All About Me

Well, this is really supposed to be in the "All About Me" section of my profile, but it's too long.  Shocker.  Anyone who knows me knows I tend toward loquaciousness.  Summarize? Me?  Anyway, it was too long, so....tada!  It's here (It's 2:30am and I have insomnia from typhoid, brucellosis, and the anti-biotics.  I'm a bit punchy).

The first thing you should know about me is that I am first and foremost a Christian;  then, I am a wife and mother.  This is an important distinction because in the first statement lies my identity – the core of who I am is what God has made me in Christ.  Period. 

The second thing you should know is that – as Jo March said in Little Women – "I am hopelessly flawed…"  I'm much too serious for my own good, I'm quite sensitive to smells and noise, I'm a picky eater,  I don't like change (nor does it like me), I'm a bit lazy (yes, I was the spoiled baby of the family :-) ), I'm not very good at staying organized, I worry too much, and I'm rather opinionated – although I've learned to temper my opinions with grace (my family laughs as they remember my recent and very vocal assertion that "Romney's a Snake!" shouted from my dining room in the direction of my father-in-law).  Okay, mostly tempered with grace. 

All of the above doesn't make a fantastic recipe for a missionary's wife, but it does make an ideal recipe for God's grace.  It also doesn't make the best home school mom, but somehow (probably God's grace at work again) Emily's turned out okay so far. :-)

My family and I moved to Kenya, East Africa in 2008 where my husband does evangelism, discipleship, and church planting work with his partner, Nathan Radford.  Though Roger teaches math to our kids, I do the rest of their schooling – Emily, however, goes to Rift Valley Academy – a missionary boarding school 6 hours away from us; she will graduate from there in July of 2013.  I also do some volunteer work once a month at In-Step Children's Home about 30 minutes from our home and teach Kiswahili to a few missionaries here.

Roger and I have been married 20 years.  Actually, he proposed for the first time when I was 7 and he was 9.  I said yes.  He proposed again when I was 18 and he was 20.  I said yes.  He proposed then – with a ring and on one knee – when I was 19 and he was 21.  I said yes. I’m still deeply in love with him. :-)  We have 3 children here on earth, and one in Heaven (Emily 17, Amy 12, Josiah 10, and Nathaniel would have been 13 this August).

I love reading, writing, teaching, and the REAL American dream (not the selfish thing it has become).  I really get into politics (should that have been written in my "hopelessly flawed" section?), and I have a weakness for anything with 4 legs and fur (uh…3 dogs, 5 cats, 2 sheep...did I mention how much my husband loves me?).  Well, almost anything.  I'm not real crazy about the rats in our ceiling (don't forget, we live in Africa…) I also have a passion for Biblical counseling, and I am slowly-by-slowly (as we say in Kiswahili) working my way to a counseling certificate.  I love Truth, and I love the way that embracing Truth (in the form of the God of all Truth) changes people and sets them free – me included. 

I have a love/hate relationship with Kenya and with being missionaries.  Oooh, is that too brutally honest?  Uh, in reality, don't most people have a love/hate relationship with what they do in life?  The "hate" part mostly comprises of dealing with corruption (read about Roger's arrest in my blog for a sample), malaria, typhoid, brucellosis (that's a new one for me just added this week), and never really having a place that's called "home."  Actually, that's not true.  God continues to teach me that this world is NOT my home – that "I'm just a-passin' through" as an ambassador.  But, that can be difficult from time-to-time. Did I mention I really, really hate Nairobi eye flies?  I also don't like saying "good-bye" all the time to people I come to love and care about, and I really don't like missing my friends and family and church back in the States when I'm here and then missing my friends here when I'm there.  I don't like the way that nothing is the same, including relationship dynamics, when I go back to the States, nor is it the same here when I come back as as it was when I left.

