6 Miles

This weekend James and I were blessed with a few days away for a late anniversery trip combined with our retreat for our Kenya team. We dropped the boys off with Grandpa and Grandma on Wednesday and drove out to West Virginia. Two of our team members own a Bed & Breakfast and they hosted us for the weekend. James and I got there late Wednesday night and enjoyed the next two days of relaxation and exploring (and eating REALLY good food). It was so beautiful, I took tons of pictures. I know they won't show it as amazing as it really was, but it gives you an idea of it.

Where we stayed, at North Fork Mountain Inn:

View from the Front Porch:

Other sites seen:

The bus was converted into a weekend camping trailer (we assume, it was by a group of trailers) for hunters or fishermen.

Then we drove out to see Seneca Rocks:
 

Then we went to Blackwater Falls:

We got to go down 214 steps to an observation deck that was near the top of the falls. The water falls 5 stories.

Oh, we also enjoyed feeding the deer from the front porch:

Once the team arrived, we did planning and team building activites:

The area the Inn is located in is called Smoke Hole. Legend says it's called that because the Indians smoked meat in the caverns. But after it rains, the clouds gather in the valley and it looks like smoke is in the hole:

My one disappointment of the whole trip was that it rained on Saturday and we couldn't take our hike up to the top. So we'll have to go again! It was a wonderful time to relax and recharge, and we also had a good time getting to know our future teammates bettter.  The boys had a fun time at Grandpa and Grandma's–they got help Grandpa unload gravel from the truck, pour concreat and plant flowers as well as go to the park, the petting zoo and Burger King's play area! They also made Easter Bunny cookies (Grandma got them on sale after Easter) and they got to bring them home–that made them the most excited!

Well, a decision was made by Grace Community Church's leadership to postpone the trip.  Here's a portion of the letter sent out:

Obviously the last couple weeks have been an extraordinary time in Kenya’s history, and none of us could have predicted or envisioned the events as they have unfolded.  We have been burdened as a church for our dear family of Nairobi Chapel and Mavuno Church, and all the other relationships we have throughout Nairobi.  We have been praying, and are grateful that things have not deteriorated any further, and seem to be moving toward reconciliation, albeit slowly.

We don’t have any protocol for political insurrections in our short-term trip preparations, and have never faced a situation quite like this before.  We have tried to walk through this prayerfully and with understanding towards our friends in Nairobi and the commitments you have made as a team.

Our original plan was to wait until Friday to make a final decision. But after further consultations, I have decided that no other information will change the decision at this point and we need to postpone the trip until the fall or next January.  The situation in Kenya will not be stabilized enough for us to be comfortable with the risk we would be taking for your safety.  I know that this is difficult for everyone involved – the people receiving the team, each of you, your families, your workplace.  We want to trust God, follow Him, and take risks for God’s kingdom.  But this risk seems to great, especially since we can reschedule the trip for a time when the situation has settle down, and you can accomplish the purpose of the trip then.

Our team leader added:

We are planning a meeting this Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Grace Community Church to discuss our options for re-scheduling for later this year in September and/or early January 2009.  Because of new information and conflicts with September, we are considering another alternative of January.  Grace has agreed to cover the ticket change charge of $ 300.00 per person and any increase in airfares. 
 
Please continue to pray for the people and leaders of Kenya that they can reach a peaceful solution.  We realize these last two weeks of uncertainty have been an inconvenience for you, but it is small compared to the suffering our Brothers and Sisters in Kenya are experiencing and we want to keep them foremost in our prayers

I want to echo that last paragraph.  Thank you all again for your prayers and support.  At this point we are feeling relief over just knowing. The uncertainty of everything was making me dread the thought of going–and I did not want to go in that mind set! This is something I have wanted to do for YEARS and I want to go wtih that excitement in place! 

We got a note from our leadership team today–here's part of what it says:

(Note: ISAR is a confernce center with housing on the campus of NEGST (the seminary) we were going to use to stay for the week of actual teaching, the rest of the time we were going to be staying with people in the city who attend Niarobi Chapel, a near-by church Grace partners with.)

We plan to make a final decision on Friday, January 11th, and let you know.
Here are questions that are being considered:

• Can we stay the whole time at ISAR (housing) at NEGST (seminary), instead of with host families, so we are not a burden to them (already housing the homeless in this crisis)?
• Would we be a distraction or a help to NEGST students at this time? (Note:  NEGST has postponed classes one week to begin 1-14-08.)
• Do ISAR and NEGST have or expect a shortage of food, water, fuel,and would we be a drain on their supplies?
• Would our mission trip be a better service to Niarobi Chapel in distributing humanitarian aid, than to NEGST (VBS & computer training)?
• Can our ground transportation company give us safe transportation around the "hot spots" from the airport to NEGST, to the safari, and back to the airport?
• Has or does our airline (NWA) cancelled any flights to Niarobi because of safety?
• Is postponing the trip to use the airline tickets later (fee of $250) an option for the schedule of people at NEGST and the mission team?

Please continue to pray for wisdom for the team leaders, as well as for the country itself.

