When it hits you and
won’t let you go
December 23,
2005
When your father is the college guidance counselor, you
hear lots and lots about different universities. It can make an impact, even if
you are only four years old. During a bubble bath, Ben and Kate told
me:
Ben: I’m going to Harvard.
Me: Why Harvard?
Ben: I already know how to spell
it.
Katie: I’m going to Harvard
too.
Me: Why Harvard?
Katie: I already have the
shirt.
I marvel at their clarity, and can’t WAIT to read their
application essays.
This has been a hard year for some good reasons. The
illnesses we have been fighting and the imprisonment of a friend for no good
reason has been so frustrating; he has been in prison for four months, and every
time he is scheduled for trial, the truck that is supposed to take him to court
is not working. A couple we met from
But the biggest reason the year has been hard is that
I’ve missed my family and friends in
The second computer center is up and running. It has
been a long hard road with lots of unexpected problems, but the center is up and
going. Almost nine hundred children will have chances that most never get in
this country, thanks to you.
The headmaster told me that I couldn’t possibly
understand what it was like to have nothing and then be given riches like this
center. I told him I understood very well; the story of my life is that I had
nothing and Jesus filled my heart.
This school is in the poorest of poor areas. When we
were installing the computers, two little boys kept jumping up and down and
asking `Will we get to learn computers?’ When I told them yes, they hugged each
other in excitement.
Walter, my friend who is the genius behind these
centers, is leaving this part of ministry to go to a very rural part of
It is also a great thrill to be part of the food
program. I was at a school last month when a student fainted from hunger. I get
so angry at unnecessary hunger and hate the stupid poverty in this country, but
I am so glad to be able to do a little about it. We are buying tons of maize and
beans, but a wise Kenyan man told me that when a westerner sees Kenyan poverty,
it hits you and won’t let you go, and that is the blessing and the curse. You
get to do something about it, but it hurts you all the
time.
But there are things that seem big, and there are things
that are big. When someone is baptized at RVA, it is a big deal. The whole
school turns out, and each person baptized selects someone to baptize them, read
a scripture, and pray.
We have an amazing staff at RVA; lots of young energetic
people who do so much for the kids. It is an honor to work among them, and I
often don’t think I fit in, because I am the old cranky staff member. It is
those young staff members, rightfully so, who usually get asked to
pray.
But this term, for the first time, a little girl asked
me to pray for her. Anne was one of my favorites at this school. She was just
here for a term; her dad is a doctor and came out for a short time. Anne was
just so full of life it was impossible not to like
her.
(Anne)
I’m not sure why I was chosen, but I can tell you this:
it is such an honor to be invited to be a part of someone choosing to be
baptized. I tried hard not to cry, but I choked up at the end.
It’s great to be a part of computer centers and feeding
children, but being a part of someone’s life can happen anywhere. It can even
happen to cranky old men who are fighting discouragement in a far away land.
Your pal
Steve and Nancy
Peifer
Stateside Address: AIM
Home Number:
011-254-20-32046-458
Office Number:
011-254-20-32046-170
Steve's Cell:
011-254-0734-124292
Website: http://peifer.kijabe.org/index.html?intro.html&1
Foundation:
http://www.solutionbeaconfoundation.org/programs.htm