Hi all, we look forward to coming home and seeing you all.  Our trip was blessed.  We saw over 1900 patients over the five days.  The Kenyan peoples are very hospitable and generous as well as appreciative, but we truly are the ones who have been blessed.  The Lord's hands are mighty in all he does and he enables and works through every single one of us to do his work.  We may not immediately see the fruits of our labor, but we can rest in knowing that He uses us to glorify Himself when surrendering our will to Him and work in His Name.    In spite of the hard work, He sustained us to the very end.  This was an exhilarating time for me and I can not say enough about it and look forward to telling you.  The safari was awesome.  We saw everything except a panther and rhino.  The animals were up close and personal - of course we stayed on the safari bus!!  We did get stuck in the mud once and had to get out and push to no avail.  While pushing we saw fresh lion prints in the mud surrounding us.  By God's grace there was another safari van coming along the way and pulled us out by tow rope and we were on our way again.  The safari camp site was fantastic outfitted with permanent tents, toilets and hot showers which we were not used to all week, but we had to keep our tents locked up, especially at night as the monkeys know how to unzip the tents and reek havoc inside.  While having a picnic lunch on the Tanzanian border yesterday a monkey ran up to Kyle and took his sandwich right out of his hand.  Kyle was not happy, but we had a good time at his expense.  The landscape here is ever changing and is extremely beautiful.  If there is ever an opportunity to come to Kenya for a mission trip, I guarantee you will be blessed and you will not be disappointed.  Looking forward to telling you all about it in person.

God Bless for now, Marie  

Hi All!

I feel just as I do when I sign cards to people and Wendy has said all of the right things ---What do I have to add!!!!

I would summarize, that after spending a day in Nairobi-which was interesting and enjoyable, that Kenya is  a country of vast contrasts:  geographically from the coastal area to the bush and primitive conditions to the magnificent and expansive highland game preserve area---and culturally from sophisticated Nairobi to our village medical mission experience near Kisumu.  The contrasts in both respects is almost too much to comprehend and explain in an e-mail  And the political and social issues-some of which reach our eyes and ears in the United States -- make one so thankful that we have social order in our country .

The one constant in all of this is that the Christian Church and in our case the Lutheran Church in Kenya continues to reach out to all parts of society bringing Jesus' Love and working on changing hearts and minds of everyone in Kenya.  It was quite amazing to see one of the Bishops of the Lutheran Church, sophisticated, with a doctoral degree from Fort Wayne, leading worship in a mission church mud hut in the bush of western Kenya.  And this is on a rainy day with the "main" dirt road not passable for some distance such that we walked some distance to the turnoff leading to the mud hut church.  And the turnoff pass to the church was little more that a very wide cow path and was a slippery half mile or so the the church.

Communion that day was even more special.  

I am thankful to have been able to support the work of Christ through the Lutheran Church in Kenya.

Love to all

Hank