Hip Hippo Horray!

Last week, MCC Kenya had its annual retreat at Lake Naivasha. The highlight of our time was getting to see all our coworkers. Of course their highlight was getting to see our babies, so it was win-win for everybody!

Most MCC Kenya retreats are laid-back and this one was no exception. One the first day we had a short team meeting saying goodbye to our friend Isaac (returning to America) and relaxed in the beautiful atmosphere of the lodge. Day two featured a boat-ride to an island in the lake where we could take a walking safari amongst the wildebeest, giraffes, zebra and waterbuck. While approaching the island we enjoyed watching groups of Hippos frolic in the water as well as a large variety of water birds perched on every rock.

Day three was a trip to Hell's Gate, a nearby national park known for its geothermal activity and hiking. The rest of our time was spent relaxing, taking pictures of birds, reading good books (I recommend “Wizard of the Crow” by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o), and nightly hymn sings and devotions led by our boss Ron.

While our time on retreat was short, it was rejuvenating and got me looking forward to the next few months of work!

First Fruits

Its been a long and viney road over the past year as I've tried to grow passion fruit along our garage. Originally, the garage was completed last July and I decided it would be nice to have passion fruit vines to grow up the support beams. I planted 10 seedlings and watched with fear and trembling as they grew and shriveled each day in the hot sun. A few of the seedlings died, were replaced, and then their replacements died. In december, the garage collapsed due to high winds and rain which made the passion fruit ever more susceptible to the sun. I began watering them daily until we left for Nairobi in February. Throughout our time away, I hired our neighbor to water the passions and, to my surprise, when we came back in May, the vines were flourishing. In June they started to flower and fruit and now in early August the first fruits were ripe.

To commemorate God's faithfulness throughout the passion producing process, we held a small first fruits service in our home. We offered the first 3 ripe fruit to God, reading Exodus 23, Romans 8, and I Cor 15. We continue to praise God for His never-failing, always-new presence in our lives. We remember that like many things, fruit take time to grow but are sweet when cared for with patience and allowed to ripen with love.