The final days

I am officially down to my last few days in Africa. My experience has been extremely memorable and life changing. These last couple weeks have left me feeling blessed beyond comparison; from getting to celebrate 25 years with Nairobi Lighthouse Church, to spending a week in Apt. D with 11 children, to spending time with friends. It has blessing after blessing. In church last weekend the church recognized mothers for Mother's Day. I was sitting with one of the boys, Alex when they asked all mothers to please stand. Alex could not understand why I wouldn't stand up and kept telling me that I was just like a mother to them and NEEDED to stand up. He pleaded with me, pulling on my arm, begging me to stand up just like all of the other mothers....I didn't stand, which upset Alex very much....but my heart was touched and I felt more honored than almost any mother in that room.  Another huge blessing this week included the celebration of a birthday. Here it is custom for the birthday person to serve the first pieces of cake to people of importance; mothers, fathers, aunts, ect. Evans, the birthday boy, brought me a piece of cake. I know for some of you that probably sounds like something silly to make a big deal out of, but I was so touched that I could barely accept the piece. Now, I am not sharing these things to try and brag about "how big of an impact that I must have had on these small children." This is not the case at all; these children are the most loving and accepting children you could ever meet. They love everyone this much. I am sharing these things to help express the impact that these children have had on my life, melting my heart with each smile. Because of them my eyes have been opened to a new and purer love. I know that leaving in a few days is going to be extremely hard, but I know that it is time for the next step. As I prepare to go, I know that I am leaving a changed person and will forever carry a piece of Africa and these children in my heart.

May Begins....

Once again I have fallen behind with blogging. I am falling more in love with this place by the hour. The kids are so much fun to hang around and I am getting to know some of the older ones. This week I have been helping out in one of the apartments because one of the mothers is on break. Essy and I have been spending the night and helping in the mornings. It has been fun, but the mosquitos in the living room make it hard to sleep. As I have mentioned, it is the rainy season; in fact it is pouring outside at this very moment. During hard rains, flying termites can be found all over the place, including the houses when windows and doors get left open too long. Evidently they are delicious, I will be the judge of that when I work up the courage to try one for myself. Joe showed me how to cook one over a candle. He insists that they taste wonderful....I am not so sure if I believe him yet. Other than that, we are just preparing for school to start back up on Monday. Also, on Sunday, our church is having a 25th year anniversary. It is going to be a full day of events. Most of the kids are involved with choir or dance teams and they have been going to practices for the last two weeks or so. I can't wait to see all that has been prepared for the celebration.

The "Gentlemen" as they call themselves- aka Clifton and Davis

Sammy modeling the flowers

Faith and Fatuma

Fatuma and I 

                                            

Joe cooking up some flying termites! YUM! 

 I spent the weekend with my friend Miss Jane. It was a lot of fun. However, it rained really hard on Friday again so we ended up being stuck in traffic until about 11pm almost midnight. Did I mention that we left at 4 pm? I don't think that I will ever complain about heavy traffic again. Getting home that late is very common for most people around here during the rainy season.We would literally shut off the car for 5-10 minutes at a time before we would be even able to move an inch. So that was an interesting experience! On Saturday, Jane took me into town and we ran some errands for the church. It was fun to see more of the city. She even took me to a new mall. I think my jaw literally hit the floor! It was huge and extremely nice, it even included a 4 screened movie theatre upstairs.

A typical hand cart for hauling goods

On the way to Miss Jane's house. 

That's all for now. Thanks for reading and God Bless.

Break from School

School closed down for the month of April. We had a school closing event where the kids put on dances and a short skit to show their appreciation to all of the teachers. It really was quite the event and a lot of fun. Since school has been out all month I have been able to spend more time with the children. There isn't much for them to do and it has started raining almost everyday so that leaves even less options. However, there are soccer practices all week that alternate by age groups. Another lady and I are also teaching rugby to some of the older boys. Another guy, Mark, has also set up a small art studio and some of the boys have been paining and drawing artwork and even have them priced to sell. The Sterns are back from the States which has been awesome and I have been learning so much from them. One Sunday, Molly and I went up to the apartments and spent part of the afternoon cleaning up the hallways and staircases. It has been fun trying to come up with alternative activities for the kids

