Treasure Hunt in Machakos

We’re coming to the end of orientation now and will soon be heading down to Namibia. The orientation time has been good, but certainly a bit overwhelming at times. Our heads are full of knowledge now about everything from Traditional African Beliefs, to language acquisition, to how to ride a Boda-Boda (a bicycle with a passenger seat on the back, operated like a cab). I sort of feel like I did when I was coming to the end of my undergraduate courses – where I felt full of knowledge and empty of everything else.

We have gained a good bit of relational experience during this time as well. This week we were invited to have dinner with an African family who lives and works on campus. We gained good insight into some local customs as we also gleaned wisdom from the family about what it means to be a Mzungu (see entry below) working in Africa.

We also had a relational “treasure hunt” in downtown Machakos where, instead of finding items, we had to find out information about things such as the history of Machakos, the local customs, and how to greet one another in the local language (which is Kikamba). We all did this as a family, and so we all gained from this adventure.

Pray for Jessa. The poor girl lost a bit of innocence on the issue of preparation of animals for eating when we went to a restaurant to eat where you could hear the chickens being slaughtered in a back room area. She sat stone-faced for about a half hour after that. She’s okay now, but there will be more lessons for her to learn soon enough.

Josiah was thoroughly confused during this trip through town as we walked through a market area where almost ALL of the older women there kept trying to speak to him in Swahili (aka Kiswahili) since they saw he was Kenyan and just assumed… Of course, even more fun was trying to communicate to the ladies (who spoke broken English at best) why this Kenyan boy doesn’t know but about 2 words in Swahili. That was actually pretty funny.

Anyhow, I’m sorry we don’t have any pictures from this time in town. I have hesitated to bring our camera to the town – partially because of not wanting to be waving expensive electronic items around in a crowded area, but more so because I didn’t want to look too much like a tourist.

Visit to the children's home

We paid a visit today to a children's home in the area where we are staying for now. This was our second visit there, and we are hoping for at least one more before we leave the area. I just wanted to share a couple pictures for you...

Above: Josiah enjoyed playing with the younger children

Above: Kailey helps out with feeding time (If it were up to Kailey & Ashlan, we'd now have about 36 kids in our family...)

Above: Jessa played with some of the older children outside their home (we finally found children with more energy than Jessa)

Above: Our focus was primarily on just spending time with the children, giving love and affection where we could (BTW - Rob, thanks again for the really cool safari-looking hat!)

Up the mountain - update from 1/19/08

My feet are burning tired right now. We just finished a long walk up one of the neighboring mountains here around Machakos. It’s been a while since I’ve walked that far – probably since I was a Boy Scout in my early preteen years.


This walk was unlike any I’d experienced at that time. For one thing, the terrain is significantly different here. Much of our climb was up steep inclines, often on smooth, slippery rock, or muddy surfaces. We jumped several small streams to make our way up, and frequently balanced on thin areas of clearings. If we’d fallen we probably wouldn’t have been more than muddied, but you sure didn’t want to get messy after the long climb up, because the climb down would have been even more difficult.

But there was something that stood out to me even more than the challenge of the journey. As we walked up the hill we passed by many small family dwellings. We certainly attracted quite a bit of attention. You see, here we are “Mzungu”. Roughly translated, I think “Mzungu” means – “ignorant westerner, from whom you shouldn’t expect much knowledge of Africa and life in general.” Actually, that’s a bit harsher and more negative translation than in reality, but that’s what it feels like. Regardless, I’m guessing that not many Mzungu are found walking up those mountains.

One of the real highlights of the walk was when a group of local children gathered around us and watched as our leader for this journey (an AIM mission leader) talked a gentlemen who was inebriated out of harassing us (he was more of a nuisance than a danger to us). As you saw our leader gracefully convince the man to turn and go elsewhere the children roared with laughter and cheered as the “Mzungu” successfully handled the conflict. I can envision that incident sticking in the kids’ memories for a long time to come.


Another genuine highlight came as the children (20-25 in number) ended up following along with us for most of our walk. It was like a scene out of one of those fantastic adventure dramas where the children were fascinated with us like we were local heroes. Sure, it was a fleeting moment that will probably have more meaning to me than to them, but it sure felt good… like a good dream that you don’t want to wake from.

In truth, the substance of our dream involves years and years of life-changing influence through prayer, hard work, and even general life-sustaining care for the lives of children who no longer have their family around to do that for them. These particular children seemed to have family and we certainly couldn’t have had a true lifelong impact in just a two hour experience. But, you couldn’t have told that to my heart as I walked on cloud nine today with children draped on both arms. I had time to dream a bit further today. And when doing so, the question came to my mind… “Would I give my life for even the least of these?” At least in that moment I could say, “Yes Lord, if you ask me to”.

From Nairobi to Machakos!

Just some pics to share with you...

