"Alive and Kicking"

A group of boys interrupted their game to show us their ball. Dennis, the second boy in, made the ball himself out of plastic shopping bags and bits of string her collected in the trash.

In Kenya, as in most of Africa, football is the common passion of both young and old. Despite this love for the game, most people can not afford to purchase a ball. For many children in Kenya, the closest they can get to living out their dreams of being a "great footballer" is in the epic matches along dusty roads or in open fields played with home-made balls of plastic bags tied together with everything from rags to used bits of wire. The Solid Rock Youth Group from First Baptist Church, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, wanted to do something kind for the children of the Eastleigh Community Centre and raised funds to buy the school new footballs.

Erica and I had the joy today of distributing several footballs to the students at the Eastleigh Community Centre. The footballs were hand-stitched from local leather by a "not for profit" charity called Alive & Kicking Kenya. This UK based charity recognizes the role of sport in the development of young people and strives to address the chronic shortage of balls in Africa by "reviving the art" of making tough, durable, repairable and good quality balls in Kenya. The balls are sold at cost and 100% of the proceeds go back into the lives of Kenyans. The Alive & Kicking Project works with communities to raise awareness and tackle the spread of preventable illnesses such as HIV/AIDS and Malaria.

This standard eight (eighth grade) girl received two footballs as captain of her girl's football team -- to the cheers of the crowd of girls around her.


A group of students showing off their football skills!



In order to help keep things fair, the boys were given "white footballs" and the girls were given "yellow footballs". While the girls were off enjoying their balls, the boy's football league gathered to receive theirs. They wanted us to share a LOUD Asanta Sana! to the Solid Rock Youth -- thank you all so much!!!!

Praxis Kenya

Back row: Gumer (TSW Bolivia), teacher from Garissa school, Malcolm, Joseph G., Joseph M., Heather, Kristen, Dawson, Samuel, Michael, Beth, Rose, Leona, Yatanni, Claudia, Christine.

Front row: Mary, Candice, Craig, Erica, Aaron, Carolyn, Rukiya (school head mistress) and students from the Garissa school project.

We have reached the half way mark in our time with the Kenya Praxis group. We returned to Nairobi from a dusty wind swept Garissa in Kenya's Northeast Province with this intrepid team of graduate students (8 selected from across Canada, 4 from the African Bortherhood Church and 4 from the African Christian Church and Schools). Together we have been learning about Intergal mission, first through a course taught by Prof. Rupen Das of Humber College, Toronto, and now through two weeks of practical experiences in CBM's three strategic areas of ministry within Kenya.

During our visit to NEP, the praxis students were introduced to Somali ministry. Our Somali friend Muhammad shared his own faith journey and helped orientate to "what it means to be a Muslim". The Praxis participants also taught morning classes at a local primary school which The Sharing Way has been partnering. The school cares for over 230 orphans and vulnerable children living within the town of Garissa. Rukiya founded the school with a group of fifteen Somali mothers and grandmothers who came together to find ways to protect and provide for the most vulnerable children in their community.

We will return to Somali ministry on Thursday as the group shares in a project at the Eastleigh Community Centre where we serve. Today, our African team leader, Malcolm Card, brought the group to Thika to meet with the Moderator of the ACC&S, Dr. Julius Karanja, and to introduce them to the work of the ACC&S Bible School.

Please keep this group in your prayers: while one of the Canadians has recovered well from illness, Erica has needed to take three of the Kenyan participants to clinics over the past few days due to malaria. We pray that the Lord will give them strength and that he will guard us all from illness.

Video Update II

We are home briefly, just tonight and last night, while we travel with the Kenya Praxis group. It has been a great time of sharpening our skills in development and deepening our understanding of intregal mission. Please continue to pray for us all as we travel to Garissa early tomorrow morning. Also, please remember us on Friday, as we go to court for Ava's adoption.


Last month, Erica completed our second video update with images from the past year of Somali ministry. She did a fantastic job! If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, it is now available online thanks to Martin Zwicker and the folks at First Baptist Church Dartmouth. Please let us know what you think and if you would be interested other sorts of slide show, video or media.

Click on video link or go to:

http://www.fbcd.ca/OurMinistries/FortheWorld/KennysinKenya/tabid/98/Default.aspx

Great God!

It is often all too easy to become caught up in our present situations of life: The urgency of the now; The troubles of the moment; that problem right in front of you!

Since coming to Kenya, we have been confronted by incredible needs. After a while, the temptation is to shut yourself off. And to allow our energies to be absorbed by all the little things and the ineffective systems of Kenya (Like the three hours it took to retrieve a parcel from the central Kenyan postal office, good night!). We struggle with becoming cynical and even bitter over the very battles that we have come to enter into. And they are battles, wearying and relentless.

When we do stop to look back, it can seem that so little has been accomplished and that the same needs remain. We doubt this is anything peculiar to Kenya. We can all become overwhelmed by life and suffering.

