I was reminded by Chris’ comment on Kenya Report #1 that I forgot to mention Jim’s thumb. The story of Jim’s trip actually started the night before we left when his son’s dachshund decided to take a bite out of his thumb. After our doctor wrapped it and gave him some antibiotics, we left for Kenya. Jim was a real trouper, hammering rock and shoveling trash with one thumb. He did everything we did. The only problem he had was tying his shoe!
Way to go Jim. Oh, and nice bracelet.
Brian
Since I was in Kenya on June 15, yesterday was my Father’s Day. The day started with homemade buttermilk biscuits and chocolate gravy (don’t knock it ’til you try it) and ended with chicken parmesan and derby pie (finely chopped pecans and lots of chocolate – do you see a theme here?). My wife is amazing in the kitchen. In between, there was a lot of swimming. laziness, and family togetherness. And a few outbursts from our kids to remind us that we are indeed parents. It was a great day.
Brian
Finally on the House of Hope site. The ladies taught the children while the men busted rocks. We were building a classroom and office space behind the orphanage. They hired a crew to do the really skilled work like building the walls. We, on the other hand, were moving large rocks into the floor area and busting them up into small pieces so that the concrete can be poured over them. Not as easy as it sounds. We did get to spend a little time with the kids before heading out. They are beautiful and their smiles show the effect that the love of Christ is having on their lives.
Do I look natural with a hammer or what? Not to mention how great my rippled arms looked as I brought the hammer down, every blow crushing the unfortunate rock beneath it. Did I mention that I had great dreams there as well? Come back on Monday for the next report. I’ll start to introduce you to a couple of the kids.
Brian
I am back from Africa and ready to worship with the Body of Christ at MeadowBrook. We will celebrate with the songs “My Savior Lives”, “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee”, and “Mighty to Save.” Then the pastor will bring it With Colossians 3:12-15, “Revealing Christ in Me.” It’s gonna be a great day.
Brian
I’m not really sure how to do this because a mission trip is such a “big” thing. How do you answer the question “How was your trip to Africa?” There is no good short answer. Therefore, I will spread this out a little bit. As I sort through pictures and memories I will post them here and try to give you a sense of what happened in our short time in Kenya.
Week1, Day 1
Our trip started with a big delay. After meeting Brooke from Niceville, Fl (college student traveling with our team) we found out that storms in Chicago would delay our flight. It did not take long to figure out that we would miss our London connection. Here we are waiting paitently in Birmingham, Al:
After we missed our London flight, we found out that we would not get to Nairobi until Wednesday (it was Sunday at the time) and that we would not leave for London until the next day. So, we spent the night at O’Hare International Airport
after standing for three hours in this line:
Week 1, Day 2
The next day we made it to London with half of our luggage. But it wasn’t all bad. Since we couldn’t leave until Wednesday, Tuesday was an unexpected free day in London:
Week 1, Day 3
Week 1, Day 4
Finally, we arrived in Nairobi with half of our luggage.
More later…
Brian
I missed a couple of things while I was in Africa. I missed Father’s Day, but I get to have that on Friday. I also missed Kate’s birthday. Our baby girl turned two while I was away.
Kate is the only one of our four that came like you see on T.V. The others just didn’t want to come out. So, Sonya would progress until the doctor said something like, “Either we induce or he/she just might fall out.” Brotey’s doctor even gave us a rubber glove to take home with us just in case he had to come to our house. So we got used to the predictable pace of induction. Then, we had Kate.
It was a Friday night. Sonya had a few contractions – nothing new. She woke me at 11:25 p.m. Then, 12:25 a.m. No reason to panic. 12:50 a.m. Getting interesting. 1:10 a.m. 1:20 a.m. Maybe we should call the doctor. When we got to the hospital Sonya was at 8cm. The doctor told me that he would give her the epidural but it probably wouldn’t take at this point. When asked I suggested that we not tell her. It didn’t take. Later, I fessed up and Sonya agreed that I made the right desicion. Kate came at around 6:55 a.m., Saturday, June 17, 2006. She was and is gorgeous. Children indeed are a blessing from the Lord.
Thank you, God.
Brian
As I sort through the pictures, I will update you on our trip. Hopefully, I’ll be back on my blogging game very soon. Two weeks has really thrown my rhythm off. Thanks to Bozeman for keeping my blog up-to-date. I wrote the posts in advance and he put them up for me. It’s like the kid in “Home Alone” who put up all the dummies in his house and rigged them up to move around so that the burglars would think that people were home. Sorry for the deception; just protecting my family.
Thanks for reading.
Brian
MeadowBrook is in for some rockin’ thanksgiving this Sunday.
Song list: Arise, Sing to the King, In Christ Alone
The Vocal Team will remind you of how great your salvation is with “I Will Sing of My Redeemer.” Good stuff.
Brian
We want to be a scriptural family, so our kids dance for the Lord. Here are my girls doing their thing in KidStuf
Victoria:
Emma:
Where do you think they got the attitude in those moves?
Brian
I love it when my kids make good friends. Brotey and Parker get along great. And, since Brotey has three sisters, Parker and Brotey usually wrestle a lot. Every boy needs a good wrestling buddy.
Brian
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