Newsletter: November 2019

What a month it has been! In the midst of continued language learning, we have had many unexpected events come our way.
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Author: J.M. Benson

To start with, one student was experiencing many ongoing health related problems since her arrival here 2 ½ months ago. Bethany Global University decided to transfer her to the Hungary site for a more moderate climate. Chey and I took a bus ride to Nairobi and escorted her to the airport. So far, the report of her transfer has been nothing but good news. Praise God!

Not so unexpected was Agape Church’s VBS (Nov 18-22). Many children came. Many children were from Nairobi who came with their parents, but some local children came as well. Word spread that there was an event for children and the kids come running. Pictured number one below is the story time of when Paul was lowered down in a basket from the city wall (Acts 9:23-25).

Then came the floods. This being the tail-end of the rainy season, the Tana River overflowed its banks and all the low-lands were affected. Cheyanne and I have been taking a Sunday afternoon walk back behind our neighborhood with the express purpose of getting to know the small village located there. Well, it is part of the low-lands near the river. Some of the people there were temporarily displaced and we had the opportunity to help a family construct one of their huts to live in. It was raining and we were able to help them make it and get it covered in time so they could get their bed and other belongings under cover. Pictured number two, with the little child running up, is not their home, but an example of what we helped build.

One of the Farm worker’s daughter has sickle cell anemia. She needed a blood transfusion. Cheyanne and I went over to the hospital and tried to give blood. I could not donate due to my blood type, but Cheyanne was a good match. Cheyanne gave blood and she was at least temporarily stabilized. We praise the Lord that we could help!

Also due to the floods, Amos and Grace had to prepare their school for higher water. We covered the toilets so the water would not disrupt them and cause a mess. We took down the tent and added some sand bags to the entrance to one of the critical low elevation buildings. It was three hours of work and the water level had risen substantially within that time-frame. The third picture below was taken upon our arrival when it was lower.

Our Kenya team gathered together for Thanksgiving. We had team members from both Nairobi and Mombasa join us in Germantown. It was a blessed time of fellowship and team discussions. We shared our dreams and visions for the locations and work each team was doing. I felt it important to start a prayer group so we, as a team, can press in and seek the Lord for fruitful labor. We want to see fruit! We cannot do this without the Lord’s help.

As good as Thanksgiving weekend was, Thanksgiving Day Jason needed to move the diesel water pump by the Tana River that supplys water to the Farm. The Tana River had not only risen, but also shifted to the West within feet of the water pump. The above top photo shows us inspecting the pump.  The fourth picture below shows the water level three months ago upon our arrival in Kenya.   
      
The fifth picture below to the right shows the water level on Thanksgiving Day. The bank that the left picture is taken from fell away and in the right picture I am standing in the red shirt further back parallel to the pump. Jason wanted to move the pump because the government was going to release the dams flowing into the Tana River causing the water to rise even higher. When I saw the water level within feet of the water pump, I could only think of Job 38:11. It states, “And [God] said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther; And here shall your proud waves stop’?” Yet, we had to prepare. We had to carry the diesel pump across the mud and deep muck. We had a team of men lifting it. Every step we took our feet sank, getting stuck. We had one good, long push, but most of the way it was lifting and gaining ground an inch and a foot at a time before setting it down, working our feet out of the mud, getting reset and lifting again. It was a long, slow process. We walked it out of the lower mud-land back to the higher dry trail where we could get it back to the Farm (sixth picture below).

Pictures:
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