ALL THY TEDIOUSNESS BESTOWED ON ME

Today we needed all the prayers of the saints to weave our way through the day. It all began yesterday when we went with Kathy Pryor to the Ministry of Lands to try to secure a new lease on the YWAM compound in Mombasa. Their 99 year lease expired last month and if it is now renewed they will lose the base to the local Muslims in the community. So this is a serious matter. They applied for a new lease but the Ministry of Lands here in Nairobi has been ignoring their application for over two years. Kathy has called an officer named James in the Land Department again and again to see what the status of the application was. In recent months he has refused to answer her calls. So we decided that we would cloak ourselves in prayer and pay a surprise visit to this man. Upon arrival we went to the 3rd floor to go to the bathroom. While on the third floor we meant an angel. Well, she was like an angel! A woman named Martha was standing in the lobby wearing the same color blouse and Kathy and Valerie. They looked at each other and the woman said “We have something in common”. Immediately Valerie knew that this woman was going to play a role in our adventure, but she disappeared down the stairs. From the third floor we went down to the first floor to take a number and stand in the long waiting lines before us. It looked hopeless to wait in the lines so Kathy decided to give James a call. Sure enough he recognized Kathy’s number and would not answer, so I called him on my phone. He didn’t recognize the number so he answered and I announced to him that we were downstairs and wanted to see him. There was a brief pause and finally he said “I’ll come down to you”. As we stood waiting Martha showed up. She smiled at us and said “Can I help you?” The girls explained what our situation was and gave Martha some of our papers. Just then James showed up and saw us in conversation with Martha and she was holding some of our papers. From the beginning and for the next two days every move James made gave the appearance of a man who was trying to play us for a bribe and who did not want anyone to see us with him. He was visibly annoyed that we were talking to one of his colleges about our case and I believe this was because he did not want any witnesses. On the first day he gave us the run around. He sent us away several times and told up to come back later. Each time he was late and had nothing for us, but by the end of the day he finally said “we have found your documents and if you come tomorrow, we will issue you a new lease”. Last night we emailed our faithful prayer team and asked them for intercession, because the whole situation was dubious. This morning we really prayed as we drove down to meet James and to our surprise he was very businesslike. However when he arrived, Valerie was on the phone with Martha, so James new that others in his department were watching him. He took us straight to another man in a 4th floor office who assured us that the lease was being prepared. They told us to come back in 40 minutes, which we did, but in Kenya 40 minutes is 2 hours. After two hours we were finally presented with a new lease, but we had to do several things to have it take it effect. We had to pay $1600 in rents and fees and we had to pay several different offices in several different ways. Kathy didn’t have $1600, but I did, so I loaned it to her from your Worldcomp offerings. Let me tell you, I have been to Kenya many times and I am thoroughly acquainted with Kenyan inefficiently, but today was inefficiency gone wild. Now, my patience is world renowned, but today it was tested, tried and stretched to the max. At every station, with every person, there was a long wait and every person wanted something we didn’t have. Many of them did not have any idea what to do and could not understand what we wanted them to do. It was maddening. Along the way we met several other “angels” who helped up find the right person and showed us where to go. At one point I laughed when I was reminded of a scene from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, when officer Dogberry came to the door of the honorable Leonato and was very “tedious”. The script goes like this: Leonato. Neighbours, you are tedious. Dogberry. It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the poor duke’s officers; but truly, for mine own part, 
if I were as tedious as a king, I could find it in 
my heart to bestow it all of your worship. Leonato. All thy tediousness on me, ah? Dogberry. Yea, an ’twere a thousand pound more than ’tis; Today all the tediousness of all of Kenya was bestowed upon us. But alas my friends, God gave us victory. We walked out of there with a new signed lease, bought and paid for. Valerie and I both thank God because we know that God intervened made the whole thing happen.

THE NORTHWEST NURSES

The Northwest nurses have had quite a time getting admitted to serve in the hospital here. They were supposed to start two days ago, but when they arrived no one there knew they were coming. Those who thought that they had communicated, didn’t. To make matters worse Kenya just passed a new law that any doctor’s or nurses working in Kenya hospitals have to be approved by the head man in the Ministry of Health. Apparently this was due to some Russian medical professionals had done something that caused a controversy. But today they finally got settled and are now working on in various departments in Kenyatta Hospital. Tomorrow we head out with the nurses to Kakamega. We will have several medical camps and visit our Worldcomp projects in Western Kenya. I know that the nurses will be glad to see rural Kenya and get away from the unbelievable congestion and chaos in Nairobi. I’ll report from Western Kenya starting tomorrow. Please continue to keep us in your prayers and to send your contributions for our support. We need your help to raise $2000 to buy medicine for our two medical camps. I am also hoping to have some extra money to buy a few meals for the nurses while they are serving our children in Western Kenya because their budget is tight If you feel a response to help us we’d really appreciate it.

Please send your contributions to:
Worldcomp Kenya
7758 Earl Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98117\

or give online at www.worldcompkenya.com/ways-to-help

All of you are very dear to us. Thank you so much for your emails, your prayers and your encouraging words.

All our love Richard and Valerie