"All that is not given is lost"

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Mombasa - Vacation time at the coast.

Vacation time for our team. We headed to the coast (to make up for the lack of water and vegetation in the desert!). I went with Scott, Susie, their boys and Barbara, and we all had a very good time there.

Nicely burnt to a crisp!

"Building the Kingdom." You never go on vacation from being a witness where ever you are.

World's cutest child.

The hunters following the tide out.

Hunting for squid and shells.

Our guide showing Kyle the different fishes.

We took a boat out to our very own island. We had it all to our selves because we packed a lunch and stayed the whole afternoon to do as many hours of snorkeling as we could, meanwhile the rest of the tourists went back to the fancy sea food restaurant.

We enjoyed the snorkeling, and saw SO many neat things! God is awesome!

Fearless

Fisherman in a carved out canoe and a tattered sail.

This made me laugh!

Saturday, November 08, 2008

African Roads...

On our trip down I was one of the drivers, for starters, only until the pavement started. I have been observing the driving patterns here but have not come to any conclusions, except you have to be crazy and calm to survive! Offensive driving, with some arrogance and skill mixed in!

Lets just say it will be quite some time before I attempt to drive near any town or city!

Police check/stop. They don't have police cars here, so these stops are scattered about the roads to keep traffic laws. They do random checks and signal you to stop with a wave (or at night with a flashing flashlight). I wondered what would happen if you didn't stop... no one 'doesn't stop' - they have spikes and guns.

On every road, big or small, there are animals either beside the road grazing, crossing over in herds, darting out for fun or some sheep and goats even pick nice busy streets to take their naps in... they know they are important and that trucks will drive around them.

I wonder if there really are such things as 'lanes', no one follows them. If you are big, you may drive where you like! Passing is crazy, avoiding pot holes is important and on the whole you never really know where people will be driving.

This was the ferry scene - people, cars, bikes mixed in with some chaos.

Normal. Even in lanes of busy roads these are common obstacles to maneuver around.

Now this is more like it... I think I could handle this type of driving!

Kijabe - Rift Valley Academy

Steve and Angie, the proud parents of Ezekiel Stone Harding.

Finally we got to see the new baby and his happy parents.

Barbara, delighted to be at a piano again, playing with Kyle and Keadon. I think she likes pianos as much as I like horses... if that is possible.

Oh to see flowers again! I never knew how much I loved or missed them!

This could be a scene out of Pride and Prejudice. It was so refreshing to have so much greenery surrounding us on all sides!

Kieran!

To the Pavement!

Normally I dislike driving... but here it is fun!

River crossings become very tricky when this dry land finally gets some rain. This lori had been stuck there for 3 or 4 days all ready. We drove across with no problems.

Mr. Lizard

This river bed wasn't so easy to cross... We had to be winched out of this one. Because of the rains a trip that normally takes 4 hrs was lengthened to 1o hrs because we had to back track to find a way around the impassible river beds.

This had all been dry just two day before when we came down to Kurungu.

Even when you hit pavement not all is easy going...

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Kurungu Nomadic Conference

Here is the whole party!

A few trinkets...

This is what we looked like after the long drive to Kurungu!

5 hrs of 4x4 driving gets us to Kurungu (AIM station) and there we met with 30 or so other missionaries from the northern part of Kenya for a conference/prayer time about reaching nomadic peoples. It was amazing for me to just sit and listen to their stories, ideas, life lessons, trial and error successes and failures and their visions and dreams for the future of nomadic ministry. Being the youngest one there (besides the kids) I felt that I had little to contribute, but it was very encouraging to be around such admirable people. Plus there was the added bonus of a baby dik dik, a chance to go sand boarding and one night of ice cream!

Kyle and the baby dik dik! SO very cute! (Kyle is cute as well!)

Alisia feeding little Ellie... I assure you Aunty Joyce that dik diks are slightly smarter than deer! They make GREAT pets!

After finally making up sand hill we went in search of the very top! Beautiful!

Jillo checking out the surrounding country.

Sand Hill. As you climb up it grows taller and taller!

A Samburu guy saw us having fun so he came to join in! After practically jogging up the hill he made the ride down at top speed two times without crashing! I got a video but can't seem to load it onto the blog so sorry.

Monica (lives at Kurungu with her husband Walter and their 3 kids) had a fantastic crash!

Scott and Kaedon on their way down!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Badda Huri (the hills of mist)

The Huri Hills. Beautiful. Full of trees and grass. No water (except what is collected by rain). Home to the nomads who live on the rocks with their animals. A place in need of prayer.

"Fora" is living with the animals, where the grazing is, far from family, far from comfort. This camp had a few men, two young girls under 14, a dog and a bunch of sheep and goats.

This is the life of the 'fora' people. Always on the move, hard to keep track of, hard to find.

See the road? Really, look harder! This is why it costs so much for transportation up here. We were going to visit the family of the one fora guy, only half a days walk away.

The 'rain birds', they come before the rains... rain and peace is what a Gabra person will always ask and pray for. Rain and peace is what keeps them alive. We came up here for the weekend to pray.

The view from the mountain that we climbed was amazing! I even got to see a rainbow, it was wonderful. Kalacha is just to the left of where the sun is beaming down.

Jarso, Scott and I decided to climb the mountain that is next to the station... hiking in a skirt is hard enough, but trying to keep up to a Gabra guy is impossible!

Jarso and I on the windy side of the mountain... if you threw a rock into the wind it would start to come back towards you! Just behind us to the right you can look into Ethiopia!

Water and accessibility are the two main challenges... so much time and money has to go into those two areas just to make it possbible to live up there.