It is a rare night when I don't have something BAYLOR to be present for...but the truth be known, we had a football game this afternoon and now I am hanging out at the cabin waiting for my houseguests to arrive - watching both battles of crimson and maroon - some Big 12 football (OU v TAMU) and some SEC football (MISS ST v Alabama). I do love college sports - especially since I work with college students. What they can accomplish on the field or court in addition to studying and going to class truly amazes me.

Here are a few pictures of me and some of the BU athletes that went to Kenya together this past summer. Lindsay Palmer and Melissa Jones play for the Lady Bear basketball team. They are in Knoxville, TN right now getting ready to open the season with the Lady Vols. God has something special going on in the Lady Bear locker room. I can't wait to see what all He has in store for this season and this team.



LJ Johnson and Lotto Smith play for the Lady Bear soccer team. They just finished their season in the Big 12 tournament. They made the tournament and had a good season all around. I will confess that I went to more soccer games this season than I have in my whole life combined. It truly makes a difference when you actually know the players.


MJ Jones, Lindsay Palmer and Bryan Swindoll (BU football) are here in a shot of "the back of the bus" which I cannot divulge what may or may not have happened back there, suffice it to say, these student-athletes know how to give their heart away and leave it all on the court or field, or in this case country. The other picture is of Wes Yeary, the sports chaplain for Baylor. He is our fearless leader. I could say alot of things about Wes, but for now I will simply put it just like the Bible - Wes loves others well. He sure does.

5 states, 4 months, 3 countries, 2 players, 1 God

Well, I have felt guilty for not blogging, guilty for not finishing the Kenya section, and guilty for not keeping in better touch...but today I am free...I am free to blog about the dozens of things I have done in the past (almost) 5 months I have not been blogging.



Let's start with a girls' trip to London in late June. My niece, McKenna, was turning 12 so I took her on her first overseas trip to the UK. My mom had never been "across the pond" so she came along. Ironically enough, when we bought tickets it was one child, one senior, and one adult. It has been a while since I considered myself the adult but that is just how it fell out...strickly on age. Ha!

We saw all the main sights in London from the Tower to the Eye to the Palace to the Hard Rock Cafe. We saw the Lion King and used the Tube for most of our travel. We also took a train to Scotland and saw the castle and bought some "Scott Plaid" to commemorate our ancestry. Scotland was beautiful. When we got back, we met some friends in London and surprised mom. Below is a picture of me with Amanda McGrath - a student who was on the Kenya trip that was in London when we were.

First week in October, Elizabeth and Walker Williams came to town to reconnect with old friends, see some BU football and we had an impromptu 2nd birthday party for Walker Paul Williams. If you scroll back two years, he was born here in Waco and lived the first 3 months of life right here in the Ponderosa. He has grown so much. He is so much fun!

In October, I went to Colorado for the Big 12 & Friends Conference and also met up with some old friends. Sherri Bearden Hutcheon from high school lives just south of Denver and Hope Rountree West, a friend from Kanakuk, lives in Highlands Ranch. It was so good to catch up with each of them and see how the Lord has worked in their lives. God is good. From Colorado, I flew straight to Springfield, MO to spend the weekend with a dear friend from Branson that I used to work at Kanakuk with ever summer. Trish Helsel is like me in that she used to coach and within one month of each other, we each switched out of coaching and teaching to what we are doing now. Our lives are parallel except that we don't live close and she is married with 3 kids - I'm not old enough for either of those! :)

The very next week, I flew to Michigan to see a former student / now friend whose husband is doing his residency in Michigan. We had a great time...the leaves were brilliant colors and we went to the "Big House" to see the Wolverines pulverize DSU...oooooohhhhhwwwwweeeee!! We also watch three of Madea's movies and just laughed hard. The weekend ended with some yummy gelato...the likes of which I had not tasted since a trip to Rome, Italy about 8 years ago.



Since that trip, we have had Baylor Homecoming and this past week - the beginning of basketball season....yeah baby. How I love the Lady Bears. This year is especially meaningful because I went to Kenya with Melissa Jones "MJ" and Lindsay Palmer along with several BU soccer players. This is going to be a fun season because I have seen not only their athleticism but also their hearts. More on that. So now you are caught up I hope the pics do justice to the glimpses I saw of God in nature as well as familiar faces.



