We often tell people that two years of living in Kisumu, is long enough to call this place home but short enough that we are still rookies at what we are doing. As we continue on this journey of missionary life in a third world country we continue to learn invaluable lessons and never know what the next week or day will hold. Over the last couple of weeks we've had some good lessons in perspective. As humans, I think It is easy to loose perspective on anything but it seems to be an area the enemy really likes to use with missionaries. After all when we loose perspective we often find ourselves distracted. And oh how the enemy loves to distract us. It makes sense because when we are distracted we are not focused on the Lord or what He has called us to do. Recently we found ourselves grappling with an issue and at times I found myself loosing perspective. Instead of keeping my eyes focused on Jesus the Author and Finisher of faith, I was focused on the issue at hand and to be honest, absorbed with it. It is in those times that I tend to see the ugliness of life, find myself worrying and hurting, and even question what the Lord has called me to do. I will be the first to say that you can't just discard feelings and ignore them. Especially as women we have to work through them, but one of the lessons I am learning is that in that process of working through things, if my focus isn't on the Lord I will miss the beauty the Lord has for me in the challenge or trial. Romans 8:28 says," And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called, according to His purpose." That is beauty right there. Even what the enemy may have intended for evil, God can use for good! That is beauty. A few days after resolving the issue we had been working through, Matt and I were sitting in our living room and looked out the window as the sun was setting. What we saw was something so beautiful. In the midst of our rather ugly, security fence with barb wire twisted here and there, the sun was shinning through the broken glass on top of the wall. It was stunning and absolutley beautiful. We ran to get our camera. In that moment of taking in the beauty, the Lord showed me an incredible picture of perspective. Instead of looking at the ugly, rather confining security fence that can sometimes bring about discouraged feelings, I was looking at the sun shinning and creating beauty. "Look at My Son in every situation," I heard Him say "And you will see beauty!" No matter the situation, when our eyes are fixed on the things above (like our Saviour) and not on things of the earth (Coloss. 3) we truly see the beauty of the Lord. Not only did I learn a sweet lesson on perspective but the Lord also used the lesson to encourage us in our calling here. What a gracious God He is!
May we all keep looking up at the Son and stay focused on His beauty!
By Peggy
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Pure Water for the P4 House
Throughout our time here in Kenya, we've always known and abided by the rule of "Don't drink the tap water". Although technically the water is treated by the city water plant, by the time it reaches our place (or any place for that matter) it is not only unfit for consumption but when using it for a myriad of other things, it can also be too filthy. A friend of ours was complaining that the water coming to his house was making his clothes dirtier after washing them than they were before. So, although we know not to drink the water and to be careful when bathing, etc. to keep it from being ingested, it is near impossible to keep our little girl, Joellie, from getting some amount of water in her mouth during her evening bath. In fact, we wondered if our water could have been the cause of her frequent tummy issues over the past year. All these problems in addition to the fact that we frequently have guests in our home, prompted us to begin investigating ways that we could try to purify the water that we had for our house. Often when drawing a bath for the little ones, we have noticed a layer of silt/dirt particles that darkens the water as it fills the tub; And that's the very water that Joelle often would be getting into her mouth. Before our recent trip to that States this past Spring, we began investigating different methods of filtering our house water. And while in the States, the Lord put it on someones heart to help us with the funds needed to get "clean water" in our home. For which we are so grateful to the Lord for His provision.
The process that it took to "install" something to purify the water was anything but easy. Although by American standards the cost was not all that high (less than $300) the labour to get everything done and working right was quite tedious. The first Step was to finish investigating the different methods of filtration systems that could handle the flow of water needed for the house. This took several trips to a local water specialist store and many long conversations with one of their employees to see what would be best and most cost efficient. (The first system that we were looking at would have cost over $1,000). Once we had a peace from the Lord about moving forward with the filtration system of our choice. We had to coordinate with a welder, a plumber, and a mason to come and install everything (which took another couple weeks after having secured the water treatment device). Aside from the plumbing of pipes to run our water through the filter and back to the main line to the house, we needed to install a housing box for the filter system in order to protect it from the weather elements (which was built by the welder, and installed by the mason in the side of our outside wall). After this was done, we then had to have our current water storage tanks (one large tank above the house and one large tank at the bottom of the house) scrubbed cleaned and disinfected. There were also two hot water tanks in the house which have been a "dirt/sediment catch" over the years since their original installation (I'm guessing over 10 years ago). Neither of which had ever been removed or cleaned since the house was built. (The pictures are of one of those tanks being cleaned and what came out of that tank).
