Kenya: Day 2

July 19, 2001

Thank you so much for praying for us and encouraging us on this journey! We have had an incredible day! This morning started off for Crew by sleeping in way longer than normal and struggling to wake up. For me, my morning started with Maury at 6:30am by heading to the dining hall to sit in on the dining hall morning devotional with the school-aged children. They are memorizing and studying 1 John 4:7-8. Tomorrow morning Maury and I will be further teaching on that same passage!

We quickly left then with our friend Josiah. We had a lot of work to be done. We thought our first stop was going to be to the Kijabe AIC CURE hospital to drop off two of the children at Naomi’s Village for their HIV checkup. We quickly drove to the end of the road and to our surprise they had arranged a ride for Eunice and little Joe to be waiting for us at the end of our dirt road! We started yelling and cheering and welcomed them in our vehicle. Little Joe was finally going to get help for his face and his mother was glowing in thankfulness. Again we were reminded as a team of how thankful we are to our supporters. Joe was diagnosed with a bacterial infection that turned into impetigo that had also turned into staff. He was able to get his wounds totally cleaned and washed out, an oral antibiotic and a topical antibiotic. Praise the LORD. Eunice, his mother, was so worried because she knew she could not even afford the hospital card that you have to have in order to even be able to be seen at the hospital. That card cost 1 US dollar. So thankful that we were able to give out of the funds we raised and got him all the care he needed. The two Naomi’s Village children’s HIV reports came back awesome as well.

We then went to visit a dream of a church planter here in Maai Mahiu, Kenya. He is building a three story house that will host missionaries and short term teams who want to do a work here in this city. Isaac and Ester, the church planters, want to name this house the Bridge. They long to bridge the way for people who never thought they could serve in a place such as this, make it here and have a safe place to stay. It was in the final stages of being built and was beautiful. Esther also cooked a traditional Kenyan breakfast item for us called Mandazi's. We ate them with Chai Tea and it was delicious. She was such a sweet hostess.

We toured much of Kinjabe, where the founders of Naomi’s Village live, and had lunch in a city nearby. This place had American food so all the kids were really excited!

We then had noodles for dinner, which Crew loved and then we went to the nightly devotional. All 30 something children here at Naomi’s Village attend this devotional and usually the pastor onsite or one of the missionaries leads a bed time bible devotional with the children. Tonight Crew decided to be in charge of the bible study. He stood and told the story of Noah’s Ark, while Auntie Ruth translated in Swahili for him. I’m not sure if you have ever spoken with a translator, but this is very difficult! He struggled in a few parts of it and at one point while Ruth was translating he leaned over and whispered with a giggle, “I’m awful at this!” We both laughed and I just encouraged him quickly that it was great and he continued on with the story. My favorite part was at the end where all the people populated the earth again, yet they returned to their disobedience and disregard for God. Crew was so excited to tell the children, “Yet this time God didn’t wipe them out for these things. He died on the cross for those very things to offer them life with him.” It was truly a sweet time for the children and they loved hearing a peer teach them about God. At the end Crew said he wanted to teach the children the song, Never Once by Matt Redman. It goes like this:

Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Every step we are breathing in Your grace
Evermore we’ll be breathing out Your praise
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

They quickly sang along and I couldn’t help but think about how these words meant so much more to these children after all the terror they have faced, than they ever have to me. I was thankful for the depth this brought to those words. I will never be the same when I worship the LORD through this song for his faithfulness.

We closed our night with prayer for the children, the house moms and the missionary girls here. Again praying over every single boy was an incredible opportunity. Crew prayed strongly for salvation for each and that they would grow to be strong men in the LORD. A funny thing that happened during this time was when one of the boys was praying and crew and I were kneeling beside his bed. Crew tapped me on the shoulder and when I looked at him he whispered, “Mom, could you believe how good I sang that song tonight?” I punched him in the arm and we both quietly laughed and finished praying with this boy.

The last story I will tell is about this boy who we got to hear his story today. The boy is barely seven years old and lived in a mud hut with an alcoholic mother and a few siblings. The chief of their city decided to send these boys to Naomi’s Village at the request of the people there who saw the children both had one potato a day or no food and were never bathed. The children ended up at Naomi’s Village, however this one seven year old boy caused such a problem that every other child here cried about him every day. After exhausting every idea they decided to return to the chief with the boy to ask him for help. The chief came up with the plan to return him home for two weeks as punishment so he could see what he was missing at Naomi’s Village and then they would discuss if he should return. Legally I believe this was what they were forced to do, yet they soon found out that the chief had dropped the ball and had not enforced anything for this boy or even checked on him. Naomi’s Village Staff would go back and check on him and quickly found he was living on the streets alone and was still pretty hostile. He continued to say he did not want to return and that he was having fun. Finally after almost two months the boy was starving and tired and hurt and began approaching Naomi’s Village staff as he would see them in town and mentioning he might return. He also started regularly visiting his chief to tell him of his desire to return. Finally, by God’s grace Naomi’s Village accepted him back in. The boy made sincere apologies on his own and confessed he was wrong and made a horrible decision. The part that hit me tonight was that we saw him crying at the end of devotional so I went over to ask him what was wrong. He said that he and some classmates had gotten in trouble so they had to do the dishes and that he was so sad because he missed hearing the story about God and singing the worship song to God. Crew and I quickly wrapped him in our arms together and Crew said, “Go brush your teeth and get in bed and I’ll come tell you the whole story again and sing you the song!” We did just that and he worshiped every second with us. This was the same boy who just returned six weeks ago to Naomi’s Village. I cannot comprehend a child living homeless on the streets, and much less in the city that he was in. I have seen this small city. It is one long truck stop and is known to have around 600 prostitutes here. To think six weeks ago his heart was hard and he was running on the streets and now he is crying because he missed out on God’s word and worship is just incredible.

