The Gerber Family Blog

1st day of Preschool

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:22:00 +0000

I can't believe our little Hannah is off to school. She wasn't so sure about preschool in the beginning, but by the end of the day she was ready to go back. When I asked her what she did and what she learned, she told me she got to play outside & inside plus if you don't listen and obey you will have to stand by the wall with your nose touching the wall. I asked her if she wanted to stand there with her nose to the wall and she said no way. Here are some of our pictures of the morning.

Day with the Colts

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 02:36:00 +0000

Well, Hannah and I had a wonderful day with the Colts. Thank you so much Jenny!!!! My friend Jenny, sent me a text like at 10:15 pm on a Thursday night and asked if we wanted to go and spend a day with the colts at their training camp. We said YES!!! It was so much fun. We watched them run plays, practice and get ready for a great new season. We even got to get a few autographs. Hannah got our new Head Coach, Jim Caldwell's autograph. He was so nice and Hannah told him to have a great season. She even got to have some fun with the Indianapolis Star (our Indy newspaper) sports writer. He kept taking her princess lunch box and she just giggled and giggled. The highlight of the day, (besides the wonderful company) was getting Payton Mannings autograph. It was CRAZY, Hannah got right up in front and just stood really still and handed her shirt to him and said good luck Mr. Manning. He said, Thank you very much. What a fun day!!!!!
Here are a few pix of our fun day.

My Creative Writing Exercise

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Sat, 30 May 2009 13:22:00 +0000

Sorry, apparently our account was hacked yesterday. Something about me being in a Paris jail. 24601

I'm not, I'm carrying pianos in Ohio.

Happy Birthday Song (+Fire)

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Sun, 03 May 2009 02:37:00 +0000

During the singing of "Happy Birthday" at Hannah's 4th birthday party, the blowing of the candles turned out to be TOO exciting!!

Download Video (7MB)

Hannah's House (4th Birthday)

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Sun, 03 May 2009 02:16:00 +0000

This video shows the first 10 minutes of Hannah's fourth birthday. At 7am, Hannah follows clues to find her present.

Download Video (43MB)

Dad Inducted into ODNR Hall of Fame

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:31:00 +0000

Thursday, December 11th dad was inducted into the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Hall of Fame! This is a very big deal and usually is reserved for people outside of ODNR that are famous for natural resource conservation in Ohio. Dad joins previous winners Bob Evans and Johnny Appleseed! Dad's plaque will be on a wall at the ODNR headquarters with those guys.

Dad's Retirement from ODNR

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:09:00 +0000

The Monday night before Thanksgiving was a Retirement Dinner for my dad, Tim Gerber. Dad had spent almost 40 years working for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Dad's coworkers did a great job of tailoring the evening to what dad would want. Mainly that our whole family was included front and center, all 15 of us. There wasn't any pomp and circumstance, just coworkers saying wonderful things about my father. Some things I already knew... some I didn't.

I helped organize the family and then his coworkers to all chip in for a really nice digital SLR camera for dad. I think you can tell in the photo that dad was quite surprised! After it was over the whole family went over to see dad's office for the last time. It was a great tribute to a great career!

Hannah Photoshoots

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 02:02:00 +0000

After getting a comment about only having outdated photos of their granddaughter, we took Hannah out back into the Fall leaves to take a few. We got a couple of cute photos, but no great smiling portrait.

A few days later, I took Hannah into my office on a Saturday morning to take care of a few things including taking down my portrait studio that I had used on Friday. After I got the thing half put away, Hannah says, "Are you going to take MY picture?" I said, "Are you going to smile for Daddy?" She said yes, so I put it all back up and we had a very fun photoshoot.

Tribute to Favorite Author

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:35:00 +0000

I was sad to hear that Michael Crichton died Tuesday from cancer. Crichton was the writer of some great books, including Jurassic Park and Sphere. Some of you might be laughing at the thought of me mourning the death of a writer, but I was a big fan of his books.

