  I know it doesn't really make sense to have two blogs, especially when they are both sort of journals of mine. It seems there is a sort of trend of whinning, complaining and superiority on my other blog that I'm not sure how to dig my way out of on that blog. Another thing that I don't really like about my other blog is that you would hardly know that I am a believer in Christ when reading it. So, this blog is actually going to be part journal and part prayer journal. Right now, I want to write about my friends in Kenya. Kim, Carla, Jeff, Matt and Sarah. I met Carla back in '95 (or maybe it was '93 or '94 I don't really remember as I wasn't really sure what role God would play in my life back then,) I remembered her as the one with the poofy red hair and singing voice that could fill a room. I remember going carolling with Carla, Rod, Bobbi, and Randy (I think,) and it being very cold, but just loving to watch Rod jump up and down and to hear Carla belt out the notes. I didn't come back to Instep church for nearly eight years. I didn't really get to know Carla when she was at Instep. So, I had no idea that she had a missionary's heart. It's strange, but for not knowing her all that well, I really miss having her and her daughter sing in front of the church.
Not that Rod and Bobbi aren't doing a great job, they are doing a great job. I just miss Carla and Sarah. I wanted to make a quilt for Carla, but as she's already getting a quilt from her sisters, I've decided that prayer is the only thing I can really send her and her family. Which I suppose isn't so bad as she just asked for prayer at the bottom of her most recent e-mail.
I didn't really get to know Sarah, Carla's daughter that well, either. I just loved listening to her voice as much as I loved listening to her mom's. I also loved hearing about her travels to various countries to bring the Word of God to people that so desperately need it. The stories I have heard are awesome. How cool would it be to talk to someone about the Bible that knows nothing about it?! I did get to talk to Jeff more than a few times. I told Jeff about how I was shot and we talked for quite a while about where he used to go to shoot target practice.
It was an interesting and fun conversation. Jeff is waaay cool and I miss him, too. I also got to know Matt a little bit after his family left for Africa and before he left for Africa himself. You see, my husband doesn't attend church and my family is all pretty much catholic and they don't attend church often, so while my friends are in Sunday School, I spend my time alone in the foyer. On a couple of occasions, Matt stood with me by the window into the sanctuary and we talked about random things. I felt really at home talking to him and while I'll miss talking to him, I'm really glad that he's with his family. It's tough to be separated from your family. I know because that's pretty much the way that I have always lived.
Kim, I got to know most out of all of our missionaries in Africa. Kim was a part of our Share group. Kim is a tiny thing with a slight frame, but with a heart far bigger than her features will tell. Her family, like mine, doesn't really attend church, so I was able to relate to her a lot while she was with us. I was a little worried for her before she left, but I know she's in a wonderful place now. Or sort of, anyway.
It's wonderful for them because they get to share the Word of God and they get to help meet people's needs. What's not so wonderful is how great the need is. The country in Africa in which they are currently staying is poverty stricken. In their most recent e-mail, Carla wrote to tell us that one of the ladies that they have provided medication for is doing well.
She wrote on to tell us that her medication costs $60.00 a year. That's all. That's all that separates this woman from being able to communicate with her family and use her limbs and from having her arms locked up next to her body, unable to speak. Because her family can't provide what is less than one fourth of the average American pay check, this woman has spent much of her life in a sort of shell.
I'm glad that Jeff and Carla are there to provide for that need. It's heartbreaking to think that woman had to live that way for want of a few cents a day. They also told us about the fact that in the town in which they live, there is no permanent solution to their waste management situation. Can you imagine that?! Imagine for a second that the garbage that you have collected over the week didn't get picked up by the garbage man, now imagine that week became two weeks, the two weeks became three, the three weeks became a month, the month became a year! Imagine all that garbage piled up outside your house in the streets. Jeff and Carla dug a big pit and with the help of some villagers, began to toss the garbage into the pit and got the street reasonably clean, but imagine having to do that all the time because they don't have a landfill or anyone to come collect or any way to collect the garbage. Even worse than that is the condition of the hospital. In their most recent e-mail, Carla mentioned that 80 children came down with malaria.
Inside the hospital, those 80 children all lay four children to a twin size bed with no sheets. Think of how easy it would be to bring a child in for a simple head cold with fever, then to bring that child out with something far worse. It's a reality there. There are beds enough to comply with the need for sanitization. Their parents also sleep next to or on the bed because they are the ones that go to the pharmacy, bring back the medicine and administer it to their children.
Can you imagine that?
The hospitals can't afford to werehouse medication, so the parents have to pay the pharmacies for the medication and bring it back to the hospital. Then, they have to administer it themselves because there are too few doctors to attend to the needs of individual patients. They diagnose someone, fill out a prescription, move on.
. . .
Then, there's the matter of their water.
Most villages have their water come from a spring in the ground that can mix with the mud. Jeff and Carla helped put in stuff that would keep the spring for one village clean and clear of the parasites that send people to the hospital in the first place. But there are several other villages that need the same supplies, but the supplies cost $1,100 dollars.
. . .
The need in that place is so great, I wonder how God is going to move to have Jeff and Carla supply for it. I'll just keep praying and try to remind myself that when things seem to become difficult here, how much more difficult they are for people somewhere else. 
