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pictures

now that i'm back and you really don't care about this blog anymore, i thought i'd post some pictures. i put a bunch of them on facebook and i'll put up a link to the albums. i wish i had something moving to say about my trip but i think if i start writing i'll write for a couple hours, so i'm gonna give it a couple days before i attempt to sum anything up. thanks for all your comments and emails while i was gone, seriously it was always amazing to hear from home.

love you guys,
---kev

http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2134322&l=a5016&id=2501706

http://ucla.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2139967&l=cc957&id=2501706

but if you want to wait until i can show you the pictures in person that would be way more fun.

nairobi

hey all-
i'm writing to you from an overpriced internet cafe in the nairobi airport. our flight got delayed 2, so we don't take off for at least another 4 hours. so i get another couple hours here in kenya. this last week feels like it lasted about an hour. i'm sitting here trying to remeb\mber all that happened and it's just a blur. i'll just give you the most important events.
on wednesday i went out and did some street ministry by myself. i just hung out with boys and talked to them, watched them deal glue, bought them some food, and prayed with them. i hadn't really cried too much this whole trip. when i got back from the streets into dave's office i just shut myself in and wept. it just destroyed me. i think the reason that it hit me so bad was that i just decided to go talk to the kids on a whim. i hadn't really prepared myself for it, and even morethan that, it didn't feel like an event. somehow the planned street ministry on saturday felt like an exception, but wednesday was just like any other day. it could have been tuesday or sunday or 2 years from now and the desperation would have been the same. i don't know if that makes any sense but that's the only way i can rationalize how it affected me. it was the sense of normalcy attached to the abject poverty that got me.
then the next day i got to say goodbye to gerald and ithagu (and james and john and sarah). that was just so hard. my only consolatin is that i know i'm coming back. my time is expiring. i don't want to pay anymore. i'll write when i get home.



kev

the home stretch

hey all-
it's a beautiful tuesday morning in nakuru. life is great, and it's been another packed week. i'm getting to the end of my time here and it's just really weird to think that i'm going back to america. that i'll be leaving gerald. it would be a lot harder if i didn't know for sure that i'd be coming back. there's no way i can stay away from this place.

here's a quick rundown of the highlights from this last week. staff dominated kids in the wednesday soccer match 3-0. chad, anthony, and i scored. i love seizing every opportunity to ruin the kids self-esteem. i feel like that's why god brought me here.

i spent most of thursday and friday running around with dave getting stuff ready for the team. saturday was really cool. we started with street ministry, where we went to a couple different "bases" where street kids live and hang out and had a little church service, hung out with kids, and handed out food. it was good to see the kids in their natural environments rather than just street church. it was cool to go deliver food, rather than have them come to us. i liked the dynamic a lot.

then we went to the dump for a service. to be honest i wasn't excited about going to the dump at all. i almost didn't go. i had gone with dave a couple days earlier to talk to the people there and let them know that a team was coming on saturday and it just rocked me. we went in to the caves where they brew illegal alcohol out of the worst things you can imagine, and talked to the brewers for a while. i felt like a tourist in hell. it's hard becasue god really hit me with the depth of the desperation of poverty while i was there. i think spending most of my time at rohi kind of put me in a safe little bubble, where the kids were clean and taken care of, and i forgot that there are so many other hurting people NOT being helped by rohi. please don't read this as an indictment of rohi-there's too much need for one organization, and the last thing they should do is to get distracted from what they're called to do-it's just hard to not feel like a part of the solution. anyway the service on saturday was great. both times i went i was surprised by the genuine joy these perople have, but on saturday there were like 300 people there and everyone was happy, and we handed out a lot of food and supplies and had a lot of great conversations.

then we headed back to rohi for the rohi staff soccer match vs some other church whose name i can't remember. it was really fun. sunday was church at rohi, then the rescue center, then street church. it's been so cool to get to know then team while they've been here and they had some amazing testimonies to share with the kids. it was great.

yesterday we spent most of the day with the guardians of a couple kids at rohi. we built a couple goat sheds, and gave them goats and food and supplies, it was one of the coolest things i've done on this entire trip. the families were so great. i just loved it.

well this has been about the longest blog ever. if you've skimmed it and are just reading the end here, well congratulations, you've done exactly what i would have done. if you've read every word, well then thanks mom. i'm home saturday afternoon

pray for safety, as nakuru isn't exactly the least dangerous place on earth right now. pray for the team, as today is their last day with the kids. thanks for all your prayers, keep em comin.

love you guys,
---kev

be mine.

