Naw we did that yesterday.

Kitale is my home. I can’t believe that I can say that and feel like it is true. As I was walking around the city today, I was thinking about how I actually live in Kenya, and am doing what the Lord is calling me to do. It is such an amazing feeling to be here and I am so excited for what God has in store for me.

Yesterday was another great day. We started off the morning by stopping into a coffee shop/ cinema/ library/ cyber café that is run by this British lady and a couple other ladies. I can’t explain to you how odd it is for either of these places to exist in this town, you would just have to be here. Anyways, we got a couple of drinks and talked with the lady about showing a movie on Saturday for all of the school children to come and see. After that we stopped into Discover to Recover to give them some supplies that had been donated and also to say hello to the kids. I have a friend Elias there who is an amazing boy. He was found a couple years ago taking care of his baby brother with no parents. He was responsible for a one-year-old child at nine years of age. Not only was he taking care of his brother, but his brother is HIV positive. They were the first permanent residence at discover to recover and have been living there for around two years. Elias is an awesome boy and I have really grown to love him and his brother, whose name is Churchill (which is awesome). After we went there we headed to Tumaini a local orphanage. Tumaini has had ties with Steve and saddleback teams and it has been a great place for street children to go for years. We played soccer for a while but I had the most fun teaching them how to play 3 flies (or is it fly’s) up. We left Tumaini and headed to Sr. Freda’s clinic. Sr. Freda is an amazing woman, and I am not a good enough writer to possibly explain her. She has a clinic with her Husband Richard that gives free care to people all around the city. They have also started a school that caters to the poor neighborhood kids, and a small orphanage that now has 5 children in it. I love the kids there. I will be there a lot more, which means you will hear more and more.

After we left Sr. Freda’s clinic I headed to Lydia’s house (co founder of Oasis of hope) to co-lead an abstinence bible study with some of the boys from the permanent houses. This is the second meeting and it is amazing how different the culture of former street boys is than that of any other children that I have ever experienced. I feel like God is working in such awesome ways with the Bible study, and I am learning a lot from the children.

I hope all is well back home; I miss you all and can’t wait to be able to spend time together again.
Chris



I hung out with this puppet.

I told Morgan to smile and this is what I got.

We did a puppet show for the kids.

I enjoyed this pun in town.

These kids loved the puppet show.

I made this girl laugh.

Just an average monday in Kitale Kenya

Today was the first day that we went on our own without Pastor Steve. We decided that for our first day we would head to Oasis Of Hope. Oasis Of Hope is a drop in center for street children around the city. A drop in center is a place where children can come and have two free meals as well as some schooling. The school is informal but still has great teachers. I was able to teach a little division to the older class, which was awesome. After trying to teach a subject that I don’t really understand, in a language that the students don’t really understand, I have a new appreciation for teachers. After a few hours at Oasis we headed into town to get a couple things from the Giga-mart. Giga-mart is the Wal-mart of Kitale. In-fact you can even spot the similarity in the names, and the name tells everything you need to know. While we were at the store it started to downpour outside so we were forced to stay in the store for around 30 minutes, but that is just the way that it is here, it rains and rains and rains. It will be sunny one minute, and the next it will be the heaviest rain that has ever occurred. All in all it was a great day that involved hanging out with some cool cats, and shopping in the rain. Below there are some pictures from the day.



I think I was a little angry becasue one of the kids threw a paper airplane at my head.



They wanted me to school them in B-ball so I pumped one up.


Two watches on one hand? And look, he is drawing Africa.

Here I am teaching a little division to some street children. That kid already knew how to do this stuff so he decided to look at the camera.

Here are some pictures

Here is a baby taking a bath.


I fell asleep at the wedding.


These are some cute kids at purpose driven academy.


This is me and a Pig.

Chrurch and more laundry

Well today is Sunday so that means Church and a Day off. The church that we all go to is called deliverance church and it is here in town. The church is a Purpose driven church and also a school. The school is called purpose driven academy and has students all the way from preschool to high school. the school is a private school but of the 400 students that attend around 100 of them pay anything. The church and school has large connections with Saddleback, and many children from the school are sponsored by families from the US. Anyways the service was awesome and afterward we all went to the market to grabed a couple things.

After the market I took a motorcycle back with all the groceries and did all of my white laundry. I love days like this that allow me to relax and have a day where I can spend time with the Lord.

I hope all of you are doing well, I appreciate all of the comments.

God bless,
Chris

Here is some pictures

Here are just a couple photos from random days of the trip Allison's blog, has more pictures you can look at.



Above is me hanging out with a Masai Warrior



This is a female Lion aproaching.


A baby giraffe stops in to say hello.



Some brothers just hanging under a tree


Today we went to a Kenyan wedding which was an experience, they started three hours late, and then it rained. Not your typical wedding! I miss all of you and can't wait to continue sharing everything with you all.

Holy Cow

Yesterday was the first day of ministry that we had here without the rest of the team, and it was an experience. WE woke up around 8 and all had some time to be with the Lord. After an hour or so we grabbed a cow from the compound and headed to our friend patricia's house. Patrica and her husband run a center for children called discover to recover. The center is for Orphans who are HIV positive, and need a place to live becasue they have been thrown out by society. Pstricia is also HIV posotive and has gone through MANY social strugles because of it. Cows are very important here, and are regarded as a sign of wealth. The Holy Cow program is a program that was developed to jump start the economy of orginizations or families. It works like this: a female cow is given to a family as a gift, when the first calf it is given to the person who donated it, considering it is a female. When the second calf is born the family gets to keep it, and so on and so on. This program is used as a way for the person who recieves the cow to generate income. Now there isn't some cow transport machine that you can just put the cow on and get them to thir destination, no no, we had to walk her there. It was about a two hour walk to get the cow to it's destination. It wasn't bad though, we saw and talked to a lot of great people on the way. I had to run down a circumsision parade so that I could donate to thier cause. Now I know what you are thinking, a circmsision parade? In some tribes the boys are circumsised at around the age of 15 and when the time is right for that boy he and his friends run the streets of the town yelling and dancing trying to raise some money for the event. So I ran them down and gave them some dough. All in all the trip to Patricia's house was awesome, and we all learned a lot.

Laundry, arrows, chickens and dishes

Ahh home at last. Well kind of. Yesterday was our first day back home in Kitale at the compund. We all decided that it would be best if we all slept in and took a day off from ministry to get everything in order. I love sleep so naturally I could not wait to sleep in a little bit and then lounge around all day. Well it is too bad that the sun rises right in my eyes at around 6:30 every morning, destroying all plans of ever sleeping in. That was fine because I had some things i wanted to do, Like shoot some arrows from a bow. Well I could go on but I think that it would be better if I Just gave you a link to allison's blog so that you can see the day for yourself. Click here to see what I am talking about.

Now there is one thing that I am most proud of in all that happened yesterday. I did my laundry by hand in a wash basin. Yep I, Chris Wohlers, Did all of my laundry by hand and then hung it out to dry. Granted it is still drying around 20 hours later, but never the less it is clean, and almost ready to wear.

I love this place so much and everyday something new and exciting happens and the Lord teaches me something new. I really find God teaching me a lot of patience as well as giving me the drive to work hard, and be productive. I can't wait to start ministry today.

God Bless,
Chris