As bitter sweet as this is, it will be my last entry from the great continent of Africa. As I sit here at the internet cafe with the slow internet, and extreme heat I’m reminded a little on how different and wonderful Africa truly is. From the beginning of this adventure, when it was still just a thought in my mind: God has used me in ways that I didn’t know were possible. I thank Him, my team, and my family and friends for making this trip not only possible, but for blessing my life and so may others along the way. There is really no way to share this trip entirely with those back home. I will never be able to share all of the feelings and emotions that I have felt along the way. One could only understand seeing it with their own eyes. I hope however that this website has helped you share in our journey and that you were blessed along the way. We look forward to coming home and sharing more in detail our stories and adventures, sharing with you are pictures, and most importantly our love for Africa, and Gods people here. Africa is such a special place, and we have had the privilege of seeing that here. Through the children at the Aids orphanage where we spent 3 weeks. Where we were able to love on them and teach them about Jesus. To the street kids in Nairobi who know nothing else but to sniff glue to cure their emotional and physical pains. To the people along the coast who we were able to bless by helping build choo’s, and complete floors. We have been able to see lots of different missions along the way, which helped us get a better feel of how we will want to do missions in our future. We have stayed with and been blessed greatly by missionary families who have given their lives to live here in Africa and serve the people. Our eyes have been opened and we have seen things we thought we would never have to see. But we have been blessed through our own eyes and experienced all that God had wanted us to see. Thank you all for making this trip a reality and sharing with us. May you continue to be blessed as you have all blessed us…

Hello Americans!! Well we have reached Tanzania safely!!  After an exciting day in a Matatoo and crossing the border! There were 22 people crammed in a 15 passenger van for about 5 bumpy hours.  So when we arrived at 9 that evening we were really happy to see the Talley’s. Last week was spent in Malindi, Kenya on the coast.  We were there for only 5 days and not very sure what God had in store for us. We had met a lady, Margrett, when we had visited there 3 weeks before.  She was the lady who had given the boys the speech about how women are the reason that men go to hell.  I think i remember telling you the story, but n-e-way, moving on.  We were told that she needed a choo, a bathroom, built.  So we thought no big deal that would be no problem!  Little did we know how much work goes into building a toilet.  You see people here in Africa go to the bathroom in holes in the ground, some are nicer holes than others, but all still holes. Margrett wanted a choo built for her church that she was starting, since lots of people would be using it and since it will be used for a long time she wanted it 30 feet deep. Oh no problem we thought, Chad even said, “oh we should have that finished in a day.” Ha, so the first day we dug 7 foot hole that was 4 feet by 6 feet. Not so bad.</p>
<p>The next day was sunday so we sat in church for 4 and a half hours. It was a long day b/c none of it was translated into English.  Justin Hanes did the lesson and his translator was funny i don’t think anyone had any clue what he had said. Then on monday it was back to work, we took a man, Daniel, with us who had built many a cho’s in his life.  He was a huge help.  You see when you build a choo you must do a lot of extra things,who would have thought. So we bricked in 7 feet around the walls of the choo, for extra support, i guess!  then we dug another 6 feet, so now we are about 13 feet in. When Daniel had arrived to help us that morning he saved us by telling Margerett that we only were to go 15 feet, or we would soon have a well instead of a choo.Thank goodness for that. well about 12 feet in we hit rock, huge rock. So we were forced to stop digging at around 13 feet. on the 3rd day we laid the foundation, which was not a long day but a hard day. we had to mix the concrete in with these coral rocks, hard work.  And our bodies have been sore ever since, I don’t see how these Africans do it. So on the 4th day we started building the walls on top of the hole.  We got about 6 feet up and ran out of bricks and cement. We left money with Daniel to finish the choo, and left town the next morning. We stayed at Uzima, a church/training center!  The people were so nice there and treated us like royalty.  The only bad thing about the coast was the over 30 mosquito bites i have from the knees down.</p>
<p>It was sad to leave, and sad to think that we will only be in Africa for another 10 days.  While here in Tanga, Tanzania we have mixed some more concrete and helped lay a floor.  Eaten a lot of amazing food, thanks to Rabecca. Went Mangrove Mucking, snorkeling in mud, and had lots of wonderful fellowship with the Tally’s.  We will be leaving for Dar Es Salaam in 2 days and spending some down time before our venture back home.  We love you all and hope the Lord is blessing you daily as he as us.</p>

