Living in Northeastern Kenya has been the most eye opening experience for the three of us.

As I write this I am sitting on a makeshift bench in a corrugated tin 'internet cafe'. The 'internet cafe' is about 10 feet by 10 feet with a single old laptop and a sand floor. This place is so far from Toronto, physically, economically and culturally. To be here on our own, with no one more experienced, adds to the sense of isolation, but the three of us would not have it any other way. We have gone through our ups and downs but God has been teaching us much through this. We have learned to rely on him more and more. We have learned the meaning of: 'He who wishes to save his life first must lose it.' We started here as the "Gaalo Adin" (white infidels) and then we heard more "Adini" (whites) and now people are starting to know us by our names. We still hear the occasional "Gaal Adin" muttered in our direction but the people of Northeastern Kenya have been very friendly and peaceful towards us. Even when the occasional child shouts, "Gaal Adin, Gaal Adin!" it's with a playful smile.

I'll give you a little picture of daily life here for us:

We usually wake up in the morning to the sound of fighting birds, braying donkeys, bleating sheep or crowing roosters. We get up from our beds (Which are mattresses outside, in a gazebo, under mosquito nets) and usually read our Bibles or head directly to breakfast. (We usually wake up somewhere around 6:30.) After a breakfast of either boiled goat, rice and beans, goat liver or spaghetti, we go to school.

In the mornings we are P.E. teachers at the primary school in Northeastern Kenya. At first it was chaos... it still is, mostly, but we are learning how to manage the kids with discipline while still letting them have fun. In the afternoons and evenings we have been spending time reading and interacting with people here. We've had some new friends over to the compound and we have had many conversations about God, Jesus, Muhammed and the Qu'ran. I have been confronted with the wall of my inadequacies. Humans cannot make people accept Jesus--It is only God who can change hearts. But, I believe God is meeting us here in our weakness. Prayer has been a huge part of this trip. It often seems like the only thing we can do is to go to God and ask him to help us.

In the evenings we recently started going to the secondary school to do English conversation groups. This has been a great expereince as the secondary students have quite good English and are willing to converse on any political, religious or ethical issue. We have also done a few odd jobs here and there to help out the community. We have been painting at the community center and we fixed some swings at the primary school.
Nights here are beautiful. It's usually cool and the quiet is only interrupted by the odd braying donkey. The skies are strewn with stars when the night is dark and when the moon is out it is so bright it casts shadows.
 

There is too much to share...

Too many things that would take too long to describe and so many things that you have to witness to understand (and even then it can be difficult). There is so much more to express that words cannot capture. I will try to update again in the near future.

Please pray for us and for everyone and the refugee camps,

Please pray that God would defend us against the evil one's attacks,

Please pray that God would continue to work in us,

Please pray that God would continually fill us with the fruit of the spirit and that his Holy Spirit would be our sustainer,

And please pray that God would fill the hearts of the people here.

Thank you for reading,

- Mark for Andrew and Ben