Land of Paradox

The past couple of days I have really been reminded of the paradox of serving here. In some ways I love this place so much, and in other ways it drives me crazy. There are parts of the culture that are so endearing, and others that I will never understand. Even the same is true with the people and relatonships.

I received an e-mail update from the leaders of my mission training that I took before coming to Kenya. What they said is so true, and really applies to me. I wish I would have wrote it...

"If I had to choose a word to describe this year, it would be PARADOX. I
love that word. It allows seemingly contradictory realities to dwell together
at the same time. And this year, like most, has held many paradoxes...

At any given moment, our hearts are full and broken, enriched and depleted,
grateful and weeping, content and longing for more. It is to these hearts
that the Savior faithfully comes, bringing grace and a song! It is this Savior
that our hearts celebrate at Christmas and in all the seasons of life!"

Lessons From a Dead Mouse

Living in Kenya is a paradox for me. Sometimes I love it and sometimes not so much. But I think that is true for all of us, whereever we live.

Friday was not the best day for me. After sleeping for only 3 hours Thursday night I was awoken by a noise and couldn't get back to sleep. I was already a little jet-lagged, but I laid in bed for an hour and a half in an unfruitful attempt to induce sleep. Luckily, there was a football game on TV at 4:30 am (time difference between Kenya and U.S.) so I laid on the couch and watched a little. Realizing sleep was not going to happen again, I got ambitous and tried to call a customer service line in America to help me with my new Kindle e-book reader (parent's Christmas present). Well that was quite a joy to spend 15 minutes on hold and then a pleasant 30 minute conversation (on international rates) hearing about all the extra charges for trying to use the 3G downloading function overseas for my subscriptions to magazines and newspapers.


By 7:30 I set off to meet our boys football team who was competing in a tournament in Sindo, 20 km away. Unfortunately, the other vehicle had a dead battery (because the owner had used it to watch TV in his house all night) so I had to jumpstart him so that we can bring the whole team to Sindo. Even though the roads were quite muddy and slippery from the morning rain, we reached well, but the other vehicle got a flat tire just outside of Mbita. Believe it or not, they had no spare tire (frequent occurrence in Kenya). So after dropping my group I had to go back to pick up the other players and the bad tire. We arrived just in time for kick-off but I think the events of the morning played a toll on the kids and they got beat 4-1.


I had to quickly rush back to Mbita for a meeting with the leadership at CGA at noon. The meeting was pretty uneventful, and was followed by two more meetings, now with the parents of our secondary students in the sponsorship program. It turned out to be a pretty typical Kenya meeting, lasting about 4 1/2 hours. Everyone has to give their opinion and then open it up for in-depth discussion. Some were good, some were not.


After the meetings, many students and several parents were waiting to share personal problems with me. The family of one of our boys was kicked out of their house and off their land because the father had sold it before he died without telling one. Others wanted to discuss switching schools or their fee problems or other things I shouldn't write about in this blog. By the time I started walking home, it was already getting dark outside.


When reaching home, I realized my sitting room light barely gave out enough light for me to see my own hand. Having wasted hours and hours previously with the solar lights and fixtures, I decided to leave that job for another day. So I lit a candle and a lantern. That wasn't the best idea because they attracted all of the mosquitos and lake flies which seemed to fixate on my face. Soon after, the rain began pouring down and eventually through my roof and in many spots throughout the house.


Tired, hungry and at my wits end, I gave up and decided to go to bed. On my way to bed, I spotted a rather large mouse in my pantry. My reflexes are deteriorating in my old age so I was unsuccessful trying to catch it. Defeated, I strugged to set up some peanut butter (my least favorite food in the world) on a few mouse traps and place them around the house.


I finally plopped down in my bed and just started spilling my heart out to God in the dark of the night. I don't know if it was jet lag, or the 3 hours of sleep the night before, or just cross-cultural frustrations, but I felt totally downhearted. Just a couple of minutes into my prayer time, I heard the snap of a mouse trap. That sound brought so much joy to my heart. I just shouted outloud "Praise God!" My prayers of frustration turned into prayers of gratitude and joy for how good God is to me. I felt like he was telling me, "Don't worry Joe, I have you taken care of. I know exactly what you need and will meet those needs according to my glorious riches."


Thank you God! And thank you stupid mouse!