Hello everyone, sorry long time no talk to, it has been busy around here and not much computer access.  Not to mention we have not been able to add pictures, so thanks for being patient.  We have been in Nairobi, Kenya for the past 3 weeks working with an organization,  Made in the Streets, M.I.T.S.  They have two locations one in Eastleigh, an intercity slum, and another out at Kamulu at a farm about 45 min outside of town.  Two days after we arrived, a man, Mustafa, 23, who was staying at M.I.T.S. getting medical care, passed away.  He had what they thought pneumonia, but were not sure.  We had seen him just the day before, he looked tired but not sick. He had gone home back to his base feeling fine, but died that night.

We were joined here with 3 from Nashville, TN, and put on a day camp for the kids.  We had the rowdy street boys in the morning, and the girls in the afternoon.  It was a pretty good turn out and we spent a lot of our time just playing games with the kids, then giving them a short bible lesson and a craft.  It was so good to see the kids, anywhere from 8-17, in a place where they could just have fun and not have to worry about their day to day burdens of living on the streets.  It was hard to see the kids who looked younger than they really were, due to living on the streets, and sniffing glue.  To see them in their torn clothes, and to smell them after who knows how long it had been since they showered.  But when you see their faces you can’t help but to reach out and hug and touch them.  Just for them to see you smile and their toothless smiles back, made your heart melt.  All we wanted to do was to give them a place where they could come for a few hours and not worry about life on the streets a place where they could just be kids and have fun.  Also while in Eastleigh we walked around and visited “bases.”  Which would be anything from, a shack to piles of garbage where these people live.  It is so hard to see where they live day in and day out.  To know the worries they have living on the streets is so far away for me to even fathom.  One day when the guys went out to the bases, they saw a young mother breast feeding her baby and sniffing glue at the same time.  Some of these people don’t even know what they are doing, they are so high and out of it.  Josh told me he just wanted to go take the baby and yell at the mother, but he refrained, who knows maybe he should have.  We were able to be out at Eastleigh long enough to really get close to these street kids, so it made it even harder to say goodbye.  On the last day after camp we took the boys to go eat, and boy can they eat.  Then we said our tearful good buys. 

Every Monday, the moms bring their babies and come for a time of games, and food.  While they are playing it is up to whoever is there, to watch the screaming babies, and terrible two toddlers.  I was fortunate to be around for 2 of these Mondays.  It is so sad to see these little toddlers, just fighting and screaming at each other.  They are so used to the “survivial of the fittest” attitude of being on the streets that it is so hard for them to just sit and color and even harder for them to share.  The babies who have mothers as young as 15, are so tough at such a small age.  There was this little girl, Terisita, who is almost 2 and just learned how to walk and doesn’t talk.  She is so small and so far behind in her development, it makes you wonder what her very short 2 years have already entailed.  It is hard knowing when you leave these kids how much longer they will live, how much longer they will survive on the street.  Most of their mothers are so young, and so careless, yet there are so many of them and they have no clue what they are doing to their children. 

Our other time here in Nairobi was spent out at “the farm.”  The farm is where the kids go, from M.I.T.S, out at eastly.  Once these street kids get off of their glue and when there is room out at the farm, they are taken out to this place. A place away from the “bad” of the streets where theya are taught, and fed, and given love.  It is pretty much like a boarding school, the kids live in dorms, go to school during the day, and work out at the farm in the late afternoons.  They cook their own food, wash their own clothes, and really take care of each other.  Once they reach the age of 17 they are either taught a trade, Woodworking, Mechanics, Hair Dressing, or they go into a fast track program to prepare them to take a test to get into a College.  All the kids are sponsored by people, mostly in the States.  They have a staff of about 14, who work with these kids’ day in and day out.  I really look up to them and their hard work.  They have no idea how much they are doing for these kids.  The staff was able to go on retreat while we were there.  they really deserved it because they are on 24/7.  It was interesting running things while they were gone, there were about 8 of us, teaching class, helping cook food, and attempting to get them into bed and up each day.  It was a really good experience, getting to first see where these kids came from, the streets of Eastleigh. To where they are now, in school, wearing clean clothes, taking showers daily, and have food to eat 3 times a day.

