Updates from the Big Gap

As you may have noticed, there has been a rather big gap in time over the past months in my blogging. For your convenience, amusement, bewilderment or whatever else you'd like to call it, I've gone back and used some "Great Stuff" as a 'big gap filler' and blogged about some of the fun and more interesting things I did during those months.

Just to keep things in chronological order, I posted them on the dates they actually happened, so feel free to scroll backwards and catch up with my life. Thanks for looking - both of you!

Communion Joy

I had a wonderful communion experience this morning at church. We do communion quite a bit differently than what I grew up doing. For one, we do it once a month or so and that makes it extra special instead of a routine that is void of meaning. (For me, anyway. I'm not commenting on how it makes anyone else feel doing it every week - just what I always struggled with.) Another difference is that there are different stations around the auditorium and a couple is in charge of serving from each of those. During first service, we had communion during the middle of the service as a bridge between our praise time and the message. I was serving on the altar team, which means I am one of 6-10 people who stand at the front stage and receive anyone who would like prayer. We did our altar time in conjunction with communion and it was so poignant to watch my brothers and sisters take communion together and some receive prayer. I don't know what it was, but God touched me as I watched the church celebrate the Lord's Supper!

During second service, Avery, Jill and I served communion and that was especially meaningful. Jill broke the bread and offered it saying, "This is the body of Christ, broken for you." I held the cup while the members dipped their bread I reminded them, "This is the blood of Jesus that gives you life." Avery held a cloth napkin for anyone who needed to wipe their hands. Sometimes the juice dribbles. :) What a great picture - our little family serving that holy meal and being blessed in return!

Group Life Conference 2008

I had the chance this past weekend to attend a great life group conference that was hosted by the Willow Creek Church in Chicago, but broadcast to us via satellite at the Live Oak Community Church in Lubbock. Jill and I attended along with our great friends Sonny Smart and Brad & Julie Snellgrove and had a great time. The conference started on Friday evening, so we all met in Lubbock for a great dinner at Abuelo's and then to the conference. Avery had a great time staying at her Mam's house.

The conference was a great encouragement as we work with the Life Group ministry at Harvest. This has been one of our passion's for a while and there were some really good training tools offered at the conference.

Off Road Trip to Cloudcroft, NM

While Jill and Avery were in DFW this weekend, I decided to run off to the mountains for one last camping trip before it got too cold. I left Friday afternoon after many unforeseen delays and ended up arriving about 930pm. I met my good friend Jaime Swift there and since he lives in Las Cruces, he had camp selected and set up when I arrived after dark. I hate setting up camp after dark, so this was a great blessing.


We stayed up visiting too late, but woke up Saturday morning and hit the trails after a great breakfast burrito warmed over the fire. (Thanks Ginger!) I brought Moose (my Honda 200 dirt bike) on the back of the Land Rover and Jaime brought his Honda 300 4-wheeler behind the Land Cruiser FJ-80.

Jaime and I had a great day riding trails all around the Sacramento Ranger District, primarily around the Lucas Canyon area. There are some fantastic OHV trails out there and we had a blast riding, resting, enjoying the scenery and catching up on our visiting while stopped.

Moose performed great and I took great pride in my $300 ride as we meandered around the mountain. Jaime's ATV did great as well and we enjoyed comparing the vastly different riding experiences these two very different machines had to offer.


This was also the Land Rover's maiden voyage after receiving an Old Man Emu suspension upgrade and 32" BFG Mud-Terrain tires. It performed great even at altitude and we spent Sunday morning exploring the 4x4 roads of the area on the west side of the wilderness overlooking the spectacular drops down to White Sands Missile Range. I look forward to many more trips in the Rover and figured out several more ways to improve it for future overland travel and camping. This is meant to be a budget off-roader, so those improvements may come slowly.


It was great to be in the mountain wilderness once again and I look forward to next spring when I get to go again!

The 1412 Ebeling House

One of the biggest activities that has consumed most of our extra time lately has been the purchase and renovation of our house in Plainview. It is a great house over looking the draw out west of Plainview, but needed some updating as seen in the 'before' pictures below.

