JournalEnd0314

Hey how are y'all doing? We were supposed to go camping tonight with the guy Dixon who is a non-Christian from town, but Chris has an upset stomach. But we are still going to try to go fishing with him. This morning we brought the Lord's supper to the church service but most of the kids didn't take it. I think they just aren't used to it. Hey I was going to see if Jennie got that package yet? Ben and I sent packages at the same time and Ben package arrived yesterday! Oh I have a short story. Yesterday I was playing guitar outside and the young kids were listening and running around and stuff. Eventually all that was left was this little boy named Collins who is about 4 and he was listening and he kept nodding off and almost falling over. It was so cute, and then he finally just laid down and went to sleep it was cool. Oh yeah and Ben and I were working on the yard some since the other guys were gone and we were trying to let Titus and Joanna help, they are Shadrach's kids, and I just remembered how you let me help with projects when I was young. Dad let me use the circular saw when I was like 6! Okay talk to you soon.

Friday, Mar. 12, 2004 -- Excerpts from Mark's e-mail to his parents

...Tomorrow we are going to a water fall that is close by the school with several students. I can't believe we haven't gone yet! I think that will be really fun. Here is a prayer request: I think there are a few students who I would like to spend more time with and "desciple" them. One is Charles Cheruyot and the other is this new guy named Mark that is in form 1 (the youngest). Just pray for them and that I can manage it where it doesn't seem like I am playing favorites. Oh and there is another guy named Elliot that lives close to the school. One time Ben and I went to his house and met his family and I think he is really receptive.

Sunday, Mar. 7, 2004 -- Excerpts from Denton's e-mail to his parents

Had our first soccer game. It was a friendly match, but I hyped it up. Had the team watch Miracle and get motivated. Not really... Anyhow, I lined the field in lime. There was a large shrubbery on the field, but that's okay. I was pretty worried about the lime 'cause I didn't do so well in chemistry and really had no idea if it would kill us or not. But it looked pretty, so I went ahead. Actually, I had a notion that it was okay and my informant tells me it is okay. We lost 2-1, but it was alright. Our goalie messed up and gave them a penalty shot, then later we had an own goal. Bummer, but last year they said we lost 4-0. After the game one of our teachers had bought the two teams cokes, but must've thought they were golf teams, 'cause there was no where near enough. I watched with pride as our boys waited until the other coaches left and then our team gave the other guys, who had just beaten us, all the drinks. It was great. Very Jesus.

I neglected to mention it befor, but we've had mice in our house since we got here. They don't bother us directly, but they eat our bread and stuff. It's not all bad, we just eat around the parts the mice ate- we don't eat often, so when we do it's all business. So we have hatred for the mice now, and with every morning the three separate traps are found empty we get crazier. Finally the other night we caught two! It was great, 5 almost grown men acting like mice are lions or something. We took 'em outside and stoned them. Serious, our neighbor suggested it. Kinda gross- I did the Saul thing and just held the cloaks. But I was happy on the inside, I admit. No matter what culture or age, guys like to get together and be a little destructive and act like little things are indeed great threats, and if we weren't so skilled at our jobs civilization as we know it would crumble (and the mice would eat the crumbs).

If you would, we could use some prayers for our rallies and for our relationships with the students. We want to be effective, but aren't always sure of our impact. And with the students, we need to start talking about important things but not all of them are opening up and it is hard. So pray that we can make progress and earn their trust. Thank you so much.

This week we are going to a Men's Retreat. Rubel Shelly, from my old college town of Nashville, is the speaker so it oughta be swell. I'm looking forward to showers and maybe playing basketball with the middle aged missionaries. Supposedly there will be men from all over East Africa. So if I don't send any emails this week, that's why. We may take a computer though. Gotta feed my email addiction...

Oh, and we went to Eldoret at the beginning of the week. Mark got a package and it was great. Ben and I were expecting some, but they impatiently assured us that there were none. So we went back to our house, content enough that one of us had a package. On the way home we stopped in Flax, Flax is super close- just a few kilometers, whereas Eldoret is about 45 minutes. We stopped at the "post office", as they call it, to pick up letters- those actually make it close to us, the packages don't. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was. Among the few letters for the school I received a yellow piece of paper notifying me of a package waiting for me in Eldoret. Amazing. The very place I had been that morning that had assured me there was no package had sent out only a day or so before a letter telling me I had one. Anyhow, tomorrow morning we're going to try and pick it up. I plan on pretending to have to go to the bathroom and then doing some Mission Impossible stuff and rescuing the hostage packages. I can hear the music now...

Forwarded Mar. 10, 2004 from Denton's parents -- Excerpts from Denton's e-mail to his parents

Feb 29
I average a bath every three days. Who wouldn't want to see me up close? The other day we were all tired and it was getting dark, and our shower was out of water. So being the MacGyver-like guy I try to be, I told them to follow me and we'd bathe Kenyan style. Yes, it can be worse than a bucket with a hose with cold water and gravity as your pressure. We walked across several fields and stopped where about 4 farms met. Here a dirty stream, with frogs and weird water scorpion things come up in our bath buckets; the water is only two fee deep. Not to be too descript, but we tried to be quick and private, but in the middle of a field it's hard. Soon about 7 kids were watching us, just for the heck of it. I know why folks don't like the paparazzi.

We played with bow and arrows while waiting on breakfast the other day (breakfast was chai and buttered bread, with avocado stuff mashed in the butter- thanks, but no asante. I shot once and hit the target. Not that I'm robin hood, but that like George Kastanza, I left on a high not and didn't shoot anymore. Anyhow, the older man "showing" us proceeded to show us how far the arrows could go. We were on a hill and he shot out into his cow pasture. Didn't hat any cows though. Next he tells his son to go get the arrow, which was precisely the same beige color of the field. 2 minutes and 120 yards later his son couldn't find it. I promise you, in a tone that I use to talk to my brother in the next room (on the computer) the father quietly gave his son directions in Swahili. He heard it all and found the arrow. It is crazy- we talk so loud, they whisper so quietly. They laugh at us for shouting, we get exasperated at them for using radar to communicate.

We slept in a church with no pews, but lots of sawdust every where. By church I mean barn, complete with cow manure to avoid when you get up to go to the bathroom in the dark at night. Ben said it best, "It feels like we're in a giant hamster cage, and we're, like, hamsters."