coloring Easter eggs

A house full of friends

Last week I was given the opportunity to travel to Lamu Island with a lady from church. We took buses to get there which was quite the experience. The trip took approximately 22 hours. One of our buses broke down in the middle of nowhere but luckily they were able to get it started and make it into a small town before it completely died. Being in the middle of nowhere at night is definitely not somewhere that you want to be. It just so happened that another bus had broken down ahead of us, so the company decided to send another bus to pick us up. The remainder of the trip we had smashed two buses into one bus; it was packed. Once we reached the bus stop we took a speed boat to the island. Lamu Island is right of the coast near Somalia and is completely gorgeous. The island is almost entirely Muslim and the streets are as narrow as hallways with donkeys at every turn. There are no cars on the island so donkeys are used to carry things and people. In fact, donkeys even get the right of way! We stayed with Pastor Thuku and his family so we were surrounded by buildings. However, a 45 minute walk away is a beach where tons of tourists stay. The beach is breathtaking and not very populated which makes it feel as though you are on your own personal beachr the kids.

View from the beach

The Church

Inside of the Church

Miss Jennifer and Miss Jane

The Pastor's wife, Miss Jennifer, tried to teach me how to cook, wash clothes by hand properly, clean, ect. It was really fun. Above their home, they have a Christian radio station which has really helped reach out to the Muslim community. The Thuku family is wonderful and their 11 year old son Moses is quite the energetic child. Moses came back to Nairobi with us... talk about tiring. The poor child trying to keep still for almost 24 hours straight was about impossible. Luckily the first bus was at night because Moses didn't have a seat to himself. He spent the entire journey to Mombasa curled up on my lap sleeping like a baby. The second part of the trip however was very difficult for him to stay seated. We had a wonderful time and I will hopefully be able to spend another week in Lamu before I come back to the States

An exhausted Moses on the bus

Experiences of a Lifetime!

These last couple of weeks have been full of exciting new adventures. To start, two weeks ago I went home with my supervisor for the weekend. Life outside of the compound is completely different. I had such an amazing time and learned a ton. Mrs. Catherine and her husband John poured gallons of wisdom into me over the weekend. It was also great getting to spend more time with her children. On Sat., Catherine took me to her shags (the place where she grew up). Her parents are such kind people and they live on a farm. Her father showed me around his coffee field and explained the process of growing and making coffee. The coffee plants seemed to stretch on forever. He also has rows of banana trees and yellow passion fruit. He also has a few cows that provide the milk and allow him to sell the excess in town. Everything on his farm is self-sufficient. Even the cooking gas is produced in a manure well. Catherine taught me how to cook a few Kenyan meals and the weekend flew by very quickly.

            This last weekend we went to Mombasa. Being at the coast was a blast. We stayed at a house that was literally feet away from the beach. We did some touring of the city and I got to take my first Matatu ride! The scenery on the beach was gorgeous and my friend, Nigel, went with me so that I could take a swim in the Indian Ocean. Just a side note, the Indian Ocean is very warm! Our plan was to walk about a kilometer down the beach and explore a small reef and then swim back as the tide came in. However, we didn’t time the tide right and it was already coming in before we made it to the reef. So unfortunately we didn’t get to see it, but we did get a nice long swim in!  It was breathtaking being out in the Ocean away from everything. About 3-4 kilometers away from us was a huge reef that stretches out and protects the shore from the huge waves. From where we were, I could hear and see the waves crashing up against the reef. It was probably the highlight of my trip to the coast. 

          The rest of this week we have been busy in the classroom because the term ends on Wednesday. Sorry that this update is very broad, but some things are impossible to put into words without writing a book! 

Brief Update About the Week

I have had quite the interesting week. This week we went into town and met with my friend, Tray’s, cousins. They made us a late supper and we had a great time hanging out. Then on Tuesday evening we ate supper at Faith House, the apartments here at KKV. Baba Zedee and Mama Mary don’t speak much English so it was really fun and interesting. The children showed us how to play a hand game and we practiced counting to 10 in about 7 different languages. I was also introduced to the Kenyan version of our ABC’s. They have a different song to go with them and they were more than willing to teach it to us. I am going to try to post a video of it soon for those of you who teach that sort of thing. On Wednesday, I got the opportunity to visit a home called “Wings”. It is basically a home for teenage mothers from the slums. They house some of them and feed them. They also watch the babies while the mothers go back to school. The story of this place and how it has gotten started in the last 10 months is truly remarkable! I wish that I could share it, however, that could take pages and still would not do this place justice. So, for now, you will just have to believe me when I say it is remarkable. Aside from our adventures this week, the children are continuing to amaze me in new ways and the thought of leaving is beginning to break my heart. The last few days, I have gotten many questions in regards to when I will be leaving and more importantly, when will I be coming back. It is being brought to my attention the negative impact that I may unintentionally be having. You see, most of these children have a hard enough time letting themselves trust anyone. But then to stay long enough for them to get used to you and begin to trust you just to leave? I already feel as though I am betraying them. Some people may say, “well at least they are used to visitors coming for a few months and then leaving by now.” Unfortunately, that is the problem. They are USED to everyone they care about leaving them and never returning… 