But you want to know something?  I really wouldn't change my life (okay, most of the time, I wouldn't change my life – I do have my moments).  I have been so blessed. That's where the "love" part comes in.  I love that my man and I love one another.  I love that my teen-age daughter, already living away from home, misses her mom and dad and calls us to tell us everything going on in her life at school. I love seeing God work in the lives of my children, revealing Himself to them and changing them – making them see things from a level deeper than I did at their age.  I love that they are growing up seeing how most of the world lives, having friends who are orphans or who are HIV positive, knowing people who live in one or two room mud huts. and  having close relationships with adults from other cultures – even other religions (and I don't just mean denominations).  I love the daily reminder that we have so much to be thankful for.  I even love the gentle rebuking of the Holy Spirit that pricks my conscience and points out my tendency to lack contentment.  I love His gentle embrace around my spirit when I am acutely aware of His closeness.  I love the red dirt roads (though I must admit to "hating" them when they are mud), the cows, sheep, and goats who graze all along the roads (even in Nairobi), the quiet and unhurried pace of living in an agricultural town, knowing a lot of people including shop owners and greeting them by name as I walk or drive through town, the weaver birds making a ruckus as they weave their nests in the tops of the bamboo thicket behind our house, the SHWOOSH of air being moved under the powerful wings of the hornbill as it flies overhead – even the obnoxious cry of the ibis bird that shouts of Africa.  I love that my good missionary friend down the street owns a pet donkey.  I love the people of Kenya (though culturally, they drive me absolutely crazy sometimes – as I must drive them :-) ). I love that I can speak a strange and exotic language like Kiswahili.  I love meeting and getting to know people from all over the world – Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Austria, England, Pakistan, India, South Korea, Germany, France, Canada, Denmark, Holland, Ireland – just to name the first ones that come off the top of my head.  Oh, wait.  I forgot Alaska and Texas!  Ooops – Alaska is part of the USA isnt' it?  Not so sure about Texas :-).  I love not having to worry about tornadoes during thunderstorms – okay, that was totally random.

So, there it is; all about me.  I hope you enjoy my blog.  Look around, click on the links – there, you will read about the lives of other missionaries here in Kenya.  Well, Piper's not a missionary in Kenya, but click there anyway :-).

Lessons From Rome...

                I have realized one of the reasons I don’t multi-task well.  It isn’t because I can’t do two things at once, it is because I am doing HUNDREDS of things at once all the time!  At least, in my brain.  I don’t know if I ever process things just on a surface level; sometimes I wish I could! But, alas, this is how God made me.  It makes living with me a constant safari into the wilds of the soul.  Just ask Roger…poor guy.

                

               So, Rome was so much fun.  Roger and I had a wonderful week to re-connect and focus on one another as we “bashed around Rome” – to almost quote a movie.  We walked everywhere, close to 7 hours a day.  My feet paid the price for that one as they swelled up to twice their normal size.  Oh well, they’re back to normal now.  At least it made it so I didn’t put on any weight during the whole trip!!!!  Italy has the BEST ice cream!

               

                 But for me, Rome was more than a romantic adventure with my husband (though it was definitely that); it was a study in the finiteness of man despite his seemingly unquenchable drive for earthly significance and immortality.  Everywhere we went, there were monuments raised for heroes of the people: national heroes who conquered foreign lands and peoples, religious heroes who lived to serve the people but are now worshipped as gods – and some religious men who were not heroes at all, but who wanted to be remembered and worshipped as gods though they were merely men.

                

               Two examples of this stand out to me that I would like to share with you. 

                

Inside the Vatican

              On Monday, Roger and I visited the Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Sistine Chapel.  Now, all my good Baptist friends are going to say, “Why would you go there?”  But, you can’t really go to Rome and not see something so famous – at least, we can’t.  Let me just say, it was absolutely stunning.  Oh my goodness.  The sculptures, paintings, tapestries…I don’t even have words for their beauty.  The building that is St. Peter’s is magnificent.  Even the ceilings of the Vatican are inordinately beautiful.  Art in various forms by Raphael, Michelangelo, and others adorns every niche and cranny; it is a feast for the eyes – sometimes a gluttonous feast. 

Now, I must say that I at least have a new appreciation for their use of art during those days. Many of the people were illiterate, and so they used the art as a constant visual way of teaching them. But here was my impression. The Vatican is not a monument to God…it is a monument to man; a specific man – the Pope. And in it, the Pope is worshipped as god. It is the palace of a king. It actually reminds me of the old Roman emperors who ruled the kingdom and demanded to be worshipped as a god. That was the culture of the Roman Empire at the time of the writing of the New Testament; it was their default, and they sadly reverted to it with a new twist – a “Christian” twist – during the first couple of centuries after Christ. Did you know the Pope is called the “Vicar of Christ”? Do you know what that means? Vicar means, “in the stead of” or “in the place of”. So, literally, the Pope is considered Christ on earth. He is considered the mediator between God and man. There is a problem, though. The Bible says that there is only ONE mediator between God and man– the man, Christ Jesus (I Timothy 2:5).

