Week 2&3

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I have gotten to learn a lot about the ministry here in the past two weeks. We got to see about every aspect of what goes on around here. Water pumps, irrigation, schools, medical clinics, etc…

Last week (June 15th) we drove 3 hours out of town… and I mean really out of town… to work around a lovely place called Nakor, where we laid our heads to rest at night.

The next day (June 16th) we got our first experiences working on water projects. We installed a solar panel and electric pump into a pre-existing well.

The second day of work (June 17th), the site was located across a river which we had to cross by foot. This river was roughly 400 meters across. Along with ourselves, we drudged across with a generator, welder, huge metal pipes, chains…. I’ve never crossed a large river on foot before. But I crossed this one 14 times that day. 13 times bare-footed cause (it took once for me to learn my lesson). Many of them past herds of camels drinking from the river… it was the craziest thing at the time, but now seems like a very plausible and normal day here in Africa. Oh, and did I mention I was tired that day.

We came back to town. Freshened up. Met a group of four great guys that came from a church in Rolla, Missouri to see what all was happening up here. Their church had raised support for a water well and solar farm.

We headed back out (June 19th) to Nakor with them and got to help with the drilling of 3 new handpumps and saw all stages of the operation over the course of the week. There are two water drilling teams of local Christian Turkana men that carry out the work year-round. We went back and forth between the two teams helping.

It is so heart-breaking and joyful to see the people get clean water for the first time. Some of the people have never seen clean water before. None of them have ever used clean water on a regular basis. They either take it straight from the river or dig small holes in the river bed. They take it home and stir it, and boil it, and try to get it cleaner but dirt is dirt. It is such a blessing to get to see them get water. The women have usually gathered with all their water containers when we finish a well. At one site, we watched a woman bathe her two kids in clean water for the very first time. Another place, we spoke with a woman who had crossed a river to come get our clean water. I love it. When we finish we get a chance to pray with the people when we are done and they are always very grateful.

Our fearless leader, Gene, has been here for 15 years and I’ve gotten to hear some incredible stories about how the church has grown in this area. He is a god-fearing man and has a real heart for helping and ministering to the people here. Over the years he has shifted leadership duties to the Turkana people while overseeing the water projects, Turkana Bible Training Institute, some medical clinics, has helped start some schools… big stuff. Good stuff. Oh, and he’s 61. Talk about a retirement….

That is about it for now. From now on we are scheduled to be out with the drilling teams Monday-Friday, working all day, and sleeping outside, and all that jazz. Hope this blog finds you well. Pray for God to give me the strength and energy to work hard. Pray for opportunities for us to share the Gospel across our language barrier. And pray for my teammate Josh as well. Cause we’re a team.


Water-drilling specifics if you're into that kind of thing:

Generally we place hand pumps along rivers where we know there is water. A committee of local church leaders decide which areas need them the most. We have a drill (which is just a bit attached to long sqare rods of metal with a handle at the top) which we assemble in sections and hand turn until we fill the bit up with sand and then pull up. Repeat for about 4 hours and you usually hit water.

After we hit water and fit all the casing and piping in, we put a hand pump on the well. If the well proves faithful, we can put up a solar panel, and replace the hand pump with an electric pump which will be powered at all times during the day and the people can use to water a farm.



And for your Google Earthing pleasure:

Nakor (where we slept)- 2°36.929N 36°15.677E

1st solar pump - 2°684N 36°14.678E

2rd handpump - 2°37.78N 36°15.911E

3rd handpump - 2°41.909N 36°15.503E

The Adventures of Eregai

Week 1 Summary:

We are stationed in Lodwar, Kenya.

This past week I stayed at 2 Turkana homes for a total of 5 days. We have been getting to know the language and the people.

To clarify, Turkana is the name of a people group in and around Lodwar. They speak the national language, Swahili, and their native tongue, Turkana. We will be doing most of our water projects outside Lodwar in Turkana villages.

Tomorrow we leave to join the Water Projects team which is working about an hour outside Lodwar right now. I think from now on, we will stay with them Monday-Friday every week working, and come back into Lodwar on the weekends.

So, the nitty gritty details of my stay in 2 Turkana homes...

First of all, I don't go by Drew anymore. My second day in Lodwar, I joined the family of John and Margaret Ejore and their three offspring. I don't know why, but having John and Margaret as parents for my first three days in Kenya just seemed kinda funny. A few minutes after I got there John gave me the name Eregai (air-e-guy). I feel kind of honored every time they call me by name and think I am a character in the Lord of the Rings. Anyways, my stay threw me into the thick of the language. I knew some simple phrases before I got there but once I got past those, they just taught me through hand signals and whatever other expressions they could. It was really hard to go that long without being able to say anything too significant but I managed, and we enjoyed each other's company.

They basically live outside. They had 2 huts. A grass hut, Margaret cooked things in and kept food. And a square mud hut, they kept all their belongings in (very little). Their life was basically lived outside. No electricity. The water they had, they carried there in jugs from a near-by government well. That was pretty much how everyone around them lived. We slept under the stars on inch-thick straw mats that separate you from the ground. The sky is incredible. It looks like pictures of the Milky Way. I slept good. The bugs would land on my face every now and then, but other than that, I would sleep pretty peacefully.

