Adventures in Kenya on a Cold Winter Night

Today was a blizzard and it's been so cold lately that memes such as "I'm not going outside until the temperature is above my age" and "wondering why I have chosen to live somewhere that hurts my face when I go outside" are humorously relevant.

The good news is it only gets better from here, at least daylight wise. Adding to the difficulty of winter is the strong darkness that pervades, but December 21st was the tipping point and we are heading towards longer days of daylight. Still I wouldn't mind following the birds and spending winter in Florida. Somewhere tropical. Hawaii perhaps. At least for a month.

Been so long not blogging have been to Kenya and back, and so while the winds of winter rage outside my window I shall tell a tale of a land far, far away. Lol.

Lots of rest, fun people and interesting experiences. Kenya. Everything was great, including all four airplanes (two there and two back).

While in Siaya their highest court nullified their recent presidential elections, so that was a pretty dominate theme.

Met a couple local politicians in Nakuru and that was interesting, and even attended a dowry negotiation. Preached in a couple churches, perhaps most memorably Mama Joan's in Siaya, which had no electricity. Not that you need electricity to preach the gospel. They said I was the first mzungu to speak in their church: I don't want to explain what that means so you will already have to know or do a little homework to understand.

I was also told our church here in the states helped pour the foundation of their church, so the concrete belongs to us, the House of Mercy Mission. Just kidding.

One of the most humorous moments was when we thought a tire might come off while touring Lake Nakuru National Park. This my fourth trip to Kenya I hoped to splurge a little and see some wildlife, lions preferably. Short on cash we decided to rough it with a certain vehicle and as the sounds of a tire scraping something became louder and louder, I began to have visions of being stranded in a safari park full of lions. We needed to escape and fast.

We saw all sorts of wildlife but no lions as we sped clankily toward the exit.

We didn't survive.

Just kidding.

As we bounced our way out of the park and to a nearby eatery, it just so happens (after eating) we discover a flat tire. Thank the Lord it did not go flat in the park. Don't know if I would have attempted changing it not knowing if a lion was hiding in the bush waiting to pounce.

We could have waited for someone else to change the tire besides me, and I am not trying to brag but everything was so easy and I think we broke a record changing it, faster than a NASCAR pit-crew. Perhaps it was my recent, previous flat-tire experience in Jersey that gave us an edge that day. Or perhaps angels were helping.

I'm leaning toward angels since the other tire, which happened to be on the opposite corner of the flat, did not fall off or strand us in the park.

Humorously I said to myself never again would I go on a safari without a good four-wheel drive. Lol. We were crazy but had fun as I remember another experience driving close to the lake to view flamingos.

We decided to chance-dodge mud pits. All exiting beside the driver, I proceeded to coach a path and the driver flew over the mud hazards.

What amused me most was a group of professional tourists photographing us as we made the daring dash. Lol. Just kidding but they were watching us.

I don't know what we were thinking, we could of just walked the rest of the way. But it was a jolly moment and we breathed our reward when a flock of flamingos soared across the lake. I am sure there was a hippo in the distance too. Should have brought binoculars, another lesson learned.

Well there you have it, a little taste of my adventures in Kenya: perhaps another day I'll share some media, photography playing a big part this trip.

Good night and God bless!

Sunset Boulevard

Stopped at the Goodwill I visited Friday evening cause wanted to pick up some art I had seen which I thought would go good outside my apartment door. Not sure if that means I am addicted to Goodwill, but whatever. Actually found a really nice oil painting and some books to sell, so should come out even in the end. Anyway sunset was poppin' when I walked out of Goodwill and so caught a few good pics:

To make matters better, the full moon rising to the east was competing for my attention. I took a few pics of that but I need a real camera to abstract anything worth sharing. As I drove south on 23 I had to pull over cause the beauty to the west needed to be captured again:

After topping off at the 280 Wawa (and picking up a roast beef sub [I know I need help]), headed east on 280 into the perfect full moon. Pure beauty! Made me think about trying to catch the next full moon at Liberty State park as it rises above Manhattan's skyline. Of course with a real camera though. However, could actually be in Kenya, or on my way back, so, maybe October, if the planets align.

