Kenya Kids Can!

Before I went on my last trip, Matthew had a dilemma:

Matthew: I really want to ask JoAnna to movie night.
Me: That sounds great.
Matthew: I just don’t know WHEN to ask.
Me: Why don’t you ask her during play rehearsal?
Matthew: I CAN’T ask her during rehearsals.
Me: Why?
Matthew: She plays my MOTHER in the play.

Another time opened up, she accepted, and a fine time was had by all. And I thought it showed unusual brilliance in my son to realize that there are ways and there are ways to start a relationship.

I had the opportunity to go to the States, and spoke at Warner Pacific College and Corban College in Portland, Oregon. It is amazing that anyone would want me to speak at a chapel, and both schools were very kind and supportive.

But what I want to talk to you about is that someone I didn’t know until a few months ago, and who I met over the internet, picked me up at the airport, fed me and housed me, and drove me around Portland so I could see some RVA kids.

I promise you, when we get to the other side, no one will remember a word of what I said, but the self-effacing attitude of two retired doctors humbles me every time I think of it. In fact, if you need a speaker, I assure you that I would much rather hear the Thompson’s than me, and I’m me.

I marvel at the body of Christ.

From Portland I flew to Seattle, where my conference was taking place. It was also the scene of the greatest concert of all recorded history. I’m happy, for any who request it, a song by song analysis of the concert. It should only take 40 minutes to read.  It really was great, and the 18,000 people there with me had a blast. The gentlemen in front of me told me to congratulate him, and when I did, he told me that he had just turned 84. I was tempted to say that was the median age of concert goers, but actually there was a wide variety of people there. And Neil Diamond is still hungry; after all these years, he went out there like he still had something to prove.

But what I want to talk to you about is that Neil Diamond’s guitar player provided tickets, back stage passes, a tour book signed by the entire band, and an autographed picture of the man himself inscribed to Steve and Nancy. I had never met Doug before, but he had done all these kind things to a stranger.

I marvel at the body of Christ.

I was in Seattle to attend a conference of colleges, and the highlight is when they have a college fair, and they had over six hundred colleges present. It is a chance to go booth to booth and meet reps from schools. We had some local women make tiny baskets that had RVA on the outside of them, and they could fit one package of tea that said Out of Africa on the cover. I hired Loren, a former RVA grad and a handsome young man, to go booth to booth while I focused on colleges where I knew where our students would be applying.

So I’m in the middle of this huge convention center, and I’m speaking with a famous college on the east coast not known for its conservative Christian thought. I tell them about a student who is applying, and I read one paragraph of her very touching essay. The vice president of this college breaks into tears, and tells me, “Oh my God, we need kids like that at our school.”

Twelve-day trips are so exhausting, but suddenly I felt very alive.

After getting to speak at a church and seeing some friends, I got to speak at Darlington School in Georgia, which is a fantastically amazing high school. I spoke in the morning, afternoon and evening, and they were kinder than kind. The students have decided to eat beans and rice once a week and donate the proceeds to the food program.

Something else happened that looks almost too amazing to be true, and I can’t quite talk about it yet, but it was another sign that God was still opening doors.

The highlight was getting to see JT and my sister and brother in law. I actually got to spend a night in JT’s dorm, and as I watched my son sleep on the floor so I could sleep in his bed, I marveled at how well his mother raised him. They keep interesting hours in college dorms, so I don’t remember much, but I was so grateful for the time with him.

A headmaster called me last week and told me that the food program was saving lives right now, and he wanted to thank me. I told him I wasn’t the guy to thank, and so he said, “So whoever they are; thank them and tell them they are saving lives.”

But I want to balance that by saying I know very well what has happened to the U.S. in the last few weeks. We wanted to tell you that if this is a difficult time for you, please don’t feel obligated to continue to support us or these projects. We trust the Lord, and we know He is the provider. 

Nancy had an amazing experience that I asked her to share:

Recently I took a group of high school girls to an orphanage one Saturday.  We took some maize and beans and the girls spent the morning playing with the 15 girls ages 5-16. I haven’t been able to get those 15 girls or Ruth, who runs the orphanage, out of my mind even though life here at RVA has been crazy busy. So finally, last Friday some time opened up for me and I called Ruth and arranged to go and  visit.  I had cleaned out Ben and Katie’s closet of  outgrown clothes and we also have some solar flashlights that were given to us that I wanted to take along. 

