June 17th

Downtown Eldoret

The tallest building in Eldoret. 

Car ride with the Elondonga's

On our way to Iten

A big market

Iten & the Kerio Valley

The Kerio Valley

Top of the lookout over Kerio Valley

Looking over the Kerio Valley

Pastor Elondonga saying 'Jambo' to the cows

Pastor Elondonga

There are crocodiles in that water!

We just didn't see them. 

Today we spent our day with the Elondonga's. Maureen, Sharon, and Pastor Elondonga. We started off around 10 this morning on our way to Iten which is about 45min-1hr out of Eldoret. When we left our house we went to town to get the tires filled up and to get some fuel. After that we proceeded on our way. Driving with Kenyans- in a Kenyan car- is much different than driving in Kenya with Americans. Lets just say the Kenyan's drive more..umm..brave?? The car ride in itself was an experience. 

We stopped at the lookout above the Kerio Valley. The Kerio Valley is a long strip, 80km x 10km, located in the Great Rift Valley-- the main town being Iten. The lookout was GORGEOUS! Kenya is so beautiful and green. After we got our fill of pictures we continued on our drive. It was really cool to look out the window and see all the mud huts and small shacks that the people live in. How do you raise a family with 10 children on less than $1 a day? I don't know, but they do it. Not only in Kenya but all over the world more of the population than we care to realize lives on less than what we pay for our daily Starbucks. They live in these tiny houses, most with minimal or no electricity, and no running water out far away from any towns or anything. (only 22% of Kenya is urbanized) They walk everywhere, grow their own food and try to make a living from the small excess they may have. More than half of the people in Kenya live on less than $1 a day and far below the USA standard of the poverty line. I really enjoy looking at their houses and seeing them walking on the road. They live with so much less than all of us, and they don't even think twice about it because it is what they have always known. Emersion into this culture is what brings us to the right perspective and really makes us think, and in turn realize that we are more blessed than we can even imagine. 

There are 117 people groups in Kenya- 36 which remain unreached by the Gospel. That means those 36 people groups don't have access to the Gospel. They live in these small houses that I saw today. They are the ones living in extreme poverty- poverty we can't even fathom. We have to help them. We have to take them the Word of our Lord, THE Lord, so that they may see hope. They need that hope and the promise of Jesus. 

For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.

~2 Corinthians 1:5-7~

It was a lot of fun to spend the time with the Elondonga's today and see how other people really live- most people in fact. Seeing the beautiful scenery and the pure aesthetics of Kenya was awesome in itself. Even though Pastor Elondonga doesn't speak English and we only could figure out about one or two Swahili words per sentence it was a lot of fun spending the day with him in fellowship. He is a really funny guy who definitely has a sense of humor. It was a blessing to get to spend that time with his family today and see more of the beautiful country.