Feeling Good and Bad

These days I mostly feel good.  We know that what we are doing is something that God wants done, for He himself visits the garbage dump to find the needy and lift them up and seat them among the great ones of his people (Psalm 113).  And we have such good kids; we have never known a teen group that thrills us like this one does.  This morning I taught my adult Bible class (to whom several of the teenagers come) at Kamulu -- actually I let a film do the teaching called "Peter and Paul".  Darlene and I left before 10 AM with 4 of our kids -- Ken Wabungu, Francis Wahome, Mercy Wanja and Jackie Njoki -- to visit the Kayole Church of Christ.  They invited the kids to sing two songs and me to preach.  It was a great visit. 

But I seem to always have something to feel bad about. And there were two things today.  Just before they served the Lord's Supper, the worship leader mentioned the Supper and the collection, and I thought, "Oh, no, I have no money."  I hate it when I don't have anything to give, so I had to apologize to the church and promise to get it to them later.  

Then I gave myself something else to feel bad about.  I had prepared a sermon on the book of Hosea, and I wanted to present it not as an analysis but as the book itself is written.  And I wanted to make some practical application.  I forgot that I would need to have a translator -- I didn't trust myself to do the Swahili on some of the passages.  But translating means that it takes longer -- so I ended up preaching for 45 minutes, which is also something to make me feel bad.  I didn't apologize for that, except to the 4 kids and Darlene on the way home.  

This is the nature of life -- that we live in the midst of the good and the bad.  It is, I suppose, a product of Eden, of eating the fruit that is forbidden to the pure in heart.  So our hearts, or at least mine, can never be fully clean and pure, without blemish.  

It makes Romans 7 a really important word for life.  "Who can save me from this dilemma, where I want to do good but find myself doing bad?"  And the answer lies in Jesus!  So the slogan some people laughter at (what is the question? ha-ha) really has truth in it:  Jesus is the Answer! 

By the way, I think our kids are starting to think that Darlene is strange.   Of course, lots of our "mzungu" (foreigner) ways are strange to them.  Today we had the two girls come to our house for lunch since we were late (after the preacher talked too long) and the girls did not save them any food.  We sat down to make sandwiches, then we found out that neither of them had ever eaten a sandwich!  I showed them what I do -- I put mustard and Miracle Whip on bread, then got a slice of ham, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, put it all together and cut it.  They were looking at my work strangely, so Darlene said to them, "Would you like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich," to which they both quickly said, "Yes."  I think they thought the meat was raw, and they never eat raw veggies, unless it's a carrot.  Anyway, they enjoyed the peanut butter, and the orange soda, and each took an apple and went off to their Sunday afternoon Bible class.

  But the reason they think Darlene is strange is that she goes around wearing a chameleon; she even carried one around while she was videotaping the wedding.  Abdi Isaac catches them and gives them to her, but most people think they are poisonous and are a lot like snakes!  Here is is with her little pet, which she set free in the back yard, and it disappeared.

                                                           

Learning New Things

Each day I seem to learn something new.  Today it is about RICE.  I'm trying to figure out how our kids can eat at the wedding of Laurent and Eliza Saturday.  Most weddings in Kenya cost $4,000 or more, and we're trying to do this one on only a little more than $1,000.  So...I told the kids this morning, that after the wedding ceremony, they would need to go to their dorms and prepare their lunch there instead of eating at the Learning Center, since it would be for the wedding.  Of course they were disappointed.  

I found out that Laurent (who is a chef himself, so he has planned the menu for the wedding) plans to have rice and beef stew and some other things.  So I sat down with Milly and asked her what they had planned to eat on Saturday, and she said, "rice and beans."  That sounded good, so I asked if we could use the rice she had, then I could add some meat and something else and we could ask Laurent if the kids could join us.  And Milly said, "I don't know; they may not work.  We are using Pakistani rice."  I looked kind of blank, so she explained that when people pilau, they usually use Pishori rice, since the Pakistani gets kind of sticky and the Pishori gets fluffier and is a larger volume.  Wow!  There are so many things I don't know anything about.

Laurent and Eliza came later in the day to plan the wedding, and I asked about the rice.  Laurent said they had Pishori rice (of course!).  When I mentioned the kids, he said, "We couldn't leave them out.  We have 25 kilo of rice, so we have enough for everyone."  I could have just stayed out of the picture and said nothing to the kids, but of course then I would not have learned anything about rice.  Anyway, now the kids are happy.  

Darlene came home from the ladies' Bible study while I was talking to Laurent and Eliza, and then 6 of the girls stopped by because they want to help with the wedding cakes, which Darlene is preparing.  The best price Laurent could find for a wedding cake was about $400 -- a small one.  So Darlene has borrowed and bought circular pans.  The girls were thrilled to look at the dress and to know they would eat at the wedding. 

