WOW!

 Below is Bishop Wright's For Faith message for June 13, 2013. "Wow" has been our word for Kenya, 2014.

 

"Wow" to the 7 little boys who have won our hearts this year and who are brave enough to leave their families for a better opportunity.

"Wow" to the wonderful support group in Kenya who have stepped up to make the Comet House for Boys happen and over the years have planted the seeds which have given fruit to plant another seed and so the cycle goes round one child at a time.

"Wow" to the beautiful people of Kenya and the Gituku family who work tirelessly and to their community who support them.

"Wow" to the beautiful Maasi Mara where we spent 3 days seeing God's Creation in its natural environment. What a sense of humor God has in creating such diverse creatures.

So thank you, Bishop Wright, for putting words to our "Wow" better than we are able. I am blessed to get to go to Kenya with my grandson, to paint a house there and find God there.

"WOW"

13 June 2014 Wow!   People say "wow" a lot in conversations today. Have you noticed that? Mostly it's an expression of polite interest. But wow is a spiritual state.Wow is the grandchild of awe and majesty. Wow is how we respond to beauty, immensity and complexity. Wow is a fast car to God. Wow is stars on a black night, lightning at sea, a hovering full moon. It's a tall pine tree waving, a sleeping child, a Maya Angelou sentence.   Wow offers us a chance at real humility. Wow is to stand before something superior in genius and feel an elegance we did not create, could not create. Wow orders the chin upward in praise. Or, downward in solidarity with the lowly. Wow softens the heart. Wow is considering the works of God's fingers, galaxies, quasars and quarks and knowing "the Lord is mindful of us and cares for us." Wow!                                                                     Psalm 8     We arrived back in Atlanta at 1 am this morning (Saturday), 33 hours after leaving Nairobi.  Our flights from Nairobi to Brussles and Brussels to Newark were unventful.  After clearing customs in Newark we found out our flight to Atlanta was cancelled so we were rebooked to Atlanta, via Houston!  Parker pointed out that it was Friday the 13th! Below are a few photos from our last day in Kenya: A visit to the Elephant Orphanage, where elephants orphaned due to ivory poaching are raised. It takes eight years before these babies can be re-introduced into the wild. Ethel, after purchasing a Kenyan purse at a Maasai Market for Katie. We made a final visit to Comet House.  Nancy and Parker hung curtains in the kitchen before the boys came home from school.  We picked the material out in Atlanta not knowing what color had been selected for the walls.  A local seamstress sewed the curtains in Kenya.  We were tickled by how well they went with the wall color. Fredrick's mom preparing dinner for the boys.  Seven little boys can eat a lot of cabbage!  Left overs are packed for the next day's school lunches.   Nancy and Wycliffe. Andrea went over Joseph's homework with him after school.

The boys worked to get the collars on their school uniforms clean.  They wash their uniforms and shoes every day after getting home from school at 4:30.  They then tackle homework with the assistance of Josephat, their tutor, before dinner and bed.

Josephat helping Morris with homework. Josephat was an orphan who grew up in the nearby Karai Children's home.  He is now in university and lives at Comet house, serving as tutor and night time  security guard.   We delivered food to Jane's family.  We first met Jane (on right in back row) when she was 7 years old at the Compass School in 2008.  She is now in the 7th grade and doing well in school.  She was just chosen for a leadership position in her Girl Scout troop.  She has become a beautiful young lady.