Almost HOME

Moments ago Craig boarded another plane headed back to Nairobi. Now just more planes, airports, layovers, little baggies of salted peanuts, packets of oyster crackers, luggage, funny shaped neck pillows, hopefully no more blown hatches, and the man I love will be ... HOME! It still feels sort of pretend -- like a well drilled in an African village far, far away where there they don't have running water and all the while my own children wage water-war in our green yard with water cannons and a bucket.

















Before I know it Craig will be here and I'll face a man gone half around the world and come home. Can't be the same one who left. So begins the next leg of our journey, "Hi, I'm Bethany, who have you become? Tell me everything the same and different so I can love you all the more." How frequently the best things in life are the impossible combination of letting go and hanging on. I don't know weather to laugh or hold my breath.

To all of you, thanks. Thanks for being a hand to hold down the path of this journey. A listening ear, fresh encouragement, fun, {Grin} you've been FABULOUS! Wish I could HUG you all. Please pray for traveling mercies as the team heads home. They sure could do without the 17 EXTRA hours of travel they ended up with on the way there. :)

WATER!

A note from Craig:


Water!

We pulled into the village today and witnessed the drill rig SPEWING forth WATER! As they drill, water is forced out in a GEYSER like process every 3-5 minutes. Less consistent than Old Faithful but much more moving. Some of the mommas from the village said it best, "Praise God, Hallelujah." They are limited in their English but captured the moment perfectly. The drill rig hit water at about 97 meters, and the original goal was 100.

They are cleaning out the hole and preparing to put in the pipe. The estimates on the water are around 8 gal/minute which may seem low for American standards but when the alternative is walking 30 minutes or more to get water from a murky pond, 8 is great! They will be running tests on the water and finishing the pump which could take as long as a month but maybe sooner. We visited with the people in the village and took some pictures of the water shooting out of the drill rig. Joe blessed the well and we loaded in the vans to go.

It really is interesting how little we understand about dirt roads any more, we made it about 10 meters down the trail before we were STUCK. This is after they had delivered a load of large rocks to help us. After getting unstuck and another attempt, we decided to take a different TRAIL. I say trail because they don't really have vehicles passing on through on any sort of consistent basis. We drove down the path, past the murky pond and the "health clinic" to the road. We made it!!! Once back on the road (still dirt but dry) we were fine making it to Kisumu for lunch and our flight to Nairobi.

The airport was an experience. They don't allow you into the airport until 2 hours prior to your flight. There is a nice park like setting just outside the security area that is equipped with chairs tables and shade. We had 3 hours until our flight so we read, wrote in our journals and some even took short naps. A couple of people in our group actually needed to use the bathroom (which is inside) and the heightened level of security/metal detector was unmanned so they just walked in and used the bathroom. We entered later and heard the metal detector go off and the security person just let them PASS on by. After we checked in with the ticket agent (which is past security) we proceeded to a waiting area which is between the "terminal" and the runway. Finally, when we boarded our plane I was lucky enough to procure the emergency exit row, window seat (extra leg room).

The stewardess came to our row and did the usual, "Are you able to man the exit in case it is needed?"

"Yes."

She looked directly at me, "Can you pull that down?" the EMERGENCY handle.

"This?" I reached out to touch the handle.

"Yes, can you pull that down?"

I took this as a question like, "Sir, can you put your tray in the upright and locked position?" SO I PULLED the handle. And BLEW the HATCH!

In retrospect I think she just wanted to know if I felt comfortable being the designated hatch-puller IF needed. I re-latched the handle. She double checked it, and we had a rather uneventful flight to Nairobi.

Today, May 26, we are heading to the Masai Mara, a national reserve, where we will be for the next three days. 6+ hours travel, then we will stay 2 nights and return on Thursday. Fly out Friday and arrive back on Saturday. The time has flown, pray for safety in travels the next few days.

Love you all,
Craig


*****


When I told Janie she prayed, "Dear Jesus, thank-you, thank-you, THANK-YOU that they were able to drill 100m and find water. And I just pray you would keep the water clean."

She later added, "Now at least they have a good idea of what they can do to bad guys."

"Oh, what's that?"

"Give THEM the BAD water."


Life is so SIMPLE when you are a little more than four-and-a-half but not quite five.

83 Meters To Go!

Sometimes I think prayer should be more like this.


"Okay, Momma," she's on tip-toe bobbing from foot to foot, "I'm gonna go for a run now. Get ready, I'm gonna run by again!" All polka-dots and swishing skirt, she half skips like a penny gliding over the water. Zing. Sploosh. A bucket of love runs over.

*****

Here's a note from Craig that you may know how to pray.