Peace, blessings and goodnight. Shalom.

Mount Zion? Haha

Well I must say this is a completely opposite piece than last night, and in fact quite a blessed afternoon and evening I'd like to share. Today being the last day of our usual summer program trips, I debated going for an oil change after dropping off the last of the kids. I was tired but decided if the Parkway north was light on traffic at that time of about 3pm, I would attempt the oil change I had planned this morning but botched when I took my own car and was not motivated to go back for the van. Traffic was light, and I took the chance, trusting it was the way the Lord was leading despite low energy levels.

Cruised up to the Wawa and filled up on gas and then cut over to 46 east to the Jiffy Lube. Kind of out of my way for an oil change, but this is where I felt the Lord leading. A little expensive at $39, but the knowledge and advice I was given there made it all worth it. I wanted to do an oil change because the check engine light came on the other day, and after my neighbor-mechanic cleared it, I realized emissions was past due since April. Oops. The van having nearly 100,000 miles has had a few glitches lately, no surprise, but one of them is the ODB hasn't been working properly and can't easily be read.

Well this is where the $39 started to pay off as the mechanic at Jiffy Lube informed me that Motor Vehicle will give you an automatic fail if they can't use the ODB. True or not, I was still going to try popping by Wayne's MVC just in case he was wrong and the van as able to pass. I also learned that apparently there is no grace period any more if a vehicle fails and is past due. But I still wanted to try.

However, he also suggested the simple solution that it could be a blown fuse disabling the ODB and I could google the vehicle model and location of the fuse. I almost ignored this advice thinking it too complicated at the moment but then paused for a second in a parking lot and googled "finding odb fuse", which turned out to be so simplistically profitable.

Right a way a youtube video came up by someone with a similar vehicle saying that if your cigarette lighter is not working then that could be the fuse that needs to be replaced. Bam, bing, boom! The left side cigarette lighter has not been working for I don't know how long. Then I started to wonder if I could just take a look under the hood and maybe run over to Autozone to pick up the fuse.

Fortune would have it that the cover to the fuse box was already loose, for it is such a pain to take off from a cold start. As I pulled off the cover, I had learned earlier that I needed to look for the fuse that said "cigar". Not only did I have a needle nose pliers handy for another van glitch, there was a 15 fuse spare on the inside of the fuse cover box. Was the original fuse even broken was the last question, and it was. The rest is history, as after replacing the fuse the cigarette lighter started working again. Praise the Lord!

The question remains if the ODB will work now too, but I believe it will. I attempted to have it inspected, but by that time (5pm) I had missed Motor Vehicle inspections by a half hour. Perhaps tomorrow morning. Maybe.

As fun as all this was, I decided that since I was so close to Jonathan Cahn's Beth Israel and was, and still is, Friday evening, that perhaps I could stop by for their service. Interestingly there have been other times with this exact opportunity but I was just not inclined. I was inclined tonight though, even feeling the Lord was leading me there for some reason.

Not really a surprise being led there, but I had some time to kill so I decided to stop by Kohl's off 23 north of 80. I did not find anything there but before I entered the store I saw the bumper sticker "This car climbed Mount Washington" and I wondered where this great mountain is, on the not too uncommon bumper sticker. I wanted to know.

Having left Kohl's and still time to spare, I continued north on 23 to the Goodwill not too far up the road. I soon found myself lost there and time quickly passing. And now here is where it becomes interesting in that I found a large coffee mug that said Mount Washington, New Hampshire. Finally! Knowledge! So sweet to the soul! And a mystery solved.

Well, I decided to pick up the mug for 50 cents, for how could I pass it up at that price. And aside from the great deal, I felt that God had a message for me, something I was not able to put my finger on just yet. Only an hour earlier I had really wondered where Mount Washington was and then bam, the answer:

But the story is not over yet. It was nearly eight  so I made my way down to Beth Israel. I was not really sure what to expect, but I was still feeling the leading of the Lord. It took me a minute to understand, but when I did I had to take a picture of the title of Jonathan Cahn's message:

Wow! I would have dismissed learning where Mount Washington is, but the knowledge gained was so quick that it baffled me. It was almost like I asked and instantly learned. And no google involved! I was just so blessed and encouraged this evening. I recorded the whole message and perhaps I'll be able to share it here sometime. In any case, this has been a very long and time consuming entry, so I'd really like to finish this up. In doing so I will leave you with one last beautiful image as I was walking out of Beth Israel:

God bless!