Laurent and Eliza left because they have to catch public transport back to their apartment, and they need to get home before dark.  I walked out with them and we met John Wambu, who was supervising men who are digging out the black cotton (Louisiana gumbo type) soil for our driveway, and a group of women had come over to look at the house Francis and Maureen are building nearby (I have given house plots to team members who intend to stay with Made in the Streets for a long time), so we saw lots of people on the way.  

The girls stayed and swept and mopped our floor, while some of them mixed cakes with Darlene.  They had a good time.  It's great to have a house where the teenagers can come and spend time with us.  

And it's good to know about rice!

Christmas is Coming - Happy Thanksgiving

We are only thinking about Thanksgiving because we are thinking about people who will read the blog.  If you mention Thanksgiving in Kenya, you get a blank look.  But I can tell that Christmas is coming.  For one thing, Darlene has her mind on it.  There is a stocking hanging close to my desk, and a small Christmas tree set up in the living room.  And I can tell out on the highway too, that it is near the end of the month and that Christmas is coming.  In the newspaper today is a short article noting that passengers in public transport are unhappy that there are 8 police checks in a 10 kilometer stretch on the Mombasa highway.  And driving into town this week we went through 3 checks in about 3 miles.  

If you have a little extra money as you go out to buy Christmas presents, you could send it to Made in the Streets, 409 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN, 37027, so we can give a very merry Christmas to our street kids at Eastleigh and Kamulu.  Thanks!  

We are very busy at Made in the Streets -- building the new "First Steps" building for nursery school kids, finishing renovation at the girls' center, getting ready to open the cooking school in our skills training (the Connor Brown building at the 20 acres), preparing school uniforms in our tailoring and opening the new shop to sell uniforms, planning for the December time with our students at Kamulu, getting end of year taxes and land rates paid, searching for new street kids to admit to the Kamulu program, helping several students exit from MITS into jobs and housing in Nairobi, and the daily life of English, Bible and Math classes, building up the farm and learning how to relate to one another and prepare for a successful life.  

And it is all good -- what a blessing to have these young people in our lives and to encourage them to grow and become strong and beautiful and confident in the Lord. 

Open House

Yesterday was a happy day at the Coulston's new house.  We own 4 acres of land about 400 yards from the girls' center at Kamulu.  From 2002 until last month we lived in our apartment at the girls' center, but now we are in our new place on one of our acres.  And we had open house, inviting all the team and students at MITS and everyone at church to come over.  After morning worship we started preparing food -- Charles popped 13 batches of popcorn and Darlene cooked 6 pounds of "bitings" -- small pieces of beef skewered on toothpicks.  We put out several pounds of cookies, made 6 gallons of punch, set out 124 sodas - and Darlene baked 5 cakes.  

More than 100 people came and spent the afternoon with us -- the students went up on the garage roof (our rooftop patio where we can watch sunsets and stars) where there were popcorn and sodas.  They went through all the popcorn in about 5 minutes.  The adults and little kids stayed in the living room (the kitchen, dining and living rooms are all one big room, built without trusses).  For the first time since we started working with street kids, we had food left over -- maybe a quarter pound of bitings and 2 gallons of juice.  

We feel good at having a home where we can have people come in to visit.  It's also good having two extra bedrooms so people can stay with us -- already we had Bill Smith and Bob Brannon stay and after them Fielden and Janet Allison.  

We have planted lots of stuff inside and outside the fence -- bananas, mango and avocado trees, mulberry, roses, cannas, hibiscus, passion fruit and other climbers.  Plus Kikuyu grass in the yard.  So we have good things to look forward to.  

We especially look forward to seeing some of you on our next visit to the USA -- we will be available January through March -- so please invite us to visit your congregation and talk more about street ministry and the future of MITS.  As always, we will need to raise funds -- we continue to have more kids on the streets and will be doing another intake this year. 

peace and joy, charles and darlene

Our African Home

Darlene and I have 3 homes -- not as many as some candidates, but enough for us.  One is a promised home, a place in God's eternal family.  And we also feel at home in the USA, in California, where old friends and familiar places are.  And of course Nairobi, with street kids and the MITS Team.  From 1998 to 2002 we stayed in Eastleigh, down the street from our street kids' center, in an apartment building that slowly became an almost totally Somali enclave.  Down our stairs and the next building over was a camel butchery. When they butchered a camel, they put the head in the doorway so people could see how fresh the meat was.  After a few days the flies and the warm sun made it a little less appetizing.  It was great to be close to the street kids and the Team in Eastleigh; many was the time Team members came in the middle of the night to borrow our car to take an injured street kid to the hospital.  They would usually clean it up good, but eventually a number of blood stains became part of the car.  

Then  in September 2002 we moved out to Kamulu, where we had built a center for street girls on an acre that we owned.  We added a room in the girls' center and lived there until two weeks ago.  It was also great being with the girls -- Kamulu has fresh air, we came to know the Drumvale Farmers Cooperative and received rights to the land that MITS now uses for ministry and education and skills training and the farm.  And the girls came over at all hours -- with a cut finger needing a bandaid and antibiotic, with a headache, or a heartache, with something the girls' leaders had trouble handling, with a desire to earn a little bit of money.  

