** Some People I Have Met. **

I have met many interesting people, I could dedicate a day to writing about them and wouldn't do them all justice. I like meeting new people in Australia, I guess the difference over here is that people's experiences are so utterly different from my own in many cases. So I will pick just a few to briefly mention.

PASTOR GEORGE KARANJAR hosted our team in Kenya for a meal. They just have a humble piece of land with some huts. They have 3 cows and some coffee, maize and casava. His son Samuel has recently been married (after the dowry was settled of course) and George gave him a cow to get started. They live in a small hut that Samuel built on the same property and Samuel's dream is to have his own calf and a baby with his wife Rachel.
The hospitality they showed us was amazing and they spared no expense, sacrificing their own needs to provide us well. I think the equivalent hosting for us might be spending a few week's wages on a single evening for our guests. They love introductions and hearing what you do over in Kenya. I enjoyed chatting with Pastor George and hearing his dreams to see more people in his area know Christ. He wants to have enough money to send his children to school too.

WYCLIFFE is a guard at a guest house in Naiobi. He works there 72 hours per week. He lives in the slums 9 km's away, where he walks to and from each day. He only has a small lockable shack there, and his family of 5 children live in western Kenya, he gets to see them once every month or two, like many workers here in Nairobi. He is working so that they can all go to school and have enough food. He is a christian man so often reads the bible while guarding. He taught me a few hours of Swahili. He earns about $140 per month, which is for his family of 7 members.

STEVE & MELINDA.
I think these guys are a special story of God's grace and power to transform lives, so I asked if I could blog about them. Steve said that was fine, if God gets all the credit. Steve was an ardent atheist for many years, perhaps justified in his mind by the trumatic abuse he had suffered as a young child. Living completely for himself, it wasn't until a second marriage breakup that He came to an end of himself. 30 minutes after an attempted suicide, a christian friend whom he had known for quite a while rang him, wanting to tell him about Christ, not knowing anything about the breakup or desperation Steve was facing. Steve commited his life to following Jesus, and within the week, he didn't do drugs anymore. Some areas took longer to change though, and God is still at work. Although Steve has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, He keeps trusting God and is working here in Uganda for eMi as a staff member, already surprising doctors in his sustained health.
Melinda is married to him. They were young christians together and Melinda has her own story of drug and alcohol addiction for many years, which God changed after she followed Christ. They lived together unmarried for a while after becoming christians, but Melinda was convicted and told Steve that it couldn't continue, that obedience to God must come first. After some initial resentment and manipulation, Steve realised that this meant she could be trusted if she would put God first. They stopped living together and got married 3 months later. They have some kids now and have also adopted a small Ugandan girl from Jinja who is HIV positive, accepting the heartache it may bring sometime down the track. It's just great to see how God can work in any life, and works uniquely in each life according to our different needs. Steve adds "Remember, all glory to God."

As I meet people over here, each story is unsurprisingly different to my own. Many mzungu (white skin's) have quite interesting stories of why they have ended up here as missionaries or workers. You can never tell what someone's life-story is going to be like though, so I've enjoyed getting to know people and hearing their different experiences.