The Dome of St. Peter's Basilica

One of Raphael's Rooms - Apartment of one of the Pope's that was painted by Raphael

                Another thing that troubled my soul was the shrine-like atmosphere of all the buildings of worship (I don’t just have this problem in Rome with the Catholic places of worship, by the way…).  It’s as if the early simplicity of the Gospel and of the followers of Jesus themselves being the temple of God         

 was lost in the first couple centuries as the people reverted back to a physical temple mentality which was common to both Judaism and paganism.  Ephesians 2:19-22 says, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,  in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit,”   (did you know that early Christians in the Roman Empire were feared and hated as Atheists because they didn’t worship a god who could be seen, they didn’t worship in a visible temple, and they didn’t offer physical sacrifices?).   It was sad, really.  So many people going into temples to do some religious ritual in order to appease God’s wrath and gain some favor in His sight when Jesus has already done all that for them!  Paul said in Galatians 2:16, “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we (the Jewish apostles) have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified.”   

               

                Then, on Saturday, our last day in Rome, Roger and I wandered around and stumbled onto some of the ruins of Nero’s palace.  

This area is called Domus Aurea – it was Nero’s famed Golden Palace which he started building after the great fire of 64A.D burned down all the aristocratic dwellings on the same area. It housed his famous revolving dining room which had a ceiling that opened to let in light and that also rained down flower petal and perfume on his dining guests. Estimates put the palace (which was really a landscaped Roman villa complete with orchards and an artificial lake) at roughly one square mile in size! Outside the entrance, Nero had sculpted a gargantuan 100ft bronze statue of himself. This was later moved to just outside the Flavian Amphitheater – which is now known by us as the Colosseum in honor of the Colossus Neronis (the statue) which stood beside it. The palace’s walls and ceilings were covered with marble, ivory, mosaics of precious stone, and beautiful frescoes as well as much gold. It was a palace built for a god; 300 rooms meant solely for entertainment purposes. In it, Nero threw fantastic and morally corrupt parties that lasted 12 hours at a time.

            
                Trouble is, Nero committed suicide 4 years later and within 10 years the palace was stripped of most of its marble, ivory, and precious stones, and the grounds were filled in with dirt so it could be built over.  Within 40 years, the “Golden House” was completely…gone…  Today, you can see only some of the remains.  We were not able to go inside because it has been closed due to the instability of the structure.  

But, there is a children’s playground there where parents sit on benches and watch their children play on slides and swings, and there is a basketball court where young men can play a pick-up game of hoops. 

    Nero – one of the most deranged of the Roman emperors – one of the most bloody persecutors of early Christians – built for himself a great kingdom and made himself out to be god. Where is he now? Where is his Golden Palace? It’s been made into nothing and in fact was wiped out of existence for thousands of years before its crumbling remains were discovered. Nero lived for a short 31 years and was emperor for 14 of them. The Roman empire is now gone. 2000 years later, we are ooh-ing and ahh-ing over its crumbling remains, and though Nero tried to wipe out the Christians of his day, we are all over the world – part of a Kingdom that will never be destroyed. What a very visual reminder that this world and all its kingdoms will pass away. Life is but a vapor; here today and gone tomorrow. Jesus asked this question; “what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?” Which kingdom am I most concerned about? The kingdom of “me”? Making much of myself and wanting others to do the same? Building a legacy for…me? Leaving my mark of the world? Or living for the Kingdom that will never pass away? The Kingdom of light and love – the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

               

                In 2000 years, I wonder who will be walking the grounds where the White House used to stand, or the Lincoln Memorial, or the Washington Monument, or the Supreme Court, or the Pentagon…or one of our mega-churches.  Will there even be anything there? In the end, does it even really matter? What lasts forever? Man’s opinions of me? My opinion of me? The world’s opinion of me? What good is it if I feed a starving body but neglect a lost and dying soul? What does it profit if I provide basic necessities to the masses but don’t lead them to the Bread of Life? What have I accomplished if I build my company into a multi-billion dollar success, but don’t teach my children the love of Christ? So what if I go back to school and earn my degree and find myself and fulfill my dreams at the expense of time and energy to disciple my children in the ways of the Cross.  Oh, my kingdom is so insignificant a thing to pour so much of my time and energy and resources into by stressing over the things that won’t matter in 10 years, much less in 2,000 years.  Oh that I would be freed from this compulsion to fret over my kingdom (i.e. what people think of me, making something for myself…of myself…). Let me live to make God’s name big rather than my own.  Let me live for God’s eternal Kingdom that will never pass away!

