A mzungu plays football

“Mzungu” is a friendly swahili term for white person, and it is what we get called all of the time by strangers and kids.  I am especially called mzungu when I am playing in away soccer matches with my team, Ngata FC.  The other players use it and especially kids that come to watch yell my name and try to get my attention.  Two weeks ago, Colleen joined me for one of the matches so she could take some photos… and she was a bigger celebrity that I (no surprise there).  I wish I had had the camera to take pictures of her surrounded by 30+ kids trying to talk to her in English or wanting to touch her hair, etc.  It was really funny.  The game was fun – we won 4-nil, I scored a goal, and managed not to embarrass myself too much… :  )  CLICK HERE for the full album of pictures from the match.

Since tribal and socioeconomic differences can be real problems in many communities, sometimes leading to violence, I am hoping that we can register the team as Ngata United Football Club.  Using soccer as a way to bring people together and hopefully unify the different factions in the community is something that I am passionate about and hope to work towards.  It is interesting that we “mzungu” often can’t even tell the tribes apart or figure out who is who, yet there is underlying tension ready to surface at anytime.  Please pray for Kenya and our ministry here, that we can preach Christ’s messages of reconciliation and unity. 

One of my friends from back home is sending some cleats since many guys on the team don’t have shoes (though we usually share enough for most to have during the games).   I am so thankful that he was able to collect so many from the High School team he coaches and can’t wait to pass them out!  If you are interested in supporting the team, they are currently trying to raise funds to purchase some new uniforms.  Let me know if you are interested!

“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as your follow Christ Jesus” – Romans 15:5

As always, thanks for reading!  

Cason

We’ve been busy…

Last Monday, after the youth group sleepover at our house  over the weekend (see previous post), we attended the missionary fellowship in Nakuru.  It is hosted by Danish missionaries in town, and is attended by  any missionaries who want to join that live in the Nakuru area.  We have people from Germany, Faroe Islands, Denmark, Scotland, America, Ireland, Ethiopia... all over.  We have really enjoyed getting to know the people in the group and it has really created a network of support and encouragement.  We have made some great friendships with another couple our age from Denmark and are really excited to go to Lake Boringo and Bogoria for a little vacation with them!  We have been so blessed by this fellowship and the friendships we have made. 

Life at the Baby Center are still going well.  We have finally moved the toddlers into a room of their own which has been an incredible improvement.  I can actually put toys in for the babies to play with and they are still there when I come back the next day.  The toddlers get a lot more individual attention from the caregivers because they aren't having to care for the infants at the same time.  We can already see an improvement in attitudes with the kids and the caregivers love the change.  Click HERE for a new album of kids from the Baby Center, as well as some others including Kenyan birds, Irish Priests, and the infamous Mike Henderson.

Cason and I recently took four of the boys on a walk into Ngata, which was so much fun.  We had Momo, Andrew, Owiti, and Mesh.  One of the women in our church owns a  shop there so we stopped in with the boys to visit her and she gave them each a sucker, which is a rare and wonderful treat in their eyes.  Other than getting incredibly sticky from the sweets, the boys got to chase chickens, talk to dogs (mostly telling them to go away), explore a hotel, and get some quality time with Cas and me.   HERE are some pictures of our walk with the boys!  They love it when Cas tosses them into the air! 

About three weeks ago Andrew got to video chat with my parents and sister.  My dad brought out a pumpkin to show him and this normally quiet little boy began screaming and chanting "pumpkin! pumpkin!"  He was so excited and throughout the rest of our conversation he would begin chanting "pumpkin, pumpkin" quietly and would get louder and louder until dad would bring the pumpkin out again.  It was hilarious and he hasn't stopped chanting "pumpkin" almost daily since.  During our walk to Ngata he pulled me down close to tell me a secret, which was of course "pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin..."  He even got the other boys to chant it on our walk!  The boys were sad to go down for a nap after a fun day out.  Cas and I are hoping to do more walks like that with the kids.  

This past Sunday we had  Momo, Emmanuel, and Precious over to our house to play.  It was so much fun.  We love seeing the drastic change in personality upon getting some individual attention and being away from the large group at the BC.  Momo chattered away in swahili the whole time, Precious chatted back in who knows what language and Emmanuel showed off his new walking skills and responded to every question with one of his only words "eh?"  Momo loved the new rope swing Cason put up and Emmanuel collected every toy and brightly colored object that he could and tried to carry everything with him.  He is our little hoarder :)  He found a bright green pitcher and would put all of his treasures in it and carry it with him. 

