Happy 6th Birthday Seth!!!

Happy (early) 6th Birthday Seth!!!!  Seth's actual birthday is on July 2nd (Monday), but we went ahead and held his party today so that all of his friends could join us.  And what better way to celebrate than a Star Wars Pool Party!!!

Happy Birthday Seth!!!

The Cake Boss begins his masterpiece . . .

All fifteen of us piled in the car to head to the pool.  Traffic laws are a little lax in Kenya; when we're in town, we rarely are able to drive faster than 20 mph.

Happy Birthday Seth!!!

Tammy bought 20 cheap water guns from a street vendor in town; they were a hit!!!

Lyla is all set to jump in (and shoot bad guys at the same time)!

Florence, her niece, Farida, and her daughter, Mae.  We all liked their matching Tinker Bell skirts.

Byron, Lyla, & Seth

Charlie, Douglas, Lyla, Jack, and Chris fill up their water guns!

Chris and Sutton assault each other in the pool.

Farida, Jasmine, Mae, and Charlie fight to get into and out of the pool.

Charlie's Angels - Miriam, Connor, & Esther

Abraham, Kevin, and Douglas

One final photo of the Millenium Falcon prior to destruction.

Seth, Martin, and Connor

Martin and Seth play with Star Wars figures before eating cake.

Everyone getting ready for "Happy Birthday."

"Happy Birthday to Seth . . . "

Seth blowing out his candles.

Mae, Farida, and Lyla enjoying their cake.

Esther, Miriam, and Connor

Kevin and Abraham

George chillin' out!

Jasmine and Grace

Lyla (with cake all over her face)

Playing on the playground 

(and yes, Tammy actually made it into this photo; you can kind of see her by the slide).

An Update on New Boys at Agape

We've added a new feature to Agape's website in order to provide friends with a small glimpse into the background of the boys who leave the streets to come to the Agape campus.  Here's the link if you'd like to follow future updates.  Thanks for your prayers for these boys; God Bless!!!

http://agapechildren.org/get-involved-2/pray-for-our-newest-boys/

Lunch with the Teachers

Even though Tammy is busy full-time home schooling our kids, she inevitably has gotten involved with Agape's primary school.  Most recently, she has been assisting the lower grade teachers with their English reading programs, helping with the provision of text books, teaching aids, and classroom manipulatives.

Last week, we had the opportunity to have all of the teachers over to our house for a lunch of fried kuku (chicken), ugali (hard grits), rice, tomato gravy, cabbage, and, of course, ice cream for dessert.  An awesome time of fun and fellowship . . .

Chowing down on some ice cream after a big lunch.

Everyone grabbing seconds of ice cream before heading out the door.

A big smile from Jackson . . . we all had to rush back, because the teachers had to teach afternoon classes.

The whole group!

Preaching in Kenya

I had a cool opportunity last Sunday to preach at a church in the Obunga slum, on the outskirts of Kisumu.  Patrick, one of my staff members, is the pastor at Victory World Outreach and asked that I come and preach to his congregation.  I taught from Romans 8, walking through the process of how God foreknew, predestined, calls, justifies, and eventually glorifies those who are to become His children.  Here are a few photos of this awesome experience!!!

We're normally pretty casual in Kenya, but Kenyans are VERY formal, especially when it comes to church.  Here I'm preaching with my interpreter, Enos, just after shedding my suit jacket.  A little sweat never hurt anyone!

Here's a photo of the inside of the church and some of the congregants.  There were a ton of kids in the service and they far outnumbered the adults. Patrick wants to start a children's ministry at the church to begin to minister to these kids more directly.

Here's a photo of the Church (God's people) outside the church.  Patrick is the guy in the suit, crouching down in the photo.  

A random photo of a Kenyan traffic jam on the way home from church.

What Really Happened to Julian Assange

For those of you who were wondering what happened to Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks . . .

. . . I think he has set up shop as a barber in Kisumu while awaiting extradition.

Happy 14th Anniversary!!!

Happy anniversary to my beautiful bride!!!  I love you!!!

Kenya Still Surprises Me

Now that we've lived in Kenya for close to a year, it's very easy to forget how different Kenya is from the US.  When we first moved to Kisumu last summer, we were overwhelmed by the differences between the two nations.  But sadly Kenya stops surprising us because, well, we live here and we have gotten used to life on the other side of the world.  But, every once in a while something happens that makes you smile because you realize:  Wow, we live in Kenya!

I had one of those moments on Friday during my staff's morning Bible Study.  We had a power outage the night prior (we've had them every night for the past week or so; wait, another difference to the US!), which resulted in my alarm clock not going off as scheduled.  So instead of my normally scheduled study of Romans, I instead decided to have a prayer time with my staff.  

We all sat down in the dining hall and began sharing different prayer requests, ranging from prayer for family members, to the Agape boys, to prayers for peace in Kenya.  I scribbled each request down in my notebook, and once we had completed our list, I went around the table and assigned a prayer request to each staff member.  Some looked confident; some looked nervous, but everyone agreed to pray out loud for their assigned prayer request.

Leading the prayer time, I told my staff that I would open in prayer, and then we could go around the table so that each person could pray about their assigned prayer request.  So I began the prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father . . . "  

. . . and then all 20 or so staff members that were present at the time began praying out loud at the same time!  We all prayed together to the Lord in a loud chorus of voices for our assigned prayer request!  After about one or two minutes of "joint" prayer, we all said "Amen."  I finished the prayer with a big smile on my face realizing, "Hey, I'm in Kenya!"  I never would've designed our prayer time in this manner, but sometimes the Lord has a different plan than we expect . . . especially when living in Kenya.