               

         

Our Life in Kenya

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Ministry Update

Roger has written a new ministry update.  Take a look at it on our Ministry page!

Being Real...Confessions of a Missionary Wife

The last couple of weeks have been rough ones for me; there’s been so much on my mind.

1. My oldest daughter Emily is narrowing down college and career choices; which spells out to this mother’s mind, “she’s leaving and life will never be the same.  We may forever live on different continents, on opposite sides of the world.”  We’re also thinking about whether or not she will take a gap year.  If she doesn’t, she will graduate in the middle of next July (please remember, she’s away from us 3 months at a time already)and will not have time to really be at home here with us before we all have to leave to return to the States for the start of college.  It’s a heavy weight on a mom’s shoulders.

2. We’ve been going through culture fatigue.  This is typical for having been back in the country for almost 11 months, but I thought, “well, we did that last time; surely this time it won’t happen.”  It was a nice thought, but a bit unrealistic, I guess.  Bobby Creiglow (a veteran missionary to Brazil) told us his second term was the hardest that way.  Here’s hoping our hardest was our first term.  None-the-less, here we are; in the middle of “culture fatigue.” And it’s not a little thing; it’s big.  It’s really big.

3. Roger and I celebrated 20 years of marriage in March.  We didn’t really celebrate as we had Roger’s mom and dad visiting with us at the time, but…we were so excited because we had been saving money for a while so that we could do something really nice for our anniversary. AND…someone gifted some personal money to us – completely outside the realm of ministry.  So…we made some travel plans for just the two of us.  Roger really wanted to get out of Africa, but we’ve learned that there is NO WHERE easy to get to from here.  We decided to go to…ROME!  We booked our tickets, our hotel, our tourist package, and everything was looking great…until the airline messed us up by cancelling our flight.  Then, when we tried to get things fixed, the airline screwed them up even worse.  Now – 10 days before we’re supposed to leave, it’s still not fixed.  We are frustrated and anxious.  The hotel and tourist packages are non-refundable.  This has been a source of frustration for 2 weeks now as both the travel agent and the airline have been rather unhelpful.

4.  Then, as I tell you that, I (rightly or wrongly) worry that people will think we are being frivolous by making such a trip.  Missionaries aren’t supposed to do things like that.  I feel like I need to explain myself, explain our need for the trip, explain that there’s really no place to go to get out of feeling like you’re in Africa – why we would want to do that in the first place (get out of Africa, that is). Basically, I fight the feeling that I need to justify it to our supporters back in the States. 

5.   I’ve struggled with accepting our new house.  I have a terrible ant problem in the kitchen which doesn’t go away no matter what I do.  There are no trees for the kids to climb.  No swing for them to swing on.  No places for them to go.  No place to buy them new clothes when theirs wear out.  No fun activities for them to participate in.  They, like me, are stuck on our compound day after day, after week, after month.  Yes, we can go to town for…um…well…the Coffee Shop is there, but they’ve raised their prices so high we can’t afford it as much.  Let’s see…um…well, we go to a couple of friends’ houses right here in our neighborhood.  Uh…yup…that’s about it.  Otherwise, we’re pretty much locked in.  Literally. 

6.  Most of the other missionary wives/women around here are involved in Children’s Homes.  I love these ministries.  They are dear to my heart.  I’m so glad I know these incredible women (and men, too J).  But like most “stay-at-home” mom’s, in my heart it gets tough.  We’re here as missionaries, but I, personally, have so little contact with Kenyans.  Yeah, I teach at In-Step once a month, but they’re growing and they won’t always need me.  We get together at prayer meetings and everyone’s talking about their ministries (which they should do) and I often feel so…inconsequential that I come home and cry.  I so WANT to be connected to the culture here.  But when you’re homeschooling full time, well, there’s only so much of me to spread around and still stay sane.

So last night, when I called the airline about our tickets  AGAIN, and AGAIN didn’t get the help I needed, I pretty much lost it.  All the stress from the above list of things coupled with the frustration I knew my husband was feeling about the possibility of losing the money for the trip melded together into a serious blow-out.  Let’s just say I was not quite myself.  Well, really, in all honesty, I was very much myself. Because, after all, the mouth only speaks what comes from the heart.  Don’t you wish sometimes you could get away from that truth? We try.  We say, “I didn’t really mean it…” but God tells us we really do.  Yikes.  This is me under pressure.  Yes, a lot of pressure, but me none-the-less.  That’s not a pretty truth, but only the TRUTH can set me free J.