Food was good. Goat, pasta, bread-stuff, cabbage, tortilla things, kidney beans. Just a mix of that stuff. It wouldn't be my choice American meal but it really wasn't that bad. The goat meat had lots of delicious fat on it and I'm not too picky of an eater to begin with. All my years of being criticized for eating things that are too old, or have been sitting out too long, left on the seat next to us at a sporting event or the seat next to us at a restaurant, all those times are finally paying off. I don't get my plate and start wondering, where has this been and what germs could be in this. I just eat up. :)

During the days I would walk around town with John, take a nap in the shade of his hut, or fetch water and "groceries". One day we walked out of town and found some camels that were grazing.

Camels in Kenya = Cows in Oklahoma. John works for CMF (Christian Missionary Fellowship), the organization I came with. He does odds and ends at the church. The days I was there, he wasn't working though.

They were very good to me. Margaret would pile on heaping amounts of food on a plate for me. At times I noticed that she put meat in my food but not anyone else's and I was very humbled. They were overly-respectful of all my things. They would always keep my bag elevated or on a mat so it wouldn't be in the sand.

We were picked up on Tuesday morning, and by Tuesday afternoon, we were an hour outside Lodwar in what everyone calls "the bush". Basically away from civilization. The tribe is pretty much self-sustaining. There isn't a town, just huts scattered kilometers apart.... I stayed with Samson and Elen. A neighbor of theirs, Maurice, knew English and helped me communicate which was such a relief. I stayed two days. Food was similar. I watched a goat get slaughtered. And both mornings, I got a goat leg served to me for breakfast. I was pretty pumped. It's the equivalent of waking up to your mom cooking you a steak. I spent both days, helping Samson feed goats and following him to work at a missionary's house they were fixing up. Other than that, I hung out with the family and kids. Showed them pictures of America. And laughed a lot.

It was a great experience. I've been back at the missionary's house (Gene Morden) for the past 3 days. Gene is great and has a real heart for the people here.

Although we are going to be working mostly on the water-projects side of things here, CMF has a lot of different programs going on in and around this area that are benefitting the people immensely, namely:

Turkana Literacy Programs

English as a second language programs

3 medical clinics

Community Health Evangelism programs

Turkana Bible Training Institute

I have met 3 different missionary families, where I've been so far but a lot of these programs are maintained by the people themselves so they have ownership in it. So yeah, that is what is going on on this side of the world.

Josh and I are leaving tomorrow to join the water projects team and we will be doing that for the rest of our time here. So I think I'll be able to update you on that next week. Pray that our well-digging goes well. Pray that the people would see Christ's love for them through our work and interactions. But it takes God. And all depends on him. "If the Holy Spirit moves, nothing can stop Him. If He doesn't move, we will not produce genuine fruit - no matter how much effort or money we expend." -Francis Chan, Forgotten God

Peace out cub scouts

The last week has been absolutely righteous.

May 25th - I showed up in Louisville to spend a night with the one and only Dillon Zimmerman and his wonderful wife, Kathryn before my pre-departure training started. I had a great time. However, my stay brought much strife to the household. Dillon found out his car had a pretty serious mechanical problem right before he had to come pick me up from the airport. When I got to his house, his laptop wasn't working. We started working on some cabinets and we put a handle on the wrong side of a door. We bought the wrong hinges. The dryer exhaust hose came off when my stuff was in the dryer, etc, etc, etc. I offer my full apology to Dillon and his family. And I hope we can still be friends.

May 26th - I showed up for Pre-Departure Orientation along with 32 other interns who are also out and about for the next two months. Ethiopia, Mexico City, Ivory Coast (do work!), Chili, and Kenya. After a few trust falls and ice-breakers we became good friends and I had lots of time to spend in prayer and in the Bible.

June 1st - Take-OFF! Delving into the unknown is a crazy thing. Especially when there is no turning back. It was a weird feeling to know I was getting on a plane with complete commitment to the unknown. No dropping out. No quitting. No edit, undo. What in our lives do we ever commit to? Not much. I have to know everything about anything before I ever make any kind of serious commitment. If I was going to move somewhere new, I would have to know where I was going to work, where I was going to live, where I was going to go to church, what kind of neighborhood I would be in, what kind of schools, people, on and on. Any major decision I make, it has to be thought out from start to finish, with at least 3 back-up plans. Moving, jobs, significant others. We have to get to know everything before we commit. And instead of committing, we spend our whole lives testing the waters. Cause diving in is our greatest fear. As long as we're staying above the surface, we can see the safety of shore. And if we're rich enough, we can get lifeguards. It's human nature. And that is why I think I had such a weird feeling leaving for Kenya. Every evidence I had around me, every prayer, every scripture, every person I encountered confirmed to me that what I was doing was right. Regardless, "it ain't easy". So anyways, I'm writing to you from Lodwar, Kenya. So here goes. Sometimes you just have to accept the fact that you know nothing and won't know anything until you dive in. God gives us the past and the present. But the future is His. The one aspect of time humans cannot see.

June 2nd - Didn't make our flight in D.C. Toured D.C.

June 3rd - 14 hour lay-over in London. Toured London.

June 4th - Flew into Turkana. Drove around Lodwar in a Landrunner. Started learning some of the Turkana from my new friends Simon and Eric. Great people. The town is incredibly hard to describe. I have never seen anything like it. I'm so pumped for the rest of the week. Tomorrow, they are putting me into a Turkana family's house by myself for three days so I can experience their day-to-day lives and learn some language. I'll come back on Tuesday and leave again for three days to stay in a community in "the bush". My teammate Josh will accompany me on that. I'm pumped.

Wish I could say more, but I've over-stayed my time on this computer. If you know me, you know I write slow. Love you all.

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. Matthew 11:12