An Accident and Homicide

This is not a feel good article. You have been warned.

This morning was on the westside of Irvington, about 7:30am, when I caught this scene at Springfield Ave. and Sanford Ave.:

Can't say what transpired to cause this accident, but it did not look like there were any serious injuries, so at least there is that. Car appears to have struck the traffic light though, and I can only imagine the traffic jams this was about to create being that it was rush hour and there was no red, green or yellow.

What I am about to write about now is a bit more sad, having to do with a teenager who lost his life Sunday evening on 16th Street here in Newark. I happened to be listening to the police scanner when this happened so this is a bit personal. Happened to have business on that street today too so ran across these sights:

In this first one we see the appeal by authorities for help, a sign that can not be missed and sadly is not very unfamiliar here in Newark. Secondly we have the memorial:

I warned you this was not a feel good piece. The name is Ibn Abdul Walker and he was only 18 years old. Why?

Thou shalt not murder! It's one of  the ten commandments. Prayers for the family and that justice prevails, in Jesus name.

Check out this NJ.com article for more on this incident: 18-year-old killed in Newark shooting.

A Newark Sunset

Just wanted to share something beautiful that came out of Newark this evening:

Just Another Sunday Evening

Where the Lord leads, I shall follow! March marked 15 years here in Newark. Ups and downs! Didn't think I was going to be here this long, though not really sure what I expected at first. Took a little road trip tonight, first up to the Wawa off Route 280 about exit 1 and then to the Target on Route 46 a couple miles east of the Wawa.

Skinny, white girl named Alison was my cashier at Wawa and she was delighted to see there was still garlic bread offered for sale with their sub-sandwiches. (Yes I was picking up a roast beef.) She was really happy about the bread but I didn't really know how to respond. Haha.

From Wawa skipped north up to 46 and was on my way to Target unsure they would still be open. To my pleasure they were open to 11pm which gave me at least a good two hours to entertain myself there. Haha.

Oh what fun it was to check out the video game section. Smh. Still no Switch available. Demand too high and supply too low still for it to be found on a causal Sunday night glance. What I did find interesting were the video games that were out of stock, which led me to believe these are the games that might be worth playing/checking out.

Picked up no entertainment material but just some dish soap, sponges and post-it-notes. I took the plunge with the post-it-notes at $6.29 for the pack, but I have been craving them for awhile and have not wanted to settle on the cheaper ones, thinking the quality of adhesive might be lacking.

Not to my surprise or anything but I have already used the first post-it-note of the batch and written the name Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on it, having just watched two of her TED Talks which I also blogged here The danger of a single story TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and here We should all be feminists TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

I wasn't sure I'd be able to watch the feminists TED Talk one, which is the first one I watched, since I can be very picky about politics, but there was nothing she said that made me want to turn it off. Having survived that video just fine I noticed another TED Talk of hers, the Single Story one, which showed her wearing a head scarf that I rather liked. She is a good looking woman so the scarf just complimented her. I might have enjoyed Single Story more for several reasons, though I am finding it hard to articulate them. Perhaps the greatest reason being that through the first video I understood who she is, at least was given a glimpse, and could thus watch the second video with that understanding.

Anyway, before I watched Chimamanda, I watch a TED Talk by Curtis "Wall Street" Carroll called How I learned to read — and trade stocks — in prison.

That Ted Talk I found to be quite a pleasure too, in that I am quite familiar with the African American community here in Newark and enjoy the positive faith Curtis shares.

Alight I'm done, is nearly 1am. Good night and God bless!

Repeal Obamacare!

