So much to share.

Wow.  Where do I even begin?  Every day here is a new adventure.  And some of what I've experienced I'm not sure you'd even believe me.  I arrived Wednesday, July 18th.  Thursday through Saturday (and part of Sunday) we spent working long hours at the clinic seeing many patients and praying over them.  Sunday morning I experienced Children's church with the orphans that live here.  (By the way, if any of you would like to sponsor a child here, it's $35 dollars a month and well worth it.  City of Hope does an amazing job teaching, feeding, and caring for these children).  It was a joyful service and as most mornings here, I felt refreshed and encouraged.  Monday and Tuesday of the next week we spent on safari in the Serengeti.  We camped out and literally "roughed" it.  Listening to hyeenas howling at night while sleeping 5 tight in a tent and being in the middle of the Serengeti... adventure at it's best.  My friend Christine was shaking all night she was so scared but I had the blessing of two tylenol PM's before bedtime so I wasn't so scared, ha.  Anyway, we arrived back at City of Hope, all of us dusted with a few layers of dirt and dust - ready for our cold showers.  The way we take showers here is by filling up a bucket of cold water, lifting it up by a pulley system to then let the bucket of water slowly drain from the bottom (by way of an on/off lever) until the water runs dry.  Back to the schedule of events last week... Wednesday through Friday we finished up classes.  Our days typically go like this:  Breakfast at 7:30a, Devotions at 8:15a, class time/discussion from 9-12:30p.  The afternoons were spent in various groups doing different things at City of Hope or in the village of Ntagacha (correct spelling this time).  Can't remember Wednesday, but Thursday I visited a "shauman" also known as a traditional healer in this place with two others from our group.  Her name was Robi.  More on that later...

Friday afternoon I went with two other girls from our group to visit families in the village, interviewing them on health and sanitation.  Saturday we had some intense discussions and debriefing with our entire group.  There have been various projects the team has been working on so we heard from each group what the topic was and what they've found or developed thus far.  This provided some great ground work for those of us who are continuing to be here for the rest of August.  Sunday am - 10 or so VCOM students left.  That day there were 5 of us from City of Hope who went to a church service in Kenya (since we are so close to the border).  The church was WAY out in the bush.  We actually drove our van on a piki-piki route (which is a motorcycle/walking path basically) to get there.  The service was mostly in swahili and went from about 11am when we arrived to almost 3pm!  They treated us (the guests) after the service with sodas (fantas, coke, sprite, etc), chapatis (greasy, unleavened bread, fried bread), and hot chocolate.  Oh there is so much more to tell you about the day!  But I will save that for later...

We arrived back to City of Hope just in time for dinner.  It was an exhausting, but wonderful day.  Yesterday (Monday) was even moreso interesting.  We basically have adopted this sweet baby named Mweta (M'wee-tah) from the clinic.  So malnourished and has hardly any family support.  He was abandoned by the mother at 6 months of age and is now being cared for by the grandmother.  Due to malnutrition the baby was developing edema (swelling) on hands and feet.  The grandmother took the baby to the shauman in the village for help and we understand that the shauman actually burned two big spots on the foot to decrease the swelling.  So now the baby has 3rd degree burns on the left foot.  We are dressing it every other day and it is improving - no infection.  But for whatever reason, the grandmother is not doing a good job at all feeding this little one.  So there are some of us who decided yesterday to "admit the baby" and so basically care for him and feed him for this week.  Yesterday was successful until the grandmother did not show at the clinic (to stay there with the baby overnight) so we had to drive out to her home in the village to return the baby.  We will see what today brings.  (It is 11am now and we will be going to the clinic soon).  Please be praying for Mweta.  He really is improving!  (I will try to post a picture of Mweta and I soon on facebook)

Also yesterday (Monday) we were told that a student from City of Hope, a boarder (which means he lives outside COH compound but comes to school here) had disappeared.  His name was Lucas, and apparently he had been provoking some evil spirits and was perhaps demon possessed.  We immediately stopped what we were doing that morning and went on prayer walks in the village asking the Lord to protect him and bring him back to the clinic or COH.  Soon after we started our prayer walks he was found (behind the clinic) and was put in one of the rooms there.  He was found to be dehydrated and positive for malaria so he was started on some fluids.  Thoughout the day he was experienced attacks, especially in the evening.  I was at the clinic around 6:30pm to return Mweta to the grandmother as we were waiting for her, I decided to go check on Lucas.  At this time he had several people in the room holding him down and praying over him.  I have never really experienced first-hand someone who was being oppressed by evil spirits.  Daniel (one of the Kenyans here who is a translator and also part of our class) asked for me to come over and pray for the boy, so I asked some of the people to leave the room so we could pray for him.  We prayed over the boy for a few minutes and it occured to me that the boy needed to call on Jesus for help.  He was saying different things at times, then would be mute, then would speak to us, so Daniel and I encouraged him to call on Jesus.  It was evident that the boy was resistant to that but we continued to pray on his behalf.  Finally, after such terror in his eyes and yelling "Out! Out! Out!" in swahili over and over again, he started to whisper Yesu.  Daniel and I kept praying and we were both given a peace and confidence that the boy had been delivered from this evil that was possessing him!  All we have heard from last night and this morning is that the boy is resting and doing much better.  We are continuing to pray and thank God for coming to this boy's rescue yesterday evening.  I am humbled and in awe over God's power and goodness.  I will never forget what happened in the clinic with this boy last night.  And I share this with all of you to pray for this boy, that he recognizes Jesus as his Savior and that struggle he has overcome by God's help will lead him into relationship with Christ.

There is so much more to share with all of you but that's a good start, I believe.  As for my uncle Tom, I ask that you continue to pray for him.  If you are moved to fast, I ask you do that too.  I pray that the Lord would intervene today and bring remarkable improvement in the life of my uncle.  I don't know what the future holds, but I choose to trust and believe God can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.  I am so deeply thankful for all of you who are praying and supporting my family during this time.

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. [1 Thessalonians 5:16-18]