Dear friends and family,
What an amazing year 2008 turned out to be in my life. In August of ’07 I began attending Montana Wilderness School of the Bible (www.mwsb.org) in the mountains of western Montana.
On our break between semesters last school year I spent three and a half weeks in Liberia, West Africa working with some missionary friends who are doing a well ministry in and around the capital city of Monrovia. The time that I had there cemented a love for Africa and it’s people in my heart and when I left, I knew that I would return to the continent at some point to do more ministry there. But I had to finish school first, and at the end of the year I was asked by the director to join the staff of the school to be their go-to guy for anything and everything. I began working that summer and began fulfilling my role as assistant maintenance man, drama leader, sound tech, dorm R.A. and whatever else came to mind as needed.
When the school year began again in August of ’08 I threw myself into the ministry of the school. And since then it has been an awesome year of work and ministry. In the middle of November, we ended the first semester and the students left for their six week winter break, and by God’s provision, I headed off to Africa again, but this time to the other side of the continent and the country of Kenya.
I need to back up now and explain what brought me to fly across the world with a verse in my heart, hope on my tongue, but nary a plan in my mind. In May, I was back in Fairbanks, Alaska for my best friends’ wedding and while I was there established contact with a woman in North Pole named Tanya, who along with her husband, were trying to raise support for a native Kenyan pastor, named David, who was trying to raise his family and about twenty orphans with no steady income. He had had a nice plot of land in a village that he cultivated to grow their food, and nice home with all the furnishings that the orphans needed, and many more children to care for.
However, in December ‘07 and January ‘08, the country was thrown into an uproar with rioting and violence over the election results, and the pastor and his family had to run for their lives. Their house was burned down, the crops destroyed, and everything lost. Many of the orphans had to be left in the care of the Red Cross and other aid organizations, but the pastor (whose name is David) was able to take twenty of the children and relocate to a small rented plot outside of Kitale, a city in the northwest corner of Kenya to begin starting over.
Through Tanya (the woman in North Pole) I was able to help financially support this pastor and his family, but I felt a strong urge to do more. The first chapter of the book of James exhorts Christians to “care for orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). In the book of 1 John, we are called to love through deeds done in truth rather than simply through our words and with our tongue (1 John 3:18. And as I studied at MWSB, verses like these really began to take hold in my heart, and when I learned of Pastor David’s situation I felt that I had to do something more than just send money, I had to see it and experience it for myself.
So during winter break for four weeks, I did. Right off the bat, I was fully reliant on God to work out the details because I accidentally told Pastor David that I was arriving a day earlier than I actually was. But thankfully, when I arrived on December 2nd, he and his friend Joseph were waiting and trip began unfolding the way it was supposed to. I spent most of my first week in Kitale at Pastor David’s house, learning Kiswahili (also known simply as Swahili) and getting acclimated and adjusted to the country.
Later in the week we traveled to Mosoriot, where the pastor and children had lived before the violence. We stayed for several days, I was given the opportunity to preach in the church that he planted in that town, and I began to pray about how I could help the pastor re-establish what had been lost. When we headed back to Kitale, I made up my mind that I would do all that was in my power to start providing something, anything for them, thus began my second week in Kenya.
Most of this week was spent building, starting with a better and more proper gate for the compound and culminating with a brand new cow shed/corral in preparation for a dairy cow. The pastor, his family, and the children used about five liters of milk each day, costing fifty shillings a day, which adds up quickly (exchange rate: 73 shillings to 1 US dollar). With the purchase of a cow to milk, they would always have a ready supply of milk, and wouldn’t have to pay for it, saving them money to put toward other things. I was praying that God would provide a good cow for me to buy them. Next we traveled to Nakuru (near southern-central Kenya), the home of Pastor Joseph, and I preached in his church, held an evening crusade meeting, and visited his family.
Week three began by traveling back to Kitale to rest briefly for the crusade that I would be leading later in the week in yet another small town. But during that time I was able to buy not just one, but two cows! A cow that had just given birth to be exact, to a female calf, hopefully providing longer term sustainability. The pastor was extremely thankful.
My last week was a wind-down time, celebrating Christmas and preparing to return home, but before I left, there was one last thing I felt had to be done, someone had to climb down their 80-foot well and clean junk out of it. So I tied a rope harness around my waist, donned my headlamp, tied myself off and had the pastors prepped to arrest my fall and help me out when I was done. It was awesome!
So what did I accomplish during my time in Kenya? Well, I preached a LOT, which was cool, I also was able to purchase for the pastor and children cows to provide them with a source of milk that they wouldn’t have to pay for, and since returning home, I’ve been blessed with a gift of $3000 which I have wired to Pastor David so that he would be able to buy the plot of land that they have been renting, thus relieving him of yet another financial burden.
But the question that has been on my mind is what to do next. They still need food, which they must buy, and the children don’t have proper housing, just a small room in a small mud house. Now, I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but this year, I made a New Year’s goal, I want to raise $15,000 to begin building a house for the children.
While I was in Kenya I did some research and found that that was the approximate cost of the materials and labor for a fairly simple 36’ by 47’ brick house. In addition, I’ve committed part of my own finances each month to Tanya in Alaska to make sure that the pastor and children always have food until they are in a more sustainable position to do that themselves.
I greatly covet your prayers of support as I seek to make this orphanage a reality. I am hoping for and seeking opportunities to be able to share with churches and other people as much as I am able with my current work schedule. And I also encourage you to contact me through
Eli’s email
Facebook
if you have any questions or just want to know more about what I’m doing don’t hesitate to let me know. Here’s hoping that 2009 is off to a good start for you!! In Christ, Eli