Update from ELI

Dear Friends,

By the infrequency of our posts it probably goes without saying that we are pretty close to being "off the grid", but here goes: we are pretty close to being off the grid. For the past week we have been staying in a hut at the Empowering Lives International (ELI) base in Ilula, Kenya. The village of Ilula doesn't even appear on Google Earth, but you can find our location by looking up Samro School, Eldoret, Keyna, which is the primary school that is run by the base.

In addition to the school, there are quite a few other ministries. One of these is a training center, which specializes in the training of local villagers in keeping poultry, bee hives, and other small business practices. Other ministries include an orphanage for 120 kids, an alcoholism recovery center, and innovative self-sustainability program. The first day of our stay we got to witness 45 women graduate from a training program who previously had been trapped into a life of brewing illegal alcohol as a means of survival. It was very clear from the women's joy at the graduation ceremony that this was a major event in their lives, and that they were more than a little excited to have other means of keeping food on the table for their kids.

It has been just over one week since graduation, and about every waking minute has been filled with some kind of activity. Carol has been working with the kids in the Children's Center using her creativity and experience with scrapbooking to help the kids make cards and other crafts, some of which will be sent back to the States to raise money for the center. Carol has also been stepping into many other rolls including helping to organize data for budgets and keeping track of student records, as well as organizing stretching and games for the kids when it isn't raining (predictably before 3pm). Carol has also been extremely blessed to get to know Amy a bit through some walks on the dirt/mud roads around Ilula, and has been using her PT skills on several occasions to help out around the center.

The center is absolutely beautiful, with several small huts for guests, a dining hall where we eat meals (ugali, chapati, beans, maize, and some other fantastic new foods), banana trees, bee farming equipment, fields for playing games (the kids are really getting into ultimate frisbee), gardens for training, and a chapel for meetings and sunday mornings. We just happened to be here during a rainy season, and everything is so green and fresh (and muddy) right now that it is just stunning.

Joe has been enjoying early morning runs with some of the kids from the orphanage each day, watching the sun come up over the corn and wheat fields and spotting more than a few Kenyan athletes each day out for their own early morning workouts. After dropping the kids off at the center around 7am, he has been secretly tailing other runners in the area, trying desperately to keep up them in the thin 7,000+ ft elevation air and his mud-caked shoes. Joe has also been able to use his excel skills to generate some database templates for the center, and also got involved in a wood drying shelter construction project with Mitch which will be used to supply a new wood workshop currently under construction.

 Speaking of Mitch Kellogg (see picture of Joe, Josh, and Mitch working on the shelter), we have discovered that the "Pondy Connection" (Ponderosa Lodge, Mt. Hermon, CA extended family) extends even further than we expected! After getting settled in we were introduced to Mitch, an amazing man of faith just a little younger than us who is an intern at ELI for about 6 months, and it turned out that he had worked at Ponderosa Lodge just last summer. Even more bizzarre was the fact that he was good friends with someone who went to Olympia High School with Cassidy. Small world. Anyway, Mitch immediately became a great encouragement to Joe, and it has been a nice surprise to be able to swap stories about camp life out here in the middle of Africa.

Another surprise gift was being driven up to the village of Iten by Don yesterday to visit the epicenter of Kenyan marathoning. It had been a tough week of work for everyone, and Don not only arranged for us to see the amazing views of the escarpment from Kurio Lookout, and get a tour of the High Altitude Training Centre started by Lornah Kiplagat, but also to actually meet, talk, and pray with Wilson Kipsang, the second fastest marathoner of all time by only 4 seconds. Among other things, he mentioned that he will be running the Berlin Marathon on September 26th and that he intends to try and break the record on that day. Incredibly though, he was an extremely humble guy, and talked more about what it means to really follow in Christ's footsteps (being a servant, demonstrating love through action, putting empty words aside, etc.) than what it means to be an amazing runner. Needless to say, it was a highlight of the trip thus far, and we are so thankful to the Rogers for being willing to extend their friendship with Wilson to us.

We also made an excursion last Sunday to the Kipkaren ELI center, which was concluding a weeklong youth camp with a massive Sunday morning service which included loads of students dancing and singing, passionate preaching, presentations, etc. As guests, Carol and I got to sit with the Rogers facing out over the crowd of students and parents, watching the whole event unfold with the forests, river, and village kids playing on the opposite bank. It was quite surreal, but an amazing experience, and we were able to get a much broader picture of what ELI has been accomplishing in the area. We also got to visit the home of Mark and Cathy Lessig, who moved here permanently to work with ELI in 2011.

In other news, in light of present circumstances (plenty of ways for us to be useful and not just hanging about eating Mandazi), we have extended our stay in our ELI hut (picture) in Ilula for an extra week, and should be heading back to Nairobi next Saturday.

Before signing off, we just want to wish Autumn and Casey HUGE birthday greetings, and say that we wish we could celebrate with them in person. We are so thankful for both their lives, and think they are both pretty swell human beings. Strength and peace to them both as Aus starts out the new school year, and Casey gets further along at Loma Linda.