You Can't Judge a Book By It's Cover

New Life Home is a baby orphanage located in Nairobi, Kenya.  This home has saved over 1,300 babies since it opened and the number keeps increasing! Right now there is approximately 40 babies at the home. Thanks to New Life Home, majority of these children will be adopted into a loving family. Why am I telling you this? Because when I was told that we were going to get to go visit this home I was beyond excited! I was literally jumping up and down! Finally, an opportunity to do some hands on work! However, I was in for a huge surprise. I think that I was the only one who was not informed that we were going for a celebration, not for a day trip to help. When we arrived, my heart literally sank. Once again I was hit in the face with a situation where I couldn’t possibly imagine what I could do to help. The facilities, of course, were beautiful and I was really sad that we were there to “party” instead of help. Thankfully, God opened my eyes and changed my heart in one big swoop. Long story short, I got the opportunity to help feed the young kids (around 2) lunch. It was eye opening! The entire experience was mass chaos; crying and screaming children, all needing help to eat and not nearly enough help to go around.  Immediately after lunch all of the children were taken to the restroom; most of them at the potty training age. Talk about craziness! By the end of it I had half chewed food all over my face and a new respect for what goes on behind of the scenes. This experience was so good for me. I have realized that it doesn’t matter how “put together” things or people may look on the outside, on the inside can be an entirely different story. The children here at KKV seem to have it all together on the outside; loving parents, caring siblings, clean water, nice school, ect. However, this week, because my eyes are now being opened to things I was blind to before, I am seeing how much is actually needed on the inside. Like so many people, these children are in need of love, hope, forgiveness, and healing. They need so much more than can be provided by this world. Fancy things and money will never satisfy us. We will always feel an emptiness that needs filled until we learn to find our fulfillment in Jesus. The same goes for me. I cannot find fulfillment in loving these children with/by my own strength. I will only find fulfillment in my King and His love flowing through me will not only be more than enough for me, but for all I come into contact with. When we surrender ourselves to the Will of our Father, His light is able to shine into the darkness, pointing all in the direction of our Savior! There is no greater hope and no greater love than Jesus!

A Restless Heart

I know, I know, the title sort of sounds like a soap opera. In a way, I suppose my restlessness reminds me of one. You could have tuned in last week and yesterday would have been almost the exact same story with very little progress. Most of you are probably wondering what in the world I could possibly be talking about, but today I am going to be real with you and share a little bit about what God has been dealing with me about. Since I arrived here I have been struggling… a lot might be an understatement.  The place where I am staying is extremely nice by almost any standards. In fact, I can say that this house itself is much nicer than my apartment with better tasting water included! Since it’s not safe for me to go out into parts of the city or to even leave the gates without at least one escort, I am pretty much stuck here. And this is where my restless heart comes into play. A very big part of my heart wants so desperately to help people, to literally save a life. I haven’t felt at all useful in this place because these kids have already been saved and rescued from the depths of despair. Praise the Lord for that! However, there are millions of people still living in despair many with NO hope at all because they haven’t even heard the message about our Wonderful Savior! This fact breaks my heart so much that I haven’t even been able to focus on the opportunities that God has put right in front of me. Most of us have heard “where much has been given, much will be required.” My heart has been so impatient and wants to be given so much so that He can require much of me. I want to make HUGE impacts for His Kingdom. However, He has to be able to trust me with bigger responsibilities before He grants it. Right now He has given me an opportunity, perhaps to see what I will do with it. Just like the servants; will I invest it or will I bury it? Up till now, I have been burying it, not intentionally, but burying it all the same. I cannot possibly expect to draw closer to Him and to fulfill the purpose that He has for me if I cannot properly take care of what He has given me now. I have gotten caught up in the countless possibilities of how God COULD work through me in helpless situations (if HE so chooses). BUT that is not where He has placed me at this moment, and for a very good reason. My heart is in strife. I have assumed this is because I feel as though am not accomplishing anything. That is partially true, but only because I am failing to see what He has placed right in front of me. I am failing to love on the individuals within my reach.  The reason behind this restlessness has become very apparent to me over the last couple of days; I am not seeking Him. My world has become absorbed with being fulfilled through and by my actions, instead of being absorbed with Him and allowing Him to overflow through me. This has led to feeling miserable in almost anything that I do and it doesn’t matter how good the intentions of my actions are, it isn’t Him flowing through me. Hosea 2:6-7 says, “Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them.” And that describes perfectly what season God has brought me to today. He is blocking all of my paths. I keep searching but to no avail; everywhere that I turn there is a wall. But thankfully there is always a way out with Jesus. Hosea 2:14 goes on to say, “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.”  He desires to captivate us by His love and His Goodness. He longs to be our all in all.  I need to allow Him to fill me each and every day. HE must ALWAYS come first! It is in Him and ONLY Him that my heart shall find rest!