I am so thankful for the work the Lord is doing here. We have big plans tomorrow and I don’t want to spoil any of the things we are doing for you so I will write about them tomorrow night. Please continue to pray that we can selflessly pour out. We are so thankful.

Kenya: First Full Day

July 18, 2012 This morning Crew and I both woke up about an hour before the sun. We waited patiently in our beds reading until we heard the first voices of little children outside. It felt like Christmas morning. We hurried and got dressed and ran down to meet all the children. We realized we were saying goodbye to about 14 school aged kids. We then went and had English muffins with the babies and toddlers. We couldn’t meet them fast enough. After breakfast Crew ran around with a few of the boys outside and I went to help the little girls brush their teeth. I happened to look over and see one little girl who is maybe 4 years old, gagging. I quickly picked her up and ran her to the sink and found myself rubbing her back and head as she continuously vomited. Another little girl, who could be no older than four was brushing her teeth next to us. She reached over and rubbed her sick friends back and said over and over “So sorry, friend.” Later that day we learned that sick little girl had watched her mom burn to death from a gas pipeline explosion. The government had been warned that there was major danger with this pipeline, but did nothing about it. The death toll from the explosion was right over 100. Naomi’s Village received five children through this tragedy. Even though it’s such a tiny thing, I felt such a huge responsibility as a mom to her in that moment. She no longer had a mom to rub her back as she threw up. Praise the LORD she has moms at Naomi’s Village who step in and provide this. We wasted no time and quickly found ourselves meeting a sweet man named Joseph who lived in the IDP camp here. IDP stands for Internally Displaced Persons. The people in the IDP camp (about 1500) have been living in tents since 2007. The government makes promises to help and build them houses, but they have never done anything. In the last year, Habitat for Humanity took notice of them and have begun building them square stone houses with a tin roof and no electricity or plumbing. They must still walk and fetch their own water. Joseph took us to two houses where they were in great need. The first house we met a mother, Eunice, and two small boys Sami and Joe. Joe had been cut on the face and then his cut got infected. The infection is now spreading across his face. Of course he has had no vaccinations so he is in desperate need of a tetanus shot as well as medical attention for the infection. The mother has absolutely no income and the father is away for weeks at a time searching for any day labor work he might find, which is few and far between. Eunice used to have a sewing machine and made dresses that she sold for a good profit at the market. Since her house burned in the post election riots, she has not had a sewing machine or any way of making an income. Finally we asked how much it would cost Eunice to get the hospital card to get Joe the help he needs, our friend told us it would cost 1 US dollar. My heart immediately dropped and I understood truly the state of poverty these people were in. The best part of this visit for me was that Crew had pastor Isaac interpret for him as he asked both of the boys if they knew who Jesus was. They answered him no. He proceeded to share the gospel with these boys and how Jesus died on the cross for their sins. He also shared his whole story of how he came to know Christ himself. The boys were so encouraged and loved having time to talk with Crew. Crew also prayed for them and taught them how to give hugs. The children have little to no affection because their parents are still in shock and basically are just trying to survive. We moved on to an elderly lady, probably in her late seventies. Jane finally had a house built, but there was nothing in it besides a small water bucket. We asked what she slept on and she said she has one blanket that was issued to her shortly after she was displaced in 2007 and that she slept on the concrete floor, rolled up into her blanket. June had also lost all three of her children within the last two years and was left to take care of one grandson, she smiled from ear to ear the whole time we visited with her. She talked about how GOD had been her great comfort through each step of this massive storm and how much she loved Him. We were all blown away about how God truly is who He says He is. He can get us through anything. He truly will be enough. Our team, finally pulled together and realized for very little US money, we could provide Joe all the medical attention he needed, Eunice and new sewing machine and sewing supplies, as well as Jane and her grandson a huge water drum to store their water, and two mattresses with all the bedding they will need to stay warm. The church planters who drove us to the camp will be buying those things with the money we gave them and we get to actually give them those things on Friday. Joe will get medical attention even sooner than that. We all talked about how thankful we were to our financial supporters. Literally their money given is immediately helping some of the most needy people in our world. For lunch we ate a great Kenyan dish called Ugali. The Kenyan food is actually really delicious and it has been fun to try all the different food. After dinner, with more great Kenyan food, we ended the night by saying bed time prayers with each one of the boys in their dorm beds. Crew and I laid hands on each one and echoed the same prayers over and over. Crew told me he wanted to lead out so he prayed first and then me. We prayed first that these boys would know the salvation of the LORD and that they would be saved. We also prayed they would develop a great love for Him and follow Him all the days of their life. We asked that they might grow up into great men who were leaders as awesome husbands and fathers.