We will be headed to Malindi, Kenya to help build a home for orphans, it is hard to believe we only have 3 more weeks in Africa. Our time here has flown by and we have experienced so much. We miss you all, and look forward to seeing you when we get home, and sharing this amazing experience.

Well we just got back from our week off, in Watamu, Kenya, on the coast.  We stayed with some friends who were there for 2 months building homes for orphans.  They are a group of 5 guys from York College in Nebraska.  They had just completed a house the day before we arrived and had the ground breaking of another house the day after we left.  While there, we were able to meet with Mike, the guy in charge, to discuss our plans for when we return in 3 weeks.  As you can tell from the title of my blog, it was quite an adventure getting here.  We left Kisumu around 7:30am to hop on a 9 hour bus ride to Nairobi. After arriving in Nairobi we hung out and ate for 3 hours then got on a 15 hour train ride to Mombasa.  It was nice considering we got a sleeper car and were able to sleep for the majority of the time. Once we arrived in Mombasa we took a 2 1/2 hour matatoo ride (a huge 15 passenger van packed tight with usually around 18 people) on a very bumpy road. All of the roads in Africa are very bad!!  It is like moon craters all over the road.  There are no lines or lanes and everyone drives all over the road to avoid the craters.  After arriving in Watamu we had a very nice, relaxing stay. It was a good break between our 3 weeks in Kisumu and our 3 weeks in Nairobi.  Our hosts were great and we were able to stay in a beautiful Italian Villa.  The villa was about a 3 min walk to a private beach off the Indian Ocean.

On the second day we were there we were fortunate enough to go on an African Safari to Tsavo Game Park.  It was a long but unforgettable day.  We were picked up at 4am and drove 3 hours to the park on a bumpy dirt road. Then after arriving at the park we drove around for 6 hours looking at all the wildlife.  Most of our time was spent looking for animals!  We were able to see herds of elephants, water buffalo, gazelles, impalas, zebras, and giraffes.  And spent most of our time driving around looking for a lion (aka:Simba).  We did get to see 3, but they were just sitting under bushes being lazy!  Josh wanted to get out of the van to get a good picture but the driver insisted that he stay in the vehicle.  I’ll admit I did want to see the lions eat something!!  Oh well, maybe next time!  There was this time when we were watching two of the lions sit for a while in the open then all of the sudden they both got up and went behind the bushes.  They were still about 20 feet in front of us but it was as though they disappeared. They thought if they hid we would leave them alone. Well, they were some smart lion’s because we all drove off. We ate lunch at this restaurant on the top of a large hill over looking the park. It was very beautiful. After eating it was about 1:30 and we headed in the direction of home. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get out of the park and another 3 to get home, and we were all very tired.  Sunday and Monday were our relaxing days. We spent time at the beach and visiting the town.  We had an amazing devotional on the beach Sunday night with a fire.  We enjoyed singing (I was the only girl with 9 boys, so it was interesting). We all shared how we have seen God during our time in africa.  It was really good to be around the Watamu team and rejuvenate. (Shout out to my friends:James, Matt, Nolan, Carston, and Travis)

Monday was spent on the beach getting a tan…or burn. Justin got this crazy sun burn and has been shedding his skin ever since.  I, on the other hand got an amazing tan. We said our goodbyes and left Tuesday afternoon for Nairobi city.  We are staying the Conways. They are amazing missionaries who have lived in Kenya with their family for over 21 years.  There are 2 girls here from ACU, Erin and Meredith.  It has been nice to be around some girls after my last 4 weeks with the boys and was actually able to spend some time with just the girls.  We went on Safari and spent the night in a really sweet tree house!!  So between my two Safari’s I was able to see the big 5! Lion, Elephant, Rhino, Leopard, and Hippo!!  The boys were really jealous.  We were also able to go horse back ridding.  The next few weeks will be spent in Eastleigh, one of the slums in Nairobi and out at the “farm” (Kamulu) where the some of the ex street kids live after they choose to stop sniffing glue and follow Christ.  Please continue to pray for us and those we meet.  Internet is very expensive here so we will not be posting too many blogs.  Josh is willing to pay the price so if you need any gaps filled on our trip go to his website.  We love you all and thank you for your support!