Andrew and Eunice

Playing Duck, Duck, Goose

Libby, Me, May, and Lydia at church

The Day of LOVE

I have been so extremely blessed to have to opportunity to spend my birthday in a whole new way. In case you are wondering, I had a splendid birthday full of smiles, laughs, great company, and yes, even cake! My students brought homemade cards and we were able to share cake together at the end of the day. I learned that it is tradition to be “washed” on your birthday…aka have buckets of water dumped on you. I lucked out and was able to avoid this due to football practice after school. All of the older kids had to rush out to practice, leaving me dry!  This left me available to spend the afternoon playing some new games with the younger children. It was really fun and I was blown away once again by my friend, Rachel. Rachel is super sweet and is around the age of 11. She is always inviting me over to the apartment and is a very loving young woman. For my birthday she gave me a bracelet that she made, a necklace, a homemade cross that someone had given her and a bottle of lotion (because she had 2). I was blown away! I know it might sound silly to be taken aback by this, but not only was it unexpected it was an act of complete selflessness. Her actions reminded me of the passage that the students have memorized, Proverbs 23. In Proverbs 23:4, I believe is the verse, it says “Do not wear yourself out to get rich, have the wisdom to show restraint.” There are many verses in the Bible that warn us about chasing after riches and the things of this world. But seeing that we say this one everyday it stuck out in my mind right away. I constantly find myself worn down from work while back in the states. Always looking for a few more hours or how I can make a few more dollars. Sometimes it’s for completely honest things such as paying off loans or bills, but many times it’s out of pure selfishness; how much can I save up so that I can get….whatever it is that I desire at the time. I seldom seem to be able to show restraint when it comes to this. I have realized just how much I value “stuff” and how often I try to use this “stuff” to fill the void in my heart. This “stuff” is always, without a doubt, unfulfilling and meaningless; never accomplishing what I desire it to and instead leaving me miserable and empty. Looking at Rachel’s example is so inspiring to me. She hardly has anything to call her own and yet she takes from that and gladly gives to others….gives to me. It’s an understatement to say that I am touched and inspired by this act of love and generosity. God has definitely used her to remind me of the true desire of my heart: a desire to love and be loved by Him. His love and His presence is the ONLY thing that can fill me, NOTHING else will do. It is when we are completely in love with Him that we are at peace. And the love that He pours into us is so abundant that it overflows from our hearts and allows us to love one another. 1 John 4:7-8 says, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” God calls us to do many things but first and foremost He calls us to love. He calls each one of us to take up our cross and become more like Him. Sometimes I wonder what exactly that should look like, but I believe the answer is so simple… to Love. We are like Him when we love for “God IS love.” I believe that we all need to learn how to love in a pure and sincere way, just as Jesus loved us by giving us EVERYTHING, we too need to love without reserve. 

