Happy Memorial Day

- from the proud sister of a soldier

I'm sending out a new email update/newsletter this week.  With pictures and info about ministries and stuff like that (all the stuff I don't write about here on the blog).  Let me know if you want to be added to the mailing list.  Either write your email address in a comment at the bottom of this post (I'll delete your address before any of the comments appear on the blog) or send me an email.   I send out an update about once every 2 months or so, so you won't be inundated with unwanted emails- I promise!

rest

I sometimes forget the importance of rest. I mean, I know that it is good, even necessary, but the reality is that my life is crazy and I don't rest as much as I should. I just don't realize how much I neglect rest until I actually take some TIME to rest!

Last week, my entire team hopped on a bus for 10 hours and went on a retreat to the Coast. My boss, an ex-military guy, started the retreat off  with a question: what does retreat mean? Its a military term. Retreat means to fall back and regroup (my answer). And that's what we did. We spent the week hashing out business stuff (like reworking budgets, sorting through decisions that we've been needing to make as a team, planning team and individual goals for the next several years, etc) and relaxing. It was a lot of work (we were in meetings from 8am until 3 or 4pm everyday) but it was also a great time to spend as a team. It was also a great time to really relax during our down time.

Pictures of our meetings would be incredibly boring so here's some of my favorite pics from my downtime. I spent most of my afternoon free time at the ocean. Because there is nothing like the beach for relaxation!  Our hotel was right on the Indian Ocean- it was warm and ridiculously beautiful!  Otherwise, I spent my free time teaching Team Swimming Lessons.  Only 2 of us could swim when we left Nairobi.  When we left the coast at the end of the retreat, 4 of us could swim! 

Sea urchin

Team swimming lessons

Now you all wanna come visit, huh?  

COAST!!!!!

I'm leaving early tomorrow morning for a team retreat at the COAST!! I can't wait! I've never been to Kenya's coast yet- and its supposed to be amazing.

So pray for good weather, good meetings and time of rest and growth for the team.

COLD

Ok, I'm so cold sitting in the office, that I raided the Christmas Play Costumes. I'm now wearing the shepherd's headdress as a shawl. That is some desperate cold. Its been raining for months now (with some major flooding lately) and its just wet and cold. And muddy. Very very muddy. Yuck.

But there is warmth on the horizon! We are leaving for our team retreat/meetings at the Coast next week. I hear its 95 there now! YAY!!!!

PS- When I was in Asia for Christmas, my sis bought me this electric hot water bottle thing (it was a life saver there!) Never really thought I'd need it here but I might bring it to the office tomorrow!

Todays Lesson: Don't Fall Asleep With The Windows Open...

Its important to continue learning no matter how old you are, right? 

Well today I learned: Never fall asleep with the windows open and a light on.  When the rains come, you will have a house full of flying termites.  There has to be a sermon illustration in there somewhere....

But learn from my mistakes!

I had a crazy long day, so I decided to take a nap this evening (its my day off and that's what days off are for! Napping!) So I fell asleep but the balcony door was open in the living room. I woke up a while later, hearing the rains. It was dusk.  And someone in the house had left a light on in the living room.  I walked out of my room into a complete Termite Invasion!  I mean there were hundreds of termites swarming everywhere!! Ugh!!!

I ran back into my room, grabbed a hoodie and put it on so my hair would be covered (I've written before about getting the flying termites stuck in my hair! Gross!!), grabbed a shoe and I was ready for battle!  I turned off all the lights in the house except the one in the bathroom (to lure them all there- this is a strategic, night-ops kind of battle!)  They are swarming everywhere.  I just start stomping them with my feet and hitting them with another shoe- hundreds of termites! Disgusting!  I'll save you all the gory and grisly details but I finally won. I swept them up and that was that.

Or so I thought.  I was on my way out the door to meet a friend when the invasion happened.  I opened my door, and the hallway was swarming with THOUSANDS of termites!  The building doors were open (as usual) and the hall lights had been turned on.  I put up my hood again and just ran down the stairs through the swarms.  DISGUSTING!!

The guards were happy though.  They are from Western Kenya where flying termites are a delicacy.  They had a bucket with thousands of termites in it- they were going to fry them up later.  They even taught me the recipe for termites while I was waiting for my friend to pick me up.  One day I'll try it.  But not today.

Flooding

This is the stream behind my house.  Its usually a trickle. Last night it was a raging river. 