This morning read a headline about Nancy Pelosi asking if Republicans want to make America sick again. What joke! Nancy is just some kind of joke, to put it nicely. I don't understand sometimes why certain things find attention. Like Obama saying he could beat Trump if Obama could run again. This is not news, not even worth reporting because it is irrelevant. Even if Obama could beat Trump if he could have run again, which is not to say I agree Obama could beat Trump, it doesn't matter because Obama can't legally run again. So who cares?! Why keep it in the headlines or make it a headline at all. And thus Pelosi quote, to me it sounds like she just wants to create drama, the same woman who said we have to pass the Obamacare bill to know what is in it. Foolishness! You can't even fully read and understand a bill before it becomes law?! That is a crime against the American people!

Anyway I'm done. Peace out.

From Darkness to Light

It's been awhile since I read 50 pages of a book in one sitting, but last night was caught up reading Frank and Joan Testa's From Darkness to Light about a priest and nun who both became Born Again and left the Catholic Church and eventually married. I met them last year or so and ran up on their book several months ago and have been curious ever since.

When I was in Kenya last year I was finally able to visit their outreach thee, Harbingers, which I have heard about for years here at the House of Mercy Mission. It's quite a long and complicated story which I am sure I don't even know all the details, but some how the people who founded the Mission here in Newark also are affiliated in some way to Harbingers in Kenya.

Of all the ministries that I have visited in Kenya, I suppose Harbingers I found to be the most beautiful. The country, the land, just beautiful!

Anyway, was caught up last night reading Frank's testimony. I found it very interesting his perspective and experience with Catholicism but also his work here in New Jersey as a priest. I came here to Newark in 2002 so everything I know about this area and New Jersey prior 2002 obviously has to be second hand knowledge.

I scanned the rest of the book looking for information about Kenya and found a lot less than I thought I might, but for the time being my curiosity has been satisfied.

Do I want to leave this as just a book review? I don't know for sure if that's all I wanted to do when I started this post, but that is what this looks like it has become.

It's 1:45pm Wednesday, January 4, 2017, as I write these words, and the day is more than half over. Had made a few plans to workout at Retro Fitness and visit the post office and the such; so many little things to do. We are installing a new soundboard for our sound system on Friday and I have to run a ethernet wire from the front office to the soundroom. I need to also make a thank you Christmas video from our Christmas outreach.

Anyway I'm out. Peace.

Warning, Warning

Is America in for troubling times? For service today we watched this youtube video. I don't know about earthquakes, though I do believe it's possible. However what concerns me most is civil unrest. Unrest that might cause problems. I have hope for America though.

What amuses me but also concerns me is that the media can't handle Trump. He drives the media mad for some reason. And to be honest, I kind of like that because I don't see the media as a friend of God at times. Always promoting and pushing an agenda that pleases them, an agenda that has no concern what God wants. So when I see the media implode over Trump, it kind of delights me.

Strangely though, I saw one of the subtitles of a book given to Pastor Sam for his birthday today, that said something about the coming war of Christian against Christian. How can this be, but it seems that's how it already has been these days, Christians being divided by politics.

Israel, American must support Israel. I think this may be the number one issue. If we mess with Israel, God will allow satan to mess with America. Recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital would be a great start. And then don't interfere with their actions. How about trusting Israel for once, that they know best how to govern their own country. If we try to split their land, God will let our land be split, by earthquakes or hurricanes or civil unrest or terrorist attacks, or mass shootings or anything else.

God will not be mocked, whatsoever a man (or country for that matter) sows, that shall they also reap. Sow good and reap good, so bad and reap bad. That simple. I could go on but let me end this here.

Kaf, the 11th Hebrew Letter

Monday afternoon and the Mission is closed, but I can tell you most likely tomorrow for noonday service we will be going to Kaf, the 11th letter of the Hebrew alephbet:

Jonathan Cahn Interview

Today for 12 o'clock noonday service we watched a recent Jonathan Cahn interview:

Reverse Culture God Shocked

The day after I came back from Kenya, I am thinking I was experiencing severe reverse culture shock, or like a missionary's version of PTSD, and I caught someone doing something at our church and felt it a good enough reason to pay a visit to the local police precinct. Well as God would have it, the detective I talked to turned out to be the detective who was handling my background investigation when I applied for the NPD so many years ago. I tried to jog her memory but she could not remember me. In fact I would not have placed her face had I not remembered her name. It was her name that stuck with me all these years. One tough chick! Just so happens that I wrote about my experience back then and seemed to make it a favorite of mine on Walking Daily with the Lord: I Dreamt I was a Police Officer.