I arrived and gave her the clothes and showed her one of the flashlights. (I had brought 20 to give her, but had left most in the car for the second load.) She told me that when she told her husband I was coming, he said, “Maybe she will bring us a torch (flashlight).”  I thought that an interesting thing to specifically want when there were so many things they could use.  

What was more interesting was when I brought out the other 19 solar flashlights.  I was helping her install the batteries and she just started smiling and said, “You have heard God. On Monday, Kenya Power and Light came and cut our stima (electricity) because we could not pay the bill.  We have been using a few candles at night and we didn’t know what to do. You are such a blessing to us.”

I said, “But the real blessing is that about 6 months ago — before you ever had trouble paying for the stima — God put it on the heart of a man in America to send us many of these torches so that now, when you need them, they are here. Our God knows what we need before we ever know we will have the need. That is what is so wonderful about this.”

I marvel at the body of Christ.

This has gone long, and I’m sorry, but there is one more story that can’t wait. One of my best friends in Kijabe is Dr. Rich, the dentist. He is the nicest human on the planet, and is beloved by all. There was a abandoned baby at the hospital, and his wife started to go down to hold her every day, because newborns need to be held.

The hospital was overcrowded, and so they asked them if they could take the baby home until some room opened up. What happened next surprised them all. Dr. Rich is in his early 50′s, with a son in dental school, a daughter at Chapel Hill, a senior, a sophomore and a sixth grader at RVA. They weren’t looking, but the entire family started falling in love with this baby, and they are now wrestling with the thought of adoption.

Right now, my favorite scripture is when Jesus tells some of the disciples to go to the fish’s mouth and get coins. I’ve puzzled over that for years; why would He tell them to do that? I think part of it was Jesus was fun, and that was a cool way to give them money. The other reason is this:  Jesus wanted them to know that He was in charge, and His ways are not our ways. 

These are perilous times, but I believe in the God who puts coins in the fish’s mouths. 

And I bet the baby does, too. Her name indicates she might understand a lot. 

Her name is Hope.

Your pal,
Steve

When I got the opportunity to attend the first RVA student’s graduation from Harvard, I got to meet Sam’s family, and his brother Rupert. Rupert is 21 and doing a thesis on non- profit organizations, and he asked if he could write about the computer and food programs. We said yes, and he moved in the beginning of the month. He has fit in as part of the family; the twins get upset if they don’t get to say good night to him, and the young ladies on campus are all sweet on him.

We knew that our British friend had an impact on the family when I asked Ben how he was doing, and he said, in his best cockney accent, “Brilliant, actually.”

To keep things in perspective, I remind him often that we won the big war, which I’m sure he is grateful to hear and be constantly reminded of.

Matthew was named as the section head of the percussion section of jazz band, and I finally put my foot down. After he got the male lead in a musical back home, and now this, the nagging doubt started to trouble me.

Is it possible that we received the wrong baby at the hospital? Because of my legendary skills in dancing and rhythm in general, I was haunted by the fact that perhaps, just perhaps, we picked up the wrong baby. It happens. Matthew reminds me that his mother won the dance award at her high school, and so it is probably nothing to worry about.

Probably.

After last month’s stirring email about the woes of traveling, I did manage to forget that I had one more trip planned next week. I am speaking at a couple of colleges in Portland, a college conference in Seattle, a high school in Atlanta, and a day with JT in North Carolina.

And a certain concert. To celebrate, a friend is marketing these:

http://www.zazzle.com/steve_peifer_is_not_neil_diamond_bumpersticker-128490527355909301

I have been sharing my grand news about the concert with the entire staff and student body, and while you might expect jealous rage, this is such a holy place that if I didn’t know better, you would think the responses consisted of apathy, seeming ignorance of who Neil Diamond IS, and a mild form of pity.

I’m so glad I know better.

Most of the food has been delivered, and we were out at a school and I noticed that there was some construction going on. When I asked what was going on, the head master told me that the school had improved so much, the government  had decided to invest in the school and build water containers. There had been no investment in the school since it was built.

