Wonderful Week

Joseph is one of my favorite children here in Kenya. I love spending time with him and seeing him smile. He is an amazing and smart boy who loves God. He lives in a house with a couple other boys and he has told me that he knows that God has chosen him to be apart of that house.


Meet Hannah, Janet and Juliet. They are all around the age of 20 and they are from Rwanda. They have lived on the compound with us ever since I arrived here. Their stories touched my heart and I loved getting to know them for the time being. They were all Islamic until one year ago when they met Pastor Steve. He changed their lives forever. They dove into reading the Bible and comparing it to the Qu'ran. Hannah made the decision to follow Christ and set aside her old ways. The two other girls saw the change in Hannah's life and decided to do the same. They hardly speak English but every night we would sit down with them and teach them how to read and write in English. Just the other day Hannah found out that her sister in Rwanda is very sick. The decision was not hard for Hannah to make, she needed to go home and be with her sister for her time being. So the three Rwandan girls packed their bags and left the compound. So many tears were shed that day, me included. They are great girls with wonderful hearts for the Lord and people. It was so hard saying goodbye to them because no one knows when we will see them again.


Sister Freda has us all over to her house the other night for dinner and it was such a blast! When Del had malaria on our last trip here about two years ago this is the room that we stayed in together.


On Friday night we went over to some boys house and hung out and had dinner with them. They blasted Celine Dion and Michael Jackson (R.I.P) and we just danced the night away. It was such a fun night filled with laughs.


As our 4th of July party we had a ton of kids over for games, movies and dinner! It was such a long and tiring day but everyone gained up their energy knowing that the kids would remember this for years to come. We had a huge girls sleep-over that included painting nails! They could not have been more happy. As we were painting nails I asked some of the girls to tell their stories, little did I know what I had just opened up. The girls were so transparent and open about the hurts that they have gone through. What amazed me the most was that they have all experienced the power of God and they are not ashamed of where they have been because of what God is currently doing in their lives. We closed the night of conversations and nail painting in prayer and it became a night I will never forget.


I am teaching my first class tomorrow, 6th grade English and freshman English! Then Wednesday is my first day being with the prisoners and I am counting down the days until then. I'll keep you posted on all that goes on! Thank you for all of your prayers. Love you all.

Recently

This past Saturday we took six boys swimming and it has been one of favorite days here so far. The boys were so nervous because none of them knew how to swim, but one boy thought he knew how to swim so he went ahead and jumped off the diving board into the deep end. We then saw his arms flapping and his head not coming out of the water, so Chris dove in and got him out. We were all laughing so hard at the fact that he thought he knew how to swim, so he just went for it. The day consisted of fun times in the pool, freezing water, and great conversations with these teenage boys.


I have been spending about one to two days a week at a Sister Fredas Cottage Hospital. Sister Freda is a remarkable woman with the kindest heart I have ever known. She runs a hospital but also takes in children that have lost their parents or their parents are to weak to take care of them. She has children living at her home and also on her hospital compound. There are three children living at the hospital now and I have loved spending time and playing with them. These children have become siblings to each other share a love for one another like no other kids I have seen before.

This is Morgan. He is four years old and loves cows.


This is Elia. I am quite confident in saying that he is the cutest kid ever. He has such a wonderful personality and loves to laugh.


Tomorrow is my first day visiting the prison and I have been looking forward to it all week. Continue to keep me in your prayers and thank you so much for taking an interest in my journey.

Speechless*

This week has been a great week in investing in ministry sites and establishing more relationships. Although it was a great week, I hit a low. I am 100% confident in the fact that I am exactly where God wants me to be but Wednesday was a rough day. After being here for a month I began to miss the comforts and acceptance that home offers. I also felt as if nothing I do here really matters, but I know that is exactly what satan wants me to feel. The second I woke up on Thursday everything had changed and I am so thankful for that. I love being here and I love that God loves me being here too.
So here are some pictures from my week:

Darling Faith! I had not seen her since I last blogged about her but I got to see her on Thursday. She was quite happy to see me and I was thrilled to see her! She is such a shy little love but I finally got her to giggle and dance a bit with me. I love her dearly.



Del and I mastered a new trick.



This smiley boy is Kevin. He lives on the streets and sleeps outside of a grocery store in town. Oasis of Hope is a school for street children who have the desire to gain an education and they come on their own free will. Kevin is there daily with a huge smile on his face and gets so excited to see me whenever I show up. I have loved creating a friendship with him and showing him that he is loved.


These kids are from a school called Discover to Recover and I go and share a Bible story with them every Wednesday. There are four grades jammed into one classroom when I go to talk about the Bible with them. They get pretty crazy but they are just so happy to get attention and be loved on.



I heard the news of Michael Jackson's death this morning and I was shocked! When I went into town today every shop I walked in had his music playing and a tear welled in my eye. What great music he brought to this world.

Time Change

This is a shot from when Del, Sammy and I got stuck in Nairobi for 2 days. One of our drivers took us to this animal park and we were able to pet a cheetah! It kept making eye contact with me and then... it bit me on the leg. It was awesome. It didn't hurt much but it scared the crap out of me and now I can forever say that I have been bit by a cheetah. Worth it? Yes.


