the BAKERS | www.jimjessbaker.com

3 comments

MarcScottMarch 16, 2010 - 2:59 am

Dude I’m worse at blogging… I only get facebook and my deviant art updated and even those I forget to put some of the important stuff.

You rock Jim!

jim bakerMarch 16, 2010 - 3:07 am

haha thanks marc

MarcScottMarch 16, 2010 - 3:40 am

Anytime dude, anytime.

Mar 02 2010

03.02.2010 – more about AFRICA!!

Anne our team leader giving Bishop John a laptop that many people from Praise Fellowship helped buy him! He just kept saying “praise God, praise God” over and over again.

Before every meal someone would pour HOT water for us so we could wash our hands. There was only one source of running water on the grounds.

A shot of one of our meals. Rice, mango, french fries and chicken. African chicken is TOUGH.

We were given a tour of the grounds. This is one of the student dorm rooms. The dorm rooms held 10-12 kids.

Oh the joy of digital photography. Dave shows some of the kids a picture he just took of them.

The only source of clean running water. A well that is overused every day.

A student sits alone in a classroom to study. Bishop John’s school has some of the highest test scores in the nation.

We went to the NAKUMATT which is similar to a Costco or a Sam’s Club. It was about an hour drive to get here but everything was much cheaper in price compared to the local markets.

Brian piles up loaves of bread for a special treat of peanut butter sandwiches for the students. (Pictures coming soon!)

Each student got a bar of soap, a roll of toilet paper, and a bar of laundry soap. We spent around $1,000 USD on food and supplies. I asked Bishop John how long what we bought would last. He looked at me and said it would last about 3-4 days. Food is not cheaper in Africa. And when you feed 300+ people a day it gets expensive FAST.

JIM baker

5 comments

colleenMarch 2, 2010 - 10:30 am

Keep them coming- I LOVE the picture of the kids looking at the digital camera- so sweet!

joanMarch 3, 2010 - 6:19 pm

Not certain how I arrived here but don’t care.
Just want you to know how much we are enjoying your photos and stories that accompany them. It certainly makes a person take a look at themselves and realize how fortunate we are and stop complaining. God has certainly bestowed so many blessings on all of us and many don’t realize it.. We are looking forward to more photos and stories. Thank you for sharing.
Love, Grandma and Grandpa

jim bakerMarch 4, 2010 - 9:29 am

@ colleen – thanks so much for the huge blessing that you were to us in getting over there… we need to go on an international trip together sometime

@ grandma – i’m glad you figured out how to comment again, i’m also glad that me sharing my stories challenges and blesses you

The RainwatersMarch 5, 2010 - 1:38 am

I love your pictures…thank you so much for sharing them with us. I’m glad you are feeling better and that it was not Malaria…did you get your results back?

jim bakerMarch 5, 2010 - 4:31 am

Jamie – glad you’re enjoying the pics… facebook me and i’ll tell you what the results had to say

Mar 01 2010

03.01.2010 – where did February go?

Where in the world did February go?!

Anyway, I’m feeling better, my stomach is pretty normal, I’m still pretty tired though all the time. Malaria test came back negative, which means either I never had it OR the meds killed it.

We had a retreat this weekend. The time4revolution group got together which is a group of 4 youth ministries in the Warren PA area.

Our theme for the weekend was something along the lines of “Chilling Out.” We met up at Camp Mission Meadows and by the end of the weekend I had over a foot of snow on my car.

Aaron led worship all weekend and did a great job.

J brought a real solid message of not giving up on God because He doesn’t meet our expectations.

Rick came up and preached an awesome message that I wished I would have heard in high school. Outlining that from age 15-25 this is the decade of decision. And that you have to decide on 4 “M” words.

who is your MASTER
you can have many masters, but only Jesus is going to love you

what are you going to do with your MONEY
give!
live below your means
stay out of debt

what are you going to MAJOR in
do research see if there are jobs in the field you want to go into

and who is going to be your MATE/MARRIAGE
choose well

I spoke during the evening session and just had the kids intention themselves on Jesus during the worship time. And then we just sat in silence and I encouraged them to listen to Jesus. I brought a simple message of God’s unconditional grace for them and said that they would never be able to chill out until they knew who they were and who’s they were. We ended the evening praying for kids which was awesome.

