Leaving our Home

Everyone was going about their business. Matatus were speeding through the town at breakneck speed as drunk men arranged rides for people in them. Women were selling fried maize and chips on the very muddy streets. Children were rolling old tires or plastic lids attached to sticks. It was a day like any other for most people in Chebilat. But for a few people in a small two room apartment high on the third floor and out of the way, the day was bittersweet.

They had come to know and love this insignificant little town, for all it's dirt and grime, physically and spiritually, as a new home to them. They knew so well all the rugged little pathways that could lead to rows of shanties strewn about the town, or could lead to enchanting walkways through the countryside that lead as long as you cared to walk. They were well familiar with the skyline so bleak and desolate at first glance with it's broken down houses and roads and the Safaricom tower, but so beautiful in the distance with it's rolling hills and green pastures. 

They had walked the streets more times than they could count, and had been beleaguered by children who would touch them to test if their pasty white skin might rub off on them and then run away, smiling wide the whole time, by madmen who roamed the town in their bare feet and torn clothing, ignored by everyone, by kindly old ladies wrapped in colorful African cloth that couldn't seem to understand that they didn't speak the language everyone was supposed to speak, let alone their native tongues. 

They had been to the houses of the "aristocrats" in town and been served the finest food Chebilat had to offer, and they had gone to the poorest hovels where they were gladly served tea or porridge despite the fact that the families could not afford it. They had preached powerful sermons at the church, and they had played games with little children. They had prayed and loved and seen lives change for the better, and they had seen many people who they prayed and loved fall out of fellowship or back into sin.

This day, they sat around their low table for the last time, serving their guests pancakes, a new experience for some of them, and talking about anything. Anything but their departure. 

Finally, all was set. The vans arrived. A few last minute pictures were taken. A few words were exchanged. A few attempts were made to finagle promises of passage to America. And as suddenly as they had come, the YES team rolled away in their matatu, leaving behind their teary-eyed brothers and sisters in Christ, not knowing if or when the would be able to return. But they knew, without any doubt, that they would meet again.

Requests:

-Safe travels the last few days in Kenya - with as little robbery and red tape as possible.

-For Pastor George and his family as they are without our support. Pray that the church members would step up in supporting him.

-For increased support for George from KMC and it's leadership.

Praises:

-We have finished our time in Chebilat successfully, and have smoothly transitioned out!

-We are having our team vacation this week in Kilimanjaro and Mombasa!

-It seems like great things will be happening in the future in Chebilat!

Bwana Asifiwe!

Bwana Asifiwe tena!

-Steve (as I am widely known (as a Celebrity) in Chebilat)