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!)