Victory Highway: Plateau Celebration (As told by Dot)

What a day of celebration we experienced with the Plateau women (or the Bahasha Women's group because they worked on the paper project. Bahasha means envelope.)

We arrived early in Thursday morning to finish washing windows (they were put in last night), hanging curtains which we finished ironing just before the electric went out last night, and generally sprucing things up for the day. Some of the ladies had already arrived even though they walk for two and a half hours to get to the property.

In addition to the 37 Bahasha women, there were family members and other visitors who came to help celebrate.

I hope you have read the story of these women who accepted Jesus, stopped brewing alcohol and totally changed their lives so dramatically that they formed a group, pooled their funds and began building rental properties.

When I visited with Emily yesterday while she washed the inside of the windows and I washed the outside simultaneously in order to hold the panes in place - the putty was still wet - she told me that her two children would work during the night in shifts and couldn't go to school. On a bad day she would not make any profi,t and on average days she would clear 20 shillings - less than 30 cents US! She would have to decide whether to spend it on food or on soap...

Back to the celebration
Two rental units were completed with their bedroom (6x12) living room (10x12) and kitchen (4x4--and no, this is not a misprint). The third unit which is one room only is not yet complete, and the outside bathroom has yet to built on the site. The units are colorful with their rust-colored bricks, green doors and black window frames. The inside is painted high gloss cream with white ceilings and dark red floors.

The ladies planted flowers along the foundation and made a circular flower bed in the yard with the seeds we brought.

We took bright blue ribbon and tied it from one end to the other for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

And now, we'll hear from . . .
Everyone sat in the sunny lawn and listened to Pastor Rono as he congratulated and encouraged the women. He said, "Now is the time of ideas, not tomorrow or yesterday. It is the time to share your vision. In the grave there is no vision. Use your time to work, think and fellowship. Keep going on . . ."

One of the group, a lady in her early 40s named Sally then gave a testimony. "I was lost because of alcohol. I had been brewing alcohol for 20 years. I had decided to kill all my children because I saw there was no hope. But ELI helped me to get out of that life. I thank the Lord He has set me free. ELI gave us jobs in papermaking. We came like small children to learn. After making paper for a time, ELI told to go and dream. We dreamed of pooling our money together and building rental units. God made our dream come true. Construction started by ELI helping us. We leave everything to the hands of God, who is the Shepherd of the flock. We were lost sheep. You sacrificed to come and help. Let us stay together as we focus on heaven. Thank you."

All the ladies could've probably shared similar stories, but we would've sat there way into the evening, so only one more was given time to share. Her name iis Mama Louise, and she said: "When we were in Plateau, we were brewers but God knew our plans. God has sent us his help. We were healed because of help." We were tickled by her commenting on the fact that she realized in working side-by-side with our team that "We women can do men's work." (In Kenya, women never paint or climb a ladder. But here we were, all grandmas (or gogos, as they say here) climbing ladders and painting the homes. In fact, many of the women helped us paint, and they had a LOT of fun! Someone commented later that the fundis (construction workers) of Plateau will have to look out--the ladies might decide to raise funding to complete the project by doing paint jobs!

George, the main contractor had these comments to our team: "Thanks for coming and witnessing what has happened. You have sacrificed a lot for this project and we pray our Lord will bless all who took their time to pray and help and work on this project." He continued by addressing the Bahasha Women's Group, "Going to Canaan there is honey and milk, but the honey will draw bees who bite. Satan never likes to see people working together. Stay close to God. He will keep you together." George concluded by thanking the Lord that he lead ELI and our team to Africa. "There are people who are suffering [in Africa], and these people may be empowered and their lives may be changed. You may think you only empowered these ladies, but also you empowered our families! Work hard, and pray hard so people will come to assist you to complete your mission for the 37 rooms to be done."

There were several other speeches, among others words by Baba Keegan (ELI Director Samuel Teimuge) who reminded our team of ELI's theme verse, Ephesians 2:10: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Samuel told us, "The ladies live on less than a dollar a day and yet they have this dream..." He encouraged them not only to look to ELI for help with the completion of the project, but to look at what resources they had, to go home and sell their chickens to raise money.

Song and Dance
The Bahasha women sang and presented Adele, Amy, Carol, Jean and me with flowers bright pink ketanges which are like wrap-around skirts. We sang and danced around the circle together, hugging and laughing.

After all the speeches (there were several more!), we planted a tree in honor of Mary Lou's brother-in-law Wally, who passed away during our time here. [The women had met Mary Lou at a fellowship last week, and wanted to do something to remember Gogo Andrew/Mary Lou.] They planted an umbrella tree (aka a family tree) in the middle of the compound. One lady had carried a bag of compost with her that day for the tree planting--yes, the entire 2-and-a-half-hour walk!)

The Bahasha women danced around an umbrella tree, singing praise songs and waving a bright orange ketange as a sign of their love for Mary Lou and their prayers for her family. The sight was breathtaking as Kenyans and Americans knelt together around the tree giving praise to God that Wally was safe with Him and his memory would live on.

Next, we cut the ribbon and the ladies sang and danced as they entered one of the units.

Thank you, Jesus
Probably one of the most moving sights of the day was to see one of the Bahasha gogo's (grandmothers) stand with her face against a wall with her arms stretched out in prayer. Tears were streaming down her faces as she left the small room...

Food for All
We had supplied lunch for all, and since there was plenty left and it was dinner time by the time the speeches and celebrations were through (!), we all sat on the lawn for a second meal of rice and meat broth. (Pastor Rono's wife, Mama Elijah, had started cooking at 4 a.m. to prepare all the food!)

At the end of the day, we drove Mama Elijah home and Pastor Rono showed us their ministry and told of their work in rehabilitation with alcoholics. There are six people living there right now with bunks enough for 12. They told us of their dreams for a classroom and more housing for the Kenya Anti Alcohol clients in the future.

MORE Celebrations
I bet you thought that should be the end of the story . . . but you see, this was also Wayne's birthday so we just kept on going! We picked up ice cream on our way home (he had gone home in a different vehicle). Since very few people have refridgerators here, ice cream is a real treat in rural Kenya!

As an after-dinner-treat, Amy had made an angelfood cake, and there was a lot of cut mangos to put on the cake with custard and ice cream. Then he opened his gift - many more mangos. (What gives you the idea that Wayne loves mangos?) We had a good time and were ready for lala salama (sleeping peacefully).

We feel so very blessed to be with our Kenyan sisters and brothers and all of us are being blessed more than we can say. Our time has just flown by. Be well. Until tomorrow... Dot for the team.