Our Halloween Costumes

We don’t “do” halloween really. I know it’s very controversial for some families but it’s not really controversial for us. Every year we’ve wondered what we should do and just sort of let the kids dress up if they wanted to. Most of the time they ended up coming up with their own costumes. I’d give ideas but they were never “good enough” so why bother. We never really invested much time at all in the hoopla of halloween.

Our view on halloween is that its a day. October 31st. It’s a day that God created and we can dress up if we want to (or not), have fun if we want to (or not) and eat candy if we want to (or not). Just like any other day.

I thought I’d share our Halloween costumes with everyone today, this Halloween. Since we went to so much effort, you know…

Creepy Glowing Tree Head Girl

Spoiled Expat Wife

Captain Inquisitive

And our halloween candy bowl looks nothing like what we used to have in the US nor does it have any candy in it like we used to have in the US. I seriously doubt we’ll have any trick or treaters coming by our security coded condo building. Sure would be funny, though, for kids to come up to our intercom system and call our unit number and say “trick or treat!!” through our little condo security phone camera. hahaha!! I’d totally buzz them in or maybe meet them downstairs.

Blackcurrant, Guava and Mango!

If you are grappling with how your family should approach halloween, here is a great blurb from a cyber friend from her family blog that does a really great job of saying just what I would say if I were as good of a writer as she is.

I know Halloween can be controversial.  We’ve always felt freedom in Christ to redeem this day.  We fill it up with friends, creativity, light, laughter, fun, food, and fellowship.  We pray those things are honoring to God and bless Him on this day that thankfully still belongs to Him.

I pray you have a sweet weekend celebrating (or not celebrating), but still rejoicing that Christ purchased freedom for each of us to live out our convictions, to go to the Bible, and with wisdom and discernment make God-honoring decisions for our families.  Ah.  Freedom.  It’s one of my favorite things about following Christ.

 

Interesting Singapore Randomness – Part 2

I wrote a post last year about some interesting facts regarding Singapore. Interesting Singapore Randomness. I mentioned in that post that the SGD bills are made from polymer and are waterproof. The money here is cool! And completely washable and good as new. I recently told a friend that I would be “saving my pennies” for something and thought, “we don’t have pennies here in Singapore”. Then I thought, “do the coins have names in Singapore like our coins do in the US?”

In the US, the one cent coin is called a penny.
The five cent coin is called a nickel.
The ten cent coin is a dime.
The 25 cent coin is called a quarter.
Our fifty cent coin, in the US, doesn’t have a name, I don’t think. I think we just call it a fifty cent piece. They aren’t very commonly used.

We pretty much always refer to our coins by their name not by the valued amount.

So I looked it up on The Singapore Mint. Cool place, by the way. I have got to figure out how to go tour that place. Think they’ll do a school tour for class of one?

They indeed DO have a one cent coin but it would appear that their coins are not named. Entirely too practical. Singapore Mint Coin Facts

One thing you might not know is that the Singapore money does not have a $20 bill. In circulation anyway. They did at one time because Tommy actually had one after we moved here. He didn’t know that it might be rare so he spent it. We’ve never seen another one since. Maybe it was a fake. Oh well… I still wish we’d kept it.

Another interesting fact is that there is not a one dollar bill in paper money. The one dollar is in coin form. And it’s called, “one dollar”. hee hee

I wonder why we, in the US, named our coins. Might have to check that out.

Singapore Moments

There are these guys that drive through Singapore neighborhoods in a truck honking a bicycle horn out of their window. It took me well over a year to figure out what the heck they were doing.

I realized that he was picking up recycleable items.

It took me another year to capture one on video. If you look closely, he even briefly paused his honking to wave at me. Prepare to view greatness. A video two years in the making.

I absolutely LOVE moments like this in Singapore!! Moments that make me smile. Moments that make me glad to be living this adventure. After 2 years and 4 months of living here, everyday promises to have these moments.

Happy Fall Y’all!

While some people I know in Texas are snuggling up in front of their fireplaces, bundling up in their jackets, running through snow and sipping Pumpkin Spice Latte’s from Starbucks (which they STILL don’t have in Singapore!), I am wearing a t-shirt, skirt and flip flops and having ice cream.

