Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update #146 of December 24, 2008, Guinea

Mornings...everyone has them, but how we each face them is very different.

December in Kankan, Guinea is a cold time of year with overnight temperatures in the upper 60s.  (Don't laugh too hard those of you who live in the northern USA.)

The sun rises around 6:30 which means life begins then with women outside their homes starting the cooking fires for the day.  Children huddle together near the fire.  Men wear winter coats and furry hats with the ear flaps down.

The pumping of wells is a good warm-up activity on cold mornings using either a foot pump or hauling a bucket up from the depths hand over hand on a rope.

The sound of courtyards being swept and made tidy for the day is an everyday task.  The dirt areas are swept clean and even swept with a pattern. No grass is permitted to grow near the homes to be a hiding place for snakes.

Bicycles start rolling up and down the dirt roads as over the bumps their riders go to various tasks. Dirt biking is not a sport here, but a necessity of life as mothers with babies on their backs or men with various loads weave their way over rocky, dirt trails on aged bikes of dubious quality.

Chickens wander scratching for food in the grasses. Gamboling lambs gamble their lives as they cross the few paved roads which hold for them some fatal attraction.

The sun rises red through the red smoke and dust particles which permeate the air as the harmattan winds bring new layers of dust to sift into every nook and nose.

These days we had the distinct privilege and joy of being with our son Nathan, his wife, Becky, 5 year old Philip and 2 year old Marie.

Morning came to their house as well.  Philip quietly waited to hear the opening of doors to know that Grandma was up.  Each morning a contingent of trucks, cars, and stuffed animals would join together for a cup of tea and to hear the Bible. These inanimate participants were as good listeners as the little boy who brought them. Together a most  special time alone was shared at the beginning of the day.

A rousing call of 'Pencerrrr' was often Marie's initial act of the day as she ran to the enclosed porch and hollered for the dog, Spencer.  Obedient, dutiful dog that he was, he always came on the run to see the back of Marie as she gleefully flitted away or else to receive a bonk on the head depending on the quirk of the moment.  Either action brought laughter and smiles to the little one and quiet acceptance by the dog.

"As surely as the sun rises he will appear, he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring waters that water the earth."  Hosea 6:3

However we begin our days, may we know also the surety of the Lord God in our lives...each morning task imbued with His presence.

Praise
-    For the incredible relational ability that Nathan and Becky have among the Maninka People, over two million in Guinea, less than 150 believe in Jesus.  As the parents of Nathan we were greatly honored because of their relationships.  This gave us, especially Glenn the opportunity to interact with a number of men on a spiritual level which he thoroughly enjoyed.
-    For the completion of three months of connecting, praying, encouraging missionaries and people across Africa.  We will be in the USA just over five weeks and then back in Africa.

Pray
-    For the country of Guinea, the president and ruler for the past 24 years just died and the succession of power is not clear.  Pray for peace and that our workers there won't need to evacuate.
-    Guinea, especially the Maninka, needs people, people who will tell stories, who will develop oral materials, facilitate the distribution of already produced materials, produce more materials, ride circuits and teach, improve agriculture, start businesses like a solar supply house, a medical testing facility all with the goal to improve peoples lives physically and spiritually.  Do you know of anyone available?

 

Glenn and Kathy Kendall update #145 of December 12, 2008, Mali

Among some of the significant events of holidays are the eating of special foods, family gatherings and new clothing.  As you picture your city, your street, your home these days you know the above are true in varying degrees.

During the days we were in Mali we saw the preparations for a person holiday called Tabaski.  This celebration was held Monday, December 8^th in Mali. 

Picture your local grocery store the days before Christmas or Thanksgiving or even Fourth of July.  Special foods fill the shelves.  People are buying quantities of foods.  The same is true for the feast of Tabaski which is a celebration in honor of the ram which Abraham killed instead of his son, Ishmael.

Sunday before Tabaski the outdoor markets are full of vegetables, fruits, spices, knife grinders.  Ah, yes, isn't that part of your preparation for your holiday turkey???  A knife grinder is very important because part of the feast is indeed the slaughtering of a ram by each family if possible.  It is hard to do that job with a dull knife. 

And so picture the parking lot at your local grocery store with rams being led through, up and down streets, around buildings...flocks of rams on ropes wind their way through cars and trucks and motorcycles as their owners parade them and move them to places where people will buy them.  And then you have the privilege of taking home your live, very fresh animal to slaughter in your own back yard with your sharply ground knife...and you get to clean the guts, skin it, hang it, chop up the parts, cook it, and finally eat it....just like at your home.

The day of the feast, streets, that are normally roaring with cars in the capital city of Bamako, are silent.  Only two sellers can be found in a whole market usually teeming with people.  The crowds of people thronging the streets, walking the dirt roads, selling in outdoor shops are gone.  Everyone is home preparing their place, their ram, their food.  Extended families return to their ancestral areas.  Family in Europe or other countries return.  Families gather.

