Posted in General Posts by Cherise Boyer on 3/6/2010
I had a really special moment the other day while at one of the churches we visited on this Island when my Dad and Kirk were here. I wrote about it in my journal...
"Smiles... there was this little girl at the last church we went to on the island we visited with Dad that just really reminded me of how God just hides himself in these little places just waiting for us to slow down enough to look and see him there.
This little girl was sitting near me and she would look over at me. I tried to get her to come sit with me but she was very shy so instead I would just smile at her. Sometimes I feel like its a part of my ministry to just really intentionally smile big, like really look at people and smile... and thats what I felt like I needed to do then. I would smile and then she would look at me and cover her face with her little hands and then peek at me with just one eye through her little fingers. We did this for a while as I sat on the floor surrounded by all these children with the church officials slowly standing and introducing themselves to the room. At the end of the introductions she came over and was hanging on me and smiling at me uncovered and just looking me square in the eyes. I was remembering how I wrote a letter to one of my friends before leaving the gateway about looking for Jesus in the kids smiles and no joke I was looking at this girl and there he was. It was so clear. Then I started looking around the room and the only thing I could see was that kids were everywhere and they were smiling, some at me and some just with their friends as they talked and played. The room was FULL of children and Dad was at the front talking about the kingdom of God and how it is filled with children and I was just thinking "ya... I can see it." I can see it in their smiles so very clearly."
I LOVE kids. I love them and me and Dad were talking at one point while he was here about how many kids there are here. You hear about how many kids there are in Africa and you think that you understand (you are probably thinking right now that you know but I honestly don't think you can know until you come here and see) and are ready to see them all but then you come and you wonder how there could possibly be so many. They are everywhere! There are literally kids EVERYWHERE! You walk down the road and they just come out to see you and wave and if you stay anywhere long enough they are going to be surrounding you! Its beautiful and overwhelming all at the same time. I struggle with feeling like there is just not enough time... how can you give them the attention they deserve. How can you even see all of them. The kids are beautiful and I hate that you leave a situation and the faces of the crowds start blending together in your mind. Dad was encouraging to me while he was here talking about how even Jesus in the midst of crowds would really pick out and SEE one person and minister specifically to them. He had compassion on the crowds. He loved everyone of the people there but he would hone in on one in the midst of the crowds. I find myself often praying that God would show me the one he wants me to really SEE in the midst of the overwhelming crowd. I guess thats all we can do really... is just strive to follow the example of Jesus, to model our lives after his even in the simplest of moments.
Posted in General Posts by Cherise Boyer on 2/27/2010
Ok so... I know I have been mentioning the "SAFARI CAR" in various blogs... I just wanted to take a moment to introduce you to the safari car experience...
There are usually way too many people inside it and often times people on top as well. The roads are bumpy and we have been known to hit our heads on the top. Paul just charges over the pot holes while shouting an expression I taught him in honor of my friend Bryan..."Slay It".
This is just the trunk.... there are two bench seats back there... and there are more people in the front seats. We use our space to the max!
haha they let me drive it home from in town... the Mbita roads are awesome... kinda made me miss driving around my Escape or the white ford truck during the summers at Shasta.
Posted in General Posts by Cherise Boyer on 2/27/2010
Yay! My dad has been coming to Africa the last couple of years with Seaside. The other day i met my dad and Kirk in Uganda and have been having an absolute blast with them. Its been fun to see a piece of the Africa that they have experienced... finally being able to put faces with stories that I have heard and making some new friends of my own. I have also been able to introduce them to some of the people that I so dearly love in Uganda and am looking forward to them driving us back to Kenya next week where I can introduce them to a piece of my Africa.
Here are some pictures of our time so far:
Drawing with the kids outside of the church in Mumutumba.
Some new friends.
I was letting the kids take pictures with my camera... its hard to explain 'aim and then shoot' with out a translator... but its fun and digital pictures delete easily when needed.
Moses and Kirk planning a big community lunch at the church.
Dad and Moses have been friends since his first visit here.
Moses and his youngest son.
Dad outside of Moses hut with his whole family.
BRINGING DAD TO MY AFRICA: New Hope Orphanage
Dad with some of the kids.
Kirk's new friend.
Reunited! Geofry and Myself and UmBarak.
Geofry: "Chelsea take a picture of me and your dad!!!!!"
Its hard to say Cherise... haha.
Say "UGANDA!"
I love these kids!
Brenda, Gorrett, Me, Dad, Eva... some of the girls I spent a lot of time with while in Uganda.