For those in Singapore, this is from Island Creamery in Holland Village and I got a decent sized scoop of burnt caramel and coconut (with real chunks of coconut in it) and a cone on top for $5 SGD. Not bad! The burnt caramel reminded me of fall baking which is what made me think to write this post.

Have you been to Island Creamery? They have some pretty cool flavors like Teh Tarik, Pear Sake, Dragon Fruit, Pineapple Tart, Milo Marshmallow and a host of other great Singaporean favorites. They have some normal flavors too. Cookies and Cream, Very Berry, and a few others but I was distracted by the burnt caramel and coconut. It was delicious and SO reasonably priced. The amount of ice cream I got would have been $10-$12 easy at the other ice cream shops in town.

It’s funny that burnt caramel ice cream brought me to a fall frame of mind. It helped some that it was rainy and overcast at the time.

Happy Fall Y’all!

iPhone Favorites

Tommy and I both got iPhones a couple of months ago. Thankfully it was when Tori was in Singapore and could show us how to use them. We’re pretty technologically savvy and would have eventually figured them out but she gave us a pretty good boost. I am now at the place where I have lived with it long enough to know which apps I can’t live without so I thought I’d share them. I also recently put this together for a friend which made this a pretty easy blog post. I was due for an easy one.

Some of these are obvious apps you’ll need like facebook, google search, etc. Others are not necessary but you can at least see which ones I have and maybe will want them too.

I really like the Holy Bible (brown one) but it has to have wifi or 3G to work. Our church doesn’t have good reception inside so I can never use it there or when we travel. So I have the Olive Tree Reader which is good as well. One of the Olive Tree apps is an audio book so I can listen to scripture. I really like it to just play in the background sometimes while I’m getting dressed or going to sleep. (I recently found out that you might can download the bible to your phone but it might only be for the ipad, not sure. I’ll be checking that out soon.)

Pandora doesn’t work in Singapore unless we’re using internet through a VPN (if you don’t know about VPN, ask me). It’s a great way to listen to a variety of music in a specific genre and not have to buy it. You build your own “radio station” based on an artist or song that you like.

Remote- I haven’t used but Tori told me to get it. Supposedly you can tap into someone else’s itunes library if they give you permission.

Text plus is AMAZING! Try the free one first. We use it tons with Tori and Jakeb (our kids in Texas) and when we travel. It works when both parties are either on wifi or 3G. Texts are free! I upgraded to the GOLD because I got tired of the advertisements. If you know you’ll use it, go ahead and get the gold. One of my favorites!

I just installed WordPress. I haven’t used it yet but thought it might be good in a pinch when we’re travelling to post a quick blog post.

Obviously, some of these apps are to keep Anna occupied. I could not figure out how to play Angry Birds if my life depended on it. The toothbrush app is fun for kids of all ages.

Several of these apps are Singapore specific, like taxi booking, airport, iris bus system and gothere but you might have similar apps in your neck of the woods that would be helpful for you.

LOVE LOVE LOVE my flashlight app. It works really well and since I take my phone with me when we travel, on the plane, etc., I always have a flashlight with me.

Frommers is another of my very favorites. Before you travel somewhere, be sure to update it for current currency conversions, etc.

Shazam is fun if you need to figure out what a song is that is playing in a restaurant or shop or something.

DEFINITELY Skype! If you have a skype acct that is. It works on wifi and 3G so when we travel and are in hotels with wifi or even if I’m out in Singapore, I could Skype using the 3G. I’ve begun not feeling like I have to take my computer so much anymore when we travel since I have Skype and Text+ on my phone to keep me connected.

iLoader is probably great but I haven’t had a chance to use it yet. I do most of my photo uploading from my computer.

I really enjoy having the water alarm, weight tracker and sit up app. They’re pretty cool.

Instagram is a fun way to edit and post pictures to facebook.

WhatsApp is similar to Text+ and a few friends here in Singapore use it so I went ahead and signed up for it too. Check them both out and see which you like better. I prefer Text+ and have found that more people back home are using it.

