God In Our Midst

Today I drove around the countryside with my host mother, Helen, and younger brother. The terrain here is incredible (I hope to post pictures soon) – Lush acacia trees spring up amidst plots of farmland on rolling hills, with the crops outlined in deep red soil. Utterly astounding!

Later we dropped off B.M. at boarding school, where he’ll be for 3 months. In the Kenyan school system, kids go to school in four month rotations, having the last month off each session. They begin a new school year at this time.

My mother then took me to see Edith Gitata, who owned and operated a dairy farm where evidently people from around the globe come to see as a model of farming. The farm, and Edith for that matter, were quite modest from my perspective, although she has interesting way of taking care of her animals. For instance, she mixes left over barley from the brewing process with molasses and water to make a feed that increases milk productivity and gives the cows a shiny coat.After walking around the livestock (mostly cows and pigs) and learning much about the process, we retired inside for tea. Kenyan tea, known as chai, is quite strong and often served half-n-half with milk.

A year ago Edith’s husband passed away. He had been in Chesapeake Medical Center in Baltimore, and after I mentioned my mother did hospital visits near there they seemed to believe she had probably been by and prayed for him (Mom?). When Edith was denied a visa, he had been able to return to Kenya and spend his last few weeks with his family. Despite all this woman had been through, she still remained strong in the faith. I was asked to pray for our time together, and heartily obliged. That’s probably been the greatest blessing with being with these fellow Christians: we pray before and after just about everything. I really feel God being a part of my experience here as well as in the lives of these people, and these open invitations for God to move in our midst plays an integral role.