Memories

Sorry it has been a while since I've written anything here. Lots happens to me, and I have a lot of thoughts and ideas, but I'm not so good about sharing them on the blog.

My heart and mind are on my mom-by-marriage this Christmas time, since she reached 90 in November, started losing weight that month and died on Christmas Eve. I feel sorrow together with Darlene, great relief that my prayer that she might go Home is answered, and really good about the life and relationship we have had.

In-law relations should and can be filled with joy and with building one another up. After all, the spouse of one's child has been CHOSEN, loved, wanted. One's own child, who is smart and beautiful and good and wise, has chosen him or her. Let's be glad for in-laws everywhere, and let us praise God for them. GO, IN-LAWS!

We share rich memories with Dorothy Wright - making a life together with Darlene and her parents helping in so many ways when we were young, working together with street kids in Nairobi as we began to teach kids Bible and English and Math, taking trips together as we went back and forth from US to Kenya. We rode the elephant in Northeast India, we walked all around the old wall of Jerusalem, we stood at Nikos Kazantkasis' burial plot in Heraklion on Crete, we saw the sights of old Athens and picked up pieces of marble, we looked for gold on the riverbanks of California, we listened to the waltz music by the Danube on our Vienna trip, and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing the animals on the Mara in Kenya. We also sat knee to knee with street kids who were scratching the body lice, and we went out together to visit street kids where they slept at the "bases" in the alleyways of Eastleigh. And not once did my mom-by-marriage complain or back off from any unpleasant task.

We've been looking at old pictures on Christmas eve and Christmas day and today, and the memories are sweet as a Swiss chocolate bar, as gentle as the hands of Jesus, as uplifting as the church singing "Here I am to Worship".

So...give thanks for your in-laws today, give them a hug and ask God to give them richly everything they need. They make your life better.

Inafaa, Haifai

"It works; it doesn't work."

I am sitting at the Java House in Nairobi, where they have wi-fi!! When I am home, Quickbooks won't work on my laptop. It decides that it wants to register AGAIN, and apparently it doesn't like my internet connection at home, because it gives me a phone number in the USA instead of registering again. But when I am sitting here at Java, it works! And it doesn't say anything about registering. And apparently the Quickbooks support people don't know what to do about that, because they do not respond to my emails (except to write me asking me to contact them and say I am satisfied with the service!!!). Also, when I call them from Nairobi, they apparently don't like my sometimes bad phone connection, because they give up quick and tell me they have to go. Oh, well. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. (Did I mention that my Quickbooks program on the other laptop refused to register online, and they didn't give me a code to use when I called, so in a few days QB will quit on me. It's a little hard to get that code one needs to keep QB running.) I'm saying all this so that those to whom I have to report financial information will please forgive me for being late.

On the other hand, I can't get my Go Daddy email to come up when I am at Java House, but at home on my slow connection with the cell phone company it comes up and works. So "it works' it doesn't work"

Life is full of little twists that can raise stress levels and irritate us. I've been working on staying conscious of the Biblical command to "Rejoice in the Lord always." If we are willing to obey all that is written in Scripture, then this is our daily job - to rejoice! And of course we have much to rejoice about - forgiven sin, the Spirit within, fellowshipping with friends.

The Lord has set up life very well. Whether it works or doesn't, rejoice!

Proud of Mauryn

Sorry I haven't written for a long time; I'm sure you really miss it and will hang on every word. I do appreciate anyone who reads what I write. This is a picture of Tim and Susie Neel from Midland, Texas (the Golf Course Road Church) along with our own George Mwenda, formerly from the streets. He has been with us for 2 1/2 years now and is studying computers in the skills training program. He is wearing a shirt they brought with them. The Golf Course Road Church sponsors a major World Bible School program in Kenya that is managed by our own Mauryn Mbuvi.

Mauryn is married to Francis Mbuvi, who is the administrator at Made in the Streets. They have two children, Jonathan and Jeremy.