We went for a walk in Nairobi (see above)

The drive to Machakos was a rough one (see above)

Machakos is around the mountains in a beautiful green area of Kenya (see above). This is a view from our "dorm room" at Scott Theological College where we are attending AIM's Africa Based Orientation.

We Made It!

We made it to Nairobi, Kenya in good shape and decently good spirits (considering the long flight time and lack of sleep) on Saturday. Tomorrow (Monday) we will be traveling out to Machakos where Scott Theological College is located for our 3 weeks of orientation before finally heading down south to Namibia.

Yesterday was truly a day of rest for us. We tried to catch up on our sleep and adjust to the time change (8 hours difference). In fact, right now I'm (Steve) sitting and typing this up at about 3:40am because I'm having trouble sleeping. My body still thinks it's 7:40pm and is wondering why I've been napping the past several hours. :-)

We appreciate your prayers regarding our travels and particularly about the situation here in Kenya. The country is relatively peaceful right now, and seems to be on the right track. There is a bit of nervousness regarding some upcoming parliamentary meeting on Tuesday and the effects it will have on the people. We were supposed to head out of Nairobi on Tuesday but were rescheduled to leave Monday so that we would not be in the area at that time. The place where we are going for orientation is in an area where the people are not affiliated with either of the main tribes that are at odds. The feeling is that the Machakos area will be untouched by any violence if something does happen.

So, here are a few pics of our travel experience...

Ashlan (above) waits and watches over our luggage

The plane flight was long and tiring, but we were just happy to touch down in Africa!


We are staying at the Mayfield Guest House for now, before heading to Machakos

There is a small playground inside the Mayfield compound area where the kids played yesterday (Sunday)

Last Minute Details

We are just a few days away from our departure and we are definitely tired out from these last-minute preparations, but we wanted to take a second to try and outfit you all with our contact information and our latest prayer requests.

Contact Information

To visit our website: http://www.reachnamibia.com

To email us: reachnamibia@yahoo.com

To send mail to us locally: P.O. Box 223994, Chantilly, VA 20153

To mail us a package: TBD

To contact AIM: 1-800-254-0010

To call (Voice over IP) or instant message us online using Skype: Our username is “graham4jc” and you can download Skype for free at www.skype.com

To instant message us using AOL Instant Messenger: Our username is “reachnamibia@yahoo.com”

To pledge support: Click Here

To donate online: Click Here

Our Travel Schedule

January 9^th

Leave Virginia and drive to Africa Inland Mission’s office in Pearl River, NY

January 11^th

Fly out from Newark, NJ Airport through London, England to Nairobi, Kenya

January 12^th

Flight arrives in Kenya

January 12^th through February 6^th

Orientation and Training in Kenya

February 6^th

Fly from Nairobi, Kenya through Johannesburg, South Africa to Windhoek, Namibia

Next 6 Weeks (approximately) -> In Windhoek, Namibia as we get oriented to Namibia and get set up and finally planted in Arandis, Namibia!!!

Financial Status

As a reminder, we have been cleared to go, but if you recall we were still about three hundred dollars short of our support target when we were cleared as it looked like it would all be in place by the time we left. As it stands, we still need about $100 month in pledges per month in order for us to not be running short on even our basic needs. We are going in faith that this amount will be there. God has never let us down.

(BTW - It’s January, and we are less than a week away from being truly dependent on the financial support pledged.)

You can send your monthly support via the following methods:

(1) online at https://www.aimint.org/usa/online_giving.html

(2) by phone at 1-800-254-0010

(3) through Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) - http://www.aimint.org/usa/automatic_contributions.html

(4) or by mail.

Africa Inland Mission Int.

P.O. Box 178

Pearl River, NY 10965

Regarding recent issues in Kenya

Some of you have been watching the news reports regarding violence and instability in Kenya due to issues with recent elections and have asked us what will happen to us and our plans to spend time in Kenya for Africa-Based Orientation. AIM has a very large missionary presence in Kenya as well as a Crisis Management team on the ground. They are providing "up-to-the-minute" updates to AIM’s headquarters. The latest reports say that the conditions have stabilized and it is believed that life is returning to normal. That said, we are asking that you pray for the situation there for God’s continuing intervention.

Prayer Requests

· For the situation in Kenya, as described above

· For the sale of our house, which is still on the market (it’s also available for rent)

· For the sale of one of our vehicles (we have a good friend who will continue sale process after our departure, if necessary)

· For Steve’s dad, who continues to battle health issues

· For our health and safety during travel and the transition process

Also, thank you so much for your support and encouragement lately, as it has definitely been valued and appreciated. Thank you also for those who made it out for our Commissioning Service. We were really really touched by the level of support shown. It was a really remarkable time for us.

If you have any questions about things (such as our schedule, commuincation during our transition, setting up to use Skype, how to provide financial support, etc.) or just want to catch up while we’re still a local phone call for most of you, please give us a ring at (703) 338-2275 (Steve’s cell) or (571) 246-3687 (Karrie’s cell). Those numbers will be turned off on or around January 10^th.