God is Good - All the Time! All the Time - God is Good!

Kenya Day 4 & 10

"My dear boy, Walker,
I have thought of you today and thanked God for your young life, your loving mother, your strong father and the Christian legacy of your grandparents.

I am in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya to be exact. This morning we got up at 4:30 and left at 5:00 to go feed street children before the day unfolds. They are not supposed to be on the street in the daylight or they will be arrested. When we arrived we met about 30 young men, most of whom do not know their own birthday. They sleep on the street and gather bottles or papers to turn in for money. They take the money and buy glue to sniff so that they can get high to mask the hunger pangs. We shared some scriptures and prayed with them and gave them some milk and bread.

When I looked to the left, there were three moms each with a baby in her lap. The are all living on the street. There was Zan who had Baby Stacy (10 mo), Rachael had Baby James (14 mo) and Ann who had Baby Steven (18 mo). They fed their babies with the milk and bread and I prayed for each of them some of the same prayers I used to pray for you when you lived at the Ponderosa. It choked me up. It was hard to see these young kids who sleep in their mother's arm on the street in the cold.

My dear Walker, as you get up each day, hug your mother and kiss her and tell her how you love her. Hang onto you dad's leg or arm and feel his strength and thank him for working hard to provide for you every day.

And today, as your grandparents come to visit, love on them in your own way and tell them thank you for their love, encouragement and support. Zan was kicked out of her parents' home when she was 17 because she was pregnant with Stacy. Her parents have never seen the baby and are mad that she wasted all those school fees. So, hug your grandma and grandpa today for loving your mom so much.

Your mother has been schooled with two university degrees and she chooses to stay at home with you. That should tell you that you are loved. You are so important to all of us. Your life has beed designed by God and you are made in His image, just like little Stacy, James and Steven except that you have the advantage of love and hope. Hold on tight to Jesus for He has ordered your steps. He has called you to a special role. You are a lover of people. You have a heart of compassion. You will make a difference in this world.

I doubt if you will ever meet or play with Stacy or James or Steven this side of heaven; but just know that you will make a mark on this world for the name of Jesus.

I love you Walker Paul Williams. I love your parents and am grateful for the way they love and care for you. Give them all the love they can handle TODAY.
Your loving Aunt Kim"

Kenya Day 3

Crazy BU Sports Ministry Team

Today, we held a coach's clinic for soccer coaches who give their time to coach kids from Nairobi's Kibera Slums. This is the largest slum in Africa. It is very similar to those shown in Slum Dog Millionaire. Small tin shacks with shared walls, no running water or sewage, no heat or air or protection from rainy days. It is estimated that there are over 1.5 million people living in Kibera Slum.



We spend 2-3 hours sharing, inspiring stories and encourageng one another. Wes gave one of the most inspiring testimonies I have ever heard about the ministry of a coach. He spoke of his own journey that started at an FCA coaches seminar - Billy Graham spoke. That was the first time that he connected coaching with ministry. And now, here he is, all these years later as Baylor's Sports Chaplain. God is Good - All the Time.


The one thing I was most struck with from the coaches themselves is that they see this as their responsibility to "give back" and to help those kids find value and meaning and hope through the game of soccer.


This afternoon, we met 40 kids from Kibera Slums at a soccer field. We set up 4 stations and rotaten them around: shooting on goal, dribbling, heading and trapping, and passing.


As we were working on this, a Maasai herdsman brought his cattle onto the edges of the soccer field to graze...I figured it was just his day to "mow."



After the drills for about an hour, we set up four fields and scrimmaged with the kids. It began to rain which made most of the fields muddy, but no one cared. These kids have good skills.


But more oftern than not they use soccer as an escape from reality. My hope is that this day - the clinic and the skill/drill demonstration would give our friend, Walter Macchio, some great exposure and credibility. Here is his right hand in the Kenya Sports Outreach, Wamitha.



Stay tuned...we will visit the school most of these Kibera kids go to on another day.

Kenya Day 2

Each night we debriefed together - just talking about the day and how we felt and what we thought. We also discussed our plan for the next day. Day 2 turned out to be on that we would want to not only remember but potentially repeat.