The way water works here in Kenya is that the city provides water to those within its jurisdiction, but because the water can be very low in pressure coming to the house and many times will go for days without coming at all, people install water storage tanks for the water to fill. If their is a "top tank" such as our place has, then the water is then gravity fed into the pipes of the house, which then provides enough pressure for things like a shower, etc. Because sometimes the water pressure coming from the city is too low to effectively fill the top tank, people (like us) have opted to have a down tank which can be filled much easier by the city water, which is than pumped up to the top tank. What we've managed to do for our water filtration system is to put a filter in between the down tank and the up tank which passes the water (via the pump) into 2 filters (a 5 micron sediment filter and a 1 micron sediment filter). These filters then have to be changed when they clog up with too much sediment for water to pass through them. Although these filters remove almost all sediment, there is still the possibility of small things such as bacteria, viruses, amebas, etc. that would be able to get through (although the risk is reduced quite drastically by the filters). So in order to kill any type of "bug" that could make us sick we then also treat our water with a "chlorine" based water solution that we dump into our down tank about once a week. Now with the combination of the chlorine and the sediment filter, our house has "clean water". PRAISE THE LORD!
We wanted to thank everyone who has prayed for us and even those whom God used to help supply the needed funds for this to become a reality. Although we still try to keep Kenya Grace and Joelle from drinking the bath water... it's not nearly the concern that it used to be. To God be the Glory!
The process that it took to "install" something to purify the water was anything but easy. Although by American standards the cost was not all that high (less than $300) the labour to get everything done and working right was quite tedious. The first Step was to finish investigating the different methods of filtration systems that could handle the flow of water needed for the house. This took several trips to a local water specialist store and many long conversations with one of their employees to see what would be best and most cost efficient. (The first system that we were looking at would have cost over $1,000). Once we had a peace from the Lord about moving forward with the filtration system of our choice. We had to coordinate with a welder, a plumber, and a mason to come and install everything (which took another couple weeks after having secured the water treatment device). Aside from the plumbing of pipes to run our water through the filter and back to the main line to the house, we needed to install a housing box for the filter system in order to protect it from the weather elements (which was built by the welder, and installed by the mason in the side of our outside wall). After this was done, we then had to have our current water storage tanks (one large tank above the house and one large tank at the bottom of the house) scrubbed cleaned and disinfected. There were also two hot water tanks in the house which have been a "dirt/sediment catch" over the years since their original installation (I'm guessing over 10 years ago). Neither of which had ever been removed or cleaned since the house was built. (The pictures are of one of those tanks being cleaned and what came out of that tank).
The way water works here in Kenya is that the city provides water to those within its jurisdiction, but because the water can be very low in pressure coming to the house and many times will go for days without coming at all, people install water storage tanks for the water to fill. If their is a "top tank" such as our place has, then the water is then gravity fed into the pipes of the house, which then provides enough pressure for things like a shower, etc. Because sometimes the water pressure coming from the city is too low to effectively fill the top tank, people (like us) have opted to have a down tank which can be filled much easier by the city water, which is than pumped up to the top tank. What we've managed to do for our water filtration system is to put a filter in between the down tank and the up tank which passes the water (via the pump) into 2 filters (a 5 micron sediment filter and a 1 micron sediment filter). These filters then have to be changed when they clog up with too much sediment for water to pass through them. Although these filters remove almost all sediment, there is still the possibility of small things such as bacteria, viruses, amebas, etc. that would be able to get through (although the risk is reduced quite drastically by the filters). So in order to kill any type of "bug" that could make us sick we then also treat our water with a "chlorine" based water solution that we dump into our down tank about once a week. Now with the combination of the chlorine and the sediment filter, our house has "clean water". PRAISE THE LORD!
We wanted to thank everyone who has prayed for us and even those whom God used to help supply the needed funds for this to become a reality. Although we still try to keep Kenya Grace and Joelle from drinking the bath water... it's not nearly the concern that it used to be. To God be the Glory!
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The girls excited about a box!