November 10^th, 2011

Hello everyone,

We have been in Nairobi for almost 3 days and things have been very surreal. The woman that picked us up from the airport has spent time in the bush of Sudan with a group of people who live in a village that is now targeted by the North Sudanese. Background on what I am going to tell you: She came out 6 months ago when things got very dangerous. The village she was in had a Christian Sudanese pastor and wife with 5 children the youngest being 2 months old at this time and they were escaping to go further to the south. Two men one from the states and one from Great Britain went in last week to find them and bring them out of the danger zone. So the day we arrived, Monday evening, we were in a store getting groceries when she got a text message the wife of the man from GB, saying that her husband had called by Sat. phone to say they were being bombed and people were dying and injured all around them. Karin, the woman who picked us up, read this and just started weeping because there was no way for her to help them, physically. We all started praying and were so sobered that just hundreds of miles from us, people are leaving everything they know to save their lives because some tribe wants to annihilate them. We so do not have a clue of what a challenged life looks like. We have heard that the two men and the family have made their way to a town that so far hasn't been bombed yet. Please pray for them all. The man from the USA has had a fever for days, is a medic but doesn't know what is wrong.

We got the definitive answer from the UN today. It was NO, the rains have come, the camp is flooded, cholera has broken out, dysentery is rampant and the camp is basically a cesspool. Oh I cannot imagine what it must be like to be trapped in there with no way out. It was explained to us that the security is so thin that none could be sparred to work for our group. So God has answered our request. We are praying about going into northern Kenya or to work just in the slums of Nairobi. We so appreciate your prayers for our time here.

We met a young man who stayed at the place we are staying from South Sudan. He and his wife have a ministry there called "In Deed and Truth" He had been at a conference in California and so stayed here on his way back home. Lyle and I had the most amazing time with him last night, and he knows Giir (for those of you who know Giir). What a small world it is!! The focus of their ministry is discipleship and they have made this such a focal point that every patient that comes to the medical clinic in their village is referred to a pastor who is there as well as for physical treatment. We very much connected with his heart. Please pray for this ministry.

There is a young man from Ethiopia staying with us here with his two young girls, 5 and 3. His father named him to be a spiritual leader of a mosque and he was one, and says he actually killed Christians for Allah. God came to him and he gave his life to Jesus all the way!! There is a bounty on his life in Ethiopia, and his wife left him and his girls. He has dedicated his life to making Christians out of Muslims, and God has blessed his efforts. Please pray for them. The girls are sooooo precious. They climb in my lap and snuggle in so much. Oh I am enjoying this!!

We have had no water from the city since we have been here, so we have had to ration water, we are all a little ripe:) because of no showers. Reminds me of a couple of Nica trips. Right now we are having a water truck pump water into our existing tanks. Hopefully a shower soon.

We met with the head of the East Africa AIM branch today, and she asked if we had considered teaching over here. That thought hadn't even been a trickle in our brains and it showed on our faces. She said that secondary (high) schools welcome mzungu as English teachers. She said that they have had requests from schools for this kind of teachers...So we will add that to our list to pray for.

This is Lyle....This time has been quite interesting to say the least. We expected to come to Kenya and hopefully start doing some kind of preparation for the trip. As it turned out a local Doctor and a journalist who was also going to go to Dadaab with us were already working on the arrangements, so there was nothing to be done. As Ingrid explained, that door ended up being closed quite tightly. Now we are continuing to wait. Dr. Kelley won't be here until Saturday, so we are still in a holding pattern. Waiting to see what happens next seems pointless, yet God is so good in letting us know who is in control!

One of the things He has shown me the last few days is that no matter how far we travel, to God this vast world we live in is not so vast. When we arrived at Nairobi airport, traffic had kept our ride from arriving on time. Waiting in the same location as us was a young lady that Ingrid and I began talking to. As it turns out she grew up in the same place I did and even went to the same High School. I thought that was so amazing. Then it turned out that she had spent six months at New Hope Uganda, the first place we visited. She writes curriculum for universities and secondary schools. Later on, as Ingrid explained, we met a gentleman who was from Southern Sudan who knew Giir. What are the chances of meeting someone from a foreign country who knew the only other person we knew from that country!!!

Here is the lesson....what seems vast to us is a small thing for our Lord. Distance is not so distant. Time is not so long. What is big and impossible for us is ordinary for Him. He is in total control. When we walk with Him and surrender to His will in our lives we can trust every detail of our lives to Him. Nothing catches Him by surprise and everything has a good purpose in His eternal will.

Now, having said that, pray that I am really able to keep this in mind and live it out in my heart as Ingrid and I pray for God's direction in our future!!

We love you all and thanks for your prayers and love,

Lyle and Ingrid