Thursday 5 October 2017

A Three Year Old Murdered, A Visit To Busia, A Drunk Man.

Good Day People,
Wow, I'm becoming more an more lax in this writing blog thing! it has been what...over 4 weeks since I last wrote what is going on in our lives over here.
Well, its the usual busy times, it seems like there is always something happening, someone going someone coming, painting to do, food to make, cloths to wash, church people to spend time with, an so our weeks rush by an its hard to believe that we only have 3 months left till 2018! that's kinda alarming to say the least.
We are just counting down the days till Lyndon's family comes to visit us, the twins an Wayne have all kinds of plans, an are just besides themselves with happiness that they actually get to see youth guys from home! we already see that we wont have time to do everything with them that we would want to, since they only stay around 10 days. but we are thankful for every minute we will have with them Lord willing.
So, since I don't keep a journal any longer, I was scrolling through my camera for a reminder of what we actually did these last several weeks other then our normal duties...
looks like we went on a family day vacation, every so often we have what we call a "Family day", I've written of it before I think. Anyway, our family decided we wanted to travel to the border of Kenya an Uganda, so since we only live several hours from there, we started off in the late morning reaching there around noon, then we just explored the little border town called Busia, where we simply explored around, an since we didn't have the correct papers to take our vehicle across the border we just stayed on the Kenyan side this time, an looked at shops, an found several nice resorts we ate lunch an the one place, but it took them over 2 hours to bring our food so we lost a lot of time there, so after eating our late lunch/supper we again headed for Kisumu, it was a good day indeed, an one for the books for sure.
Another happening that happened to me recently was that I was playing volley, an somehow twisted my knee an popped it out of socket, I twisted it harder then I have in a long time an was laid up in bed several days an now several weeks later I still limp abit when I walk an my knee socket feels so loose, but I'm walking a lot to strengthen it. so hopefully it will be okay again soon, I miss not being able to help the youth play, especially since we have such a small group of youth.


So I will have some pictures of a Bible study we went to at our church, an since my knee was hurt an I couldn't work a lot at home anyway I went along, limping my way around over the uneven ground, but then I went to our vehicle to get something an as I was climbing in I must have turned it the wrong way, an hurt it again, thankfully it didn't pop out of socket but I strained a muscle or something I couldn't hardly move my leg! I sat in the vehicle the rest of the afternoon an till we got back home, it was so boring an I felt like an old grandmother! made me ill! anyway I got home an stretched it abit an walked some an soon the muscle again let loose an it felt better.
Anyway enough about my "nursing home happenings".
The boys are working on making chicken layer boxes, so they have been busy with that, an trying to install them in the chicken house before the pullets start laying.
We also had unit meeting here in Kisumu, an the morning of unit meeting our family went to take some family pictures, since they needed some for the AMA calendar, so hopefully I'll add a few pictures of that.
Then a very sad happening that happened was that a small boy around 3 yr. old was lost for about three days, the family was frantically looking for him, only to discover him in a local well, were they saw according to bruises that he was strangled before being thrown into the well....the young parents were devastated an completely confused with what could have caused or triggered their innocent young sons death!
Mom Dad, an I went to the funeral along with several of the other mission pastors from here, since the deceased young boys grandfather is a bishop in one of our CBF churches, so it felt pretty close to home, since we knew the family through the Bishop Erik.
Pray for Erik's son an his wife an remaining child as they struggle through this dark time in their lives...the funeral was a typical Kenyan funeral.
Of course several happenings that I thought to add to my readers here...one was a drunk man that came staggering up to the casket, an leaned in far over the casket teetering back an forth till I was sure that he was going to fall in! he yelled around an waved his hands towards heaven, finally three strong guys got ahold of him an led the resisting man away throwing him outside the hedge row that surrounded the courtyard. an then several men stood guard to make sure he doesn't enter again. I found it amusing. An while the service was going.... off to the side there were three guys busily digging the grave. But this is Kenya! that is how they do things here.
I found it interesting the one guy was giving a speech an since white people were there he talked English, which isn't that uncommon, but what made me laugh was that when he was talking about the night that his grandson got lost, "it was raining cats an dogs!" you don't often hear Kenyans use that American term so that was entertaining. an later as the same guy was finishing up his speech he said, "so in a nutshell" that was another term I haven't heard very often from a Kenyan, but I might add the funny part of it was that the Luo people here struggle to pronounce their "sh" sounds so it often comes out as simply "s" like fis instead of fish, an soes instead of shoes, so he said "so in a nut-sell"!! I know maybe this isn't funny to all of you, but I have a feeling some ex-missionaries will appreciate the humor. haha
After the funeral we tried to quickly eat as a storm was rolling in over the mountains, an as I sat in a almost falling apart tent with the wind threatening to take the ragged piece of tent an blow it away, we sat underneath it, trying to quickly eat our ugali an tasteless cooked beef, as dust swirled everywhere, an dogs were fighting over the crumbs under our small coffee table we were eating off of...the dust finally became so thick that my food started tasting gritty, so I decided I was full.
it was a good day but we were glad to get home an shower an come to a house we know as home.
I still had to feel sad that evening however thinking of the horror of that young family, an when they went to bury the tiny little casket, as the first clods of dirt hit the coffin the young children standing around that knew the deceased boy, as a daily playmate, ran to the house covering their ears...sometimes life in Kenya breaks your heart, an I wonder how much suffering an pain my heart can take? but I know God is there...he knows what he is up to, an who are we to question, but only to trust his heart knowing that we have a good God!


