Turtle or tortoise?

According to Sofia, a turtle lives in water and a tortoise on land.  Well, the above tortoise has been living on the girls' school grounds for many, many years.  We've been told maybe 30 years.  The tortoise doesn't have a name but he/she has been painted many times.

By the way, the flags on the outside gym wall represent the passport countries of students attending the school.  Pretty cool!

Getting at the Root of the Cursed Fig Tree

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it. (Mark 11:12-14)

As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” 

(Mark 11: 15-19)

Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree may as well be called Pass Over, since it is a passage that many of us like to pass over for some reason. It is probably because at first glance Jesus seems to make a big deal out of nothing. Yet, the brevity and abruptness of Jesus cursing the fig tree is meant to spur us on to dig deeper. 

As the story goes, it is on Monday of Passion Week, and Jesus is on his way back to Jerusalem from Bethany, and he’s hungry. His eye catches a glimpse of a fig tree with leaves on it. (According to scholars, the leaves indicate that there should be some kind of edible source on the tree, perhaps something like immature figs, even though it is not fig season.) Upon inspection, however, Jesus sees nothing edible on the tree. Again, scholars inform us that because the tree has leaves on it, but no edible source, then it will also not bear figs in-season either. So, Jesus curses the tree.

Okay, so what?

We learn from the context of this passage in Mark, that Jesus went from cursing the fig tree to cleansing the temple. Both of these acts are messages of judgment toward the religious leadership in Israel. Without doubt, there was a lot of religious activity going on by the religious authorities. However, Jesus had been inspecting the “tree” of the religious leaders for the past few years and found no fruit (cf. Luke 13:6-9). He had also pronounced woes on them for showing only outward religious works and being terrible shepherds of Israel.

So, the next day, Tuesday, Peter sees the withered fig tree. He is amazed by its sudden demise and calls Jesus’ attention to it. Jesus segues immediately into application mode for his followers. Bottom line, Jesus takes fruitfulness from his followers seriously. Jesus urges his followers to believe, pray, and forgive. What? Forgive? Why forgiveness? The reason is because unforgiveness is a major cause of a lack of fruit in a follower’s life. Have you ever been around an unforgiving person? Then you know that unforgiveness is a gigantic obstacle for fruit bearing. It can create bitterness, weariness, and a host of other things, that cause a follower of Jesus to be unfruitful.

Jesus does not give a fruit pass to any of his followers. However, the good news is, God is able to give to you anything you need to be fruitful. If you, as a Christian, are holding on to unforgiveness, know that God has poured out his love into your hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). What a wonderful blessing he has given! However, it does not end there. His will for us is also to be instruments of his to love and offer forgiveness to those who have wronged us.

If you struggle with forgiveness, I encourage you to consider Corrie Ten Boom, who was a prisoner in a SS concentration camp. After her release, Corrie met a former guard of one of those camps. Here is a link of an excerpt from her book, The Hiding Place, where she writes of this encounter: http://brokenbelievers.com/2013/03/04/the-school-of-forgiving-corrie-ten-boom/

God promises to grant us what we need to be fruitful. The question is, will you and I pray and act accordingly?

Middle child loses her teeth

Being that she watched her sister lose teeth, Selah has been pretty excited to lose her own teeth.  Her's, however, seemed to not want to come out quite as early as sister's.

Finally, after a couple months of wiggling teeth and at the age of 6 1/2, Selah lost her first tooth.

Had a feeling she would soon lose it so we took one more pic with her all her baby teeth.

Yep, just an hour later her first tooth fell out!

Then a week later, her second tooth fell out.

Hanging out.

This week is Spring break.  Therefore, Sofia was able to accompany me to language on Monday.  Mondays are a little different.  This is the day that I travel to another area of town where the majority of our pg (people group) live.  I spend time simply listening to the language as well as trying to speak the language.

My language nurturer Eve is in the middle.  She introduced us to her friend, Lucky.  They adored Sofia and were pleased she wore a head covering.  Girls begin wearing one at seven years old.

We enjoyed some shopping and then sat in one of the shops for a cup of tea.  The pg tea has special spices and is made with camel's milk.  Very rich and tasty.  Sofia loves it.

Come visit and you can come have tea with us!!!!

And the arm is.......broken!

Saturday was a pretty relaxing day for the family.  After dinner we decided the kids needed a little more running around outside before settling in for the evening.

Kevin got the kids involved in a game of futbol, as well our guard, H-man*.  Girls vs. boys.  Lots of fun.  Before you know it, there were a few bumps and hits as the ball was sought after.  At one time, Isaiah fell and just about hit his head on the cement wall.  Thankfully just some banged up knees.  Then it was Selah's turn to get her knees and elbows banged up as she went after the ball.  It would have been a beautiful move (kicking between our guard's legs as she slid) if it weren't for the fact that we were playing on cement.  On grass she would have slid then just stood back up.  After this she was out.

