Well, tomorrow will be a little different from the other Tuesdays. George is going to try to get his visa tomorrow in Nairobi, so he and Abba are going to be gone for a lot of the day. Instead of leaving me the only guy in the house, they invited me to come along. I'm pretty excited. The first reason is that I will get to spend a lot of time with George and Abba, and the second reason is that I slept almost the entire way from Nairobi to here when we arrived, so I actually have never seen any of the landscape along that way, so this will all be a new experience for me.

So, now about today. We did five visits today, and they were all pretty good. We got some pretty good video, so hopefully we will be able to show you all these people. For me, it was one more time a reminder of just how blessed I am. A lot of these people have jobs, but the jobs don't really allow them to pay bills and eat three meals a day. So these people end up eating one meal a day, sometimes two, and it is usually the same thing every time. And yet they thank God for sticking with them. I have to wonder, would I be able to say the same thing if God had me eating one meal a day? I would hope yes, but I actually can't be sure.
What I am sure of is that seeing these people reminds me every day that I don't ever have a reason to complain, and I have every reason to wake up every morning thanking God for everything He has given me and keep that attitude throughout the day.

I know that that may sound a lot like what I said last time I posted about our visits, it is what God is showing me. I don't think that I can see too often that I need to be grateful, so I'm going to assume that it will help you all too. God bless you all, and thank you everyone who is praying for us. Your prayers are definitely appreciated and felt.

P.S. Today we found out a side of Amma that we haven't seen before, and I doubt that you have either. We all went shopping today, and we had to let make a stop at Tusky's (a super center here) that wasn't going to take much time. We couldn't find a very good place to park, so we just dropped the ladies off and drove around for about five minutes. When we came back by, there were the ladies, waiting with their groceries, so we picked them up.
They climbed in the car, closed the door, and set their stuff down. As Amma was setting down a pack of toilet paper, she suddenly gasped. "I don't think I paid for this", she said, turning red. As it turns out, she didn't pay for the toilet paper, so now Amma is a thief. :) Needless to say we didn't let her live it down the rest of the time in the car, and had a good time razzing her about the whole thing. She was pretty embarrassed. It was great.
And for those of you who have a problem with the fact that we didn't pay for toilet paper, I believe we are going to pay for it the next time we go back. Amma would like to save her reputation. :)

Ok, well, I woke up this morning feeling fine. I think what happened is I thought that my youthful body could handle more than it could and pushed myself a little too far. One of those teenage things that I'm sure I'll grow out of eventually.
I don't know if all of you know, but today is a really big day in Kenya. They are implementing a new constitution that is going to change a lot in Kenya. I don't really know exactly what all it does, but it is all over tv, and everyone seems to be excited. There are thousands and thousands of people at the event, and it has been labeled the party of the century. The tv channel we are watching it on has labeled it "Ushering in the new dawn" so it must be something really big. The president and other high officials will swear in today, so this is a historic event in Kenya. Thought you all might like to hear about that.
I don't think we have anything happening today other than a clan leaders meeting tonight, so today should be pretty relaxing. Amma had a headache when she went to bed last night and woke up with a slight one this morning. Don't really know how bad it is, but I'm sure she will be fine. She is a lot better at taking care of herself than I am. :)

Tonight, Abba brought us another awesome teaching. He was talking about the difference between the soul, body, and spirit; and the differences between the sin that is attached to each. If you want the whole teaching, you can email and ask Abba for it, because like most of his stuff, it was pretty long. Probably worth reading though. I would recommend it.
Anyway, unfortunately I was out of it for a lot of the teaching, because I was feeling a little sick. We don't know if it is from working out too hard at the altitude, or if I am really getting sick. I guess we will have to wait till morning to find out. If you all wouldn't mind praying that it isn't me getting sick and just having pushed myself a little far I would appreciate. I don't have enough time here to be sick for some of it.
Anyway, not much more to report from today. However, if I could restate the beginning, I would recommend Abba's teaching to anyone who hasn't heard him talk about it yet. It was really good. Bye for now, and I hope to be feeling excellent in the morning.