An of course we had our usual chicken butchering again so I had to add some pictures of that dreaded day...also I got several pictures of our new concreted floor at church, thanks to a very very generous donator after having church in dust for the past 10 years we are finally able to have a concrete floor! the church people were beyond excited when they heard we got money to do that, an they are very grateful to God for it too.
I think that is all I have for this time...
God bless each one of you!
We miss you,
~Sylvia
For The Miller's


Ps( People! I'm beyond sad tonight when I went to FINALLY finish my blog I came to the website an found that all my pictures I had uploaded are gone....our laptop got malaria or something, an was not working the best the last while. I had so many good pictures! SOB! anyway nothing I can do about it I guess sorry about that!)

Monday 4 September 2017

A Cucumber?! A Song Written About Elections, Loren Kuepfers Farewell...

Good Evening Dear People,                                                                                           9.3.17
Stacy an I helping at the Lela clothing sale
This is a Sunday evening, when I realize that my blog update has never made it out this week...sigh! But since my nap this afternoon was quite extended I feel very little sleepiness, so why not get this out of the way...
Today Dad was preaching at Oroba, the neighboring church to our church.
We had a lovely time there, I always enjoy going there since I know more people from Oroba church, an a lot of the members there have some kind of family ties with people from our church, so it feels more like an extension of our own church.
We had a good Sunday, our family sang two songs before the message, then Dad preached about "13 steps to Victorious Living".
After the service Joseph an Becky had us at their house for a delicious lunch, Rhoda was also there since she goes to church with Joseph an Becky, an my brothers were she glad she was there since she made some yummy cupcake cheesecakes, they couldn't get over the fact how good they were, an were still talking about it Sunday night at our farewell supper.
Which leads me to the next topic, tonight we had a farewell for Loren Kueper's from Kansas who were here for the past 6weeks to officiate at Jakes church while Jakes were on furlough in America.
We greatly enjoyed having them here, along with their daughter Tonya.
The ladies looking through the things to buy...
On Saturday all the ladies went to Java house for lunch as a small farewell effort for Loren's wife Grace an their daughter Tonya, while all the men went to a Kenyan restaurant to eat their "Last supper" with Lorne there. I haven't written much about them when they came an all, sorry for that, sometimes so many people come an go through our compound that I don't always get to write about them, an to add a picture so that all you older people can run to your "red book" an see if you might have met them at your great grandmothers funeral one time. haha anyway i'll try to do better, but often about the time I get all their names down pat they move on, or go home. A part of mission life I guess.


As for Elections, I'm sure most of you know alittle about the elections, or maybe you know a lot about them...either way here is to a little update of what happened in the last week....


