I thought it would be fun to order a custom license plate. They finally made it so you could do everything conveniently online. And it’s cheap. After your order, you’re simply informed that your plate will be ready in 15-20 business days. So basically a month. And to find out when it’s done, you have to constantly call the downtown vehicle licensing office. So I started calling a week ago about every other day. To date, no dice.

When I called today, they informed me that the prison where the licenses are made has been on ‘lock-down’ for the last 4 weeks. She proceeded to inform me that this meant nothing comes in and nothing goes out, including my plates. My next question was, ‘so does this mean that my licenses is effectively on indefinite hold?’ and her reply was of course, yes.

Knock this down to one more thing our government does so inefficiently that if it had competition, it would have been bankrupted long ago, not to mention dragged off to jail b/c they don’t have to follow the same rules as real businesses.

No resolution has been reached in Kenya following the disputed elections. While the violence has quieted, thousands of Kenyans are still displaced. Opposition leaders are planning three days of demonstrations beginning Wednesday, January 16.

Please pray:

• that opposing government leaders will come to agreement.
• for SIM missionaries to know what to say and do to help and encourage their Kenyan brothers and sisters.
• for Kenyans who have fled & are in hiding, still in danger of attacks by those of another tribe.
• that Rift Valley Academy, a boarding school for missionary kids, will be able to reopen as planned on January 19. There are security concerns & supply issues to deal with in receiving back hundreds of boarding students.
• for the SIM-Sudan team to safely arrive to the conference center near Nairobi for their Spiritual Life Conference scheduled for January 16
• for the SIM Sudan team to be spiritually, emotionally & physically renewed during their conference.

Get Involved:

An SIM project has been setup for people who want to donate funds to help with the relief efforts.
The project number is KE92601
and is titled: Kenya Emergency Relief Fund
Funds can be sent via any SIM Sending Office (www.sim.org), please reference the above project number. Donations given will normally qualify as tax deductible or similar depending on the country of the sending office.
These funds will be used to assist with food, water, medical needs, etc and will in most cases be directed through an existing local church or ministry that already has a good working relationship with SIM in Kenya. We do intend to have SIM people involved as well in many of the cases.

Click the image for a larger version…

Yes, the day finally arrived. We headed home from the hospital today. Coming home was definitely an event we were looking forward to as we could be a little more comfortable at home and introduce Avery to her own bedroom (it’s bigger than ours, we’re spoiling her already). So after her first feeding at home, we had to change her diaper and clothes… only to find out that most of the clothing we had is not really made for an infant quite this small. The first diapers we tried, definitely weren’t made for her, but luckily we had some of another brand that happened to be the same used in the hospital and fit her just fine.

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, also known as the CPA. This was the document that formalized the current government and peace agreement in Sudan. Please take a moment today to pray for the people of Sudan.

Here’s a few photos taken the past few days. Enjoy!

Click here to view the album!

PS. I should have a video up tonight!

I would like to introduce to you Miss Avery Nathalie Martyn.

She was born Sunday Jan 6, 2008 at 2:52pm at 6lbs 8oz and 19.5 inchces long (41.5 weeks). After making our best effort to induce and have the baby naturally, we decided the c-section was best because the contractions were stressing her out to much. The internet is limiting in the hospital, but we are getting up photos as we can. We have some up at the two links below. I would encourage you to get on our email newsletter for our mission info (sign up at our blog) as we’ll continue to send out periodic updates over the coming months through that newsletter. I’ll post a slew of photos and video in the coming days, so keep checking back here and at Taylor’s facebook account.

Baby M has arrived! She was born 6lbs 8oz and 19 1/2 inches long. After having no luck trying to induce, the decision was finally made to do a C-Section delivery. She was born at 2:52pm. Click the pics below for bigger versions. Feel free to give me a call for our room number and we’d love to have you visit Monday or Tuesday. We’ll be going home on Wednesday. We’ll have more photos and video up after we get home. But check back, as I might be inclined to add more content before then!