We left about 8:30 for a school called Hope International. This school has about 200 kids whose parents were all refugees from Burundi. They teach french as the first language and English as the second. Kenyan schools teach English as the first and Swahili as the second. Most of these kids don't know the trials and tragedies their parents lived through and eventually fled from. It was amazing that none of the dedicated teachers are paid (unless there is a large offering in the church that sponsors the school). I thought how different that was in the US...up north we have teacher's unions - striking for higher pay and down south we have the 'career ladder' which is an incremental stair step system of pay. I doubt many of those in the education profession would teach because the children need to learn, regardless of if they got paid.

We played with each grade for about 45 minutes to an hour. Their recreation area was a wide, muddy street. We taught soccer, football, and basketball skills and tried to throw some frisbees. The balls got muddy, the kids got muddy, we got muddy...but no one cared. It was about the kids enjoying some time outside and the teachers were grateful for the activity. Again, how different things are in the US...laws regulating mandatory PE and recess because we are so overweight and because the teachers deserve a conference period and a break.

This afternoon we met up with some members of the Kenyan National Soccer Team. Some were single moms, most had jobs across town. Our kids played these women on a handball court and beat them 8-7! How fun it was to see our BU soccer girls (and BB girls) get their game on. But the most meaningful part came after the game...when they all sat down together in groups of 2 or 3 and talked about life...then our kids prayed for/with them and gave them a little gift of money just to say thanks.

Below you can see Melissa Jones (Lady Bear Hoopster) playing goalkeeper like she plays basketball...always giving 110% and saving goal - even with sacrifice of her body!

While this was finishing up outside, MJ and LP were inside teaching Strathmore College some hoops skills. They led in some drills and then scrimmaged.

Our two held their own even with the Strathmore men. They prayed and shared. I had a chance to talk with the coach about her faith and how she shares it with the players. She said her primary focus was to give the girls and education and a fair shot at life while providing a Christian foundation for life.

Kenya Day 1

Ok...here goes the journal for Kenya. Remember you can get a play by play as we were there from the Kenya Sports Ministry Blog that the students wrote...this will be my own thoughts on several days.

Wes Yeary had a contact through the International Sports Coalition named Walter Machio. He has started this ministry and is walking day-by-day in faith that the Lord will provide what he needs. Here is a picture of Walter and me after one of our clinics.

Walter has contacts in schools, churches, and orphanages around Nairobi. We started our first day with a stop at the Maximum Miracle Children's Home in Katawa Sitdura. We met about half of the 64 orphans that live there. They each stood up to introduce themselves followed by "I love Jesus Christ" or "I know Jesus as my Savior & Lord." They were not ashamed to let Jesus Christ define who they are...unlike those of us who merely tell what we do.

He also has begun the Afrikan Junior League. It costs $100 for three months of soccer training for young boys (ages 4-12) - sort of like the American version of "select soccer." They strive to transform youth through whole life coaching...equipping them with positive living values building character and confidence. All coaches are unpaid volunteers that feel they have a duty to "give back" to the younger generation. They have begun a revolution to change the question
FROM "How smart are you?"
TO "How are YOU smart?"

We played for the better part of two hours leading clinics and classes at the Search Comprehensive School and then after school hours with the Afrikan Junior League boys.
Thanks to many generous donors in America we were able to give some balls to the school and some cleats to the boys (some of whom had played barefoot!).

My QT verses for this first day were:

Ps. 145:18
The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in Truth.

Ps. 134:5
Thou hast enclosed me behind and before and laid thy hand upon me.

Almighty God, you certainly have your hand on Walter. Protect and provide as he gives and teaches and leads these young boys off the streets and into lives rich with possibility.

Joy Down in my Heart

This is JOY down in my heart deep deep down in my heart
She's from Kibera Slums which is deep deep down in my heart
Jesus keeps her there so nothing can destroy her
He protects her there and shows HIS JOY through her
This is JOY down in my heart deep deep down in my heart


I have so much on my heart to share about my experiences in Kenya with the BU Sports Ministry Team...and there is no doubt that I am still on Africa time...
so for now I will give you two teasers...

1. It is amazing how many doors one soccer ball can open

2. This is the first time I have been on a mission trip that I truly felt like we left something behind that will grow bigger and deeper for the cause of Christ...not just a one night stand or one hit wonder...this was the real deal and we have made friends not only for life but for all eternity.

STAY TUNED!
More to come.