hearing God's miracles and handiwork from Kyle every evening as he shares about his day at the hospital. Knowing without a doubt that this is exactly where God wants my family and I to be. And all of these little things I love helped me to treasure the rest of my day and enjoy the Lord's goodness to me back at home in Oklahoma as well as my new home here in Kapsowar.

Just for Fun

Just for fun. Just because we live in Africa. Just because these are now our beloved pets. Can you guess which one of us loved Camilla the Camelion the most?