PJ spoke the next morning. His premise. Not everyone who poops on you is your enemy and not everyone that cleans you off is your friend.
(Come on.. it’s youth ministry)

He taught from Proverbs 27:6-7
⁶ Wounds from a friend can be trusted,
but an enemy multiplies kisses.
⁷ He who is full loathes honey,
but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.

He encouraged the kids to pick friends that wouldn’t just comfort them and agree with them, but friends that would get in their faces and speak hard truth to them. And also ended with verse 7, saying that when we aren’t getting our fill of God that we run to stupid things. He also encouraged the kids to MAKE COMMITMENTS and said that if we don’t commit to things we don’t grow.

Another Africa blog this week I promise.

JIM baker

2 comments

Timothy S. MilliganMarch 1, 2010 - 1:05 pm

Shoot, I need to hear that bit about committing.

What does it mean to intention yourself on Jesus?

jim bakerMarch 2, 2010 - 6:21 am

Tim, it was great talking with you last night on fb.

Intentioning yourself on Jesus just simply means to take time to really focus in on WHO He is… we often enter times of worship flippantly and our mind is going in a million different directions. I encourage you to just take time to stop and LISTEN and as He reveals more of your character worship will just happen because you’ll get caught up in who He is and how GOOD He is.

Feb 18 2010

02.18.10 – hey

hey everyone… sorry for no update yesterday, I’m still not feeling good, I went to the dr today… keep praying for me I’ve been laying pretty low, I’ll keep everyone posted as to the lab results I had taken today.

I’m also going to be using twitter and facebook a lot LESS during lent.

JIM baker

Feb 16 2010

02.16.10 – from Nairobi to Migori

We woke up on Friday morning and I took a quick walk around the premises to see it in daylight. The warm morning reminded me of Hawaii. This is when I tweeted this video.

The team ate a breakfast of pancakes, with a room full of other missionaries, Jess said it reminded her of a YWAM base.

Brian led us in a quick devotional before we left for the airstrip.

This was our pilot Amanda. I took the picture mainly because I thought it was funny that she was using a Garmin GPS.

Why is Devo looking so smug? Well he just saved all of our lives. As our pilot was speeding down the runway ready to take off she suddenly aborted the take off. She thought the “door ajar” light was malfunctioning. It was not, when we started for take off the back door flung open and Devo closed and latched it.

A view of Nairobi from the air.

When we landed in Migori, which was an airstrip not even on the GPS, we were met by Bishop John Okinda, his wife Pamela, almost 300 elementary and middle school students, the high school students, the teachers college and local pastors and congergants. We had over 500 people waiting for us when we hit the ground.

Many of the kids had never seen a plane before. So the Amanda the pilot allowed Bishop John to choose some kids to sit in the plane.

There was a ton of pushing and shoving as kids wanted to get on the plane.

We were welcomed with various songs and skits by the different groups. Click here to see a short video of this performance. This performance brought me to tears, and made me feel like I was actually in Africa.

JIM baker

5 comments

JStanfordFebruary 16, 2010 - 8:07 am

awesome photos man. Glad you could have a great experience there.

PS – Garmin makes airplane avionics packages too…so probably all that instrumentation was made by them, not just the gps

LeisaFebruary 16, 2010 - 1:30 pm

I’m enjoying the pictures and videos- looking forward to more!

jim bakerFebruary 18, 2010 - 10:37 am

@ jeff and @ Leisa – THANKS!!!

The RainwatersFebruary 21, 2010 - 4:36 am

Jim, First hope you get feeling better. Second, we are staying in the Mayfield house our first night in Kenya too…that is so awesome and it was cool to see your pictures to know what it looks like! 😀

jim bakerFebruary 21, 2010 - 7:00 am

rainwaters! thats so awesome, what a small world!

