Hi all,

We're back in Oregon, safe and sound. The internet at the farm ended up being non existent (someone had stolen the cable to connect the internet) so we weren't able to post. We did receive your messages, however. We arrived today at about noon and are all exhausted, but doing well.

Welcome to the 2008 Kenya Mission Team Blog!

BLOG UPDATED ON FRIDAY, JULY 4TH

We will be doing our best to update this blog as often as possible while in Kenya. Phone and internet services are extremely limited in the areas we will visit, but we will have access to this site throughout our time in country. We encourage you to leave us comments and messages on this site. We will not be able to respond to your comments individually, but a member of our team will be sure to deliver your messages.

How do I send a message to the team?

I'm glad you asked. Here are some basic instructions on how to leave a comment on the site (feel free to practice on this entry...your practice comment can easily be deleted by our webmaster).

To post a comment:

• Go to the end of the entry to you want to leave a comment on.
• Click on "Add Comment" or "1 Comment" or "2 Comments" (and so on and so forth...the number will change with each new comment added)
• Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will see a white text box.
• Click the "Anonymous" bubble.

• Type in your name (this is how we know who sent the message) and email (you will not receive Spam from Xanga)
• Type your message into the white text box. (Be sure to identify who you are and if you have a specific message for a member of the team, be sure to address that person by using their first name)
• Click "Submit" below the white text box.
• You're done!

This posting will always be found as the top, or first entry, on the site to help aid you in posting comments to the team members. Remember, the team members read each and every comment and they appreciate all of them so feel free to send as many as you like!

Peace!

Friday July 4, 2008

Hi all,

This will be our last post from Maua. We leave tomorrow morning at 9:00am for Meru. Meru is located about 2 hours south of Maua, just below the equator. Tomorrow, on our way, we'll stop at the equator to see the water demonstration and take some pictures.

Speaking of pictures, we will not be able to upload anymore images from our travels until we return to the states. John, at the farm, only has a text based email connection, but no internet services, so we will be posting to the site with the help of Bonnie's mom. We will post via email to Bonnie's mom and then she will send the messages on the site to Bonnie via John's email account. We have done this in the past, so don't worry...it will work! We will still receive your messages, so please, keep them coming! We had quite a few laughs about the messages last night, and yes, Mom, I do have my own clothes. The orange shirt that you may have seen us wearing in the pictures is from BUZZKILL (see www.nothingbutnets.net ) - an organization that helps provide mosquito nets to people in African countries to help prevent Malaria.

This morning, our team will be attending a lunch with the hospital administration and then will be heading out to the COMPLETED AIDS orphan home to dedicate it to the family. (Colleen and Ted - Charles actually asked us about you! He sends greetings from him and his team). Some team members are currently making prayer rounds and will be blessing the mortuary before the lunch.

After dedicating the house, we will head back to the hotel, have dinner, and begin packing up our things. We will leave at 9:00am on Saturday morning for Meru and will arrive at the farm in time for lunch. We are all very excited to see what projects John and Janet will have for us. We will also be donating the school supplies donated by the students at Errol Hassell Elementary in Aloha, OR to the local primary school in Meru.

Please check out the Maua Methodist Hospital website at www.xanga.com/MauaMethodistHospital . Stanley has been updating the site while our team has been here and will continue to do so for years to come (oh, and just between you and me...he loves to see the counter on the bottom of the page go up, so please visit his site often! Everytime I see him, he tells me how many visitors have come to support his website. ). You can also see an article that Stanley asked me to write about the Free Clinic we provided in Ndoleli the other day.

Nina, we hear that you're mass emailing everyone with our updates. Thanks for doing that, we really appreciate it! This week alone, we have had 546 visitors to check out what we're doing, so that's great!

Again, thank you for all the comments. We really appreciate them!

Bonnie, Sue, Jim, Jasmine, Bill, Maury, Kate, Ann, Wally, Kathleen, and Paul