A Call From New Guinea!

Our special blessing this week was a call from my parents in New Guinea.  We normally keep in touch with them through e-mail and sometimes with instant messaging when we happen to be online at the same time.  Their internet is a lot more intermittent than ours is here, so unfortunately, video calling doesn't work very well between here and there.  And phone calls are just plain expensive.  But they were hankerin' to hear our voices, so they bought a phone card.  I didn't recognize the foreign number on my cell phone.  However, I sure recognized my mom's voice a few seconds later!

My Mom, my sister, and I before we left for Kenya

My dear ole' dad (He likes it when I call him that!)

A phone card lasts about 5-10 minutes; then you abruptly get cut off.  Those few minutes sure go by fast, but they are worth it.  Seth was excited to hear Grandma and Grandpa's voices again.  He told them all about his colorful bike.  They had questions about how the baby and I are doing.  Then we made sure we got our proper goodbyes in before the line went dead.  It's not fun getting left hanging mid-sentence . . . It was a good phone call though, and a very special blessing for us. 

So this week, when I count my blessings, the big one for me is that I got to hear my precious parents' voices!  Thank You, Lord.

Seth's "Joseph" Bike

Seth asked for a bike several times this past year.  BJ and I talked about the possibility of getting him one.  But not being the type of parents to run out and get him everything he asks for, we suggested instead that he pray and ask God for one. 

Well, last week, we had a used bike given to us for Seth.   BJ and I immediately knew that it would show up beside the tree on Christmas morning!

We call it his "Joseph" bike because it is a bike of many colors!  The only training wheels that BJ could find for it in Nairobi were blue.  It also needed a new seat, and the seat BJ found for it was red.  The rest of the bike is black, yellow, and green. 

Daddy adjusting the seat for him

Getting ready to take off!

The color scheme doesn't bother Seth one bit though.  He loves bright colors, and he absolutely loves this bike!  He has literally been riding it all day long!  He comes in for 5-minute breaks saying that he is getting worn out, but he just can't stay inside for long with his new bike sitting out there, so he keeps running back out to ride it again and again! 

Seth's attitude has been so sweet.  He knows his bike came straight from God.  I love it that not everything has to be handed to my children on a silver platter.  Things are not always available here like they are in America.  America has everything a child could ever want or ask for.  But here in Kenya, my son gets to see God pour out blessings as only He can.  And what's more?  God's gifts are always good and perfectly suited to His children.  

Christmas, Sweet and Simple

We had such a sweet Christmas morning.  We decided to do our family Christmas together this morning on Saturday because BJ will likely be driving to Karen tomorrow morning to interpret in the church there.  Also, we wanted Seth to be able to play with his presents all day today!  And boy, has he ever been doing just that.  More on that in my next post!

How I love the sweet simplicity of Christmas on the field.  How can I explain what is in my heart?  Yes, we are away from family, and we truly miss them.  We have Grandma and Grandpa on one side of the world, and Mawmaw and Pawpaw, aunts, uncles and cousins on the other side of the world with us in between.  So where is home for us?  How true is the saying, "Home is where your heart is."  For us, our hearts are here with each other.

The simplicity of it!  Our Christmas this morning consisted mostly of homemade gifts.  Yes, there were some store-bought toys in there for Seth, but you know what we really leaned forward to see?  We wanted to see Daddy open those homemade presents we spent so much time and love working on!

And look at the pride on Seth's face as Mommy shows off her new ring, lovingly fashioned from a piece of wire he found.

Also, do you see the "ball" for Mommy on the arm of the couch--a crumpled up piece of paper meticulously taped down to make it stay in the shape of a ball.  Daddy got two of those balls, and they had to have a ball game for a few minutes immediately after Daddy opened them!  Seth had to show him how they worked.

Christmas--sweet and simple.  It was all about giving and watching the joy on someone else's face over homemade gifts that cost next to nothing to make except the time and love put into them.  For me, that is what Christmas is all about!  Sweet and simple, true love, and each other. 

A few more pictures of our boy . . . but the best is yet to come.  I will save it for my next post!

A Scripture song CD, and a Patch the Pirate CD

The stuffed dog and the craft were from the Christian school kids at our home church in Louisiana.  They shipped Seth a box for Christmas!  How sweet is that?

Now on to my next post--part 2 of our Christmas morning.

I Thought I Knew Swahili . . .

