Life Abundant for Mothers and Babies- sounds pretty good right?

I had a wonderful opportunity to tag along with nurses Shaune and Kath and Cindy and Katie as they provided health training and education to children and young adults in another part of aThailand along the border. I was kind of the "games and activities" girl and pulled from years of camp counseling to keep the kids' attention spans sharp!

FYI: Germ tag is going to start a Public health revolution!! I'll play with you any time and then get really excited to explain the microbial world to you!

IMPORTANT!! Stuff To Pray For!

John and Nancy, send their greeting to you all. Both of them, along with Mark and I, have decided to get together and pray for about 2 hours every morning! I have to admit this will be more than I've ever prayed before. At first I was wondering about what we could possibly pray about that would take 2 hours every morning. Well, here it is:

1. House Rent (for which we have no money. It's due in about a week!)
   
2. Sauce Pans (We only have one that doesn't leak and it's wearin away fast)
   
3. Healthy varieties of FOOD (Beans and maize, three meals a day, for three weeks so far w/ occasional fruit)
   
4. Funds for school exams
   
5. Clippers! (for the kids hair. Evidently having anything more than a shaved head is shabby)
   
6. Funds for cell phone use (for social and safety reasons. Remember we have no electricity)
   
7. Firewood (for cooking the food we have)
   
8. Gas for lanterns (especially important for praising, study and eating after 6:00)
   
9. Children's Neccesities (Lotion, toothpaste, laundry soap, bathing soap, shoe polish, t.p.)
   
10. For God to raise up partners, supportors and friends for AMCC
    
11. What to do with the income generating projects (chickens? rice fields? cows? small business?)
    
12. A Self-Sustaining Project (This differs from and income-generating project in that it is something done that may not make a profit but will cut costs instead)
    
13. Upcomming Fundraising Project! (this is mostly for food to last through the year)
    
14. LAND! LAND! LAND! (There seems to be so many possibilities if we only had some LAND!)
    
15. Replacement workers and volunteers for AMCC
    
16. Funds to pay replacement workers
    
17. John Muhika (specifically for his chronic back pain and for good relationship with his family who lives in another town due to children's educational need)
    
18. The enemies of AMCC
    
19. Against any spiritual enemy or power of darkness
    
20. Intimacey in relationship within and amongst the staff and children
    
21. Health for the children and staff (getting sick is a serious threat because there is no health fund)
    
22. Future school fees for the children going to high-school next year
    
23. Wisdom in setting up a bank account
    
24. Vehicle for AMCC
    
25. That Mark and I would be more of an asset to the community supporting AMCC rather than a detriment
    
26. Wisdom and direction in decision-making
    
27. Strenght in Unity, Patience, Faith and Love for each of us at AMCC
    

Please pray with us over any of these issues! I know there's a lot here so I don't expect any of you to pray for them all, but pick a few please! It means so much to pray and it's so good for us to be asking the Lord for His Kingdom to come together.

As the Lord answers these requests and petitions, I will be updating the blog. The Father is so good! Till then...

Hello friends! John and Nancy greet you all in the Lord Jesus Christ! There have been some exciting things happening lately at AMCC.

Last week, one of the kids ran away because he was made fun of by his peers for speaking his mother tongue at school rather than Swahili or English. This is against the rules in school and here at AMCC. We prayed for him that night and found out before we went to bed that he was picked up by a paster about 6 kilometers away. Apearantly he had run away because he didin't want to face the shame of being kicked out of AMCC. Early the next morning, Mark and I had the duty to go and retrieve him because Pastor John's back has been giving him some serious problems lately. So Mark and I made the hike, thanked the pastor and started toward home with Jeffrey walking between us.

We told him that we loved him as our own little brother and that there was nothing he could do to make us love him less. As we spoke to Jeffrey, he started to cry and my heart began to melt. At this moment I felt the closest to being a parent as I had ever before. We assured him that he was still a good boy and that having good character didn't mean one was always perfect, but rather one faced his mistakes when he made them.

