Night Intruders

Orphanage Home on YWAM Base

The night before the October DTS’s graduation ceremony was the one year anniversary of Able’s murder on the base.  Many on the leadership team were very heavy hearted as they remembered the terrible events of that night.  However, they were determined not to let this memory interfere with the festivities planned for the following day and they tried to be cheerful and to make it a special time for those graduating.

Everything appeared normal when we went to bed that night.  Celia and Peterson tucked in their children in the orphanage house as normal.  They are parenting a boy that they adopted from Brazil as well as 8 foster children from Kenya and two children of their own.  At 1:30 A.M. Celia and Peterson awoke to the sound of glass being shattered in their bedroom window.  Four thieves outside shone a light in their room and told them to open the door to their house or they would burn it down.  Celia and Peterson were still half asleep and confused about what to do when their oldest boy, Julian, heard the commotion and came to help them.  He decided to comply with the thieves wishes but stalled on his way to the door so that he could call his friends on the main part of the base that is about a 7 minute walk away. 

When his friend got the news he called the leadership on the base.  Soon someone was running through the dorm area banging on doors and yelling “thieves”.  They were trying to gather all of the guys from the dorm to rush out to the defense of the orphanage.  Believe it or not, my roommates and I slept through the whole thing!  By the time the guys got to the orphanage, the thieves had been scared away by the night guard so when Julian opened the door to them, they ran away.  Everyone was celebrated that nothing was stolen and no one was hurt.

The graduation day was a real festive event that everyone enjoyed.  Some people stayed up till midnight celebrating.  At 1:30 A.M. Celia and Peterson were awoken by thieves once again.  This time there were 11 of them gathered outside of their house with machetes, knives and clubs.  The thieves saw the night guardsman and chased him for miles but luckily were unable to catch him which probably was a huge Godsend as they knew he would go for reinforcements which would reduce the time they could occupy the house.  They demanded to be let in the house once again.  This time Julian did not have time to get in touch with one of his friends so he just dialed up one of them and left the phone out where he could hear what was going on at the house.  As soon as this friend realized the orphanage was being attacked, he ran through the dorm area screaming thieves and gathering up the guys to fight them.  We all heard what was going on this time and were concerned for our safety as the base is very isolated. 

The thieves took computers, a DVD player, jewelry, cash, a day’s earnings from Peterson’s bus business, cell phones plus a few other desirables like nice shoes and clothes.  They told Celia they were going to rape her which is common place here during robberies.  At one point one of the thieves took her by the hand and started to lead her away.  She thought he was going to rape her but then he saw her wedding ring and started to struggle to take it off her finger.  She helped him get it off and then he just walked away.  The thieves woke up all of the children in the house to demand cash and cell phones from them - even the 5 and 8 year olds.  One child was under the bed and they grabbed her by the leg and pulled her out.  As awful as the whole ordeal was, I could see God’s hand of protection in it because no one was physically harmed which is very unusual in robberies and their credit cards fell out of one of the purses into a bag of old clothes so they were at least able to buy food on credit after all their money was stolen.

When all of the guys from the base arrived the thieves ran away.  Everyone was concerned about them returning to rob the main base so the guys remained outside all night and hid in the tall grass and behind water tanks so that they could surprise the thieves if they returned.  The next morning they were all talking about how they needed to get bows and arrows so that they could defend us better.  The 2 night guardsmen now carry bows and arrows and we have had a couple of armed policemen sleeping at our base to provide back-up support to the guardsmen if necessary.  I think in a couple of more days we are going to be on our own again though because the base cannot afford police protection.

Celia & Peterson moved their family into a new home in Nairobi this week that has a really good security system.  They no longer felt safe living on the base.  Some of the leadership has also been leaving the base as they have lived through a few robberies and are having trouble sleeping at night.  Luckily I will be leaving this base in a few weeks.

October Descipleship Training School Class

Graduation Day Photo

A couple of weeks ago we were awoken at 4:00 A.M. by the sound of happy chatter, giggles and laughter.  The October DTS had returned from Outreach and they were obviously happy to be back on base.  They had been on outreach for 2 months and had experienced a great deal in a short time.  The majority of them had been sick at some point on their outreach and some were sick the whole time they were gone with either diarrhea, malaria, typhoid or amoeba infections.  Outreach is a time when they go out into the communities to preach the gospel and help churches or missions who are already established.  Sometimes they go to very remote areas where they have never seen white people and the gospel has never been preached.

I would like to briefly share some of their experiences with you.  They often went a day at a time without food or water.  They basically camped the whole time or lived in churches.  They said that in 1 location there were many rats living with them and one Canadian said that she woke up with rat feces in the part of her hair.  They told a story of having to kill an antelope that was caught in a fence with a dull small knife and then they cooked and ate the animal.

One of the American girls was offered a bracelet when visiting one of the tribes.  One of the guys offered her the bracelet and then put it on her arm.  She smiled and thanked him.  Within a short time his mother was dancing around her and whooping it up.  Someone came with a cow horn and dipped it in something and sprinkled it all over her.  Shortly after she saw the whole village coming toward her and she started getting worried about what was going on.  Apparently the guy had proposed to her and she had accepted so the village was coming to celebrate that they were getting married.  There was apparently a lot of confusion after when she was trying to rectify the misunderstanding but she managed to escape with the rest of the group.

In another area that the group went, the women did not wear tops and it was common to see them breast feeding their babies without covering themselves.  As soon as these women saw the girls from the DTS, they passed them their babies so that they could take care of them.  When the babies started fussing they would try to get the girls to offer their breasts as a soother to the babies.  At first they tried to act out what the girls should do but when they were not getting the desired result, the villagers started to pull up the girls' tops to help them understand what they were to do.  The girls were not too comfortable with this so they just handed the babies back to their mothers.

They also went to a mountain region populated by 3 different tribes. There has been a great deal of conflict between these tribes during government elections which occur every 5 years.   Every family that they came in contact with had lost family members to the rebels.  They only had temporary structures because they knew that their houses would be burned down again in 5 years.  There was so much hopelessness in this group that they were hungry for the message of the gospel.  They ate up every moment with the DTS class and begged them to send another group when it was time to leave.  This seemed to be the DTS class's favorite experience.

On Friday, the 23 students in this class were honored at a graduation ceremony that 200 friends, staff, other students and people from the surrounding community attended.  It really was a big affair as we prepared a chicken dinner with vegetables, rice, fruit salad, and cake for all who attended.  This was by far the best food I have had since arriving here!!  My classmates and I from the Organic Agriculture Training School prepared the dining hall, decorated it, and served the food to all the guests.  It was quite an enjoyable day.