hey all,
not too much to report, other than the fact that life is great. i've had the opportunity to speak several times now and that has been awesome. i've basically been tagging along with dave for a couple days now and that has been really enlightening. it's been good to see everything he encounters on a normal day, from meeting with street kids, to visiting the dump to pray with people, to repeatedly visiting the power complany trying to get power hooked up for the staff housing at rohi.
today we have a staff vs. kids soccer match, and i'm on the staff team, so bank on a kids victory. i do however plan on winning the trash-talking battle. they're not too good at that here. i'm teaching them. it's my spiritual gift.
the team is here and they're awesome. it's fun not to be the new guy, and to get to show them around. they all seem to think that i know much more than i actually do. pray for everyone's health. also for all the muthua's-that god continues to bless them and give them guidance. they're the greatest people.

may the lord bless you and keep you!! may his face shine down upon you and give you peace!!

love you guys,
---kev

i'm lovin this passage right now. enjoy.

isaiah 40

Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD's hand
double for all her sins.

A voice of one calling:
"In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.

And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

all things equatorial

hey all-
sorry it's been a while since i posted (i know life in america just stops without news from me). everything is great. it really is. every day consists of washing dishes, teaching, and a lot of playing with kids. i wish there was some way to describe how great it is just to be with these kids.
i wish i could say that i'm having this huge impact,but i feel like they're changing me way more than i am affecting them. i've got to spend a lot of one on one time with a lot of the kids, and that has absolutely been the most rewarding aspect of this trip. the stories these kids have-they've endured more at the age of 8 than i probably ever will-and yet all they'll talk to you about is how great their life is, and how it's ok becasue their hope is in jesus. kids whose parents died of aids, whose parents are in jail, who were left for dead, abandoned, ignored,abused, and raped. but they're ok. they're more than ok, they're happy. and smart. and funny. and beautiful. and oh! and hearing them sing! holy freakin crap it's so cool. i think the only way to really get it is to come. so come. i'll come back with you.

speaking of amazing things, on wednesday and thursday, chad, jaime and i went on a safari. there's nothing in the world like the serengeti. i'm hopefully gonna post some pictures because there's no way i could describe it to you. i saw like 20 lions, even more giraffes, hippos, and elephants. i saw the world's most disgusting bird, some pumbaas, dic dics, impalas, and about a hundred zebras. it was incredible.

one thing that kept coming back to me was that i love how god isn't just about function. he's creative. i've been going through exodus and as the israelites leave egypt it seems like god just keeps trying to outdo himself. "yes i'll free you from slavery, but i'll also make sure you can bring all your possessions. and your livestock. and you'll leave with a bunch of valuables from the egyptians. yea they'll just give them to you. and i'll show everyone my awesome power and my protection over you through the plagues. and then i'll go before you in a cloud and a freakin pillar of fire. then i'm thinkin i'll part the red sea so you can walk across, and close it behind you to keep you safe and keep you moving. that not enough? ok i'll make water come from a rock and bread fall from the sky." he is not the god of the bare minimum. he's not just interested in results. he wants to take you there and blow your mind doing it. that thought kept coming back to me as i was looking at all the animals. they're just so beautifully unneccesary. so perfectly frivolous. i love it. god exists not only to preserve us but to excite us.

the other thing god was hitting me with (god has to hit me or i don't pay attention) is that the serengeti, in my mind the natural pinnacle of divine creativity, pales when compared with the cross. the solution to sin is the most ingenuitive miracle god has ever pulled off. he tempered justice with grace without compromising either aspect of his character. how sweet is that. that's it. everything else is just icing. icing with a fifteen foot neck and awesome coloring, but icing nonetheless.

street church is tomorrow. every sunday dave and kimberly and many others set up in the little town square in nakuru. they give out prayer and love and food. to be honest it was really hard for me last week. when the food starts to run out it can get violent, and we have to make sure that everyone gets some, and that one person doesn't take 6 plates. i had to shove hungry people away from food. sure, they've already had a serving but still, they're just hungry. this might be the only thing they've eaten for a couple of days. that just rocked me. it's so hard to be the only thing standing between a hungry man and food. the kids that show up street church- that's what gets you the most. they sniff glue all day to dull their hunger. it's really hard to watch. it's so hard to not get intimidated by the size of the problem. to just give up because the problem is too big. anyway, i'm the speaker for street church tomorrow. so pray for me. i'm really intimidated. pray for everyone's health, we're all feelin a little weird.