The picture isn't incredibly clear, but look at all of the plastic bags stuck against the tree trunks.   Those were dragged there by the flooding.  The water is at least 3 feet higher then normal in this picture and the garbage stuck in the trees showed that the river was at least 2 feet higher then that.  Insanity.  And its still raining.  I can hear the river running with the windows closed in my house (normally you can't even hear it when you walk over it.)

A friend of mine has a flooded apartment.  What a mess. Its been pouring rain for months (and its not yet Rainy Season).  Its not yet clear if this is just Rainy Season come early or if it will just keep raining into Rainy Season.  At least its not a drought like last year. 

The Hilarity of the Day

Today, I had a few random things I needed to accomplish- things I hadn't planned to do today (or at all for that matter) but they needed to be done today and that was that.  Plans change.  Plans tend to change a lot here.  So I decided to go to the office, leave my computer there (downloading the latest episode of NCIS) while I ran all my earrands.  This was supposed to be fast- maybe 1 hour?  But when is anything ever fast?

I ran out to the other side of town, met up with some people that I needed to meet up with, finished with that. Then I ran into some other people I knew so we were chatting when I ran into one of my teens who was supposed to be in school. She wasn't.  So we had a chat about that that morphed into this whole other thing. In the midst of that semi crisis, I ran into yet another friend who was going back in the direction of my office with 2 humoungus bags and her 2 toddlers- on a matatu.  I finished with the teen and told the other friend that I would help her get the stuff and the kids to the other side of town because this is a 3 matatu exchange trip (we switch mats 3 times to get to where she is going) 

One of the huge things that just drives me crazy here is that babies and todlers ride matatus too.  On one hand, I get it- if you don't have a car, how else will you travel?  But on the other hand, its crazy dangerous! No child safety seats, no nothing. Often you see women with their tiny little babies tied on their backs or sides as they get in the matatu.  Yikes!!

But my friend was going to take matatus with or without me, so the least I could do was help out. I carried the 2 year old and held the 4 year old's hand as we walked to catch the mat.  Mom had the bags.  Once we got a matatu, we got the bags, mom and the 4 year old in the front seat behind the driver and I climbed in with the 2 year old who promptly falls asleep.  Once we get to the stop, we all get out, the 2 year old is still sleeping on me, and we cross the highway to catch matatu #2. One matatu shows up but its full and we have a ton of stuff and sleeping kids so we let it pass.  We wait.  and wait.  and wait.  and wait.  And now this tiny little 2 year old feels like she weighs 90 pounds-  and everyone and their brother is staring at me, the white chick holding a not white baby as she sleeps.  So the mom suggests that I sit down on a rock near a tree while we wait.  Sounds good to me.  So I sit down.  For about 1 second.  Then I notice all the ants that start dropping onto my shoulders and hair and her hair.  Then they start biting.  Yup I sat down underneath a tree CRAWLING with safari ants.  I stood up right away and try to hand the baby over to the mom but a matatu shows up that can take us so I only get the ants out of her hair before we jump in. They are still crawling in my shirt, hair and jeans.  Fun times.  I end up in the front seat behind the driver with BOTH kids on my lap ( b/c the matatu is full and mom has all the bags).  They both fall asleep.  So I now have 2 sleeping kids in my arms, safari ants in my clothes and hair (biting the whole time) and I'm trying to get my coins out to pay adn all this stuff. 

We get to the stop, I'm trying to wake up the 4 year old but he won't wake up, the ants are still biting and when you get out of a mat, you have to do it in a hurry because they just take off. I ended up carrying both kids out of the mat at once (one under each arm, both still somewhat asleep). Surprisingly we only lost 1 shoe in the whole deal (and a guy grabbed it for us before the matatu left).  I'm sure we looked hilarious. 

I ended up getting them on the their last matatu (b/c I was going a different direction and at this point we had met up with yet another friend who was going their way).  But I still have safari ants in my clothes!  and they are still biting! Sneaky guys, you can't find them all!!!  And in the end, that 1 hour errand turned into a 4 hour deal (not counting most of the matatu riding!)   I think I'm just going to go home and take a shower to get the rest of the ants off.  The rest of the work can wait until tomorrow!

My Favorite Pics

 After going through my pictures from Kitangela Glass, here are some of my faves.  Check the post below for the story...

 All the glass used here is recycled glass- old windows, beer bottles, coke bottles, etc. 

