Life with The Swell Guy!

Fridays in Kenya - Life is vibrant in Mathare

Into The Mystic

There are some great covers of this song out there, but no one puts it down like Van Morrison. May your Gypsy Soul be rocked today.

Boxing Day Bike Ride - good to be out spinning

Best Christmas Tie Everrrrrrr

Fridays in Kenya - The Nest

The Nest reaches out to prevent the children of imprisoned mothers from fighting for survival on the street. The Nest rescues these children and improves their living conditions during the imprisonment of their mothers. We visited one late afternoon to help feed the infants dinner and put them down to bed for the night. It was a good afternoon.

Redefinition

Here is a great short on finding beauty in what is broken. Hang in there for the last minute. It's worth the wait.

Christmas, Jesus, & Chili Dogs!

It is so hard to admit that this guy is actually right

I do admit I hope Tom and the Pats mostly feel that love after the Steelers take them down in the playoffs. I guess I can take some comfort that the writer Paul in the bible was a big sports fan. Sigh.

Fridays in Kenya - Mathare Rock Star

Early Wednesday morning....wait...REALLY early Wednesday morning we returned home from Kenya. While we could simplify things and say we went for Erin & Robert's wedding and to bring our Baby Girl home there were many reasons to go. While we were not rushed, many things happened both in experience and conversation in those few days. Good things.

Instead of flooding readers with Kenya photos and stories, I will post something most Fridays for a period of weeks. So off we go with #1

Mathare Rock Star

He walks up to me and stops short. A smile. Strike a pose. "Look at me. I've got the shades. I'm a rock star. I'm a SUPER STAR."

Then laughing he runs off to play. That is the moment I notice the sunglasses are a broken pair that were likely discarded by someone else. The arms are missing and he has attached a scrap of string on each side and around the back of his head to hold them on his face. You can see the string in the photo.

Something broken made beautiful. What was discarded has become a treasure. A few moments of careful attention has produced a thing of great value.

We are broken. You and me. We are hopelessly busted up and we can not fix it ourselves. We have these moments that we feel discarded and left on a dirty scrap heap of sin & pain. And then this Jesus picks us up and makes us beautiful. Despite all of our scars and blemishes we are reminded that we are a treasure of great value. YOU and me.

Thank you Rock Star, wherever your are. You are special. You are beautiful. You are a young man of great value.

Today a wedding happened in Kenya. Just like we thought.

Congrats Erin & Robert!