love you guys,
---kev

hey so i tried for like an hour to post some pictures but the internet is too slow. sorry. maybe wednesday.

i'm finally here.

hey all-
i'm writing to you from a cyber cafe in nakuru. it's pretty amazing. i can't help but notice the two ladies next to me who are enthralled by an email chain letter. apparently her cousin in ivory coast, son of a rish diamond tycoon, needs her money so that they can share his dead father's fortune. it's so weird because my cousin in ghana just had a very similar experience. i just hope he got my check.
i wish i could explain to you how amazing this trip has been thus far. the highlight thus far has definitely been meeting the boy i sponsor, gerald morito. he's seriously the coolest one there. i'm not even biased. he's the kindest sweetest kid. he just holds my hand everywhere i go. i love it. if anyone has the chance to sponsor a kid, do it. it's amazing. they just got some new boys too, so i think you can call cornerstone and set it up. do it. in other news equally as important- i just found out that ucla beat oregon. booyah.
i would also like to share with you that a miracle has happened. no not someone's life being saved, or someone being healed, those are far too easy for god. so we were teaching the kids how to play knockout, and my friend jaime decided to tell everyone that i was going to teach them how to slam dunk. for those lucky few who have had the chance to see me with my shirt off, i'm about as white as they come. i can't even touch the rim. but i thought i'd miss and at least everyone would get a laugh out of it. and that's when god, in all his infinite wisdom, decided that the best use of his unending power would be to make me fly. i threw it down. it was nothing short of amazing. now you might ask, why are you telling us this, of all things, while your're halfway across the world. because i'm self-absorbed. it's as simple as that.
seriously though--these kids. geez. they're unbelievable. i've been here for just more than 2 days and they don't stop blowing me away. it's been the most humbling experience of my ife. god is just so big. he just constantly reminds me of that-whether we're playing 7 on 7 soccer or praying with the street boys or washing dishes. he's established this little bastion of hope in the midst of abject poverty, and the contrast is astounding. ROHI and Dave and Kimberly Shields, and all the people who work here, are the very definition of a light that shines in the darkness. Pray for Dave and Kimberly, that god blesses them and encourages them. they are so selfless. life is amazing. thanks for all your prayers. keep em coming.


love you guys
---kev


ps how cool is it to serve god. his heart for the sick and the needy, the homeless and the hungry- how great is that. this sounds really dorky. i guess i can't write what i feel. meh.

6 more hours

hey all(mom)-
it's 3:21am in london, and i'm lookin at about 3 more hours until it's time for me to pack up and head to the airport. my dad is snoring unimaginably loud. he can't seriously be this ridiculous. i keep looking back to see if he's playing a joke on me. but it looks like god's playing a joke on me.
today we went to see liverpool vs. west ham. it was awesome. liverpool won 2-1, the crowd was absolutely nuts, and it was seriously one of the coolest things i've ever done. i absolutely loved it. if only tyler could have been there too.
so now i'm completely focused on kenya. more and more god is quieting my fears. anxiety and doubt about my ability to be of any help are slowly giving way to trust. slowly. tonight god has really been calming me by reminding me of his reliability. it's so cool to serve a god who isn't moody. it would just suck to worship a god that suffers from human weakness. it's so amazing to know that god will sustain me, because that is his character. that he will be faithful, because he is a loving god. that he will be strong in my weakness, because that is his nature. i love it. i couldn't have it any other way. pray for dave shields- he's coming to pick me up from the airport. pray that he's safe on the way there (the roads are a bit dangerous). pray that everything goes smoothly for me getting into kenya. thanks for all your prayers. keep em coming.

love you guys
---kev

in the motherland

hey all-
i've successfully made it across the pond to london. i'll be here for a couple days with my brother and my dad before i head to kenya. there isn't too much to report just yet, but seriously with every minute i get more and more excited about being at ROHI. i'm getting really pumped to be a small part of god's big plan for those kids, and through them---kenya, africa, and the world. pray that god continues to teach me what it means to really love, expecting nothing back. pray for the kids, that they can continue to cling to jesus (i guess if you really wanna pray that for me, you can too). thanks for all your prayers, keep em coming.

love you guys,
---kev

ps. so ROHI participated in national and regional standardized testing this past november for the first time, and the only scores they've gotten back are for grades 1-4 i believe, and out of 30+ public and private schools in their region, ROHI scored best. number 1. in like every category. and these are kids who have literally come from the streets. praise god for his power to heal and redeem! seriously how cool is that. i love it.

pps. ucla lost to stanford? what? i leave for five minutes and the world goes crazy.