Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 167

Where's Christine????

Where’s Christine? And why hasn’t she posted to her blog in over a week?
I know that you know that I have been in Kenya. And you probably thought that I would be home by now and writing like crazy. Perhaps you are waiting with baited breath to read all of my fascinating stories and see all of my beautiful pictures. Sorry to keep you waiting.
I don’t know what to tell you, except that I got home late Sunday night, didn’t start unpacking until Tuesday morning, didn’t finish unpacking until Tuesday night, and first went on my laptop on Wednesday night. My head is positively swimming and I am still processing a lot of things. The stories will come; the pictures will be posted. I am shooting for actually getting something done this weekend.
So, don’t give up on me. Check back often. Trust me that the wait will be worth it.  My bags are packed, I'm ready to go. I should have gotten a picture when I got back home, I didn't look nearly this put together. 

Greetings from Kenya

I didn't know if I would be able to post a blog at all while we were in Kenya. I have internet for just a few minutes, so my thoughts are not together. I would also like to post lots of pictures, but you will have to patiently wait until we get home.
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This picture is of my daughter and I, showing off our sunburns. We were staying with a friend who lives in Saikeri, which is in the middle of nowhere and when I post the story of the trip there and back again, you will not believe it!

We are having a great time. Monday and Tuesday this week I worked at the medical clinic in Saikeri. No water or electricity. Can you imagine that in your doctor's office?

Gosh, what else, today we made up backpacks for 76 kids at an orphanage. Last week we visited the IDP camp, our friends from America who are fulltime missionaries here and I can't remember what else we did.

I don't want to leave, but can't wait to share all of my stories and pictures with you when I get home.

And the blogging starts to suffer. . .

I feel bad that I didn’t write an inspirational blog last night. It was a busy day – ran/walked one and a quarter miles, breakfast with a friend, laundry, housework, two parties for my daughter, shopping for last minute stuff for the trip, and a stop at the funeral home for the wake of a dear family friend.  Oh, and made bars for the funeral luncheon today. I thought that Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest!
We all need more time to rest.  God knew what He was doing when He designated one day to rest, He knew that we needed that. Of course, He also wanted us to spend that day getting to know Him better. Yet in our hectic lives we just don’t take the time to rest for ourselves, much less to spend any time in prayer, praise and reflection. That hour in church once a week should take care of that, right?
Wrong. But I’m not going to give a sermon or do any lecturing. I think I’m going to get a bowl of ice cream, put some ice on my knee (don’t ask), and at least rest now, while I can.
Tomorrow is another day and I have precious few of them before I leave for Kenya. My blog posts will be very spotty the next three weeks. I hope to come home energized to write all about it, to share the adventure, to inspire you to make your own adventure. In the meantime, I’ll try to keep you all posted as best as I can. 
And I still have to make time for a picture. This is the first one I grabbed from my daughter's pictures from Kenya in 2010. I love those lone trees. 

Ready for Adventure?

"Let's go on an adventure."
“But we might get into trouble.”
"That's how we know it's an adventure."
I average two hours of TV per week. Yes, per week. Maybe, three. A while back there was a commercial on TV for a cartoon coming out soon. And the above quote was in the ad. I don’t remember what movie it was for, and I wasn’t able to track it down on-line. Please, whoever’s movie this was from, I am sorry that I borrowed it and didn’t give you credit.
But aren’t these great lines. Doesn’t everybody like an adventure every so often?  And sometimes you just have to get in a little bit of trouble, for the fun of it or the thrill of it.
 It’s hard to believe that I will be leaving for my big adventure in just over a week. I don’t plan on getting in trouble while I am in Kenya, I really don't want to get in trouble. I don't even need any excitement. But I think we will just have to see what happens. 

I don't miss mosquitoes

Hey, all you warm-blooded humans living in northern Wisconsin, you aren't the only ones sick and tired of winter. I know, we have been hearing it for months now - snow in the forecast. Again! And it's April! But like I said, you are not the only ones who are complaining. How do you think we mosquitoes feel? We just want to get out there and start stealing your blood. The great thing about that is not only do we steal, we share too. I know, I know, you people in middle America don't have much to worry about. Maybe a West Nile infection once in a while. My relatives living in third world countries are the ones you need to really watch out for. They get to spread lots of diseases, the most notorious being malaria. That's the big claim to fame us mosquitos have. Nothing like spreading that disease amongst children and the elderly in those countries that don't have any way to treat this disease. Yep, those mosquitoes in places like Kenya have got it made. They are famous!
Hold it, hold it, you nasty little mosquito! I am going to Kenya in just over a week and I don’t need you threatening all of those innocent people I am going there to help. So just give it a rest.
Don’t we wish that mosquitoes would give it a rest, and stop spreading diseases like malaria. But they won’t. The best thing we can do is support an organization like Compassion International in their efforts to prevent the spread of this disease which claims the lives of thousands of children each year. To learn more about what you can do, click here. 
And as I head off to Kenya the fifth of May, I will be loaded up with my anti-malaria pills. I just wish I had enough pills to share with the whole country. 