We met Mauryn soon after our arrival in Kenya in 1992. Berkeley Hackett introduced us to her and let us know that she had no way to pay for school fees. She was in the 9th grade at the time. We paid her school fees at the boarding school in Western Kenya, and she became a member of the teenage teaching team we developed to go out to village churches and teach children on weekends. In 1993 we made 25 trips to various places in the country, and our teenagers became excellent teachers. We met Francis on the streets in 1994, and he soon became one of the teachers as well.

After Mauryn completed high school, we asked her what she wanted to do. Since I was director of the computer college (KCITI), she chose to study computers at home in Eastleigh. She completed that program in two years, and we once again asked what she wanted. By that time she wanted to work in the hotel industry; we helped her enrol in Utalii College in Nairobi which teaches catering, cooking and hotel management. After completing that, she got an internship in a hotel near Mombasa on the Kenyan coast. But after about two months there was severe ethnic fighting in the Mombasa area, many people were killed, and the tourists stopped coming. Many hotels closed for the season, and Mauryn was forced to return to Nairobi.

By that time I was involved with the World Bible School program, led by John DeFore, a member at Golf Course Road. GCR was also our sponsor for the three years 1998 to 2000. So I asked Mauryn to be my secretary and handle the WBS records and letters. She took over my office in our building behind KCITI. The street ministry was growing fast; Darlene and I were working with 9 young men and 2 young women. All the young men treated Mauryn like a sister, until one day in a Team meeting Darlene said to them, "Have any of you noticed Mauryn?" They all laughed, but a few days later we noticed some of them begin to stop in at the office, talking to Mauryn. In 1998, Darlene and I moved to an apartment down the street from KCITI, and we rented an extra apartment for the WBS office and for visitors to stay in. Again, we noticed that now and then young men would stop by and visit with Mauryn a few minutes. But it was Francis who made her laugh, and who brought flowers. We moved into our own building nearby in August, 1999.

It was not long until Mauryn was handling the relationship with Golf Course Road and developing the WBS ministry further and further. To shorten the story, she now manages more than 20 men who gather names for WBS and who work in churches around the country. And even greater, some of those men had great compassion for homeless children in the countryside, many of whose parents died from HIV infection. Golf Course Road has responded with compassion and support, and Mauryn and her team now operate several orphanages in various parts of the country. It is a great ministry that has marvelous potential. As I write this, Mauryn is on a trip to visit orphanages in Western Kenya with Tim and Susie. Last night, we had Francis over for dinner.

This family lives in our hearts.

Visiting Granny

Generation to generation our values are shaped. And the great-grandparents and the great-grandchildren must actually see one another for those values to be indelibly stamped on our hearts and minds and spirits. So we take the granddaughters over to see "Granny" as much as possible.

Dorothy Wright had mutual love and respect and fun with her husband. After she was alone, she traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, each year for 6 months to teach English reading and conversation to preachers, young people and street kids. She had such fun doing this valuable ministry. And one of the neatest things is that Darlene and her Mom did ministry together, sharing the joys and pains of the lives and needs of street kids.

Now she sits quiet, no wrinkles on her face, sleeping most of the time, not speaking and seldom opening her eyes, and she will be 90 years old soon. But she still makes noises in her throat when a great-granddaughter says "I love you, Granny."

She also has a malignancy growing on her face. So Darlene sat with her for the whole process of surgery for it. Not to remove it completely, but to limit its growth and remove the sight of it. She slept through the surgery and it is healing great.

Generation to generation we love one another, and we keep the values alive - love and fun in life and service in Christ's name and devotion to one another. Blessed be the Lord who gives us this life, and even better is coming.

Creation and Necessity

I am so amazed at all the marvelous discoveries about the universe and all the thought that goes into where all this came from and what we can know from looking at the universe. Recently astronomers have found two planets circling a star. And there is a star out there that has an enormous amount of water around it. And scientists are thinking about it carefully. Already they say the water can't come from passing asteriods and comets and other celestial sources. The water is too close in to the star -- so the star itself is producing the water. But from what astronomers already know, the star should be producing carbon monoxide. Yet water is forming. It's exciting to think about what that might mean and what new discoveries will come because the formation of huge amounts of water is possible in a star.

