Vickie and I left the house early this morning to shop for the 14 student families on campus as I wasn't sure how well stocked the stores would be. Traffic was back to normal and on Thika Road, that means bumper to bumper busy. I never thought I would be happy to be in a bumper to bumper traffic but I was!! At least, it is an indication that life is back to normal....for most people anyways.
We were in the grocery store for a full two hours as we collected basic groceries items, after we were done shopping, we went to a favorite coffee shop for a break!
We filled our little car with bags and bags of groceries....which we unloaded in our dining room.
The girls help sort out the goodies and put them in individual bags for each families.. 
This is Bashir, she is from Sudan.
Desta who is here with two little boys is from Ethiopia
Rejoice (pretty name, huh?) from Sudan (farthest from Tony) and Beatrice from Congo.
Bethlehem from Ethiopia
There were other families from Rwanda, Tanzania as well as from Kenya.
When we were at the checkout line, the cashier asked me how many people I am feeding - he has seen me there almost daily! - I told him, as many as we can! Lucy, from our orphanage will be coming this afternoon and we have a nice sum of money for her to stock up on food and supplies. We will start school at the orphanage next Monday like all other schools. We are glad that through offerings we have received during these few weeks, that we can help her substantially with that.
There were times this week that I had felt quite nervous as money was going through my hands like water! However, as we keep "spending", our faithful friends and supporters keep topping us up - it's an amazing faith walk! God is good!
Since the beginning of the year, in the midst of these troubles, the Lord has been speaking to me through EPh 5:2 - Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with Him and learn to live a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us, His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.
Isn't that a tremendous challenge and inspiration - to love extravagantly and without caution. This goes in line with what the Lord taught me in 2007 - living a poured out life - those who heard me preach this will know what I am talking about..and now being poured out is not enough, the Lord is challenging me to go beyond that and to learn to love like Him. What an exciting challenge....and I need a lot of work!
The country seemed to have calm down quite a bit the last couple of days. Last night, riots started again in the troubled areas when the President named his cabinet ahead of the mediation talks with the opposition. That brought a lot of confusion and some of feel like we are back to square one. I know that there is no easy answer to the situation but it seems like instead of solving the problems, the parties involved are intent on complicating it further.
We continue to hear about people affected by the violence. One of the cleaners who works in the University told me that she has 26 people living in her house and that her brother was slashed in his leg when he was attacked. He is on crutches right now but need further treatment.. It is uminaginable to me how she would be able to feed all these additional peoplee with the same income. We continue to try to help as many as we can in whatever ways we can.....what a good opportunity for me to learn how to love as He loves as we share our resources, prayers and encouragement to all in need.
Thank you for all your prayers and support...know that we are simply your hands extended as we share your resources with our african family! Thank you.
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