Not fluently, but at least I could communicate what I wanted to say, and I could understand most of what was said to me.  That was in Nairobi.  Nakuru is a different story!  I have wondered if it is a different dialect of Swahili here.  It doesn't sound like what I learned.  Nakuru Swahili has a lot more tribal language words mixed in.  And it has more "shang".  Shang is the word here for slang.  The people here talk faster too!  Even BJ who is fluent in Swahili cannot interpret everything that is said in church.    So, needless to say, it is going to take time for both of us to get used to the way Swahili sounds here.

Saturday nights, as soon as I find out what Swahili songs will be sung the next day, I spend several hours with the Swahili songbooks, an English songbook, and my Swahili to English dictionary.  First, I "decipher" the songs, and then I have to rewrite each song out in the word order I will sign them in.  By the word decipher, I mean this.  You know how hymns in English are many times so beautiful and eloquent?  However, the meaning is deep.  For instance, "Come Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy praise".  That is how the hymns are written in Swahili too.  Beautiful to hear sung, but difficult to understand and translate. 

Then as far as sign language goes in Kenya, it is called Kenyan Sign Language, but it is not standardized like it is in America.  So that means that every town, village, school, etc. where there are Deaf has different signs that they use.  Interpreting in Karen, BJ would ask the sign for something, and he would get 3 or 4 different signs for the same word!  So what do you do?  You learn them all because you may see any one of those signs at any given time.

Mary's signs are not even Nakuru signs which we will need to learn as soon as we get in contact with the Deaf community here.  Mary goes to a deaf boarding school in Bondo several hours away, so she uses the signs she has learned there.  As I interpret for her, I do a lot of fingerspelling, and I ask her a lot of questions like, "Do you know this sign?"  Or what is your sign for this?"  She is teaching me her language as we go along.  I don't think at this point she understands 100% everything I interpret, but she is getting more than she was getting before.  And at least she feels like she is part of the service now.  She's even going to the teen class, and really enjoying it.  Yesterday was the first time she saw a sword drill.  Knowing she did not yet know how to find the verses, I asked if I could find them for Mary.  Bro. Mickey said that was fine, so Mary and I "worked" together.  Her face and smile cheered me on while I looked up two of the verses, and signed them as I read them.  She was overjoyed that we had "won"!  Next time, I will ask her if she wants to sign the verses with me. 

So these are a few of the language challenges we've faced since moving.  We are starting over with Swahili and with sign language.  In time, we will understand both languages better, and we will be more effective ministering to the Deaf here in Nakuru.  Ah, time takes so long sometimes, and we have need of patience . . .

Sweet Mary, our Deaf Girl

I'd just finished a bath this morning and was combing out my wet hair when the electricity went off!  I stared at myself in the mirror realizing that meant no hair dryer, no curling iron, and no iron.  Sigh!  Smiling at my wild array of curls, I resigned myself to a bad hair day this Sunday morning.  Oh well, it's not the first time, and it definitely won't be the last time here in Kenya!  Thankfully, I had a dress that was already ironed, and I was able to find Seth some clothes that didn't look very wrinkled.  BJ had already left for Karen.  Mrs. Mickey picked us up for church, and I settled into a full day of interpreting for Mary.

Mary . . . I've been wanting to write this post for a couple of weeks.  I believe Mary is the reason we are missionaries in Nakuru today.  First, let me show you a beautiful picture.

Look at that smile!  Mary is 14 years old, very shy, and very reserved, but wouldn't you agree with me?  She is beautiful!

Her mother, Millicent, is on the right.  Millicent has been coming to the Mickey's church for many years.  With her heart so burdened for her deaf daughter's salvation, she prayed for years that God would bring a missionary to Nakuru who could communicate the Gospel to Mary.  She began praying for a missionary to the Deaf, while across the ocean, that very same year God moved a deaf roommate into BJ's room at Bible College.  That year, BJ began learning sign language.  Little did "Mama Mary" know that God was already answering her prayer by preparing a man already called to Kenya.  Now He just had to equip that man with the ability to communicate in sign language.  It gives me chills to look back and see how perfectly God brought the whole picture together.  Now 6 years later, we are here in Nakuru interpreting for Mary, befriending her, and slowing watching the wall around her heart crumble to the ground.  It will not happen in a matter of weeks or probably even months.  In fact, it will probably be years before the Light of the Gospel dawns in this girl's heart, but it is starting.  It is only the beginning of something beautiful that we will all share in when we get to Heaven.  Mary needs YOUR prayers now!

