From Jillian:

Hi all! Jillian here. The team agreed to let me blog today, since it’s New Year’s Day and New Year’s is my favorite holiday. I’ll be honest… I was a little bummed to be missing the festivities back home, but knew that celebrating in Kenya would be an interesting experience. We all camped out in the kitchen, preparing food for the New Year’s Community Day. At 11:30 we passed out some glow sticks which were donated to the team – pretty soon these became glowing earrings & halos. They were a big hit! We hung a “Happy New Year’s” sign in front of Tasty the Bull’s carcass and counted down with a live TV show from Nairobi before screaming and making noise to welcome in a new year. New Year’s in Kenya – definitely something I’ll remember forever!

The real fun came today though when the whole village of Eburru was invited to join Eburru church for a “Community Day”. We watched some incredibly fast runners compete in multiple races – the 2 km winner completed the race in just over 9 minutes! – and saw some great volleyball & futbol played. Everyone participated, from the little toddlers to the elderly “mamas”. Some of the team even got to participate, although none of them were at all in the running for a prize! J They actually had a race for women 50 years or older, and our team isn’t really sure if we could have won had we raced them. After feeding the community, we were able to share a devotional. All of the fun & games were a great way for Pastor Steve to share God’s love with a lot of the unchurched of Eburru. We’re praying that events like this convince the villagers of God’s love and make them want to know more. Please pray with us!