So Like I had said earlier the opposing party were certain the elections were rigged, an thus after the election announcement was made with Uhura proclaiming himself the winner, Raila took the whole thing to court to let them decide, an this past Friday the court announced their verdict.
A busy day for a young family...
They said that the election had irregularities an that the past election is void, an reelection is scheduled for casting votes again over the next 60 days. sigh....seems this election drama is just dragging out so long, with days when we cant go out an have to stay inside the compound, I think we are all just ready to have this election over with, an whatever brings peace...when the announcement was made within minutes of the breaking news announcement, we heard yelling an screaming as the luo people in Kisumu here went absolutely crazy, I clambered up on our roof to see if I could see anything of interest...an I saw old mama's running in the street blowing on whistles, motor bikes driving along just holding the horn in for a long loud screech! people were beside themselves with the announcement!
And while I'm thinking about it, I have been wanting to share a song with you all that us youth randomly wrote at a youth night...we came together to practice songs an ended up writing a song about the elections, this song was written right after the announcement had come out that Uhura had won, an the Luo people were rioting in anger.
We took the song "The Battle Belongs To The Lord" an sang it to that tune, only changing the words to fit our present circumstances, I know some of you have already read this song on other peoples blogs from our compound here, but my people have not read it yet so here goes: a lot of the wording is the way the Kenyans talk, an we made sure we sang it with their accent too! haha it was fun!


                                        = THE BATTLE BELONGS TO THE LORD =

1.
       Raila has lost, now Uhuru's just there
The battle belongs to the Lord.
The Luos are raging, they think it's not fair
The battle belongs to the Lord.

= Chorus =
And we sing Glory, Honor, Power and Strength to the Lord.
We sing Glory, Honor, Power an Strength to the Lord.

2.
The power is gone, wifi now is onge
The battle belongs to the Lord.
The natives are calling the pastors each day
The battle belongs to the Lord.

3.
When the gunshots an tear gas resound, do not fear
The battle belongs to the Lord.
Don't worry, Mzungu, Fires disappear
The battle belongs to the Lord.

*Onge (gone, or not there.) **Mzungu (White People)

Tiffany helping Daddy...
Something else I had done recently was help Joe an Glenda at Lela church have their annual clothing sale, I have a few pictures of that.    

I also have some pictures of a youth seminar we had at Oroba church, it was a fun day of messages an good food, an volley ball.


One Sunday night my little click or Victor, Winnie, an I went to tour an old house an radio station, that was a lot of fun, an it was right by a beautiful part of the lake which made it even more spectacular.
Also I got to help my friend Victor mud his house, as he is getting ready to be Married sometime in Dec.
The last several weeks have been packed with good experiences an just small things that remind me over an over how much I love living life here in Kenya! I feel so privilege that God called us to such a friendly people as the people of Kenya.
Working on mudding Victor's house...
I will let the pictures tell you the rest of the story!
Until next time!
We love you all!
~Sylvia
For The Miller's  

P.S
Something I found interesting this past week; I invited two girls from my church to come for a sleepover, an the one who is around 18 years old was perplexed at seeing a cucumber, saying she had only seen pictures in books of cucumbers but had never tasted one, she promptly ate a slice an shuddered all over realizing that she hadn't been missing out on a good tasting vegetable! haha
Another interesting thing was, a 22yr old friend of mine ask me what the thing was in our car that was hanging on the AC vent on the dash, I explained that is was a car freshener...sometimes I marvel, an other times I marvel even more at how our worlds are worlds apart!
The tour guide starting his tour...

A small child at the mudding...

Victor busy keeping everyone else busy...

Victors sister-in-law pumping water for cooking...

My friend Stacy having fun mudding...

Two of my little buddies that day...

Kaylita getting a real Kenyan experience...

This picture was taken especially for Charity an Karen.....Tim Hortons, an good memories! HA!

This is "my daughter" as I call her. her name is Abigail. I love her so much! 

Working hard...

Here is my friend Sarah, I am working on taking out her corn-row braids...

My friend Rhoda Wengard giving a program for the church, with her Sunday school class...

Dad preaching at Oroba this last Sunday...
Mom teaching a segregated session for the girls at the youth seminar...

Stanley doing a Bible trivia game at the youth seminar...

He really enjoyed his assignment! haha...

At the youth seminar...our Nyakoko youth giving a program...

Our youth, not all are members as you can see...

Oroba youth gave a program as well...



This is another picture from our tour we took...