But what gives us hope is found in our faith that God hasn't left us to solve the problems on our own. In fact, the battle is already won, we are all part of the playing out of that victory. Our little efforts, our small sacrifices, and even our weak perseverance some how fits into what our Masterful Creator is doing in the world. Somehow, faith allows our fitful cries of "Great God!" to become reverent confessions. God is Great and God is not finished with this world.

In Prayer:

* We hope you will join us in praying for God to expand our faith and our appreciation of just how Great God is.

* On May 30th, we will be going to court for Ava's adoption. We are praying that everyone who needs to be there will be present for the morning court proceedings, and that there will be no barriers to the adoption.

* Over the next three weeks, we will be traveling throughout Kenya with a group of pastors and graduate students coming from across Canada and Kenya to form the 2008 Praxis Class. Please pray a safe journey for the Canadians who will be arriving on Saturday evening, and for our travelling together throughout the coming weeks.

* Please be in prayer for two of the women in Eastleigh with whom Erica has been serving over the past year. Both have delivered babies this week, and praise God the children are both very healthy. But, in both cases the mothers are struggling without much in the way of resources. One of the Somali mothers has suffered from heavy bleeding and family members were gathered today to give blood for her for a transfusion. Thank you for lifting them in prayer.


ALSO: We came across this fantastic blog post on Shrinking God and highly recommend it! You can click on this link or use the address below to check it out for yourself! Blessings and peace!



http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/2008/05/212-shrinking-god.html

Tag I'm It!

This is the first time we have ever responded to a "blog tag". It comes from our good friend Dennis (aka Buddy to our kids) and we thought it was fun.



Instructions:

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people.



The closest book to me at the momment is my devotional book, A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God, by Norman Shawchuck and Rueben P. Job. The fifth line of the 123rd page picks up a quote from M. Robert Mulholland Jr. concerning listening for God's voice while reading scripture, and runs directly into a quote from Henri J. M. Nouwen:



"Not only will this exercise begin to transform your approach to reading (and prepare you for the role of scripture in spiritual formation), it will also begin to transform your whole mode of being in relationship with God in a way that will enhance spiritual formation.

"In solitude, we come to know the Spirit who has already been given to us. The pains and struggles we encounter in our solitude thus become the way to hope, because our hope is not based on something that will happen after our suffering are over, but on the real presence of God's healing Spirit in the midst of these sufferings.""

2. Here is another quote from one of Emma's favorites, "The Great Big Glorious Book for Girls". Page 123 falls in the middle of a discussion on hair and hair care:

"It is very useful for a Bad Hair Day, when hair is greasy or plain wayward.

The low pony tail is quiet and elegant. Gather your hair at the nape of your neck and secure it anyway you like (It looks especially good with a velvet ribbon).

Thanks Dennis!

Eastleigh Youth Parliament

Members of the Eastleigh Community Centre Youth Parliament discussing the role of Children's participation in children's rights and decisions.

Joan has been a part of the Children's Parliament at the Eastleigh Community Centre since 2006. She has been encouraged by the growing participation of her fellow students who have come to see the parliament as a means to "expressing their problems and feelings without fear".

Once a week, the Eastleigh Youth Parliament convenes to discuss issues close to the heart of children living within Eastleigh and Mathare Valley. The children of the Eastleigh Centre, elect their own representatives to form a parliament on their behalf. In parliament, the respective ministers raise issues that students have brought to their attention during the week. As the "minister of justice", Joan has seen her fair share of important issues dealt with by the Children's government including the problems of parental alcoholism, child labour, sexual assault, homelessness, and poverty. For Joan these are real issues facing her friends and classmates as they struggle to get ahead.

Joan, herself, has persevered thanks to the love and compassion of her grandmother who cares for Joan and three of her cousins, making a home for them in the Mathare Valley. Each day as Joan walks to school, she confronts boys and girls who remain trapped in the grip of dire circumstances. As part of the youth parliament, Joan is able to find a voice to speak out against issues that affect children around her. From driving away people peddling unsafe frozen treats made of dirty water, to putting a stop to inappropriate behavior among students, the parliament mobilizes children at the centre to protect one another.

Joan and her fellow member of parliament, Gibril, are looking forward to one day meeting with Kenya's national parliament and especially for a chance to meet Kenya's Children's Minister. Joan aspires to continuing her education in Kenyan secondary school, and then university where she hopes to study law. She dreams of one day becoming a lawyer and serving as an advocate for her community. Gibril, who came to Kenya as a refugee from Somalia in 2000, wishes to one day join his father living in America. Gibril wants to study medicine so that he can become a doctor and return to his "homeland of Somalia". Both Joan and Gibril, share a strong sense of responsibility to make their communities a better place to live -- restoring lost hope!

Children's Ambassadors Joan Wangari and Gibril Abdi Karim

Both graduating this year from Standard 8 at the Eastleigh Community Centre.

Fudge Cake!

