Committing to Blog Regularly!

I’m back from Africa! It’s actually been a while. I got back in the end of July and spent a week in Florida to Debrief and now I am relaxing in Oregon. Can you believe it’s in the 90’s here? What’s going on!? Give me a little while to get caught up on some things and upload some pictures to Flickr and I will be back with a packed post. I’ve also decided that it’s time for me to update this thing regularly since I have internet access now. I actually have lots of happenings to talk about!

Here’s just a few upcoming things I can talk about:

- The dog (just kidding…but he is pretty sweet so maybe I will)
- Beginning the building of a recording studio (yes, you know)
- Apple is awesome and sending me a brand new macbook (curious, huh?)
- Oh yeah, my experience in Africa…
- and more.

Now I’m no suspense writer, but after that bullet list I’m pretty sure everyone is wanting more. Just call call me HK Rowling over here, giving you a series that you can’t help but love. I have no idea why I said that.

Blogging makes me laugh.

Oh. I should probably update the rest of the blog.

…I’ll do that this week too.

Another thought. (Can’t you tell my thoughts are a bit desultory? ha) This blog is turning from a summer blog into a normal blog. Some people just blog to complain. That’s not my thing. Some people blog to be famous. That’s not my thing either. Some people even blog to…you know, blog. …right. Anyways, I just want to say thanks for reading. I really just want to blog because this almost serves as an easy place to keep friends updated and if any strangers care, hear about my life and thoughts on it. I don’t really like “blogging it out” and complaining or flaming certain situations in life or outwardly communicating disdain for politics or some other random stuff that’s easy to hate. I really just want to keep it positive or thought-provoking.

So let me start by saying something positive. I really like Jamba Juice. Aren’t smoothies fantastic?

The end.

Final Update in Kenya

Hello all,

This is my last time being able to update during my time here, so here it is! I’m a bit pressed for time, so more pictures than words this time. So the last three weeks have been a blast. We camped out in this village called Nchaishi, specifically with the headmaster’s family boma and my team got to teach, hangout with the community, and build some great relationships there. Here’s where our tents used to be (other team members took pictures of the actual tents):

Here’s a picture with my class after a great capture the flag victory:

 

I taught standard 5 and I loved it. One day for physical education I decided to teach them capture the flag so we played standard 5 vs. standard 4. OF course, with great coaching, standard 5 had overwhelming victory each time. …so maybe standard 4 didn’t quite get what was going on. I have to talk about one thing though! One of the greatest moments in capture the flag history I have seen to date. Actually, I’ll talk about that when I see everyone or when I have more time. Just, whetting your appetite for the capture the flag story! ha

Being really good looking.

A mama rustling up some delicious chai for me:

Cooking over some open fire…you know, being really sweet:

Some of the community really wanted me to be a true Maasai so they dressed me in a shoka (the red sheet) and put me in to herd. I already fashioned my own stick…it’s really fun to carry one around!

Lasltly, my team enjoying some delicious chai:

I hope you enjoyed that collection of pictures. I have two weeks left in Kenya and the main event that we’re preparing for at AfricaHope is the Grand Opening. It’s supposed to attract literally thousands of people and we’re praying it goes well. It’s been a blessing to serve with this ministry and see all that AfricaHope has been accomplishing in the community and the response of the community. It amazes me to see how much the community loves AfricaHope and truly considers them family for everything they’re doing.

To the UIS Team in Gathiga:

So crazy that y’all are here! Just wanted to let you know that my team has been lifting you up in prayer. I don’t know if you’ll be able to check this or not, but I hope your experience at the orphanage is amazing and I can’t wait to exchange stories when we’re all back. I hear you flight leaves a day after ours…maybe we’ll run into each other in London? Who knows?

My time is up, mind jumbled, gotta go quick sooooo thanks for all the mails, the love, and the prayer. It’s been so amazing in Kenya and NMSI is a great organization. Can’t wait to share everything with you when I’m back!

Hello from Kenya!

Hello from Narok, Kenya! I’m in an internet café right now and I’m not sure how to react to the fact that I’m actually on the internet! So, how about an update? I’m loving it in Africa, no joke. It may be due to the fact that I haven’t been roughing it at all here and the people are amazing and welcoming. I’m running low on time, so I’ll get this post pumped out.

Sooo Passion Conference in Kampala, Uganda! Amazing. I worked security, which wasn’t that fun…but I kind of got to meet Louie Giglio and shake his hand, so it was no big deal. The Passion staff actually tried to train me to be more intimidating because apparently smiling a lot isn’t approved. It was pretty funny actually, they took a video as they sent secret people to try to get past me. Here’s a picture of the conference:

Charlie Hall, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Frances Chen, and Louie Giglio were there. Apparently like over 30,000 Ugandan university students came.