Victor scouting out the area...

My family away from home...love these dear humans!

Touring the radio station was so cool...

The guy was on air when we came, so we had to be quiet, but afterwards he then showed us how everything was operating, it was interesting, he said he usually moderates the Christian station from 6-7pm Sunday nights.

"The Crubbers" as we call ourselves...
  








Wednesday 23 August 2017

Kenya In The Wake Of Elections, A Mudered Pastor, A Missing Gun.

Hello Everyone,
Dad An Mom With interpreter James, visiting John an Anna...
Time for another update, an where do I start? I'm finding that not keeping a journal anymore makes it abit harder to collect my thoughts once I sit in front of this laptop again.


We are enjoying the peace that is here in Kisumu, for now at least.
The opposing presidential candidate, has still not excepted his loss, but is taking the announced president to court, to prove that they rigged the elections, an stole his votes.
So in the mean time he told his tribe, an his supporters, to go about their everyday life till the court has a final verdict on what the elections results are....some say that right now Kenya has no president, others say the announced winner is the president an the sooner they except it the more peaceful Kenya will be.
Johns small son, blowing the cooking fire to make chia...
It could go quite a while till the court announces the verdict, so we keep praying that this long, drawn-out process, could end up being peaceful, an that there would not be more riots later on...Keep praying for Kenya.
The locals are angry with the corrupt police force here, an I cant say as I blame them after some of the stories I heard, I would be upset too...but what can you believe!? who is telling the truth an who is making up a story.
One story that was supposedly in the news, an was true, was that, the police were raiding houses looking for a man that had killed one of their police horses, an stole the machine gun from the police riding it, an killed the police too, so the police were searching houses to find the missing gun, at the one house they pulled the father out of the house, beating him mercilessly, dragged the Mamma out an beat her too, then went inside to search the house for the gun, there was a 9 month old baby laying in the corner, an the police took his club an whack the baby's soft head, causing the family to rush to Aga Kahn hospital, after the police finally left, the baby was announced to the public as dead several days later. Its so sad when the police abuse their authority.
The usual food when visiting before lunch...
One of our CBF members actually got beaten by police as well, he went to their local market to buy something small to take home for supper, an met up with the police who beat him mercilessly, for no reason other then to take their anger out on someone. Its more understood when you realize that most of the police force are on the presidents side, Uhura Kenyatta, so they beat any Luo people they could find because they were the ones voting for the rival party.
The locals said the police traveled through the roads an highways beating anything that came in their path, children, adults, even cows, goats, an dogs....telling the people that they didn't come here to protect them, but to kill them, since they are not excepting Uhura as president. its so sad, pray for the Kenyan government.


