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After a 6 hr jeep ride from the mara to Nairobi, a 2 hr ride from Kenya to Ethiopia, and a 17 1/2 hr planeride from Addis Ababa to Rome to Washington DC, we are finally on homeland soil! Starbucks and Fuddruckers in our bellies, we are catching up on emails and news… And after a 5 hr layover we will be back at home in Charlotte at 3:00pm. Thank you Frances for providing the airport shuttle service!!! And thank you Lisa for the dinner tonight!!! What a wonderful homecoming!!! We can’t wait to upload our pictures to the website tonight ( or tomorrow if we’re laggin’ )!
The safari was unbelievable… An incredible display of God’s creation!!! I was speechless… Jaw on my lap so many times…
The camp we stayed at was absolutely beautiful… Brand new and first class … A true blessing to our team… Thank you Amanimara for your hospitality and special attention!
Calvary, we can’t wait to see you at the post-trip party, and Carmel, hope your flights are going well … We look forward to seeing you back in Charlotte!!!
Thank you to both teams’ leaders… You are inspirations, mentors, and dear dear friends! Love and hugs to both teams… You are like family to us now… I am so glad God wove us together this past month to create an amazing tapestry of service, fun, and lots of wonderful memories!!!
We look forward to sharing over time the things God is doing to grow the seeds He planted over the past 4 weeks in each of us… ” this is only the beginning…”!
Sawa sawa,
Ann and crew

We had a great night with the medical director of Tenwek Hospital, Dr. Mike Chupp and his wife Pam last night.  He is an orthopedic MD who trained at U of Michigan…and the answer to prayer he brought with him was that a specialist in pediatric prostheses will be at Tenwek just for 4 wks…and those 4 wks begin August 1st!!! One of the littlest angel whom God brought to cross paths with us had lost her leg in a fire and is in need of a limb.  Riverside church will once again pour out their tattered pockets into the collection basket to share in the cost of helping this girl.  Her mother, the teenaged girl supporting her daughter with prostitution , will give what she can afford…and our team will pay the rest!  Within a week this awesome little one will be off and running! Praise God!  The 9 mo old with hydrocephalus, Ian, was seen by the surgeons on Tuesday and was deemed a candidate for a shunt.  The team and church, in partnership with his mother, Betsy, will make sure he gets his surgery asap!  The 6 yr old with hydrocephalus was seen yesterday in surgery and we can’t wait to hear if he is a candidate…if so, we have the funds to get him treated as well…yea God!!!

We went to a faraway school today for soccer and devotion…and duck duck goose!  Had a blessed amazing time…child evangelism svcs will follow up after us…small group bible study awaits this public schl…yea Tenwek Community Health…mind, body, and SPIRIT!

We are off in the morning…4 wheel drive landrover to the massai mara…a 4 hr drive to the safaricamp.  will go on a game drive tomorrow this time!  We can’t WAIT!!!!!

Be in touch soon I hope!

Love,

Ann

Hard to believe that we’re on our last two days of ministry and then it’s off to safari!
Last night we had a great visit from our dear friend Matilda…one of the smartest Internal medicine doctors Mike and I have ever met. She trained in Nairobi and was part of the Tenwek medical team who came to join the Calvary team on Mfangano. She had invited us to dinner the other night but that was when Ryan was sick. So we spent about an hour together before she had to go to her bible study. We talked at length about the demon she cast out of a patient they had seen at one of the Mfangano med clinics we held, what her dreams and aspirations are, and how they could be effected by the upcoming Kenyan elections in 2012. She spoke of the fixed results of the prior election, the “media blackout” that “just happened to occur” as the votes were being tallied, and the riots and murders that subsequently occurred. The anger at certain tribes was so deep and violent that anyone even suspected to be from that heritage was killed. Her family home was broken into, burglarized and burned in arson …even tho she had nothing to do with any of the targeted tribes. Her mother and sister had just escaped in time.
Tonight’s guests at the greenhouse for dinner were Jonathan Bii and his family …he is the director of Community Health, his wife Joyce is a teacher at Tenwek public Primary School…she teaches Kiswahili and bible study. She told us her class had made it thru all of the regional poetry competitions and 40 of them were driving at 2:00 am this morning to the national competition. If they win they go immediately to perform in front of the president!
They have 4 children, one of which, Allan, is 12 , 3 rd in his class , and wants to be a neurosurgeon. He and Ryan became fast friends.
This morning we returned back to Umoja Orphanage. We were supposed to go deep into the mountains to a remote orphanage named Bosto, but the torrential rains last night made the roads impassable. We had more work to do on the projects we had started at Umoja anyway, so it worked out fine. The women and kids did another VBS story (Jesus calms the Storm), and made tag-tie blankets and salvation bracelets with/ for each of the 44 children. The men continued the digging / cement and gravel mixing / and pouring of the foundations for a food storage pantry and kitchen , and sanding of the boards for the dining room benches and tables. And of course there was lots and lots of soccer!!!
The Pastor training Conference wrapped up…and unfortunately the big Umoja vs Bukatcha soccer tournament got cancelled. Rains today even ended our teams’ 3 hour hike up a nearby mountain for a 360* view of this part of Kenya :0(.
Tomorrow we are doing soccer clinics and devotion at a primary/secondary school, then visiting a medical dispensary that Carmel helped to fund. It is staffed by RNs and serves mainly as a type of urgent care … For minor injuries and illnesses …and routine/preventative medical care, immunizations, HIV info and testing, prenatal care, and training on hygiene and clean water practices. Since there is no river close to this vlg, water of any kind , unless rainwater was collected recently, is very scarce. The hike to any nearby town is many miles. Carmel helped to fund safe water tanks, and a storage bldg so that more medicines and a small laboratory could be housed. The elders and local leaders and pastors wished us to come for a dedication. After that event, the mission that had been set out for us will have been completed…and it will be time to pack and be ready to leave by van after breakfast on Sat. for the Masaii Mara….
The name of the place we will stay at is called Amanimara. Our first ride out into the game park will be that evening. The great migration of the wildebeest is underway, so predators of every kind should be out and feeding.
We have not been able to download pictures onto our website here…but will be able to do it easily as soon as we get home. Until then, you can see some pictures from the past week on The Buttles’ website. The site is : GoWithUsBlog.com
And the password is : beourguest

Still stormy out there…it is the rainy season after all!

Have a great day!,
Ann