An Update on Brian Ogola

For the past 11 days, Brian has been out of the hospital and staying with one of our staff members' mother.  Praise the Lord that he has had no more attacks of anger or anxiety!!!  We've significantly reduced the medications that he's taking, so all indications are that Brian is on the mend!  The biggest remaining concern is his eyesight.  His eyes are still very sensitive to bright lights, and he also complains about not being able to read (he knows how to read, but his eyes are functioning correctly). More details on this below . . .

Yesterday, I took Brian to see Dr Lisa Dillabaugh, an American physician working here in Kisumu and was delighted to learn upon our arrival that Dr. Lisa had also invited her friend, Dr. Ana-Claire Meyer, an American neurologist, to join us on Brian's visit.  Dr. Lisa works at the medical clinic in town that administers Brian's antiretrovirals (ARVs), the medication used to treat his HIV.  

Dr. Lisa and Dr. Ana-Claire asked a lot of questions about the incidents around Brian's bout with bacterial meningitis and his difficult recovery from the illness.  Dr. Ana-Claire then began a few tests to test Brian's eyesight and his motor skills.  She determined that due to the swelling of Brian's brain during his illness, his peripheral vision has been negatively impacted.  It was interesting to watch and see how Brian couldn't detect things that would be within an individual's normal range of vision.  Dr. Ana-Claire likened the condition to looking through two paper towel rolls or walking around with blinders on.  The lack of peripheral vision also leads to great difficulty in reading as your eyes only allow you to focus upon one letter at a time.  Dr. Ana-Claire also detected some small abnormalities with Brian's motor skills, but she indicated that these might be caused by the strong anti-psychotics that Brian is still taking (albeit at lower dosages).

So, the good news is that Brian is getting better, but what we still need to pray about is Brian's continued recovery.  Please pray that his eyes will continue to improve and that Brian will be patient as his body recovers.  He gets a little frustrated that it's taking so long to get better.  The two doctors also provided a way to wean Brian of the remainder of his medication within two weeks.  We'll be very excited to have Brian off all of this medication!  

Lastly, the doctors recommended that we slowly reintroduce Brian back into life at Agape, so earlier today the Page family took Brian up to Agape for Saturday Bible Study and to play with his friends.  He did great!!! We are so grateful that such gifted doctors were able to meet with Brian yesterday.  THANK YOU SO MUCH, DR. LISA AND DR. ANA-CLAIRE!!!!

Please keep this sweet boy in your prayers!!!

I found this photo of Brian from back in January.  Brian's the second boy from the right.

Prayer Request - UPDATED!!! ANSWERED PRAYER!!!

My cousin's husband, Wageeh, is a professor at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (http://www.etsc.org/new/), and he just emailed me the following prayer request:

A secretary at the seminary, whose teenage son has been missing for 2 days, received a phone call last night from the kidnappers.  They asked for a ransom in order to let him go.  The ransom is 500,000 LE (approx. 83,000 USD). The family is devastated and helpless.  I beg for your prayers for them and for the boy.  May God show mercy on them all!  Please remember them in your prayers.

As you have probably seen on the news, Egypt has seen a lot of turmoil over the past year and an increase in kidnappings and Christian persecution are a direct result.  Please keep our Christian brothers and sisters around the world in your prayers!!!

My cousin, Colby, her husband, Wageeh, and their kids, Alexander and Adam

[UPDATE] WONDERFUL NEWS!!!  THE MISSING BOY HAS BEEN FOUND AND IS BACK WITH HIS FAMILY! I DON'T HAVE ANY DETAILS YET, BUT WANTED TO PASS ALONG THE GREAT NEWS!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Water . . . I Need Water . . .

Earlier this weekend, we spent 24 hours without water at the Page house, and we've all agreed that we're basically a bunch of wimps (we'll explain why below).

So, the story begins around Wednesday when we noticed a pipe leaking into the road in front of our house, and guess what?  Yep, it was the water line leading to our house.  The road had eroded so much that the pipe was exposed to the cars, trucks, bikes, motorcycles, tuk-tuk's, people, cows, goats, etc. that walk in front of our house.  A repairman was sent out on Thursday (we think) to repair the leak, which he did quite capably by disconnecting the pipe and shoving a stick and plastic bags into the offending, leaking end of the pipe.  In doing so, he cut off our water supply . . . after a day or so of us draining our reserve water tanks, we found ourselves without any water on Friday afternoon.

After a few terse conversations with the local water company, a team showed up mid-morning on Saturday to begin the repair job.

Lyla is ready to inspect the work team sent to fix the leak.

The site of the crime . . . in many instances Kenyan plumbers use plastic bags to reinforce plumbing connections.

The team starts digging up the offending water line.

The team worked in shifts (not unlike a DOT work crew in the US); one person worked and three people watched.

Seth and Lyla came out to inspect the stick and plastic bags that were used to plug the leaky pipe.

The team works to unearth the pipe's connection to the main water line.

We were all "climbing the walls" while we waited for our water to be restored.

The team made a small fire on the roadway (he's exhaling, not inhaling) . . .

. . . in order to heat a plastic connecting pipe . . . 

. . . so that the plastic pipe could expand to fit around the metal pipe.

The team works to connect the new pipe to the old, rusty pipe.  We're thankful for a good sand filter for our drinking water!

After the job was completed, Tammy made a lunch of rich, chicken, and ugali bread (corn bread) for our plumbing team.  So, why are we wimps?  After suffering without water for 24 hours, it occurred to us that probably none of the five men that worked to reconnect our water have indoor plumbing or electricity in their homes. What we complain about for 24 hours is a daily reality for probably 80% of Kenyans.

We finished our day with our water fixed only to experience our second outage of the day . . . this time our daily power outage (which only took about 4 hours).  We probably handled this outage with a little more poise and grace.