A Labor of Love

So here we are - Valentine's Day 2012. I remember waking up last year with love as last thing on my mind...it was the first day of our Challenge and I was anxious. This year, love is the FIRST thing on my mind. Love for those that are less fortunate and love for my God who provides so much more than I could ever imagine. This Valentine's Day we are focusing on love. Not the love that is wrapped up in the commercial holiday...real, God given love. He calls us to care for the 'least of these' and to love our neighbor as our self. According to http://www.merriam-webster.com, one definition of neighbor is 'fellow man'...We are called to love our 'fellow man' as ourselves. This year we are using Valentine's week to show our love for our neighbors.  We invite you to be a part of this labor of love. Each of us can make a difference in the life of another. We can show love because we ourselves have been shown love. Please join us this Valentine's Day and help us raise funds for our future work in Kenya. As I've said before, not everyone can/will/or wants to go to Africa...but everyone CAN help. We've been blessed and now it's time to pass on the blessing. Every little bit counts and is greatly appreciated. You can even give in honor of your Valentine...Help us help them as we continue to show God's love to the 'least of these.' 

To support our labor of love, visit our 'Get Involved - GIVE!' page. We LOVE you all!!

Lacey's End of Day 2 Journal - 2011

February 15, 2011 - TMSC, Kenya

            This was our first wake up in our new home. We actually like it a lot out here. It is SO dark bc of the mud that it’s built with. Last night was so incredibly cold, though! Since we live on only $1 per day, we can’t afford blankets for our beds. All that we have are the clothes on our backs and our lasso (piece of fabric). I hardly slept bc it was so cold. I had my legs curled up, my arms in my shirt and even my face in my shirt part of the time.  * Note- in my journal I had scribbled out the word shirt 2 times…my brain was so foggy that I couldn’t even spell correctly! * It was a really long, really cold night. When I woke up I realized that it was my cousin Lisa’s birthday! Happy Birthday, Muz!!

            After getting up we went to have our breakfast of 2 cups of tea, w/out sugar. It was so nice to have something hot to warm up my body! We decided to do laundry early so that it would be dry earlier in the day. As we were washing, w/ our bar of body soap, Hesbon 1 (there are 2 Hesbons) told us that he needed our help fetching water. Amanda and I had already agreed that we didn’t need to get any water this morning bc we had some left from yesterday. But here they live as a community. Everyone helps everyone else. So off we went to the spring…

Fetching Water and Playing Donkey-

            Hesbon decided not to take the donkey to the spring, but he did take the cart. We had about 10, 20 liter jugs to fill and bring back. The cold water of the spring felt so good on my aching feet. It was, if only for a minute, a great relief. It was so hard carrying the water up that steep hill today. I had muscles aching that I forgot even existed. All that I wanted to do was stop, but I couldn’t. There was an important task to be completed that wasn’t just about me. When we got all of the jugs to the top, it was time to load them. Hesbon stood in the cart, being careful to load the jugs in the right places. It was our job to hand them to him…talk about an upper body workout! Before we took off, Hesbon informed us of our role in this adventure…”you are to be the brakes”….Say what?? Our job was to stay behind the cart and slow it down when it sped up too fast. Now remember, we’re still barefoot on this rocky, pain filled road! We pressed on trying not to complain but it didn’t last long. We were literally being pulled by the cart..almost to the point of a slow jog. What normally takes about 10 minutes took us about 5 :/ We finished “braking” down the slight slope that is our road and then pushed it up into the yard of the school. As we were unloading, the cart flipped backwards and water came rushing out of the remaining jugs! It turns out that Amanda had removed a jug at the front of the cart and all of the weight shifted to the back. Physics, and common sense, tells you to hold down the front of the cart before removing those jugs…but hunger has a way of clouding your brain. Common sense goes straight out the window! When everything was unloaded, Hesbon crushed our spirits…we had to go back and fetch more water! We had gotten enough for the school, but we needed to go back to get more for the orphanage. So, we began the painful journey back to the spring. It took some serious prayer for me to carry the water back up that hill. I had no strength on my own at that point. Prayer is powerful. I made it back up that hill with 80 liters of water. Thank you, Lord, for giving me strength! Then began the dreaded job of being the brakes. *Oh, I forgot to mention that I played the donkey on the second trip to the spring! I pulled the cart to give Hesbon a break :) * Painful step after painful step we pressed on. We finally saw relief in the form of about 10 young boys running to our rescue…what a beautiful sight it was!!