There is no doubt, I am growing closer to these children. They have always been my little brothers and sisters in Christ, even before I knew them, but now I'm beginning to feel it. At night, Mark and I take turns doing the night watch. We go to each room with a flashlight 5 times throughout the night and check to see whether they are covered or not. You see, currently AMCC doesn't have a bank account, let alone any saved money. If one of the children gets sick and has to go to the hospital, they have no money to pay the bill. So to prevent this, we make sure they're nice and cozy in their blankets.

We're also learning how to cook gethari! Whoo hoo! Straight up maize and beans. I think we're on week three for having gethari for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mark and I had to pass a health inspection to work in the kitchen, which also carries the requirement of wearing an apron during preparation!

Thankfully, over the past week, we've gone to meet John's parents down the road and also to see his family who lives in the town where his daughter is going to school. At both places they served us way too much food, and it was extra delicious.

Among other things, Mark and I have helped pull water from the well and to carry firewood. I was trying to do it the native way with the rope around my head. I didn't realize why all the Kenyans were standing along the roadside laughing (more than usual) unitl I met another Kenyan friend who informed me that only women carry the wood this way. :P He told me that men carry it on their shoulders. So I chuckled, nodded at the laughing Kenyans and repositioned the wood on my shoulders. This was evidently more amusing than carrying wood like a woman. They laughed all the more, only this time it was accompanied with applause. Sometimes I feel like I might as well be a circus clown on a unicycle jugling fire. Even if they aren't laughing, they seem to stare almost as if they are in awe.

The greatest news lately is that AMCC has just been granted, by the government, to go from a Community Based Organization (CBO) to an actual Government Childrens Center! What this means exactly, I don't know yet. But what I do know is that the government has been keeping a close eye on AMCC for the last two years and AMCC has passed all the neccessary requirements to achieve this status. So it must be a good thing.

About the chickens...It's gonna be really tuff cause AMCC doesn't actually own any land and the space that we have isn't adequate to support chickens. We have heard of a rice field oportunity though. According to the information that we have currently, one can make a 200% profit after the first harvest. It sounds too good to be true, but so do many of the Lord's greatest blessings. More about the rice fields later.

This update was written a bit later than I had expected, but the last time we had access to the internet, Mark was typing away while I was frequenting the toilet! Praise God that's overwith! And I don't think I'll experiment with drinking the water again.

On Wednesday we're going to look at the rice fields! Please pray that we can use these as a means of self-sustainability for AMCC. Till then...

Jesus is the King!

Partners staff retreat

Well, I just began volunteering with Partners and one of the first things I get to do is go on their awesome staff retreat! It was a blast and such a perfect opportunity for me to get to know the heart of Partners and its people. Let me tell you, I'm hooked. How do you get so many cool people to work in one place? They will never get me to leave!

Oh yeah, above is our team's border hopping Jet pack. Email me to place orders, they're going fast!

Orange Power!

The thing about pastors or any Christian clergyman in general, is that
even if they wear some sort of robe or distinguishing dress, it falls
into the color palate of “neutrals” or “shades of black.” Revered men
in Buddhism however, are most commonly found in the unmistakable fall
colors of a beautiful ripe Halloween pumpkin, with touches of saffron
and crimson here and there. (OU fans can be monks occasionally I
guess...) They are of course unmistakable when seen this way as well
as bald headed, barefoot and constantly have people prostrated before
them or offering food. I am apologetic when I say that in the last
seven months I have remained in a state of suspicion and dismissal
when it comes to this large population of men I am not allowed to
touch.


























Something funny happens to those who fear God, as He enjoys taking the
very thing that makes them uncomfortable, and transforms it into an
opportunity for them to be reduced to nothing but love without
prejudice. So, here is a quick account of a March weekend for you.

As I have begun visiting the office of Partners (I won’t describe
their work in more detail as I want you to go yourself to their
website and hopefully be as compelled by their work as I was
www.partnersworld.org), I was invited on an allusive trip to a place I
couldn’t remember to do some task that I wasn’t really sure about.
(I’m pretty sure that is exactly how I described it to my dad and
anyone else who asked me where I was going) I ended up the morning of
in a van with five others driving up to Mae Sai which is a town on the
Thai/Burmese border which I was endeared to up until this point only
for their super cheap DVDs and a coffee shop where one of my Thai
friends works. We arrived at a temple/monastery and encountered a
classroom with seven robed men sitting on the floor awaiting wisdom
and discussion.
I described the weekend in more detail in an email and you can ask me personally for more details...