We Need You!!

1) Please pray for our twenty-four 8th graders as they sit their National Exams November 9-11. It is a pivotal moment in their lives. Pray for confidence in their minds, peace in their hearts and good health. And pray for success for the glory of God (more is written below).

2) Consider sponsoring a student through CGA. We are in need of more child sponsors to help cover the costs of educating each child. Or consider giving a year end gift to CGA so that we can continue providing a strong Christian education and meeting the basic physical needs for these 275 primary school kids and 90 secondary school kids. You can contribute on-line at www.cgakenya.com (click on the button “Donate Now”) or you can send a check to:
Christ’s Gift Academy
636-G Long Point Rd #38
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464

3) For all of you in the Charleston area, there is a Golf Tournament and a Dinner/Silent Auction on November 12th at Patriots Point. The proceeds will go to benefit our sports ministry here in Mbita. Download the registration form. Here is summary of what we are looking for.
- Golf tournament ($400/foursome or $100/participant)
- Silent Auction: 5-7 p.m. at Patriots Point Links Golf Club ($20/ticket)
- Hole sponsorship ($100/hole)
- Purchase a uniform for a young athlete ($50.00)
- Donate raffle items (gift certificates, merchandise, services, etc…)
- Donate silent auction items

In October our Football Club hosted a tournament for girls 13 years and younger. We thought we could get 6-7 teams, but 14 showed up that morning. It was a great day filled with a lot of football for young girls who don’t get many opportunities to play in real games like that. We were also able to share the Gospel with those 200 young girls plus hundreds of other fans. The day ended with a good female motivational speaker and the awards ceremony.

It is time once again for National Exams. 8th grade is the culmination of primary school and it ends with all 800,000 students across the country taking their National Exam. The exams will be on November 9-11. They will take multiple choice exams in Math, English Grammar, Science, Kiswahili Grammar and Social Studies/Religious Education. They will also write a composition in English and a composition in Kiswahili. After finishing they will wait for close to two months for the results to be released. Their performance on this one exam will determine if they are able to proceed to secondary school and what school they will be able to attend. There is a lot of pressure on the students and the school to “perform.” Students, teachers and schools are all judged on this one exam so you can imagine the pressure these kids feel when taking it. Many times students fall ill and are overtaken by stress. Please pray for their strength and perseverance during these exams. Pray that they will remember all that they have learned and that they would succeed. This is the first year I have taught 8th grade Math and so I am also a little nervous about how they will do. They have worked extremely hard throughout this year and I know they are well-prepared and will be successful, but there is still a little anxiety. We are busy doing the last minute touches to make sure they are ready! But we need you to help by praying!!!

Encouraging the Young Girls

Our Suba Lakers Football Club hosted its first ever tournament for Under 13 year old girls. Fourteen teams showed up early on the 20th October, a Kenyan National Holiday. Our club officials were hoping for around six teams so we were stunned at the response. Even despite the heavy rains that had made the roads difficult to travel on (and also washed away the lines we had drawn on the field the previous day) the teams arrived early which is rare here. Many people commented that this was the first time they had ever seen a tournament like this in Mbita. Each team played with seven players and we used a smaller field which gave the players more chances to touch the ball.

Our goal was to encourage the young girls to be developing their various talents. Many times girls don't get the opportunity to play at their schools because the boys take the ball and dominate the field. If girls get to play, then it is usually the older ones, which leaves these younger ones left out. We also wanted to use the tournament as a way to spread the Gospel and to encourage the young girls in other ways. A pastor came and shared a message with all the teams gathered around before the seminfinals began. Also, a successful woman from the community share some words of wisdom to motivate and inspire these young girls to work hard in school and take good care of their bodies.

Age vetting was a difficult process as almost every coach brought older girls that we had to disqualify. In fact, one team had seven girls who did not make our age cut. The sad part is that the coaches would prep the girls to lie about their age and year of birth; a very common practice in this country.

Each team was able to play at least two matches and most played three matches. The winning team from each pool qualified for semifinals in the afternoon. In one semifinal Temo from Rusinga Island met with Wanga Primary where my good friend is the principal. In the other seminfinal CGA face Milimani. CGA allowed their first goal of the day by one of their own players heading it backwards into their own goal. It was a heartbreaking way to lose, but they rebounded to blow out Wanga in the third place match. Milimani won the championship on penalty kicks in a hard fought match.

