The past two days we’ve spent time in the school, clinic, and this afternoon, did some door to door visits to tell people about the new church opening Sunday. Every moment is a blessing, whether it’s playing with kids, reading them stories, taking photos, dancing with them, or serving people in clinic. Yesterday I helped put together the now gorgeous and exciting maternity clinic and reorganize the pharmacy with all the new meds. Today I helped with triage, taking weights and blood pressures. We also just had opportunities to get to know the people better.

Tonight though, instead of me continuing to ramble on… I’m going to turn the laptop over to my teammates to let them share with you some of their stories and experiences…

Cindy: We’ve spent a couple days working in the clinics in the afternoon and while some are organizing the pharmacy and counting pills, others of us are talking outside with folks while they’re waiting. We’ve been able to share about why we are here and hear some about their lives and stories. It’s been very encouraging to hear about their faith and the strength they find in Jesus. In particular, we’ve met Patrick, Mary and John, all of whom are over 55 and have been Christians for many years. My biggest fear coming on this trip was that I would spend more time talking to people than getting to hear their stories and learn from their faith so it’s been encouraging to both share but also listen. I am encouraged to hear the strength of their faith in the midst of what we perceive as difficulty. It is hard to imagine that many Americans would live with as much joy and faith in circumstances so different from our own. There are many things we can learn from Kenyans – joy, hospitality, generosity, perseverance and hope to name just a few. I look forward just to absorbing as much as I can in the days that remain and sharing with you when I return.

Andy: On the first Sunday, our team had to opportunity to visit the African Inland Church (AIM). During our worship, I could not help but look at the ground and see the dirt rise. I could not help but look at the ceiling and look at the holes in the tin. Then I thought to myself, how we could raise money to fix this place. It would be amazing to worship in a place that looks like my church and have hundreds of Kenyans in the congregation. Then the Lord said, “Why are you concerned with what you can do? These people are worshipping me now.” Then I realized that it’s not the building, the amenities, or the music that God cares about – but where our hearts are. And the hearts of the Kenyans are on the Lord.

Kelly: Jambo (Hello) from Kenya! Today was a very special day for our team at the Camp Brethren Primary school. Francis, Phil, Andy, Anjanette, Cindy, and I led the chapel hour for all 120 students including students from nursery school all the way to 5th grade students! We started the day learning about the importance of following Jesus. We played “Follow the Leader” and a game called “Come and Follow” where we created a 126 person Congo line with the 6 of us and all 120 students following each other around the school field. We then read the “Good Samaritan” story to teach the students about the importance of kindness and caring for those in need. Kelly was the narrator, Francis was the injured man in the road, Phil was the temple worker, Andy was the minister, Anjanette was our photographer, and Cindy was the Good Samaritan. The children lit up with smiles when they saw the story being acted out in front of their eyes. While we hope that we taught them something about caring for one another, their favorite part of the story seemed to be Phil acting as the Good Samaritan’s donkey that carried the injured man to a hotel. After we finished our skit, five brave Kenyan students volunteered to act out the same skit. They were great actors! We will continue to teach at the school every morning this week. We look forward to telling you all about it when we return. For now, Kwaheri (Good bye) and see you soon!!

There is so much to say, but we try to be brief. We look forward to sharing more stories and many, many pictures with you soon. Thank you all for your continued support and prayers.

Before we sign off, I want to share a few prayer requests. I’m happy to report that so far, we are all still mostly in good health. We are so thankful for that. I, however, am still suffering with a terrible cough, which can be difficult at times, especially with all the dust. Please pray healing for that and continued health of our whole team. Please continue to pray for our time with the children at the school. They are really blessing us, but we sure hope we’re blessing them too. Pray for people who visit the clinic. It’s been very busy and we’re now down one clinician. Hypertension is a terrible problem here (I had one woman today measuring 235/110) but drugs are real expensive. Pray for healing for these people but until then, comfort and joy in the midst of it all. Please pray for our continued campaign for the new church. We’ll be doing an “open air” session where we just visit with people in town all day, and then showing the Jesus film at night. Finally, us women will be joining the Kenyan women tomorrow for bible study. Pray we teach God’s word clearly and are given amazing opportunities to get to know these women better. Pray for clarity amidst language barriers.

Such good stuff has already occurred and more to come. Love and miss you all. More soon.

Anjanette (and the team)