I thought about blogging about this when it happened the other week ago, but never got around to it. Don't think I would have even bothered with it now had I not thought about hitting on that old favorite link just the few minutes ago.

Kenya, My Heart (Two)

Because I am so tired of the post prior this one (Late Night Blogging), I want to just share the video I made of my trip to Kenya:

 

I did just share it on Walking Daily with the Lord too, but since I am having trouble posting a widget of the House of Mercy Mission Fundraiser I started the other day, the above will have to suffice.

Late Night Blogging

12:44am Friday morning, the last day of VBS for our kids today and am planning to wake up around 6:45am to start picking them up. But am feeling restless and have been wanting to blog for a couple hours, so I figured why not get it out of me.

"I go through boys like underwear," said one of my old bosses to me from Tops Dinner in East Newark. Stopped by there after work with a friend who is visiting from Kenya and had me a bomb steak salad. Can't say I have ever had a better salad and have been wanting to hit that joint for some time to see if it still had it, and it did, the salad that is.

Was actually quite an experience I had there, and though the underwear comment takes the prize for most memorable, I had a jolly moment after I recovered from nearly choking on one of the steak strips. The steak was incredible, just fantastic but there was one piece that had a little extra fat and I could not quite figure out how to negotiate it.

Before I go on, part of the humor I found in all this had to do with an EMT textbook that was 70% off at Barnes and Noble which I had looked at the day before. At the time I found myself nearly choking on this tricky bit of steak, the thought crossed my mind that maybe I should have studied that EMT textbook more.

I thank God that I was able to easily eject the offending piece of cow! Though I did not want to make a scene, I would have to save my life. Who wouldn't, right? But the thought of possibly having to made me imagine the hoopla it would have caused. Rightfully so in such a case, but hoopla none-the-less.

However, it was the thought that maybe I should have studied the EMT textbook, at the exact time I was choking, that amused me. Interestingly even now I am having a thought that maybe I should go back and pick that book up, if it's still there. A sign!

Yeah but then my old boss's comment ("I go through boys like underwear") when I tried to jog his memory to remember me. Obviously he did not.

It was not the exact response I was looking for, but definitely original. My only question is if I should be insulted being that I am 37 years old and told him it was about 7 years ago. It's been awhile since someone called me a boy, but perhaps it was the story that I used to try to make him remember: "I only worked here for about 3 months, but over there [pointing to a particular place] is where I walked out on you."

Yeah I did that, walked out of Tops Diner as a waiter and made a big scene. Eh, it was just a waitering job, so no big deal, right? Well after I walked out I thought about it for awhile in the parking lot and had second thoughts, thinking that was no way to quit a job. And he actually let me come back.

I worked there for a couple more weeks before an underling let me go, saying because I could not work certain nights they had to release me. Anyway, I always thought the boss was cool, and that maybe I was just having a bad night that night. Things between the boss and me were never the same though after that night. Whatever. Many moons ago! Memories, memories.

Alright I think that will do it for now. Good night and God bless!

All Lives Matter!

After thinking deeply about what is happening in our nation, I have concluded that "All Lives Matter" is the correct response to "Black Lives Matter" no matter how offense it might be to some. Let me explain my reasoning because it really took a long time to articulate in my mind what's up.

Black Lives Matter is a response to an appearance of abundant racist police, but my objection to all this was that if black lives really mattered to the black community, why is there so much black on black crime?

Good question, and when I further thought about it, I concluded that crime is color blind, for it does not care what your skin color is, so yeah, crime has that going for it, but I am sure we can all agree that crime is not a good thing.

Next what we have here is what I like to call the "hood." The hood promotes crime, and crime, like I said before, does not care about skin color. However, this color-blind-crime also does not care about people. So we have the hood that creates crime and crime has a voice that says "No lives matter!" It does not say "Black lives don't matter," because crime doesn't care about skin color, but, "No lives matter!"