The game turned to races.  Isaiah and Sofia began racing from one end to the other.  Sadly, Isaiah clipped the back of Sofia's foot and went head first onto the cement.  Because he wasn't wearing a shirt, his tummy got a pretty scrape.  Nothing to be concerned about but what did have us worried is that he was crying and wouldn't stop.  AND he was holding his arm.  Uh-oh.  As he fell, his left hand got caught underneath him with his hand bending back.

After almost 30 min. of unconsolable crying, I knew that he did something to his arm.  (Mind you, this momma has had both of her wrists broken.)  We called a friend of ours who is a PT.  Dave came around 7 p.m. and took a look.  His diagnosis was that it was not an emergency and wasn't anyplace really to go at this time of night.  It could be fractured but he could have just bruised his muscles/tendons.  We were in agreeance.  Delaying wouldn't hurt.

Come Sunday morning Isaiah seemed fine.  We hosted HouseGroup that morning and no one thought anything was wrong with his arm.  To me, it looked a little swollen above his wrist and he did still have some tenderness.  Later in the afternoon he was playing Ring Around the Rosy with his sisters.  This was not good.  Just them holding his hand and running around hurt.  Then a bit later he bumped his hand against the furniture and it hurt.  Okay, we needed to get it checked out.

But again, going to a doctor on this Sunday was not a good idea.  A tragic accident involving over 175 people on a bus that went over a bridge had happened that morning and we knew the hospitals would be crowded.

So, needless to say, finally come Monday morning we took Isaiah to get x-rays.  And sure enough, there was a small greenstick fracture on the inside of his left arm just above the wrist.  Then it was time to take a taxi  1and1/2 hours across town to get the cast put on.  We were thankful for the dr.  The cast reminds me of the one I wore 30+ yrs ago.:)  And may God bless the drs. who interacted with Isaiah because he is not a pleasant patient.  Oh my!!!  He cried, screamed, ran away, and yelled "I do not want a cast!".  Poor guy.  It took him about 24 hours to get used to the cast.  The picture above is Monday evening.   The next one is of him Tuesday night.

He gets the cast off in two weeks.

Peace Child (The play.)

Sofia's third grade class presented the play, "Peace Child".  It not only has a most amazing message but the kids did such a great job of presenting it.  If you haven't read the book "Peace Child" by Don Richardson, we encourage you to do so. And if you happen to be someone who directs children in plays/choir, well, we recommend you look into doing this production.:)

On a personal note we were very proud of Sofia.  Being that we were out of the country for three weeks, she only had one week to learn the six songs, stage directions and a couple of lines.  And we are very thankful for Caleb R. who actually gave up a couple of his lines so Sofia could have a part.

Shecklers on Safari

We knew without a doubt that while inKenya we would love for our kids to be able to experience a safari.  Well, safaris are pretty expensive and they have an age limit.  I believe children to need to be at least 9 yrs old and some even 15 yrs old.  Thankfully, Nairobi has a game park open to all ages and reasonable entrance fees.  The game park is located right next to the airport.  Amazing!!!  Being that it is close to the city, the only animal you cannot see is an elephant.  We were, however, able to visit an elephant orphanage.

Enjoy the pictures.  We were absolutely AMAZED at the beauty of the animals as well as the landscape.

Thursday, February 20 --- Elephant Orphanage

All of the elephants were less than two years old. They were found in the wild due to being abandoned, mother killed by ivory poachers, fell into a manmade hole, or were just sick.  It was fun being up close.  When asked why they aren't grey?  Well, the dirt is red so the elephants are red.  When washed they are grey.  Ha!

Friday, March 7 --- Safari Time

Sunrise.

Nairobi cityscape in the distance.

We just loved the giraffes.

I think this one wanted to go home with us.

 Oh, Daddy and Mommy loving on each other while Jr. is hanging out with them.

The hippos would pop up every few seconds.

Gazelles are just beautiful.

Vulture looking for leftovers.

ZEBRAS!  Who doesn't love zebras?

Birds.

But without a doubt, the highlight of the safari was seeing lions.  It is not a guarantee that you will see some.  The night before we went, Isaiah asked God to let us see lions. His prayer was answered affirmatively.

This lovely lady was just sitting out in the middle of nowhere enjoying the sunshine.

Then just a ways down the road our driver spotted this King of the Jungle on the side of the road taking a nap.  We weren't more than 20 feet away.  

The most amazing thing, however, was earlier in the day.  Just after we got to the park, which was a little after 7 a.m., we were going down the road when we spotted this lioness.  She had just killed what we believe to be a warthog.  She was dragging it along and would stop to rest.   You could see her breath in the air as it was still cool and no doubt she was heated from the hunt.  Interestingly, she kept coming closer and closer to us.  We finally figured out she was trying to get to the other side of the road.  I mean, this lioness came within feet of us.  There was a moment when Kevin and I wondered if we should sit the kids down and put the safari roof down because the lioness easily could jump in if she wanted to do so.  What kept us from doing so was the fact we knew she had her food already.

And that is where she was headed.  Her family was probably waiting for their breakfast.

 Now enjoy some more people pictures.