Going to Kenya again

To all our friends joining in this effort we send our most gracious thank you. As we go forward in this journey we are finding more and more just how evident is the hand of an authority outside our understanding and vision. Many of us have a belief in a transcendent authority, we believe in this God and in the scriptures as evidenced in the Bible. It is impossible, I think, to find any stability for this effort in any other view.

We go forward in Faith, not in ourselves but rather in a purpose beyond our own.

Much is happening, so, this may be a rather long message. I believe you will be blessed by what is happening and by what others share about the expedition experience.

I hope you are considering the possibility of joining our next expedition scheduled for early October. We will be departing no later than October 5th and returning no later than October 19th. We are planning to allow for a two day and two night diversion for Safari in the Masi Mara if the travelers desire. We will be spending at least three days in the village. We may stay longer in the village; this too will depend on the makeup of the traveling group.

Here is a comment from Terry Debay (one of the April travelers). If you know Terry you can appreciate I edited down some of his enthusiasm. However, his zeal still comes through. Terry is hoping to return with us in October.

From the moment we left Nairobi and started into the Rift Valley. I found it very hard to comprehend what I was seeing I was barely able to take it all in. The terrain was covered with "beautiful tea plantations”, open green fields..This beauty and majesty was totally unexpected.

The Cities were primitive, dirty, crowded yet seemed to explode with incredible Color...Yet, these were the most beautiful people you've ever seen I believe we all knew or sensed ...we were somehow related for eternity because of God's Love! That same bonding of the...spirit...and love prevailed...for the entire days we were there, together in Africa!

Selfishly, I can tell you that I can't wait to get back there and experience that.... "God created mutual love. There was and is "Nothing like it" to be found anywhere else in the world....... but when His Kingdom kids get together...!...That was the essence of this adventure to Rionchogu...and what it was all about...! Experiencing and sharing That Love!.....

Why don't you come along with us this October...I know! ....If you do...you'll catch a ton of this love too! I promise ya!...

I hope to bring you more information on the Lifewater International conference Alan Marcum and I attended on June 20–22, however most importantly I want you to hear words of the other travelers. I am most keenly sure, a great blessing from this effort will come to those who can journey with us, immerse themselves in the village life for a short while and meet, really meet, the men, women and children who are so blessed by our love and willingness to be Jesus in their midst.

Traveler Ecar Oden added;

I think one of the unique things about the team that went was Anastasia, Bud, I, and Terry, weren’t from one church, or one organization, that was sent out. We were actually from 4 different churches. And the Holy Spirit just worked in each of our lives. To have these little connections that brought us together once the request was made for a team to go. The unique personalities, the different experiences, the gifts that each of us have added to the experience. I knew I’d be changed by the people in the village, and that I would develop a deep, personal connection. What hadn’t occurred to me is how much of a deep, personal connection I was going to get from the people I traveled with. One of the scriptures that has come upon my heart, now that this trip is coming to an end, is in the Book of Micah, in the Bible, I think it’s Chapter 6, and in it a question is asked, “What does the Lord require of you?” And then it follows with an answer, “To seek justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” I can think of no place that I’ve ever been in my entire life, to be able to experience that, and practice that, than Rionchogu, which is known as a village despised.

Likewise we hear from our fourth and only woman in the group, Anastasia Hansel. A real trooper, her trip included additional challenges as she was the one left in Nairobi, one extra day, to bring the lost baggage. Why make the one woman stay behind? Well she was accompanied by our tour host, Mr. David Ngunjiri of David Tours and Car Hire Ltd, whom was highly trusted and all three of her bags had been left in London. She had very little for the trip to the village. Anastasia shares a few of her thoughts;

In the past the paradigm has been stay in a hotel and then we go out to the villages.. And I’ve been so aware that it’s one thing to visit the poor, it’s another thing to become immersed in their lives. Years ago, I wanted so much for the women to spend the night in the village, and none of them were willing to do it, and I, I did. I spent the night in the village that night. And I have, I have since said it was probably one of the most defining moments of my life that I would have missed out on. As I went to bed that night, and I heard two of the African women at my door – whatever it was – outside my window, just praying in Swahili, and the quiet African night, and just hearing them – it was – I just thought those other women really missed out on a transformational moment. And I think this past experience of spending four days and four nights actually in the village, where I was living – I was sleeping with the girls, the little orphan girls, and the last night, hearing them – we’d been singing Cumbaya, I’d brought my baritone Uke with me, and just hearing those girls, before they went to sleep, singing, “Cumbaya my Lord,”I will not forget.

There is nothing special about the travelers, except, they heard the Spirit and went. As the Bible says of Abraham; ‘not knowing where they were going’. My own experience is that God shows up when you are about His work. I hope you read in the words of the travelers, the blessings we received were greater than those we gave. In October we go again, who will go with us?

It is worth repeating that very early on, Alan Marcum was adamant, water and sanitation are extremely important to a positive outcome of our efforts. In what can only be described as a miracle of God’s hand, a close relative of mine mentioned his own relative by marriage happened to have lived in Kenya. This person just happened to have connection to a ministry called Lifewater International. It was during a first lunch with Tory walker that Alan decided to sign up for the water conference (this was in January I think), I took a while longer, and I signed up on June 16, four days prior to the beginning of the conference. I am not always the quickest on the uptake. Alan and I both learned much about the efforts of Lifewater International to bring better health through water, sanitation and hygiene training. What was more than I could have expected was the availability of two men, Edward Kiwanuka and Daudi Kaliisa, who very quickly agreed to communicate with and begin the interaction with Kiefa Ontiri to pursue the potential of a water and sanitation training project coming to the Rionchogu area. Edward is the Administrator for Deliverance Church, Uganda which is a Lifewater International Partner and Daudi is the Country project Coordinator for Lifewater International for Kenya. Who could think, this is just a coincidence.

At the conference we met many new friends, each of them called to the purpose of taking hope through health to people in many places. It is a natural fit for our common interest. I pray the days ahead will be walked in Faith according to His plan, as we continue our work.

Finally for this update I am attaching a brochure which we have produced in the hopes of providing some visual assistance, both to those of us here working on a regular basis and for you, for each of you, to hopefully print to give to others. I continue to believe this is a work which will be the product of many giving a little. I believe this with all I am. It is interesting, I saw today where one of the Presidential Candidates has erased all previously set records for campaign funding by gathering a very large number of people giving a small amount. For me, this is what I think we are to do as well. It has nothing to do with politics, everything to do with doing much with little. I pray we will all meet a few, even one or two, who will hear and say I will. In the brochure we say, and it is true, the cost of a Starbucks or a hotdog at the game, once a month will change the lives of this village. Today we can say, the cost of two gallons of gas. Once a month, this small amount from many will provide the schools, the health and the economic potential for thousands of villagers in Rionchogu and the surrounding area.

This may a request for the most drastic movement out of the comfort zone, would you tell a friend, about us, please.

May our God richly bless each and every one of you.

In His love and by His Grace,
Bud Potter