Kitangela Glass

Today, some friend and I went to see this glass blowing place outside of the city. It was AMAZING!!! Seriously!! It was so cool!  I've never seen the whole process of blowing glass before, but this was crazy artistic with a great Kenyan flair!

Here's a picture of the craziest moment of the day.

Look close.  Its not that flames are spurting out of that furnace at the guy.  The crazy moment of the day was when I realized that these guys are pulling molten glass out of a 2000+ degree furnace, waving and twirling it around this little room with 6 other guys, and they are doing all this IN THEIR BARE FEET!!! (well they had sandals on but I'm not sure that would really make a difference!)  We asked about the lack of protective equipment, but the manager said its been made available, but most choose not to use it.  Fair enough, I guess!

 It was truely amazing to watch this whole process- its such an art AND a science!!  Here, the guys is shaping the piece that he has blown.

 Here is one of the more experienced guys adding a decorative edge to the vase- look at how screaming hot that glass is!!

 Here's another guy in a different part of the facility, blowing more glass.

 It seems to be just using air, gravity, heat and chemical reactions to do this- but once again, its the balance of science AND art- because there is no way its just that simple!

The grounds at this place were amazing.  It was like being in a story book- all the paths were made of mosaic glass, clay and cement pieces.  All the shops and workshops were little huts in the middle of the woods.  They do pottery, stained glass, industrial glass, metal work, and of course the glass blowing.  We spent a few hours here and still didn't see it all (including the illusive ostrich I only heard about later!)

Plus, the owner has these HUGE rottweiler dogs running around free- in the stained glass SHOW ROOM!! I was afraid of breaking stuff- how this monster of a dog made it through is a mystery to me! 

 I love Nairobi.  It literally seems to just appear out of nowhere!  This is the city skyline. 

And these are the Ngong Hills.  If you've seen or read Out of Africa, this is what Karen Blixen was talking about.  "I had a farm at the foot of the Ngong Hills once..."  We stopped by her historic home, so this was taken on her front porch.  The hills look like knuckles. 

So this was my fun, random day off!

The Earth is the Lord's...

 The Earth is the Lord's.....

 ... and everything in it....

... the world....

.... and all who live in it.  Psalm 24:1

 Happy Earth Day!

Youth Football- Day 2

So some of you don't believe I can PLAY football!  I'm shocked!!  Some of you even demanded pictoral proof (MOM- my own mother didn't believe me!)  So for all you doubters out there, here's the proof.  I got SKILLS!!!

Today, I even learned how to not only kick the ball in a somewhat straight line in the relative direction of another player, but I learned how to do that thing where the ball comes to you and you kick it up in the air and bounce it off your foot for a while (a little while being 2 or 3 times).  You can tell from that succinct description, that I have this ALL  figured out!!! or not... 

Lots of fun, and lots of sunburn (even with the sunscreen I wore!), lots of laughing (mostly at my lack of ability).  So its been a great day!  We even got the guard to play for a while! Even with the invasion of Nairobi Flies when we took a break.  Nairobi Flies are these crazy little bugs that are about the size of an ant but they are full of acid- so if you squash them on your arm or something  you get a big old acid burn.  They are SNEEKY!!

Term-Break Football

Schools in Kenya go year-round with 3 month long breaks scattered threw out the year.  This time, I figured we needed to take advantage of the fact that the youth are all out of school for an entire month and plan some stuff to do together- thus Teen Term Break Football!! (For all of you in the US, football is actually "soccer" to you- but the rest of the world calls it football so lets just jump on that bandwagon please! life would be less confusing!)

So we had a long, sun burn (for me) filled day of football.  I'm still not the most athletically inclined person you've ever met but its fun and the teens love to laugh at my lack of skill and ability!  I love these days.  The teens are themselves when they play. One girl was just laughing and smiling- I'm not sure I've ever seen her really smile before. 

We'll play some more football next week (and I'll try to remember the sun screen). 

Random Sighting of the Day:

I was walking home from paying my electricity bill at the grocery store, when I noticed these 2 dudes walking down the street next to me handcuffed together.  I did a double take and yup- 2 dudes cuffed together, meandering down the street while the police officer with an automatic weapon walks casually behind.  They must have been picked up for something and are on their way to the nearest police station? but that's a long walk!  Maybe the Walk of Shame on a busy street cuffed together is part of their punishment.  I guess the officer wasn't too worried about them taking off- people were walking in between the guys and the officer as they made their way towards Town. 

Random.

What To Do With Your Leftover Easter Peeps...