After dropping the kiddos back at the center I joined Cason when he went to play some soccer.  I have never gone to watch one of Cason's games so far, I've only ever picked him up from practice (makes me sound like a soccer mom).  So I thought it'd be fun to go to this b/c I was told it was nearby and then I could slip out and go to the baby center after a little bit.... Well... TIA.  It was not close at all and you had to get there through tiny dirt roads that I feared would destroy my car.  I took my camera so I could get some good pics of the team. In the first 10-15 min I struck up a conversation with another bystander and found out that he is currently a teacher and pastor but was a compassion international child!  It was really neat, and the family that sponsored him was actually from very close to home in Soron OH.  It's a small world. 

Crowds of children started showing up partway through the match, most of them to see the Mzungus (white people) that were there.  All the kids wanted to touch my skin, play with my hair and have their pictures taken.  They did think that Cason was a little rough in how he played :)  but other than that I think we were a hit and drew the crowds for the match.  At one point I had at least 30 children crowded around me all claiming to be my great friend.  It was fun but I was thankful when it was finally time to go home. 

We drove the soccer guys back to Ngata and were about to leave when we got a call that someone had a cat for us! We had asked around looking for a female kitten... what we got was a male full grown cat with no ears!  But he is very sweet, purrs constantly and is getting used to indoor life quickly.  Because he is missing the tops of his ears (we don't know if they were bit off or cut off)  we have named him Evander Van Gogh – after the unfortunate boxer and troubled artist.  Now hopefully he can catch any little critters running around our home.  Click HERE to see an album of my new friend!

The last week or so has been really busy as Cason has been getting the budgeting and other things ready for the Executive Meeting this week.  The budgets from different missionaries and Kenyan church leaders were due November 1st, but he is still receiving them… even though the budgeting meeting was the last two days!  He worked some long nights, and still has lots of work to do before the next meeting in mid-December!

We have a very busy week ahead of us and are trying to prepare for a whirlwind!  We are currently at Tenwek for meetings and will arrive back home on Sunday.  We’ll try to rest up a bit and maybe go to Cason’s football match, and then we head to Boringo and Bogoria with Mikkel and Margit (our Danish friends) Monday after work.  We get back from there Tuesday evening and Cason has to close all the books for the month.  Friday Ashley Donnell and a few others from Nairobi will be coming to stay and we are going to Nakuru park for the first time!  I'm so excited!

Saturday  Cason, Margie, and Mikkel and Margit will be climbing Mt. Longonot with the church youth group while Ashley & Co. and I head to the baby center to play with kids!  We'll get back in time to help with thanksgiving dinner (and hopefully the Longonot crew will make it back too!)  We are going to have a very fun thanksgiving and our numbers of guest keep increasing, which is wonderful! Then on Sunday we go to the local craft fair and head to Nairobi to pick up my Dad and Uncle Jim!  I am so incredibly excited to see them and they are coming sooo soon!

Thanks for reading!  Love, Colleen

Youth Group Overnighter

We’re started the help out with the youth group at Ngata AGC where we go to church, and we’ve really enjoyed it.  The youth were planning some overnighters and asked if they could come to our home for one.  There was going to be another overnighter before ours, so we figured it would be OK since we’d be able to see how it went before we hosted one.  Well, that Sunday at church, the people who were supposed to host the first event cancelled, so we were told that we were hosting an overnighter that Friday.  A little shock to the system, but we (for the most part) took it in stride. :  )

As Friday approached, we coordinated with some of the youth and with Chip, the interim youth pastor, about the details.  Some of the youth leaders came over early that Friday to assist Colleen with shopping and cooking, which was such a big help.  We’d been saying all week that we didn’t have enough beds/cushions/pillows/towels for 20+ people, but we were told not to worry about it… most people wouldn’t be sleeping anyway. :  )

We ended up having 26 youth + the two of us in our house – we ate a combo American/Kenya dinner (roast, potatoes and vegetables plus ugali, chapati, and "green grains"), played games, had a great Bible Study/discussion on temptation, used our new rope swing (which  was a huge hit), watched movies, and didn’t get much sleep…  It was so much fun and we were so impressed with the spiritual maturity of some of the youth.  The discussion on temptation was especially good, as we talked about way to avoid vs. overcome different temptations, like planning ahead, memorizing scripture, and praying about it daily.  HERE is the album of pictures from Friday night.