In my next post, I will share some of the challenges I have faced interpreting here in Nakuru.  Basically, I am starting over again learning Swahili and Mary's sign language.  It poses some real challenges in interpreting when you cannot fully understand the spoken language, and you do not yet know the signs to use for this particular deaf person.  But we are learning . . . together.  Please!  I need your prayers now too!

Baby at 34 weeks

It's time for my monthly baby picture.  I want to take one more right before she is born.  But here we are at 34 weeks.

Thursday, we made a trip to see my doctor in Nairobi.  When he learned we’d just moved to Nakuru, he wanted to tell me all about his life growing up in Nakuru in the 1940-1950’s.  He said it was much different back then, of course, but very beautiful.  His dad came over the Indian Ocean on a dhow from India, landed on the Kenyan coast in 1920, and then stayed here his whole life!  It was such an interesting story kind of like listening to your grandpa reminisce about days gone by.  One thing I love about the healthcare here is that no one is in a hurry.  In fact, we were 15 minutes late for my appointment because we hit heavy traffic coming into Nairobi.  It didn’t bother him a bit however.  He told me his life story before weighing me and checking the baby!  Then when we were done, he even went out into the waiting room to talk with BJ and Seth for a while.  

So about Baby and I.  I am steadily gaining weight now, or rather SHE is.  I'm only 11 pounds away from my final weight with Seth.  This baby is growing just like her big brother did!  The doctor pushed on my tummy a few times and promptly told me how she was laying in there.  She is posterior right now which means her head is down, but it is facing outward.  He did not seem concerned about that as there is still time for her to turn around before birth.  Her position, though, explains why I’ve been feeling her arms and legs all over the place!  She is healthy and my doctor said with a smile—big.  I asked him how big he thought she might be at birth, and he stated pretty confidently—9 lbs.  Little stinker is doing nothing but eating all day in there while I’ve been working my tail off!  Oh, well, I guess I am just destined to have big, heavy-weight babies!  That is okay though; I am just thankful that they are healthy.

Only about 5 and half weeks left!  Then all of you curious people out there can know her name!   =)  Hee Hee  I think it is driving some of my family members crazy, but isn't a secret so much fun?  It is for us!

Christmas Tree Skirt and Holiday Recipe

It is amazing what a tree skirt does for a Christmas tree!  Last year, I used a pretty blue and grey plaid blanket because our tree colors were blue and silver.  This year, though, we have the red and green theme, and I had nothing that would work for a tree skirt.  It looked awfully bare under there, and I could not get in the gift-wrapping mood until I had something pretty to put the gifts on!

I read here on Kami's blog, how to make a tree skirt.  By the way, Kami is a missionary wife in the Caribbean, and I love reading about her and her family and the work they are doing for the Lord on St. Barthelemy island.  She linked to some tutorials (Sew Many Ways, Make It and Love It, and Sewtropolis) that she used to recently make a tree skirt, and it looked so easy.  I thought, "I can do that!" 

So here is my finished project--finished for now at least.

I may dress mine up with appliques of some sort too, Kami.  I loved your idea!  But that will be a project for after Christmas.  Christmas is drawing ever closer, and I want to get those presents wrapped!

 

And now I have a recipe to share.  I can remember my mom making homemade eggnog in New Guinea when I was growing up, so I tried my hand at it the other night.  Her recipe is easy, and it tastes very good!  Did you know that you don't have to have eggs to make eggnog?  Mom would joke that it was just "nog".  But "nog" tastes just like eggnog!  And it is a blessing to have the option of homemade when you can't buy it at the store. 

Eggless Eggnog

2 and 1/2 cups milk powder

1 cup sugar

6 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

Water to make 2 quarts

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg ( or to taste)

3/8 teaspoon rum flavoring (or to taste)

Instructions:

Cook first 5 ingredients until thickened slightly, stirring constantly.  It will be a thin consistency.  Remove from heat.  Add the nutmeg and rum flavorings.  For the flavorings, those are the amounts I ended up putting in, but I did it a little at a time until it tasted right to me.  You can adjust the flavorings to your own taste.  Chill.  

