Unexpected Day of Rest

From a journal entry on Ocrober 13th, 2014:

After yesterday's worship at AIC Oreteti Church and Maasai cooking lessons from a twelve year old friend named Raeli, we had a good night's sleep. This morning started out differently than the previous ones. Chase's stomach wasn't feeling great so he took some visits to the cho (a bathroom, essentially an enclosed area with a hole). Benson, a long time friend, graciously offered to take us to the nearest town to get the car inspected. We began having issues the day we arrived here as we drove in sight of our friends' church. After some suggestions were made at the mechanic, we had a cup of chai with Pastor Benson in Kiserian, checked our emails quickly for 16 KSH (about 20 cents) and came back home so that Chase could rest. We suspected that his stomach was cramping due to something he'd eaten the night before. While he rested in our bedroom at our friend Jeremy's house, I read a book called Accidental Missionaries about some missionaries named the Grindolls to the Maasai in the 70s. Inside was a picture of Samuel Pulei, who we learned is our friend Moses Pulei's uncle. The book covered the tensions, joys, and challenges of the developments in the Ooloshoibor area, not far from where we are staying now. There were a number of familiar names and places in the book. The copyright was dated 1990, which seemed weird to me since that's the year I was born. 

After Chase's rest, we went to visit Jeremy's parents who live in the neighboring compound. His father, Sailoji, was dressed in traditional attire with reds shukas covering his chest, cloths draping his body, and beads dangling from his stretched earlobes. His second wife, Maria, was working diligently on beadwork to sell in the Nairobi Maasai market. The colors of her beads, the stark contrast of her beautiful white smile against her perfectly dark skin, captured my attention. I couldn't say much more than a greeting, but I think she knew I was admiring her. We tried our best to explain that we were going to see the sunset. We said "Olesere" (goodbye in Maa) and went on our way. 

As I watched the sun fall behind the mountains over the Rift Valley, a deep comfort filled my spirit. Although we are mourning in some senses the loss of the familiar and our families, friends, and community, God is lavishing us with reminders of his sovereignty, his grace, his faithfulness, and his ability to meet our every need. Emesisi Enkai. (Let us praise God). 

(For pictures showing things I have mentioned in this post, take a look at my last FB post of pictures!)