My senior year of High School I had to take one more English class and looked for the easiest class I could take that was the farthest thing from literature and english grammar and other such nonsense. I found "Reading for the College Bound". The irony is that I might have been the only one in that class that did actually go to college :) Anyway I had to read a lot of books, but they could be whatever I wanted. So I started with Jurassic Park, I think just because the movie was coming out. I was hooked! There was a ton of technical detail in all his books. If he referenced a device, he'd then describe it in great detail. His characters were always a team of experts from unrelated fields that were thrown together to solve a huge problem. I probably read 10 of his books. That's huge for me!

Hannah as Sleeping Beauty

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 23:55:00 +0000

Covered Bridge Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 23:17:00 +0000

We're having a great time on our annual camping trip in Parke County.

My girls like to color!

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:14:00 +0000

SOLD!!

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:00:00 +0000

Today I sold my Amigo! I got what I was asking for it, which is what I payed for it 3 years ago!

The Well Guys are Here! Updated

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:45:00 +0000

Right before we left for Africa we noticed that our front yard was a swamp by the well access. We turned off the breaker and left. I called a guy with a great reputation when we got back and they showed up today at 8:15. We'll see how much this sets us back :)

*Update* They're done and we have water in the pipes, not the yard! It's a bit of a muddy mess! The bill came and we have the money to pay it, but I can think of things that are more fun to blow that kind of money on!

Margaret Cox

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:12:00 +0000

Yesterday Katie and I attended the funeral of a friend and co-worker of mine for the last eight years. A year ago Margaret was on a CMF staff retreat and chose to go on a grueling hike. Then in October when I got back from Kenya, I noticed she wasn't herself. By November or maybe very early in December she couldn't continue working and took a medical leave of absence. By the winter it was clear she wasn't coming back and we held a retirement party for her in the Spring. She was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dimentia and soon had to be moved into a facility to be cared for properly.

Margaret was a wonderful co-worker. She enjoyed bragging about her beloved Oregon, baking hundreds and hundreds of perfect cookies for the CMF Board Meetings, and writing encouraging notes and attaching them to small presents that would show up on my desk on my birthdays.

The funeral was perfect for her and really celebrated her life. If you made it through to the end without crying, you didn't make it past the announcement that her kids and grandkids had spent the last few days baking cookies and the grandkids were handing them out on the way out the door. That was very special!

Pork Festival Parade - Eaton, OH

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:36:00 +0000

Hannah found a friend pretty quick! The parade is a Shuttleworth tradition that hasn't been observed for years. However, this weekend we were camping in nearby Richmond, IN and couldn't resist returning.

Gerbers in Kenya v.7

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:58:00 +0000

Our last day in Kenya was wonderful. Pat & I headed back to the Pangani one more time and asked for the children to make a sign that says “Thank You Jason” Jason is the guy who made the child sponsorship program. So they told us once we got back from Joska they would have it ready for us.

Keith (CMF) took Pat & I out into the country to their boarding school for grades 3-7. It is an amazing place and one that has grown so much in just one year. The parents are so happy that their children are out of the slums and can focus on a good education and not worry about running with the wrong crowd.

They have 2 girl dorms & 2 guy dorms. It is lined with bunk beds 3 high and each student gets a medal footlocker for their personal belongings. They get a bucket that is theirs to do their own wash. It teaches them great responsibility for life in general. The prayer is that they will pass Kenya’s big standardized test after 8th grade to allow them to go onto a High School Boarding School. It is really scary for girls, because if a girl gets pregnant her life is over, there is hardly any hope for her to succeed if that happens. This is also the place where a lot of the mosquito nets are going. They are building more buildings out there, a bigger dorm for the girls that will hold 300 per floor and there will be 4 floors. It’s HUGE!! Their goal is to begin going all the way up to high school but that takes more money and sponsorship.

We left Joska and headed back to Pangani to grab lunch and get the thank you picture done. Our lunch today consisted of corn meal in the form of a dough paste, greens, rice & mystery meat stew. It was pretty good, but I think we are both looking forward to getting back to American food ☺

As is the Kenyan way the teachers and students didn’t just prepare signs, they had a whole presentation that they probably worked all morning on. It was a good 20 min, singing, memory verse, dancing & a girl thanking Jason personally. They made three signs that went like this: “THANK YOU” “JASON” “For Making Soft-Were”. I didn’t misspell software, it was really cute and we are bringing the signs back with us.