• Speaking went well; I talked about the need to be ready to bear witness. Then I walked through my testimony and then the Roman's road. It went well. Today was Colt speaking at the boy’s high school and he had a good message. There were about 700+ boys there. After a short tour, we went to an all girl’s school. Maybe one of the best parts of the trip. There were about 850 girls and they were singing when we came in. WOW! Singing praise songs and they were almost deafening. It was amazing and moving. They sang a total of 4-5 songs while we were there. We introduced ourselves and after we were introduced, they went wild cheering. When the next person would stand and they would go silent again... 850 girls singing in complete unison and stopping together instantly. It was amazing! We leave for the village at 7am tomorrow and then back to Kisumu to catch a flight at 6 back to Nairobi. The well drilling has started and on Saturday they reached 47 meters and we are shooting for 130 meters... it would be amazing if we could hit water tomorrow while we are there. PRAY!

*****

As I write Craig and the team are on a long and treacherous road back to Kasumu. It's crazy to picture him bumping down that road in a bus full of people for 10 hours. If there is another thunderstorm as there are most afternoons the road becomes a veritable landslide...

Love you all, and thank-you again for your prayers and support. I don't know what I would do without you!

A Well for the Village

Please join us in prayer. The drill rig is now on site in Adiedo, Kenya. As they bore deep, deep down into Kenyan soil, our prayer is that they find WATER, a pressed down, shaken together, overflowing, splash out onto the land abundance of water.

It's 50/50 odds of finding even a small trickle that qualifies as wet. We're going for pure miracle, a gusher. And so we pray...

Also, please pray for Craig who will be speaking at a near by boys' school.



















Adiedo is located in the semi-arid expanse of Kenya where water is so scarce that it can only be found in a few stagnant murky ponds or dry stream beds and ditches. Animals drink from this water and urinate in it. Often times, animal carcasses lie rotting at the edge of the water. It is hard to imagine anyone drinking this toxic untreated water. It is not unusual for a child to go two weeks without bathing or having their clothes washed for lack of enough water.

However, for nine out of ten families in western Kenya, it is the only water available. They trek several miles to fill containers with this mud-like water. During the dry season, after these water holes dry up, people walk even further. Water-borne diseases are the number one killer of children in Kenya.

~David Opap – Founder of Spring of Hope International

Firsts

Well, I'm sorry to say Daddy is missing a few firsts while away in Kenya. {Sigh} Like today, Lucy's first PUKE. A shame I know. Isn't this the sort of thing we should all be enjoying together? :) Alright, I know him immersed in the underbelly of human suffering has to count for something, but still I hate to hog the fun here at home. :) A few days ago Janie may have said it best, "I'm so happy I just want to grind my teeth." Ha-ha. Grinding away!

Which brings me to a very sincere THANK-YOU for all your prayers. Really, it's not so bad after all.

Putting things in perspective, this next day Craig will be visiting a Kenyan infant orphanage. By comparison, what a fabulous burden: my no longer puking baby.

Half-Marathon

NEWS BREAK: For a post that captures the best moment of the whole race click HERE.

Kisses and hugs to Rosie. Thrilled to bits. Thank-you beyond all the silly words of my heart that could never speak as well as that post. Speechless I feel so loved.

Something NEW

Jack makes a "cookie" using every play dough color ALL at once. Jane rides the double-ended rolling pin through the kitchen like a skate board. Silverware everywhere. I unholster our beloved Dustbuster, suck up everything I can: dust, dirt, dough, fuzz, small toy pieces, scraps of paper, lint, pennies, dryer sheets, frighten the baby. Yes, my version of "picking-up".

I say a prayer of thanks as I almost, almost shorten our mailbox to ground level backing out of the driveway. Almost. In the good cheer of that I pass around granola bars and gum until everyone is QUIET. Shhhh. Ahhhhhh.

That's right this is an emergency trip to TJ Maxx, home of the good deal, and as it turns out, the perfect pillowcase.

























My sweet sister-in-law, Cerissa, suggested I try making a pillowcase dress. Only a few short hours ago this simple dress was a standard sized pillowcase. A snip here, a cut there, a little ribbon and elastic, and WOW, our new FAVORITE dress! $1.99 pillowcase, $0.30 ribbon, $0.40 elastic. Thanks Cerissa!

For a great tutorial click HERE.

























"Momma, is today a special day?" the words roll out in that same sigh that asks how long it is until summer.

Special? I pause. "Kind of feels like it. Do you think it's a special day?"

Janie wrinkles her chin, nods, "Because of God's glory it probably is."

Oh yeah, glory, how did I forget? Just like air.