Mbita Kenya

 

God has taken me out of a season of struggle into a season of joy and anointing of new spiritual gifts and callings, it is a very exciting time and also a time of preparing I believe.

                First off I was staying in Busia, Uganda for about 2 months and because of complications moved to Kenya along with our 2 teams of 6 each and 2 wonderful women from another mission trip. In moving here I feel like other than the complications that were happening where we were staying God had me in a mild desert or time of testing seeing if I was ready for the next season. The move was not very hard I even feel like God has given me a gift of saying good bye to people because I don’t believe that I will never see them again (if they are a believer) and two because I think he is calling me into something that will cause me to move around quite a bit and he has given me favor in not having to look back on the past anymore.

                A long drive with Kyle in a taxi packed with our stuff was very relaxing to finally end up in a large city where we could buy “normal stuff” after 2 months of living off of the same things every day. After we all had our fun and fill of food (the first “meal” of the day) we met a man named Paul who is from Kenya with a wife from Canada and two adopted nephews of his that we would be staying with. The most common phrase about Africa we say when things just get a little weird is T.I.A. or “hey this is Africa”. As we were about to leave our new host Paul told us the guys who drove us this far gave us a bad deal on payments and that we would switch cars and of course this just led to about 15 African guys yelling at each other over probably about 10 dollars that they say we owed them for “a waiting fee” because they were waiting for us as we were in the store. Paul was very cool in defending us and all of us felt very secure knowing that he would take care of us because even though we just met him he is already looking out for us.

                So from the very beginning I felt very good about being here in Kenya. As we took off to our new home for the next four months we all began talking excitedly, until about an hour later when everyone was just tired from driving and 3 hours later we arrive at Lake Victoria! We take a ferry across the second largest lake in the world (just a section across it took 45-60mins) to get to our new home on the other side.

                Now that we have stayed here for about one week I love it even more! I get woken up every morning by monkeys around 6 am along with my alarm for my God time (you here them messing around and hooting all day long (I put some pictures of them on facebook)). They keep telling us how dangerous the hippos are (the number one animal killing Africans they run on land up to 30 mph and can snap you in half once they get a hold of you) and that they come up to feed on land at night. I get to swim everyday in one of the most beautiful lakes, safe during the day from hippos.

                But most importantly the people that we are working with are some of the coolest people I’ve ever met each of them reminds me either a lot or a little of people I have known for a long time and love very much, which makes it very easy to interact, joke, and love on them. There is a man named Hezron and Jared who live right next door to Kyle and I in a log cabin-ish house (Jared reminds me of Kasey Bishop). They, along with Paul are hysterical when they are together ( I could write an entire 10 pages on the jokes that they say and that we have made together).

                God in this time has given me such a love for people and my team here, I cant help but wake up everyday and cry in prayer to God thanking him for everything he has done and is doing in my life and still yet to do. I am so in love with all the people in Mbita and love that we get to ride motorcycles everywhere, walking isn’t so bad either. There is a spirit of immorality here along with one of the highest HIV and AIDS rate around Kenya, because satan has taken the lake that should bring life and work to these people and perverted the people to bathe openly naked and sleeping around the beach for small amounts of money, stemming from either women who have given up hope and men who have been enticed. God has given me such a big love for all of them and the children at the schools we work with daily. We go to schools to teach about the bible and helping the environment, because Kenya and Mbita is very big on keeping up on the environment.

                Here at the base I love almost every single project they have going on and I’m going to quickly run through some of them knowing that each one of them God has told me I would do almost 2 months ago and I feel like working with these already running projects he is training me to do them myself later on.

1)         1) goat project for widows

–          2 male goats

–          4-5 current females that all bear twins (there are different varieties some bear single babies 2 times a year others twins and rare occasions some have triplets, it is in the works to buy one that they have their eye on from a neighbor that has triplets)

–          the purpose is to breed the goats here at the base

–          when they grow up give one that is able to get pregnant to a widow

–          when the mother has a baby they hand it off to another widow

–          they use the goats for several reasons to get a community of widows to come together and restore hope to them, to have goats to eat, and milk to sell. scientists have discovered that goats milk is good for getting rid of most common illnesses along with serious ones common in the area like malaria, hiv, and cancer.

–          because of this one cup of milk has inflated from 20 shillings ($.25 USD) to 60-100 shillings ($.78-1.31) becoming also a good source of income for the widows

2)      Fish pond (In the works needs funding)

-small pond in the shape of Africa

                -to breed fish to give money to kids with not enough money to go to school

                -to give to local people to give some capital to start from the ground on supporting themselves

       3) Tree and plants

                -have a tree nursery of about 400 tree seedlings of various trees to use for medicine, firewood, housing, boats, and various fruits to make money

                – enhanced mangoes that will be about 4 times larger than the ones sold here to sell at 10 times the normal price that are juicer and stronger flavor than other mangoes to produce money for the community and the base

    4) bee project (not started needs funding)

                -to make honey for sale

                -to pollinate the plants growing to produce better plants

I cannot possibly explain in full how amazing this place is or how much it means to me. I am very into the fact that most of this base called S.E.E.K. or Suba environment education of Kenya, is self-sufficient because I guess me as a man and being part native American I really enjoy the outdoors and utilizing everything in nature down to the most miniscule plant that most people would look over. I pray for this place everyday that God would provide money for their projects and that God would provide a way as I go back to Houston to start some similar projects to support my ministries.