My friend Melissa, Lisa and I all traveled to Kenya recently. We had a long journey in the plane and a warm welcome upon landing. It’s been a week in Kenya already! It’s hard to explain how GOOD it is to be back. Kenya is one of my favorite places in the world. I have enjoyed greeting all of my friends and acquaintances whom I have not seen in a year and a half. Especially my friend Liz... She’s an amazing friend! My first day here she surprised me with a dozen flowers and a cake that was a congrats for my graduation, birthday, and soon to be mommy. Between that and having a student named Mbeyu give me a bunch of notes that she’s been writing to me for the past year and a half… I had many tears of happiness to say the least!
We took about 70 children from grade 6 on a field trip to the zoo. Each helper had 3 to 4 children assigned to them as we toured through. I was amazed to see the excitement and surprise the kids showed the entire day. They were seeing many animals for the first time in their lives, such as; giraffes, crocodiles, very large tortoises, monkeys, buffalo, hippo’s, fish, and other animals. The children were thrilled and full of giggling as they felt the giraffe’s course tongue lick their hands as they held out food. At the end of the day there were many hugs as the children went back home!
We had an extraordinary community outreach day for the village of Vipingo at Crossroads Academy. This day is highly anticipated by the Fox River Church team and the community members in Vipingo each year since 2007. There are many activities going on with food for all! We were able to connect with many children during this outreach festival.
I would like to share something really touched my heart that day. As it started to rain, everyone ran for shelter. My friend Melissa and I ran toward the full building when a man with an umbrella offered to have us stand under the umbrella with him and his family. We introduced ourselves. He had four adorable girls with him, two that were twin babies and two that were in primary. From my understanding, he is the uncle of the two older girls. He and his wife take care of the girls because they have no parents.
They consider it a blessing to care for the sweet girls. Later in the day, one of the girls asked for my email and we exchanged information. Toward the end of the day, I learned they had spoken with the President of MANNA Worldwide who invited the girls to attend Crossroads Academy. I started talking to the girls and their family about this amazing news. They were so excited as if they had won the lottery! I look forward to further communication with the family to see how this news impacts their life. I’m still so amazed by how much these schools/centers impact each family, emotionally, spiritually, academically and physically. There is a long waiting list for those in the community who want to go to each of these centers. Below is a picture of the twins!
As always, I’ve had the privilege of working on building a bridge between America and Africa by updating student profiles for sponsors and am looking forward to gathering more information for the websites and student/sponsor online system. My prayer is that people can see where God is at work in Kenya and know that their child sponsorship's, prayers, and considerations for these ministries are having an impact. Liz, Melissa, Lisa, and I will continue this endeavor for the rest of this trip and after! I’m so thankful that God has given me the gift of this work.