A time for anything else?

Two weeks from today I will be flying off to Kenya. It doesn’t seem possible that the time has gone that fast and that in just four weeks I will be home again.
I think that it is “crunch time”, time to stop fooling around and start getting ready for this trip. I think it is time to focus. I think it is time to stop worrying about what I will blog about three times a week. I think I should spend some time with my mom and my hubby. I think I should get more sleep.
Maybe there is a reason why in Ecclesiastes 3 there is no verse that reads, “there is a time to sleep and a time to stay up all hours of the night trying to get things done because you have too much on your plate.”
I have listed on my otherblog all the specific things I have to get done by June. I have crossed a lot of it off already. All I can do is what I have time for and the rest will have to fall by the way.
Lord, Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us 24 hours each and every day. Help us to see that You have given us that amount of time because that is how much time we need each day. Let us just erase the rest of the stuff off of our to-do list. Amen.

A Time for Peace

"The only field or occupation that benefits from war is medicine," said Dr. David Cifu, rehabilitation medicine chief at the Veterans Health Administration.
I got this quote off of Yahoo News this morning in an article about the bombings Monday in Boston. Dr. Cifu is referring to the many veterans of war who have suffered amputations and how the medical field has used what they have learned about those victims to help civilian amputees.
I guess that the Bible was right, when in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, we are reminded that there is a time for war. It still doesn't make it seem right.
And then I wake up this morning to the news of an explosion in Texas. The last report I read was that there are 15 dead and at least 160 injured.
Makes me worry about what will happen next. Makes me think I better read my Bible more. Maybe everybody should be reading their Bibles more. 
Makes me want there to be a time for peace instead. 

A Day in my Life. . .

As usual, I had a few various thoughts about what I was going to write about today. As I sat on the computer last night trying to get those thoughts in order, well, I didn’t get my thoughts in order. It had been one of those days.
I had gotten up Monday morning at the usual time, did the usual exercises, took a shower (what they call a military shower because I have made myself crazy not wanting to waste that much water). I ate breakfast while getting caught up on-line, made the bed, did the waste-of-time makeup thing, got dressed and left for work. I like to get to work early on Mondays because there is usually a mess left behind for me from the weekend. I didn’t make it to work early, but not to worry. The mess wasn’t too bad.
All continued as usual – just a normal day – til I went out to the waiting room in the afternoon to call back a patient. All I heard were a few words on the TV. “Boston marathon, two dead, dozens injured”. As I took my patient to the scale, I thought, that must be some Boston Marathon. Had it been beastly hot and runners were dropping from heat stroke? That would figure since the temperatures are still around freezing here.
By the time I was finished rooming my patient and returned to the nurses’ station, a coworker had the news up on her computer. How do these things happen? Why do these things happen?
We hear it on the news all the time - but it happens it foreign countries. It doesn't happen here. Except for 9/11, and a bunch of other attacks all over the country, in our schools and in our malls and on our highways. Some we never even see on the news.
What is the sense of it all? Why can't people get along? Why can't people respect each other? Why does death and destruction happen?
Yes, I know that we are sinful creatures. I know that in the Bible it says “in this world you will have trouble”.
The part that’s hard to remember is the rest of that verse. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Need any advice today?

Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it.  Run for dear life to good.  Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing 2nd fiddle.  Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame.  Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant.  Don't quit in hard times, pray all the harder.
Help needy Christians, be inventive in hospitality.  Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath.  Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down.  Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up.  Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.
Don't hit back, discover beauty in everyone.  If you've got it in you, get along with everybody.  Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do.  "I'll do the judging" says God, "I'll take care of it."
Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink.  Your generosity will surprise him with goodness.  Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good."
Romans 12:9-21 From The Message version of the Bible
There isn't a thing to add to that, is there? It certainly says it all.  A friend of mine at work emailed this to me the other day. How did she know it was just what I needed? Hmmm?

Is spring getting close in your backyard?

I was going to blog about something else tonight, another room in my house, but lo and behold, I didn't have any pictures in the computer of that room. Hard to believe. And I'm thinking that it would be too much work to scan them tonight. 
I looked outside my window and wondered if it is really possible that spring will ever get here. I see a few patches of brown in the front yard, but the back yard remains a vision of white.
The cooper kettle off of my deck tells the story.    October 27 November 15 December 2 January 1 of this year   March 22  Today! I guess there has been much progress in the last two weeks! May 15, last year. Will my cooper kettle look like this in just over one month?Not likely, since I won't be back from Africa until May 19. Maybe the hubby will surprise me . . .