emotionally unstable

Its official, I am emotionally unstable.

It has certainly happened since the Kenya trip. I tear up in worship. I tear up trying to talk about Kenya.

But you know where it all started? It was on the plane over to Kenya. Shaina and I watched Marley and Me. That was my undoing. What a dumb movie! haha.

Seriously though. Have you ever had God break your heart for something that breaks his? If you haven't, its time to get out of the routine/mundane and step out in faith.

But be warned, such a heartbreak will leave you messed up.

What a weekend!

We had a crazy weekend.

Saturday Morning...ran errands...chopped down tree limbs...got ready for party.

Saturday from 2- 1:30 a.m. had people come from all over...got to play cornhole, volleyball, worship around the fire and catch up with some important people in our lives.

Sunday...had to be up and at the church by 8 (means short night)

Shaina sang and I played a song called "Uprising" in three services.

We made it home at noon, put everything under shelter for coming rain, got changed and returned to Wadsworth to help work a graduation party.

Finished up our shift at the grad party at 4...went to church and set up for our Kenya Celebration/Appreciation Dinner. Had 100 people come support us, had good food, a good time of sharing. Tore down everything and left the church at 9 p.m.

Got home and vegged around 9:30...Watched our first episode of Law and Order since returning to the states (that is about the only show we watch.) Got ready for bed and crashed at 11:30...Slept solid and now its a new day...but I'm trying to make it low key today...I am beat.

This will become the least "full throttle" our lives will have been in 7 years. No multiple jobs...no full time school. I am not sure how easy it will be for me to do that, but I guess we will learn soon enough!

Kenya Reflection 3

Here's part of a video I've been playing around with from our time in Kenya. Enjoy!

Integrity

I have a buddy who sat for his CPA in Accounting a while back. He crammed for each of the parts, then took the crazy long tests for each section over a period of time.

The funny thing was that there was one section that was open book and that you could take online. It was only a few questions rather than the hundreds in other components.

This section? The Ethics section.

At some point in U.S./Western history (because I think this is a predominantly Western/Capitalist thing...though I could be wrong), we began maximizing competency and minimizing character.

We are more concerned with what gets done than how its done.

We would rather produce the assembly line than live above the line.

I think we could learn a lot in the area of integrity. Do we live lives that are upright both when others are looking and when they aren't? (CONSISTENCY). Or do we cut corners, trim edges, and seek ease and comfort over uprightness? (COMPLACENCY).

Complacency haunts us...especially men. Even those who are successful in their occupations and maybe don't cut corners there are complacent as husbands, fathers and Christians. They come home from work and sit in front of the television. They choose to drink away their nights rather than fight for their children.

And this complacency...this lack of integrity is impacting a generation. I see it in young adults all over the place...They are allowed to do whatever they want, with no reprimand or guidance from their parents. Sex before marriage is not even resisted in most households anymore.

Where will the upright generation come from if the church is inebriated by complacency and moral failure?

Free Hot Dog...sort of.

This article was on Chippewa Golf Club's website. I'm the man.

Wednesday June 24th

From cool and wet to hot and steamy, only in Northeast, Ohio. Speaking of hot and steamy, we have a couple Chippy Fantasy Golf Players who are just that, starting with Dana Moore, the winner of the US Open $250 shopping spree for capturing the wet and wild US Open that just concluded on Monday. The winning team had a lineup of Tiger Woods, Brian Gay, Lucas Glover, Phil Michelson, and Bubba Watson. Congrats Dana. 2nd Place went to Mr. Jim Merlo, and Jim, tell us the truth, it was your grandson that picked the winning lineup this week wasn't it? But wait a minute, we will have to wait until this week to see who will finish 3rd and 4th, as we had a tie between Scott Anderson and Michael Skunza, and there is alot on the line, as 3rd place gets a foursome at the Chipp with Carts, and 4th place gets a stupid hat. Well, not really a stupid hat, its the "RARE" Chippewa Hat. Last place honors go to Ben Thompson, and he gets the hot dog award with any purchase of 18 holes and a cart. Ben had a salary of $983,250 and scored a pathetic 91,356 points. But we are saving the best for last, as our only hope to win National Honors is Jason Zachardy and his team of "The Attack". How bout a very nice tied for 19th in the US Open, scoring 893,488 points. That leaves him at 4th in the Nation, where he was going into last week's event, but he has closed the gap significantly and is now within breathing distance of 2nd place in a very very tight race. And let's check on the Finger, who had the audacity to publish his picks with The Attack. How did he do? How about tied for 143rd. Nice going Jason, and as for you Finger, I have a new name for you, how bout Smelly Finger? Lineups are due tonight for this week's Travelers, don't get shut out. More in the Humpday edition of Chipp Shots.

