Sorry it's been so long since I last posted an update. We have been having a lot of trouble with the power going off, especially when I have just about completed a post and am ready to upload it.

Sun., 6 Mar.
After Sunday School here at Robin’s Nest we went to a local church with Jotham. He originally told us the service started at 10 am but suggested we don’t leave until about 10:20. (Like many things here and in Latin America, people take the scheduled time as the time they begin to get ready to go.) We didn’t leave until about 10;40 and could hear them singing as we approached. There were 3 chairs set out especially for us to one side near the front of the adobe, tin roofed building. Also at the front were 2 other visitors: Bishop ------------, the bishop of that church and about 150 others. The second was ‘Apostle David B. Wanyonyi, bishop/senior pastor at Lamb’s Chapel Christian Center in nearby Kimilhi.

The service was very loud, and there was a lot of feedback from the unnecessary microphone. There were several members to give testimonies, a baby was dedicated, the Bishop spoke, we were asked to pray for the people, Apostle David preached, people were prayed over with laying on of hands, and Dick and I were asked to pray over Apostle David. All this was done with the delays of translations into either English or Kiswahili, as necessary. Altogether the service lasted over 4 hours. Because we arrived late, we did not have a chance to ask permission to take photos.

After the service, Pastor Jeremiah asked the two of us to preach next Sunday. That is going to be really different for them since we are not the yelling and screaming type and they are. Please pray for us.

Apostle David wants to make arrangement for us to visit his home church in Kimilhi. There is also a training school there. I suspect that he will be asking us to speak to people while we are there. He has an extensive training ministry for those wanting to go into ministry.

The name of the blind lady whom Robin’s Nest is helping is “Angripene”. On the way back from the church we stopped by her house. The son has cut all but 3 of the poles needed for his mother’s roof. He was stripping the bark off when we arrived.

Tues., 7 Mar.
Nelson's brick kiln for making his own bricks
alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583793217318527586" />Yesterday afternoon we went to the farm of Nixon, the chairman of the advisory committee. He is a retired banker who has settled in this area and wants to work on showing the people of the area better farming methods. One of the big problems in the area is water so he had a well dug. He got down over 20 feet and hit a big rock. He is still trying to figure out what to do. There is a little water at the bottom but he needs to go deeper. He has the healthiest looking cattle and chickens I’ve seen, mainly due I think to ensuring they get adequate water and nourishment as well as spraying the cattle for insects weekly. He is raising watermelons and other cash crops. He has been watering the watermellons using a foot operated water pump that operates similar to a ‘stair machine’ at a fitness club.

Foot operated water pump - operates like a stair machine in a fitness club

While there, it started to sprinkle rain, then started to rain in earnest for about ½ hour, then lighter for another half hour. For a while it came down really hard, and there were hailstones mixed with the rain. We waited it out in the house where we met Alex, a tomato farmer who has been chosen to head up a pilot project at a nearby polytecnic institute to grow tomatoes and other vegetables in a greenhouse. The units come from Israel and he attended training sessions on the methodology. Both be and Nixon are quite excited about the project.

Wed., 9 Mar.

First truss on the house made from younger eucaliptus trees
Dick started the day by going to by Mrs.Angripene’s home, ( Blind lady), with the nails for the men to start building the roof on her new house. He waited to watch them build the 1'st truss then headed into town to do pick up the bank statements and do some shopping. (Each statement costs 100ksh here.)

Framing almost complete. The roof was completed in one day.
After lungh the 5 trusses were completed and they were starting to set them up and before dark at 7pm they had the roof finished.

Thur., 10 Mar.
Eva, Jotham, and I went to Webuye, on the road to Eldoret, this morning. We visited the school where Robin’s Nest sponsors a student, Naiome, talked with one of her teachers and paid the school fees to the end of the term.

Naiome's grandmother and a sister in their home
We later went to visit her grandmother with whom she lives. The grandmother is very poor but is looking after 4 girls. They had had no food in the house since yesterday and we left them some money to buy food. ===

Sun.,13 Mar.
Eva and I were asked to preach at the local church we went to last week. We arived about 10:15 am and they were singing and dancing for about an hour. The pastor read the bible and talked about it for a while, more singing. We each gave a detailed testamony with teaching. This took about an hour as everything was translated to Swaheli.

After lunch we had a heavy rain. Weather forcasts are for rain every day next week. Guess the rainy season is starting. We have a bad leak in the roof which I am having to get fixed quickly.