We Treat, Jesus Heals

This is the sign for the hospital in Kilgoris. We found their motto to be true on our trip, in our work, as well.

The first day, one little girl hung out next to me for several hours. Her head was covering in boil-like eruptions. I didn't know what was wrong with her, so I just prayed and prayed that Jesus would heal her. As I did, I got the sense that he really cared for her, but her head still looked the same.

Later that day I saw one of the women from our team who is a nurse looking at this girl with one of the Kenyan women. She told us that they had figured out that the little girl had a very advanced case of ringworm, so they had treated her for it. 

We went back to the same place on our last day. The girl ran up to me in her Sunday dress and her head looked completely different. There was not an open wound on it, just a few places where you could see it had healed over. It was so exciting to see our presence and small ability to pray and treat bring about a big change for one girl God cares about so much and who I had also come to love and cherish.

Welcome to Kenya

Kenyans are probably the most welcoming people I have ever met. Everywhere we went, people were not only happy to see us but pulled out all the stops to make us feel welcome. They prepared all the food they could, gave us the best chairs or shady patches of grass, and said again and again, "You are most welcome, please feel completely at home."

On our very first day we drove up to Ntimigom school and were greeted at the road by 200 singing children. The teachers told us that since the kids couldn't really grasp time measurements well, they asked when we were coming every day before that.



After lots of singing and walking up the hill holding hands with every child that could get next to us, we sat down and listened to school teachers, board members, chiefs, ex-chiefs, and other politicians welcome us and thanks us for coming. They were so happy we had come all that way to meet and spend time with them.

They also brought out their young dance team that had just placed at a regional competition. Here's the video of them dancing for us.

At just about every school or place we went to, groups of Maasai dancers and singers performed for us to show us their culture and make us feel welcome. A school even showed up in our backyard one day to sing for us.

All of their warm welcomes, warm food, and performances made it clear they were happy to see us and it did in fact make me feel completely at home in their beautiful land.

The Summons

This morning, about to head off to the airport, I was praying and one of my favorite Catholic songs popped into my head. I haven't heard it or thought of it in a long time, but it was just what I needed to help with that standing-at-the-top-of-the-waterfall nervousness. The song is called The Summons. Lyrics and a video of what it sounds like are below. I found the first verse especially poignant. In it God asks, "Will you go where you don't know and never be the same?"

Also, this will probably be my last post until I return, as I don't think we have internet. So keep praying for us, that we will be able to follow the summons and love, teach, play, and learn well. I'll post all about the trip when we get back.





The Summons

Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don't know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?

Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?

Will you love the "you" you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you've found to reshape the world around,
through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?

Lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In Your company I'll go where Your love and footsteps show.
Thus I'll move and live and grow in you and you in me.

Jump Then Fall

God often teaches me things by having me actually do something. Last summer at Camp PBC, we went to some waterfalls. A few people went up and jumped off. After a while it looked like so much fun that I wanted to do it even though I am terribly afraid of heights. So I climbed up the cliff face with great difficulty. When I looked down, it was a lot farther than it had looked  from the bottom, but I couldn't see a way to climb back down the side of the cliff. I knew that I had no choice but to jump off. It was so high that I could barely breathe or move, and I just stood there paralyzed until one of my friends started singing the O No, You Never Let Go song. I finally realized that even though this was really scary to me, God could handle it. So, I just counted to three and jumped. The epic moment was caught on tape... http://www.facebook.com/mschatzel#!/video/video.php?v=137782007245

So now, whenever I decide to do something (like go to Africa), and then I get close and it looks a lot farther than it did before, I remember the moment I jumped off that waterfall. It looked really high, and it was. But it was also so amazing and fun that when I finally plunged into the water at the bottom, all I could think about was that I wanted to do it again.

And that's how I feel now, a few hours from leaving for Kenya. I'm at the top of the waterfall. I'm at the part of the rollercoaster when you're strapped in and can't get out. It clinks higher and higher, giving you time to think about everything that could go wrong and to try to imagine what those drops and corkscrews are going to feel like. So I'm just trying to remember that though it's high, that's what makes it fun. And that when I get back, I'll probably want to do it again.


You may also know that I love finding messages about faith and God in Taylor Swift songs, and "Jump Then Fall" has been in my mind while preparing this week. Some of the lyrics are:

Whoa oh I'm feeling you baby
Don't be afraid to jump then fall, 
Jump then fall into me 
Whoa, I'm never gonna leave you,
Say that you wanna be with me too
Cause I'm gonna stay through it all so jump then fall
The bottom's gonna drop out from under our feet
I'll catch you, I'll catch you


Pray for:
Peace for me and the team over our travels the next two days. Flying can scare me, and a day and a half of traveling is hard on everyone.
Also please pray we get into the country alright and get everything through customs.

49.5 Pounds

Yes, we fit all our supplies into a bag for each of us to bring, all under 50 lbs each. Below is the packing excursion reduced to 15 seconds...


Packing Miracle from Jon McCormack on Vimeo.


Please pray we are able to get them through customs and to the people.

Time to Pack

The church community has been very generous to donate all kinds of things for us to take to Kenya. We are taking school supplies, teaching supplies, soccer balls and jerseys, first aid kits, etc.

Below is a picture of it all sitting in a living room. It reminds me of a part in the book of Malachi that says "See if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." (3:10). Hopefully we will have enough room in our suitcases :)

Rivers in the Desert

I also thought I'd share a bit about how God has encouraged me already regarding the Kenya trip, so you know how he's leading me and can pray along with us :)

One day I was praying about the Kenya trip, asking for encouragement about God's work there and our role in it, and thought of / heard the phrase "rivers in the desert." Then I saw a picture of water being poured into the middle of a wide land that was just dry dirt. It flowed out in three branches like rivers, one went to the west, one winding toward the southwest, and one flowing south. The streams then split into smaller, more diverse streams that covered even more of the land. As the water traveled, flowers popped up from this dry dirt and soon the land became a field of flowers. Then I was reminded of the line in the song "Joyful, Joyful" that says that "hearts unfold like flowers before thee."

This reminded me of God's provision for the Israelites wandering in the desert after the Exodus (though they didn't always get the water-out-of-rocks idea right). I also remembered that I had recently read something in Isaiah about water in the desert, so I decided to look that up.

Isaiah 41:17-20 (NIV) reads:
¹⁷ "The poor and needy search for water,
       but there is none;
       their tongues are parched with thirst.
       But I the LORD will answer them;
       I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
 ¹⁸ I will make rivers flow on barren heights,
       and springs within the valleys.
       I will turn the desert into pools of water,
       and the parched ground into springs.
 ¹⁹ I will put in the desert
       the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.
       I will set pines in the wasteland,
       the fir and the cypress together,
 ²⁰ so that people may see and know,
       may consider and understand,
       that the hand of the LORD has done this,
       that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

It was neat to see how what we are doing and what the project is about so closely related to this. I think our trip is related to helping springs flow in their desert, water in dryness, refreshment, comfort, and life where it is lacking.

I found verse 20 to be especially helpful. It may seem like schools, wells, soccer balls, etc only provide in the material (as opposed to the spiritual). But, in addition to providing for the physical needs of people, which I believe is an important command from God we see in his word, the project also helps reveal who he is.

So, my prayer is the that the Maasai people would see and know, consider and understand that the hand of God has created this and done this for them and for us. We try to remember when we meet as a group to prepare that God is building this house. It is he who can make water flow out of the desert and satisfy us in a scorched land. The project and our part in it has great potential to reveal in very real and concrete ways the mercy, compassion, and love of God.