Questions and Answers

I guess I have to start by saying that I have no idea what to write. For those of you who know me well, I expect you will be as surprised as I am to read that. - long winded stories are usually my gig. I expected when it would be my turn to post that I would have so much to write – and I'm finding the opposite. I suppose I'll just tell you a little of what we're doing.

As you have probably read from the previous posts, we're working on the dormitory – we started with a cement slab foundation and we are building exterior stone walls one block at a time. We've all had turns laying the bed joints and filling in head joints; learning all about the techniques – making sure there's a stable bond between courses of stone (on top of each other) and how to keep everything plumb and level. We start right after devotions in the morning (scripture reading and discussion) at seven thirty and go to work until lunchtime around twelve-thirty or one o'clock. We take breaks whenever we need to. After an hour lunch – usually prepared by Carla and Jeff (the house parents and center directors) or whatever was prepared by the kitchen staff that the kids also eat – we get back to work and work until six.

During today's work we completed the fourth course of stone (they are seven to eight inches high). My job has been to sort stone and prepare each course for those doing masonry. Each stone is irregular – different lengths, sometimes different shapes, of four different color stones. We try to make it as randomly colored is possible.

Everyone is doing great work. I'm always amazed at how well groups of people can mesh together even though we (most of us) just met. Of course there are always challenges, but everyone has been patient and understanding with each other in times of fatigue from the work and the sun.

The kids here are unbelievable. I've never seen children so joyful, playful, open, and trusting as these. At every opportunity they are waving to us, calling us (by our names, or by the nicknames they have chosen for us, mine being “July”), and piling on top of us with hugs. Obviously I tend to gravitate toward the little ones – the smallest being just four pounds, and three months old.

I could go on and on about all the details of how this place works, but it wouldn't adequately describe what it's like here. I could tell you about how the night sky is so dark, and the stars so bright that it literally looks like it could not be real. I could tell you about the soaking rains that come down after the deep grey and blue clouds swirl around the valley in the afternoons – and how it is as if heaven opened a floodgate above us. I could tell you about the Cherangani mountains in the east – and how their majesty and mystery cast a wonder over the valley below. I could go on about all the hard-working people who are constantly and completely giving of themselves – often thanklessly – to contribute to and be a part of this place. I could go on – I suppose I have – but it wouldn't even scratch the surface.

This place is unbelievable. Not just the location – but the people, the work that is done here, the miracles that grow out of these little children once disregarded. I've never seen a love like this. Sure, I've doubted God and asked Him all sorts of questions. Maybe I came here hoping to find answers to questions I didn't know how to ask. What I'm finding is an answer that outlasts any that I could have expected. What exists here is a group of people following God in such a way, on such a deep level from inside each of them, and among them, that the questions stop being asked.

Before I left the US I found myself hoping that I would be able to be free from all the stress and worry of my life – Ron had said, “Julia, you're going to be taken away from your problems when we are in Africa,” - simply because I would have two weeks or so away from work and the usual happenings of daily life. What I didn't realize was that this would really happen – being taken away from my problems, not just for two weeks. Instead of escaping my problems by way of a physical separation, there is a freedom from them by way of a spiritual separation: I'm realizing that I don't really have any.