George was our driver, from Mayfield, if you see him, well I highly doubt he’ll remember me because he brings in a ton of missionaries every day… but nonetheless George is a real cool guy.

take your malaria meds k?

Feb 14 2010

02.15.10 – Okay finally a BIT more about Africa and some pictures

The Africa team and some of the staff gathers at Praise Fellowship on Wednesday Jan 27th to pray and say goodbye to family.

A shot from the window of one of our 3 flights. Which I don’t remember.

Brian Adelgren getting his Kenyan phone set up in the Nairobi Airport.

Jess, Arielle, and Heather waiting patiently as our driver pulls up to take us to the AIM Mayfield Guest House.

The guys room complete with mosquito nets. Make sure you use those!

The dinner they served us at the guest house. It tasted more Mexican than African.

I’m going to try to go through the trip day by day with pictures and captions so you can get a feel for the trip a little better. We had 3 flights. Buffalo to Newark. Newark to London/Heathrow. And then London Heathrow to Nairobi.

The Newark to London flight was on a newer 777 and had individual touch screen tvs in the back of the headrests. Jess loves movies and long flights so she stayed up the whole flight and watched movies. I snoozed a bit and watched one movie. On this flight they served us chicken tikka massalla. I was pretty stokked about that.

The travel wasn’t bad at all. Rick told me to avoid caffeine on the flights and drink tons of water and get up from time to time and move around and sleep when I could. Staying hydrated on the flights made them a lot more enjoyable. We arrived at the Mayfield Guest House in the dark. A few of us ate some dinner and showered and went to bed.

I’ll write more about the day after this one tomorrow!

JIM baker

5 comments

lillypadcbFebruary 15, 2010 - 5:34 am

Even though we talked to you and you told us about your trip, I am excited to hear the story with pictures as you journal your trip through the days. LU

joanFebruary 15, 2010 - 6:05 am

So excited to see your trip begin. I’ll be there with you all the way. LU G&G

The RainwatersFebruary 15, 2010 - 6:41 am

Jim, jim, jim…stop teasing us..I want the real pictures….(these are good, but your holding back on me man,) I’m DYING to see what you got!!!

The RainwatersFebruary 16, 2010 - 2:54 am

I didn’t actually read where you had said you were putting the pictures in order, sorry…just excited to see all of what you got! 😀

jim bakerFebruary 16, 2010 - 3:29 am

thanks everyone!

and yes rainwaters… patience, more pics are coming

Feb 12 2010

02.12.10 – quick post

Hey everyone…

Jess and I are in Columbia Maryland visiting my parents. Its been a great time of rest. My mom and dad have looked through all 4,427 photos from Africa. Only my parents and grandparents get the privilege of seeing EVERY picture. I try to be good about only putting my best work out there.

The trip here was crazy. Maryland is getting a ton of snow fall and they aren’t used to it. While I was on RT 70 and had just passed the Maryland line a semi passed me on my left and my car spun out and I hit a snow bank. I was stuck facing the wrong direction and had to be towed out. It was pretty scary. Minimal damage to the car.

I’ve tried to sit down and write a blog about Africa a couple of times and just haven’t been able to do it. I was going to on Wednesday but the internet cut out and yesterday I just could not conjur up a blog. I’m going to try my best to do things chronologically and take you day by day through Africa.

I got my facebook account back.

And Jess and I are headed out in a few to go meet up with Cory Pampalone.

My first pictureless blog.

JIM baker

Feb 09 2010

02.09.10 – another early morning and some side notes

saw this in a gift store, shot with my iphone

After talking to some people back here, I’m not convinced that I really had malaria… I’ve heard that there is an incubation period and the doctor there diagnosed me with malaria only after being in Africa for a few days. I do know however I felt like I was the sickest I’ve ever been, I think it was just the food.

fried tilapia – taken with iphone

While I was in Kenya my facebook got hacked. Someone logged in as me and used chat to tell people I had been mugged in London and needed money transfered immediately. The sad thing is that it seemed a bit more believable because I had just been through the London Heathrow Airport to get to Nairobi. I’ve heard from a few people that were contacted by this hacker and luckily they realized it wasn’t me and didn’t wire him the $1,500 he was asking for.