Stinkin’ VBS for 1st grade through 8th grade, who has heard of that!!!! These were the first words out of Justin’s mouth when I told him I was writing about VBS, can we say bitter. (he was just joking…I think) Well we just finished our last day of VBS with yes, 350 kids, ranging from ages 6-18. Need I say more. It was definitely a good/hard experience. Justin was sick for 2 out of three of the days with some unknown disease….he got better after some R and R. Go figure…he gets better on the last day of VBS! Actually all the team has been feeling a bit under the weather so please keep our health in your prayers. Being with 350 kids can really take a toll on the immune system. We started VBS with the story of Jesus calming the storm, then Jesus feeding the 5000, and ended with the resurrection of Jesus. Each morning we would sing silly songs for 20-30 min. and then act out the day’s story while Justin Gibson narrated. I ‘m sure it was pretty funny to watch. The kids would rotate from coloring to games to teaching and then to crafts. We would end each day the same way we began, with songs and a prayer. Today the craft was to make “salvation” bracelets with little beads. The kids really enjoyed making them and learning what each bead stood for. Today we were also blessed with being able to give half of the kids new bibles that we had bought with money that was raised this past week. We are hoping to raise more money and buy 150 more for the rest of the orphans. It was great to see the smile brought by owning a copy of the word of God. A young boy prayed at the end of the day and thanked God for the ability to have the new bible and expressed his gratitude that he would be able to learn more about the God he serves. I hope and pray that all of us are as grateful for the word of God as this young boy was.

Tomorrow we will paint a few of the offices and the staff room. It will be nice to do some manual labor. After painting, I will be teaching all of the kids about dental hygiene and how to properly brush their teeth. That should be interesting. We will have the rest of the day off to prepare for Saturday. The guys will lead an all day leadership conference over the book of James for the men of the surrounding areas. While they are doing that I will be teaching all of the women from the same area. There is expected to be around 50 women. I’m a bit nervous and could use your prayers that God will speak through me and the guys to deliver his word. Another day blessed and another day to praise God for allowing us to be here in Africa! Until next time!

Bwana Asifiwe! (Praise God)

Hallo! That is how they say hello here.  I hope everyone is finding themselves well back in the states, I have only been here for 4 days but it feels like I have been here for months. Today we went out on Lake Victoria, the 2nd largest lake in the world, about 1/2 a mile from the orphanage to see hippos.  I didn’t know what to expect, maybe a large boat that you see in the movies that they use when you go whale watching? Ha, that is funny because what I would find was, a large canoe.  We all climbed into the canoe with two “guides” and went out on our adventure.  The “guides” called it a nature tour.  We did see several different kinds of birds that are just in this area, and a water lizard, way cool. But we really wanted to see a hippo!  Along the way a fisherman told the men that a motor boat had come by earlier and scared off all the hippos, and that we must go to the other side, at this point it had already been a hour and we were wondering if we were going to actually get to see a hippo.  We joked on the way there about wishing we had white marbles to feed them, and Josh was bound and determined to ride one, yeah right! They are the 2nd deadliest animal in Africa, only to the mosquito which carries malaria.  Then just around the bend there were these 2 little ears and a top of a head popping in and out of the water.  A burst of excitement swept across me after sitting there for an hour and a half wondering if there were even hippos in Africa. There were about 5 all together, and there were several little babies, how cute.  So now I can say that I have seen hippos out in the wild.  On Sunday Justin, Justin and I went out to a village, but not before getting stopped at a check point leaving the city.  Of course they pulled us over, and thank goodness we had George, the African preacher from Ringroad.  They were looking for anything and everything to take us to the station (more like get money from us to not take us to the station.)   So of course right off the bat, there was a crack in the windshield so they wanted to know why we had not had it fixed.  Then they wanted to see Justin Hanes’ drivers license, which he didn’t have (and he was driving silly boy), so that was enough to freak me out and have the trunk of the car searched.  Then they had George get out of the car and go to the trunk with them, then he came back and said that they wanted money to not take him to the station, the man pulled out his handcuffs and said “this is serious business.”  I was very worried, but little did I know that they wanted money.  We ended up paying the man 250 shillings, about $4 American dollars, not bad right? After passing the money to the man all smooth where no one could see, he was our new best friend, telling us to have a good day and that he would be here when we came back through to make sure there was no trouble. We arrived at the small village to meet a large number of smiling faces, it was very different than being in the city, we had church then I went over how to properly brush your teeth, using Justin Gibson’s mouth as an example.  The adults had many questions for me many of which I couldn’t answer so I just did my best, like “is it ok to brush with charcoal,” and other random things.  Their teeth were in such bad shape, but they would just smile away.  There was this older man, James, the father of the Church who had been around for a long time.   Someone asked me why it is good to brush their teeth, I proceeded to tell them that it keeps your teeth healthy, so you can eat, and so forth, and to make your smile pretty.   Everyone turned around to James, who sat smiling with only one bottom tooth, it was so priceless, but he sure did get a toothbrush, we wouldn’t want him to loose the only tooth he has.  Well, I must leave you now, we start VBS tomorrow for 350 kids should be interesting, thank you again for all of your support and prayers during this life changing experience. God Bless.