And the clothing...for days men and women and children have been buying lengths of cloth to take to the tailors for their new garments.  No off the rack clothing here...most clothing is tailor made and those men have been working night and day as everyone gets new clothing. 

The day after the feast, the streets again roar with cars, jostle with people on foot...another feast has come and gone but the new clothing brightens many lives for many months to come.

Mali, a country of great diversity from the tent dwellers of the Sahara in the north, cliff dwellers, round mud hut grass thatched roof dwellers, apartment dwellers in the cities...Mali, a vast land in west Africa  .  Mali a land in which celebrations and parties and family and food are important just as they are in America...just done a little differently.

May you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. 

Praise for good WAFL (West Africa Field Leaders Meeting)  In addition to our significant prayer times we talked about:

-          How we can facilitate balanced group participation in meetings (getting the quiet people to participate more and the talkative ones to be more balanced)

-          How we can facilitate short-term missionaries better (some of the basic logistics, money, tickets)

-          How to continue the functioning of a Guest House in West Africa (see personnel needs)

-          Future goals for us

-          Helping people be more fulfilled in life and ministry (by attaining their dreams)

 

Pray for Mali personnel needs

-          A couple to run a guest house in Bamako beginning in January 2009

-          People to focus on least evangelized people in Mali

-          A person to help in Bible Translation

-          A person to help people learn to read

 

 

Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update #143 of November 19, 2008, Ghana

From the Gulf of Guinea traveling north to the mountains of Togo we followed the course of the Volta River.

Blue skies in the south with white clouds slowly disappear into the hazy mistiness caused by the harmattan wind which brings sand and dirt from the far north of Africa obliterating from view even large geographical features.

As in all countries, the capital city and the rural areas are vastly different.  Accra with paved roads, a mall, Holiday Inn ($354 per night), cars, buses, taxis, gigantic mansions, razor wire topping walls around homes, internet access, and teeming with people is a world away from the northern villages.

The last village on the dirt road was a quiet place as people were out in their gardens working; two men pulled a homemade wooden cart which they proudly announced could carry 300 yams. 

Communication is carried on by word of mouth and face to face, homes about the size of a two car garage are grass thatched, and transportation is the ingenious device called feetJ

Many businesses in Ghana have English names: Eye of God Photo Lab...I No Lie You Music Shop...Jesus Loves You Beauty Shop...Area Champion Barber Shop...God Fill My Cup Spot (bar), Sons of God Enterprises (sellers of cement).

Our colleagues who live in Ghana have ministry equally varied as the country...training church leaders in the truths of the Bible in a local language context; medical care in rural villages where hospitals are distant; training for school teachers; walking dusty roads and sitting on a log beside a blind old grandmother,

administrator for a mobile member care team that assists people all across west Africa manage crisis of war, robbery, traumas of many types as well as providing training in interpersonal skills and how to live well in different cultural contexts;.

Life is varied...a country is varied...people are varied...but everywhere "the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands".

Check your sky for clouds or sand...the glory of God being announced.

PRAY:

-      Ghana needs men to teach pastors in depth the out workings of the Bible, who through life on life relationship will transform pastors and through them their people interdenominationally.  Many are just years away from spirit worship and could grow faster and deeper with outside help.  Pray for these and other missionaries
 

Praise:

-      A very significant $50,000 has been given from individuals, churches and organizations to War Relief in DR Congo.  $4,400 has come through our web site, WorldVenture.com by on line giving since our last update alone.  $1 feeds one person for one day and $2 provides one treatment for malaria, infection or diarrhea.  For those receiving the food and medicine it is a huge gift.  But with the huge humanitarian crises from war in DR Congo additional gifts will help many more.

Pray:

-      For peace in DR Congo

Thank you for your prayer, interest and financial gifts that make our travel and ministry possible.

 

Glenn and Kathy Kendall Updated #142 of November 9, 2008 Senegal

Sand, sand, sand, sand...beach front property everywhere without the water...houses built on sand....horses pulling carts through sand...BMWs driving across sand...lizards leaving their tracks in the sand...boys scuffling to school through sand...SAND.  The land of Senegal, the most western part of Africa is one fine sandy place.

And four special little boys (better known as our grandsons, Luke, Joel, Caleb, and Zack) have a big sandbox in their backyard....it is the backyard.  Hours can be spent digging in sand, burning twigs and leaves on the sand, throwing sand, rolling in sand.

Across the sand track to their home is new construction with mounds of sand on which to climb and to slide down packing sand into their pants.  The mounds of sand are a great place to play tag, to tunnel, to run up one side and tumble down the other...sand, glorious sand.

That is one perspective on sand.   The other is the constant layer of sand filtering into the house underfoot, on everything, sifting in here and there to be swept out, dusted off, returned to the great outdoors, to re-enter again.  Ah, sand.