 

Candy Canes for Christmas

A couple of weeks ago, Seth asked, "Daddy, can we have candy canes for Christmas?"  BJ and I wanted with all our hearts to give him his wish for Christmas, but we've not seen candy canes anywhere here.  So BJ simply answered, "We'll see."

I think God must have smiled up in Heaven and said, "I believe I can make that happen for a little missionary kid in Kenya."  On one of BJ's recent trips to Nairobi, he went to a store that sells imported things that you can't normally find anywhere else.  By the way, that was where he found me cream soda for our anniversary back in July!  This time, he found candy canes there!  He brought home Seth's Christmas wish, and it was such a blessing to watch him hang those candy canes happily on the tree.

Notice how he hung most of the candy canes grouped together right at his level for easy access! 

We made sure to stress to him that his blessing came straight from God.  "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father . . . "  (James 1:17)

 

That night, we ate candy canes together.  It is making Christmas time so special for Seth.  Can you tell by the smile on his face?  I love it how our God delights in doing special things like that for His children.  And I just can't help but think that God has a special place in His heart for missionary kids.  

Snow in My Bedroom

Okay, not real snow.  I loved my Thanksgiving tree so much that I didn't want to get rid of it or even put it away yet.  So I found another way to decorate it with little snowflake doilies.  I'm not sure what I will do with it after Christmas--maybe paper hearts for my Sweetheart for Valentine's Day! 

By the way, Seth and I spent the morning after school making this craft for BJ for Christmas.  It was fun.  Shhhhh!  Don't tell!

The Simple Conveniences

My goal for this blog is to give a true picture of life on the mission field.  So sometimes that means writing about the things that are not convenient.  I live a comfortable life here in Kenya and many times I feel guilty to have so much compared to the people around me.  But there are still things that we have to deal with here that many people around the world take for granted.

Have you ever wondered how or what you will cook when your propane gas runs out?  About 5-6 months ago, we bought a gas stove.

I was very sure that I wanted gas because electricity in this country is never a sure thing.  You might have something half-cooked or half-baked when the power decides to go off.  Sometimes it goes off on a daily basis, and most certainly on a weekly basis.  Needless to say, it does add a bit of stress to your daily life as a cook!  So when Hubby brought home my new gas stove/oven, I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that now, rain or shine, I will be able to cook for my family . . . at least until the country runs out of gas!

For the past two and half months, we have not been able to find propane in either Nairobi or Nakuru.  I've been using our last gas cylinder sparingly wondering when it will run out and what we will do after that.  I could learn to cook over an open fire or perhaps we could buy a kerosene burner to use for a while.  The issue was not that we would go hungry, it was simply an issue of convenience.  It is not convenient for a spoiled American like me to learn to cook over an open fire!  Yet, the people to whom I minister do it every day of their lives.  I suppose I could learn too.

Praise the Lord though!  Yesterday, BJ was able to find and buy a full gas cylinder for us to have on hand when our other one runs out.

There still seems to be a shortage of propane here, and the price for it is high, but at least we have gas for another month or two.

"Lord, help me to never take my blessings for granted."

Homemade Christmas Decorations

The other day Seth and I got in a decorating mood.  We had priced some Christmas decorations at the store--extremely expensive!  So my mind went to work with how we could decorate our home with what we already have on hand.  I had brought some green trailing garland with me from the States, so I draped that in the windows and around the fireplace in our living room.  The plain green of it looked rather bland, and I wondered what we could use to dress it up a bit.  Seth and I took a walk outside.  I looked around our yard and got really excited!

 

See that bottle brush tree behind him?  The perfect, red, Christmas color!  There are about four of those trees in our yard, so we both grabbed scissors and went to snipping.  Then we carried them inside and went to decorating.  

 

We were so excited after that, we couldn't stop!  Next, we cut some sprigs off of another tree in our yard that just happens to look Christmasy as well.  I arranged some in a vase and some in a glass jar--one for my coffee table and the other for the kitchen table.

 

The vases needed something too, so I found some red material scraps and tied pretty bows around them.  Seth and I were so pleased with the effect.  We couldn't wait for Daddy to come home and see everything!  

My mind is so full of ideas.  Some of them just take time with the sewing!  It's so much fun though!  There's no snow outside our windows, and the weather is not bitterly cold (not that I miss it a bit!), but inside, our home still looks like Christmas is just around the corner!  It sounds like it to!  The house has been filled with Christmas music since Thanksgiving.  