We had a long drive ahead of us afterwards to drive to Narok, Kenya. I think it took about like 16-18 hours? The road and driving here = INSANE. We saw baboons just chilling on the road on our way back, pretty funny. I’m sleeping in the new AfricaHope dorms and they’re extremely nice. Running water, electricity, and a full sized bed? Amazing. The campus is beautiful and at the end of the summer I’ll definitely include pictures of it. Umm what else. Pretty much what we have done so far is prepare for our OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) camps and we have done one so far and will do another tomorrow. I am responsible for the GAMES portion of the camp. I’m kind of good at having fun. Here’s a picture of the three-legged race that we used to teach teamwork and not complaining or arguing.

This is a picture of me giving my little message or coaching afterwards.

I’m having a great time with the kids. It’s funny because they don’t see many asian people around here, so they don’t even know what to do when they see me. I’m picking up Swahili quickly, so it’s also great to use it on them and trip them out.

Also, HIVHope, a ministry of NMSI, came to do a seminar, so we got to observe a seminar going on that trained some local people in Narok to teach about HIV/AIDS prevention. I learned so much new information that I never knew before, it was kind of ridiculous. Here’s a picture of the group, including my team and some others.

I am loving my team and loving it in Africa. It’s so much different than I expected and God has been moving in crazy ways. I’m on a team with 11 girls and 1 other guy! Yeah, Howard with mostly girls for the summer. Ummmm craazzzyyy. I’m really rushing my thoughts, so hopefully this is enough. I don’t even know how to summarize all that’s been going on and I wish I had more time, but I guess that’s it until the end of the summer. We’ll be living in a Maasai village starting on Tuesday for a month and then we will be back at the AfricaHope campus later. We’re basically pitching a tent in a village and living there so it will be an authentic experience for sure! I’m not exactly sure what we’ll be doing there, but we’ll be hanging out with the community and traveling out of the village to run more OVC camps on Saturday. OVC camps basically consists of crafts, journaling, games, memory verse, message, etc. It’s a day camp that schools get once a month maybe? Christian lessons are part of Kenyan curriculum, so that is how we can do that.

Personally, I’m doing great. I thought I would be a lot worse, but your prayers have been working. I’ve been stretched in ways I never thought possible and I’ve been having a great attitude here. I’m just trying to learn Swahili, build relationships with people, and learn. God has been opening doors and teaching me so much and I’m so thankful for all your prayers. I really have been loving every minute here and the community that I’ve been interacting with. It’s been great learning about the culture in Kenya and how they love Barack Obama! It will definitely be different though to live in a Maasai village and not have any luxuries, but I’m excited to do it as well. I’ve really been learning the importance of being genuine and ooohhh so much more.

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers and I can’t wait to update again when I get the chance at the end of the summer. Hope that was a good update! Also, for those wanting to mail me while I’m here (I hope that is a lot of people), it takes about 2 weeks to send mail, so just reminding you of that and my address is on a lower post I think. Thanks for all the encouragement!

Signing out with love,

Howard

P.S. SOOO SOO busy

Jeremy hopefully will post a comment with a link to my prayer card for those who don’t have it so you can download it and print it out.

Hello from Florida!

Hello all, this week at Pre-Field Orientation has been crazy! It’s been chalked full of so much! I’ve been so excited and been smiling more than usual. I love it here and I love being surrounded by passionate people. The interns this year are going to places like India, Myanmar/Thailand, Bulgaria, Germany, Egypt, Cambodia, Costa Rica, and Zimbabwe. I am on a team with 12 girls and 1 other guy, so it’s definitely going to be a growing experience. So far, the word I got from our plans in Africa are as follows:

Today: Leave for Africa
Tomorrow: Arrive in Uganda and help out at Passion.

We were asked to be really flexible! We’ll be spending some time in Narok and other times we will be camping out and spending time in a village in Kenya

Just a note to supporters, I will not be able to cash the checks until I return from Africa, so I apologize if that throws things off. I meant to do it this week, but there was so much to learn during orientation that I could not find time to do so. Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

I don’t know what to say. I just can’t believe I’m here. I’m rushing this post because I have to pack and be ready soon, but I wanted to make sure and update people on my plans. Hopefully, I can have my prayer card available to download if you would like to print it off. I really wish you could see my face and how much I’ve already been growing this past week here and how excited I am to serve my team and the Kenyans. Thank you so much for providing me the opportunity to come here and do this.

Howard

Wow

It’s 2:36 AM. That should be an indicator of current circumstance. I am busy and still preparing to head out. I leave for Florida at 10:15 AM today and I just finished packing and am tying up some loose ends. Man, I am so thankful for everyone’s support and what has been going on so far. Honestly, I’m sorry for not updating as frequently as I would like, but the busy factor has been high. No excuses though! I need to do better. I’m not sure what my internet situation is going to be in Kenya, but here’s what I do know:

My address in Kenya:

My name
c/o Erin Schwend
PO Box 847
Narok
Kenya

So basically if would like to, you’re welcome to exchange snail mail with me and I will communicate with you back in that fashion.

If not, expect me to update if I get the opportunity and I will re-hash my page and update on my journals and experiences continuously after I get back. Thanks everyone for all your support. If I don’t get the opportunity to post…here’s to July 24th!