Jambo everyone! That is the extent of what I know. I finally arrived safely in Kisumu Kenya, Africa about 24 hours ago. After my eventful 48 hours of traveling I was ready to see Africa and see Justin. Africa was about what I was expecting, not that I knew what to expect. The airport in Kisumu was interesting, all the planes where just lined up on the runway and we walked to the very small building which we didn’t even go inside, they just lugged all of our luggage over in a huge wagon and dropped it off on the wet road and that was that, luckily Justin and Jared were there waiting and watching me haul all 100 lbs of my luggage, boy was I glad to be rid of all of that weight. The boys have been working at the Ringroad Orphanage for about a week, and have already established amazing relationships with several people. The orphanage is more like a school, they do eat 3 meals a day, and attend classes, but go home at the end of the day. Today I took a Swahili class, not very beneficial, then observed in a first grade classroom, they all just kept staring at me. Then during the afternoon I attempted to teach them math. I have realized that it is very hard for me to communicate with them, they do speak some English, but it is very soft spoken and still hard to understand. I just need to be patient and it will get better. Tomorrow is a play day so that ought to be fun, I would much rather do that then be in a classroom all day. Most of the kids seem shy and are very well mannered. As we drive down the roads of Kisumu I can see true poverty, it is hard to realize that this is their life, day in and day out.

Well hello everyone, sorry that it has been over a week and we have not informed you! Well Justin and the boys made it safely to Africa, I finally heard from Justin a week after he had left. I was not too surprised seeing that they are in Africa, and a little busy I’m sure. But it was so good to finally hear from them and hear a little bit about their trip…here are a couple of emails Justin has sent. I hope they make sense, they are written to me so keep that in mind, I tried to cut out the “sappy” stuff. Justin will hopefully get some pics up soon.

Hello my wife. It is good speaking to you. Praise God! This is the way I have been talking for the last 3 days in the rural village that Justin Gibson and I taught at. It has been amazing so far. A few days are worth a million memories. I don’t know about all the food here, but the people and scenery are awesome. There is nothing like ending your day than with 30 little village kids surrounding you and a little candle and singing to you for more than an hour in their native tongue. The village speaks Luganda, which is one of 100 dialects.  It was a great night. The people of Kaderuna send you thier love as well and say they are very sad they will not get to meet you. The pastors wife said that perhaps we can come back when I am done at university but we must bring a child.  I told her I would have to talk to my wife. haha They are so genuine here. The Christians are not very knowledgeable but very passionate and willing to learn.  I feel like we could learn so much from them.  Well that is all for now I will write when I get a chance.

