Valentine's Day & Updates on Missions

Hello friends,

I hope you are doing well.

Photo Credit: Mine ~ Sunset from downtown Vancouver hotel one summer night

I am keeping busy and still behind schedule. So many things to do but not much get up and go to do them. I will get there just a bit slowly it seems.

I wanted to thank those of you who prayed and those of you who gave to help the young Kenyan mother who lost her baby at 31 weeks. If you are new to my blog or haven't visited in awhile, you may read the story here.  A few blogging friends and I have been trying to help the young mom get out of hospital. Other friends in Kenya have also held two fundraisers but the mom remains in hospital.

Yes! She is still there. In Kenya you are not allowed to leave hospitals until you have fully cleared the bills. This bill was very high and we haven't quite managed to clear it.  But it is much closer than it was to being cleared and fortunately for this humble family they have had outside support as well as community support. I'm sure it makes the load of the hardship a little less heavy.

Please continue to say a prayer for this mother and her young family. As you can imagine, it isn't good to have had to be in hospital all this time.  She should be with her family members all of whom live two hours away. She has a husband and another child who need her and they need to grieve together as a family. Sadly, she was in hospital when her unborn child was released for burial.

I had another friend contact me last night for prayer. His mother-in-law (MIL) went missing when she went to try and seek medical help as she wasn't feeling very well. I think she was probably a bit delirious and lost her way somehow. My friend  and his wife live several hours away from this woman and her husband. So I prayed and they prayed. Thank God the MIL was found today.  She is now in hospital being treated for typhoid. Typhoid is a very serious disease and hopefully she will fully recover with the help of medicine.

Today many around the world are celebrating Valentine's Day. I hope you all have a blessed day and that you a get an opportunity to show your loved ones (or they you) just how much they mean to you.

A life worth living is one filled with faith, hope and love.

We never know exactly how long we have left here on earth or what tomorrow holds. 

Today we may have abundance and tomorrow we may have lack. 

Today we may have beautiful shelter.  Tomorrow we may lose our home due to man made or natural disaster. 

Today we may have health but tomorrow we may get the dreaded news that we are sick.

Today we may have a wonderful job.  Tomorrow we might be redundant and given the "pink slip".

Today we may have loved ones all around us. Tomorrow something might happen to one of  us.

Today we may enjoy reading, writing or crafting. Tomorrow we may lose our sight.

Today we may enjoy hearing and watching television, talking on the phone, listening to music. Tomorrow we may lose our hearing.

Graphic credit: Lovely & Beautiful

Today we might have hope and opportunities, something to give us faith in the future and love in the meantime. Tomorrow these might not be present.

Today you may be able to share your good abundance with others. Tomorrow you may need them to share their abundance with you.

~~~~~~

Even a bag of seeds is so precious.  Especially to a small, barefoot child a half a world away who has never had a chance to go to school, who sleeps on a dirt floor, who doesn't know the security of clean water to drink, or a meal every day to fill his empty belly.

He clutches tightly to this donated bag of fertilizer that his mother will plant in hopes of keeping her children fed.

Photo Credit ~ Jonah, Missions of Hope, Kenya

Let's live a  life of gratitude daily for the things many of us take for granted.

If you are reading this, or know how to read, you are one of the many blessed of the world's people.

"Sympathy is no substitute for action."~ Dr. David Livingstone, missionary to Africa

Updated - Giveaway for a Cause

Hello friends,

I wanted to share this really cool giveaway (from Joy) and a  craft exchange with fellow crafters.

Its being organized by blogging friend Joy, a talented crocheter who lives in England.

The poster says deadline is February 14, 2015 but Joy has extended the deadline to February 20th to allow all you crafters time to participate.

Please read how it all works at Joy's blog here.  You have a bit beyond February 20th to get your craft item ready for shipping. I know I like to receive something from another crafter far away. It's almost like Christmas :-)

Thanks so much!

What I'm Doing

Reading

Shantaram. Rumour has it that this book will be adapted for film production.

Watching

The Blacklist is an intelligent show and the new season is underway

Working On 

Never ending paperwork & bills. This year I'm a little ahead in preparation for tax time. But still waiting for
official tax slips.

Contemplating

I've got several projects I need to make for mom and should be doing it but haven't had the energy.

 Finished With Mailing for

My niece will enjoy her treats.

Enjoying

Sir Elvis

Wow, what a great singer. I think it might be his wife singing with him on the track at the link provided.He's got a very interesting personal story if you have time to watch youtube videos.

Photo Credit:  From Sir Elvis Facebook page

Remembering

Lake Elementaita, Kenya. So very beautiful there.

Beyond Marigat Town going east without roads. I found it very beautiful in the back country.

Having refreshment in Marigat, rest stop before long journey ahead. Nice around these parts but so very dry and difficult to travel.

Enjoy your weekend!

A Love Song for Kenya

Recent Posts About Kenya

Post 1 
Post 2 
Part 3 - Update: The young woman who lost her child at 31 weeks in utero is still in hospital. Though she is now well enough to be released, in Kenya mothers are not released until they are able to pay the bill. Please continue to pray for this need to be met in full.

