There are always adjustments when you return to a country. One of the first is health issues; you meet up with a whole new set of germs, and it can take time for your body to get used to them. Ben has had a bad cough for a week and diarrhea for almost as long. He has been amazingly patient through it all, getting up six or seven times a night, walking into the bathroom, unzipping his feetie pajamas (it’s...
Continue ReadingThere is always that one thing that helps you know you are back in Kenya. Last time it was seeing a family of baboons in the front yard. This time was a little different.
I have a 1992 Toyota that needed some work, and I took it to the dealership in Nairobi. There is a supermarket next door, and so JT and I wandered over to kill some time. There was a bakery, so we decided to get some breakfast. Behind...
My marriage, the birth of my older children and the adoption of the twins use to be the happiest days of my life. I risk exposing my shallow side by revealing what is now, without question, the happiest day of my life.
The day the twins got potty trained is without a doubt the happiest day of my life. And you can say anything you want about the excesses of American capitalism, but without Care Bear panties, we would not have...
A dream came true in the last week, and it almost was a twofer.
I’ve been to a conference of Christian colleges, a seminar at Harvard, and an Oracle convention in the last few weeks. They have all been good, all in different ways.
The Christian conference was in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Living in a college dormitory was enlightening; it was hard to believe that so many good memories came from such an ugly place. College is really for 18 year olds;...
My life has had lots of surprises since 1998, but even my most optimistic friends would not have predicted this:
I won a full ride to Harvard.
You would not believe how NATURALLY this can be inserted into a conversation:
Drive Through Window Guy: You want a double cheeseburger and a Diet Coke?
Me: Did you say something about Harvard?
DTWG: No.
Me: I did get a full ride scholarship to Harvard.
DTWG: Do you want fries with that?
We live in an age where people get too...
The goal was 25 computer centers and 100 schools being fed. It’s getting late in the game, but we had one more big chance. Some friends invited us to share after their church service at their large church in MN. I had this hope that the right people would hear the message, and we would hit the goals.
And then the pastor, who had been at the church for 17 years, announced he was resigning from the pulpit to go on...
The letters has been storming in. Hundreds, lo even THOUSANDS, wondering what I will do. People asking `Will he not go back to Kenya now? Will he come later?’
And the calls. The volume has prevented any of them from getting through, but I imagine people saying `How is it possible that you could still be going?’
But yet, somehow I am. People will look at me and weep and start chanting `What a NOBLE man.’
I’m sure you know the story, but...
When missionaries would come to my church, I would suddenly remember that I had important work to do in the nursery. I thought they were dweebs with bad haircuts who whined about money.
As my older sister would say, `There you go.’
The wonder of the principle of sowing and reaping is that between work and school, I’ve been speaking at churches all over the place in the last few months. We are scheduled to return to Kenya August 9th, and I’ve...