Stephen Hawking is one of those thinkers who seeks to understand the universe and history and form theories about the source and the destiny of life. He thinks about gravitation and relativity and all those obscure things most of us know so little about. And Hawking has recently written that what we know about science does not bring about a necessity that God is involved in creation! He concludes that the more we know about the universe, the less necessary it is that we must argue from the creation to the Creator.

What a marvelous idea! What freedom to our faith! And it fits the theology of Scripture. We do not believe in God because the universe demands it. We do not believe in God because of some evidence built into the structure of the universe or the atom or gravity. We do not believe in God because reasoning about the nature of life leads us to that conclusion.

We believe in God because he has come to us, because he has made himself known to us, because Jesus Christ has described the Father who made all things. As John wrote, "what we have seen, what we have touched.." The mystery of our faith is this, that Christ lives in us. At the core of our faith is not knowledge about the physical universe, but knowledge about God himself.

Once you know God in Christ, then you can see where the farthest star and the most amazing phenomena fit into his reality. As Paul writes in Romans 1, the glory and majesty is seen in all the things that are. We might even want to talk about intelligent design. But we do not start there. We do not argue from design to the designer. We know him, for he knows us, and he came to set our hearts on fire.

Christ is in us. And this truth sets us free.

Vacation (Paris Style) Joy

John Wambu, with whom I work closely at Made in the Streets both in our building projects and relations to government offices, often says, "We can't take a vacation; we have work to do." He hardly ever takes a day off, and I almost never take a day off when we are in Nairobi. Street ministry and the boarding program are a 24/7 deal.

But vacations are really nice, as we found out again when we stopped off in Paris on our way back to the USA. Paul and Edie Tews hosted us with great kindness. Here is a picture of us in the Tuileries Gardens having lunch on Sunday afternoon. Delightful!

It was great attending French worship with them on Sunday morning -- what a cosmopolitan church, with many members from West and North Africa, both immigrants and second generation. And such noisy and happy fellowship before and after the worship time. And in the evening, after English worship, they had a fellowship meal. We were happy to get in on that, as the preacher is a good cook. Here is a picture of us with Roland and Rosa at the church building.

I Get to Preach

I am always happy when I get to preach. Most of my adult life has been involved in preaching. 1968 in Roswell, NM, then a two year break to teach in a University, then 21 years preaching in Redwood City, CA. For several years in Kenya, I would go to various congregations and be asked to preach. Since we have been doing street ministry, I have encouraged the young people we work with to preach and teach, and I have done less and less. Last week I was in Eastleigh at the new congregation we have opened at the Eastleigh Center, and I was asked to preach. It was the third meeting of the congregation, there were 70 people, and 5 young men from the streets were baptized. That was a good day!

These days Francis Mbuvi invites me to preach at Kamulu on the Sunday before Darlene and I leave for the USA, so that means I get to preach two times a year. TODAY was that day. My sermon was on the subject "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made," and my illustration today was BONES and the human skeleton. I had an 18 inch model of a human body and a handful of the 206 bones in the body. I also had 99 candles and 99 matchboxes.

Since what bones do for the human body is give us FREEDOM - we can move about, raise our hands, nod our heads -- freedom of movement, freedom to do what we were made for. And the equivalent of bones in the "body of Christ" are the teachings that never change, that form the hardness of the body of Christ. I spoke of teachings such as that of sexual purity and "love one another" and "receive the Holy Spirit" -- great things that make the church what it is.

I also talked about the MISSION STATEMENT of the Kamulu Church. Some of the leadership has been meeting to talk about our future and the purposes of the congregation, and so today we started asking the whole church to agree on our mission statement. Essentially it is "we are free to be friends," a message we want to spread all over the community (free from greed, free from hate, free from fear). And the second part is "we love children." The third part is "we want everyone to know Jesus." Today's emphasis was "free to be friends."