Faith and Poverty

Today was totally awesome. We didn't get to visit yesterday, so we ended up going this morning, and we decided to interview the people we visited. They all lived in pretty small houses, and being in them once again reminded me just how much we have in America. They were all having a little trouble with their businesses, so I was impressed with all their attitudes towards life. None of them blamed God, and they were all happy.
The last person we visited was a lady named Seline. Her house was two rooms instead of one, so I thought that she was probably a little better off than most of the other people we had visited, and I didn't expect to get quite as much out of the visit as I did out of the others. I couldn't have been more off in my thinking.
The first thing she said that hit me was that she made about 150 shillings on a good day, just under two dollars. That is a good day. Then she started telling a story about her two year old son. She had left him sleeping on a bed for about an hour, and when she came back he was dead. She said he had been fine and playing with his friends before he had gone to sleep, so she had no reason to expect him to die then.
Instead of that incident making her mad at God, she let it build her faith. She said that God must have had a reason for taking him, and that the experience helped her realize that our days are numbered and we don't know when our time is, so live for God now. You might not get another chance. I was totally blown away. Hearing her talk, and seeing her smile, and seeing the her faith made me reevaluate how I look at things and handle problems. It also made me suddenly grateful for everything that I have, and gave me a very positive outlook on life. I have been given so much, and God has a plan and reason for everything. So why not go all out? Live life to the fullest!
We need to remind ourselves that everything happens for a reason. So what if things seem to be going wrong? God has a plan for everything and it is always for the good of those who love Him and are called According to his purposes. I know that I love Him, and I'm in Africa on a mission trip, so I also believe that I am called according to His purpose, so that means God is reaching down from heaven and planning my life for my good, even if it doesn't look like things are good.
Anyway, I hope that encourages you all as much as it encouraged me. I don't know if it can, because seeing these things always has more of an impact that hearing them, but maybe it will give you all some inspiration to live a little more freely and let God handle your life. He can take care of us, and He will.

I thought I would take a moment to tell you all about one of my favorite things about George. Not my favorite thing, but one of my favorite things. That is his laugh. I can't describe it, but it is totally hilarious. You would have to hear it to understand. Anyway, I thought I would put that up here, because he really has an awesome laugh. Every time I hear it it gets me laughing.
Another thing I thought I'd mention is my whole name thing. When we started traveling, we figured out that I needed a nick name due to having the same name as Abba. However, finding a name that works has been a bit of a work.
The first one I got was Joel, due to him being the last guy to come to Africa. However, we wanted to find one for me that was mine. I suggested Pavio, which is the name Poncho gave me. We tried that, and it worked for Joy, but not really so well for George and Amma, so we continued the search. Also, George was trying to give me an African name. I'm still not quite sure why, but he wanted to give me one.
Anyway, after many tries, we finally found a few that worked. So as far as I know here are my names while I'm in Africa: Joel, Noah, Pavio, Robert, Kamau, and Bob Miller. George gave me the last three and the first three are for Amy, Joy, Amma and Abba.

So anyway, probably have a good post for tomorrow. We didn't get to visit today, so we are going to visit tomorrow, and we are going to have a meeting in the evening. It will be a good day. So signing off for now. Take luck and have a great day.

Yesterday we had a miracle occur. George cooked dinner for us. From what I understand, he has been promising to cook ever since they came the last time, so I wasn't really expecting him to come through. But he did and dinner was awesome. He cooked chicken, and it was some of the best chicken I've ever had. So a special thanks to George, good job.

Today though, we had a pretty good Kingdom Hikers meeting. It was scheduled for two, but being in Africa it didn't kick off till 3:35. Once we started though, they seemed to be pretty open to everything that Abba was saying. They have the same problem that our youth do in that they don't really like to talk during meetings and their faces don't show much as they listen. However, once Abba told them what he was looking for from them and gave them the option of waiting or jumping on board now, they were all on board. I think that they will do very well and I'm looking forward to seeing where all this goes. However, they are going to need prayer, just like our youth does so please pray for them. I think God has some big plans.

Tonight's meeting went quite well I thought. We didn't arrive till about half an hour after we were supposed to, but this is Africa so it didn't matter. There weren't that many people there due to the time. Things here close down at dinner time, and this was right about that time so there was only about four people there. We started with praying, which was very different from our prayer. When they pray, they all pray out loud at once. It is actually kind of neat, but it is also a little hard for me to get used to.