We are also doing a lot of visiting to our church people since we are able to get back out, we thank God that they were all safe an none got killed.
This week is terribly full, an I think literally everyday this week I will be out visiting the natives, but I enjoy that so much.
Visiting Jared an Sarah, they sew for their living, an Jared makes bricks...
On Friday we went to visit John an Anna, a very poor family from our church, we enjoyed reading Gods word with them, an through an interpreter hearing about their struggles in life, an trying to encourage them. sitting in their little mud hut with nothing on the walls but a calendar the church gives all the members once a year, an no furniture other then a three person wooden couch frame, an a single wooden chair, with no pads on them, only the wood frame, an a small coffee table, it made me again realize all I have....but the happiness they had was amazing! they love the Lord, an living for God is their number one goal.
Friday night we had Bible study at James an Christina, they made some really good soft pretzels afterwards.
Saturday we got up abit earlier an Mom an I worked on getting some much needed cleaning done, while the twins an Wayne struggled to get some breakfast together for all of us...Dad worked in the office.
The lady in the teal dress is giving her testimony, an is in instruction class...
Then around 12 we all got ready an went to the funeral of pastor Moses, a friend of ours that we had come to know through our friends Richard an Janet (Ex-Muslim Christians) Moses would have been Janet's brother-in-law, it was a sad day...seeing his newly widowed wife an three children sitting there in tears, as between 400-500 people gathered for the funeral.
Moses was a very humble pastor, an many people knew him an loved him.
As for his death, I will give you the story.
Moses often spent all night in prayer an fasting...so this Wednesday after he had finished teaching his Bible study class was no different, he left the house around 10:00pm to go down to his office in the church house, only several hundred yards from his house.
He usually prayed an fasted till around 5:30am so his wife an children went to bed.
Her husband is on her left, along with her mother an children on her right...
The next morning, the guard that is at their compound was making his rounds, turning off the lights around the compound an making sure all was safe from the previous night. when he came to the main gate, he saw that the padlocks had been cut with a sharp knife, an were laying on the ground, then he looked over at the church house an saw the main door to the sanctuary was open, he went to investigate, when he heard someone inside, gasping in a labored, raspy, breathing pattern, he went inside only to find Pastor Moses laying in a pool of his own blood, in his church.
The murderers had gagged him, an slit his throat, an chopped at the back of his skull...
He ran to notify his wife, an they rushed him to the hospital were he died by 4pm that night.
Only in Kenya, there is always room for one more....we counted 6 people on here
He left his pregnant wife, two sweet little girls, an his oldest child a 10yr old son behind...needless to say it was one of the saddest funerals I have attended in Kenya, an as the widow talked at the funeral, saying how she doesn't understand how someone could come in an just kill her husband, an go Scott-free...there was not a dry eye in that place. She melted into sobs, but regaining her composure she said that she knows that the Lord says, Vengeance is mine! I will repay, saith the Lord!  And she said that she is choosing to forgive the murders of their great crime, an leave it to God to punish them. Pray for her if you think of it, I believe her name is Carolyn.
My friend Jane an her grandmother....
No one knows why those men came an did what they did...some say it was jealousy of all that Moses had, he was a more wealthy man then the average, an he had met up with a white missionary pastor from England I believe, many years ago, an after the missionary left he signed everything over to Moses, his land an house an all, an in recent years a co-pastor or co-operator of some kind kept telling Moses that he was to share in this inheritance left by the missionary, so finally the court made a verdict an saw that Moses had all the legal papers to owning the compound an everything, an concluded that the co-partner does not receive anything, an shortly afterwards, the murder happened, but no one has any proof, that it was because of that.
One interesting thing to me at the funeral was that the preacher was quite energetic an preached hell fire an brimstone! I had to laugh because he kept calling his interpreter his "interrupter", he had quite a sense of humor though, an the one time he was asking us to greet the person sitting beside us, then he told us to tell that person that "I look better then you." hahah he was hilarious, he was also asking us all to clap an chant something or other, an some people I guess were slow in doing what he wanted, since it was hot an everyone jus wanted to sit still an listen to him speak, so he said, "Hey! if you don't start clapping an smiling at your neighbor right now, you will be seen as a suspect." everyone laughed, but I must say, everyone started doing just as he asked us to. hahha
Visiting my friend Jane's house, this is her nephew Jr.
It was a typical Kenyan funeral, we had asked what time to come to the funeral an they had told us 10am. so we knew right off that we didn't have to leave the house till 12noon, we got there around 12:30pm an sat through three solid hours of "testimonies" then they still had the message, an finally by around 5pm they took him to the gravesite to be buried.
Sunday was a normal day at church, Dad however preached his first message since his malaria an felt quite weak towards the end, he said he felt so weak that he wanted someone else to come close the service since he felt like he could collapse.
Pray for Dad, his second time with malaria has really made him even more weak, he says he weighs less then he did in the last 15 years, an he says he is dizzy a lot recently, an feels like fainting most of the time, also complains that his vision is somehow dark, so I worry about him, I think all those malaria meds have almost taken a toll on the old man.
But I keep reminding myself that God is faithful, an will help him to be strong.
I will wrap up this update for this time, as I'm going out to Lela church to help with a clothing distribution, an have a dentist appointment at 3pm. but I wanted to quickly write this small update of our last week, an get it out to all of you.
Keep praying for us, an thanks for all the prayers you have prayed for us.
Some of the neighbor children, an my friend Mareen...
~Sylvia
For The Miller's



Margi (Named after Tommy an Margi Wagler, the family we replaced) is cooking for us 
 

 

Lifting her nephew high up in the tree...
 

My friend Mareen....she is my friend Jane's younger sister, but knows English very well, unlike the rest of her family...