Something else occurred during these trainings that had significance
on planes that can’t be seen or studied. A barrier broke and a
connection was made mainly through one of our Partners staff,
who is an excellent Thai speaker and learned much of it talking with
monks, so for a foreigner, has a broad grasp of the intricacies of
Buddhist worldview. Mysteriously though the duration of this training,
the Partners staff and all of the monks morphed into a little
family and at the end of the training the monks all agreed and said
that we had “brought light from Heaven to their dark place.” When
offered money and resources, they asked for none, only knowledge to
share and ensure the freedom of their people.



















From this point on, although I know in every group there are good and
bad, I no longer see bald heads and strange robes, I see men who are
searching for truth, who come from real lives and want to teach others
and have the same appreciation for a bright obnoxious color that I do.
I encourage you today to step across what seem the most impossible of
boundaries and ask to see people as God sees them and love them truly.









































In other news, moving out of the childrens’ home to a lovely refuge
with an Australian friend and a warm shower, grabbing my last visa
from Laos, loving Partners and the people therein and getting to tag
along with med stuff, and planning my journey home which will involve
helping to work at an orphanage in Kenya for about a month with Nick
Jackson and filling in as needed when he goes back to the States for a
week or so. I should be coming home at the end of July!

Please pray for me as I journey April 13 to a camp for displaced
people to share
about Leadership and Jesus for about ten days! I need protection, wisdom
for how to put together the program and words from the Holy Spirit as
I go! Also, please pray for God’s provision for the children at Dawn
of Life Children’s home here and for the children of AMCC of Kenya.

Love,
Maggs

How bout chickens?

(For some reason the kids love feeling my mzungu hair)

Hello my few and faithful blog readers! Just wanted to show a few more pics and let you know where we are in the situation. (Picking beans again)
Mark and I, after broken hours of discussion and prayer, decided to scrounge up $500 dollars (40,000 Kenyan shillings) and give the money to AMCC. Part of the money was from Bloom, my sending church in Denver, and the rest was left over from a benefit concert Mark put on a few months ago.

(A bridge we cross to get to electricity, 30 min hike)
We're still trying to hang on to the $900 that Mark and I set aside to help start a sustainable food project. This money came from Bloom, Grace World Outreach (home church in Oklahoma!) and many other much appreciated friends and families.

We should be alright on food for about 6 weeks or so now, but we really need to get crackin on that project. We're thinkin chickens! How fun would that be!?

If you guys have any suggestions, we're all ears. Please pray for us to do the right project. And if that's chickens, pray they won't die, cause I hear chickens like to do that a lot. I hope to be writing another update Friday. Till then...

(Imagine a 14 passenger vehicle with 24 people!)

THE LORD IS GOOD!!!

Life here is very..."missionary-like" for lack of a better term. We have no electricity or running water. We take baths out of the same basin we wash our clothes in (by hand), and we squat to poop in a hole. To make tea in the morning we have to chop wood to burn, as well as every other meal we make. At night, we sing praises, pray, eat, and do homework to the light of a propane lantern.

Currently the situation is kind of difficult. AMCC has no bank account and therefore no money. Our food is scheduled to run out in 3 days, and the propane lantern just ran out of propane, which means we can hardly see past 6:45 at night.




The money that Mark and I have set aside for an income generating project is now in jeopardy of being spent to pay for current dept and next months food expenses. If we do this, the children will be able to eat for a month or so, but then we'll be back to square 1. Mark and I have been praying for wisdom and guideance on what to do. Please join us!










(There's coal in that thing!)

When we asked John and Nancy how they had been sustained in the past,

they told us many stories of people, companies and churches donating at different times and random blessings of money throughout the last three years. "The Lord will provide. He always has." said John. Wow! These people have been doing this for three years without any continuous income!

(We got them their first soccer ball ever!)