Tommy has some stock market stuff, kindle app, banking and his favorite news sources.

So there you have it. The most entertaining part of owning an iphone is auto correct. Oh, and accidentally texting the wrong person. Tommy texted a tattoo artist he’s been talking to about a tattoo design when he meant to text me. I was about to get on the plane to go to Kenya and it said, “I love you, babe. Come back home to be safely.”  oops…. He immediately texted her back and told her that he meant that for me. She thought it was funny too and she knows that he loves his wife so it’s not all bad. He now has something beside the letter ‘A’ in front of her name in his contact list.

A few iphone tips that I wouldn’t have known had someone not told me:

You’ll need to authorize “push notifications” for text+ and a few other apps otherwise you won’t be notified when something is coming through. I don’t authorize these for facebook for instance, because it beeps at me all night long when people in Texas comment on something on my facebook during their daytime. But just think about it when a particular app prompts you. You can always go into your settings and adjust it there as well on each individual app.

My iphone got messed up somehow while I was in Kenya and I ended up having to restore it to its original settings. Lost pictures and videos and all that was on it. Sad day… There is a thing call a “hard reset” that I should have tried first just to see if it would have worked. I had forgotten about it. But if your phone starts acting up for some reason, try this first. You do a hard reset by holding down the round button on the face of the phone at the bottom and the top button on the top edge of the phone simultaneously until it shuts down. If that’s clear as mud, you can youtube “hard reset for iphone” and it’ll show you how.

You’ll need to allow iphone to know your location for certain apps like weather alerts, taxi bookings, etc. You can do that when that particular app prompts you to or you can do it in your settings by individual app.

Take pictures of your screens just in case you lose information. You can take a picture of your screen by holding down the top (power) and bottom (round) at the same time.

Back up your photos/videos onto your computer often in case you have to restore it at some point. Learned this the hard way.

Whack!

Update: OH HAPPY DAY!! I did some trouble shooting and realized that I had some extra html tags in my last post, which was when it went all whack. After I took out all the div tag thingies (how about them technical terms?!?) that I have no idea how they got in there in the first place, all is right with the world. It’s weird to think that messed up code in one blog post could mess up the whole blog.

Something went all whack with my old blog theme so I changed it. I was tired of it anyway. The new one was all whack too so I changed it. After hours of messing with the current theme and trying to anti-whack it, it seems to work fine when you look at it on Google Chrome but it’s all whack if you view it on Internet Explorer. Blah!

I’ll keep working on it but in the meantime, please excuse the mess.

Or as they say in Singapore,

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

home (noun) \ˈhōm\ – Kenya 2011

We moved to Singapore a little over 2 years ago. Over these two years, I’ve grappled with the concept and definition of  ”home”. What is it? What does it mean? What does it look like? WHERE is it? By Merriam-Webster’s definition, “home” is your place of origin or a familiar environment or place of residence. This really doesn’t help very much.

Place of origin – Texas

Familiar Environment – Target ok, really this would be wherever my family is and at this point in our life, that happens to be in Texas and Singapore

Place of Residence – Singapore

Last year I wrote a blog post called Scriptures for the Nomad. I’ve come to grips over the last couple of  years that Texas is my heart home, my life is in Singapore and my home is heaven.

Rambling over…. now to the reason for this post. And it has to do with Kenya. I promise.

While I was in Kenya, I felt at home.

at home
1: relaxed and comfortable : at ease
2: in harmony with the surroundings
3: on familiar ground

I have felt “at home” in many places that we’ve traveled to and for various reasons. It has everything to do with experiencing the beauty of God’s creation in nature and in His beautiful people and just seeing  the world more as God sees it. In Kenya, I told Tommy on one of our really quick and expensive phone calls that I felt more at home with Kenyans than I did with my own people. Don’t get me wrong, I am American through and through and proud to be so, but I just think that the world is my home and I can feel “at home” pretty much anywhere. As long as it is where God has placed me. I think what I felt while in Kenya was a little taste of what it will feel like when we “repatriate” back to Texas someday. I’m looking forward to the day when that happens but I’m pretty sure it won’t be all peaches and cream. It’s like we’ve gone through these last couple of years with a strong push of momentum going forward and then going back to Texas will be like coming to a screeching halt and then moving backwards. We’ll see. Maybe it won’t be like that. I hope not.

oops… I’m rambling again.