the origination of hip hop

Father's Day

It's not too late to get him what he really wants.



Probably my all time favorite funny youtube video.

Kenya reflection 2

The staff of Empower Worldwide Outreach is sensational. They are literally often the first and last line of defense against teen sex, the spread of HIV and unwanted pregnancy/STDs.

I am proud of Sarah, Grace, Leah and Ben for their work in the Kingdom of God. I am grateful to them for 1) what they do as a staff to impact and influence kids, 2) how they have encouraged and blessed me, and 3) and most importantly, how they have blessed my wife and helped her regain her fervor for the Lord.

When you pray for Kenya, pray for these four courageous, tireless staff workers.

Kenya Reflection 1

This is the story of a bunch of kids, a whole generation of kids, kids with dreams, ambitions, hopes, and passions. Kids like every other kid, desiring love, affection, to be inspired, encouraged, delighted in. But these kids have no mother. They have no father. They have no money. They have no education.

Who will be the voice of the orphan? Who will tell their story?

The culture shock is real right now. Shaina observed within 5 minutes of returning to Wadsworth that people treat their lawn, they mow their lawn, some even water their lawns...and kids are starving, unloved and uneducated all around the world. We sit in houses with too many rooms for us to use, while a makeshift family of a grandmother and multiple orphans pile in a one room shack made of mud and sticks, sleeping next to chickens. Something is not quite right.

Its time for change.

welcome back

My Inbox: over 80 emails. Sigh.

The plus side. The welcome back into the states has been great. Had lots of church folks meet us at the airport to say welcome home. My mom took care of Shadow for two weeks. Found out that our bathroom floor was changed from carpet to linoleum while we were gone! Our friends, Scott and Angie dropped off a graduation gift (a sweet new tennis racket...supposedly I bent my last racket. Not only did they leave that, but they put chicken and rice in the fridge.

Thank you all for your support!

home sweet home?

We made it home. 20+ hours of flying...3 continents...layovers, security checks, customs...all done. Made it home. Yet arriving home has never been so unsatisfying. As my wife pointed out, while a good portion of the world is starving...underfed, under educated, and under everyone's radar, Americans are mowing their grass...not just mowing, but planting grass seed...micrale gro...while people are dying, our soil looks lush.

The culture shock of going from extreme poverty to extreme luxury is not lost on me.

What does it look like for the church to be the solution rather than part of the problem?

Tuesday/Wednesday

Tuesday, we completed the remaining chicken coops and have met our goal of 6 completed coops for grandmothers caring for orphans in the most poverty stricken area I've ever seen. The grandmothers (shosho in Swahili) were appreciative and we got to transfer the chickens from their temporary cages to their newly built homes.
The teams worked so efficiently together that I almost wish we would have had one more day...I think we could have knocked out another 6 coops quite honestly.

Today Christa and Brandy, our nursing students got to go to a clinic and observe while the rest of us got to go to a private primary school and teach on AIDS/healthy relationships/purity/etc. The kids were well behaved and solid english speakers, which made things a lot of fun.

After the school, we actually all got the rest of the day off. It was amazing! Some went to the shops in the outskirts of Nairobi. I stayed back and rested by the pool and caught up on some journaling, then the fellaz and I played a game of risk.
This begins the "play-hard" portion of our trip. We worked non-stop for 9 days and now we will wrap up our trip with a safari trip to Masai Mara and then a day at the Nairobi marketplace.