Then Abba talked out of Psalms, talking about evil people, God, and us. It was all good, but the part that stood out to me was when he was reading one of the verses and it said basically that the evil man lays around thinking about how he can do more evil. That got me thinking. If the evil man lays around thinking about how to spread more evil, we should probably be doing the opposite.

I know that I don't spend too much time thinking about how I can do good, but maybe I would be a better man if I did. I realized that I tend to take living a good life different than everything else. If I want to get good at an instrument, sport, or anything like that I'll spend a lot of time thinking about it and practicing. There is really no other way to get better. But for some reason I expect being loving is different, and that if I really want to be that way then I will just end up being the kind of man I want to be. I don't know why I think it is different, but hearing Abba talk I realized that it would probably be a good idea to plan to do good, and think up ideas of how I could practice, and watch all the time for opportunities to be a good Christian. I've been told that before, but it was one of those things that went in one ear and out the other. Now I guess I get it.

So as a parting thought. Try spending some time thinking about how you can do good. It isn't a sin to plan to help others and be loving.

Well, the experience Africa has already begun to change us, inside and out. Amy went to Nellie's shop yesterday and got her hair done in lots of little braids. Here are a couple of pictures.

We went out today and met a lady named Tereasa (I don't know her last name) and she was great. We all liked her a lot, and are looking at getting her out the the village when she comes back to the states in November. She has been here for almost two years and has a few different ministries she is working in to help the native people. She was awesome and I'm looking forward to seeing more of her.

We also went to a restaurant today where I got a t-bone steak, fries and veggies for a little under seven dollars. It was worth every penny. I must say I am enjoying the pricing over here. Everything is so cheap, except for appliances. Those are overpriced.

We have a meeting tonight, so I'll probably post something about that later tonight. Until then, I miss you all and have a great day.

Today was a pretty interesting day. It started by going to the gym, where I found out just how much I need to work out. However, the highlight was a meeting that we went to this evening.

About an hour or so before we were going to leave for the meeting the sky opened up. By the time we were going to leave it was so wet we didn't know if we would make it to the meeting and we were debating if we should even go at all. We decided to try to go, and headed out into the pouring rain.

There were rivers over the already bad roads, and we stalled twice due to water getting into the engine. The second time we didn't think that we would be able to get the van back up and running, and George was suggesting that we walk the last mile or so through the water. That wouldn't have been so bad, except the water was nowhere near to clean. Walking through it has the potential to make you very sick, so we didn't like the idea. However we did finally manage to get everything running and made it to the meeting.

The meeting itself was great. We started by singing (which was all in Swahili so I don't know exactly what they said) and then we all told a little about ourselves and Abba talked about looking for the church, finding it, and what God promised. However, my favorite part was the tea at the end. When we were done talking, they brought some tea and bread in and we had tea. We didn't actually talk about anything super spiritual or anything, but as I sat there I realized that for all intents and purposes I was taking communion with the Africans. Of course, it wasn't official, but somehow I felt honored to be sitting with all these people, who loved God and had struggled and lived a much harder life than me, and to be eating and drinking with them. I considered them to be my brothers and sisters and they considered me to be a part of their family. It was an awesome feeling, and I think it is what God promised us. I was with people that had a different culture, different skin color, a different language, and a different homeland and yet we were family. It was a great feeling.

So here I am one more at the end with no idea of how to end this, so the end. Love you all.

We went to visit a couple of the members of the church today at their houses. That was a great experience for me, as I have really never seen that kind of poverty. Both the houses had no electricity, and were about 10x12 ft. The first house had nothing in it but a bed, a couple of chairs, a box with some personal things in it and a pile of dishes in one corner. There were clothes draped over the end of the bed. The man who lived there was a brother named Lawrence, who was formerly a Maasai who came to the city in search of a job. He works a night job as a guard, and is a really nice man. He had had a drinking and smoking problem, so he came to the church to get saved from all that.

The second home we went to was home to a couple, Kennedy and Dorris. This house also had very little in it, but it was divided in half by a couple of sheets hung up. One side had their bed in it and the other side had everything else. The entire house was the same size as the other one, but with the curtain divider it seemed to be even smaller. Dorris was eighteen and had a little girl who was four (which I'm told isn't that uncommon over here.) The girl lived with the grandparents in a different town, while Kennedy and Dorris worked in Nakuru.