So, just to let you know what has going on a week before I leave (WOW!), I have been pretty busy so I haven’t been able to write about what I had previously promised. I am still planning on doing so…I never break promises! I’ve been moving out of my apartment and trying to tie up loose ends with school. I just registered to volunteer at the Passion Conference in Uganda…sweet! I am getting pretty nervous and anxious because I don’t know what to expect, but I am excited!

Quick Update

Quick update. I have two finals today. I hope I do okay. Biochem at 8:00 AM and Power & Negotiation at 6:30 PM. Too bad I am not totally done with school because I have to make up work next week. I am thankful though because it’s better than not getting credit at all.

Music has been fun. I saw Dave Barnes last week and it was great. I’ve been listening to some good new music besides him…getting into random people, but yeah.

I’m nervous about summer, but I’m ready to be uncomfortable. I leave in like 2 weeks! Craaaazy.

I like how I basically wrote in bullet points of sporadic thoughts. Does the fact that I’m hopped up on caffeine in a semi-conscious state have anything to do with it? I don’t get why I’m asking that to you, I should be answering that. Yes, the answer is yes.

(I’ll write more with pictures tomorrow. I promise!)

Support Raising Update: It’s been encouraging to receive all the letters and support, thank you so much everyone for it! Be looking for a card with a certain good looking individual on it in the mail soon! No, I am not going to be…wait. If you didn’t think it was me, shame on you. Shame. It’s a prayer card! …sorry I didn’t get enough sleep.

As of right now I have about $800 in hand and $1700 verbally committed. Thanks for being awesome!

Promising to Update!

So much has been going on, but unfortunately I’m unable to take a pause and write about it! Finals week might be part of the explanation…

So here’s my official I owe you a sweet post!

One quick note…Please pray for my friends Matt and Heather and the people who are in Myanmar where the death toll is over 22,000 now due to the harsh weather.

They are alive! Please continue praying for Myanmar…

Part 2

Just kidding…it’s in the letter. I’ll elaborate more if it’s wanted though!

Wow, so I guess my letters have already made it home back to good ol’ Ore-E-GONE trail, eh? That’s amazing. Please be patient as I update and give more information onto the what’s been going on. Honestly, it’s been pretty slow because all I can do at this point is twiddle my thumbs as I wait for responses. Here’s what I am planning on writing about though:

- Updating Progress Thus Far section to tell a bit more about the application process and things like that
- Updating the About Me section for those who have no heard from me in a while
- Writing about preparing my body to travel with shots, etc
- Benefit concert coming up on May 16th!

It’s the week before finals so it’s a bit hectic, but I thank everyone for their support and I hope to hear from everyone soon! I’m open to any e-mails if you’d like to talk to me further.

It’s Official!

I heard from the internship director at New Mission Systems International last week that I would be accepted, but I got the official letter yesterday! Pretty sweet. Along with the acceptance letter (always a pleasure to read anything starting with “Congratulations! You have been accepted…well, unless of course it’s from American Express, but even then it makes you feel good) I received a country handbook for Kenya and a support raising handbook.

I also finally finished my letters and bought envelopes, stamps, and mailing labels to get them out to everyone. I’m gonna admit I struggled with writing my support letter. First, how can you really communicate your heart and your passion for something with mere words in a letter? Second, how can I remember to be mindful that the letter doesn’t have to be perfect and that my letter itself is not what matters the most (thanks Gretchen)? Either way, I know we’ve all been in similar situations where we can’t find words to suffice, but you feel me and that’s all that matters!

Thankfully one of my great professors here at the University of Illinois at Springfield asked me a series of simple, but foundational questions to help incite some thought and understand how I could more concretely communicate what I wanted to say.

“Howard, why are you going on this trip?”

He intently gazed right into my eyes with a slight smirk, genuinely curious, but suspecting I had not taken time to grapple with this.

“Uh well…I don’t really know. I want to take action instead of sitting here in my luxurious comfort and complaining or just feeling bad for them. I’m sick of not appreciating what I have and I want to do what I can to help.” That’s really all I could say in response. I really knew that I had a heart to help, but never really took time to try to express in words why exactly I wanted to go or cared so much.

“Well, what will you be doing there and why does it matter. Essentially, why does it matter that you go?”

All I could do was sigh.

Really, what could I say? I didn’t know and never took time to think about what teaching at schools, educating about HIV/AIDS, spending time with the community, and building relationships would accomplish. What does it matter here in America to play basketball with some kids after school at the Boys and Girls Club? The lack of immediate tangibility left me sort of dumbfounded. It’s not like I’m building community centers, orphanages, or anything like that like I originally planned on doing. It’s not like my presence there will feed anymore mouths…so what am I really doing there? In the end, what will it all matter if I go or not? After talking with my professor some more he challenged me to really grapple with this and to put this into the letter. He said at the very least that I needed to do it for myself; I agreed

Part 2 Later