Answers to Some Questions

so some of you have asked me some questions which haven't been answered during those last few posts. so i'll see if i can answers some of the questions, since right now i'm out of stories (except for when i preached 'pentecostal-style' on sunday, but that's for another day.)

did any of us get sick during our time in mkata? people periodically had stomach troubles, but they didn't seem to last longer than a day or two. i had a rash for the first week and a half, and i was sick (the type where it's coming out both ends) for one morning. i was sitting in the meeting for our 6 o'clock prayer gathering and began getting really feverish. so i asked for prayer - and while people were praying for me i had to walk outside and vomit. mostly embarrassing, but it was better than barfing in front of the group. i think it was something i had eaten the night before, but who knows. that afternoon i was feeling better. another guy had a fever for 2 days. personally i think the stomach issues were caused by the water, since it was rain water collected in a cistern which had no lid. there were frogs and other critters living in the water. that was the water we were to use for bathing and washing our clothes, tho some people drank it. the water we bought for drinking was supposedly more clean, but people were complaining of not feeling well - having diarrhea and stomach issue. (but this is the deal, people don't really say specifically what's wrong with them. they comment that they are not feeling well and would like for someone to pray for them. so one never really knows what the issues are - they simply might be tired which is one form of being not well.) and maggie, the girl i visited in the hospital last night, contracted thyphoid and malaria while in mkata. she should be released from the hospital tomorrow, by the way. so overall we were really healthy and very few injuries.

did i see any demons? i heard them saying, 'i want to marry that mzungu (white person)'. oh wait, that wasn't probably a demon, that was simply a drunk man stumbling from the bar. that comment just made me laugh hysterically. so back to the question, i didn't see any demons, nor did i participate with any crazy, spiritual deliverance services. some people from my group did, and the demonized people whom my friends were praying for have been set free from the curses placed on them from their families. during our door to door visits, many people asked us to pray for a variety of different things like a husband who was being falsely accused of carrying an illegal weapon, a child who suffers from epilepsy, a man who has a serious bacterial infection on his leg which has caused it to swell twice the normal size. (the sight of the leg turned my stomach when i saw bugs inside of the wound. in america the leg would quite certainly be amputated.)

what has been my favorite part of the traveling to mkata? besides witnessing people giving their lives to Christ, meeting Yunis was a definite hightlight. even now as i think of her beautiful smile, my heart is flowing with gratefulness. meeting karin and having some nights at the guest house was a definite bonus. japheth and i had some pretty deep discussions. the hospital visit to see Prosper in a coma, then see him taken home the next day was pretty phenomenal. meeting some of the korean was cool. and seeing the indian ocean was a definite bonus.

did i eat anything different or abnormal? yes. first, i had a roasted grasshoppers. it was pretty good, much better than the goat meat which we had every now and then. the 'hopper mostly tasted like ash since it was was dropped in the ash to cook. the texture wasn't bad either. secondly, the last night in mkata we had a feast of an entire goat. we roasted the meat instead of combining it with the rice or stew. so the meat was stabbed with skewers, and then the other end of the skewers were planted into the ground. we had two fires with large pieces of meat set around the fires. it was a neat evening. and africans don't waste any of the goat. they eat the intestine, heart, liver, stomach, head, etc. so i ate some of the heart, stomach and liver. the heart was really the worst part. the texture of the heart was terrible. my dad should be proud of me for eating those part. another thing i ate was this fruit called 'finess' which is delightful. (i looked on the internet and this fruit is called 'jackfruit'.) there were also other fruit trees on the property where we were staying so we devoured the oranges, lemons, papaya and coconut. that was a highlight to the trip also - all the fresh fruit available to us. it was also a sweet to see one of the guys take off his shoes and skimmy up the palm tree so he could retrieve some coconuts. real coconut cooked in rice is awesome!

did i get to see the ocean? we all traveled together to see the ocean. we stopped at the port, so i didn't really get to see the ocean in it's large and dangerous form, but the swimming was really fun. we had a great time, and more women than i thought decided to swim. it was a great escape for a day. there's something amazing about the ocean, especially the one which is the farthest away from the united states.

what were some of my challenges? trying to sleep with the islamic chants and drumming rituals of the witchcraft. the invasion of ants - the big carpenter ones which bite and refuse to release from your skin. the first night in mkata i learn swiftly that i don't enjoy those ants, and that i should do everything in my power to stay clear of them. when you walk thru their space, they attach themselves to you in places where ants should never go - like up your pants and shirt. having the rash from the water was irritating, but not too serious. often it felt like there was a huge amount of un-organization, and that played on me for awhile. preaching during the rainstorm was a challenge. the language difference is always a factor - not being able to express myself when i'm frustrated.

during our last morning in mkata, my mind and heart couldn't wait to leave. but something happened when we got about 25 minutes outside of mkata - my heart changed and i began to see some of the good things which happened during out stay. and i began to feel a gratitude for having experienced the challenges of mkata. it almost felt like a black cloud had been lifted from my heart.