I said that in Kenya everyone needs a candle and a matchbox, because the electricity may be out tonight. Everyone nodded. And we had put a label on each matchbox that says,

Free to be Friends

The Kamulu Church

Christians Meet Here

Call 0733 834507

We have 3 groups that often meet after church on Sunday. So I asked each group -- the youth group, the young adult group, and the women's group -- to take 33 candles and matchboxes each, to visit 33 homes in Kamulu, and to explain to each that we want everyone here to be "free to be friends" and to tell them why.

Should be exciting to see what happens!

15 Years of MITS

Well, it's over. We worked for weeks and weeks to prepare the property, a program and our hearts for the Made in the Streets 15 Year Anniversary Celebration. And it came off so well. We had some local preachers with us, some officials from the ministries of agriculture, and gender and children, lots of former students, a guest of honor who was herself honored to be here, some former team members and various friends of the ministry -- some from local schools and from Good News Productions.

We sang and prayed and ate and heard very short speeches and recited Scripture and poetry and cut the cake and talked, all the things people do at a ceremonial function. But it was more than ceremony - it was joy and glad greetings and inspiration and encouragement and a chance to show what students have done and can do.

We can get by for quite a few days on this happiness.

Fascinating Sunday with Friends

Truly a fascinating day! One of the great things about missionary life is that we get lots of visitors - and ones who love us. Worship at the Kamulu Church was true harmony! Several of our street kids were involved in leading worship. Francis Mbuvi had really studied about the UNITY of the body of Christ and wanted so much to communicate well what it means to have the DNA of Christ in us. He wanted us to get it, he wanted to share something good and precious. And one of our students, Francis Cugia, led the Lord's Supper and the collection, and he also spoke about unity - of the whole Christian movement in the world - and he reminded us of the need to give, to share. He meddled in our lives; he said, "even you students, you get some money and you go to the store and buy an avocado, and as soon as you get back to the boys' or girls' compound you say, "Don't ask." And don't we come to church, he said, after we have earned money during the week, and we say to God, "Don't ask."

Then we had 10 for lunch. Since we were almost out of food, Darlene made a great stew and homemade biscuits and we had some chips and salsa. And everybody wanted iced tea!

The retired dentist is an old friend who has helped us a lot at Made in the Streets. With him were three business and medical people working in a clinic on the Kenyan coast. One woman visitor has spent years in South Africa. Another one said, "Oh, if only our anesthesiologist could have been here; he would love the singing. They came over to be with us for a day and a night. And a young couple who live in the Sudan now and are learning Arabic and planning to help people there with agriculture - and the love of God - showed up to be with the church also. And one of our MITS Board members who is a teacher is here with her daughter. We had happy conversations, though some of it was about "the worst food I have ever eaten anywhere."

It is so great to have friends. Get one today.

Life with Young Moms

What an interesting day. I spoke in chapel at Made in the Streets today about the very beginning of the street ministry, about the first street youth that we met in 1992 and how that meeting changed our lives and led to there being Made in the Streets.

Then I spent most of the day working on the new home for the moms and babies from the streets who are now at Kamulu. There are 7 of them and they have 8 children together. We are moving them into a house next to the girls' compound, and later we will build a wall enclosing them into the compound.

In the afternoon Darlene and I met with the 7 girls, our girls' supervisor and the woman who will supervise the moms and live in the house with them. We talked about what we expect from them and how much we love them and their children. Expectations like respecting one another's space and taking good care of their own kids and not hitting the children, just as we do not hit the moms, for any reason.

After the meeting I went back to the house. Two of the young moms came over, excited to see the house, and helped me with the beds and with cleaning the floor and picking out which pillow and sheets go on which mattress. After a while I was concerned about whether they were supposed to be doing something else at the school. So I asked them, "If you were not here, where would you be?" Mercy looked at me and said, "Oh, I would be in a terrible place, just terrible, I might be dead!" She is truly happy to be at Made in the Streets. That was a little more than I wanted to know, but I thanked her for that and asked, "Well, if you were not in his house at this moment, where would you be?" They said it was teatime, and the others were drinking tea but they wanted to help with the house.