 ~~~~~~

I have a song I wish to share with you today.  The song was written by John Legend.

I've never been a huge John Legend fan but I absolutely love this song because of the emotion in his voice, the words of love and his simple but powerful piano stylings.

In case you haven't heard the song before, I post it here for your listening pleasure.

I dedicate this song of love to all those in Kenya whom I have met and those I have yet to meet.

It may seem strange to dedicate a personal love song (written by John Legend for his wife) to a country and her people.  But when I hear the words "I love all your curves and all your edges", I think of Kenya in all her brilliant, glorious, natural beauty.  As a country, she has so much to offer the world both in her amazing, abundant geography and wildlife, and also in her people.

You just have to travel there to see and experience it for yourself. I've now met many people who have travelled to Kenya and all have been touched and impacted in a great way by the country.

At the same time, Kenya has many edges:  tribal strife, rampant corruption, overwhelming poverty to name a few.  But I believe that there is still much to propel the country forward.  Kenyans believe that too.

May God bless Kenya!

A Quick Trip to Northern Kenya

Hi friends,

A good person once you shelter with him under the bush you will know him, and bad one as well.

~ Kenyan Proverb

Things are busy for my friends in Kenya. After showing support for our friend who lost her child a short time after being rushed to Tenwek Hospital, several of my Kenyan friends have been in northern Kenya ministering to the Pokot peoples.

I wrote last time about their missions trip to feed and evangelize the people in the Marsibit area. You can read more here.

People in this dry and isolated area are literally going hungry and have been for some time. My friends and their various churches banded together to bring some hope and food relief to these people. They were able to get together large bags of maize for distribution to the people.

Photo credit:  Jonah of Missions of Hope, Kenya
  (All photos in this post belong to Jonah of Mission of Hope, Kenya).

Amongst the group of humanitarians were two of my friends:  Jonah and Japheth.They were taking both humanitarian and spiritual help to the people. I met both of these Godly men years ago on my very first trip to Kenya.

Japheth is a Pastor at a church near Nakuru.

Shortly after I met Japheth and his wife Loice, Loice delivered two healthy twin daughters.

This young woman and her husband are now missionaries to the Pokot. They travelled from Maasai Mara to minister in the Marsabit area.

One of the beautiful women of the area. I find it amazing how the woman look so well put together despite the heat, dust and lack of water.

This is Jonah ministering to the women. These woman are all very slender and hold themselves with dignity.

It was a quick trip to bring compassion to this remote part of  Kenya, and unfailingly the vehicle overheated on the return journey home. It always happens on these journeys that the car overheats or the tires go flat. It is a given in Kenya due to the condition of the roads and the heat of the days.

Please continue to pray for these people who are going hungry more often than not. It must be so very hard for those who have children. It is hard enough to feel the hurt in one's (adult) stomach, let alone to see children suffering from daily hunger.

Have you ever suffered from true hunger my friend? I know some of you have, especially if you grew up in poverty like I did. We were not hungry every day.  My parents did the best they could and by and large my siblings and I had it much better than many other children in homes around me.  Some years were better than other years. But always I was aware of the shame that poverty brings and to try and hide just how little we had compared to others.  It makes some of us stronger and vow never to be hungry or poor again. For others it beats them down and they never can come out of it. Those life lessons learned as a child and the lessons I learned in the humble church where I was privileged to attend, taught me that I have a loving Father in Heaven and he not only loves us but desires that we should love one another and be good to our neighbours (near and far).

In a recent post, I wrote of another Kenyan friend who was rushed to Tenwek Hospital due to pregnancy complications.  She lost her child after a valiant effort by hospital staff to try and save both baby and mother. It is a very sad situation and mother has been in hospital since then but is now physically well enough for release.

Please pray that her and her husband will be able to cover the hospital bill. 

Thank you to those of you who desire to help her. Her family appreciates the love in action.

Blessings to you my lovely readers. 

May God grant you all a wonderful week ahead free of illness, free of pain and free of major worries.