We were able to feed lunch to each team and also give them a football and certificate. Each coach received a t-shirt. And we handed out many awards like cleats, t-shirts, goalkeeper gloves, etc. to the outstanding players. Everyone went home happy.

It was an incredibly fun day and very successful in motivating the girls from all around this district.

Across the Lake

Even though all of the students from Christ’s Gift Academy have grown up on the shores of the second biggest freshwater lake in the world, most of them have never travelled across on it on a boat. On Friday, forty-four CGA students and ten teachers travelled by boat to Mfangano Island for the release of the results from a joint exam we did with the other top schools in the district. It was the first time many of them had been out on Lake Victoria. They really enjoyed the scenery and being able to look back and see their homes from a different perspective. The boat ride each way lasted about one and a half hours. They were busy telling stories to each other, pointing to landmarks they could recognize and singing songs.

Once reaching Mfangano, they were warmly greeted by the students of Gethsemane Academy, our sister school on the island. Similar to CGA, the school was created to give a quality Christian education to the orphans and help them break the cycle of poverty in their lives. During the release of the exam results, the highlight for CGA was being #1 in English for 6th Grade. Also, several individuals were honored.

6th Grade- Wendy was #2 overall in English and Esther Juma was the #3 girl overall out of over 200 students

8th Grade- Valary Macklago was #1 overall in Math and #5 girl overall out of over 200students. Adah Sharon was also in the top ten girls

Secondary Students Preparing for National Exams

It is with proud hearts that 16 former Christ’s Gift Academy students will be taking their National Exams from October 21 – November 11 at their various secondary schools. This will be the first group of CGA students to reach this milestone in their lives. Many of these students began at CGA in Nursery school the year the school was founded, 1997. Without the support of Christ’s Gift Academy and their sponsors, many of them would have never had the chance to reach this far in their education. We are so proud of each one! There have been many struggles and obstacles along the way, but God has seen them through.

Please pray for these students as they diligently prepare for their National Exam. Around 300,000 students around the country will be taking the same exam. It is done over the course of three weeks. They will usually do exams in 8 subjects. Some are mandatory such as English, Math, Kiswahili, Biology and Chemistry; and there are other electives they can choose between like Physics, History, Geography, Business, Religious Education, Computer and Agriculture. Some of the subjects require multiple exam papers so, on average, most of students will take around 15 exams within those three weeks. They feel a lot of pressure and stress during this time because their performance on this test will determine much of their future possibilities. Please be praying for their health, for peace in their hearts, confidence in what they have learned and how hard they have worked, and for their success.

Once they finish their exam, they will have to wait for about four months for their results. You can also be praying for them during that time. It is not easy for many young people after they finish school. There are many temptations out there, especially when they finally have a lot of free time after working so hard to prepare for exams. Pray that they would use their time well by volunteering, serving, helping and learning new skills.

It’s our goal at CGA, that each student has the chance to complete their education with a high school diploma. We are thankful to God for bringing them this far and for their sponsors and the school sponsors for their consistent and faithful support over the years to help make their dreams a reality!

Small Gifts for our Football Club

This weekend our 25 primary school football girls came for another weekend of training. They report on Friday afternoon and stay with us until Sunday afternoon. There is much time for training, studying, guest speakers, watching some football videos and spending time together. We had a great speaker this weekend who shared with them about how to take good care of their bodies, personal hygeine and how God has created them.

On the last morning a Junior Boys team from Rusinga Island came to play a friendly match with us. They thought they would be able to dominate a girls team, but were a bit embarrassed when our girls defeated them 5-2. We played two full 45 minute halves so it was good conditioning and good competition playing against fast, agressive young boys.

Because of a generous donation our madam teachers were able to buy a couple pair of underwear for each girl. That is a big blessing as many of them only own one or two pairs. We also got each girl a mosquito net to take home with them to help protect them from getting malaria. CGA had bought a large order for our students last month and they had some extras that we purchased from them. We also were able to give almost half of them old half-deflated basketballs that they could use at home to kick around a little and play with in the village (I never imagined I would give basketballs away to be kicked- don't tell my former basketball coaches).

The girls received the gifts with big smiles and sincere thank-you's.