As they were finishing cleaning and working on the windowsills, Veronica noticed something and called Mercy's attention to it. Then Mercy showed me where hornets had built a very long nest along the edge of a window. I went home and then set out on a "wild at heart" adventure. You have to be careful with hornets, for they are fast and have a bad temper. And they were scattered all along the window, not bunched up to make it easy to battle them. With my "Doom" in hand, I carefully took aim and hosed them good. And this time I won!

Now the moms and babies have a new clothesline, the walls puttied and painted, all the beds put together with mattresses, pillow and sheets on them, all the lights working, along with the toilet and shower -- a good day's work. I'm tired, but the girls will rejoice when they move in tomorrow. Before I left, I noticed that Mercy had put her scarf under one of the pillows and Veronica put an exercise book under another one. Staking out a claim...

Tonight our feral cat who sneaked into our house and had 4 kittens in the bottom of a wedding dress actually came up to me and took bits of cheese out of my hand. Then she had the nerve to try to get up on the table and get at my hamburger, but I won that one too. One of the kittens is living with Francis and Maureen now, and another will go to Jackton and Milly's house soon. Two to go, then we can lock her out! Well, maybe not, cats have a way of getting in the heart.

May your heart be captured by something good today.

In the Place Christ Chose

My life has changed a great deal since we began working with street children, going into the alleyways of Eastleigh and the warren of small houses down in Mathare Valley. Spending time helping young men and women who have a heart for ministry learn how to do it with eagerness, with endurance, with joy and with confidence in the face of great difficulty.

In earlier times I was a preacher, and I loved preaching. I also taught religion and philosophy in university, and that was great joy. Then I was administrator of a technical (computer and electronics) training school, and that felt like real service, doing something genuinely good.

I have been very comfortable with all my work. We fit in well in California, both with the church and universities. Life has been blessed and full of joy.

We are having a special study lately in Sunday morning class about the human body and the body of Christ. I have downloaded pictures from the internet of human cells -- red and white blood cells, bone cells, eye cone cells, fat cells and nerve cells -- all those wondrous things in the body that show how fearfully and wonderfully we are made. Today's class was on "specializaton," making the point that a cell must "sacrifice" anything else it might have been for the sake of the body. It specializes, for the good of the body.

My life has changed as I have gotten closer to the heart of Christ, as I have found the "special" role that is mine. So now I don't preach any more, now I don't teach in the university, now I don't manage a school. And I'm no longer in California. So I am living in a less comfortable place, and my role is different. Now I am a fundraiser, and a networking liaison and an advisor, none of which make me most comfortable. But I am in the place where Jesus has placed me. It is not what is "natural" to me, but it is what naturally happens in the body of Christ.

And for this I give God glory and honor and praise, for the choice he made for me is that which makes the heart happy and fulfills the longings of the soul.

Passover and Hametz

For many years we have used a Seder service in our family and church life. Darlene did a careful study of Passover and the relationship of Jesus to the seder and to the concept of Passover. After we began the street ministry in Nairobi, we have continued to do a "Christian Seder" with the street kids in our lives. One of the fun things we do is put some packages of "bread with yeast" around the room where we do the Seder, then we have the kids hunt them down and throw them outside. There are many other parts of the Seder that are great fun as well as filled with meaning.

We remember Jewish friends in California who also had to prepare well for Passover. Some of them had large amounts of liquor in the house. Before Passover, they would gather all of it up and take it to the house of a friend who is a Gentile, because it is "hametz" (fermented, thus unclean). They would leave it there until the Seder service was over, then the next day collect it and bring it home. This meets the requirements of the letter of the law, for it is out of the house, unavailable.

I've been thinking about how being in Christ and following the way of Christ has made "hametz" a daily reality for us. In Christ we have a new and different life. Passover is every day. Every day we have to wake up and clean out all the unclean things in life, in the house, in the physical body, in the body of Christ. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and Christ is the Passover every day. The unclean is not only certain foods (and actually Christ has pronounced foods to be clean), but the unclean is in the heart, as Jesus makes clear in Matthew 15. So every day clean out jealousy, impure thoughts, hatred and anger, desiring what is another's and so on, all that which the Gospel teaches us is not for us on a Passover, especially when we sit down to eat a meal with Jesus present in the middle of the family.

