Fender Benders in Africa

Before coming to Kenya, Mike, Ginny, DJ, and I had the opportunity to visit Upendo Baptist Church, a Kenyan church in Dallas. While there, we were blessed to meet a man named Isaac Ndegwa. Isaac immediately greeted us as we walked into his church that day and we quickly learned that not only was he from Kenya, but he was from Maai Mahiu- the exact place we would be serving while in Kenya. From the start, the Lord filled Isaac with a passion for our ministry. He and DJ were quick to exchange email addresses and when he learned that we were from The Village Church, he took the initiative to google The Village where he then read about our partnership with the Mendonsas. He went above and beyond in his research of their ministry here in Kenya and quickly became invested in Naomi's Village and all that the Mendonsas are a part of here. He would advocate our trip on facebook, raise awareness of our fundraisers, and blessed our team immensely when him and his wife, Esther, invited us over to his house for a traditional Kenyan meal. We have been so incredibly blessed by our friendship with Isaac and know that our relationship with him was orchestrated by the Lord. It is not a coincidence that the Lord would place this man from Maai Mahiu in our life. Rather, we have been blown away by His intentionality, that He would so specifically connect us with someone who has a great heart for this place and can help further His work here. Because we have been so blessed and encouraged by Isaac, we wanted to bless him in return. Two weeks before we left, Esther gave birth to their second child, Ashley, so we were able to get pictures of their new baby to take to Isaac's mother. Our team had been so excited about the opportunity to spend time with his mom, and yesterday was the day! To sit in this woman's house, being divided by language yet united both in Christ and in love for her son was a beautiful thing. She served us the entire time, blessing us with stew, nyoma choma, chai and chipate and as any loving mother would do, she busted out with the photo albums and showed us pictures of Isaac's childhood. It was beautiful to watch her look at the pictures we brought of her grandchildren and to hear her sweet voice repeat "Thank you, Thank you" over and over again. Isaac has not seen his mother in almost a year and I cannot imagine how hard it must be to be across the world from your family. The fact that the Lord allowed us to bridge that gap, even if only a little, was incredible and we were so thankful for the opportunity to spend time with this woman who raised a man who is not only our brother in Christ, but who has become a close friend as well.

Apart from visiting Isaac's mother yesterday, we spent the majority of the day working at Naomi's Village. One of our goals for this trip was to put up the ceiling of the Special Events Room at the orphanage which would complete the room and allow the Mendonsas to begin holding church services for the community there. Up until this point, we had spent the majority of our time sanding and varnishing the wood that would make up the ceiling, but yesterday the first pieces of wood were finally nailed up and I could not help but stand in awe as I looked up and saw how far we had come. Please be praying for us as there is still an abundance of work to be done. Our hearts truly desire to get this ceiling finished by the time we leave, but the reality is that we feel overwhelmed by the task and worry that we do not have enough time to get it done. Not only is it a lot of work, but things in Kenya just take longer. We have a running joke about "African time" knowing that a task that should take one hour usually takes about three. Please pray for increased faith, that the Lord would multiply our time and grant us efficiency and productivity. Pray that we would be able to finish this room and that the ceiling would be done by Friday. Pray for us to work hard, but that we would be free from guilt if it does not get done, knowing that the Lord will complete this room in His perfect timing. Above all, please pray over this room, that it would be a place where people come to meet with and worship the Lord and where many will come to know Him.

And, just for free, we wanted you to get an accurate idea of Kenyan time and how everything takes three times as long as expected with a million obstacles in between: yesterday, from the time it took us to leave the house and get to the orphanage, we both ran out of gas and got into a mini car accident... don't worry moms- we're okay :) As we were leaving the house, Dan's car ran out of gas which caused him to stop abruptly in the middle of the driveway....which also happened to be in Bob's blind spot. As Bob was backing out of the driveway, we slammed right into Dan's car...and erupted into laughter. Everyone was perfectly fine and no one was hurt. More than anything we were amused by the irony of yet another obstacle to slow us down. Of course we would run out of gas and get into an accident...how very Kenyan of us.

As always, we love you and are so thankful for all your encouragement and support.

-DJ & Courtney Hofmann