So facebook deactivated my account and I’m now in the process of starting a new one. I’ve got about a tenth of my friends back. It stinks to be starting over from scratch but whatever. If you’ve got facebook and we’re not friends I THINK this link should take you to my profile.

You can read more about this scam here. I’m still trying to figure out how I got hacked or phished or whatever it’s called. I haven’t figured it out. I am however glad that my password for the e-mail account I use with facebook is different than my password for facebook otherwise the cyber criminal could have taken over my e-mail account as well.

In other news… Robert Park has been released… you can read that article here.

Anyway… no one ever told me if you like the changes that I made to the blog layout… Are you enjoying the twitter feed on the blog? Is it okay to only see the most recent post and have to navigate from there? Leave me comments and let me know what you think.

Sorry if you were waiting for a more detailed Africa post… patience

JIM baker

2 comments

MarcScottFebruary 9, 2010 - 2:32 am

glad you are ok dude. And I’m glad that you are hacker free and malaria free!

jim bakerFebruary 9, 2010 - 3:05 am

thanks marc!

Feb 07 2010

02.08.10 – 3:47am

Jess and me right before we left Masai Mara

Its 3:47am right now, jet lag. At least I’m not up with a stomach ache like I was last night.

Africa was awesome. We were so blessed to be able to go. John and Pamela Okinda are doing AMAZING things for the kingdom of God. Our team was so honored to come alongside them and provide any help we could.

It was a quick ten day trip, but I feel like we accomplished a ton and learned a lot.

While we were there John and Pamela invited another 4 orphans into their own personal home. They now have a total of 12 orphans living with them.

I’ll write more about the things we did in future posts. Consider this an introduction.

* * * * *

From a photography standpoint…

I took 4,427 photos while we were there. Most of them, portraits for sponsorship of the nearly 300 students that John has.

I set out to take 10,000 pictures, or 1,000 a day, but wound up getting diagnosed with malaria last monday and spent quite a bit of time in bed.

The 5dm2 and the 24-105 treated me real well, I’m VERY glad I was able to get the new camera before I went.

Masai Mara is AMAZING. I seriously highly recommend going if you ever have the chance to go. It was a great way to end our trip. I had no clue that you actually got THAT close to the animals.

I’ll post soon about more photography thoughts I had while in Africa.

JIM baker

4 comments

joanFebruary 8, 2010 - 3:37 am

Looking forward to reading more. Happy to hear it was a successful trip. Hope your feeling better every day. Lv, G & G

jim bakerFebruary 8, 2010 - 5:46 am

thanks grandma! happy belated birthday!

The RainwatersFebruary 9, 2010 - 5:51 am

Jim, I am SOOOO jealous…you got to fly in!! We went in an old van, which I was too car sick by the time we got there to really enjoy the animals ;p I’m glad your feeling better!

jim bakerFebruary 9, 2010 - 5:53 am

yup we flew… felt like a rockstar, this lady was taking pictures of us when we flew out i think she just assumed we were famous, i mean who flies into masai mara on a private plane?

jess and i weren’t feeling 100% on the safari either but that wasn’t because of car sickness just other tummy stuff…

i always travel now with motion sickness tablets in my camera bag after a gnarly bus trip from Comitan Mexico to Cancun where one of the girls on my team puked in a pringles can…

pumped that you guys are going to kenya soon excited to see what you all bring back in the way of photo and video

Jan 27 2010

01.27.2010 – off to kenya

a graphic my dad made for us

Jess and I are off to Kenya today. Please be praying for us. We return in 10 days.

Wanna read about what we’ll be doing there? Click here.

If there’s internet where we are I’ll do my best to keep you all updated, but no promises. Check the twitter feed below for the most recent updates.

JIM baker

4 comments