Sweet Irene

            After arriving back at the orphanage, the boys took all of the water to the back. One of those jugs was for me and Amanda, so as soon as we caught up, we went to get it. That’s when we found Irene. She has been suffering with the chicken pox for a few days, but they have gotten really bad. She now has open wounds where her boils have popped. She was obviously in a lot of pain and couldn’t stop her endless flow of tears. Irene is normally a little ball of smiles and joy. But today, the chicken pox were winning. We decided that she needed medical attention. Although it wasn’t in our budget for the challenge, we knew that she was more important. We got her dressed and the 3 of us headed to Kakamega. *We took a time out from the challenge to focus on her. We took the car to town* We took her to a wonderful doctor that we had been to before. As Amanda sat with Irene, I went to get her a treat from the Nakumat to take her mind off of her pain. Talk about temptation! Even though we came to town, drove the car, and had to use our phone to call the doctor, we still carried on with the rest of the challenge. So walking in to the Nakumat, where I could buy anything before, I now could buy nothing. I would never say that I am thankful for Irene’s chicken pox but I am and will forever be thankful for the lesson that I learned because of it. Usually when I walk through Kakamega I don’t think about the other people’s circumstances. That changed today. Walking through the grocery store and not being able to buy anything for myself was a challenge in itself. It made me think about these people who are surrounded by everything and can afford nothing. It also made me think of the parents who must sacrifice so much if their child is sick. Some just have to watch their child suffer because they can’t afford to do anything. God is really teaching me more than I expected to learn through all of this. It is my prayer that He continues showing me these things that need to be brought to light. *It turns out that Irene has a viral infection, a bacterial infection, and a fungal infection. Good news - she’ll be ok!!*

Lunch and Mango Search

            When we got back to TMSC we made sure that Irene’s caretakers knew how to properly treat her. Then it was lunchtime! Although I knew that it was only going to be ugali, I was so excited because I was hungry! It was so good to be able to chew again. Built into our daily budget we have 10ksh each to spend on anything. Yesterday we didn’t spend it, so today we had 20ksh each to spend! We decided that we needed something with some flavor, so we opted for a mango. We went for a walk in search of mangos and found ourselves at the corner. *This is short for Kakoyi Corner…a matatu stage* We came upon a shop that sold sugar in small quantities! Since we had money from yesterday, we pooled it and bought ¼ kilo of sugar for 20ksh! Praise the Lord we can have sugar in our tea!! This was a cool find because we never knew that there were places that sold things like this. We went on in search of mangos. We had to cross the HOT asphalt road but we found some! The best part…they were 5ksh each! We both bought 2 for our remaining 10ksh :) We’ll have 1 with our tea tonight and 1 tomorrow. The walk back from the corner was excruciating. Our feet were so tender from walking so much today. *The mango search was about 1.5 miles RT* The plan when we got back was to cut up the mangos, but we were sidetracked by a game of volleyball that the kids were playing. Amanda got right in there and played while I watched. It was really fun and took our minds off of our hungry bellies. To keep ourselves busy after the game, we came to sew button holes onto the kid’s new uniforms. It’s amazing how keeping your hands busy can help keep your mind off of the rumbles in your stomach. Tonight’s dinner was so good! We had tea with sugar and a mango! Dang it was good :) I ate the ENTIRE mango…I even learned a lesson by it. I am SO wasteful. At home, we say “there are starving kids in Africa” when we leave food on our plates…it’s true. As a society, we are so wasteful. Before this, I would have never picked up the remaining pieces of a mango to suck them dry. When I was finished tonight, there was only a seed and the skin left. It was so good. We did our nightly video blog and debriefed our day. Soon after, it was devo time with the girls and then off to bed. I also ran out of kerosene for my lantern, tonight :/ I guess I know where my money is going tomorrow!