After that we headed back to Lee & Ann Marie’s house to shower & finish up packing. We all headed back to the airport at like 4:30 for a 9:50 flight. We didn’t arrive until 8:00 pm, due to all the crazy traffic. I thought I was going to get sick in the back seat due to all the fumes and us just sitting there not moving. That was to begin our long trip back home.

We got through customs just fine, no worries there. Our plane was a little bumpy and smelly (we are guessing that the meal didn’t agree with people and that a few diapers needed to be changed.) I missed the smelling part due to me falling asleep. It wasn’t the best flight, with turbulence and then what felt like a nosedive as we headed into Amsterdam. We had 5 hrs to kill, so we went up to the lounge chairs where we all got to sleep for a little bit. Right before it was time to go we decided to have McDonalds because the airplane food hasn’t been that great. Boy, were we glad we got McD’s, because the food on the Amsterdam to Detroit flight was NOT GOOD AT ALL!! In fact I feel like we are all packed in like sardines and it is a little uncomfortable. I think we are all getting the itch to get into the USA and see everyone.

We arrived in the US! Praise, Praise, Praise! Now we only have to wait for about 3 ½ more hrs before boarding. Customs had long lines, but we made it through just fine. I felt bad because there was a mother and 2 daughters standing next to us pushing their way through, because in other countries it’s custom to push your way through. They got yelled at and had to go to the very end of the line. I felt bad, because I had told them they could go ahead of us and the mother said no. Anyway, we made it through just fine.

I hope you have enjoyed reading all about our adventures in Africa, we sure had an amazing time and can’t wait to share pictures and other stories with you all.

Thanks for your prayers
Pat & Katie

Gerbers in Kenya v.6

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:59:00 +0000

How to even begin to describe today events will be a tough challenge, so please bear with me as I am still processing everything we experienced and saw.

This morning Mike & the Gerber’s went off in two different directions. Mike, as best we can tell, helped Jeff (CMF’s Field Business Administrator for the Kenya team) with computer stuff and we did a ton of things today. (Thanks for your prayers, we were completely safe and most everything went according to plan.)

We first went to the Hope Center (Pangani) and while we were waiting to head out Pat went to shoot video of school being in session. Which was so much fun to watch all these children running around and so happy to be in school. I, on the other hand, went to the sewing shop and talked to the ladies who are learning a new skill. Once they graduate from sewing class they can begin making their own things to sell for their own business. It was great fun visiting with all of the women.

About 10:30 am we headed into the city with Keith, Wallace, Mary & a deaf child named Baraka. We were taking Baraka to his first speech therapy session since his hearing implant surgery. Well things didn’t go quite as they hoped because the speech therapist had never seen this implant before and wouldn’t begin giving therapy until he studied the type of implant Baraka was given. So it was a quick trip.

Since we were already in the middle of downtown Mary asked if we could stop by the government building so she could pick up her passport because they had called and said it would be ready. She said it would only take a minute ☺. As things normally go here it took around an hour and she didn’t even get her passport because they told her something wasn’t done right. So anyway, we got to sit in the car and see all the fun excitement on the streets of Nairobi.

Back to Pangani for a quick lunch of rice, veggie stew, cabbage and FANTA (love that orange Fanta). It was very good!!! Next we were heading out to different Hope Centers in the other sections of the Mathare slums, Kosovo & Bondeni. Bondeni is where Millisent lives, (the child we sponsor), we were to give her family a mosquito net & some food. We get to Kosovo first and it was during lunchtime, so we got to see all these students eating beans and rice and drinking Chai. There were little ones, Hannah’s size eating and they were so cute. I am sure Pat got some great shots of them. They are putting in bathrooms there so that they can have bathrooms on each floor (which is HUGE)!

Next we walked through the slums of Kosovo into the next slum over, Bondeni. This walk will be very hard to describe. Very narrow path with a constant stream of black water flowing down with a ton of trash everywhere. We crossed over a “River” that literally was pitch black with trash as far as the eye could see. The smell is indescribable and is so foul that it takes you a moment to get yourself together. These people live life this way all the time, they know how to survive this life. It is one that we cannot fathom, but it is the only thing they have ever known.

