Written on
July 10, 2007
by
Laura Shoemaker
Friends!
I am sorry that it has taken so long to update. I cannot even begin to in detail describe the events of the last two weeks. So, here is a brief list of all that happened:
- We traveled to Kerio Valley and spoke to over 100 girls about how God created them for greatness and He has a great plan for them. We also did some education about female genital mutilation, education and hiv/aids. It was an amazing time, i cannot wait to share in detail what God did. We also spoke to a group of around 80 women about similar things. Kenyans do not traditionally communicate much to their children. They do not show much affection and normally do not set a good spiritual foundation. We shared in humility, knowing that we are only children ourselves, speaking to mothers. But we spoke of what our mothers have done to help us be successful, working hard to help us through school, showign and telling us they love us and teaching us about Jesus and His importance in our lives.
- I was informed that SAturday night in the valley that I was to preach the sermon the next morning. AAH! We had no electricity and i prepared my "sermon" by lamplight. I spoke about community (again from humility, just about what God has been teaching me) It was a new challenge, trying to guide adults, as a young person, through an interpreter! whew! what an adventure.
Our last week was crazy and busy. There was a lot of visiting to do, as we have gotten to know a lot of people. LAst night we had a celebration, the Kimeli family (the family that have taken care of us and truly become our family) slaughtered two chickens for us (i found the chicken heads in the yard…didn't eat much chicken) and had many of our friends for a meal. It was beautiful. We laughed and prayed and Mr. kimeli spoke of how no matter where in the world we are, as long as we are in our Father's house, we are together. I will remember the night forever.
God has done so much this month. It has been tough, i've never been more aware of the enemy. I came imagining this to be my 40 days in the wilderness, to be away from my daily struggles and temptations. To serve and to learn and grow. If you go back and read through Jesus' time in the wilderness, you will find that in that quiet, in his hunger and in being alone, Jesus was directly faced with satan and his temptations. The temptations are appealing and don't seem so bad. This has been very much my experience. It has been difficult and beautiful all at once. I did serve, i did learn and i certainly have grown but it was a great struggle, as I'm finding life often is. I love you all and cannot wait to see you. This blog has been great for me, but it is only a taste of waht i've seen. thank you for your prayer and your encouragement. It would have been a different experience without it.
i love you, see you thursday,
Laura
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Written on
June 27, 2007
by
Laura Shoemaker
Whew! It has been our busiest yet with a full week of school and a LOT of visiting!
One of our goals for this trip was to truly embrace the culture. TO live like Kenyans. We had no idea what we were in for. It began by our first trip into town without a chaperone. (completely safe I assure you all). Jamie and I had already ridden the decorative bicycle taxis into town once before but this was Rebecca's first trip and she was a bit nervous. She asked that the driver take her really slowly as it was her first time. Nearly the entire trip to town is downhill and the bikes that Jamie and I rode were way ahead of rebecca's. We came to the very last part and heard a whooshing sound. I looked back to see rebecca whizzing past both my bike and Jamie's, so fast that we couldn't see the expression on her face! I couldn't help myself, i burst out laughing. My driver looked at me like i had lost my mind. They already think the mzungu (white) girls are crazy enough, we get a lot of crazy looks when we ride into town.
We are also learning to cook which is very exciting! Our mom, Prisca, has been feeding us like crazy and we talked her into letting us help cook dinner a few nights. She taught us to cook over a charcoal fire instead of a real stove (which she owns, but prefers using charcoal) and we made chips (french fries), cabbage, and ugali. Ugali is made of corn flour and it is simply put into boling water and stirred a lot (our weak mzungu arms don't stir very well). Yesterday we made mangazi's which are quite similar to funnel cakes. a real treat
The children have been wearing us out! they love their white teachers. when we ask a quesiton they fight over who gets to answer and they all wave their arms in the air yelling "teacha teacha! teacha laura pick me!" to answer the questions. Very different from American classrooms! It has been raining a LOT in Eldoret which makes the mud almost unbearable. we walk up the hill to school every day and it cakes to our chacos. we can barely lift our feet they get so heavy and we get tired much more quickly than usual. The africans chuckle at us as they pass us.
