homabay, the vision 📚☕️🫏💧

writing is an outlet. so many thoughts and ideas fill my mind, along with distractions and noise. those are true whether i am in america or kenya. and yet they reflect the location of my heart. at home, the thoughts and ideas are around life there and seem much more sensible and predictable. here, my thoughts and ideas are much bigger with more passion and vision. anything seems possible here. i don't know why that is? 

maybe i do understand a piece of it. there is magic in the people. because they have little, when someone comes along with an idea and funding, they get behind it. completely. there are no obstacles to them because they overcome hardship every single day. hand dig a foundation? no problem. move piles of large stone? no worry. mix insane amounts of cement one wheelbarrow at a time. okay. fabricate metal to build a water tower? challenge accepted. it is massively humbling and beautiful when you bring people from different continents together, things get done 🥹 the blending of cultures and creative talents -- AMAZING!

before the tiny details get lost, i very much want to capture how God allowed all this to come to life. i wouldn't consider myself a visionary in terms of a grand plan. i just keep marching forward and see what seems to fall into place. but whenever God plants a seed of anything really, i operate from proverbs 16:3 "commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans." it is His plan, not mine. i keep myself open to where He wants the direction to go. 

because of how i believe God works...mysteriously and magnificently... i think homabay was His direction in bringing me here. the in His hands rescue center in kisii was the conduit and what anchored my heart to this country. this place will forever be etched on my heart ❤️ what is happening here is literally transforming lives.

exactly one year ago was my second trip. it was just michelle and me on a whirlwind trying to get this place to the next stage. seeing the place now... well, that seems like a lifetime ago. and yet i remember something that happened so crystal clear. 

stephen wanted to take us to his homeland in homabay. we drove there and walked around on what was just a barren six acres. he had inherited it and planned one day to build a family home.

as we were leaving, right across the road, there was a goat whose rope tie was tangled in the brush. i asked stephen to stop so i could detangle him. i inquired about where was his water. stephen replied, "mom, our community has no water. the owner will haul his animals' water later."  in my mind, i am thinking, what do you mean there's no water here? i asked what it would take to get a borehole here for the community. bottom line, money. 

so, it started with a goat. how perfect is that 🥹? a hydrological survey was done and water was found quickly and abundantly! getting clean and accessible water is always first priority. 

so, now trip three happens in june. it was one of the best months of my life. lydia and i made memories to cherish a lifetime. at some point during the month, stephen mentioned he planned on donating two of his acres to in His hands for a future project. i am taking a shower one morning at itibo (this was before the missionary apartments were finished and we stayed at itibo... the very place where my intestines exploded a week ago 🤢) and God dropped a picture of something in my head - an open air community center in homabay to join the community water project. side note. on several occasions, God has planted a seed while i am showering. it is definitely a pattern i have noticed over the last three years. i anticipate it now 🙂.

on the last day, lydia and stephen went into kisii for some errands, and he ran an idea by her... "what do you think your mom would say if i gifted her an acre of land?" she was like 'heck YES!' they get back and stephen said he wanted to talk to me privately. i felt like my kids used to feel when i said that to them.... am i in trouble?! he and i stood next to one of the stacks of 48 mattresses in the dining hall. and he asked me if i would accept an acre from him to build me a home there. i still have no words. 

at this point, a community well, a community center, and a home were the vision. ill-defined, but at least headed in a direction. 

trip #4 was the month of november, and when momentum truly started. lydia, stephen and i head to homabay.  this is when things started in my mind to really become a reality. we identified the place where my future home would be built. we laid hands on a rock that symbolized the cornerstone. and we prayed. prayed for His blessing and protection and will to be done. i will never forget how big that prayer felt. 

in late december, construction on all three started in earnest. the locals became the core of the daily laborers. artisans came from surrounding communities and nairobi to do fabricating, plumbing, electrical, and masonry. and at an unbelievable pace, poof! what was once a barren lot became a hub of activity. the community was thrilled and curious and extremely supportive. in november, we met with all the community leaders to get their buy-in and input, such a critical part to any project being initiated by americans. 

during december, january, and february the plans for what would happen at the community center were vague -- literacy classes for adults (when God gave the idea of a community center, the only word He gave with it was 'literacy'. i know nothing about teaching adults to read and write english. i am about to find out), trade classes, educational offerings and meetings. that's it. i knew the intended group was adults. not sure how i knew, but it was strong intuition maybe. 

and then march arrives. and with march, came clarity. we went to homabay for the day the first week. we walked around in disbelief at the transformation! in less than three months, buildings sprang up!!! 

the community center is the hub. this is where the magic will happen. the layout is basically a very large common area and two large separate rooms in the back. one of these rooms has large windows and just screamed at me 'I AM THE LIBRARY!!' a library. well, of course a library. there are none here. this is such a sweet fit with literacy. teach them to learn to read and then love to read. provide good books in many genres and this will happen. 

a couple of details that became part of this story as well. when planning for this trip, one of the skills that i felt was important (very important lol 😆) that we could teach the girls at the rescue center was barista training and hospitality.  any of the girls in kisii could work in the service industry one day, and combined with the lack of good coffee here (this was shocking to me --- instant almost everywhere) and my love of coffee, it was destiny 😝

of course by extension, it made sense for a coffee shop to be a key to the homabay plans 😁 coffee brings people together. and a coffee shop AND a library next to each other?!! SAY LESS!!!!

obvious to any that know me, i would want animals here. the interesting part is i told stephen a month or so ago, that i didn't really want goats. i wanted two donkeys. the joke was these donkeys wouldn't be work donkeys (God forbid!) but pets. we will have a security guard onsite 24/7, so donkeys would make a perfect companion for him 😁. 

and then thursday, we brought half the kisii staff to homabay to show them the next in His hands project. as we were leaving to go eat and play games, i was riding in stephen's car. and the idea💡 hit me hard... donkeys can have saddlebags and become a mobile library to the remote areas and to those who can't travel for whatever reason to the community center! one of the very best books i read years ago was "the book lady of troublesome creek." a fictionalized true story about a program done in the u.s. during the great depression to reach the illiterate people in appalachia. this woman rode horses, donkeys, and mules to give the gift of reading to these unreached people. it was wildly successful. 

and as crazy as all this sounds, it is going to work. it will work because God created these ideas and breathed life into them. my excitement has increased exponentially! it has His hand and my heart written all over it. the only missing part is my sister who now resides in Heaven. she is the one person on the planet who would see the absolute perfection of all this -- a home next to a coffee shop and both a library and a donkey mobile library.

God is good, all the time. all the time, God is good. yes, and amen.