So, needless to say, I’ve been battling some serious depression the last, oh, 3 months or so.  It’s taken a measure of grace to get out of bed in the morning, put one foot in front of the other, faithfully home school my kids, counsel my older daughter when she calls, encourage the people around me who need encouraging, minister to the hurting.  But God’s grace is incredible.  And today, it re-taught me something.

It’s easy to live defeated, and its right where Satan wants us!  Because, you see, when I’m so focused on me and my problems, I’m not able to function as I should in the family of God.  You know how, in a marriage, if only one partner is struggling it’s not so bad because the one not struggling can uplift the one who is struggling?  Well, what happens when they’re both struggling?  No one can lift up the other person.  During those times, it takes the grace of God, and forgiveness and commitment from both partners to work their way through the storm.  It’s really hard.  Well, it’s that way in God’s family, too. It’s that way in a church; it’s that way in a missionary community.

Satan loves to have us all discouraged, because when we’re not holding one another up, it’s easier to defeat us and destroy our testimony in the community.  Several of the missionary families here have really been struggling in one way or another recently.  It’s so easy to focus on myself and then not help to carry the burdens of others, but if we do that, our unity will dissolve, our love for one another will suffer, and then our witness in the community will suffer.  Jesus said, “they will know you are mine because of your love for the brethren.” Why?  Because such love is super-natural.   Love that can see past itself and focus on others in need is not a love that comes naturally.  It is a love that has learned to entrust itself to God hands – trusting Him to do right and good no matter what – so that it can love others with the love that He has given them.   This is a love that doesn’t look out for “number one” first and foremost because it knows that (well, first of all it’s not “number one”) God is giving it all the love it needs.  This is a love that, though it may feel like it’s running on empty, knows that in reality, it is filled with the fullness of God!

 It’s easy to blame Satan, or others, or our circumstances, or our pasts, but we are also responsible.  We are responsible because God tells us that we have hope!  He tells us we have unlimited spiritual resources!  He tells us that we don’t have to live defeated lives – even when we are down-cast.  He even tells us that our strength is in the precious promises that He has given us through Jesus Christ and His work for us on the cross.  The problem is two-fold. First, we may not be in the Word, or in community enough to know what those precious promises are.  Second,  we don’t always really believe them.  That’s not Satan’s fault, it’s ours. We’re responsible.  My biggest problem isn’t the list of six things I’ve delineated (or the many things I could have listed but didn’t); my biggest problem is that I deal with those six things in a heart of unbelief.  And when I don’t believe, I don’t reach for grace.  Sometimes, I don’t even really want to reach for grace, and I’m rather like a little child throwing a terrible temper-tantrum in the grocery store because Mommy didn’t buy me a lolli-pop.

I don’t want to be that little child. Paul said, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”  The greatest of these is love; love for God; love for the brethren; love for the lost; love for my husband; love for my children; love for the widows; love for the orphans.

I don’t want to work for a kingdom of one.  Uh, that would be me – that “one”.  There’s a Kingdom out there that’s so much bigger – so much grander – so much…MORE!  And I get to be a part of it! 

God, give me eyes to see the big picture!  That doesn’t mean my details don’t hurt, or that You don’t care about my details.  You do!  The very fact that You do care enables me to entrust them to You, which in turn enables me to not focus on myself but rather to focus on Your Kingdom!!  Your people!!  It enables me to get beyond myself by allowing Your love to flow through me and out of me to those who need it.  God, help me remember that I am not a one “woman” show, but a part of something so much bigger than myself!  John the Baptist said, “I must decrease and He must increase.”  Decrease the ME in my focus, Jesus! Increase the JESUS!!  Be lifted high in my life, oh God!  Help me count all things as excrement!  Yes, excrement is what the scriptures say – bloody menstrual rags – in comparison to the knowledge of You!   Give me more of You, so that I can give more of You.  In the name of Jesus.

But in the process, Lord…would you please work out my ticket situation? J

Puppy needing a little help...
We been a little concerned the last couple of days because it seems like our Mama German Shepherd doesn't have enough milk to feed her 2 week old puppy, Bear.  I've been seriously considering supplementing his feeding, but wasn't sure the best way to go about it.  I started by letting him spend time with Annie (his mama) to nurse and then when she was finished and walked away, taking him into the house and trying to give him regular milk out of a baby bottle.  He was obviously hungry and was starting to figure out the bottle, but I wasn't sure about giving him the milk.

