Hello!!
Thought I'd send an update out about our trip to Kenya!
I'm currently at Grace, Amelia and Shana's place. We're hanging out here until Pastor Susan's going away party this afternoon. Pastor Susan and her friend Pastor Geraldine were our hosts on our 2008 trip. I'm so excited to see her today!
The trip has been excellent so far. We've been memorizing Colossians 3:12-17 as a team-- Verse 17 says "and whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. We've been blessed with a team of students who want to represent Christ in every aspect of their lives. It has played out in how they treat the kids, the locals, our host family and each other on the team. I'm so proud of them for how they've been so intentional so far.
As usual, the kids at Gathiga are adorable. We've been playing lots of games with them, making bracelets for them thanks to Amanda's skills, and playing music together. We've all been struck on this trip by the fact that these children are orphaned. It has been pretty sobering to consider that there is no one in there lives to intentionally love them. It has been good and hard at the same time to try to love 100 kids when there are only 7 of us. We've been praying that they would know that God has adopted them!
The feeding program was good as well. Steve Gitau is doing a great job with the kids. His love for them is so evident. They recently changed the location of the program and the new place is so ideal. It's big enough for the kids to play soccer and for other games to be going as well. In short, awesome.
Tomorrow is our going away party at Gathiga. We'll go to church, then spend the afternoon with the kids, eating, singing, dancing and handing out the donations we have(there are so many!!!). Then, we'll leave on Monday for a 2 day safari, during which we'll begin debriefing the trip. Wednesday, we'll continue and finish debriefing, pack up, visit the kids one last time and then head to the airport where we'll be flying out at 11 p.m. Kenyan time.
A couple prayer requests:
- please pray that God would give us love to make the most of the time we have left with the kids. We want to try to communicate to them so badly that they are loved, not abandoned!
-Please pray for the team as we process through the trip. Debriefing is such a critical element to the success of mission trips so we want it to be done excellently. pray that God would help us understand how He is calling us to respond as a result of what He's shown us on this trip. Pray that he would help us communicate what we've seen and learned effectively when we return!
- for our travels. Please pray that our travel would be smooth, and filled with awareness of God's Spirit. We want to be representatives of Christ all the time(including on the plane!), not just in Kenya!
We're praising God for all the ways he has been working on this trip. Thanks so much for your prayers. He is using you!! We would not be able to do this trip without you.
love
-dave