Five times a day calls to prayer starting before sunrise resound across the sand from loud speakers.  Men in flowing robes enter mosques to pray in the cool of the desert morning through the heat of the day and again with the sun setting beyond the ocean as the sand cools in the darkness of night.

Vegetable gardens carved laboriously out of sand grow all types of produce with daily buckets of water poured over them.  Tiny desert flowers bloom in the sand moistened by the dew of night.

Senegal is the sandy land where our colleagues teach and facilitate in schools missionary and Senegalese kids, partner with churches, English clubs, Bible schools, feed and love street kids and translate the Bible into a local language run evangelistic ocean front camp, facilitate radio programs and more.

"The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst.  But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.  I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys.  I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs...so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it."  Isaiah 41:17-20

Lush and verdant....dry and parched...mountains, valleys, deserts...God, the Creator, makes Himself known to all peoples.

DR Congo Update:  At the time of writing international negotiations continue on and the situation militarily is relatively calm.  However the huge humanitarian situation remains.

We have added to our web site:

An easy way to give to War Relief in DR Congo.  Simply go to WorldVenture.com and click on War Relief in DR Congo and scroll to give to projects, DR Congo War Refugee Relief Comes up first.

A pod cast of a 30 minute radio interview that aired last Wednesday about DR Congo. Again on the WorldVenture home page click on Frontline and then on Recent Programs, November 4, 2008, Special Report: War in DR Congo.

 

Praise:

-      For many gifts to DR Congo ($1 a day feeds one person, $2 on average provides the medicine for one person for malaria, diarrhea, or infection.)

-      For good field meetings in Senegal with vision of outreach to the majority there and beyond.

Pray: 

-      For peace in DR Congo.

-      For a missionary couple to facilitate Short-term church teams coming to partner with least evangelized villages in Senegal and West Africa.  Over five years of visits resistant villages see the village develop and many come to Christ.

-      Our Schedule:

o   Ghana Visit - November 12-19

o   Cote d'Ivoire - Field meetings November 19-December 3

o   Mali Visit - December 3-12.

o   West Africa Leaders Meeting December 9-11, Bamako, Mali

 

Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update #139 from Uganda, October 21, 2008

Chocolate cake: moist, rich, velvety...numerous ingredients blended, mixed together to make one delicious taste.  On their own, none of the ingredients brings the desire to eat; together they become a mouth watering dessert.

A country is similar in that not just one element can describe it, but together one gains an essence of that nation.  Uganda from north to south and east to west is a land of vast variety.  These past days we have enjoyed the people who are gracious, gentle, helpful, generous. 

We have traveled roads so narrow that the only one vehicle can pass through the grasses brushing either side of the vehicle as we bounced down potholed mud filled roads.  We have traveled in buses swaying side to side as they careen down narrow two lane roads horns trumpeting out various pitched calls, avoiding ruts, bikes, animals, and people as well as other vehicles.   

We have seen people working the land by hand as they till, hoe, dig, plant, weed, harvest by hand crops of corn, sweet potatoes, bananas, sesame, coffee, tea, beans, peanuts.

We crossed the Nile River twice, the longest river in the world.  We neared the Mountains of the Moon eternally glacier covered. We crossed the equator in Uganda, one of only 10 countries in the entire world where you can cross it on land.

Uganda called by Winston Churchill 'the pearl of Africa', like a cake is to be enjoyed in the composite.

A church is also like a chocolate cake.  Forty years ago Glenn worked at Kampala Baptist Church, just starting near THE one University of Uganda at that time in Kampala, Makerere.  At that time a small, struggling new entity, run by missionaries now a vibrant, dynamic, large congregation composed of peoples of many backgrounds run all by Ugandans, a church that has seen 20 other churches form in Kampala and in the last year the BUU, Baptist Union of Uganda has started 96 new churches throughout the country to 1775.

The past forty years numerous peoples and missions contributed to the church.  Like a chocolate cake, not one could stand alone; together they have made a grand contribution.

Chocolate cakes, countries, churches....each composed of ingredients minuscule or grand, but all contributing to the whole.

Praise God for the tremendous, ongoing church growth in Uganda.

Pray for the huge needs this great growth brings:

-      The grandmother alone, in poverty, in the name of Jesus caring for 16 orphans.

-      The cluster of churches really just groups, untrained, heretical, syncratic yet desiring to be the church.

-      The senior regional pastor who wants to "retire" so he can bring in younger leadership while he is around to encourage new pastors in the above two situations.

 

Pray for more WorldVenture personnel:

-      More people to do leadership training

-      A team to work in northern Uganda / Southern Sudan working with Ugandans to spread the church into that ravished land.

-      People to work with Hope Alive - a great child sponsorship program making a huge difference in the lives of 500 children and their families.

 

Pray for us:

-      The rest of this week we are in war torn DR Congo, through Oct 25.