The bathrooms, laundry room and kitchen have a fantastic pink and baby blue square linoleum pattern. Maybe we'll just keep that....don'thinkso!

My favorite feature of the house is the vaulted ceiling in the living room combined with the huge windows on both sides and the skylights. It doesn't feel like being inside at all!

Now the Plainview is officially "wet", I guess we could put the wet bar to use. Or not. It's got to go.

The now INFAMOUS octagonal gazebo kitchen. This is the weirdest kitchen we've ever seen! It's full of odd angles, horrible countertops, useless drawers and dangling cabinets. The upper cabinets have to go immediately - the rest of the kitchen will follow as we can afford it!

Can you say "browngold" ? Avery's bathroom will be lightened by painting all the woodwork white, removing the wallpaper and eventually replacing the countertop.

And finally, the office. Avery got to have a little fun during the repainting process!

Farm Progress Show - Boone, IA

I was able to attend the Farm Progress Show in Boone, IA this year - my third year in a row to have a Trimble meeting to attend that was held in conjuction with one of the nation's premiere farm shows. While I was only there for a day, it was fun to visit some of the booths and see what machinery was on display.

For some reason my camera hardly made it out of my pocket this year, but I did manage to snap a few pictures of these interesting tractors at the Case display.


1976 Case 1570 Spirt of '76 - this tractor celebrated the bicentennial of our country with a special stars and strips paint scheme. This tractor has been restored to impeccable standards and it was very interesting to see one in person.


Case MX180 - similar to the original stars and stripes tractor, this newer version was created to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Case company. A much more modern graphic job was fitting for a much more modern tractor!

McKenzie Madness

One mean motorcycle riding machine!

Caleb "Rooster" Lewis - no longer called rooster because he gets up at the crack, but now called rooster because of those "rooster tails" he kicks up behind the dirt bike!

Over the 4th we had a GREAT Saturday out at Lake McKenzie riding ATV's and dirtbikes with Uncle Iz, Caleb, myself and my friend Danny Hooks. Since Danny is a professional moto-cross racer, I was a bit nervous that he was our tour guide, but he was a great host and it's always good to have the designer of the course to show you around!


Iz did an incredible job of posing as a well-experienced ATV rider. It wasn't until he nearly tipped over backwards and screamed like a little girl that I realized he was a little out of his element. :) Seriously, he was incredible and Caleb only jumped off in fear a couple of times. ;}



Taking a rest - Danny (in white T-shirt) showed us lots of cool places and gave Iz and Caleb a great FIRST ride. They were tag-teaming on the Polaris 350 while Danny rode his racing Kawasaki and I brought up the rear on Moose (my Honda 200).



Here's the Lewis boys giving her *ell at the river crossing. Iz rared back, juiced the throttle and shot across like a crotch rocket. Not bad at all for a boy from East Texas!

Caleb and Iz had an absolute blast riding the ATV. I had a ball riding Moose. And I'm pretty sure Danny got lots of chuckles at us 'green' riders as we learned the tricks of the trade.

I can't wait to go back!

Monday, June 6th - Kadzitsoni

On Monday, we all loaded up the vans and headed into the bush. We drove for about 2 hours to Kaloleni and met Fredrick Kaingu and others at the MCRC youth center and then split up to go on our ministry tours. My group went with my good friend Charo Gunga to his village at Kadzitsoni. We spent many days here during our ministry time in Kenya and love the people here. It's extremely remote and took us a while to drive to a place close enough to park the van and walk from.

This area is much more arid than most we've been in so far. The trees are much smaller and farther between, but this is rainy season afterall and there was lots of lush green vegetation to tromp through. I don't know if the Aggies were worried or not, but that grass sure concerned me - looks like prime snake habitat to me!


Upon our arrival, we were warmly greeted by Charo's family. Charo is in the pink shirt. He showed us all around - it's Giryama custom to visit each house in the village and greet the habitant. That took a little while, but I knew most of the people and it was great to see them all again.