As we get into Bondeni my heart begins to race because we are about to meet Millisent. We step into the Hope Center at Bondeni and the “vice principal” or assistant lead teacher welcomes us. She wants to take us to every classroom and introduce us the different classes. It was so cute. They all would stand then sing a song and do a memory verse. She wanted us to go to ALL of them, but Keith talked her down to like 3 classrooms. WE finally get to Millisent’s classroom and they pull her out of class and told us we were going to go over to her house and visit with her family. I didn’t know that we were going to be able to meet her family and see where she lives, so I knew this was going to be a challenge keeping all my emotions in check.

I held her hand the whole way to her home. It’s one room, 8’ x 10’ where 6 people live. Her mom, dad, 2 sister & 1 brother. There monthly rent is $15 and then they pay an extra $3 for electricity (1 light bulb). They have 1 bed, a couch, 2 chairs, a little coffee table, 1 dresser and then they stack their other necessities to the ceiling. They use empty feed sacks as wallpaper and a sheet that hangs down to separate the room from their “bedroom” (the bed). We went in and talked with the mom and the girls. She told us that they heard we were coming, (which is funny, because we didn’t even know we were coming) and that her husband wanted to be here to meet us. However, he had to leave and try to go find work loading and unloading trucks. So, we gave the Children’s Bible to the family, a coloring book, crayons, & stickers. Millisent was excited about the crayons. We then gave the family 2 bags of food which contained, rice, beans, flour, baking fat, 4 suckers, tea, sugar, salt, special flour that has extra nutrients packed in it. Millisent’s eyes got really big when she saw the suckers! She snatched it quickly and put it in her mouth with the wrapper still on! They were SOO grateful, than we gave them their mosquito nets that the E91 students will be raising money for and set it up for the family. We prayed for them and they promised to be praying for us as well. We got a lot of pictures and I am coming home feeling very blessed by this family and blessed we got to meet them. We can’t wait to share the news with Hannah and show her the pictures of our very special family in Kenya.

Tomorrow will be a BIG day. We don’t fly out until like 10:00 pm, so we are heading out to a boarding school in the country (Joska) and see where a lot of the mosquito nets are being used. I don’t know if I will get a chance to type out another blog entry, so if not we will see you all soon. Please pray for safe travel back and that we can finish our trip getting all the last minute shots & video that we need.

Gerbers in Kenya v.5

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:46:00 +0000

What a Sunday….

We got to sleep in this morning because church didn't begin until 10:30 am (I know, crazy). We headed back into the Mathare Slums for Church and worshiped under a tent out doors. It was beautiful and what a blessing to be worshiping with other Sisters & Brothers in Christ on the other side of the world. After announcements and some other type of talking in Swahili (that I didn't understand) they started to sing. I was impressed they had a keyboard and little sound system. After the first worship song most of the children got up and left. I of course wanted to find out what they were doing so I went to one of the ladies and asked if I could go with them to Sunday School. So, here is where the adventure begins.

I go into this room with wooded bench desks, dirt/cement floors and a chalkboard. This class had ages 3-4^th grade. Yeah, picture Hannah with a bunch of 4^th graders. They sang songs which was very cute and then the teacher had a handout that looked like it could have come from Standard Publishing. Black-N-White with picture blocks of the story. So she was teaching the lesson and then some how, I don't know exactly how this happened, but she stopped in the middle of the lesson and asked me to teach. So, I went and taught the Sunday Lesson. And I thought I had a Sunday off J It was on Paul's conversion and escaping from the city. I had them doing motions while saying "Paul Loves Jesus". Then I taught them a song and had a BLAST. It just broke my heart that there really isn't much to the Sunday School, at least they have one which I am so excited about. They also had a Teenage Class, which I observed and found it funny that preteen boys are the same here as they are in the US. They have a hard time focusing J it was a great experience and one that I will cherish for a long time.

After church we came back to the Pruitt's house and had Mac & Cheese for lunch ate quickly then went off to another CMF missionaries house for a tech pow wow with Mike & Pat. I got to chat with the wives and kids having a wonderful sharing time. Then Connie Crum took us shopping at the Ya Ya Market. It was a lot of fun!!!