Birthday kisses!

On Mother's Day, we celebrated Erica's birthday

with yummy chocolate fudge cake.

Tristan and Emma each wanted to treat Erica with some of their own culinary delights on the double-whammy Mother's Day/Birthday: Emma made a breakfast of fried egg sandwiches and fruit salad; Tristan made cordon-blue chicken and mixed vegetables, and Daddy & Ava picked out a cake!

Along with the feasting, we enjoyed hanging out and watching a few movies: We highly recommend August Rush, it is so good that it may become our new favorite movie!

Miraa

Miraa is an extremely popular drug used throughout North Eastern Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. Most is sold like this along roadsides by Somali women late into the night. While it is banned in North America, it is legal in the United Kingdom and most of Africa.

For decades, khat, or miraa as it is popularly known across East Africa, has been the lifeline for farmers in eastern Kenya (particularly in Meru), but pressure to convince them to abandon the trade has been mounting. Just last year the Kenyan government drug watchdog, the National Campaign Against Drugs Abuse, reported an alarming rise in the use of the drug in Nairobi and throughout the rural villages and towns of Northern Kenya. Their research pointed to many harmful social affects of the drug, as well as the impact on the individuals who become addicted to chewing the twigs. The Kenyan government was challenged to address the problem. Yet, the consumption of miraa has continued to rise with over 3000 kgs of the plant being delivered to Somali each day (Kenya's largest export market), and a booming domestic demand for the drug.

While we taught English classes in Eastleigh, many of our students wrote scathing essays on the abused substance, sharing the personal heartache of family members and friends who waste their days and nights chewing the bitter twigs of the mild narcotic. Over the past months, churches and Muslim leaders in North Eastern Kenya have been speaking out against the miraa trade. The Garissa Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims (Supkem) leader, Sheik Husein Mahat, recently said "Miraa business has been used to aid trafficking and peddling of hardcore drugs like cocaine, heroin, and bhang." (The Standard, May 5, 2008). These religious leaders are blaming miraa for many of the social problems within their communities and are calling for an end to its legal trafficing in their streets. A recent news report even links miraa with "fueling the spread of HIV/AIDS". Desperate for a better high, many miraa chewers have been found to be grinding mosquito coils and sniffing the powdered pesticide while chewing the khat. Talk of banning it has stirred anger and threats from the users who defend their chewing.

Miraa chewing is deeply entrenched in most families. Commonly, a father will share his surba (bunch of miraa) with his sons, and parents readily admit that their children chew miraa. Every afternoon, Garissa and towns like it in Kenyas Northeast, become quiet as residents retreat from the intense sun to sit in tight circles of shade in homes and under canvas shelters to chew, sip tea, and engage in the animated talk that is one of the effects of the drug.

Please pray for both Christian and Muslim leaders who are taking a stand against miraa, while seeking to love and care for the people ensnared by it. We are especially concerned for the youngest members of these communities that suffer from the addiction of their parents.

Nature Walk

Come join us for a nature walk! Tristan and Emma found lots of unusual friends along the way including this black millipede with 200 bright red legs. It took a real liking to Tristan and Emma, curling up in their hair like a shiny black hair barrette!

Monitor lizard, also known as the Nile Monitor, is the largest lizard in Africa and has been known to grow as much as 6 feet long. They are powerful swimmers and great hunters. We saw this fellow alongside a stream, but we didn't get too close as they can be very nasty!

The Agama lizard, also known as the rainbow lizard, are one of the most common lizards seen in East Africa. This guy was sunning himself near our car as we came out of the nature trail.

Owen and Mzee

Meet a local celebrity: Mzee, the 140 year old giant tortoise whose unusual friendship with orphaned hippo, Owen, made international news after the 2004 tsunami.

Over the Kenyan Labour Day weekend, we took our children on vacation and visited Haller Park, the home of Owen and Mzee. We first read of their incredible story of friendship in a book that was given to Emma while we were living in New Brunswick. After being orphaned by the terrible tsunami that struck much of the coast of the Indian Ocean, baby Owen was rescued and brought to Haller Park. Unexpectedly, Owen instantly bonded to a giant tortoise named Mzee, whom he treated as a mother. The greatest surprise was that Mzee responded to Owen's affection and the two would cuddle and sleep together.

Mzee is pretty frisky for a giant tortoise; of course he still practically a teenager as far as giant tortoises go -- live anywhere from 200 to 300 years! (By the way, you can tell how old a tortoise is by counting the outer rings on their shell, just like a tree).

Owen, the hippopotamus, is now six years old and enjoys the spacious ponds and grassy fields of the Haller Park wildlife sanctuary. He no longer follows Mzee everywhere he goes. The Bamburi Cement Company created the park in 1970 out of its abandoned limestone quarry that had been founded on the site in 1950. All throughout the park are coral walls and trails lined with ancient fossilized sea shells that had been excavated during mining. Some of the giant clam shells are over half a meter wide.