This is what I did last year on the massive bonfire in our yard (the one where we burned all the brush and trees we cleared over the winter) Yummy!!

Who Rolled the Stone Away from the Tomb?

Who rolled away the stone from the Tomb????

CHAR did!!!

All of you from Good Shepherd should remember this historic Children's Sermon. Everybody else- sorry! Its a long long story involving a children's Easter play and some slight confusion as to who was actually present at the Resurrection (for the record- Char was NOT there for the actual resurrection- just our recreation of the event!)

I love Easter. Some of my best childhood memories are from Easter. Not just the crazy Easter Play fiascos (like the Moldy Bagel Play, Char rolling the stone away, etc) but listening to my old school tapes of Psalty the Singing Songbook telling the story of how Charles Wesley wrote "Christ the Lord is Risen Today!" and someone else adding all the Alleluias. I remember great Easter Breakfasts at church, a few mishaps with strawberries and new white Easter dresses, a trio (or was a it a quartet) of dads singing the He Came Riding Into Town way WAY back in the day when we were still meeting in a friend's basement for services, and a sunrise Easter service on a beach in Florida when I was on a mission trip.

Easter has some of the best music (well except for Christmas). Easter also has the best message. Christmas is important (obviously)- Jesus came. But EASTER. Easter is the crux of the issue. Jesus came at Christmas, but Easter is WHY he came. He came to die- for us. Its all about redemption. Its all about new life. I love it.

So Happy Easter from the other side of the world!
Amefufuka! (He has Risen!)
Amefufuka kweli kweli! (He has Risen Indeed!)

Good Friday

Good Friday and Easter just seemed to come out of nowhere this year.  Part of it is probably because work has been crazy lately.  Part of it is the lack of Cadburry Egg commercial in East Africa.   Most of you are thinking "Geez Linds, just look at a calendar!"  which is true.  I'd have a better idea holidays were coming if I looked at a calendar more often.  But I think the real reason Easter snuck up on me this year is because my church here doesn't follow the church calendar. and I miss it.  I miss Lent and the 40 day march to Easter.  It puts it all into perspective.  Easter doesn't just come out of nowhere if you are anticipating it for 40 days. 

I know liturgy and church calendars are a little old school for some people, and that's fine.  But I love it. I love that all of the holidays and important things aren't just "stand alone" days that come out of no where. They all fit together in a huge puzzle.  Advent is connected to Christmas which is connected to Epiphany which is connected to Lent which is connected to Palm Sunday which is connected Good Friday which is connected to Easter which is connected to Pentecost which is connected ....  At the end of the year, we've walked through the entire story from start to finish.  It gives context and perspective. 

So have a great Good Friday! Even if it came out of nowhere and surprised you!  Please keep praying for the rain to hold off tomorrow during Youth Group- we've had yet another week of torrential rains and we still don't have a place to put the Youth if it rains.

Happy Birthday Danielle!!!

I hope you have a great day!!! If we were on the same continent, you, Annie and I would go out to TGI Fridays as per our tradition that started in India. But unfortunately we aren't. Next time I'm home, we'll go!
Wow - India was a long time ago! We all look so little!!! Take care of the newest McGrew and have great Birthday!

Rain.... Part II

The rain held off! Yay!  It's raining now, but we had beautiful blue skies for all of Youth Group!

Thanks for praying!

Rain ...

Weather is just weird this year. No one can figure it out. It is not Rainy Season yet, but we are getting pounded with tons and tons of rain. So its chilly and muddy, but that's not the problem. The problem is the Youth have no where to go when it rains during Youth Group. Its been raining every day for over a week and we meet under a tree. We are working on different plans for keeping the Youth dry on Saturdays but nothing is working out so far. We've been trying to find a solution to this problem for months but in all honesty there just aren't a lot of options.

Last Saturday as it POURED, we were all huddled under a small porch - we were getting soaked and rain was coming in on all sides, so we moved to my boss's van. It was the only remotely dry option for us. Anyone ever try to lead a youth group meeting in a van full of cold, wet teens? A van that is too small for everyone to fit?? Didn't work so well. We were semi-dry so that was a start but not a great location for TEACHING or accomplishing anything!

So please, please, please, please pray for the rains to hold back during Youth group (and even before youth group b/c the mud makes things impossible!) It can rain all it wants AFTER Youth!

We are currently looking into different semi-permanent options but so far we don't have any alternatives except praying for the rain to stop during our meetings.