Wednesday 16 August 2017

Protesting, Gunshots, And A Calm Only God Can Bring.


Hello again everyone,
So quite honestly I have not been keeping a daily journal like I had been, an I don't know if that will return right away...we will see.
How much can I journal about being cooped up in the compound the last week?! yeah kinda boring...
Playing spike ball
we have sewed many dresses, read many books, made much food, painted much, an the pastors cleaned up a storage room, ate the donuts we made, an had pastors meeting....so as most of you probably know that Uhura Kenyatta was announced the winner once more, an we were shocked by the outburst of anger by the luos...the winner was announced Friday night, an soon after seeing it on the news, we heard shouting, wailing, an utter-chaos...us youth scrambled up on our house roof, an looked down onto the city where the riots were, we sat on the hard tile roof for at least an hour or more, watching as the fires lite up the black sky, an tires burned throwing clouds of black smoke into the air, we cud hear as the throng made its way down ring road, small tin shacks were being torn apart, stones flying, an then the police, an army people arrived, an we promptly heard tear gas, an gunshots being fired over an over, till the storm of people had quieted down, an only the smoke an fires remained...the gate guard soon came an told us to leave the roof, since he was afraid stray bullets would hit us if we sat there, we then came down, an needless to say it was a rather sleepless night for most of us, as there were gunshots going off when I feel asleep, but thanks to my trusty fan, I was able to sleep through most of it, the next morning we woke up to more gunshots, an throughout the day some too, but mostly silence was everywhere, waiting for what "Baba" the luos candidate Raila would have to say, as of today he has still kept silent, he is remaining quiet, an everyone is in suspense, if he says "peace" the luos will somewhat relax, if he says "it was robbed from me, we fight!" then we can only be stuck inside the compound much longer, praying that Gods will would prevail. So pray for us as we wait, he was supposed to make a public announcement today, but then it was cancelled, so we are all hoping by tomorrow he will tell his voters, an tribe, what to do.


The ladies sitting around the fire before supper
The one day we had a small scale chicken butchering, or I might say "rooster" butchering, we had 12 roosters that were making a lot of racket, an needed to be butchered, so our family got up Saturday morning, an butchered most of them, a few of the pastors also came to help abit, then we put all the meat into a marinade, an had a big chicken BBG Sunday night.
Sunday we were also stuck inside, our churches out in the interior had to go on as best as possible...we missionaries however enjoyed having "church" with ourselves, we all gathered at bishop Wayne's house, an under a big shade tree, we worship God, us youth sang several songs, an also a song that we had written the night before, using "The Battle Belongs To The Lord" as the song, only changing words, that was quite an experience, as us youth sat around, someone came up with the brilliant idea that we should write other words to that tune to express our present election conditions, it turned out quite a success, an the missionaries really enjoyed it...a native family on the compound here also joined our little service.
The Men playing botchy-ball
Sunday was a relaxing day, however waking up, to native church singing into their loud speakers like they usually do, an gunshots chattering in the distance, gave Sunday a strange feel.
But the week passed by safely an that's what we are thankful for...Monday things were peaceful enough that a group of us went to town to get some things an to evaluate the damage done so far, I took some pictures an was pleasantly surprised that there wasn't more damage done.
Monday night it was still peaceful, so us youth made a flying trip to Java house, had a lovely super together, an just enjoyed being outside!
Today there was some tension on a very low scale since Baba was supposed to talk today, but then the speech was canceled once more.
So that is all I can update you on for now, keep praying an thanks so much for all your prayers already.
Have a blessed week,
~Sylvia
For The Miller's
 
 

Dad showing us all how to butcher chickens...

Mom gutting them, an Stan cutting off the feet, which the natives will love to eat.

Wayne was the "professional" chicken catcher...

Bishop Wayne preaching

Sunday Services...



The native family....


Ring road after the Friday night riots

notice the black spots on the pavement, from burning tires...

They had cleared some of the debris of the roads, but stone heaps still remained 


This store front got hit with stones...

Security guards reading a pamphlet we gave them... 

Dad talking with some men in town...


Wayne painting Jakes house...

Grandpa on the front porch, after pastors meeting, waiting for you all to email him! haha

Getting ready to paint the side of the roof lining...

Tired of painting...