Charo had a surprise for the group - it was time to start preparing a special lunch! Ryan volunteered for the "preparation" duty as an honored guest. I declined as I wanted these guys to get the full experience of African hospitality - that includes killing your own lunch.


Wade was eating this up - figuratively at first, literally a couple of hours later. Most folks never get to taste meat this fresh. I must admit - this was the best goat I've ever eaten!


This is Duncan Ziro hard at work preparing the goat. This was Duncan's first visit to Kadzitsoni. It was a good trip for him as his home area is much like this - arid and remote. He felt very much at home and that was obvious as he helped the students experience traditional Giryama culture at its finest.


As you can imagine, lunch takes a while to prepare from scratch. Waiting is one of the most experienced activities for visitors in rural Africa. We sat around and visited with the folks there, toured the farm, and sat around some more. Christianna was THRILLED with the forthcoming madafu (drinking coconut)!


It's a good thing Craig was around. He single handedly consumed a majority of Charo's coconut crop. I think there was quite a bit of switcheroo going on since Craig loved the madafu and everyone else didn't.


After a while, lunch was ready. Traditionally, guests are seated in the host's home around a community table and left alone to eat while the host is absent. We were prepared a great smorgasboard of food and then the students were left to enjoy it with gusto. Starting with the purple bowl at the bottom of the picture, we ate boiled goat in coconut milk, the white stuff is wari (ugali) which is cornmeal boiled in water to a consistency similar to playdough. This is pinched off and dipped into the soup and is the main staple food for Giryama people. The purple bowl with red stuff is kachumbari - tomatoes, onions and peppers mixed with vinegar as a side dish. Delish! On the skewers was roasted goat that was seasoned and very tasty! And finally, in the blue bowl at the top of the table, the premiere dish for visitors - the tubers! Giryama custom dictates that the guests get the best parts of the animal being eaten - which means that the internal organs, being the delicacy they are, are cheerfully given to the guest. We had stomach, intestines and liver. I was very proud that every single student tried a tuber. I've been there done that and didn't indulge. Aren't I a great leader?



It was a fantastic day! We had lots of fun with the kids and the students really got a taste of life in a traditional Giryama village.


Way to go guys! You did well and I was happy to get to share the basis for my years of ministry with them. This was my "office" for 5 years and it was a joy to get to re-experience that again by sharing it with first-timers. We were all astounded by the generous hospitality of our hosts and that makes Jesus' teachings about loving your neighbor more than self much more profound. Thanks to our Giryama friends for hosting us and challenging us to know God more intimately through their generosity!

Sunday, June 1, 2008 - Worship in Malindi

Sunday was a great day. Mostly because it is my anniversary and so it's a day to celebrate one of the world's all-time best marriages ever. But that has nothing to do with me - it's all about my wonderful wife Jill!

We spent the night at Uzima - a hot, muggy night that I spent without a mosquito net. I didn't worry about it too much, but certainly doused myself with plenty of Off before going to bed. Sunday morning we enjoyed another breakfast of chai and a loaf of bread before the morning session that wrapped up the Youth Meeting. I was able to teach this morning and enjoyed spending about an hour encouraging the youth that they play a vital role in the body of Christ, using the Body metaphor and illustrating the youth as the legs of the church - the ones who move it forward and give it motion.

As such, the youth spent a lot of good time "in motion" after our worship services.


Chase gets ready to nail it.


Greg was all about showing his goalie skills.


Notice where the ball is in this shot. Sorry 'bout that Greg.



The guys had a great time trying to get a kick past Goalie Master Greg!


And Goalie Master Greg had a GREAT time fending them off! I thought about using this picture to illustrate how much Greg gets into his teaching, but...that just wouldn't be right.


Chase takes a break to look over his shoulder and ward off the picture taker.



We did lots of waiting and sitiing. I'm pretty sure we were waiting for another dose of those excellent beans and rice right here.


Wade was really good at sitting with guys, like Emmanuel Mwambire, and visiting about life. Thanks for being so open and ready to share, Wade!