Being a nomad is not a bad thing. Holding everything loosely in our open-faced palms is a good thing. Being willing to pack it up and move at a moments notice is a good thing or even leave it all behind if necessary. God didn’t call us to be Texan or even to live in Singapore or visit Cambodia or Kenya. He called us to be His and go wherever He wants us to go (or stay) and be completely dependent on His provision wherever that happens to be. He’ll take care of us there.

Kenya. It’s a beautiful place with beautiful people. I felt “at home” there – comfortable, in harmony with the surroundings, on familiar ground. I hope I’ll get to go back but until then

Tutaonana!(See you later!)

Acts 17
²⁴“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. ²⁵And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. ²⁶From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. ²⁷God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ²⁸‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ “

This is my seventh and last post about our Kenya trip.  If you’re just “tuning in” here are the previous posts from our 2011 trip.

Stay tuned….

Beauty of Kenya

Anna’s First Kiss

Things you learn in Kenya

Full Circle

Kenya By Day

Kenya By Day – Kenya 2011

I think I only have a couple more Kenya trip posts in me. These posts have been such a struggle. I guess because I haven’t even finished processing my thoughts yet therefore it’s hard to write them down in a way that makes any sense at all. I’ve got thousands of photos I could share and just as many thoughts and stories I could tell but that’s just an impossible task and you would get bored really quickly.

Jumping in… I will share a photo or two and a brief’ish’ story from each day of our trip. (After finishing the post, it turned out to be much longer than I’d planned. Oh well. It sort of morphed into what it needed to be I think.)

Day 1

We flew from Singapore to Doha to Nairobi.  I absolutely hated leaving Tommy. The hardest part of this trip by far was experiencing Kenya and it’s amazingness without him.

This is Doha. Doha is very plain and very uncolorful. From the air anyway.

After about 15.5 hours in a plane, we arrived in Nairobi. We got through security and the visa process very smoothly thanks to great pre-travel advice. Moses, whom you’ll “meet” in one of the last photos in this post, picked us up with a very friendly Kenyan “Jambo!” and we drove for about an hour to The Heart Lodge where we stayed for the first two nights. Day 1 in Kenya provided a fabulous first impression in every way. And each day to come would just be more of the same.

Day 2

This day started out with me feeling so blessed. Way beyond what I deserved. The scripture that came to mind over and over during the trip was from Matthew 5, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…” There is no possession that I have or could have that makes me rich. It is my spirit which will award me great riches. This is the spirit of Kenya. They have so little but are truly rich.

After breakfast and a devotional with the team, we headed out for our first day of school visits. I think we visited four different school this day. The children and school staff were so welcoming and we really enjoyed each school. We were able to visit with certain classrooms asking them questions and then they asked us questions. It was so much fun and humbling. Our kids in the US and even Singapore have it good. Many of these children get up at 4am, do their chores and leave for school. Some without breakfast. Some will also go without lunch. But they still smile. Inspiring. Anyway, they begin their school day at 6:30 or 7 and finish their school day at 4:30 or 5 and then walk home for more school work and chores. Before you feel too bad for them, though, remember that while they are in school, they are safe. They are being educated and they, in many cases are given love from the teachers that they don’t get at home. But our kids should definitely be reminded to be grateful for schools that are comfortable, air conditioned, with buses or cars to take them there, clean with running water and proper toilets and in Anna’s case with home schooling, a 7:45am (or later) wake up time. To which, when she announced that after one child’s question, the classroom gasped in horror. “How could anyone be so lazy???” This was the look on their faces.

Anyway, one of the best schools we went to was the school where the Havilla Children’s Home kids go to. We were surprised to see our girls there, Gladys and Rahab and many others we recognized from the 2008 Daraja choir tour. This photo is of Gladys (in the orange shirt) showing off her photo album that we had brought for her. She was so very proud to get that. It was on this same afternoon that we went to Havilla Children’s Home and spent hours with Gladys, Rahab and Mercy. You can read more about these sweet girls in this post.

