Dearest Friends and Family,

Greetings to each of you from sunny Maua. We pray that 1999 is bringing blessings, new opportunities, new insights and God's guidance. During this Lenten season may you be reminded that even in this world that seems so filled with warring madness, hatred, greed, suffering and pain there is hope ---- after the worst, the very worst there is resurrection.

We have had quite a wonderful weekend. It started Friday night when we heard a knock at the door and there were our dear friends, Mary and Luke Kinoti. They were here from Nairobi as Mary was speaking at a Methodist Synod meeting sponsored by US AID on Human Rights. She spoke on the Rights of Children. We had not heard she was here so we were thrilled and surprised. Mary and Luke are the couple we stayed with during our first month in Kenya. They are the parents of 3 young children, Gitonga, Meme, and Munene. We had a great visit with much laughter and good memories. To our deep sorrow and concern, Luke is presently unemployed. He was in charge of loans to churches and individuals for the National Council of Churches of Kenya. His was a very difficult job. A few of the board members encouraged loans that were not appropriate. When Luke refused to make certain loans political maneuvers were made and the end result was that Luke lost his job. He has been looking for a new job but has not found one yet. Please join Bill and I as we pray that Luke will find a job that uses his education, experience and many talents. Please pray for their family during this time. Mary, a Methodist pastor of a large church in Nairobi and the Superintendent pastor of four other churches, makes 11,000 Ksh a month (less than $200).

Saturday Alice Limberia, the midwifery tutor and my closest friend, and I went shopping at the market and then came home and spent the entire day preparing dengu stew for 70 people for today. Today in our side yard we helped with a luncheon following Hanna Kiwira Lindoewood's dedication at the Ki-Swahili service. Alice and I were the "village women" cooking and preparing for this very special community event.

A word about dengu stew. Dengu is a very small green pea or bean which is sometimes called green grams. We bought 5 kg of dengu (11 pounds) at the market. It took Alice, Bill and I 3 1/2 hours to clean the dengu. Then Alice and I washed it which took about 1 hour as each group, and there were 3 groups, required 10 good washings (a total of 30). Then we cooked it. I didn't have near enough big pans so Alice brought two of hers. Bill and I were going to a welcome home party for Sister Barbara at 7pm and I had to leave Alice alone in our kitchen to complete the cooking when I left at 7:10pm. (We had a wonderful potluck dinner for Barbara. Thank you for your prayers for healing for Barbara. We are thankful she is back. She will be working 1/2 day for sometime until she is strong enough to work full time).

This morning after the service, Alice, Bill and I rushed home, Bill to help set things up and Alice and I to "fry" the stew. Actually we fried onions, carrots, dania (a parsley looking green leaf that adds such a great flavor) tomatoes and mchuzi mix and then added the dengu and more water and allowed it to boil.

At about 12:45pm most the people had gathered so the choir sang a chorus, I got to pray and we ate. We had pilau (spicy rice and meat), ireo (mashed potatoes, green bananas and black beans), grated carrots and sliced tomatoes and dengu stew. The food was delicious and everyone seemed to have a great time. The day had started off with heavy mist and dew but by serving time the sun was out and umbrellas used for shade.

To my sorrow I had to miss the speeches given by the four godmothers and two godfathers and others present but I hear they were all wonderful. There was more singing by the choir and fellowship and fun by all.

I missed part of the program because one of our new 20 students arrived today and I was "tutor on call" and thus needed to check her in. The students are actually due tomorrow but her parents could not bring her tomorrow and requested permission to bring her today. Thus when they arrived I went down and checked to see that she had brought the 60 items we require. Literally, she had to show me every item from her 3 inch mattress and pillow to her mosquito net, English Bible, uniforms, sweaters, shoes, text books, stationery items, etc., etc., etc. I also had to check that her parents had paid the entire 90,000 Ksh ($1500) as for the first year the entire balance must be paid before they can start the course. She was missing 4 text books and 4 items so the parents had to give her money to buy the four missing items and sign a letter I wrote stating they would continue to look for and purchase the text books. Then I took her to her room and introduced her to several of the older students that were around. I helped her get settled a bit and then returned to the party. I had been gone almost one hour.

Tomorrow the other 19 students will arrive. This is an exciting but very busy time for the tutors. I still am teaching Set Z students this week and working with Set Y students in their medical placement.

Bill will be going to Nairobi on Tuesday this week. He has a meeting at the Conference Office and has so many things he is to do for the hospital and us. We just found out that we need a PIN number for income tax purposes here and we are sure that will take at least one day. He and our friend, Sue Wilson, will be returning on Sat. around noon. We are most excited about Sue's visit. She is Assistant Dean of the School of Nursing at TCU (my alma mater). Her daughter, Megan, will be coming March 12th. They will be here until March 19th. Please pray for their safety.

Finally, I would like to request prayers for my father, Paul. He has pneumonia and has been quite ill.

Thank you for your continued prayers, support, love, and emails. We are so grateful to be connected with you. May God bless and keep you and yours.

He is risen,

Jerri and Bill

You can answer this letter at savuto@MAF.org

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