Kennedy worked as a taxi driver, but his taxi is a bicycle. He was just mugged and robbed last Tuesday night. He told us his story, and apparently he had a very rough life. His parents split up when he was young, five I think, and they both wanted him to live with them. When he went to stay with his mother, his father thought he was siding with his mother and would be angry. When he stayed with his father his mother thought the same thing.

Now he lives in a tiny house in Nakuru with very little to call his own. He was blown away that we would come visit him, which I found to be a little surprising. Here is a man who had gone through more than I might ever go through, who works hard for very little, and who probably has more with God than I understand, and he is honored that we would come see him because we are white and rich.

Anyway, I walked away from there realizing for the first time I think just how much I have. I think I have always known that I have been exceptionally blessed, but I didn't realize just how much till I came here. I have had an easy life, surrounded by people who love me and love God. I have always had money for the things I needed and a little extra for the things I wanted.

I don't ever have any reason to complain about anything. I am having an easy time seeing all this now, but I know that, being human, I'll probably begin to forget this as soon as I get back to the states and am suddenly surrounded by wealth again. It is going to take a miracle to keep me in reality about all this, but I think that God will do that for me. Anyway, I'm really grateful for everything I have been given, and I am determined to keep this mindset.

I would post pictures, but it is using up all my megs. I think the others will post them though, so make sure to check out the other blogs. I think we are going to go visit people every Monday and I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone here. So far everyone I have met has been really nice. I think I have a lot to learn from them about being friendly.

I never know how to end these things, so I guess this is the end. I'll post some more tomorrow.

Well, I guess when I said God can do anything, I didn't realize how much He could really do or would be willing to do. I was preparing myself to sing that song in front of all those people and I knew that I didn't have enough practice. I was so sure that I would mess up on the bridge, and I would have to walk away feeling like an idiot.

But then a miracle happened. We started the service with the choir singing, and I had to get up and sing with them. I didn't know most of the songs, so I did my best while one of the men there helped as best he could and translated the ones that were in Swahili so I could understand what they were singing about. That was all pretty fun, and then George and Abba talked. George talked a lot about not gossiping and keeping friendships strong. Abba talked about glory and power. It was all pretty good. Then George got back up and started to close. I was sure he would ask me to come up before everyone left and sing. I was getting more and more nervous as he talked, but then he ended everything, and forgot that he had wanted me to sing at the gathering. So now I have another week to practice, and I'm sure I'll do so much better than I would have done today. I'm pretty relieved.

Tomorrow we are going to go visit people, and I'm really looking forward to that. Now I will get to see how all these people live, and I'm sure that will make an impact on me. I did get to see one house today, and it was a bit of a shock. We sat in one tiny room about the size of a decent sized closet, and there was a sheet with a bed on the other side. To the best of my knowledge, that was all there was to the house. Nellie said there is a communal bathroom, so there wasn't one in the house. It kind of put into perspective for the first time exactly how much we have in America. I have heard all the stories before, but actually seeing someone living in those conditions kind of drove it all home for me. So I'm really looking forward to how tomorrow will go.

I'll make sure to take pictures to try to give everyone some kind of idea of what we are going to see, but I don't think that it will really do the trick. Anyway, I'll keep you all posted. Bye for now.

Yesterday, I had a couple of pretty amazing things happen. The first was we got to go see the crater. We drove way up a moutain and looked down to see the crater that everyone lives in. I believe it's an extinct valcano. It was totally beautiful. Here are a couple of pictures, but you have to see it for yourself to really see the size and beauty of this thing. Pictures just don't cut it.
The second thing was I went to a worship practice with the African youth and found out that I don't know how to worship. We practiced singing songs, and that was fun and a little embarrassing (I was having trouble figuring out my part). Then we sang a song for worship. All of them emediately threw themselves completely into the worship. They closed their eyes, swayed with the music, and I could tell they were singing to God. I started to sing, but I did it in my reserved American way. I was nervous to let go and worship, and yet watching them do it made me decide to just go ahead and let go. I raised my hand, looked up at the ceiling, and started doing my best to sing do God. I'm sure I probably looked a little funny, but suddenly I didn't care as much.
I walked away from there with the realization that God doesn't care so much about how we look, or even how we worship, but that we are giving our whole hearts when we do it. I'm not saying that everyone has to worship in the African way (although it will help you get over your self-awarness), but we all need to give ourselves completely to our worship like the Africans do. I know that a lot of times I hold a little bit back. I raise my hand when everyone else is doing it. I do what is comfortable for me, and I miss some of what God is trying to give me because I don't give everything. And now I am going to change that.
I also don't that I'm the only one who has that problem. We all have areas in our lives where we are only giving God so much, where we are worried that if we go all the way we will look stupid or people will see who we really are and will reject us for it. It is something we all have to overcome, and it is something that I am having to face every day now. I like to live in my comfort zone, and here I am having to break out of it all the time. It is pretty scary, but I guess God can take care of me.
Anyway, those are my thoughts for today. Hope you all got something out of them. We are going to church in a little bit, and I'm going to have to sing and play Who Am I by casting crowns all by myself. I'm terrified, but I'm sure God has something great planned so I'm going to do it. Who knows, maybe it will even bless everyone there as well as help me get over myself. With God, anything can happen.