-      Next week we meet with our Rwanda people, through November 1.

-      The following week with our Senegal team, through November 8.

 

Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update # 138 of October 7, 2008, Nairobi, Kenya

Kenya: a country known for safaris to hunt and photograph magnificent African animals, sparkling beaches on the Indian Ocean, the grandeur of the Great Rift Valley; quintessential Africa of the TV and movie screens.

Another less known world is that of education.  It is here in an outlying area of Nairobi that Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST) is located and where we have colleagues who work as professors in theology, pastoral studies, counseling, in management, maintenance, and teaching English.

This school draws students from across Africa to do studies at the masters and doctoral levels. The over 800 graduates work in 35 countries.  Most of the students come with families.  Some of them have sold literally every possession to pay for transportation and fees.  Some wives and children come knowing no English or Swahili to a country and school of those languages.   Hunger and hardship are part of the education as they pour everything they have into this process. 

The students are a determined group; determined to acquire education and training and knowledge, determined to return to their homelands to make a difference in the lives and hearts of their people, determined that the church be better, determined that as Africans they proclaim well the truths of the Bible in a way that will best impact their culture and their people.

Praise:

For great East Africa Leaders Meetings.  We prayed, worshipped, encouraged each other and discussed strategy and future goals.  For instance we set up a think tank to help us help our ministries to the poor and needy do more good and less damage (i.e. not create as much dependency.)

Prayer:

Uganda meetings today and tomorrow then we have individual interviews and meet with BUU (Baptist Union of Uganda) leaders and go up to the Sudan border on Sunday.

NEGST is seeking to expand into a University and has asked us to help find a few good American Staff: professors in Counseling, Organizational Leadership and Business Administration (Entrepreneurship) and program developers.

In part because of the troubles at the beginning of the year NEGST is having a cash flow crunch right now.  Also believers related to us along the coast have little to no food because of poor rains leading to poor harvests.

We are looking for two couples interested in outreach among South Asians and Arabs living on the Kenya coast to add to a great team doing effective outreach.  Believers regularly go back to their least evangelized countries.

Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update #137 of Thursday-Friday September 25-26, 2008, Paris, France.

Many of you have journeyed with us for a number of years through our updates varying from a typical day to suppers to worship services and even to what might be deemed silly.

This year, if you choose to continue the journey with us (and please feel free to let us know if you would rather not receive this email), we are going to do a brief overview of each country and some of what we are privileged to see through the eyes of our colleagues in those places.  Hence this email will not come every week, but will vary with our travels.  Again if you would rather not receive this email, let us know to delete your name from our address book.

And for those of you who choose to continue these perambulations, welcome to the first country of our journey, France.

We arrived in France after an overnight flight.  Taking the train from the airport we sped along for about an hour to one of the southern suburbs of Paris, Massy.  Along the train ride, we had the privilege of hearing accordion music by one of the roving musicians who frequent the trains and after playing a number of songs they circulate among the passengers hoping for monetary remuneration.

Massy is the location of a school for teaching the French language where over the years a number of our colleagues who are heading to francophone (French speaking) African countries have studied. Not only are they able to learn French, but they also learn some of the government and business customs which have been transmitted to Africa by French colonizers in decades past.

Surely one of the great advantages of studying here is the opportunity to visit the local bakeries, which are very local indeed...easy walking distance from almost any home.  And so we also walked with our colleagues who are students here, not to the closest bakery, but to another further one; maybe 10 minutes walk because we were in pursuit of a particular pastry. Aren't some people so very fussy!

Being in the role of a student learning a new language for many is often times overwhelming especially when one has a family with children to enroll in school.  Picture only one of many parts of the learning curve when going through the school registration to be told in French (of which you understand not one word)  that your children must receive a certain vaccination not normally given in the USA...that to do this you have to go to the pharmacy to buy the vaccine and then you have to go to the doctor's office in order to be injected with it.  Being your first days in the country, you naturally have no idea where the pharmacy is located or the doctor...much less what the school official just told you in the first place. 

Learning....so very complex...so very humiliating...so very mind boggling...an intricate dance of the known, ordinary, common acts of life done in  extraordinarily different ways...mental gymnastics.  Opening one's mind and heart to receive new ideas, new words, new procedures....very different... not wrong, but so very different that one feels  inadequate, incapable,  insufficient for the simplest tasks and events...always in a state of surprise and anticipation of the unexpected, the unknown, the next mistake to be made.

Life for a language learner can be a most tenuous tightrope act...enjoying the thrill and at the same time being slightly off balance...wondering if/when the fall will happen yet such an important part of ministry prep.

PRAISE:  After receiving a new contact lens two weeks ago Glenn has been able to see relatively well through both eyes, this is a real gift after three eye surgeries and three laser procedures since his first retina detachment last Christmas.  Hopefully he will have only one more elective surgery to implant a lens.