Kittens, Kittens

Here is Darlene with our 4 baby kittens. Last week we found a cat, sort of feral, in our house. It had come in the window; we chased it away. The next day Darlene and Laurent baked cakes for Kennedy's wedding on Saturday. Darlene did the wedding cake and Laurent several sheet cakes. Darlene put all of the cakes on our tables overnight, planning to decorate them on Friday. Friday morning 2 of the cakes had a bit eaten out of them, so we blamed the cat. We locked up all the windows (makes it kind of stuffy in the house, but...), and they decorated cakes on Friday.

That night the cat jumped on the window ledge and banged her head on the glass, three times. I went over and looked down at her and said "no." She finally went away.

Saturday morning Grace came to put on her wedding dress for the wedding; we have 4 hanging in the closet. Then we all went to the wedding, and it was great. We love it when our street kids grow up and get jobs and find the love of their lives. About 250 people came, enjoyed, ate a meal, tasted cake, and we finished in time for them to leave for the honeymoon (no easy feat in Kenya). Grace and Kennedy came to the house for her to change out of the wedding dress. As Darlene was helping her, she heard a cry, and thought a bird had gotten into the house somehow. When she pulled the wedding dresses out, 4 little kittens tumbled out.

So...tender-hearted Darlene opened up the windows in the bedroom, put meat and milk on the floor, and closed the door. The babies cried and finally momma came back. So now we have residents in our house.

We are glad that three team members at MITS have offered to take a kitten -- so that leaves one for us. And what of the Momma? Well, that's up to her. We never make anyone stay here; the street kids are free to leave if they don't like MITS. The rule is that they can't come back if they choose to leave after living here. Of course Momma cat knows how to get in. It's a good thing that our practice is never to leave any foodstuff out (the wedding cakes were a necessary exception). Anybody want a kitten?

Planning for a Volcano

We have been developing another "business" course for our students who are in skills training at Made in the Streets - this one is about PLANNING. Bill Rider of Mt. Vernon, Iowa, created the basic materials, and Darlene has tailored it for our current students. Part of planning is seeing the potential obstacles and possible pitfalls of our plan of action.

Darlene and I always try to plan ahead when we travel. But we didn't plan for Iceland's volcano, even though we had read that is would erupt someday. So we flew through London and stopped off for a couple of days in Athens -- which turned into several more days, as we couldn't go back through London. Our favorite travel agent, David Jack from the Conejo Valley Church in Thousand Oaks, CA, finally got us seats on a Turkish Airline flight through Istanbul to Nairobi.

If you have to be stuck somewhere because of a volcano, Athens is a mighty good place. We watched the sun set from the Areopagus, where Paul preached to Greeks about the unknown God who is known in Christ (Acts 17). The picture is of the Areopagus taken from the Acropolis with the Parthenon in the background. Note the new stairway they put in to make it easy on older people!! The old stairs are still there, down below, and still a bit slippery, but that is probably the way Paul got up there, so we went ahead and climbed up that way. We ate gyros and feta cheese and spinach pie (and Darlene ate baklava). Dino Roussos graciously invited us on a bus trip with Christians from Tennessee to Corinth and Mycenae (remember Agamemnon and the Lions' Gate with the oldest sculptures in Greece??). It was a sentimental trip to Corinth, because we remember well one of the last trips we made with Darlene's Mom, who would come to Kenya and teach street kids to read for 6 months a year during her 70s. She loved Crete and Nikos Kazantzakis, whose tombstone reads, "I desire nothing, I fear nothing, I am free." She also loved Corinth, and she put a foot on every paving stone of the ancient city so that she would step where the apostle Paul did. So Darlene and I went down the street that way this time too. Now Darlene's Mom cannot go in the flesh to any place, but in the spirit she can still walk the walk with the Lord, and some day she may again step where Paul has stepped before her.