Day 3

We left the city of Nairobi for a more rural experience. Our first stop was where the Daraja 2011 choir was staying for training camp. This photo was the first thing that happened. Well, aside from being mobbed with adorable children in the driveway as soon as we got out of our bus. I walked in behind the others and these sweet children had already gathered with our team of ladies and begun to sing songs that were written on the blackboard pictured. It was a beautiful sound and just a little piece of heaven on earth. I just cannot begin to imagine how amazing it will be to sing in heaven.

And a short video clip of what I heard as I walked in.

If you are someone who sponsors a child and you ever wondered what their faces look like when they receive a letter from you, wonder no more.

Day 4

We stayed at Panorama that night. Another beautiful hotel. This is where one of my beautiful sunset photos came from. The hotel was amazing but this was what greeted us at the gate. It just makes me smile.

We drove out to three different rural communities that partner with 410 Bridge and attended church services. Three other ladies, myself and Anna attended the church in Kwambekenya. We were welcomed in as if we had been attending for years. They asked us to come and share something with the church. Each lady shared from the heart. Anna spoke so confidently and boldly. I was so proud of her! She told them that she was my daughter and that she was 12 years old. NO one in Kenya believed she was only 12. It became something that everyone laughed about. We were told that her telling the congregation that I was her mom and that she was 12 enabled them to connect with us better. They are mom’s. They are 12. We’re just like them only white and we don’t speak their language.

I was able to share my scripture passage that was what carried me through the trip. Colossians 1:9-18 with a special emphasis on verse 17. I was able to encourage the church, the leaders and the community to follow God with their heart and not just their heads and to let them know that “He is before all things and in Him all things hold together”. It was a very special moment for me to hear my voice read the Living Word, a very meaningful set of verses, then to hear it spoken again after me in Swahili. The passage I read was very long and after it was finished I sort of started feeling bad that it was so long but Muchei (sp), the guy who was sort of assigned to our group and interpreted, told me later that he saw one lady in the congregation feverishly trying to write down the passage. If only for one…

So, after we picked everyone up from their communities, we went down to the place where women and children used to have to go 4-5 times each day to get water. It was treacherous. I can’t really describe it so i won’t even try. Even the photos don’t do it justice so I won’t even post any. But on the bus ride back to town Christopher entertained us with stories. What an entertainer! He told us about how the elephants used to be a real problem and seriously injure or kill people in the community until they got an electric fence put up to protect them. Then he told a story about a lion and all of a sudden, at a very intense moment in the story, he roared SO loudly with lion hand motions and all and almost gave us all heart attacks. So funny! He laughed and laughed.

Day 5

This day we woke up early and headed out to the same three communities again. Anna and I and two other ladies from the team went to a school in Karima. I was fortunate to get to take tea with the teachers in the teacher’s lounge. They were so proud to offer it to me and even more proud to offer me a piece of bread. I was treated like a queen in there. Such a special memory. I questioned them and they questioned me. They were most fascinated with the color and texture of my hair. They asked if my hair was natural. I told them that the curl was natural but that the color was “enhanced”. They said that the Kenyan women want to make their hair look like ours. It was such a blessing for me to share with them to just be who and how they were created to be. God made us all different and He didn’t want us all to be the same. We did agree, though, that some “enhancements” were ok.

Anna, again, rose to the challenge as we were each taken to separate classrooms to observe a class in session. She observed a Swahili class and one other. I observed a math class and part of a social studies class. I absolutely loved the teacher that I observed. This was a public school with what should be a ratio of 1-45/50 students which is the norm. The teachers in this school and in most of the schools we visited moved from room to room and grade to grade. This teacher that I observed knew each child’s name in the classroom when she called on them. I was impressed.