They were telling me about how they have been reading the copy of the Chronicles of Narnia that I left with them. They just finished Prince Caspian and LOVED it!
Posted in General Posts by Cherise Boyer on 2/22/2010
Mark 5:24-34
"And a gret crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said 'If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.' And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediatly turned about in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my garments?' And his disciples said to him, 'You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, Who touched me?' And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease."
She reached out and touched Jesus. She knew the power that he held- she knew it would be enough just to touch him- She had faith.
WE went to the hospital to spend time praying with those who were there sick. I was with Joyce and we had been going around for a while by the time we came to this woman. She started talking about the surgery she had in the beginning of January and about how the incision had not stopped bleeding since then. Right away God put this story on my heart and spoke to me about how it was the woman who reached out with expectancy that she would be healed. I shared with her about the Mark 5 woman and encouraged her to reach out and to touch Jesus. It was as though Jesus was speaking straight to my heart saying, "I don't want her to bleed anymore. I want her to reach out. I want her to touch me."
Usually when we go to visit the hospital they want us to pray for them and I was more than willing but I also just knew that SHE needed to reach out for him in complete faith. I asked her to pray and she did.
After I prayed for her and Joyce prayed too. And we left.
The next morning I was out back behind the pastors house washing my laundry with Tara. She was telling me about the previous day and hw she had experienced some pretty intense/exciting stuff and I was saying how I know that God is doing a lot more than we ever see. We both stopped talking after that and just kept washing away. My mind kept considering these words that I had spoken... I kept considering this idea of these miracles happening behind us as we go and wondering if my faith was strong enough to really believe what I had said. We were planning on going back to the hospital that afternoon and as I washed my laundry I felt like God just whispered straight into my heart, "Go back to her and see. She is well."
I knew she was... and I knew that out of all the people we had met with that she was the one I was suppose to go back and see. But to be honest there was a part of me that was afraid. What if I went back with full expectancy and faith and she was still bleeding? I thought it might be easier to just not know and believe that she is well. But no, this time that wasn't enough. God kept telling me to go back and see her, her faith has made her well.
I was with Paul that afternoon at the hospital and he told me to wait until the end to see if there was time to go and see her. We were about to approach the last man before leaving when Joyce and Jess were walking towards the door. I asked Jess if she would stay with Paul so I could go with Joyce- and they both agreed.
Joyce and I headed to the ward and walked straight to her. Her incision was uncovered and looked clean.
Ask her! Ask her! I almost wanted to shout. I had to hear it but I already knew.
She said that she had stopped bleeding that morning. Joyce and I just smiled. I could NOT stop smiling. Joyce asked me if I remembered how the Lord had told her that this woman would not be in the hospital by the end of the month and at that same time the woman told the translator that she was leaving in the morning. She was healed and was going home.
Her faith had made her well.
We prayed together with her, thanking God for his healing touch and for allowing us to see what he had done.
Posted in General Posts by Cherise Boyer on 2/20/2010
Yesterday I had a strange moment. We are staying in tents outside of the Pastors house in Homabay... and inside there is this strange and foreign thing.... called a mirror.
Me and my friend Alison stood in the bathroom and I can't explain it but I just didn't look the same. So much has changed. I'm not sure if it is anything that anyone else would actually be able to see if they just looked at me... but I think back to when i first left on this trip and everything has changed and it was as though i could physically see it written all over me in that small mirror. Some changes I like and some I don't really know what to do with, in some ways I feel as though I have grown and in someways I feel stuck.
I held this little girl in my arms yesterday... she was probably about 4. Her name was Neni and she was at one of the events we were having in the market yesterday with her sister, Sarah. She just wanted me to hold her and when I would look at her right in the eyes she would smile. She had the biggest brown eyes. She put her head on my shoulder and would doze off in the midst of all the noise and bustle of people. I held her tight and prayed that time would just slow down for us. When it came time to go I didn't want to put here down. I couldn't find Sarah and I didn't want to leave here in the middle of the crowd. Hezron came and ushered me into the back of the truck... but as we drove away I was just hit with it. Each child. Each Dani. Each Pastor. Each Momma. Each one I meet changes me. And we just keep meeting people. Each day.
I was given some good advice to keep track of names so that I wont forget. I read through it often just to keep the faces and moment fresh in my mind. I cant forget... I rush straight to my journal each time I return home and try to write anything down that I think will help me to remember the moments that I just shared with someone. But then sometimes I feel so overwhelmed that I dont even know how to start to write. Sometimes I hate journaling because I feel like it cheapens important things. I try to take pictures but even they leave something out. They dont tell of the sounds and the smells and the touch of the moment... you can't see all that is happening around before or after to put the importance of that moment in context. To an outsider its just another cute kid or pretty place. But its so much more than that.... its the moment that is redefining who I am.
