Whew, it’s been a busy couple of days! Our visitors, Daren and Ryan, arrived Tuesday….8 hours before us! They ate, slept and walked around the compound 🙂 We arrived in Kenya pretty uneventful…thank you Jesus! We did however exit the plane out the back door and walked across the tarmac to the airport!
Once we arrived at C4KK we reintroduced ourselves to our puppies…Bear and Pixie. Oh my were they excited, and Pixie a bit timid, but once they smelled our hands they were jumping all over us and fell right back into a routine with us! Boy I sure did miss them! Sorry I don’t have a good picture of them, I’ve just been enjoying their company! I did bath and brush them and unfortunately I had to cut a lot of Bear’s hair in order to get the mats out but he really seemed to enjoy it and they have slept with us every night 🙂 One happy missionary here!
After dinner on the veranda it was certainly bed time!
It took us over 2 hours in line Wednesday night to get our sim cards organized and get internet…that’s why you are getting such a long post!
Ok, so enough of that…on to what we do! On Wednesday we visited Acres of Mercy and Daren and Ryan had a great time!
A little basketball
Just some cute kids hanging out
Daren and Ryan meeting the kids for the first time
Daren probably had sore arms after lifting, dare I say, hundreds of kids!
Some heartfelt praying going on here!
and here!
Ryan spoke to the whole school with some encouraging words regarding the importance of education and the love God has for each of them.
Ok, so Ryan also had to teach “thumb wars”! As you can see, they enjoyed it.
And of course I HAD to get my hair worked on!
Later in the afternoon we visited two of our sponsored children. The first was Elizabeth. We have been with Elizabeth since 7th grade and she has now been accepted into a college! She will begin in a few short weeks and we are so proud of her. By the way, she’s the first person in her family to go to college…congratulations Elizabeth!
From left – Ryan, Pauline (Elizabeth’s mom), Elizabeth, mwaitu (Elizabeth’s maternal grandmother-mwaitu is Kamba for grandmother) and Daren.
After having tea and chatting the way forward we then went to visit Mary. Mary, as I’ve told her story before, has been with us since 8th grade and just recently graduated from aviation school for cabin crew. Boy are we proud of her and she has grown into a confident young woman! Congratulations Mary, we look for great things in your life by God’s grace!
From left-Daren, Mary’s mom, Mary’s sister, Elizabeth, Mary and Ryan. Mary’s house was also one in which Saved By God’s Grace put in windows and replaced the roof.
That was one busy first day! As a matter of fact we missed lunch and had a late dinner….this is Kenya and we must be flexible!
Thursday was another full day. We had breakfast, packed up our stuff and headed out to Comfort Self Help Group. This program is run by Faith (you’ll see her in one of the following photos) and involves elderly grandmothers. The age range is 85-110 but these are some strong women! Faith does a scripture teaching and all ears are listening to her words of wisdom. Then they are given a hot lunch followed by receiving a few items to help with meals for a couple of days afterwards.
One woman fainted today at the program. She is diabetic and hadn’t eaten for three days. She was treated at a nearby clinic and released, given some food along with a little extra.
Some of these beautiful ladies get up at 5 am to begin walking to the program….two hours away!
We would love to expand this to include more food to last a month. Many of these grandmothers are forced to beg at the market or scrounge in the trash for something to eat. If you’d like to help please visit our “Donate” page for more information. Meanwhile, here’s some photos of the day, and these don’t capture the Spirit being present with these ladies and the love felt by all of us.
This is Faith up front, teaching and singing with the ladies.
This wonderful “shosho” (grandmother in Kikuyu) gave her testimony and encouraged the others.
Oh and we had one grandfather!
Serving these beautiful people was such an honor for us all. May God bless them abundantly and fill their needs.
Then as we had our lunch I noticed Daren was missing. I went looking for him and found him quietly washing dishes with the ladies. I’m sure they were quite shocked to have a man in the “kitchen”! He stayed until the very last utensil was washed!
I love how shosho is scrubbing while Daren rinses! I tell you, these women can out-scrub any of us!
I don’t think Daren has the same “bending over” technique these women have!
I love seeing these hands working together for the glory of God!
Really Daren, more rinsing!?
The last utensil!
While Daren was busy cleaning with the ladies, Ryan helped pass out unga (flour). They also received soap and cooking oil. Ryan was prayed for and blessed by many of the shosho’s.
This woman, bent over from age, will be walking home with a sack of food on her back. I pray for each of these women (and man) that God will pour His love upon them and they will feel His love through this program.
So that’s our two days in Kenya! Full of blessings and a renewed sense of purpose (for me anyway). I’m so grateful God has allowed me to see the growth of this ministry from it’s inception (just a year ago). Please, please prayerfully consider becoming a monthly donor. We’d love to increase the food given to these shosho’s so they will no longer need to beg or pick through rubbish for their daily sustenance.
It’s now 10 pm and we have to be up and out of the house by 5:30 am! We are headed to Luanda where we will be working with Joseck, St. Raphael’s Medical Clinic doing jigger treatments and perhaps a construction job! We’ll see!
Your prayers for this ministry and our visitors, Daren and Ryan, are certainly appreciated. Thank you for being a part of bringing the love of Jesus Christ to people here in Kenya.