PRAYER:  East Africa WorldVenture leaders meet here in Nairobi Thursday through Saturday, October 2-4, for sharing, prayer, learning, and preparing for future strategic planning.

Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update #136 of Saturday, September 6, 2008, French Gulch above Breckenridge, Colorado

 

We are so fortunate! 

 

We walked up the rutted tracks still visible from the old toll road up French Gulch to French Pass on the Continental Divide above Breckenridge, CO.  In the Civil War era wagons laden with goods pulled by oxen came over French Pass Toll Road bringing supplies from Denver and points east to the miners in Breckenridge and returned with gold, and silver and other minerals.

 

When the railroad was completed in the 1880s two passes south on the divide this “road” fell into disuse.  Now a few hikers and mountain bikers make their way over the trail.

 

Over 11,000 feet and above the tree line the scenery is spectacular.  With the prevailing winds pushing us up and over the gradual pass between two mountains.  Once at the top and over we held on to our hats and possessions in the gale not wanting to chase them down into the next valley.

 

We go over the divide far enough to get out of some of the fiercest wind and stop at a large snow patch remaining from last winter’s abundance.

 

Using our bodies to shelter our small fire from the wind it took a long time to heat tea.  But in the magnificence we didn’t mind.  We rejoiced that we are so fortunate to have healthy bodies and seeing eyes to take in God’s creation.

 

Glenn just completed WorldVenture’s Fall Leadership Retreat and we are up a bit early before our International Ministry Director colleagues gather for a few days at a neighbor’s mountain home to share, pray, plan and enjoy.

 

The best part of last week’s retreat was that Glenn gave a report on our goals and work in Africa and then had small groups give input as to what we should focus on in the next three to five years.  It was very helpful.  

 

But we are not going to tell you what they said because we would value your independent thought as well.  You read our updates.  Follow our travels.  Hear what is happening.  Some even pray and give generously to make our travels possible.

 

What are your thoughts about what our goals should be for our work in Africa for the next three to five years?  Email us and let us know.

   

 

Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update #135 of Thursday, August 28, 2008, Littleton, Colorado We are completing an absolutely amazing, wonderful summer. -         The highlight again this summer was time with our colleagues from Africa, coming through Colorado for debriefing and time in our ministry center.  We have had dinners on our deck, walks up Waterton Canyon, and lots of time to interact.-         We currently supervise 153 people who partner with literally thousands of African pastors and professionals working in:o       Dozens of Medical Facilitieso       Hundreds of Schools ando       Thousands of Churches.-         We had a great vacation canoeing, camping and on our tandem in Grand Teton National park.o       We had great exercise, rest and readingo       But God also met with us as we§         Read the book of Job

§         Listened to Timothy Keller Messages on Job

§         Read, thought and prayed so we have a deeper understanding of suffering difficulty§        

-         We enjoyed the exercise and sense of accomplishment by changing 11 of our old windows with better insulated windows.

-         Last Friday some of our neighbors and friends helped us celebrateo       10 years of owning our Littleton home with great neighbors and friendso       10 years as grandparentso       10 years in cancer remission for Glenno       Kathy made great food§         Elk in a French sauce with mushrooms§         Pulled pork in a bar-b-que sauce§         Salads, fruit and ice cream sundaeso       We also had a big bouncer for the kids and five musicians who entertained us.o       One of our pastors read verses of thanksgiving and prayed a prayer of thanks to God for His goodness to us all.

o       Our theme was “So my dear friends, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father..who does not change.” James 1:16-17

 With hearts full and rejoicing we are looking forward to the fall of travel and ministry.  Our schedule is:Sept 2-5 – Glenn - WorldVenture Fall Leadership Retreat – Littleton, CO            - Kathy – visiting her folks in Northbrook, IL.Sept 6-10 - IMD Retreat – French Gulch above Breckenridge, COSept 11-23 In the officeSept 24 TravelSept 25-26 - Paris, FranceSept 27-Oct 6 - Nairobi, Kenya (NEGST) Oct 1-5 East and Southern Africa Leaders' MeetingOct 7-21 Uganda (Field Meetings)Oct 22-24 DR CongoOct 25-31 Rwanda (Field Conference)Nov 2-8 Senegal (Field Conference)Nov 11-16 GhanaNov 19-Dec 1 Cote d'Ivoire (Field Conference)Dec  2-12 MaliDec 9-12 West Africa Field Leaders Meeting (WAFL)Dec 12-23 Guinea (Vacation and office work)Dec 24-Jan 6 Travel, Holidays, Time offJan 7, 2009 Back in office Glenn had two more procedures done on his torn and detached retinas this summer, one laser and one inside the eye, but as early as Friday, August 29^th, he may get a contact lens that will allow him to see 20/30.  If all goes well he will have a lens implant in January when we are back in the States. Praise God for:-         a great summer-          the healing of Glenn’s eye-          a good God-          great neighbors and friends-          huge work in Africa. Please join us in prayer for our fall travel and work. 