Happy Easter

We have been "on tour" with two Kenyan Team members at Made in the Streets. We have taken a break for Easter weekend. We had our "family Christian seder" Thursday evening with 28 people over! On Easter morning we were singing in church, and our grandchildren were singing the hymns -- lovely sounds to a grandfather. Then came time for the offering. One grandchild had a 2-dollar bill in hand, and it was not one handed over by the Mom. Then a small hand reached into the child's own wallet and pulled out another 2-dollar bill and put both in the plate as it came by. Then a smile for the Grandad.

I love everything in my life. I love seeing children do good things out of the heart. I love helping street kids get off the streets and into our family. I love being married. I love all the advances of modern technology and knowledge of the world. I love the ever-present Spirit.

Moments of Joy

It was with great joy that we presented a "thank you" to John and Rosalyn Bailey at the MITS fundraiser at Legacy Church. The Baileys received a book chronicling their relationship with Made in the Streets titled "Tell Us Your Story." Life stories of three of the MITS girls are in the book as well as historical pictures. The woodworking boys at Kamulu made a wooden plaque with "Asante" (Swahili for "Thanks") engraved on it.

After the fundraiser, the Coulstons and family, along with Jackton and Irene and some Legacy Church members, went to DoubleDave's for pizza and fellowship. Jackton told us he had been praying for snow, since he has never in his life seen any. As we sat down to eat, a strong wind was blowing outside, and it began to snow. So Irene went outside to dance in the snow and was joined by the little girls in the group. Such fun to be with people experiencing parts of life for the first time, just as we rejoice when a street kid experiences having a bed of his own, or 3 meals a day, or a new pair of shoes, or an understanding of the God who loves him.

How Are You?

Our "base" is now the Dallas/Fort Worth area when we are in the USA. From here we go out to Tennessee, California, Iowa, Arizona and any other place where we can visit people and churches who will love street kids and us. And we arrived in time for the Texas Snow Season of 2010. We had a white Christmas and a white Valentine's Day. Then our two team members arrived from Nairobi; neither of them had ever seen snow, and Jackton was praying that God would let him see snow.

So after the fundraiser at Legacy Church, we went out for pizza at DoubleDave's with some people who helped us. And it started to snow, with the wind swirling it all around. Irene went out and danced in the snow, and Jackton went out and let it blow in his face. Delightful!

As we travel around, we see people whom we know and love. And they say "how are you?" And often my answer is, "I'm happy to be here with you." And it's true. And then I reflect on the question - it turns me inward to examine my heart and feelings and my true state.

And I have found inside myself that I am doing the very thing for which my life was created. That is a welcome joy for one who spent many years feeling inadequate and a bit restless, one whose teenage daughter painted a sweatshirt for him at Christmas one time with a lion and a lamb and the words, "May you find your peaceable kingdom."

And I have.

Showing Off

I like to show off.

I like for people to see Made in the Streets. Visitors come to see us now and then, and they go out on the streets and alleyways with us and meet street kids. And they hurt inside, because they have never seen anything that touches their hearts like this. Then they visit our Centers and see the former street kids who are with us and how they have "cleaned up" and how good and smart they are, and they are impressed. I love showing off the ministry.

I like for people to meet the people I work with. The Kenyan Team that runs Made in the Streets - these are special people. This month two of them, Jackton Omondi and Irene Otalo, are in the USA traveling with us, visiting churches and friends. And people love them and listen to them. I love showing off my friends.

I like for people to know I am a Grandad. I taught two granddaughters how to ride a bicycle last month, and I'm still glowing with excitement as much as they are. I love showing off my family.

I like for people to know about the church -- and about the churches that are a rich part of my life. Eastside and Redwood and Campbell and Palo Alto and Conejo and GCR and Mt. Ave and Simi and Otter and Central and South Mac and Singing Oaks and Prestoncrest and Legacy and Hamilton and A&M and.... I love to show off the church.

I like for people to know that I respect Jesus. I confidently sing "He is here, He is here, He is moving among us, and He is here." I love showing off my Jesus.