One of the things I love most about this time of year is listening to the words in some of these songs.  It awes me to realize that God was manifest in the flesh as a tiny baby.  Those shepherds and wise men, and the people of Israel actually looked on the face of God!  I believe some of them knew it too.  What must that have been like?  I guess it has even more of an impact on me this year as I am getting so close to my own baby's birth.  I can't help but wonder what Mary must have been thinking to know she carried the Son of God in her womb.  What was it like to hold Him in her arms?  She held the Creator of the universe in her arms!  Amazing thought!

 

Take a Guess . . .

at what this is.

 

How about a side shot?

That is quite a load of hay!  I took these pictures the other day in the car thinking it would make an interesting post.  It never ceases to amaze me the size and types of loads these people manage to carry on bicycles and motorcycles!  I really wish I'd been able to get a picture of the couch I saw strapped to the back of another motorcycle, or the sheep calmly riding behind its owner on another one!

And how high can you pile up the load on the back of a truck?  There are no limits in Kenya!  They make the most of every drop of gas.  Just be sure to stay out of his way!  BJ gives them a wide berth just in case.

Road trips are never dull here!  You never know what you are going to see next.  We are always on the lookout for wildlife too.

 

On nearly every trip to Nairobi, we see zebras, gazelles, elands, and sometimes baboons.  A couple of weeks ago, BJ even saw a large group of warthogs.  Wanna come for a visit?  Karibu Kenya!  (Welcome to Kenya)

Slowing Way Down

We've been on the road quite a bit this week.  Last Sunday, Seth and I went with BJ to Karen to interpret for the Deaf there.  Then on Thursday, we drove to Thika (another 2 and 1/2 hour drive) to get together with some other missionary families.  They were having their Thanksgiving Day a week late due to their Bible College schedule, and they invited us to join them.  Here are a couple of pictures of Seth having fun with the Rains children.  His face was bright red from jumping so much on that trampoline!

On our way back home, we stopped in Limuru to see another dear missionary couple who is serving the Lord in South Sudan.  They were here in Kenya for about a week, and we were so glad to be able to get together with them, even for just an hour or two.

Our dear friends, the Blankenships

Then Saturday morning, we went back to Karen again for Pastor Ephraim's Bible College graduation.  Ephraim was the assistant pastor at Karen Baptist Church while he went through Bible College.  Now he is ready to move out to his home town in western Kenya to start a church there. 

Friday evening started the missions conference here at Grace Bible Baptist, the Mickeys church here in Nakuru, and BJ was the preacher.  He did great, I thought, but then he is my favorite preacher!  Saturday evening, they had a missions banquet at the church.

Then Sunday, BJ preached both the morning and evening services (still part of the missions conference) while I interpreted for a deaf girl named Mary.  I'll be posting more about Mary in a later post. 

Grace Bible Baptist Church gave 302,000 shillings last year to missions.  That is a huge amount of money in this country.  It is equivalent to 3,355 American dollars!  This is at a time when the price of flour has doubled since we got here a year ago.  And because of last year's drought, the price of vegetables has gone up too.  Ugali, made from corn flour (very fine cornmeal) and water, is the main staple food here, and the people supplement ugali with vegetables.  Yet in spite of their poverty, these people give joyfully.  It reminds me of the churches in Macedonia who, though they were poor, gave way beyond their power to see the Word of God go forth.  This church we are now a part of does not only give their money.  They actively send their own men to different African countries--right now to the Congo and to Burundi--to start churches.  Throughout the months of the year, there are always two or three men from this church there trying to help those churches grow, teaching the people, and witnessing.  Then they come home, and another group goes to take their place.  Pretty amazing.  It is a blessing to begin to be a part of this ministry.

All of that really does not sound like we are slowing down, but I was talking more specifically about me.  With three bumpy road trips this last week (even the blacktop roads here are something to be reckoned with!), and with the recent move, I am slowing WAY down all of a sudden.  The baby feels like she's dropped low making it uncomfortable for me to be on my feet for very long at a time (probably due to those roads!).  So I do little spurts of work, things that have to get done like soaking vegetables or cooking quick meals, then head back to the couch for another break.  I have decided that the house and what is left with the unpacking can just wait.  And no more road trips for me except doctor's visits!  I'm going to be a couch potato for a while, and to be honest with you, a nap sounds sooooo good right about now!  Yes, I'm definitely in my last trimester!