 

Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update #134 of Saturday, May 10, 2008, Dakar, Senegal and Littleton, Colorado

Incredible, absolutely unbelievably good, amazing is the life and work God has allowed us to do.  We are so fortunate, so blessed, what a Saturday....

It really began Friday night,

• - traditional Friday night pizza dinner in the Penney home in Dakar, Senegal
• - enjoying the chatter of boys and their rushing off for their 30 minutes of screen time (videos)
• - sitting around the table with our daughter and son-in-law talking
• - watching our littlest grandson play in the sand yard in the waning light before dark and bath time
• - Singing "motion" songs and reading from the Bible
• - Good night and good bye hugs and kisses
• - Grandpa's last bedtime story; "his worst meal ever," a story that had gone on for weeks as to why he was in Uganda having to eat rotten fish sauce on rice, gagging with every bit and keeping it all down.
• - Awakening to hear the chanting of a spirit worshiping person sect

And continued on Saturday

• - An alarm clock going off at midnight
• - A taxi ride to the airport
• - Bulk head seats and more sleep and later email and reading across the Atlantic
• - Getting our bags in Denver just in time to be the last people on one of two express buses each day to our neighborhood
• - Getting off the bus in snow, yes, snow in May in Denver, 3/8ths inch balls of snow that burst into fascinating pieces as it hit our heads and suitcases (We had left in a beautiful snow the month before too)
• - Good neighbors seeing us pulling our suitcases up the hill who gave us a ride
• - Cutting the grass
• - Picking and eating sweet, tender asparagus and rhubarb from the garden
• - The sun coming out and going for an incredibly beautiful walk: sun, blue sky, white clouds, green grass, blooming trees, sparkling water
• - Our house in an incredible place in beautiful America
• - Talking with some of our great neighbors
• - So quiet inside our house, amazingly quiet
• - Sorting through the month of mail
• - Going to bed early, late in Senegal - 6 time zones away
• - Marveling at God's goodness to us, what He lets us see, do and experience
• - Thanking God for an amazing trip.

We saw God at work:

• - We see changes in missionaries and nationals both. Faces are significantly lighter, brighter, hearts are less heavy.
• - An employer says she can keep an employee now because of attitude change
• - Forgiveness is given removing bitterness and fear, lightening the heart, brightening the face...amazing and we got to see it
• - We only had read about people finding truth in the Koran. But we met and talked with one such man.
• - He read in the Koran that:
• o Jesus is the Messiah
• o Jesus is the Word of God
• o Jesus is the Spirit of God
• o Jesus forgave sins
• o Jesus performed miracles
• o Jesus came with a sword of peace, all in the Koran
• - And then he read the Bible and found peace with God, amazing the change

And so we complete a month of travel and a travel year.  We send you the last Silly Saturday.  Other Saturdays will be silly but we won't write about them.

What's ahead?  Again, many amazing opportunities in the next two weeks of which God allows us to be part:

• - Lunch with a couple hoping to go to Senegal to manage the evangelistic camp on the Atlantic Ocean
• - Planning a group trip (February and March 2009) into West Africa where people have not heard of Jesus but many want to follow the "Jesus Road" (Would you like to come along?)
• - Seeing Glenn's eye doctor (Glenn's assumption is that all is fine)
• - Working out a partnership agreement that hopefully will improve medical training in Africa by Christians
• - Working out another partnership agreement that will improve the medical and spiritual training of doctors in Mozambique
• - Writing and reviewing more ministry opportunities for the many possibilities in Africa (http://www.worldventure.com/, click on "Serve," click on "Opportunities", check the Africa box and click "get my opportunities" at the bottom)
• - Working out how to increase personnel in countries that don't welcome traditional missionaries
• - Working towards placing a couple of Rwandese with a Rwandese who pastors near a major university in North Africa (We have the place, a possible person; even a start toward the finances but will it all work?)
• - Ordering replacement windows for Glenn's hobby of fixing up our house each summer
• - Enjoying what has happened in our neighbors' lives while we have been away.

Thank you!  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for traveling with us this past year:  reading, thinking about, even praying for and making all the travel possible.  We are so fortunate, so blessed.

Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update # 133 of May 3, 2008, Dakar, Senegal

"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." The Gospel of Matthew 18:3

A windy afternoon typical for Dan and Esther's home (our daughter and son-in-law) located on one of the high points on the sand dune that forms the peninsula in the Atlantic on which Dakar is located found five little boys (a friend of the boys was visiting) in the front yard, a narrow space between the outside wall and house.  They had two bottles of soapy water and two wands and were making bubbles.  The delightful part of the windy afternoon was dipping the wands into the soapy mixture, holding up the wand, and letting the wind blow through the liquid to send bubbles floating all over...bubbles to combat like warriors, bubbles to chase like phantoms, bubbles with which to dance, bubbles to balance on one's nose before the wind caught them, bubbles to make one laugh and giggle...bubbles.  Five little boys absorbed in the wonder of bubbles and the delight of life and the delight of friendship and brotherhood.