I looked up information online and found that cow's milk wasn't a good substitute, but its not like I can get puppy formula here!  Thankfully, I found a site with a recipe for home made puppy formula!  And it just so happens I am able to get all the ingredients here in Kitale!  I tried it from the bottle and he really wanted it, but was just having a difficult time getting it.  Then, the Amy and Josiah told me that they had seen him trying to eat Annie's food out of her dish!  So, I put the "milk" in a shallow dish and let him go for it.  He loved it!!!  Drank 4 whole ounces!!!!!!  He is now conked out in my lap with a full belly and sleeping soundly!  I think he has a chance!

Oh my.  What a day. It's 9:00pm, and I can't tell you how happy I am to be home.  It all started this morning at RVA when Josiah awoke with a fever.  We loaded the car, met Emily for breakfast and we were on our way.  All of us were happy to be leaving.  About 45 minutes into our trip - in the town of Naivasha - there was a police check.  No big deal.  They have those all the time.  They don't usually stop us, but sometimes they do and they check our insurance and our driver's license.  So, stop us they did.  Driver's license...check.  By the way sir, you're being arrested.  Arrested!?  For what???  For speeding sir.  I wasn't speeding.  You were going over 120 kph. 

Okay, time for some Kenya law explanation.  Kenya has 2 speed limits.  120 for private vehicles, and 80 for commercial, public assistance vehicles.  The vehicle we were driving is a former matatu; that's like a public bus only the size of a large van.  It, however, is no longer public; it is private.  It even has a big sticker all across the front that says, "PRIVATE."  The police lady knew this, that's why she accused us of going over 120.  Roger, however, was driving 90.  So, he continued the arguement.  I wasn't speeding.  I was going under 100.  So, she said to wait just a minute while she went and talked to her supervisor.  The supervisor came over.  We have you on video.  You were speeding.  You are driving a commercial vehicle and you were going 98 (still a lie - and no, they don't have video).  Follow me to the police station.  Seriously?  I wasn't speeding.  Follow me to the police station.

So, off we went to the police station in Naivasha.  We pull in and Roger says to me, "take these keys, don't give them to anyone," and he went into the station.  A while later he came out. They look at the insurance sticker on the car and the officer says, "See, it says commercial right here."  Roger replies, "It's a private vehicle.  It belongs to a Children's Home and it says PRIVATE across the front." By the way, the name of the Children's Home is plastered all over both sides of the vehicle. But no, it is a public service vehicle according to the police. They arrested him for speeding, he paid his bail of 3,000 shillings, and they told him  he had to return to Naivasha on Tuesday to go to court.  If he doesn't show up, they flag his driver's license.  I was so proud of Roger.  He completely kept his cool - partly because doing anything else just makes matters worse.

 Meanwhile, my friend Amy had called her husband who just happens to know the head of the CID (Criminal Investigation Department).  He informed us that the police there were way out of line.  The law says that it doesn't matter how the insurance sticker is labled.  It says private on the front, it is owned by a private group - IT'S PRIVATE!  He told us to get receipts, officer names, badge ID numbers, and pictures if possible of all the officers involved.  I had also called a friend of our who lives in Naivasha (but who was still at RVA for the end of Home School Week) and he just happens to know the Officer in Charge of the Station - who he called. 

So, when Roger went back in to get Badge numbers, he asked for the OCP (Officer in charge of the police), went looking for him, couldn't find him, but found another officer that seemed on the up-and-up and who made an effort to help him.  When they went back into the main office, the officers there had received a couple of phone calls from some important people and were already filling out paper work to let Roger go free completely.  They gave him a written warning - which he didn't sign - gave his bail money back and said, "Get out of here."  They were not happy with him!  So - Roger doesn't have to go to court :-)  Yeah!  And Roger's not in jail :-)  DOUBLE YEAH!!!!

A couple hours later we pulled into Nakuru for lunch - ate at a lovely little cafe and had a cock-roach crawling on our table.  That was fun.

Then, 4 1/2 hours later we pulled into Eldoret and stopped at a hospital there because Josiah had gotten so sick.

One hour and 20 minutes later we arrived back in Kitale where Amy's husband had made dinner for all us weary travelers; home made soup and biscuits and even a butternut-pecan cake with home made chocolate frosting to celebrate Mother's Day.  Did I mention how happy we are to be home???

Arrived home, went to see our new puppy and got to hold him and congratulate our Annie on her first Mother's Day :-)