How do you describe in words these moments that change everything. It was more than just holding Neni.
How will my heart hold together when it comes time to leave this place and these beautiful people.
Its not ever going to be the same. I will always be missing someone.
Posted in General Posts by Cherise Boyer on 2/19/2010
Last week we stayed outside of Momma Marys house in a sea of tents. Momma Mary lives in Ndori or as Paul calls it... the bush bush... (Im starting to think that Paul likes to call everything the 'bush bush' so I am not sure what that even really means...but I love it). From her yard you can see hills covered in mud huts with rusty tin roofs, trees of all sorts and little dirt paths connecting them all together. Momma recently started a church and our main purpose in being there was to go around and talk to people in the community and invite them to come.
On our first day, I gathered with two of my teammates and our translator Hezron to pray together before heading out... We made it about 50 yards outside the gate before we saw a hut that just seemed to call to us. We cut through the grass in time to see an older woman pulling a very old woman out of the hut by her armpits. Meet Magdalina and her daugher Rail. We were greeted by Rail as she worked to get her helpless looking mother situated on her little mat in the shade of the house. We sat down and began talking with her. Magdalina recently had a bad encounter with an angry cow that gouged her leg and broke her femur in two places. She had previously been completely independent and able to take care of all her needs at the age of ninety something (which is just crazy in a a nation where the life expectancy is somewhere in the late 50s). It was as though when her leg was crushed so was her spirit. Rail sat back from us seemingly relieved having people there to visit with her mother. We spoke to Magdalina for a while and prayed with her.
I knew there werer many more huts that we were suppose to be visiting but I just couldn't bring myself to leave and I could see that the rest of the team was feeling the same way. There was something about this woman, I just wanted to sit with her all day and I cant explain why. I started asking 'what can we do to help, what can we do' and Hezron just kinda laughed as he translated. Rail just humbly told us that they were fine. Everyone always seems to be 'fine' here in Africa but at the same time not. I pulled Rail aside and had a chance to share about last year when Grandma was in the hospital and how she really needed to depend on God to give her the strenght to care for her mom. I love how God is able to take all circumstances... literally all circumstances and use them for good. I never thought I would be able to use the testimony of when my Grandma was so sick and how she beat the odds and is alive as ever this very day to encourage an old woman and her daughter in the bush bush some where in Kenya.
Again... "is there ANYTHING we can do to help...?"
"Can i do laundry? I will go and fetch water? Anything?"
And a tired woman finally agrees.
The three of us spent the rest of the morning with Magdalina and Rail, We fetched a lot of water (and i learned how to carry it back on my head...) helped remud the walls of Magdalinas hut, did load after load of laundry and Kyle even cut down trees in her compound. Magdalina just grinned and kept telling Hezron how we really must love her if we are doing all these things for her.
Yes Magdalina the Father really does love you.
We went back to visit Magdalina every day that week. Praying with her, visiting, bringing snacks and helping Rail with any chores that she would allow.
Each day there seemed to be a lightness that slowly took over Magdalina. She would wave to us through the bushes as we walked up the path to Mommas house from her spot in front of her house. And Rail would dress up for us when we came to visit if she saw that we had a camera and she would pose in the middle of the yard. She was in her 60s but still a child with a heart longing to be called beautiful.
"Tell me a story Dani!" (Dani means grandma here...)
She would tells us about the tribal customs from her old village and about the process she went through of becoming married when she was young. Her father was a cheif and she has 5 children of her own (Rail being the yongest). She is a great grandmother.... I asked her if i was her favorite Grandchild and she said we all were.
I love Magdalina. I love her so much and miss her each day. I wish that you could meet her. I wish you could hear her stories and see her big toothless grin and short gray hair. I wish that everyone could meet her and sit on that mat just barely escaping from the African sun.
Posted in General Posts by Cherise Boyer on 2/17/2010
Our team recently went back to Jinja, Uganda to meet up with some of our AIM leaders for debrief. Jimmy, Kelly and Becks came to spend time with our team, encouraging us and helping us to process all the things we have been experiencing here in Africa. We stayed at this place called Adrift which is right on this cliff overlooking the Nile. Drink a soda on a patio overlooking the river with the pinks and purpes of the sunset pouring down through the clouds... ya lets talk about whats been going on in Africa.