Absolutely fun, happy, silly....so simple, so delightful, so silly...so marvelous, so fantastic, so silly....a childlike view of life, a childlike view of God...filled with wonder and awe and acceptance and trust and delight.

Luke, Zack, Caleb and Joel

 

Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update #132 of April 26, 2008, Goree Island, Senegal

SWEET…ten year old grandson, Luke, snuggling with his twenty month old brother, Zack, reading to him early in the morning.

SECURE…Zack playing ‘cozy’ with ten year old Joel as they lie sandwiched between stacks of couch cushions.

STUPENDOUS…a thirty minute ferry ride between Goree Island and Dakar with the whole upper deck to ourselves except for the three member crew.  What fun for little boys to run from side to side, to hang over the railings to watch the flow of the Atlantic Ocean, for big men to take pictures from all angles, and for all of us to enjoy the stupendous view of the ocean, sky, city, container ships in the port with the wind blowing through our hair.

SILLY…the old definition of silly from the ‘New Shorter Oxford’ dictionary; ‘deserving of pity, compassion….especially of a woman, child--- helpless, defenseless”.  Goree Island was the location to which many African slaves were taken and housed (euphemistic)  until they were loaded onto the ships to take them east across the ocean, many to Brazil, the Caribian, Arab countries, some to the US. 

One cannot begin to imagine the capture from home and family, the journey to the island, the suffocating storing of people in cramped hot quarters, the waiting, the exit through the small door leading to the ships which would take them to a land and life of……

People deserving pity, compassion, helpless, defenseless….not sweet, not secure, not stupendous…simply silly.

Praise for another good week of discussions.  We focused on education last week, training leaders for the church and training children for their future.  We also discussed future plans for an individual, future ministry and plans for US churches to start churches in villages in Senegal.

Pray for our interaction this week, more on education and more on church partnerships.

We are on recent radio broadcasts.  Go to www.worldventure.com.  On the home page in the lower right hand corner click on learn more just below Frontline.  Then go to recent shows:
March 5, titled International Ministry in Africa, Hans Finzel interviews Glenn.
March 12, titled Glenn and Kathy Kendall, Hans interviews both of us.
Programs can be either listened to on line or downloaded to an I-pod.

 Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update #131 of April 19, 2008, Ngaparou, Senegal

Isn't life delightful when one can combine work and play?    This Saturday that happened for us in several ways.

The first way is that for several weeks we get to stay with our daughter, Esther, and her family, a most delightful treat, while we visit our missionaries in Senegal.

This Friday, our son-in-law, Dan, had work to do at the beach camp which the mission owns.  So all of us packed up Friday morning.  After the boys finished their tests at school we headed to the beach camp an hour and half away when traffic is moving orderly....cars, buses, horse carts, motorcycles, foot traffic, goats and taxis.

Saturday morning found Grandpa waiting on the beach for everyone to finish applying sunscreen.  There were some 50 plus middle school students at the camp for a weekend retreat cavorting on the beach.    There were also 258 white birds skimming the tops of the waves of the Atlantic Ocean migrating north.   

A walk on the beach turned into a walk along the road just up from the beach as a new and different place to explore especially as the tide was high making walking on the beach problematic for short legs.  The road was drifts of sand between high walls painted in shades of oranges, greens, blues, whites, pinks to match the houses hidden behind them.  Bougainvillea tumbled over the walls in a profusion of colors.  Large baobabs caste their strange shadows across the road.  A herd of cows ambled past, two tiny kittens lazed in the sun on top of a wall, and we strolled the road enjoying sights, sounds, and quiet away from the roar of the ocean.

Later in the afternoon, the middle Schoolers finished a water balloon fight with sand fights down on the beach.  Sitting by quiet tide pools as the tide ebbed; our grandsons played with nudibranches, baby sea urchins, built sand castles, and peacefully enjoyed the calm of a beach at ebb tide.

A group of youths walked past.  Watching the eyes of our grandsons who were facing inland, we became aware that all was not peaceful behind us.  The dozen youths had a young boy in hand, rolling him in the sand, tossing him into the ocean, rolling him again in the sand.   

After intervening on the boy's behalf we were again reminded how vastly different life can be within the same milieu....peaceful little boys playing in tide pools versus youths in turmoil, a quiet sandy lane versus a sandy beach beside the roaring ocean, migrating birds intent on a remote destination versus middle Schoolers occupied with the present time and location.

All is life...not so silly...all to be lived.

Praise God with us for significant discussions already that could eventually result in:
-    A church being planted.
-    A language learned with more joy.
-    A more informed life decision and
-    Leadership events being processed.