Yesu Yabedawey (Praise God),

Justin

The trip has been great so far. the flights were long but not too unbearable. we did have an overnight layover in Dallas where we stayed at a very ritzy hotel and ate very expensive food. other than that the flights were ok. i slept a lot. since we had an overnight layover in Dallas we were only in London for a few hours. We were originally supposed to have a 14 hour layover. we didn’t get to explore but i think we were all ready to get to Africa. we finally made it to Kisumu where we found out our bags were not there. they told us they would be there the next morning so we spent the night in a hut hotel and went back to the airport at 9. our luggage was still not there. so we went and ate and came back at 2 and everyones luggage except Justin Gibson’s had arrived and we were good friends with the security guards by the end. we had justin’s bags picked up the next day by someone driving through that met us in Mbale. on the way to mbale from entebbe were miles and miles of people. the town’s never seemed to end. you could see the poverty all over the place. it was very sad. no matter what people were doing, if they saw us they would stop, point, and yell MAZUNGU! that’s what they call whites. It literally means “one who walks around in circles.” ha ha…how appropriate for 4 americans! they really don’t mean any disrespect that’s all they know to call us.

that was the first word i learned while here because i heard it so much. so finally we all had our luggage, we were now at Mbale and were sent out to the villages to teach. Justin Gibson and my self went to kaderuna. it was a great experience. it was like something out of national geographic. while we were teaching the mom’s were busting out the boobs for the babies, it was very funny. i think we were finally used to it by the second day. the teaching went well. they had many questions, some of which i could not answer. we slept in a tent we took out there. Most of the day we were teaching, eating, or just hanging out. i got to take a poop in to a hole that was about 30 feetdeep…the only reason i know that is because justin shined his light down to look at it! we at their food, millet bread (not that good), matoke (pretty good), fish (still looked alive!), beans, rice, and goat (these are good). we learned a little bit of their language (luganda) and how to speak ugandan english (pretty much broken english with a british twist). In the village I became very good friends with 2 people. One’s name is David and the other is John. David is around our age, married, and has 1 kid. He could speak more english than most of the others so we bonded very quickly. He told me that he did not know what he was going to do now that his brother(me) was leaving. it made me a bit sad. he was great. sidenote: the men here hold hands walking down the street so whenever david and i would talk we would hold hands, kinda weird but you get used to it. it means you are very close. Oh John. John was Pastor John’s son. He was 4 years old. he was my shadow for the whole trip. he would follow me around, sit in my lap, talk to me even though i didn’t know what he was saying, and smile everytime he looked at me. Another sidenote: if a mazungu, white person, smiles at someone, especially a child, they will almost always smile back no matter how mean they look! Pastor John said that little John was my best friend.

We just got back yesterday and slept in today. we are planning on going to another village with another missionary tomorrow. we don’t know what we’ll be doing but i’m sure it will be great. tonight we hung out with all the “singles”. some are married or engaged but they wanted to throw a party for the group of teachers that are here. their last day of school was yesterday. they are all young like us. They teach the missionary kids during the school year or work with MTI. i think there were 8 girls and 6 guys. it was fun. we ate and played catch phrase 5 times. well this was a little bit of my trip and i will tell you the rest later!

Well there you have it! the boys have made it there and are having all kinds of adventures and getting to meet some of God’s amazing people. Thank you again for your support and prayers during this time.

~tiffany~

On Thursday, May 17th, the guys left for their big adventure down to East Africa. As we all arrived at the Lubbock International Airport, the energy was very strong as the guys were anticipating their trip. Josh had forgotten his sleeping bag, so he frantically called Jacob to bring it to him. While I made sure everyone had filled out labels for their luggage. Jamie, Chad’s Fiancée, and I were talking as we watched the group getting ready to leave. She made the observation that Chad is the “leader,” Justin Hanes is just “care-free,” Pruitt is the “mom,” and Justin Gibson is just “crazy.” She is right this time around, as we watch and are reminded of just how diverse but close this group of guys is. It was overall an enjoyable and amusing time, the mood changed only slightly when everyone was saying their goodbyes. My goodbyes to Justin were short and sweet, since I had to be back at work shortly…“Don’t be dumb, and I love you!!” What else does a guy need to know? I’m assuming that the guys are there and that they are safe. I have not heard from Justin, so no news is good news at this point. I’m sure they are so busy and having so much to do that we are not the priority, which is good. I do know that they had a 14 hour layover in London, and were going to venture out. So I’m curious to hear how that went. Life is still busy here for me I’m doing as much as I can to get ready for the trip as to be ready when that time comes. Thank you all again for your continued support and love during this exciting time for Justin and I.