Once again I find myself in the land of ice and snow (aka: Chicagoland).  It's good to catch up with friends and be in an area busier than Holdrege,NE. But I find that this trip is also about coming to terms with Kenya's situation.  It's realizing that Kenya has desended to a place where it is unsafe for me to be there.  When I left in August I NEVER believed that I wouldn't be back there now.  It is painfully surreal. 

It's feeling that I need and want to tell everyone who will listen what is going on in Kenya -- ask them to pray, support relief efforts as they are able, just let the world know what is going on.  But on the other hand, it is painful to look at pictures of friends and the kids and knowing how different everything is.  My friend Edward and his family have fled to Nakuru becuase of the violence and don't have any intentions of returning.  Purity and Ivon are still with relatives they went to see over the holiday because it is too violent to safely travel.  When I call friends I hear the pain, fear and discouragement in their voices.

In Kibera it's been a constant struggle to understand why some of God's childrens live in such unbelievable poverty and others live in relative oppulence here in the US.  Now that is even more profound. I sit here in a warm house in Chicago sleeping in a friend's extra room.  I'm safe, warm and have all I need and more. 

Why have I been so blessed?  In the US we have so much.  More than we need.  And yet are we thankful?  When we get that new "thing" we were striving for how long does our contentment last?  When we pray is it about what we want or being thankful for what we have?