Otter Creek Missions

I had the opportunity to come to Kenya two weeks ahead of the rest of the Otter Creek team. It has been a blessing to have extra time with the students and team members here. God has really given all of the team members wonderful gifts that they use and use and use. What a neat thing to be able to witness some of "normal life" here at Kamulu and to see how Made In the Streets really works.

This third week for me has flown by since the rest of our team has arrived. We had a day camp for the street kids at Eastleigh. Six of us would go into do the camp and the rest of us stayed here to work, teach and tutor.  When we went to  Eastleigh we would sing songs in Swahili (with the help of the Made In the Streets team). Each day we gave a talk about someone in the Bible who was maybe looked down upon but God used them do do great things. It all went well and each day we had more kids. It was rough at times. On Friday as we were about to pull into the center Jackton stopped the van very quickly and jumped out. I didn't know what was wrong, but then we realized that he was stopping a fight between some of the boys. One named Ken had hit Job on the head with a rock, and his head was bleeding. When they were letting the boys in Jackton would take their bottles of glue that they had been sniffing. It continues to humble me every time I go into Eastleigh to see these boys. All they own are the clothes on their back and all they think about is how to survive. We bought them bread and milk for lunch and on Friday we  bought balloons for a water balloon toss. We also played the game where you tie a balloon around the ankle and you try to pop other people's balloons while protecting your own. It was very fun to watch them spend a few minutes just being kids and enjoying those games.

Today is Saturday and we have had the students at Kamulu all day while Steve Sherman met with the Made in the Streets team.  Now we have a little time to relax, do laundry, etc. I think that our whole team is in need of rest. Tomorrow we have the singles seminar that has been advertised at churches around Nairobi from about 2-5:00. We are expecting about 75 or more single young Africans. I think it will be interesting! I know we are looking forward to sharing the joy and community that we have discovered as "singles" at Otter Creek. Then we will go to the Java House for dinner (just Otter Creek) not the whole seminar of singles. =) It will be good for a moral booster to get us ready for another busy week. This week we have some fun things planned amidst the busy schedule. . . Shopping. . . Safari. . . =)

Then it is back to the US on Saturday night and arriving in Nashville Sunday evening. Please continue to pray for us. This trip has not been without bumps in the road and we still want to finish strong and on a positive note.

Thank you,
Emily Gates

Our entire group apologizes for not blogging or reporting on what has been going on in Nairobi at MITS. I hope our lack of communication corresponds to a level of abundant productivity. We've been going to Eastleigh all week to work with the street kids there. You can't help but hurt for them. I'm amazed at how happy some of them are even though they don't have homes and some of them without adequate clothing. I had a personal hurt on Wednesday when I saw two of the same kids that were out at the farm last year, but they ran away to go back to the streets. They didn't even look like the same boys I met last year. They were obviously not acting the same due to the glue.
On a better note, Victor and I have made significant progress in the computer shop. We have a fully functioning computer network down there now (a Cisco 10/100 switch with a Linksys router running the DHCP with CAT5, for all of you IT junkies; Much thanks to all of the fellas that donated IT supplies!). We successfully setup a printer to be shared on the network so they don't have to constantly switch the printer cable from multiple computers. We hope to setup a primary file share in the next couple of days on the most solid computer they have in the shop so they can share files reliably. We don't want them to have to transfer files on the "sneaker-net" (transferring a floppy disk from one computer to another). We have plans to make them wireless in the near future so Charles can also do file and resource sharing from his house compound.
Today Charles, Steve Sherman, and I went into Nairobi to meet with a telecom provider to discuss the possibility of high-speed Internet access at the farm. Our meeting was very informative. Right now, their best option is VSAT, or satellite Internet. It doesn't seem to be cost effective yet, but we hope that another option or some other new technology (wi-max maybe) will be available to them in the next few years at a much cheaper price. Having a high-speed connection will do wonders for the new learning center they are building here. I hope to send a picture of the site. We've been told they may have the walls of the building completely up by the time we leave next week.
Jon Lee is leaving Nashville today and we can't wait for him to make it here. The whole OC team is hoping to go to the airport to welcome him here. He doesn't sleep well on planes so we're all praying for him to be relaxed.
I haven't touched on nearly enough things that have been going on in the last week, but so much is going on. Please pray for our team to be effective in our last week here.
Blessings,
Luke Tenery

Day one in the Kamulu region of Kenya. We arrived here last night nearly without a hitch. One of sixteen bags went MIA, but that's not bad for Nairobi's Airport. Well, one other thing: Keith Brown's guitar and its hard case were smashed into 144,000 pieces, but we think they'll reimburse him (with depreciation…) in the end.
We're all kind of in-between sleeping and awake, today, but that's to be expected. We slept from 4pm to midnight Nashvile time and have been awake from midnight to 1pm Nashville time. This takes a few days to get used to. Mike Rivlas from a supporting church in California is here as well. In past years he coached soccer at Hume Fogg and worked with Lipscomb University's Basketball team when Don Meyer was head coach there. He's an inspirational speaker of sorts, and the kids really seem to like him.
The new guys (Dan, Carrie, Katie, Mary Pullias, and Keith) went into Eastleigh today to get their first impression of the second-poorest slum in Nairobi. The streets are paved with trash and street kids live and play here. All of the kids at Made in the Streets are from this area. It's difficult to imagine that the amazing kids at Made in the Streets were once the disturbing children that approach us in Eastleigh with one hand extended for money and the other hand grasping a glue bottle. (Glue is the drug of choice for street kids. It costs less than a meal, and it curbs hunger for a while.)
In an successful effort to summon a rare Kenyan rainstorm, we ate outside tonight. It worked like a charm. As soon as we had sat down with our food, the evening rain began, chasing us into the shelter of the Made in the Streets Sewing Shop(pe). My bed is calling me. Day two awaits. Pray for us, please.