Be proud of the REAL Men of Genius...The four of us will be preaching on Sunday (Kyle and I at Mangu Community Church and Jay and Greg at an agricultural college's worship service.) Both groups have 45 minutes to preach. Pray for us for Sunday. This very well may end my blogging for the trip. Love you guys. Can't wait to see you.

Please keep praying!

Ben

Monday.

Incredible. God is incredible.

I have a post coming on Empower's website later (tomorrow morning for us). Read the story that I heard from a Kenyan today.

We built chicken coops today. Killer day. Killer sun (how is it that the only place on my entire body to get sun is the back of my neck?) This trip has put a new meaning to manual labor for me. We have to saw everything with handsaw. The first day, the saws were old and dull. We all chipped in and bought four new saws. They suck...the wood is ridiculously hard and sawing a board can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes of strenuous work. Our goal in coming was to get 6 done. We have 2 completely done and 3 half way. Tomorrow we work to reach our goal.

Tonight we went to Pastor Ben's house. Can I just say, the most humble, gentle, genuine man I know?

We need prayer for energy...for the coops to be finished and for us to keep going strong. The work portion of our trip ends Wednesday, and then we shift to the play side of things. We will take a safari trip to either Masai Mara or Tsavo West on Thursday and Friday, then go to the marketplace on Saturday, worship at Pastor (and Dr.) Simon's church on Sunday and hold a final futbol tournament on Sunday afternoon before boarding the plane!

Miss you all, but I am not ready to come home.

Ben

Sunday

Sunday...great day...preached the word at Juja New Life Church...had huge soccer event...a tournament final sponsored by Empower. There were over 500 in attendance. The game ended in a 1-1 tie with a p.k. shoot out. Great game. We went to Harrison's last night...Harrison is our van driver. Can I just say that one of the coolest things about this trip is that our group has welcomed the hired drivers in to the group. They pray with us, eat with us, work with us, visit schools with us, and last night Harrison invited us over to his home. There were 21 people in a 12 by 12 room! It was awesome.

God is good.

Saturday

Another powerful day.

We changed it up a little and went to a university today. The young adults we interacted with were amazing. I believe they will be friends with us on facebook soon enough!

In the afternoon, we went back to Mangu and had a meeting with the grandmothers of the E.G.G.S. Initiative. Dozens of grandmothers came (walking miles to get there) We showed up really late, which seems to be a Kenya thing (they call it 'Kenya time'). They brought many of the orphans they are caring for. Some powerful images from today. It is neat to see the team working hard and finding their talents/passions and just being used by God in some cool ways.

Pastor Ben asked me tonight if I would preach tomorrow. He said the preaching part is usually an hour long...I said I'd give him 15 minutes if he could do the rest. 12 hours notice for preaching is pretty quick to speak God's word for an hour. So Pastor Ben and Pastor Ben (I technically graduated today!) will tag team a service that apparently lasts 4 hours long.

It's time for bed. After the worship service, a soccer tournament championship will be held with Jay, Kyle and Devan officiating. Greg and I will be heading to pick up all the wood for the chicken coop extravaganza we are planning for Monday.

God is good.

Pray for the preaching and the soccer outreach!

Ben

Day 3

Today we returned to the polytechnic school in Mangu (where we got the helpers for the chicken coops for day 2). This time the Headmaster of the school took us around and showed us the different vocational training that was taking place. The first place we went was a group of IT kids. In the middle of absolutely no where, there was a room in this school with electricity and 7 computers! These teens shared their dreams to enter into web design, programming, computer repair, etc. Then we proceeded to other specialized areas including auto mechanics, carpentry, welding, salons and dress makers. We got to encourage these young men and women about setting goals and taking the necessary steps to achieve those goals and the choices they need to make to reach them. This school had 19 kids in it when Kathy came in September 2008. It is now up to 160 kids.

60% are orphans.

The remainder are the poorest of the poor.

What we are doing matters.