After shopping, almost the entire Kenya Team living in Nairobi went out for Ethiopian food. I didn't know how I was going to do because I heard it was really spicy. But it was AWESOME, I AM HOOKED!!! Here is what goes on at an Ethiopian Dinner:

1) There is the round table and little square table that you sit around

2) You put your drink on the little square table

3) They bring this huge round tray that has sponge bread (Think Sponge Pancake 2 feet in Diameter) covering it, with your choice of Ethiopian food. (The orange stuff & the goat tips where really good.)

4) You get your own rolled up version of the spongy pancake

5) You tear off piece by piece of your spongy pancake and scoop up the food with your hands.

6) No it is not messy, because the food doesn't soak through the pancake

7) It was a very enjoyable experience.

Anyway, it was really fun and a great time of fellowshipping with the CMF teams. Now we are back getting ready for our big day tomorrow. Walking through the slums, getting pictures, handing out mosquito nets and meeting our sponsored child. Pray that our day goes well. Then before we know it, we are back on a plane heading back home. What an amazing adventure.

We will probably only have one more blog to post after this one. I hope you have enjoyed reading them, as we have enjoyed sharing with all of you. This a great way to share the stories as they are fresh in our mind & hearts.

Gerbers in Kenya v.4

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:25:00 +0000

Today began very early (5:30 am) so that we could head on over to the Nairobi State Game Park. We spent 6 hrs driving through the bush looking for wild animals in their natural setting. It was AWESOME!! Pat got some great shots and I tried to get some live animal video footage. We saw a ton of giraffes, zebras, gazelles, ostriches, beautiful birds, and many more. Some highlight stories from today include:

We stopped at the “Hippo pool” (which doesn’t actually have any hippos in it) and a guard caring a big gun, like big gun, walked myself, Pat , Mike & our driver for the day. John is a brother of Mary who we have talked a lot about in previous post. We were walking quickly through the bush and saw crocodiles. Now, these were rather large and a little too close for my comfort, but hey that is why the guard took us out with the gun. I asked him if he shoots the gun a lot, and he said just to scare the animals away so that they don’t hurt anyone. I appreciated the gun today.

The Baboons: There were these picnic areas around the park area that had toilets (with out toilet paper of course but it had a DOOR! WHOO!!) Anyway, there is this sign that says, beware of the baboons. Well, lets just say they got VERY close (In fact I stayed in the van and took the picture out the window because I have seen to many animal shows showing baboons not being very nice to people.)

It was a really fun day seeing God’s amazing wild animals out in their natural environment. Just on a side note: The park only has one gate, to get in. So the animals can come and go as they wish, which is very cool. We then took our driver, John out to eat and so we went to the mall and had the choice of: African, Thai, Chinese, Italian, Turkey, and others. It was a pretty eclectic group of mall food choices, not the same in the USA. No, McDonalds or any other fast food chain that you can think of. Our African driver John wanted, get ready for it….PIZZA!!! So we got him his pizza and orange fanta and he was a happy man.

As for the rest of this day, we pretty much have hung out with the Pruitt’s (Our wonderful CMF host) talking ministry/computer issues and as I am typing this Pat and Mike are helping them get email set up and quicker speeds on their computer. Which will hopefully make their life a little easier. We also had dinner tonight at Java House and it was a delightful evening.

Today was our easy/play day. Tomorrow will be church in the slums, which I am so excited about worshiping in a completely different culture but knowing that we are worshiping the same GOD. That is SO powerful. Monday will be another day in the slums, taking a few nets to the children and bring the stories back home. Tuesday will be last minute needs & then we fly out later on that evening. That’s just the “Kenya Schedule” for the next few days. I have learned that there is American Schedule & there is Kenya Schedule. American Schedule is when you arrive at the time when your meeting is set. Kenya Schedule begins whenever, could be 30 min or hours later. So we will still be posting up dates to the blog. Sorry we haven’t emailed everyone; it’s just that internet is SO slow here (2K on average), so this is the best way to communicate to you all.