We are in Senegal for three more weeks.  Pray for more good interaction.

We are on recent radio broadcasts.  Go to www.worldventure.com.  On the home page in the lower right hand corner click on learn more just below Frontline.  Then go to recent shows:
March 5, titled International Ministry in Africa, Hans Finzel interviews Glenn.
March 12, titled Glenn and Kathy Kendall, Hans interviews both of us.
Programs can be either listened to on line or downloaded to an I-pod.

Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update #130 of April 12, 2008, Dakar, Senegal

It's silly how tired one can get and how long one can sleep. 

Glenn slept over 12 hours Friday night and Saturday morning.  It is probably good for healing for his eye.  But more likely it is because Thursday morning we got up at 3 AM to catch our bus to the airport and flight to Africa.  We left Denver at 8:45 AM, an hour late, in a snow storm and landed in Dakar, Senegal, the next morning at 4:30 AM, to a balmy breeze blowing off the Atlantic.

Oh yes we did sleep some on the planes but obviously not enough. 

We are staying with Dan and Esther, our daughter, and their four boys as we meet with WorldVenture Senegal missionaries.  And good thing we didn't plan on meeting with anyone on Saturday because that really would have been silly with all the sleep.

One of the last things Dan and Esther do with their boys before they go to bed each night is to read to them from the Bible.  Saturday night's reading was from Nehemiah 10, where the people after rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem promise:

• - To obey God
• - To only marry spouses who believe in God (aren't foreign)
• - To honor the Lord on His day of worship
• - To take care of God's place of worship, the temple and
• - To give God the first of their new children, cattle and crops.
• - .....

Most nights after "Bible Time" and good nights, Grandpa Glenn tells a story.  Saturday's story was from 70 years ago, family history. 

Glenn's mom and dad, before they were married broke up for a couple of years until Glenn's dad became a person who was trusting in Jesus Christ for his salvation.

Glenn pointed out how different our lives, and theirs might have been if Glenn's mom hadn't followed that teaching, similar to Nehemiah.  We might not have married.  We might not have lived in Africa, (which they love) and they might not have even been born.

We Praise God for Parents who followed God's teaching and taught us.

We Pray that we will be good parents and grandparents and teach our children and grandchildren well.

We Praise God that Glenn only needed laser surgery in his eye last Monday and was cleared to travel on Wednesday.  We also praise God because the surgery spot in Glenn's eye has continued to improve since arriving in Africa.  Pray that Glenn will have no more retina tears. 

Pray for the next four weeks of almost daily meeting with missionaries and hearing their stories.  We are already hearing good news from the missionary retreat the previous weekend where a number of missionaries took steps in their transformation process and in turn will be better able to share God's grace in Senegal.

Glenn and Kathy Kendall Update #129 of April 5, 2008, Littleton, Colorado

Earlier this week it seemed silly, like a waste of time and money, to be flying back to the States for nine days just so that Glenn could see his eye doctor.  And why should Kathy come along too?  She has lots of family and friends and places she could stay in Africa.

We arrived home Tuesday night with Glenn seeing problems in his eye, light flashes and shadows.  We moved Glenn’s appointment up to first thing Wednesday morning and learned that his eye problems are continuing.  He has a new detachment.  Hopefully the oil put in his eye will push the fluid out of the detachment as he spends hours each day  lying and sleeping at night on his right side.  Monday we may know if it worked and can then be repaired by laser surgery or if he will have another in the eye surgery.

As the doctor said each year he has a couple of patients that get to know him a bit better than they would like.  This year it is us.

So then this Saturday morning it could seem silly that we even went to Africa for just two and a half weeks even with the doctor’s blessing.  The locations, a resort on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa and another in a marine reserve on Kenya’s Indian Ocean, were wonderful: great food, beaches, swimming (with goggles for Glenn), great people, presentations and lots of really good side conversations.

But still, was it worth it?  And we receive a general email update from one of the lovely couples with whom we talked.  They describe their first days back in their adopted country and doing some of the things we had talked about as their next steps in their unfolding plan…and they worked.  They are making progress.

For them and many others we continue to thank God for the influence and impact God allows us to have in the lives and ministry of many in Africa.  And Glenn is using the phone now more than the computer, easier on his right side.  Not so silly.

Praise God for two great retreats, significant conversations, good Bible teaching all in the ongoing saga of our and our colleagues’ personal and spiritual growth.

Praise for good medical care.  

Praise for God’s timing in allowing us to be in Africa yet to be back to see the doctor.  We regularly ask God to allow us to make good travel decisions, to be in the right place at the right time.  God has again answered that prayer.

Pray for wisdom on Monday.  We will determine then what procedures are needed for Glenn’s eye and based on that decision whether we go, delay, or cancel our trip to Senegal scheduled for a month beginning Thursday, April 10.