I wanted to share part of a note from a Kenyan Missionary in our Sunday School class who is home for the year. It's a positive view. Please be in prayer for our leaders, they are making a decision tomorrow. We should fine out more on Saturday.

JOE'S THOUGHTS ON VISITING KENYA

I do not see this unrest lasting for more than a week or so.  Right now gasoline supplies are disrupted in some places and there has been a run on the grocery stores for food.  Soon the citizens will turn on the politicians if they don't visibly work for a solution.  Additionally, Kenya is the transit site for all of Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda's fuel and imports.  The longer the unrest stays the more pressure neighboring countries will put on Kenya to find a solution.  Kenya is not Rwanda circa 1994.  Kenya has nearly fifty tribes to Rwanda's two and all those tribes have an economic interest in seeing the unrest solved quickly.

It would not be wise to travel to Kenya in the next few days.  The airport is on the far southeast side of town and you have to travel near the city center to get out to quieter suburbs like Karen where NEGST is.  But my guess is by this time next week the situation will have calmed considerably.  The Kibera slum that houses so many of todays protestors is in the challenger Odinga's district.  He is their elected politician and they will listen to him if he tells them to stand down when a compromise has been reached.  Yes, you will always have a few opportunistic thugs but, by and large, the violence is committed by unemployed youths who feel that the politician who has the best chance of improving their lots has been cheated out of an election victory.

Once things calm down in the center of Nairobi then business will continue as normal.  These are my thoughts only. It will be up to the organizers of the Grace/FMC trip to NEGST to decide to continue the trip or not.  But it is best to view the current situation as a dogfight between two seasoned politicians over the results of a questionable election. As Africans say, "When elephants fight, it is the grass that is trampled."  So far more than 300 have been trampled to death.

We ask you to please pray for the leaders of Kenya.  Pray that they will push for peace and that some resolution will come from the election.

 

If you've been following the news the last few days, you'll have heard or read about the unrest/violence in Kenya following the elections.

Here is the most recent email from the Vice-Chancellor of NEGST:

We flew back into Nairobi yesterday morning.  There was an uneasy calm as we drove from the airport to NEGST, but no serious incidents of violence. Most of the violence appears to have been restricted to certain parts of the city and to some hot spots in the West of the country, two hundred miles or so from Nairobi.

What we have at the moment is a serious political crisis that has been attended by some severe localized violence and widespread uncertainty. Church and other leaders are making efforts at reconciliation. We are praying and hoping that the situation will not degenerate and a peaceful solution will be found soon.

We are monitoring the situation and should be able to advise more appropriately before your meeting on Saturday.

Do keep us and Kenya in your prayers.

So at this point our team is taking a wait and see approach. Please be in prayer for our leaders, as well as for Kenya!  We do have a meeting on Saturday, I'm sure we'll know more by then.

This is a post that has been in my head for about a month.  A month ago I was vising the church I go to MOPS at, and the pastor was preaching a sermon on faith and how it important it is for us to step out and test our "faith muscle".  I had meant to write in more detail about it and how much it ment in light of our step of faith for our trip to Kenya, but we got sick and life just got crazy.

Then, I read this amazing quote from Beth Moore's blog today (and it reaffirmed what I'd been thinking, only says it MUCH better):

God called us through Christ to an adventure that never ends. To seeks answers that are never fully satisfied. Not here on earth anyway. You and I were given restless hearts so that we’d only be satisfied with a wild ride. Some of us try to find it elsewhere because we've reduced our relationship with God to a neatly compartmentalized religion we pay regular homage to. We keep our faith to ourselves because we haven’t got that much to spare. We expect little and get little. This way, we don’t have to let it get to us much. But if you engage in the real, live walk of faith with the real, live Jesus Christ, it’s GOING to get to you because HE’S going to get to you. You will get your feelings hurt at times because you’re close enough to be vulnerable. Faithful enough to put yourself out there. Because sometimes walking by faith and not by sight creates as many questions as answers.

She had several points in her writing, but her comments on our need for adventure, or a wild ride, reminded me of that initial sermon I heard a month ago. 

This last few months have been interesting. It has been a blessing for support to come in. Friday & Saturday we had a team retreat to get ready for our trip next month. I drove the boys up to Mom and Dad's–it was a huge help to have them watching the boys! As I was driving home Friday, I was thinking and praying about how much we still needed to come up with.  Our host church (not the church we attend) wanted all funds in by the 15th. If we had not met our goal, they asked that we be prepared to write a check for the difference.  I was praying (and fretting) about how we just didn't have the ability to write that check.  We were blessed during this weekend to receive the final amounts that we needed!  I had been planning to write this Friday saying "We have 84%!" Then I had thought I'd be writing "We have 95%!"  Instead, when I finally had time to write this post I'm able to say "We have 104%!!!"  What a blessing!  (The extra money will go to help another team member or to pay for the VBS supplies we're going to be bringing with us.)

We will try to do a better job keeping you up to date on our preparation and then the trip. I hope to write a bit more about our retreat and then more details on our jobs later in the week.  But this post is long enough and it's getting late, so I'll end it for now.  Thank you all who have supported, and thank you all who have been praying for us! Please keep it up!