Even though most had hardly slept, they were up with the sun wanting some breakfast.  Colleen made cinnamon rolls, which was also a first for many of the youth and another big hit.  Pastor Chip led a devotional and we sang praises to the Lord outside in the beautiful morning.  The rest of the morning was spent fellowshipping and playing outside.  I got out an American football and some frisbees which were fun to toss around.  Kenyans don’t plan many sports where they have to throw and catch… so throwing the American football around was interesting.  I might be the Peyton Manning of Kenya!  Click HERE to see the album of pictures from Saturday. 

There were a few interesting/funny cultural things that took place, like the fact that our bathrooms were kinda disgusting and we wonder if everyone knew how to use a standard toilet…  we also found that some of our American candy just happened to disappear as the night went on.  :  )  They also had Kenyan music playing all night, and tried to teach me to dance… which I’m glad was not recorded on video.  But it was a great time, we had so much fun getting to know the youth better, and we are excited about continuing to be involved in the youth group. 

Please pray for these youth, that they would grow into mature believers in Christ and would avoid the many temptations that they face as 18-20somethings in Kenya. 

We’re going to be out of town at Tenwek this week for meetings from Wednesday – Sunday.  It is budgeting time, alot of which is my responsibility, so pray I get all of my work done timely and correctly!

Thanks for reading our blog!

Links to photos!

  It’s getting cold at the Baby center because of the rainy season, and all the kids are getting bundled up due to the weather.  Even though it will only get to be in the lower 60s/upper 50s the kids are dressed in snow suits with mittens and hats and aren’t allowed outdoors.  : )  We had a full week of cold and rain so the children had to be indoors for a week straight!  Needless to say they got a little stir crazy and are happy to have some sunny weather back.  Check out this album to see the kids bundled!  They also ran out of snow suits so they put Emmanuel in a frog costume to keep warm!  It was SO cute! So check out the album “Elias Enock and a frog” to see some more pics of our new babes as well as Manu in his frog outfit. 

Thanks so much for checking our blog!  Don’t forget to click the names above to see profiles on some of the kids that you can print to help you remember to pray for them.  We’ll post again soon about last weekend when we had the youth group overnighter at our house!

  

News on the New Babies

Friends,
We cannot believe we have been here for over 2 months now! The time is flying by and we are getting more and more acclimated into the culture. We have started getting more involved now that we have somewhat scheduled and normal lives. Cason has been playing soccer more often and is working on finding ways to witness to the guys and I have been trying to find ways of incorporating Christian education into the lives of the orphans.
We have received four new babies at the Baby Center in the last two weeks! We are so excited to welcome Elias (6 months), Dorcas (2 months), Enoch (2 months), and Grace (2 weeks). I have loved cuddling these new babies, working with them and discovering their personalities.

Elias has some pretty major health problems and could use a lot of prayer. His blood tests he had some leftover antibodies from his mother, so he has to get an IV in the top of his head every 6 hours - sounds so painful!  We are praying hard that with good care everything will clear up as he gets older.  He is such a sweetheart! 


Grace is jaundiced and has been in the incubator with special UV lights the last few days to help her condition.




Enoch is severally anemic and they are hoping with a proper diet he will improve quickly.  He also has a large hernia where his umbilical cord was cut, which is very painful for him. 

Dorcas is over two months old and only weighs about 5 lbs or less. She is slowly gaining weight but is having a lot of trouble keeping her milk down because her stomach isn’t used to eating so much.


I am already in love with the new babies and can’t wait to see how them blossom in a loving, healthy place like the Baby Center.  Please pray that all of them continue to get healthy and adjust to their new environment! 
We’ll post more later about our weekend… we had 26 Kenyan youth sleepover at our house on Friday night! 

Love,
Colleen

PS – Here are some photo albums from lately:

Last week we had Cason’s co-workers and their families over for dinner… to reverse roles a bit, we served American food (pizza) so they were the ones wondering how to eat it!

We also had Joshua, Andrew, and Ida over to our house last week to play… the caregivers said it was Joshua and Ida’s first time out of the Baby Center!

Links to pictures of cute kids

We’ve been so busy lately, we haven’t had time to write about all of our goings on!  Here are some links to phtoto albums, mostly of the Baby Center kids. 

On the Baby Center Porch  - Last week when the NMC team was here, we spent an afternoon playing with the toddler aged kids while the older kids had nap time. 

Dress Up Day - One of the last days the NMC team was here, they let the kids dress up like a nativity scene… they loved it so much! 

New Babies!: Grace and Dorcas – We got two new babies to the Baby Center last week!  You can read more in the album, but they were not the healthiest when they initially arrived, but have been eating so well and are getting better.  As you will see in the pictures, even though Dorcas is 2 months and Grace is 2 weeks old, Dorcas was smaller when they first arrived – but she has been eating to make up for it since she got there!