Gerbers in Kenya v.3

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:36:00 +0000

(written by Pat)

Today was the day that we did the main thing we came here for: introduce the Nairobi team to their new software. If this is news to you, I'll explain. The ministry that was started here in 2000 has grown from 50 to well over 2,000 kids. Each child is sponsored by someone in the US, who pays for him or her to go to school, eat a good meal (this is a big deal here!), a uniform (they may only have an outfit or two), Christian teaching, a social worker to look after the needs of the family, etc. As you can imagine it can be difficult to maintain records of all of these kids, where they come from, birthdays, who their sponsor is, whether they've paid this month, etc. So CMF had a web database written to manage all of this information. Up until now all of this information was kept in multiple spreadsheets and databases and they had problems with info being duplicated and everyone having the current info. The downside to a web database in Kenya is the whole "web" part. Internet access in SLOW. You might remember the days of 56K dial-up speeds. Well, they would LOVE to have that fast. They routinely have something like 2-4K. It might go faster and then slow to a stop for several minutes at a time. Every few minutes someone will remind us that fast fiber optic cable internet connections are coming! It's become the inside joke. They guess six months, but it could just as easily be two years.

Anyway, Mike and I held a training this morning on the new software for a couple dozen social workers and IT staff. These are mostly very basic computer users. So Mike and I did our best to keep things simple and stopped to allow them to ask questions. It was quickly obvious that the biggest questions centered on roles and procedures and not the technology tools we were presenting.

This team has been very successful with a simple, solid, and biblical ministry model. It has lead to tremendous growth. They are now at a crossroads to continuing that growth. Just like the talented leadership at a church plant has to adapt when their small church grows into a megachurch, this team will have to adapt to the different needs of a growing ministry. They have several new team members that they need to plug into these new needs.

After lunch we held a smaller training/meeting with the CMF missionaries and the Kenyan IT director. We laid out a plan for them to play around with the web database for a couple of weeks until the head of CMF's Urban Poor ministries visits. At that point they can talk intelligently about what policies and procedures to adopt. Then two weeks after that the CMF staff person who uses the web database all day long is coming to work with them on ironing out some of the kinks.

Since we finished a little early in the afternoon and the Maasai Market was still open we went with our host family, the Pruitts, to shop. This was Mike's introduction to heavy-handed sales tactics of those at the market. For instance, one thing Katie bought they told us was 90 and half an hour later I got it from them for 42. I didn't buy anything. Everything that looked good I already had. Katie was a bit overwhelmed and is too soft to get a good deal.

Tomorrow was supposed to be another training day, but we decided we don't need it. So someone is taking us to the Nairobi Game Park tomorrow at 6am. I've never been there and I'm looking forward to seeing how it compares to the wild and open Maasai Mara.

Pat

Gerbers in Kenya v.2

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:08:00 +0000

Day 2 in Kenya,

It is 9:05 pm right now, which is like 2:05 in the afternoon for everyone back home reading this. As I am typing I am trying to form the words to describe our day today. We headed to Mathare, a slum in Nairobi to talk to Wallace & Mary & other wonderful people from CMF. Wallace & Mary started a school in the community of the Mathare slums. Anyway, Wallace & Mary have formed schools in these villages and everyone pays something for their child to attend. Be it, 50 shillings a week or 250 shillings a week depending on the income of the family. The goal is to partner with the community and with the families giving them hope of Jesus Christ & a sound education for their children. It is wild; each student has a Social Worker that makes house calls (unannounced) to make sure the family is doing OK. They started with 50 children now they are over 2000 students. CMF has now formed a child sponsorship program with these same kids. On a side note guess what, Pat & I and Hannah have sponsored a child named Mellisent who we might actually get to meet on Monday. Anyway, Hannah doesn't know about it yet, so mums the word until we can tell her. Mike & Pat started going over the nuts and bolts of this new database and software that CMF had written to manage the sponsorship of all of these kids and their American sponsors. They will begin training everyone tomorrow. Yes it was a lot of computer talk, but oh so important.

We then ate lunch of mystery meat, mashed potatoes, slaw of some sort & japatis (rolled up fried tortillas) it was very tasty and no Pat and I did not get sick (huge Praise)!! We then went out into the slums for about an hour. For that hour I can hardly describe the emotions that went on inside of me. Seeing kids Hannah's age chewing on nails as toys, stepping over streams of raw sewage, smelling smells that can not be described, seeing babies dirty their pants and walking around without a care in the world and smiles on their faces. Holding so many children's hands today, as they ran up and grabbed your hand and wanted to be picked up. I picked up one little girl, and then realized they all wanted to be picked up and hugged, so I stopped picking up and just held as many hands as I could. We were invited into Naomi's house (which Pat and Joe went to the last time they were here). She was so down because she has AIDS. She sells French fries for a living and they just raised the price of potatoes. We prayed for her and then she began crying right there. One of the social workers stayed behind to comfort and talk with her. That is about all I have to say about that right now, it is really hard to even try to put it into words.