We leave for Tot with our dear friend Mildred tomorrow! WE are very excited and nervous. we will be speaking to three different groups. first the girls on friday. They will be mostly secondary schoolers and we are speaking to them mainly about how God has destined each of us for greatness and how they are capable of fulfilling that destiny if they stay in school, work hard and take care of their bodies (this will include a talk about saying no to female genital mutilation). Saturday we will speak to moms about the importance of caring for their family. caring for their bodies and the bodies of the children (again fgm and also discussing how to avoid HIV/AIDS) and Sunday we will speak to men and women about being good leaders in their community.
Pray for us! Jamie has had a bad cold for a while so pray for healing. Pray specifically that God will use this time to work in hearts. there will be christians and non christians at the meetings so pray that we will share the gospel and hearts will be set on fire. Pray that the entire village and surrounding see that God has destined us for greatness, and that He is bigger than our circumstances.
we love you all, this is it, this is what we came for….blessings,
laura, jamie and rebecca
Posted in Kenya 2007 | Comment Now!
Written on
June 21, 2007
by
Laura Shoemaker
It has been a great week thus far. Rebecca arrived on monday night and we have been blessed to havethe whole team together now. We started teaching at the African Inland Church Cornerstone Primary school on Tuesday and what a blessing it has been. This is the school i taught at last year and it is great to be with friends again and even better to seemy students! They are doing an amazing work there. Theya re investing so much in the children and providing them with the spiritual and educational tools that will help them as they grow to be great leaders in Kenya one day.
I finally got my luggage! BUt I am the only one. We are rejoicing to have any clothes to change into and are all sharing but we really want the rest of the luggage to come. It is getting very tiresome attempting to call the non-responsive luggage claim and the delivery agency. But we are perservering.
WE will be traveling from June 27-July 2 to Tot, in Kerio Valley which is in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya. It will take eight hours on a MAtatu (a bus taxi) down a long, long, long road. We will have the opportunity to lead a conference down there with girls and their mothers. It will go on for three days *friday-sunday and we will speak about many different subjects including education, hiv/aids and female genital mutilation. The three of us have a heart to really show th girls taht they are beautiful and desirable to God and that He created them that way. They need to be encouraged to go to school and work hard and take opportunities.
As you pray for us, pray that God will lay a specific message on each of our hearts. Help us to show the girls and their moms Gods love and salvation through our message and art activities with them. There will be over 100 girls there at teh meetings and we are amazing at how the plans are coming together.
I am hearing great things about the brown house. my heart is full and i rejoice with you all from across the country at the work God is already doing there.
love,
laura
Posted in Kenya 2007 | Comment Now!
Written on
June 16, 2007
by
Laura Shoemaker
Hey everyone…we are finally in Eldoret! WE took the 7 hour bus ride down the bumpy, unpaved roads at times dodging cows and shepherds and people. We arrived to find our dear friends the Kimelis had prepared us dinner and tea and the welcome was worth every bit of the struggle of the past week. We gathered for a meal with the family and two professors from the Emmanuel School of REligion that teach with Dr. Elolia and I was immediately reminded of the purpose in this trip. The beauty of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Africa is overwhelming. It is refreshing to hear what God has been doing at the School of Evangelism and to share what He has been doing in the United States!
WE are still waiting for our luggage and are hopeful that tomorrow will be the day. Jamie and I have been reading in Matthew where Jesus says, “blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”. We have been getting a great lesson in being poor inspirit while waiting in Nairobi, feeling alone, having none of our things that we “need” and living on teh little we had in our carry ons. Then we took a drive across Kenya yesterday. We saw slums and children playing in the streets. We saw old women and men working HARD in fields and we saw true simplicity. WE are being humbled, broken and pruned and as hard as it is…we already see that it is well worth it. I don’t doubt that we will be overjoyed when we get our stuff…but it just is not the same, it doesn’t carry the same value of the joy that came from fellowship with our kenyan family last night.
What is valuable to you? WHere do you find your joy? What does it mean to be poor in spirit..and are you brave enough to explore it?
lots of love…we are more grateful for the encouragement than you can possbily know
Posted in Kenya 2007 | Comment Now!