In the afternoon, half our group went to Oakland primary school (grades 1-8, working with grades 4-8). They played soccer and other games and they connected in meaningful ways with a bunch of kids. They celebrated when we donated to soccer balls to the school. Soccer is huge here. I am starting to get a little more interested in it because I am a huge ego, and getting schooled by 6th graders bothers me.

I went with a 2nd group into the heart of Mangu. We looked at the coops we had begun the previous day, we visited a couple other grandmothers who either had built a coop or were waiting for our coop we would build for them on Monday. The stories are heartwrenching. Single grandmothers, feeble, broken...caring for kids, many their own, some they've brought in. One we visited watched her own kid die of AIDS, a grandkid die of hunger and she is currently living with the chickens in a ridiculous one room hut. The opportunity to help these women feed their grandkids, generate revenue through the sale of eggs, and survive a little easier is great.

What God is doing matters.

Please pray for the chicken coop projects. This has not gone as smoothly as we'd hoped, and we are left with the challenge of building/finishing 5 coops on Monday. We have revamped the design of the coops a little bit to try to save on costs and Ben, Jay, Greg and I went to a lumber yard (if you can call it that) and spent 17,000shillings to get us started. We need prayer that we will be really efficient so that we can get these all done. It will be our toughest work day of the trip.

Thank you for your prayers...Shaina and I are good...got moved to a new room (had a massive leak through the ceiling of our last room). We saw a tarantula tonight outside of the door where we had our meeting. I may not sleep the rest of the trip haha.

Day 3!

Yesterday, day 2 was a really good day! We spent the morning working with a polytechnic school to build two grandmothers chicken coops. It was really a good start. We are shooting to get 4 more done on this trip. The overall goal of this coop project is to build for 500 grandmothers in rural parts of Mangu, Kenya. The grandmothers are taking care of numerous orphans/grandkids because an entire generataion (the kid's parents) has been decimated by AIDS.

This matters. The kids get food. The grandmothers get income.

We then went to a school in Mangu of about 700 middleschoolers. We played soccer and just had a great time with the kids, then we closed with a message on self esteem and abstinence. The headmaster at this school is incredible as she has 150 orphans in her school.

Today we head out to two different schools. Pray for us to give a message of hope and life as we teach on HIV/Abstinence, Self-Esteem, and Healthy Relationships!

Our group is working hard. Tonight is our first extended down time since we've been on the planes, so we are going to play games with the Empower Staff.

We made it!

Jambo!
Well, so far so good! We hit Detroit on time, Amsterdam late and then Nairobi we had a 20 minute holding pattern cuz of a storm, but we landed safely after 20+ hours of flight time.

Came up short on luggage by 2 pieces (they came the 2nd day!). Spent today with the Empower Worldwide Staff and then to two different schools in Murera. The first was a primary school and when we pulled up, a hundred plus kids came running out of the building screaming and cheering. After the rockstar treatment we shared with them the importance of making good choices and the consequences of not.

We then went to an all girls high school that was an absolute great experience. We met with about 100 teenage girls who have made pledges to abstain from sex until marriage. It was an honor to talk with them and encourage them to hold fast.

Tomorrow is day one of the chicken coop project for the grandmothers. Pray for this. Our goal is to complete two of the 6 tomorrow. The exciting thing is that they have a huge goal of 500 grandmothers empowered by this microenterprise ministry. We are at 31 now and will be at 37 by the end of the trip. The 6 we will build are for grandmothers who currently sleep in their homes with the chickens.

Pray for the team to stay strong tomorrow.

The BTL where we are staying is amazing compared to some of the poverty around us. We are extremely safe...though there is a hooting bird of some sort outside my window that is not quite so safe...because if he wakes me up at 5 in the morning again, I may find him and kill him. The roads here are hilarious...one minute smooth sailing down a highway, the next offroading on pothole dirtroads.

Peace! Please keep praying.

Personally, if you could pray for our power outlet in our room. It has successfully fried a small portable box fan's motor and an electric razor. I will need to use it soon in order to keep the computer running.

Ben