And well, as a Christian, all lives matter to me.

When I once thought the black community is really the one that does not believe that black lives matter, because of all the black on black crime I see here in Newark, I have concluded that color has nothing to do with it but only the voice that is greater: the voice of crime that says, "No lives matter!" or the opposing voice of God that says, "All lives matter!"

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy birthday America! You are a good country and God desires to bless you, but you must remember to always do what is right and to never forget the Lord. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord! Happy, happy, birthday America, and bless the Lord!

A High Pitch Sound

Well, hello there!

I have been dealing with a certain noise issue here in the city of Newark for the past two month now, shocker, I know, but today I was finally able to confront the person who might be able to do something about it. Wow was he heated! I mean his tone of voice was ridiculous and I could not figure out why he would be so upset over a simple conversation. I left the conversation saying "God bless you!" if that is any indicator of anything. I kept my cool the whole time, even after I was asked to leave the property. What!? A neighbor asking me to leave the property?! What a joke! He was furious over my simple request to adjust a knob on a commercial vacuum cleaner outside the gas station.

Yes, it's the BP gas station across the street and the new vacuum cleaner they installed a few months ago creates a high pitched noise. I believe it's the nozzle with a flat head that is creating the whistling noise and all that needs to be done is the taking off of the nozzle. This is Newark, no one is going to care there isn't a flat head nozzle on a gas station vacuum cleaner. But by the tone of his voice you would have thought I asked the boss to close down. Wow I had to sit down and pray about that one. And while a couple of ideas came to me in prayer, this, blogging about it, came as well. So here I am, writing about a unnecessarily weird incident.

"I'll ask the technician to look at it!" was the reply in the one sided argument, but why all the fuss? Why was he so hostile to me? I almost want to write the type of car he has and what color, but what would be the point? In any case from the look of his car, he is well to do. I just don't like being talked to that way, and I learned a long time ago not to talk to people like that, the way he was talking to me, in this neighborhood. People in this neighborhood don't put up with that and will put you in your place in a hot second. But, that is not me, I let God fight my battles, or a least try to. I am not perfect, I fail at times, but if I can help it I try to always do the right thing. And that is why I haven't snuck over there in the middle of the night with a ski mask and cut the thing off with a hacksaw. They have security cameras, but the Lord knows I've thought of the options. I have even thought of doing it in the broad day light and letting the police handle the matter no matter the consequences. Sainer heads have prevailed thus far. *sigh*

Anyway, we will see what God does, cause the Lord knows how disturbing I find this new noise. And as I end this post I can hear the sound of the whistle. Blessings, blessings, blessings!

Trusting the Lord at All Times

I don't know if this is the right place to write this, but I just feel like writing and here I am. Life is so tricky sometimes even as Christians. It's difficult not to worry. Is the Lord really gonna give us the desires of our heart? Or is it just a trick like a carrot and stick? That's just what life feels like sometimes but that's not the way it is. God is not a man that He should lie, and so then if we are truly delighting ourselves in Him, then He will honor His word and give us the desires of our heart. I choose to believe God and His Word and I choose to trust Him no matter what it looks like or how I feel. God will do what He said He will and that is that. The end of the story!

Glory of Zion

Today for service we watched the teaching part of this video by Robert Heidler on the Hebrew month of Iyar:

Pain and Suffering

Keep going, keep going, keep going! The other day I woke up with terrible upper back and neck pain, and even now it feels like something is being compressed on my chest at times and feels awkward swallowing or even breathing. Ordinarily someone in my situation might go to the doctors, but I don't have health insurance. Despite the Affordable Care Act, health insurance is still not affordable to me. To add insult to injury, this will be the second year I am "fined" for not having health insurance. It's so disgusting! The government interfering with my lack of healthcare. I just can't wait till Trump becomes president and blows this law clean out of the water.

On another note though, I really could use a doctor, but oh well, for the time being I will deal with the pain and hope it just becomes better on its own.

Pray for me, for healing, I know God is able! Thank you and God bless!