Arrival Day: Travel from Nairobi to Naomi's Village

July 17, 2012 Tonight we finally finished all of our travels. It was surreal to pull through the gates of Naomi’s Village. We have seen many videos of those gates, but to see them with our own two eyes was amazing. Two brothers in Christ, Josiah and Lucas, picked us up from the airport. It is not safe to travel after dark in Kenya, however the people here felt it would be okay for us to travel with these two specific men. Josiah asked us to pray for him after dropping us off here at Naomi’s village, because he had a 30 minute drive through the jungle to his home. We asked him if he was scared and he replied, “There have been a few ‘instances’ of things going badly, but I am covered by the blood of Jesus.” Two things stuck out to me. One, he knows his need for Christ each moment here. Two, he risked his life to get us to Naomi’s Village after dark. We prayed for his safe return. We found where we would be staying pretty quickly and everyone actually got a warm shower! We unpacked all the fun gifts and costumes we got the children here. We cannot wait to meet them. Crew never complained once on our three really long flights. I was so proud of him. He is so excited to be here! I read in the Psalms tonight and I claimed Psalm 124:8. "Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth." There is true power in his name. Just like Josiah, on his drive home, knew where his power lay. We too are claiming the power of Jesus this week. I am overwhelmed with thankfulness for the cross. It is simply nothing we have done, but everything HE did in pouring out his blood for us! Please continue to pray for peace, unity and that the power of the Holy Spirit would move mightily through us as we minister to the people here.

Were we right in thinking PINK????

YOU GUESSED IT!! THANKS EVERYONE FOR THINKING PINK!!!

WE ARE HAVING A BABY GIRL!!!!





The pink things are already flowing in and we are so excited! Corban and Crew now talk about their baby sister!! It's so cute!! July 19th we'll be welcoming our new baby girl!! YEAH!!!

SNOW DAY

So today the boys had so much fun with their dad playing in the snow!! The Snow man they built was AWESOME!!





Until of course...Crew started screaming from the pain of frostbite on his fingers so we had to go inside.

VALENTINES DAY TRIBUTE TO MY BOYS

I had a revelation the other day. I was mopping our horrible lanoleum floor the other day and I began to get angrier and angrier as I couldn't get the huge black skid marks that streaked across half of it off. I found myself frustrated and saying things in my head, "What would possess my husband to push the boys around so fast and hard through the house on their tricycles until there were huge black skid marks on my floor THAT DON'T COME OFF!!" Who would do such a thing? As soon as I found myself complaining I realized that I would take those skid marks every day and in every part of the flooring in my home so my boys can know what it is to have a father who loves them and honestly enjoys every second of playing and being with them! WOW! How priceless. I pray each and every day for my sons that the love their father so selflessly gives them will transfer into the knowledge and understanding of how much their heavenly father loves them and pursues them every second of every day! So for now, the skid marks remain and I'm even able to smile and remember ultimately who faithfully loves and pursues me each day...my heavenly FATHER. So, for Valentines Day...I am thankful for how much I love my husband, who is such a good picture of how GOD loves me...HAPPY VALENTINES DAY BLAKE, CORBIE AND CREW!!!

14 Weeks Pregnant, 5 Week old Puppies, Pneumonia, Stomach Bug, Smelly Feet

So it's been a while since I've blogged...life has been a tad full! In case you haven't heard, I'm 14 weeks pregnant right now and we are really excited! I'm getting fatter every day, but also feeling less tired and sick every day! YEAH! I think we'll find out if it's a girl or boy toward the end of February! I'm trying to think pink though!!

The week before Christmas our sweet Boxer Zoey had two little puppies! They are too cute, but such a handful. The smell in the bathroom is so overpowering if we don't clean it constantly. Only a couple more weeks before we can give them away. Anyone want one? They are soooo sweet!




So...Crew had double Pneumonia after Christmas...now we think Corban has it...except now he's throwing up and pooing everywhere! I'm hoping it's because of the antibiotic and not the tummy bug! We'll see! Tired of being inside though!



Smelly Feet...well that has to do with today. My feet smell really bad from these shoes I've been wearing with no socks and it's making my stomach hurt. I should go wash them, but I can't quit watching Celebrity Rehab on VH1. If you haven't seen it you should tune in!

That's pretty much it for the Chilton's. Life is good, real and full and we're thankful for every bit of it. I'll try to be better at blogging, but no promises! ;)