The Lord is good! And he is faithful! We'll be meeting with a man who is working for Bidco, an oil industry who gives food donations to children's homes. Please pray that this meeting goes well and that AMCC would be accepted into their program. We think this would give us enough time to invest in some projects that would help keep AMCC up and going.

(The kids worshiping Kenyan style!)


Also, last week two men were lynched in Thika (where i am now) because of political unrest. There is a group of people who are called Mungiki that are resisting government corruption. Kind of a crazy story but CNN can tell you more about that. AMCC is about a 30min bus ride from here so we're fairly safe out there. Nonetheless, Kenya as a nation and it's political leaders can definitly use prayer as well.

John, Nancy, and the children send their greetings to all of you and are praying for all of their "brothers and sisters in America".

I'll write again in about a week. May the grace and peace of God be with you! Till then...

(Mark trying to catch a zebra, man they're fast!)
Mark and I have been in Kenya for six days now without Mark’s bag! The airline lost it and we made it back to Nairobi today to pick it up! This was an act of the Lord because all matatus (people-crammed ’94 Nissan vans) going back to Nairobi went on strike! In Thika, we found one in a desolate part of town, made it here to Nairobi and finally got Mark’s bag! Praise God!

So many things are different here, even than Thailand. The first night Mark and I stayed at John Gichane’s, a God-fearing, Kenyan man who drills water wells. When we arrived at his house late Thursday evening, a tall man with broad shoulders, wearing a trench coat and carrying a large wooden club, met us just outside the dark green, dented, metal gate and shouted something in Swahili to our taxi driver. When Mark stated we were friends with Bwana (Mr.) Gichane and that we were to stay the night, he let us in.

The Gichane’s were very good to us and quite hospitable. From their house in Nairobi, Mama (not sure what her real name is) John’s wife and their son David drove Mark and I to another town called Niavasha. There, we stayed with Jason and Lesa Hovingh who are fellow Mzungu (white people). They took us to a field about one mile away where we saw zebras, gazelles, water buck, water buffalo, warthogs, and caribou! No lions yet they say they’re near!

After two nights with the Hovinghs, another Kenyan man named Joel, who is also running an orphanage in Niavasha, took us to Gatanga, which is the actual name of the very small village we are staying. Two days before, two men were murdered due to a hi-jacking on the very same road we took! The police stopped us and seemed quite disappointed to find nothing wrong or illegal with Joel, Mark, or me.

(John is the man standing)
Upon arriving at AMCC, John Muhika and five older Kenyans welcomed us. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so honored. They had so many encouraging and thankful things to say in their Mother Tongue, Kikuyu, which John translated for us. They prayed for us and fed us goat meat with rice. We ate on wooden tables and benches in a room with no light but that which came through a plastic covered hole in the ceiling.

(Yumm!)

It was soon after our meal when we discovered that we were staying in the same room with John, which is an 8’x12’ studio. John sleeps on the floor because he insists it is better for his back and Mark sleeps under the bed where he can’t roll over because he also insists that it’s better for his back. My back is fine so I get the bed! Not sure how that worked out. We also discovered that we have no electricity! How fun is that? ;)

Since then we have met four prominent Kenyans involved in the government who have assured our safety. However, we were advised not to tell anyone that we are from America. Hmm? We are to tell anyone who asks, that we are from AMCC. One of the men, the Minister of Parliament for Kenya!! evidently has the power to “sac” or fire anyone in the police department by a simple phone call. He gave us his personal phone number and told us to call him if we had any trouble. I’m not sure if his telling us this information was more or less comforting.

(AMCC is is the building on the far left)

Even so, I have no fear. I’m sure plenty of really bad things could have happened to us already that have not and only because of the grace and goodness of God. It seems He has given us favor with the government though! He is so good to us and there are so many needs here, but we will take things slowly and surely. Love you all! Please remember to pray for us and for God’s direction and instruction. I hope to be writing another update in about a week, Lord willing! Till then…

(Mark and the kids at the well)

Oranges and Updates!

I love when my room smells like oranges. If I have eaten an orange
that day, I will leave and forget all about it and then a few hours
later enter again and the room seems brighter because of the tangy
aroma remaining.















