Beatrice and Christine in the kitchen, Kenya, 2006 A turning point is a time at which an important change takes place which affects the future of a person or thing.  (College English Dictionary). Fifteen years ago, (this very month!),  I was seven days into my first mercy trip to Africa. Truthfully, since day one, I […]

It was an unlikely meeting one April morning, 2012. She, not even thirty. Me, nudging into middle age (OK, I was plunging into middle age, not liking it one bit).  Mutual friends kept insisting that we meet because of our travels and work in developing countries. And so one sunny morning we met for tea. […]

It is difficult, near impossible, to write about poverty witnessed in another country.  I haven’t lived it, only witnessed the surface of it. And try as I might, I cannot fully understand it. From my eleven years of traveling to Africa and other developing countries, I’ve come to see my own helplessness in these situations. […]

All Saints Day Sunday 2019 The yard with her fallen leaves beckoned me outdoors this All Saints Day Sunday.  Bent over to gather raked up leaves, and to pull a few stubborn weeds, the sun warmed my back and thoughts of my mama soothed my weary soul. It has been three months since she died. […]

One of the reasons I love Kenya, January 2020 If you missed the first part of this blog, simply scroll down and read it. …..Obviously, since you are reading this, I survived the flight, even catching a few hours of sleep.  I landed in Doha around 5:30 PM the next day (eleven hours ahead of […]

Before I left for Kenya, I was conversing with a friend about homesickness– that awful, sick, anxious feeling that comes into our bodies and hearts when we miss home and all that is familiar and knowable.  We long for something or someone to soothe us.  Perhaps we first experience homesickness when we leave home for […]

Tomorrow a young mother will be buried next to her father near her childhood home in rural Kenya. She leaves behind her three-year old daughter. Janet’s story is a bleak reminder of the need for improved healthcare for those who cannot afford to pay. She had grown used to the shame that surrounded her. Shame […]

The hills near Kisii in southwestern Kenya are painted a rich green color. Tea thrives here, plantations clinging to steep slopes. In 2012, I visited Kisii accompanied by Kenyan Deaconesses Evelyn and Elizabeth. We climbed on skinny red dirt trails through these verdant hills with breathtaking views. We were on our way to visit Richard* […]

My friend, Kenyan Deaconess Callen contacted me recently via whatsapp. She sent me a a photo of a woman, Virginia, we had visited together in the slums of Kawangware in August 2014 and again in 2019. Callen wrote “She is very weak. Let’s join hands praying for her.” Today, I resurrect and revise a 2014 […]