Ok, here is my first post while I'm in Africa. It is four in the morning here, and I'm having a little trouble sleeping, so I thought I would let you all know how things are going.

The trip down here was not quite as smooth as I hoped it would be. Our first plane left thirty to forty-five minutes late, so we missed most of our layover in Newark. That may not sound so bad, but we needed the layover to make it to our next flight, so I had to run to catch the next flight. They announced our names over the loud speaker and everything. It was all very last minute. The next flight was smooth, and Paris was amazing. Our driver picked us up at about 11:15 and took us to all of the best sights. However, I only slept two hours on the plane, so I was pretty tired, and cars put me to sleep, so I slept through a lot of the driving. I'm not sure what all I missed, but I did get to see all the places I wanted to see. The buildings were beautiful, and the food was good too. After Paris, we boarded the plane to Nairobi, and it was totally packed. I was stuck in a middle seat, so I had trouble, and the movie player shut down about half way though the trip, leaving me with four hours to fill doing nothing in an airplane seat with no room. My ipod died a short time later, so I lost music too. I slept about an hour on that plane ride, so by the time we got to Nairobi I was exhausted. I slept most of the ride to George's house, although I did wake up and take a few pictures at the Great Rift Valley. That was beautiful. I think we are going to go back there before we leave, which I'm really looking forward to.

Anyway, once we got to George's I slept like a baby until four in the morning, when I popped awake. I didn't manage to go back to sleep until about six fifteen, and then I slept till ten and woke up feeling pretty good. Speaking of sleeping, I thought you all might get a kick out of my bed, so I'll post a of picture on my blog.
For those of you who don't know, that is Dora the Explorer. The bed is bigger than it looks in this picture, but it is also in the living room (where I will be sleeping these six weeks) and will be seen by anyone who comes through.

Anyway, we haven't done much yet, but I think that we are going to start doing things today or tomorrow. I'll keep you all posted.

Also, for any of those people that I promised I would put pictures of Paris up for, here are some of the Eiffel tower and Notre Dame. Hope I spelled those right. Sorry about the funky picture formatting. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to do this and it is very early in the morning. Anyway, bye for now.

I was struggling with not feeling ready for my trip, so I decided to look in the bible to see if I could find some answers there. I happened to have my bible from Abba's bible class on hand, and I realized that I had something highlighted on every page in Romans from something that my dad or Abba has talked about, so I decided to start there. I was started reading in Romans 8:31-36 (if you want to know what it says, you can read it for yourself.) It was talking about God's love for us, and how He gave His Son for us, and how He will give us all things. As I read it, I realized that even though I don't feel ready, and there probably isn't a way for me to be ready, it doesn't matter. I just have to do my best, and God will take care of everything else. I don't think I have anything to give any of the youth down there. In fact I think I'll learn a lot more from them then they could ever learn from me. And the truth is I don't have anything to give those people. The only thing I can do is follow God and let Him give them something through me. If I went down there knowing exactly what I wanted to do, with my agenda planned out, where would God fit in?



I think one of my greatest inspirations is Bruce Olson, probably more commonly known as Brushko. He went to South America with nothing but a burning desire to reach the unreached and trust that God would take care of him. And God did. I get to go with a great man to look at and follow, who will help me if I mess up, and a God who can do anything. What else do I need?



Anyway, that all sounds a lot more sure than I feel, but I have always been a fan of not letting your feelings dictate how you act. So I'm putting some faith in God that He will do what He said and take care of me.