Tishona's first week...

While this will not be a complete journal of her first week, I will share some hightlights. In the first picture you see Tabitha, William's sister, showing Tishona how to make Yuck (or Yak in Swahili)...this is a concoction of garlic, ginger root, lemon, olive oil and honey. William is convinced it has healing properties - and we all agree, IF you can stand to drink it... hence the name with which Denise christened it...Tishona has her own name - she calls it 'blahhhh' and also has a sign language gesture that goes along with it...

Even though we look like we are having fun (and we did for at least some of the four hours of our first CML board meeting!) we really did cover quite alot of ground. I call this "Humble Beginnings" since we have our headquarters set up in Denise's bedroom (which doubles as our office)...you may remember a previous entry describing William's vision The Christian Mission to Learners. It is an exciting holistic approach to reaching out and ministering to students of all ages. Right now the opportunities are primarily at the High School (or Secondary School) level and we are excited about the doors the Lord is opening.

This morning William and Tishona left for his home area, Kitere, which is about 6 - 8 hours from Nairobi (depending on your mode of transportation)...we expect the journey to take them all of 8 hours since they will start on a shuttle to Kisii and then switch to a Matatu to complete the trip. Tishona is excited about the prospect of meeting William's family. I am quite confident they will love her - she is a lovely young woman with a great sense of humor and a heart for the Lord.

Tishona was tickled by the efforts to load several huge water barrels onto the shuttle and asked me to snap this picture.

Denise and I plan to drive up next week. We all will be quite busy while there. Our plans include ministering in several schools, working with a children's home nearby and hosting an HIV/AIDS forum designed to educate the community on the basic issues associated with AIDS. We will also continue to research and take steps towards opening a VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) center at a nearby community center.

Can you see William's face peeking through the window behind Tishona? It was quite muddy so I took the photo from inside the car...

We will miss Tishona and William while they are there and we are here and look forward to joining them in Kitere next week.