To be honest it was a little bit of culture shock showing up in such a beautiful place (filled with touring white kids...) I couldn't help but wonder what its going to be like to go back to our image/ material based world. Even things like modesty or lack thereof seemed almost overwhelming when thrown back into a place with a completely different set of rules.
In Jinja there was a- get this- coffee shop with internet and coffee that wasnt instant. We spent a lot of time talking in that shop with our leaders and a lot of time roaming/ exploring the town.
The second day was AWESOME- we went river rafting on the Nile. It was a beautiful combination of rapids (ranging from class 3-5) and paddling down the calm of the river. We passed by a countless number of people on shore doing their laundry, swimming and bathing- just living life. There were more vibrant greens in the winding and reaching trees and in the vines as they hung down contrasting against the gray stormy sky. We stopped for lunch on an island covered in trees with a simple little stair case leading up to an opening with tables and benches. There were birds and islands and waterfalls and ripped African men in kayaks who swore they would keep us from drowning. I know the guides take trips down the river each and every day but i couldn't help but feel a little bit like an explorer paddling toward the unknown and taking in the beauty of the land as it was the very first time. I love that there are places in Africa that seem so untouched- so raw. I loved those moments of simply paddling surrounded completely in natural nature (and imagining a little baby floating down this scene in a basket...) And I also loved the moments of pure adrenatline as we headed over waterfalls and were surrounded by crashing water and rocks and cries of "GET DOWN AND HOLD ON!".
The rest of debrief was a really neat time of speaking courage into one another and eating some well missed 'non-African' and lots of card games (even a new one- thanks Jimmy... I dont remember for sure but I probably won all of the them!)
On our way back to Kenya we stopped in Busia to spend a little time revisiting old friends and our old stomping grounds. It was a very fun vacation of sorts but it also was really great to meet back up with Paul, Jared and Hezron... it just seemed like something was missing not being with them. WE met them straigh at outreach (we still havent been back to our home base...) Im planning on writing of some of our adventures in the 'bush bush' soon!
Posted in General Posts by Cherise Boyer on 2/6/2010
"Look closely, I am here..." is what God has been whispering into my heart since the first day that I was dropped off in front of John Wayne Airport, ready to head off on this great adventure.
"I am here... look at the details all around you."
God has really been revealing himself to me in the small things here in Africa. I can't help but stop sometimes as we are walking down the road to look at the mountains and the light as it reflects off the waters of Lake Victoria. When we were driving to this widow's house yesterday I sat on top of the roof of the Paul's car and had one of those moments when the weight of where you are kinda hits you all over again. Living in Africa has become the normal to an extent... I am used to being here and life and luxuries typical to America seem like just a memory (some of them a dearly missed memory...but a memory none the less). As we drove I just tried to soak it all in. We were driving up into these green lush hills and it was so beautiful, more beautiful than there are words to describe, and it just hit me again... I am in Africa. Here I am, driving down bumpy roads in this car fit for a safari and passing grass and mud huts and people carrying fire wood and baskets filled with tomatoes or buckets filled with water on their heads as cows and chickens and goats run all over the road, and its just normal life. It seems like I am a world away but then again I hear all these things from home and know that days go on there like I have always known them to do. It's a strange thing to stop and try to take in... its so big and different that it almost doesn't seem real at all, like maybe I have jumped into a movie instead of something real.
When I stop and look close, it all makes sense to me. I see all these details and I see faces and in doing so I see Gods hand on this place. He is hiding there in that smile and waiting for me to see him as he paints the sky with oranges and pinks and purples as the sun sinks into the water each night, he is showing me his power there in the shapes that he carved out of the mountains and revealing his heart as each dragon fly dances by me as I walk up the worn rocky path. He is here. He is in the details: hiding there in the fold of a leaf, in the vibrant greens, in the light that shines through it displaying each line and bringing new exposure to the intricacies of what he has made. God looks at each detail of his creation and says that it is good, he delights in it, and reveals himself through it. God I see you there. You are covering this place. You designed each detail that I see and it is so beautiful.
Posted in General Posts by Cherise Boyer on 2/6/2010
February 2nd, 2010
Today was quite a cool day. We spent the morning gathering stones from the shallows of Lake Victoria that they will use here to build more cabins. It was so much fun working alongside the SEEK staff and just being able to really help them out. You are not really suppose to be swimming in the lake because there is high chances of getting parasites... but you know we just do what we are asked. Swim in the parasite lake... sure. I was working with a man named JP (from Arizona) and he was telling us all about the times he has had parasites and where is the best place to get tested. But let me tell you the lake was so beautiful and calm and the sun was shining and it just didn't really seem to matter all that much...