Written on
June 14, 2007
by
Laura Shoemaker
So….yeah we're still in Nairobi. I know this just keeps getting more and more exciting. We are grateful for the rest time, but are finding ourselves growing more and more anxious to get out to Eldoret and get started. WE are STILL waiting on luggage. One bag MIGHT make it tonight. The others hopefully tomorrow. Its difficult not to be discouraged, we've spend most of the day trying to get in touch with the airlines to compensate the money its costing us to stay in Nairobi when we have free housing in Eldoret. Please pray that the luggage comes and that the airline compensates for our spendings. Neither of us has the money to spend so much on lodging right now.
On a brighter note…Tomorrow, assuming our luggage doesn't miraculously come, we are going to see some giraffes! (and we all know how much i just love giraffes!) It will be good to get out of here for a little while. We are also trying to get in touch with a couple that are missionaries in the slums of Nairobi (very much the Shane Claibourn of Kenya) and hope to take tea or dinner with them while we're here waiting. I think it would be great to hear about what the Lord is doing through their ministry!
Hopefully this will be the last update from Nairobi….
all our love,
Laura and Jamie
ps– Jamie is sooo excited that Mike met her brother! too cool!
Posted in Kenya 2007 | Comment Now!
Written on
June 13, 2007
by
Laura Shoemaker
Friends,
We are finally in Kenya. We have been challenged every step of the way but we are here. L Rebecca will not be joining us until Saturday due to a Visa issue at the last minute. Jamie and I have been traveling for three days without sleep. When we flew to London, our flight was very late getting in, causing us to miss our flight to Nairobi. WE were given a comp. hotel room to stay in until another flight left that night. So, we waited all day in London and finally got on a new flight to Kenya. Once in kenya, of course, our luggage was lost. The flights were long and uncomfortable and we have really been discouraged.
BUT– THe Lord is still good. We are at the Methodist Guesthouse in Nairobi and we just found out that our luggage will be here tonight (HUGE BLESSING!) Hopefully, Jamie and I will get our luggage easily tongiht and head out on the bus to Eldoret first thing in the morning. We are so anxious just to be there. It has been a trying few days and we have often wanted to give up. Please, please pray for us. WE are exhausted and jet lagged and just want to be able to settle in for a while. We have been sleeping quite a bit though, as we have been stuck with nothing to do in Nairobi. Pray that tomorrow everything goes smoothly and that we get our luggage and get to eldoret as soon as possible.
Also, please pray that REbecca's flights are much smoother and that she will have NO TROUBLE. I cannot imagine having been through this all by myself. Pray for our bodies, we feel so fatigued and cranky.
But we rejoice in the fact that we are here, that we are safe and that God is already doing a great work (we just are having trouble seeing it) I hope that this isnt a depressing post, we are excited to be here, we are just worn out.
"Rejoice in the Lord always, again, I say Rejoice!"
love,
Laura
Posted in Kenya 2007 | Comment Now!
Written on
June 7, 2007
by
Laura Shoemaker
I figured I better give this blog thing a test drive before I head out of the country so here goes…
Greetings family! Three days until i fly off to Kenya and I am growing more and more excited. I am home in Banner Elk visiting my family and preparing for my upcoming month in Kenya and so far, all is well. I am really looking forward to seeing what God has in store for this time. He has already been preparing my heart for what He has to teach me there.
As our departure time draws nearer, (this Sunday!) I ask that you pray specifically for a few things:
- Pray for Jamie, Rebecca and myself as we begin to travel. Ask the Lord to keep us healthy and help us transition well through the time changes.
- Pray for our hearts as we prepare to travel.
- During the time that we are there, we will be spending an in depth time studying the Sermon on the Mount. Pray that as I prepare to lead us through this heavy passage that the Lord will give me discernment and wisdom. Even simply trying to read through it to break it up is overwhelming!
I am so grateful for all of the love and support you all have poured out on us as we prepare for this journey. I look forward to investing in the Kenyans and bringing the kingdom of God with us!
Blessings,
Laura Shomaker
p.s. I challenge you all to read through Matthew 5-7 with us as we journey!
Posted in Kenya 2007 | Comment Now!