Saturday, May 31st - Youth Retreat in Malindi

As you can see, we've skipped an entire week of ministry since the last update. I'll fill those gaps in later when I have some pictures. For this installment, the pictures aren't all that great but it's what I got. I was having issues with working the camera and was really wishing for my photographer sister Robyn's assistance.

On Saturday, May 31st we woke up very early in the morning and traveled about 1hr north to the town of Malindi. Friday night the brakes on our rental van failed, so we got the privilege of taking a public matatu all the way. Thankfully, our friend Duncan Ziro arranged one that we filled up ourselves and that would take us directly to the Uzima Christian Training Center instead of dropping us off at the public bus stage and then having to find another means - probably a tuk-tuk, or lots of them - to get us to UCTC.

These are tuk-tuks in downtown Malindi. They are cute little 3 passenger vehicles that have suddenly appeared in Kenya since we moved away back in 2003. I "borrowed" this picture from the Internet, but thought it was a good view of the streets there.

Once we arrived at Uzima, we were greeted by the director of the training center Jeremiah Muramba. They had kindly prepared chai and bread for our breakfast and he oriented the students about the facility and the program for the day. This was a one-day youth seminar that had about 100 youth in attendance! This was a fantastic number considering school is still in session this time of year.

Youth from local churches came to Uzima for a weekend of encouragement, teaching and games. Fun was had by all!

This is Jeremiah leading the group in a few songs as the Aggies for Christ group prepared to teach.

Lindsey Waites got a chance to share her testimony and a 30 minute lesson with the group of students, as did the other AFC students. She and Crista both felt this was a great opportunity for them as ladies to prepare a lesson and give a testimony that they don't often get in the US.

Crista's going to kill me for posting this video...

Our American group quickly learned that Kenyan students have a much greater attention span than kids at home.

The sessions seemed to drone on for hours and hours and hours, didn't they Wade??

It wasn't boring for the Kenyan students at all. The AFC group prepared some awesome lessons and there was much time for games outside and other activities. It does get rather difficult, however, to participate in day-long events that are conducted in a language you don't understand!

"Hey, Mike! Dude, you got something really shiny hanging out your nose! You might oughta check that!"

While I didn't get any pics of it, we ate some great meals at Uzima. Beans and coconut rice for lunch was a big favorite among the AFC group. They were amazed at the portion size, however. Each of us got a HUGE helping of the steaming meal and only SOME of us were able to finish it!

I like this shot of Jeremiah. It appears he is focused on the best thing possible - the cross of Jesus.

Saturday, May 24th - Arrival in Kenya

I finally made it home from my trip to Kenya! It was a long journey home, but well worth it in the end. I had a great trip and was so thrilled to share it with 13 NMSU students and their campus minister, Greg Bowles. They were an incredible group of students and truly exemplified the spirit of Christian mission while in Kenya. I was proud to be with them (well, except for the matching T-shirts they all wore while traveling! :) I'm glad you guys were so excited!) and was blessed to show them the country and people that hold a special place in my heart.

On our trip we had two designated photographers and one videographer, so I didn't really take too many pictures. Until I get copies of those, I do want to share what I have as its fresh on my mind.

So - let's get started! I must make a disclaimer here - I like to take humorous shots occasionally, so if my lens found you in a compromising position, please don't be offended. I did it on purpose. Ha!

We arrived on Saturday, May 24th in Nairobi. After going to our guesthouse and cleaning up a bit, we took an afternoon game drive in Nairobi National Park. It's a game reserve right on the edge of a city of 3 million people - not sure you'd want to be in the suburbs here! And yes, there are lions in the park, though we didn't see them.


Looking out over the savanna - now where are those lions??


Our fearless leader Greg - contemplating how on earth he got himself into this mess.


Wow. I don't think you can get that close to a giraffe even in a zoo!


Rhino's are a rare sighting on any safari - and we saw 2!


What are they looking at, you ask? See the video clip below...




These Marabou Storks looked cool as silhouettes roosting on top of an Acacia Tree.


A really cool scene - wild Eland and Cape Buffalo with Nairobi City Center in the background.

Now that the required safari is out of the way, on to the real reason we came - the people!