June Team Arrives in Kenya

From one of the team members:

Our team has arrived safely at the Village.  We are all doing great and getting accustomed to the time difference.  We had a relaxing day on Saturday when we arrived, then a wonderful day with the families on Sunday.   It was such a beautiful thing to see the smiling children waving at us as we drove in and brought tears to our eyes.  We bonded with them immediately and it has been so helpful to already know many of them from the website and Facebook.

We attended church in the village yesterday and it was amazing to watch the children recite their memory verses, lead songs of worship, and completely engage in the message.  We were so impressed with their knowledge of the Bible.   After church, we were honored to be able to stay for the family meeting.  This is a time of reviewing everything going on in the village, talking to the children about various concerns and expectations, and just connecting between families.  They raise these children in such a loving way & it is a blessing to watch.  After church, we had our first meal in the family's homes, which was fantastic.  We loved watching the older children feed the younger ones and everyone gathering around the family room to visit when they were done.  Our family had 19 children and it was a completely peaceful, relaxing time....impressive!!  In the afternoon we took a beautiful hike to the waterfalls with the older children.

After our team devotion led by Peter (one of the dads and the main village pastor), we started on the playground project.  They have one basic swing set already and we are adding another for the younger children, along with a fort, playhouse, climbing net, hanging rope, & see saw.  We hope to complete it aside from the slides which aren't ready yet (they were ordered 8 weeks ago).  We have learned to slow our pace a bit and enjoy our time here.  There is a saying that "the Americans and Brits have watches, but the Kenyans have time" and we are finding this to be true.

Our schedule is flexible, but we are planning to have another work day tomorrow.  The feeding program and "jigger digger day" in Kambi Teso is on Friday.  We look forward to providing socks, shoes, and blankets to all the children in the program.  We were in awe of how much we were able to bring to the Village once we got it all together in the same place.  It was truly God creating a serious packing miracle!  The children don't have a lot in the Village, but they are happy and healthy and very well cared for.  The guest cottages are absolutely beautiful and we are being spoiled by Linda's cooking each day.  Linda is British and her cooking is delicious.  Who knew we'd gain weight on a mission trip to Kenya?

To our families...know that we are well, and we're having a great time.  The team is getting along great and things really couldn't be better.....except for a bit of a problem with the plumbing at the village which developed overnight.  At this time, we were able to have a shower this morning but that's the last one until we hear otherwise.  It is rainy season, which was fairly torrential yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours, so we're hoping for a rain shower tonight.  So....from the team, thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray not only for our team to accomplish what we think we're here for, but what God has in mind for us.