I periodically have these moments where all of a sudden I escape
consciousness and my brain reminds me of the mysterious fact that I am
still in Thailand. Today I realized I have become accustomed to the
chattering of my little brothers and sisters and their Saturday
routines and the chance to be a part of a world that many other
foreigners living here will never taste because of their cultural
isolation. I visited a friend’s apartment today and was so grateful to
be able to share life with twenty people so different than me and not
be able to escape into a self-made mini America. I am guilty however,
of running from the shear shock that results from not understanding,
never being understood and being shouted at in Thai many times a day.
I retreat to coffee shops and western restaurants and my favorite
refuge “the gym” and crawl back reluctantly to my beautiful home that
is never boring or predictable.














The gym is greatly appreciated now because the PM-10 levels are like
almost to 200 in Chiang Mai which means that if I choose to run
outside, my lungs fill up with tiny smoke and pollution particles that
will one day result in cancer. The beautiful mountain that I normally
gaze at while driving to work is currently invisible in the haze.
Don't worry I wear a super stylish surgical mask now and stick to the
treadmill.














I have been here more than six months and I can’t compute the
realization of that amount of time, but in faces, friends and
experiences it could add up to six years. Life is so full here, and
just a daily drive and schedule brings adventure, but I am just as
pleased with the things that have become standard or customary. I no
longer notice the huge billboards of the King everywhere or the
ancient and crumbling walls that pop up randomly around the city and
the vendors of Papaya salad and everything fried lining the streets
are a part of my daily intake. It is like no other feeling to realize
you are becoming a part of another place and are no longer a brief,
outside observer.















In other news, I had a little art time with the kids while I was the
only adult at home the other day and they are learning bits and pieces
of English which is encouraging.















I also got to have a relaxing touristy day with my future Aussie roommate Judy! Here we are riding an elephant!














As to the matter I asked for prayer about, it has turned out to
potentially be one of the neatest opportunities I’ve ever had. In
December I met for coffee with a nurse who works for an organization
called Partners, who do relief and development work with Burmese
internally displaced and refugee ethnic minorities in Myanmar and in
camps along the Thai border. I knew very little about the situation in
Burma and talking with her sparked a huge interest in the matter as
many Thai people are affected by it. Through reading, I learned of the
million people that are being killed and raped and oppressed by their
own government, are fleeing through the jungle and are largely ignored
by the international community who could provide relief. I knew of the
devastating cyclone, but didn’t realize that the dictatorship withheld
aid to its people purposefully for political and intimidation reasons.
I discovered the situation there to be one of the most unjust I have
yet encountered and it is so morally offensive that I felt compelled
to do anything in the work against it. My nurse friend Kath also
turned out to have the job that I think I have wanted all my life and
I groveled at her feet offering to clean toilets or lick envelopes-
anything to learn more and help out. She gave me a short-term
volunteer application and neither one of us expected much to come of
it really.

I filled out the form and with the help of the Holy Spirit, found
myself in the good graces of those in charge and they asked me to come
chat for a little while. Basically, the interview was so encouraging
and they offered many ways that I might get involved. It resulted in a
mini-internship where I am going to get to assist with the community
health directors in some projects they are working on to get health
care to the people of the Shan state who have some of the worst health
statistics in the world and have absolutely no access to healthcare
whatsoever.

I quit my teaching job at CMU in order to be available to go on trips
at the last minute and it was a step of faith as I still don’t really
know what to expect and when I might get to go. I am hoping to
continue to live at the home and serve there as I do not have to pay
rent, since I won’t be earning income working with Partners.

I am asking for prayer for:
- The people of the Shan state and this organization and others would
be used by God to bring hope to the people there
- An opportunity to help with a project coming up in late March, that
I would be a blessing there
- My acceptance into grad school and if and when I should return home
- The children’s home I live in is suffering from the economy and the
loss of many sponsors, that they will be able to pay back loans and
finish building so the kids will have a better place to live
- That I would continue to be diligent in language study as I have
struggled lately
- That I would continue to be a blessing to SALT ministries as
circumstances and people here are still difficult to understand and
relate to

I miss you
all and pray for your lives to be filled with peace and purpose in
Jesus Christ. He is worthy of all praise!

Love,
Maggs