After that we headed back to help two other CMF families with their computer problems. Or shall I say, Pat and Mike helped. I got to chat with the wives and the kids. That was fun for me. I even got to try two new types of fruit. One was Custard Apple (which tasted and looks just like it sounds) After that Mike, Pat & I went to the Java House and had a burger and they planned out their training for tomorrow. Please pray that training goes well and all equipment works plus that internet will be working. Well that's all for tonight. Miss and Love you all!!!

Pat & Katie

Gerbers in Kenya v.1

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:28:00 +0000

WE HAVE ARRIVED!!! More than 24hrs, since leaving the US on Tuesday, we arrive in Nairobi in good spirits and safely. Our trip began in the Indianapolis airport where I (Katie) was just walking around a store waiting until our time of departure was announced. I got to talking to one of the clerks and she asked me where I was headed, and I told her and said I was going on a mission trip. She then asked me if I was Muslim. This would be a first for me, so I replied, no I am a Christian. Thus, our first leg begins.

The flight to Minneapolis was quick and uneventful trip. We had a couple about 2 ½ hrs before our next flight so we decided to eat a nice meal. We all opted for safe options and food that we new would agree with our system. As we are sitting in the terminal literally seconds before boarding, CNN starts talking about a computer system shutdown I am beginning to get a little nervous, so thanks to Dr. Root I took my special pill to help me relax and sleep and boy does that pill completely chill you out. It was AWESOME and a pill I won’t take for granted!!!! This flight went really well and pretty quickly too. We had a whole bunch of movies to choose from and before you new it we were in Amsterdam.

We had like a 4 hr. layover in Amsterdam, so we went to these comfy lounge chairs (after we explored a lot of the shops, which I bought a sleeping mask, since we would be traveling in the day time and I desperately needed to get some sleep.) Pat and I got a little nap in while Mike kept watch of our luggage.

Onto our flight to Amsterdam to Kenya: The plane was pretty empty, so we could spread out if we wanted to. Both Pat and I got to sleep; I slept quiet a bit more since I had my special sleeping mask. (Those things really do work)

Now, we arrive in Kenya and the crazy timing adventure begins. We get off the plane and buy our $50 visas, but they only wanted bills that are dated 2000 and after. Fortunately we were able to pull enough to get all three of us in. All our luggage arrived (HUGE PRAISE) As we are getting ready to pass through customs, which was literally a wave of the hand through, no checking our bags or nothing. There are all these people singing and screaming (not like scary screaming, but like seeing someone famous) Get this, some of the Kenya Olympians were coming back and then these pop star rappers. Which I don’t know who they are yet, but we'll find out because were we had stopped and put our luggage the whole group of them, plus, photographers, plus screaming girl fans, where pushing there way past us. I felt like I was the celebrity. It was CRAZY!!!
Anyway, we finally locate our awesome CMF friends and our now getting ready to head to bed after a wonderful snack of Pop Corn, which tasted OH SOOO GOOD. We have a big day ahead of us, with training, and walking through the slums. So pray for us.

We Love You All
Pat & Katie

T-Ball in the Back Yard

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:34:00 +0000

Daddy and Hannah practicing for softball in the 2028 Olympics. Oh wait, no more softball :(

My Surprise Check

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick Gerber) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:01:00 +0000

Last week I got a surprise check in the mail from a job I did not expecting to be payed. Then Katie and Hannah left me alone the other night and somehow I found myself wandering the aisles of Fry's Electronics :)

I ended up getting a new radio for my Rodeo. The Rodeo's radio had an analog tuning dial with no presets that hissed a lot. This new one has preset radio stations! It also has a USB port on the front that I can plug in my iPhone or iPod into and listen to Car Talk while it charges my iPhone! I love it!