A weekend with the Kenyans

I could write forever right now...
I'll try to be brief.
RD met (through a series of different events) a great guy named Julius, a 32 yr old from Kenya--speaks really good English. He is an incredibly fast runner and RD manages a running shop. Needless to say, RD hired him two days after meeting him, which was only about a week ago. How fun!

Well, yesterday RD was planning to run the Akron marathon. He decided that he should bring Julius along, and one of his Kenyan friends, Richard (27 years old with a wife and baby back in Kenya). The three of them stayed with the Mitchells, who introduced Richard to his first exposure of M & M's.HeHe. :) (That's ok though cause El and I got to give him his first chip today!) RD ran a great race on a challenging course yesterday. Richard...well...he got to break the ribbon as he came in FIRST PLACE. Yeah...decided to register 15 hours before the race and stinkin ran it and won it in 2 hours 27 min...which is actually quite slow for him. Julius just went along for the ride - he has several other races in the next few weeks.

Julius ran his race this morning around Toledo, but Richard came to church with us. He said that back in Kenya at church they do worship, they give testimony, worship some more, give more testimony, worship some more. So coming to our church was exciting for him and he asked if he could share some testimony. Of course we let him! His English is a bit more challenging to understand as he's only been in the states for 12 days. But he shared, in the most simple, humbling, honest, God-loving way, how God provided for him to get his VISA. How God gives him strength to run. How God is the Alpha and the Omega. It was great.

We invited Richard, Julius, and two of their Kenyan friends (21 and 23 yrs old who have been here for 2 years and attend the University of Toledo) to come over for dinner. Well that's a bit tricky when the UT students want good American food but Julius and Richard prefer much more bland/ "safer" food. So I made pasta and offered a variety of different kinds of sauces, had a few kinds of bread, lots of butter, a veggie salad, and ice cream for dessert. They were so grateful, and they absolutely LOVED our girls. They wanted to play with them...Julius played with El and her sticker book for a good 30 min.

Topic of conversations over our 2 1/2 hour meal together:

• How Kenyan women spend the first 3 months with their newborn babies...they don't cook, serve, clean, do ANYTHING other than be with that baby. NO men, not even the Daddy, can see that newborn child for 3 months. It's "tradition."
• How Kenyans are taught that white people will hate them..."they will shoot you if you step foot in a white man's yard." They found this to be totally untrue and actually said the white man is the only man who has welcomed them into their home.
  
• They were also told and figured that America would be much more violent than it is. They thought they would see people get shot and/or killed all the time.
• One guy, Barnabas (whose name means Son of Encouragement), has lived here two years. He said he may never date an American girl. He feels that American women should care most about taking care of their families and doesn't understand why women have kids and then don't want to take care of them.
• Kenyans value the family. They respect how other men and women raise their children. They look at other families and care how they are raised up to know the Lord. They don't care at all about material things or respect one another for what they have or own. That doesn't matter to them. (In fact, no one said a word about our house, dishes, rugs, couches, ANY of that crap...they cared about our HOME).
  
• I was taught how to make something called "Okale" (sp?) that they eat 1-2 times a week and they say this helps them run fast. El loved it and ate it as a bedtime snack tonight.
• We talked a LOT about running...it just seems like second nature to them. So neat how different and yet so similar their culture is!
  

When they left and said thank you, Richard almost cried. He seemed so grateful and it was such a special moment. What a great heart this man has!

Incredible night for me. Incredible weekend for RD-he is so refreshed as he sits here next to me, after having spent this weekend with such great new friends!