Day 6

On to Eldoret. We went to Emmanuel School. This school was amazing. It was amazing because of the founders, the teachers and the vision and passion for education and family they all shared. Mama Grace, the founder, had all of the children together and she would say, “We are” and they would all say “WORLD CHANGERS!”  Wow! The children here were happy, well cared for emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Day 7

We stayed at the Kerio View Hotel. Oh my goodness! Another gorgeous place with a view to die for. This hotel was just outside of Eldoret. We went back to Emmanuel School today. The Primary school and then we went to the Secondary school as well. At the Secondary school, I was very grateful to be invited into the school kitchen. I met Morris and Immaculate. Morris was the “chef” and Immaculate was the girl’s Matron or more like their Mom since it is a boarding school. Those who know me know how much I love to cook and love seeing kitchens and kitchen gadgets and such. I loved this moment! And Morris grinned from ear to ear when I called him the chef.

After this school visit we were invited to Mama Grace’s house by her son, Dan, for coffee and cake. You will just have to experience Kenyan hospitality someday. Nothing like it. During our visit, one of the ladies asked Dan to share a little about himself. After about an hour of some incredible preaching he said, “And that’s Dan in a nutshell.” SO funny! I absolutely loved everything he had to say and that we all got to hear it but especially Anna. The girl got preached to in this Kenyan home and she was all ears. Dan talked some about Psalm 84 and how our journey is a steady, slightly sloped upward climb towards a right relationship with God. One in which we occasionally go through the valley but springs will well up to sustain us. He talked about how originally Adam and Eve heard God’s voice audibly. Face to face. They kind of messed that up. He said that our life journey was one that, if we choose it to be, takes us little by little to the place where we can hear God face to face once again. Oh how I long for that day. Thanks, Dan!

After we left there we drove for several more hours to get to our safari hotel, Sarova Lion Hill Safari Lodge. We were greeted by some huge monkeys and amazingly beautiful scenery. What a blessing to be here but I must admit I’d rather have beautiful Kenyan children hanging all over me.

This was a night for dancing. I actually got up on stage and danced with a Kenyan dance team. And I actually really had fun.

Day 8

We got up at the crack (pun intended) of dawn and headed out for a morning safari. We’ve all seen a million pictures of safari animals so I thought I’d post this one for you just for fun or to crack you up.

Wow, the vision part of our trip is almost over. We stopped at one more school. This was Gordon’s school who was in the first Daraja choir in 2007. He’s about to graduate from Form 4 (Senior in High School). What an incredible man and leader he has become after living a street boy’s life for 3 or so years of his childhood. God has huge plans for him.

Now off to our city hotel in Nairobi, Mvuli House.

Day 9

We wake up. We eat. Packed for the airplane. We go do a little shopping at the Hilton. A little more at Kazuri Pottery and Beads and then a little kissing at the Giraffe Center. Then we say our goodbye’s. Give our hugs. Anna and I have an earlier flight out than the rest of the team. This photo is of Patrick and Moses. Patrick, on the left, was our bus driver. Talk about a man with nerves of steel! Driving a bus full of ONLY women through rural Kenya for 9 days. Yep, he gets the award!! And Moses, in between Anna and I. A man who loves God and loves his family and loves his job. Also, two men who are showing other young men of Kenya a different way to be a man. A real man. Thanks guys! For keeping us safe and for doing what you do in the name of Jesus in Kenya.

Then at the airport, HAD to have a Nairobi Java House cuppa!

Now to retrace our “steps” back to Singapore. To my husband. I love “hello” hugs!

 

Full Circle – Kenya 2011

One of the main highlights of our recent trip to Kenya was getting to see our Daraja kids. I could go on and on about stories with them but I won’t.  They captured our hearts in 2008 and are forever a part of our family. This timeline will give you the “cliff notes” version of our Kenyan journey. So far…

June 2008, our oldest daughter, Tori, took her first trip to Kenya.

October 2008, we hosted 3 beautiful girls and the choir leader of Daraja Children’s Choir. They stayed in our home for 3 days when they came through our hometown on their fall tour. Our hearts were forever knit together.

December 2008, we began sponsoring Mercy (pronounced Marcy) for her basic needs.

June 2009, our oldest daughter and son, Jakeb, went to Kenya. Tori’s 2nd trip. Jakeb’s first.

August 2009, some of the Stunz family were blessed to be in Texas to get to worship with Daraja again.

March 2010, we began sponsoring Mercy for her secondary school education. She was given the opportunity to go to a private boarding school so this sponsorship opened up and we grabbed it.

