Pure Christianity

Answers

So we have had some questions come in for Ask Johnny and Kate Week. I actually didn’t think anyone would ask any questions. Anyway here is one and an answer:

Evelyn asked:

Okay, you have been there 5 yrs right! Do you ever go on vacation?

I actually had to look up the word vacation in the dictionary. We have not gone on vacation, and have no idea when it will be possible to do so. I did have this crazy idea for each of the adult couples (there are 3 sets of us) to go away one couple at a time, therefore, leaving the others to take care of the kids. Unfortunately, we just don’t have the resources to do that at this time.

In the meantime I escape into the world of movies and books, while Kate does not know the meaning of the word relax.

Johnny Brooks

If You Only Knew….

This is a quote from an email we received this morning. This guy is coming to visit us next month, and knows Kate quite well.

We'll miss you at Thanksgiving. I won't be  eating goat intestines. I also plan not to be an adventurous eater while  I am there, and don't try to change my mind .

First thing to note, especially if you plan on visiting us in the future, never ever, let me repeat that part, never ever give Kate an ultimatum. If you tell her you will not eat goat intestines, she will make it her life’s work to see to it that you do.

Ha. This guy being her dad and all he may get a pass, but the rest of you have been warned.

Personally I did not plan on putting goat intestines on the menu, ever.

Johnny Brooks

Ask Johnny and Kate Week

I am officially declaring this week to be Ask Johnny and Kate Week. What exactly is Ask Johnny and Kate Week? Glad you asked. Good first question.

Simply put this is an opportunity to ask us whatever you might want to ask us. Can be related to living cross culturally. Can be related to our family life. Ask us about home birth in Africa. Ask about food. Take a clue from some of the kids and ask questions like this one; “Daddy how come you are so fat?”

No holds barred. We will answer any and every question.

Ask here, ask on facebook, ask via email. However you would like to.

www.facebook.com/johnnybrooks

www.facebook.com/kate34

back2kenya@yahoo.com

 

Johnny Brooks,      Yes I am aware that this is completely lame and geekish, but what do you expect? I am lame and geekish.

Water in abundance!

We now have so much water that the kids can squirt each other.

Quote of the Week

“Here is the decisive difference between Christianity and all other religions. Man’s religiosity makes him look in his distress for the power of God in the world: God is the deus ex machina.
The Bible directs man to God’s powerlessness and suffering; only the suffering of God can help... Christians stand by God in his hour of grieving; that is what distinguishes Christians from pagans. Jesus asked in Gethsemane, ‘Could you not watch with me one hour?’ That is a reversal of what religious man expects from God. Man is summoned to share in God’s sufferings at the hands of a godless world.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Feeding the Hungry, etc.

Kate and I went to Nairobi on Monday to pick up a friend, who is here to assist Kate with the delivery of our baby. (Who still does not have an official name. So, Hey Kid, will suffice for now, or the baby.) It was an uneventful trip. We went to the Sarit Centre in Westlands, which is pretty much like going to a mall in the U.S. Otherwise nothing much happened.

This past Saturday we distributed food and clothes to a good number of folks involved in one of our HIV/AIDS support groups. I love doing that kind of stuff. Of course each and every day we feed, clothe, house, and love the orphaned/abandoned children living with us. We love them, and hope to be a part of their lives till death temporally parts us.

This week is possible the last week of school for the year. No one seems to really know when the last day is. Two of our girls will be going on a class trip to Nairobi tomorrow. They are excited.

Well that is enough update related stuff for now. There is so much more that could be put in this post, but then that is what tomorrow is for, and Facebook.

Johnny Brooks

Yesterday & Today

We spent yesterday traveling to Nairobi to pick up our friend and midwife, Judy. We are so happy to have her here for the next month. Our little baby is due Dec. 2nd.

We are grateful for our safe journey to and from Nairobi, and for Judy's safe travels here to Kenya.

~Kate

Picture (s) of the Week

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connie and her mom, Winnie. Winnie is doing much better now, eating and her spirits are high.

Our good friend Beatrice, she does the girl’s hair for us, standing at her front door. Due to circumstances that were completely out of her control she had not been able to pay her rent for several months. We helped her catch up. (Not sure who the kid is, maybe a neighbor.)

“Yes I can ride this bike.”

Insidious Desires

I read the following this morning, and it resonated so much with me that I thought I would share it with you all:

To put this in religious language, the above story asks if perhaps the devil, far from hating our multitude of church activities, positively loves them, for it is in these very activities that we are able to become such productive agents in carrying out his insidious desires—making changes in the world that fundamentally ensure everything in the world remains the same.

Peter Rollins, from his book The Orthodox Heretic. (Thanks Skipperina)

I hate to admit it, but that describes much of my life. I participated in a religious system that made very little difference in the world. The changes that were made in me guaranteed that the world would remain the same.

It is now my prayer to be the opposite-- to live a life that affects a change in this world. A change that, once it happens, the world can never go back to the way it was. Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t have delusions of grandeur. I’m not talking about the whole world, just the little pieces I interact with each and every day.

Johnny Brooks

Quote of the Week

“We need the courage to differ.”

M. Tenzo