This is Del and I today on a motorcycle with our favorite driver Victor. Besides walking and taking Boda Bodas we hop onto a motorcycle without a helmet and feel so cool.


Some of Delia and I's favorite boys. Steward, Evans and Joseph (my personal favorite). We met all of them about three years ago and they were all way shorter than us and since Del and I have not grown an inch, they are so much bigger than us now! Being with them makes me so happy, they are such amazing boys.


I want everyone to see that despite being together all day everyday, we still love each other. We have had some wonderful laughs that have lead to tears and we have also shared in conversations that lead to tears. This is an amazing experience to get to share with my best friend and I know how incredibly blessed I am.


At some point next week I am going to be going into the women's prison once a week and sharing with them Bible stories and just being there to hang out with them. I am so excited about what God is going to do through this, I cant wait to get to know and spend time with these ladies. Please be praying for me as I take on this experience but most importantly be praying for the work that God has already started there and for the work that He will continue to do once I have planted the seed in their lives. Thanks for caring.

Pictures!

Here are some pictures to show you what Del and I have been up to! Tomorrow makes it a whole three weeks of us being here. It has been such a great experience and I cant wait to be able to update you more often now that we get internet! The people I live with all created a blog where everyone blogs together, so if you want to check that out its http://kitaleleadershipinstitute.blogspot.com/

This is Faith who I blogged about earlier, she is darling.

Such a fun little boy named Benja!

This is Patricia, a young girl who lives in a house full of 43 kids!

One of the two ways we get from place to place in Kitale.

Del and I holding some kittens!

Delia 'teaching' her class.


A bunch of school children and I.


These are kids we get to go and visit every Wednesday and Sunday!



Love you all.

Mrs. Teacher

Today was my best friend Delia's first day to teach in a high school here in Kitale. I joined her in the classroom and it was so fun to see the kids welcome her and accept her as their new teacher for 2 months. Delia let me read roll (which I have always wanted to do) for her class and my bit turned into me butchering everyone of their names... without apologizing. I insisted that the way I said their name was the correct way, they were laughing so hard! It was very fun to watch Delia teach a class knowing how passionate she is about helping these children learn.

As of now I am living at a compound (a very safe compound grandma) with 7 girls and 2 boys and that has created a lot of awesome moments and great topics of conversation. Pastor Steve Rutenbar has joined us on the compound and being with him has also created a ton of laughs. It has been such a blessing to spend my day serving with all these people and then being able to come back to the house and enjoy each others company. We have all created a gymnastics goal for the summer, besides Steve, and just yesterday I accomplished mine! I did a one handed kartwheel and the best part is that Delia can't do it.

A great memory from this week was my visit to Sister Freda's hospital. I was walking through the hospital and I saw a woman sitting in her bed all alone so I decided to go and join her for a bit. I sat at the end of her bed and held her hands, she began to talk to me in Swahili and I just smiled and nodded along as if I knew what she was saying. She sang songs to me and then asked me to sing to her so I started singing 'Jesus Loves Me' and she caught on and began to sing it in Swahili. It was such and awesome moment that I got to share with this old malaria stricken woman.

Now I am on my way to go into Kipsango, which is the main slum of Kitale, and help Sister Freda with a medical clinic there. There is going to be some gnarly medical stuff that will probably gross the crap out of me. So pray for strength for me today as I go into dong something so ou tof my comfort zone.
We were told we would get internet in the house soon! Double crossies.
Love you all.

Happy Birthday Lindsey!

I'm safe! I know my blogging abilities might have made you think otherwise, but I am here in Kenya after a long journey. On our way to Kitale we ended up getting stuck in Nairobi for two days. It was painful and we just wanted to get to Kitale, but doing missions is all about being flexible. I have had a busy week full meeting new people and getting to see some of the people that I love here.
The boy pictured above is Andrew Kakali and his story made a huge imact on my life when I was a junior in high school. I have been able to see him on my other trips to Kitale, but this time he had no idea that I was comming. I showed up at the place that he stays and surprised him, it has been one of my favorite moments so far. He could not stop smiling, hugging me, and telling me how much he has missed me. He also noticed that my hair has grown 'much much longer' he would say. I am so excited to be here for an extended amount of time so I can make other long lasting relationships like the one that I have made with him.
Yesterday I met a girl named Faith and she could not have been over the age of 10. She was very shy but all the wanted to do was sit in my lap and hold my hand. Then she came inside to the church service with me and kept glancing up to me and smiling. Soon she began to fall asleep as the church service got longer and longer. Tears streamed down my face as I thought about this young girl. I don't know her past or what she will amount to in the future but in that moment I was there to love on her the best way that I know how. I began to think that she might not ever fall asleep in someones lap again, or has she ever before this moment? God is working in my heart already and I know that he will continue to.
I hope to post some pictures soon, and I am so excited to share with you more stories as they come.
Love you all.