June 2010, Jakeb took his 2nd trip to Kenya.

August 2011, as I was looking on the Brightpoint website, I realized that Gladys had lost one of her sponsors so we began sponsoring her basic needs. There is no way that any kid of ours is going to be in need of something if we can help it!

October 2011, Anna and I took our trip to Kenya and got to see all three of our girls and another adopted member of our family, Christi. If she was on the sponsor list, we’d sponsor her too. We pray for her constantly. Her passion for these kiddos and what the Lord is doing in their lives and in Kenya is more than inspiring.

October 2011, we began to sponsor Rahab for her Daraja leadership needs. This sponsorship opening is such a blessing for us because we now sponsor all three of our girls in some way which makes it much easier to keep in contact with them through letters and photos. We’ve never stopped praying for them. Ever.

I’m pretty sure we will make it back to Kenya somehow, someday. Tommy is now the only one of the Stunz Family 5 who has not been and it shot up to the top of our “must go to” places. Together. It would be absolutely amazing if the Stunz Family 5 were able to all go together.

It feels as if between June 2008 and October 2011, we have sort of come full circle.

Time for the rotation to begin again.

Round and round and round we go. Where we stop, nobody knows.

Disclaimer: I am in no way trying to sound conceited or puffed up in a “look what we’re doing” sort of way in this post. I’m just trying to tell the story which is what our blog is all about. Any amount of good we could do or money we could give with/to Daraja, 410Bridge or Brightpoint For Children has proven to give us much more in return than we could ever dream of giving. It’s a God story, not a Stunz story.

—————
If you think you might be interested in sponsoring one of the Daraja Choir members, there are several children in need. It’s super easy. Not much of an expense, only $39/month, and the rewards for you and for the child are eternal. Please prayerfully consider and check it out here.

Daraja Sponsors Needed

And here is a video I put together of Daraja 2011. They were not given permission by the government to travel to the US so I was so happy to have captured them singing in Kenya for/with us. It’s a pretty amazing worship experience. Hope you enjoy.

Daraja 2011 from astunz on Vimeo.

Things you learn in Kenya… (Kenya 2011)

1) Warthogs have a very short term memory – so we’re told. They remember things for only 30 seconds. I can SO relate, although I can’t find any information that supports this little morsel of info. We saw some warthogs roaming around the city of Nairobi. They got out of the Nairobi Nat’l Park and apparently forgot where they lived as soon as they left the gate.

2) The giraffe doesn’t blink and although it would appear so, it doesn’t wear mascara. It’s really long eyelashes help protect the eyes from getting particles in them since they can’t blink.

3) The giraffe’s tongue is really long and it’s saliva is antiseptic. They eat from Acacia trees which have thorns so the antiseptic is beneficial to help in the healing of the cuts that they get from the thorns. I did find info to back this up, btw.

4) Whatever the reasoning for the organization we traveled with which requires that ladies wear skirts, it is much easier to go to the bathroom in a pit latrine in a skirt rather than pants.

5) There are a billion and one ways to wear a scarf and it is pretty much a wardrobe staple.

6) Bicycles are not really for riding.

7) Kenyan women are heroic.

.8) You will pack lighter on your second trip.

9) The sunset is absolutely amazing and looks just like the images you see in The Lion King.

…and one more because I just can’t seem to get enough of these sunset photos.

10) Kenyan people, kids especially, are absolutely beautiful and their smiles are contagious.

11) Kids are kids no matter where they happen to have been born.

12) Really, the only difference between “us” and “them” is the color of our skin.

13) Dancing in Kenya is F.U.N!

14) Passion fruit just tastes better in Kenya.

15) The top of the hill is still the top of the hill and one can be happy and victorious there even if it’s at the top of a trash dump hill.

16) There is always a hand to hold. You will not crave physical touch.

17) You will see where tradition meets technology.

18) Kenyans are pretty good at hugging.

19) We have dogs and cats for pets. They have cows and goats.

20) Some images are just priceless and the opportunity for these images in Kenya is unlimited.

21) If you go, prepare to fall in love.