After lunch, Alison and myself called our friend Samuel, he attends the same church as me and is a local motorcycle taxi man, to come and pick us up to take us into town. We ride with Sam all the time... he is one of the men that Paul has told us is a safe driver and we all really trust him... today however was quite the ride. He ran out of gas so we stopped so he could lean over his bike to get the last bits of fuel in the tank or whatever... then he turned it on and told us to get on fast because we had to hurry into town. We jammed and I mean jammed. Me and Alison just kept laughing as we drove down the sketch road that hasn't ever been repaired since it was first made apparently during the colonial times... we didn't know what else to do but just laugh and pray that we would make it safely into town. Adventure. (I am sure my mom and dad are going to love to hear about me being on the motorcycle on the sketch road speeding...but hey that is how we get around.)
Then, after we finished our errands in town, Paul came in his ‘Safari' car that was already packed full of people to pick us up. They were quite a bit late, per usual with African time, and we were in the middle of bargaining at this little market stand for some awesome T shirts that we had found (with the thrift store final sale tags still on)... so we paid for the shirts and started running down the road to get to the Safari car. We climbed up on the roof and headed off to go to this widows house. We were on the main road for a while and then we went off toward a little village ‘off the beaten path'... literally. We were bouncing as we charged through ditches that resembled the Grand Canyon and tried to duck as tree branches were coming straight at us. We made it with just a little bit of tree debris attached to ourselves and all in one piece.
We were invited into this lady, Caroline's, small two room house, where she was already entertaining some neighbors. We all pilled in, I offered to hold this little baby right away, named Derek, and we listened as Paul told us this woman's story. Her testimony of prayer and Gods provision was absolutely incredible. We stayed for a while visiting and worshiping and praying together for her sick son, David. As we climbed back on top of the Safari car and began dodging tree branches and holding on for dear life I could not stop thinking about the way people pray here, especially the mothers. They have to depend on prayer and they pray with expectancy that God will hear them and move. Their children get sick and before they can do anything else they pray, and then they invite neighbors and who ever else they can to come and pray too. They pray for provision, from housing to food to transportation, because they know they cannot do it on their own. They pray for safety because they are living in constant uncertainty. They pray for opportunity because none lay ahead of them. Being here I have heard story after story of people praying desperate honest prayers and also story after story of God hearing them and answering... from every detail down to the local weather and school fees.
I think sometimes I try to solve things first before praying. I take myself to the doctor and then pray about it later. I apply to schools and then ask God to lead me. I thank God for providing food as it is already sitting in front of me. But I am seeing that I am going about it all backwards... People invite us to their homes to pray for their sick and instead God uses them to teach me how he really wants me to pray.
Posted in General Posts by Cherise Boyer on 2/1/2010
Yesterday a few from our team were asked to come and sing at this open-air market crusade. When we first got there I was looking around and found a nice place to sit and watch and just see what the whole thing was about. I saw these kids down by the water and kids playing in the grass and decided I would rather go join them than sit and listen to the preacher preach in a language I don't understand... there were three little girls that caught my eye in particular so I sat down to join them. Three beautiful girls about the age of three or maybe four... one was playing with a razor blade, one with a small dead bird and the other with an old electrical wire. Ahh it just was not ok in my heart. I got rid of the bird right away and just sat down to play with them... using the wire in any way I could think and trying to distract the other girl from cutting up her shoe with the razor. All that kept running through my head was that these girls are worth so much more than being huddled around playing with such things. There are all these little open stands around and I had remembered seeing nail polish so I grabbed my friend, KC, and went to find some. I came back to find that the girls had moved and I was afraid that they may have left all together but I found them down by the water and I went to join them... I pulled out the nail polish and instantly had a crowd of little girls and boys all around me- waving their little fingers and toes everywhere! I wanted them to know that they are beautiful and that they are seen and important. Sometimes it is really frustrating to not be able to speak to the kids (they don't learn English until they are in the older grades and even then they are shy to use it)... I want to be able to tell them so many things. I suppose I just have to trust that Jesus is able to speak without words of their worth and value through time spent and through nail polish.
As we were getting ready to drive away one of the girls that had followed me to the car stood there smiling and waving with her purple finger nails and I was comforted by the quote: "Preach the gospel always, when necessary use words." st. francis assisi.
