Showing posts with label kenya trip 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kenya trip 2010. Show all posts

the hyrax & the 30th

i love to read Proverbs every day. ever since freshman year of college i've read 1 chapter a day (corresponding to the day of the month). this habit has helped make an unwise guy like me a little less and less unwise through the years.



in college one of my best friends, Ethan, had the same habit so we would often talk about what we read that day. those were some great conversations. But every month when it came to the 30th one of us would ask the other - "Dude, do you know what a hyrax is?"



nope. no idea. never even heard of it. but apparently, hyraxes are one of 4 things Agur (the author) says are "small, yet extremely wise".



verse 26 tries to tell us why they're so wise and even describe them a little bit = "hyraxes are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags..."



huh. life changing, eh?



but it really did bug us. for years. we asked people. looked it up. we kind of just always pictured a beaver.





but then Crystal and i went to Kenya last Fall. a place where we stayed the 1st 10 days was crawling with these little fury creatures.



there were tons of them running around everywhere and this is one of the pics i snapped of them.

i asked a guy one day - "what are these things?"

"Hyraxes" he said.



case closed. now i've seen them up close and in person.



here's the really funny part. They would always be crowded all along the little path where we would walk to go to breakfast. Usually they would scurry off out of our way when we would come walking by. but i guess they're so wise that they can sense FEAR. because my wife, Crystal, was definitely afraid of them. (in her defense, they did have these massive sharp teeth.)



one day i went out early and was coming back to our room to see what was taking Crystal so long to come to breakfast. halfway back to our room i heard Crystal shouting "Patrick! help me!"

These little hyraxes had her cornered on all sides and she just stood there frozen as they inched closer. there were like 30 of them! she was pretty much freaking out.



it was a fairly funny scene, but of course i tried not to laugh. i just jumped up there and started shouting like a crazy man and clapping really loud and they all ran away.



now every time the 30th rolls around and i read this Proverb it makes me laugh when i come to verse 26. i can see those hyraxes chasing Crystal around. haha... they are pretty wise creatures i guess.



Crystal still says they are dumb.

Nyaga is TOP of his class!


Nyaga is our child in Kenya that we have sponsored for over 4 years now through Compassion International. He was 5 years old when we sponsored him and he just turned 10 a little over 1 week ago! He is the man. Some of you may know him as Peter (Nyaga Baithumbi) and i've written about him a lot - HERE, Here, HERE, and HERE are a few...





Crystal and i had the awesome privilege of visiting Nyaga last Fall and hanging out at his house and in his village with his family (no parents). We had A LOT of fun together.





We always receive his report card after every year of school. He actually had to repeat 1st grade and then he's always done just OK since then. i can imagine it's extremely hard without even a parent to help you out with anything. He does have an older brother that he lives with, but he has his own wife and is taking care of 5 other children.





In our letters to Nyaga we always encourage him to work hard in school and to simply do his best. Last year he finished the best in his class he ever had -->




Term 1 = 14 out of 21 students


Term 2 = 8 out of 21 students


Term 3 = 10 out of 21 students





Crystal and i were talking to the Compassion staff when we were in Nyaga's village. we have always said that we want to sponsor Nyaga all the way through the University program, so we were asking how a student is selected for it?


Obviously there are several factors like work ethic, etc... but the student MUST be at least in the top 6 or 7 in his class to even be accepted into a University in Kenya!


We talked about Nyaga's grades and the staff lady mentioned that he is working hard and improving so much. that semester that he finished 8th in his class was a great step and puts him really near the cut off.





That day Nyaga and Crystal and i talked about school a lot. We encouraged him over and over to study really hard every day, to go to the tutoring that Compassion provides on Saturdays, and to keep improving in school... because it matters for your future.





i asked Nyaga what he wanted to be when he grew up and he replied - "President of Kenya... because i want to help Kenyans."







wow. lump in my throat. talk about HOPE. and having a dream from the bottom of poverty.





We told him to go for it. to work as hard as he can to walk toward that goal. getting better and better in school was a great way to move toward that goal... or at least the goal of having more influence to help people.





we just received Nyaga's report card from this year of school that just finished... HE IS #1 IN HIS CLASS!


Term 1 = 1st out of 40


Term 2 = 2nd out of 40


Term 3 = 1st out of 40





THAT is what i'm talking about!





we wrote him a letter write away (+ a birthday card and a birthday gift) and told him we know how hard he must have worked and how proud we were of that!





i know he's not my own kid but i can't even tell you how proud this makes me feel. i really can't help but tear up every time i think about it. unbridled joy wells up in my heart.





i definitely am not taking any credit but i can't help but think that the visit and encouragement Crystal and i gave mattered. because that's a big jump - from middle of the class to top of the class.





at the end of his letter we just received, he wrote "When can you come visit my home again?" Soon, i hope... Soon.


i hope 1 day we can go visit and help him move into his University.





and then the last words of his letter are "I will always pray for you."





c'mon Nyaga, can't i make it through 1 letter without crying?


slowly we change

i admit that i do like my showers. the nice HOT water beating down on my back... it's one of my fav parts of the day.



& i like a nice hard water pressure in the shower too.



in Africa however, there is no such thing as water pressure period... much less a hard water pressure. at least not in my experiences there. in fact, here was our shower at one of the places Crystal and i stayed on our most recent time in Africa:





yeah, you're seeing it right. the shower was a bucket of water. so i was thankful when there was an actual shower where we stayed. but the water pressure was equal to tears falling from your eyes. not very hard.



and i'm cool with that. i got used to simply always being dirty... never truly clean. it was all good.



i guess i even got used to the lack of water pressure because i can remember the 1st shower after we returned home last October. the water pressure in our shower is just the way i like it. but that 1st shower! - i think i remember saying "OWW" out loud. it actually HURT it was so hard.



i had been used to barely a drizzle. and now i was being pelted with streams of water at what felt like 100mph.



and just yesterday (around 9 months later) i started complaining in my head that the water pressure in our shower is too WEAK!



i immediately started chuckling. whoa. what a big change. a change that happened slowly over time. our water pressure didn't change. i changed i guess.




it's amazing to me how MUCH we can gradually change over time. for good or for bad.





(because i know there are thousands...)

anything like this ever happen to you?

open arms

Yesterday in Proverbs was chapter 31 for me.
it's basically talking about the things that an awesome wife does. Every time i read this chapter many things describe my wife and make me thankful for her. but 1 thought, especially, came alive to me loud and clear yesterday.

"She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy."
- Proverbs 31:20

wow. that hit home. that's an awesome thing i love about my wife. i got to see her do it big time when we were in Kenya. i wrote about how beautiful that was to me HERE.

it's awesome how generous, giving, and "open armed" she is. even yesterday we were talking about an opportunity to serve kids who are poor - many orphans... it would be basically impossible for us to do but she was like "i want to do it."
still impossible but it makes me smile to have a wife like this.

welcome to Erick's world (video)

Erick is a boy who lives in a small village in Kenya that the kids in Upstreet at Ridge Church sponsor through Compassion International. It has been an AWESOME thing for them for the past couple years!
When Crystal and i were in Kenya a few months ago we got to actually meet Erick that these kids have been supporting and writing letters back and forth with for years! i wrote about that experience HERE.

now you can check out this video we showed at Ridge on Sunday!


Eric Movie from Ridge Church on Vimeo.