Snow Think

Watching the snow pile up and thinking of deeper things. What a creation water is! Made of relatively simple and common atomic structures, water is itself fairly simple molecular structure. Maybe that accounts for the incredible flexibility from ice to liquid to vapor in the cloud. There are so many forms of water, and all are beautiful in their own ways. Perhaps snow is the most amazing, though Crater Lake has its charm.

God knew we would enjoy all the forms of water. And that means He had our enjoyment in mind as well as the utility of water's functions. And that makes we appreciate Him all the more.

Winter Wonderland

Yes, we are at Fort Worth/Dallas! It continues to snow today. We stood outside and watched the biggest flakes I have ever seen, and it was wonderful. Of course, we lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 20 years and only saw it snowing once. And the last 18 years in Nairobi we have NOT seen it snow! So for us this is just great, and this afternoon when granddaughters come from school, we'll play in it and make snow ice cream and have lots of fun. The pic is of the house we are having built for our happy use when we are in the USA. Our hearts are in Nairobi with street kids, but being here with family and friends is also our joy. Let it snow!

Loving Jesus MORE

Today I feel so grateful to friends who support us. To those who don't know us well, my mom used to come and spend 6 months each year with us, teaching and loving street kids. She was with us in the beginning and set up our English curriculum; she loved teaching them to read and was equally "at home" sitting in a street base or living in a nearby apartment to ours in the slum. Now, she's in a home, with two loving caregivers, and she sleeps most of the time. Seven years ago she forgot my name; this was when I returned from Kenya after not being with her for 6 months. When I got there, she had "moved"; she didn't know where she was. And I didn't know where she was either; she was lost in her mind. Now, she sleeps most of the time, and I think she recognizes my voice. This has been hard on me. I leave her and go to Africa. It's not easy.

What makes it possible is friends who love God and thus love her. Let me just tell you about one friend, Michelle. She's had two wonderful ideas I'd like to share; the ideas might help some of you with a parent like mine. Last time I was there, Michelle said, "Let's run by the mall. I need to do some shopping." Well, OK.... She took me to Build A Bear, and together we picked out the softest animal and do you know, they have a "voice" you can put inside. So I stepped into the restroom, and tearfully sang a song to Mom, and we put it in the bunny. Michelle bought it and I took it to Mom. If you press a bunny foot, she can hear my voice. Mom's two caregivers think it's great and fun too, so they press it a lot. And so do other visitors that come to be with Mom.

Michelle's other idea is that she's made Mom her "MITS prayer partner". Every time Michelle comes, she prays with Mom about MITS. How appropriate. I do know that if Mom could talk, she would tell me to be in Africa, for she loves those street kids too. My other friends come to read Scripture, sing, pray, and (I hope) press the bunny foot, ha. I really, really, appreciate them!

So today, as you live for Jesus in so many ways, just know that as you impact others, we really appreciate it and feel God's arms around us and around those we must leave in our choice of service to Jesus.

Have a busy day! Darlene

SUCH A GOOD TIME

I have been having such a good time that I haven't had time to write.

Reminds me of a story from the early church. The apostle John had survived longer than the other apostles, and he was elderly near the end of the first century. There was much turmoil in the Roman Empire, charges of sedition and disloyalty were being brought against various people, and the new emperor wanted to be called god as well as honored.

So some of the Christians tried to convince John to write his memories -- "you were with Jesus," "you were there at the beginning," "you saw the church at its origin," "you witnessed the resurrection of Jesus," and so on. But John resisted, saying that he wanted to keep on teaching, that he was having the best of times, that the Word received in a heart is the most joyful of events, that the "word of mouth" is the most believeable means of communication.

Perhaps it is the Lord himself who arranged John's exile from Ephesus, so that John would have opportunity to be led by the Spirit to write a story of Jesus and to "see" the apocalyptic or hidden truth underlying life in this age.

Anyway, I have been having a good time -- with the church, with family, with little girls who are learning basketball, with friends. But today begins a period of discipline, in which I will write regularly, and get more work done.

May you get done what you desire.