These are scary times in Kenya. Inflation, a poor crop and near drought conditions have made living so hard for so many people here. There is such a relief when we bring the food, and sometimes you worry that you are doing it all in vain.

But I watched the construction of the water tanks, and in a small way, I think we are seeing the beginning of a tipping point. The government is beginning to see improvements, and they are investing in the schools.

Tipping point? It’s brilliant actually.

Your pal,
Steve

My daughter is a ballerina.

My daughter is a ballerina.

That may not mean much to many, but when you gave up the dream of having a daughter, and 8000 miles away from home you find her, those things that weren’t possible become so important. There was a senior girl who volunteered to teach the small ones ballet, so for the first time in over 100 years, they had a ballet recital at RVA.

Some things are better in theory. Jo worked so hard to teach them, but it was one of those events where it was important not to make eye contact with anyone else. Many of the girls would just look blankly into the audience until they were shoved to the next place they were supposed to be at. Some would start twirling wherever they stood. One little girl just would walk to the front of the audience and smile at the audience. It didn’t help that Matthew was sitting next to me, and got a severe case of I shouldn’t laugh but I can help it.

No matter: my daughter is a ballerina. No one can ever take that away from me.

I have done lots of traveling lately. The CNN exposure offered some opportunities that I didn’t think I should turn down, but I arrived in NY at 7:30 am after traveling over 28 hours, ran to a hotel, shaved and showered, then ran to a meeting at noon, went back to the hotel, ran to another meeting that started around four and included dinner, and then ran back to the hotel to sleep. The next morning, I went to Michigan for a conference and it went like that for over three weeks.

I discovered something profound that I need to share with everyone:

I am too old to do traveling like that anymore.

I came back tired and sick, and realized the toll it takes not only on me, but more importantly on my family.

There is a weird dichotomy in the Christian life. We are called to excellence, and to give it our all, but at the end of the day, we know that it is all in His hands. Some Christians err on the side of not doing anything, and being presumptive of God’s will. Others feel like they need to do it all, and God becomes an afterthought to their effort.

I want to give it my all, but I’m finally realizing that when I try to make things happen, they don’t. I had an unsolicited opportunity to speak to a foundation, who gave an enormous gift to the feeding program. I worked hard to prepare and submit a paper to one conference, was accepted to speak twice, and the first time my voice was so shot no one could hear me. The second time, I was paired with another speaker who talked the entire time, and I didn’t get to say a word.

He makes the grain grow.

I don’t.

I did get to see JT for a few days at another conference, and it was such a joy. We were together for three days in Phoenix, and we decided to see the new Batman movie opening night at midnight. The next week, I was in Montana on a college tour, and one of the activities was to watch Batman at a drive-in in Butte. The next week, I watched it in Nairobi with Matthew.

There should be a funny punch line here, but it isn’t coming to me.

New computer center.

We have a shot, if a couple things go our way, to have 20 computer centers up by the end of the year. There are some hard issues that have come up lately, and we don’t have any easy answers to deal with them. We covet your prayers. In spite of it all, the centers continue to be built. If kids are going to have a chance to escape poverty, this is the best tool we have.

We were able to purchase the food for the last term of the year. We have added almost 400 students, to a total of 18,370 children who will receive a lunch for the next three months because of your kindness. The cost has gone up again to about 7.23 per student for three months, or up to $2.41 a student per month. The increases have continued, so we are so grateful for your generosity.

I was at a school recently, and they asked me to help with an English lesson. They were constructing sentences, and the exercise went like this:

If I ___________, then I ______________.

One child said:
If I am tickled, then I laugh.
Another said:
If I am happy, then I sing.
But the one that got me was this:
If I am hungry, then I cry.

Students in the feeding program.

When I left the school, it occurred to me that was the goal. The end of tears of hunger. That no child goes hungry and every child gets a chance to have a life with opportunity, and the hope of better things for their children.

Our job in life, if we have been lucky enough to be born in the United States, is to protect and defend the weak. When you realize that, you understand you have been given the greatest gift and opportunity you can be given.

The end of tears of hunger. That is a good goal, isn’t it?

Your pal,
Steve