Meet Benard, AKA "The Black Mamba" 

The mambas like to hide in the dirt where the locals grow crops. Max and I began calling Benard the Black Mamba because he was bitten by an actual black mamba.  Yet he still chooses to farm in this mamba infested dirt, barefoot. He's killed around 9 of them already this year. Mamba mentality.

(I asked him if he knew the American Black Mamba, but he had no idea who Kobe was. I felt obligated to show him some highlights.)

He neglected to tell me that the mambas like to hide in this dirt until half-way through our morning farming session, but by that point, I was committed.

I'm the White Mamba.

Benard lives in a small tin hut. He farms to support his wife, children, parents and siblings. He also works full time to manage the Nourishing the Nations missions center in Ahero, Kenya. The small piece of farm land you'll see us working in the video below, he uses to support locals who don't have food to eat.

Children watching us farm through the fence. I watched him give food to this family during our trip.

Local kids flock to the NN missions center to play and to be around Benard.

After he kicked my butt with farming through the morning, I thought I'd get my revenge by having him try something that he surely couldn't do - handstand walks. He figured it out on his second try.

Scripture talks about the qualities we'll find in people that are living their lives in line with what Jesus taught - people representing His Kingdom, here and now.

Love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Faithfulness. Gentleness. Self-control.

Benard and his beautiful family.

And if you were to ask me how I'd describe the Kenyan Black Mamba, those are the words I'd choose.

A 4-minute video can't begin to do his story justice or explain the amount of respect I have for my new friend, but we made one anyway. Enjoy!