Kenya Recap, Take 2

Tuesday (August 2) Chuck and I were back in the villages near Mbuyuni evangelizing. First thing that morning we went back to check on the old man with the hurt back (don't remember his name and I am hating that I didn't write it down). The day before he could hardly even move and on this day he sat right up! He had been taking the Excedrin and it seemed to be helping a lot. He was grateful for the medicine and for us coming back to check on him. As we were talking to him, I heard a child crying really loud. Right beside the old man's hut was a young boy sitting on the ground. When he turned his face around, I saw that he was bleeding from his mouth. We went right over to him and his mom was nearby washing some clothes. The boy's mom told Harrison that he had just fallen out of a tree. Climbing trees is a very common activity with African children. They climb trees to get coconuts and mangoes and they climb trees like boys here would do-just to play and be a boy. I'm not sure what he was climbing the tree for, but it didn't end happy. When he fell he hit his face on coral rock, which was everywhere in the villages we were in. The ocean was very close to where we were. He turned around again and got a close look. I couldn't hold back the tears. Thankfully I had my sunglasses on. His mom told Harrison that she didn't have any money to take him to the hospital. All she needed was a couple hundred shillings, which is less than five American dollars. Can you imagine not having 5 bucks to take care of your hurt child? I can't and I don't even have children. If we hadn't been there that day, who knows when that sweet boy would have gotten some help. As we were leaving we asked if we could pray for him. Harrison thought we asked if we could take his picture so he got him "posed" for us. I tried explaining to him that I wasn't asking for that because I felt horrible taking his picture. He was very self-conscious and kept covering up his face. But Harrison insisted I take it. This won't be the prettiest picture you'll see from Kenya, but I think it will give you perspective...


As it turns out, the little boy is part of the same family as the old man. We told them we'd be back again the next day to check on them.

Later in the day we came to a man who was carving animals and masks. It was so amazing to watch him. Out of a huge, flat piece of wood I sat there and watched him carve a giraffe. Like it was nothing! We talked to him for a while and I thought it would be so cool to have something that he'd made. He was making really tall giraffes and I already have a tall one so I asked if he had anything else. He walked us over to his hut and he had all kinds of carvings. He had a small giraffe and some Maasai warriors but he said they were not finished. He wanted 1100 shillings for the Maasai pair and the small giraffe. That's only about 12 American dollars. It's crazy to know how much time they spend hand carving things to make such little money (little money to us anyway). He said they were not complete yet because he still had to paint them so he would bring them to the church the next day. People in Kenya stick to their word like you wouldn't believe but since this was a perfect stranger in the middle of the bush, I wondered if he would really bring them even though I hadn't paid for them yet.





That afternoon Harrison came back to the hotel with us so we could talk to him about Harrison's surgery. We already knew we were going to give him the money but he didn't know that. He had gotten together all of the information from previous appointments that Thomas had been to and had gotten a good estimate of what the surgery would cost. We talked to him for a while and then we told him we were going to pay for the surgery. Y'all...the biggest tears welled up in this grown man's eyes that I have ever seen. It was all I could do to keep it together. He couldn't even speak he was so shocked. His family paying for Thomas' surgery would never be an option. We gave about $1,000 American dollars which is soooooooo much money to them. It's a lot of money to me too, but not when you consider it paying for an entire surgery (because there is no insurance there). He didn't have to say anything though. I knew how humbled and grateful he was by the look on his face. We told him we certainly couldn't take the credit for the money. We raised that money at our yard sale fundraiser and didn't end up needing any of it to pay of the cost of our trip. So we took it and just waited for God to tell us what to do with it. It was one of the best days of my lives. Not that I give any credit to us, but knowing that God was using US to possibly save this boy's life was the most incredible feeling. I just cried that night thinking about Harrison going home to tell his family that Thomas would be able to have his surgery.

More later. And I promise that the next post won't be this long. Well actually, no I don't. But the second week's recap is much shorter.