Dear Friends and Family,

Welcome to several people who have recently be added to our friends and family email list. Because some people have been receiving emails from us for about 9 months, I will often refer to things I have explained in the past. If you do not understand something, please ask and I will try to explain.

This last week in the wee hours of Monday morning our electricity went out. That is not unusual as most often we do not have electricity on Mondays. In fact, when Bill recently called the electric company, he was told that Mondays were routine maintenance days and they would not be informing us of outages, we should just expect them. Thus we didn't think too much about it on Mon. However, when we awoke Tues. to no electricity we were surprised. We had not been careful with our refrigerator on Mon. and were sorry! Wednesday when we awoke to no electricity we were worried. That morning a "rumor" circulated the hospital that we would have no electricity for 21 days. At lunch the tutors had a meeting and it was then I heard the "rumor". Several tutors said it had been in the newspaper a week or so before though no one had seen the article and most of us read the paper. I must admit I was dreadfully distressed. As we met I began to make mental notes about what we would need to do. I decided who we would give the food to that was in our freezer. We would need to give it away that day before it thawed. The thought of 19 more days with cold showers and "bad hair days" (as I use a dryer) had me feeling down and out. I decided that the next time I went to Nairobi I would have my hair cut "short" so it would look okay without using my dryer. But perhaps my greatest concern was not being able to use the computer (send or receive email) for that long. (My father continues to have health problems and the thought of not being able to keep in frequent contact was most distressing). As the day progressed so did my sorrow at losing electricity for so many days. I realized how dependent we were on electricity here. We have a kerosene lamp and candles but we would need to buy a gas lamp as reading with a kerosene lamp is tough (at our age at least!!)

It certainly made me think of the many people we know that do not have electricity at all. The staff that live on the hospital compound have electricity but those that live off generally do not. Our Deputy Matron, Mary Gitari, and her husband, Stanley, who is in charge of our Maternal and Child Health Program, live outside of Maua town and thus cannot have electricity. Only those that live in Maua town have that possibility. They have some solar panels but during the rainy season (right now) there is little sunshine. They have enough for lights but no refrigerator, no hot water. Both Mary and Stanley trained for 4 years in the US and then Stanley received his MS in Ghana.

The hospital has a generator so that all of the hospital and the student dorms have electricity but none of the housing. To run the generator for one day costs the hospital 10,000 Ksh ($170). That would be a tremendous financial burden for the hospital.

That evening I slowly walked home a little after 6pm. As I neared our house I saw our porch light on. At first I wondered how that was possible and even wondered if I was seeing things. Then I spotted our back security light. I literally began running, jumping and shouting. I was overwhelmed with thanksgiving. As I burst through our front door and spotted Bill working at our computer, I could hardly contain myself.

Bill told me that the electricity had just come back on though he had called the electric company around 11am when he had heard the rumor to see if it were true. The electricity company had told him that they were doing maintenance for our entire area for 21 days and there would be outages but they had never intended to have such a long outage and were working night and day to solve the problem. There was no electricity from Nanuki -> Meru -> Maua, a very large area. Bill had gone to the school to tell me but I was in class and then at the tutor's meeting.

Fearing the worse made me realize just how fortunate and blessed we are. Since Wed. we have had many short outages and all day Fri. the electricity was out but we are not complaining. I've never appreciated electricity more nor realized what a privilege it is to have it in Kenya. To have the use of email is a double blessing. There are four private phone lines for the hospital. One in the Medical Superintendents office and three in missionary homes and we are one of those very fortunate missionaries. To have electricity and a phone --- wow! I know in the US there is a feeling that communication world wide is a cinch. It is when you have electricity and a phone line but those two things are only available to a very few in Kenya and even less in our area. Today as we read our emails, we will be one of three people in this entire area (250,000 people) that have that possibility. What a humbling thought, what an incredible blessing, what a responsibility.

While on the subject of emails we do continue to have problems receiving and sending emails. Due to heavy rains and other technical difficulties we have had to put a filter on incoming emails. We do not receive anything over 12K. Because we have to pay for a long distance call and we can only use the slowest setting for our modem, we have found that large emails are too expensive to receive. The "large" emails are always forwarded stories or information (we never receive a personal email that is over 4 - 6K). We do enjoy the forwarded stories but if they are large, we do not receive them. Also, we do not have internet, only email. Internet is far too expensive here. Thus we cannot look up anything via the internet or receive the lovely cards that have been sent our way but must be viewed using Internet.

Bill and I received a wonderful compliment this week that I thought I would share with you to express our thankfulness for your prayers. My closest friend, Alice, has had her son, Dennis, staying with her for two months. He was working in Mombasa in the tourist industry but tourism is down so much in Kenya that many, many people have lost their jobs. Dennis lost his. He has been making application to many places with little success. He leaves for Nairobi tomorrow (please keep him in your prayers). Well, he told his mom this past week that he was not thinking about getting married until he had spent time with Bill and I. He was very impressed how much we loved each other and he decided he wanted to find a wife.

I am the first missionary tutor here that has been married. There are advantages and disadvantages to married missionaries. Bill and I have known many single missionaries that have literally given all their time to their work, to their mission. When one is married and have children, time is spent with family. It has always been one of Bill and my most fervent prayers that we could be models of a loving marriage relationship where God was the center. Living where we work and spending so much time together has its blessing and frustrations. We are most grateful to you for your prayers, love and support. They help us in every aspect of our lives. Please pray that we might show God's love in our love and respect for each other.

This week at Bible study we learned a new song that I liked so much I thought I would share it with you. You might already know it but in case you don't, here goes!!!