Day 2 Complete

Amanda's End of Day 2 Journal - 2011

Tuesday February 15, 2011

2011 A-Dollar-A-Day-Challenge

Waking up this morning was tough.  I did not want my bare feet to touch the dirt floor below.  About midway through the night I awoke and thought it surely was time to get up, but it was still pitch black dark.  A few hours later I awoke again to the sounds of people passing by along the street just beside our house.  It was still pitch black dark. I thought to myself, where in the world are these people going.  It was then that I remembered, I was sleeping in a hut in rural Africa where people often begin their commute to work as early as 4 am, walking miles in the dark just to earn a dollar.  I recall hearing the shuffling of children's feet pass by on their way to school.  This was my first hint as to the time… it must be 7 am.  I got up and walked on tender feet to the bathroom and then it was time for tea.  I was excited to have something to warm my belly, but the thought of another tasteless meal left my stomach unsatisfied… hunger remained.  We had discussed our water situation and determined we wouldn’t need to fetch water today, which was a relief to my tender feet. But as we were washing our clothes, Hesbon approached us to assist him with fetching water from the stream using the cart and donkey.  I’m learning a lot about community here and how the needs of others always seem to take priority over your own needs… Even when it hurts.  We told Hesbon we would be happy to help and we walked the long ¼ mile walk to the stream.  When we arrived we found Hesbon and the cart but no donkey. Before we even made it down to the stream my mind was already churning as to how in the world we were going to get all this water back to Tumaini.  After filling all 15, 20 liter cans and carrying them up a steep embankment we had to lift them up to Hesbon who then strategically placed them on the cart.  Hesbon said he would be the donkey and pull the cart, so that left us to push the cart from behind and also serve as the brakes.  We began our ¼ mile hike back to Tumaini and I tried to prepare my mind for the pain.  Mind over matter usually works well for me but as we started the downhill trek back to Tumaini I could feel every single pebble grinding into my feet as Lacey and I attempted to slow the cart.  The cart seemed to go faster and faster the further we went and the pebbles now seemed like boulders.  I’ve never in my life had so much conflict between my will to hang on and my physical pain telling me to let go.  I could see the school in the distance and even though it felt like a few more steps might cause my feet to start bleeding, the will to do it prevailed.  I remember the thankfulness in my heart that it was over and then Hesbon hit me with the atomic bomb.  We had to go back again and get water for the orphanage.  My body exhausted and my mind fading fast I proceeded to help Hesbon unload the cart.  Not thinking of the physics involved I unloaded a bottle from the front of the cart causing the cart to tip backward.  I wanted to cry as I saw liters of water spilling onto the ground.  All that work, sweat, and pain to see this precious commodity spilling out onto the grassless earth.  I quickly recovered and used all my remaining strength to pick up the tongue of the cart and salvage what was left of the water.  As I reflected on this common sense mistake I realized the toll poverty takes on the mind.  I was tired and hungry.  What would normally be common sense was now hard to process.  My mind was clouded with hunger pains, and the thought that this process that nearly broke me moments earlier was about to be repeated.  So back to the stream we went.  This time I stood in the cool water allowing it to sooth my tender feet.  No wonder the watering hole is the place to be.  Water is life and that’s the only place it seems to be in abundance.  I see so clearly now why Jesus chose to minister to so many at wells and long rivers and seas.  It’s not only the place where people gather but also a place where they are most social and open to conversation.  Anyway, we finished filling our cans again and headed back to Tumaini.  Oh my how I was dreading that walk with every ounce of my being.  I prayed, asking God for the strength to carry on.  I asked him to provide relief to my feet.  Only moments later I looked up to see several Tumaini boys running to our aid.  Praise the Lord for those precious kids in the form of an answered prayer.  Just as we got to the downhill slope the boys took our place as the breaks.  What a relief.  We walked down to the orphanage and found Irene (a girl at the orphanage) with a severe case of the chicken pox.  We were forced to take a time-out from our dollar-a-day challenge to take her to Kakamega for treatment.  Lacey and I decided to stay in the game other than the necessities of driving the car and paying for Irene’s treatment.  It introduced a whole new element to us that we did not expect.  When you are in the rural areas, you don’t have access to very much. Sometimes you don’t even know what you are missing.  But in town there are so many more amenities and luxuries that quiet literally slap the poor in the face.  We were also faced with the choice of providing for our sick child or buying food to satisfy our hunger.  All the smells and images of our favorite snacks wafted around and it was hard to turn and walk away.  I was surprisingly glad to be back on the compound.  Maybe life in the rural area is better… it certainly is simpler.  The remainder of the day we spent taking care of Irene and eating a late lunch.  After lunch we decided to make the 1-½ mile trip for fruit and sugar. It was a long haul but it was worth every step to know that we would be re-introducing taste to our diet in the evening.  Just to pass time until dinner we helped sew buttons on the school uniforms.  The evening tea was fabulous with 2 scoops of sugar, and for dinner we sucked every last drop of juice out of our mangos.  After dinner I walked by the light of my lamp over to the orphanage for our nightly devotion and prayer.  I love doing this, especially this week, because it’s the only access I have to a Bible.  When I was deciding what I could and could not have for this challenge I thought bringing my Bible along was a no brainer.  Then I considered how we could best emulate those around us and realized many of them cannot afford a copy of God’s Holy Word.  I had to leave it behind.  I’ve never been so thankful for the times in my past where I decided to hide God’s Word in my heart.  I’ve been amazed so far at the times that God has come to my rescue by whispering His words into my spirit.  Too many to count really.  I do look forward to regaining my most prized procession once this challenge is over but I am overjoyed that no matter where I am or what I’m doing that His Word is alive and active in me.  As I laid my head down on the pillow at the end of a long day I fell asleep praising Him for His faithfulness and asking Him for enough strength to do it again tomorrow.

End of Day 2 Videos

Here is a look into our debriefing session from the end of day 2...

Please join us on this Valentine's Day in sacrificing on behalf of the 'least of these'.  As we continue on with this labor of love, we ask that you would consider helping us fund our future ventures in Kenya. Visit our 'Get Involved - GIVE!' page to make a contribution. We LOVE you all!!