Two weeks ago we moved into a house we have built on another acre that we own.  Instead of the two rooms at the girls, we now have a spacious bathroom, a bedroom, a very spacious combo kitchen, dining and living room, and two guest bedrooms (1,799 square feet, counting the garage).  And we have planted bananas, hibiscus, roses, mango and avocado and orange and mulberry trees, passion fruit and cape honeysuckle and other climbers.  We have a garage for the car (our 1989 Toyota), which we had repainted last week, and on the roof of the garage is a patio for sunset and star watching and coffee-drinking.  And it's quiet and private, a real change in our lives.  We felt a desire for this and are glad to have this change (maybe it's from being 65 and getting social security -- how much does that change a person?).  

It's a sign that we are even closer to fulfilling our desire to have the Kenyan Team take over all the responsibilities of the ministry -- administration, student affairs, loving the kids, teaching, first aid, skills training, developing new team members, holding close together in a pleasant working relationship -- all those things that make the ministry work.

We are far from a perfect ministry, maybe even far from a good one.  We need more work on our farm -- to get to zero-tilling our irrigation areas, to intensify our production, to get a full crop rotation program going.  We need more work on our businesses -- to get the cafe running again, to learn how to market our sewing and wood products in a continuous manner, to set up a more professional salon, and so on. 

Our best works are the Eastleigh ministry on the streets, the literacy education, production in sewing and woodworking, development of the infrastructure in buildings and the staff, and the congregation that meets at our learning center.  And maybe the best of all is seen in the morale and attitude and quality of the kids who have come from the streets and live at Kamulu -- our Team is doing a truly amazing work with them.  We see the signs of God's work among us. 

Anyway, Darlene and I are happy with this house.  My "office" is now a corner of the living room, and Darlene has her desk in the opposite corner, looking into the back yard.  And over in the kitchen corner sits a large bunch of Kampala bananas, which was taken off one of our many banana trees here at Kamulu.  And yesterday Joseph Kamau (ask me to tell you his story some day, and don't be squeamish) asked me to baptize him in the Indian Ocean at Malindi on our trip to the Coast.  And he said he won't be Kamau any more -- he wants his new name from God -- call me Joseph, he says.  So I will.

peace and joy, charles

A Fuller Tribute

As with most other folk, we have had lots of people in our lives. Many of those people have left tracks in our hearts, memories and pictures in the mind. Walt Fuller left a picture of Daybreak Camp, standing beside the old blue car with the flag painted on it. He came as representative of Pepperdine University to spend a week at camp with us as a counselor. What great times we had at camp with kids and teens. We always used teenagers as counselors in the youth camps, with an occasional token university student. Then Walt and Jenny married and came to Redwood City to live, and we saw their love and enjoyed them, Walt comfortable and Jenny purposeful. The years passed, and Kelly, Casey and Kristi grew, captivating and strong. When Simi Church of Christ sponsored us in street ministry, they were there. The last one we have seen is Kelly; she was at Pepperdine, and it was before her marriage. We are better for knowing all of them. I'd like to give a fuller tribute, but I never have the words to say the joy of the tracks left in our lives by friends.

Hollyhock Memories

Likely there are lots of people who do not know what a hollyhock is. But we grew them in Oklahoma. I remember that they were Mom's favorite flowers. Our old clapboard house wasn't much to look at, surrounded by farm land and a chicken house on one side, and a brooder house for baby chicks on the other, with a woodpile in between for the woodburning stove. The cellar was behind the house, a place where Mom stored canned goods and where we feared to go when the tornadoes came, because there might be scorpions or snakes down there. An old chinaberry sat determinedly near the front porch. Mom had tried to cut it out and my brother and I helped because Dad's favorite switching stick was a limber green limb from that tree.

Mom planted hollyhocks all across the front of the house and the sides - yellow and pink and white and something nearly red. I had no idea it would create such a vivid and lasting memory for me. What I seem to remember best from my childhood are the things my mother loved.

She loved the poor family down the road, the Ballards who lived in a rented house and had even less than we did.
She loved the church and worked hard for her kindergarten class - for 23 years.
She loved every hollyhock.

Today I was rereading the little jewel Safed the Sage by William Barton. He also loved hollyhocks and planted them each place where he lived, moving about now and then as preachers often did. Hollyhocks I Transplanted is a great little treatise on suffering in God's plan. And his story in which spring has come because you can anticipate it in the seeds from the mail order store is a lifter of the spirit. Reading his book made me think of Mom again. I often go for months without strong memories of Mom, but when I do remember I feel the pain of losing her. I'm 7 years older than she was when she died. I have no regrets, for her life was good, even with the suffering. But I do wish she had been given more time with my daughter, for I treasured the moments I saw them together.

Ah, well, as Safed says, now the hollyhocks rest secure in their bed hard by the house of God.

Rest in peace, charles