The Adventure Continues

On Friday, I went swimming with the older girls after school. It was a blast and a few of the teachers went as well. My supervising teacher, Catherine, was one of them. She confided in me that she didn't know how to swim so I promised to do my best to teach her. After splashing around and racing with the girls, Catherine and I went to work. She was really nervous but extremely determined. We tried many different techniques and even though the water was freezing, we were not getting out until we had accomplished our task! I wish that I could say that Catherine is now an expert swimmer, but alas I cannot. However, she made so much progress that it was impossible for both us not to be jumping and clapping at her improvements! She is still nervous but as long as she can feel my finger tips touching her hands when she starts, she has no fear! Luckily, we have another trip to the swimming pool before the term ends to perfect her swimming! We are both really excited to pick up where we left off! Then this weekend there was a couple football games at the compound. Of course I had to go watch, considering a lot of my students and the KKV kids were playing. They were really fun to watch and made for a great morning! Then on Saturday evening I went over to one of the apartments for supper. (The compound contains 4 apartments in one large building. Each apartment has a mom and a dad and around 10 children or so.) The girls fixed supper for everyone along with tea while I watched movies with the younger children. They are very adamant about not letting me help them cook and clean. It is such an odd feeling, being forced to sit around while someone else, who is younger than you by quite a ways, pampers you with hospitality. They also, as part of their culture, bring you out lots of foods. If they are cooking something, they bring out what they made, offering it to you first. Not eating it would be considered an insult, even though they always give you a very generous portion. Therefore, I am learning not to eat anything before I go to visit anyone! Otherwise I end up with a very full and upset tummy. After supper, I stood my ground and they finally relented and allowed me to help with the dishes. Then we gathered around in the living room while Lucy read a Bible story to the children and then quizzed them to make sure they were absorbing the material. As this was going on, I got to practice my hair removing skills! Pretty soon, I will be able to take out lines No Problem! Speaking of hair, Lydia said that she is going to put my hair in braids with extensions soon! I can't wait to have long hair again! Even if it is only an illusion! ha ha. Well that's all for today. Wish me luck because I will be completely in charge of the classroom for the rest of the week while Teacher Catherine is away handling some family matters. And I will need all of the luck that I can get! Thanks and God Bless!

Giraffes, Elephants and Foreign Foods...OH MY!

This last week has been full of fun and adventure! Since my fellow volunteer, Tiffany, left today back to the States, we were very blessed to get to spend some time doing "touristy" things! We started out by just hanging out with some friends. Selum, cooked us Ethiopian food at her home and it was absolutely AMAZING! The bread, in a way looks like a thin and flimsy sponge. all of the food is on one plate in the center of the table and you break pieces of the bread off and use it to pick up the other foods on the plate. It can get fairly messy, especially if your not experienced! Needless to say, I felt like a slob trying to eat!  Tray made a comment about us eating the same type of food that Jesus and His disciples ate...I have been throwing this thought around in my head. Even though the areas are quite a distance apart, it could still be likely. The thought of sitting around with friends breaking the same type of bread as Jesus himself might have eaten is kind of sweet (even if it's not true)! We are quickly getting to know some incredible people and their families! I love it and there are almost always people coming over to hang out! So while the lifestyle isn't quite so fast paced, time is always filled with people. It's so refreshing to be able to take time to spend with people instead of rushing about consumed in my own little world. With Tiffany leaving, there seemed to be a constant flow of people at the house. However, we were able to set aside Sat. to go to the elephant orphanage and the Giraffe park. The baby elephants were absolutely adorable! Only a rope separated those huge babies and us! Libby and Tiffany even got to pet them as they walked by. At the Giraffe Park we were able to feed the giraffes from a tower-like building. It is crazy how big those things are up close! They have the coolest looking tongues! The big thing to do is to put some of their food between your lips and the giraffe will "give you a kiss." Sounds crazy I know! But of course we took part! Let's be honest, how many times are you going to be close enough to kiss a giraffe?! Following the giraffe park, we stopped and ate some traditional Indian food. It was like nothing I have ever tasted. Some of it just strange, while other items were just plain delicious! It seems crazy that another week has passed. So much happens in a week that I can't possibly record it all at once. I will try to do a better job of updating this thing! Thanks for following! God Bless!

The KKV School

So I am sure everyone is just dying to know what the school is like. At KKV they use quite a different setup. The children do most of their learning on their own through PACEs, which are basically workbooks. All of the PACEs are reused. Everything is done in pencil so that at the end of the workbook the answers can be erased and the booklet can be used again by the next student. It is done this way because workbooks are extremely expensive and supplying them for all of the kids in each subject would be impossible. So everyday time is taken to "rub" (erase) PACEs. The students sit at their own little cubical, completing a few sections out of the booklet before they check their work with the score key. The whole system is very strict and is based on teaching the children discipline, integrity, patience, ect...basically characteristics of Christ. So after they have completed their work, they put up a tag on their desk and wait to be called to go check their work. From there they raise their hand and patiently wait for a teacher to come over and double check their work. If there are any mistakes the student returns to their desk and makes corrections and then repeats until 100% of the section is correct. If they miss 3 or more questions then they usually have to erase all of their work and get the section explained to them before they can retry. The entire room is silent all day long, which is way different from an American classroom. Everything is biblical based from the morning pledges to the bible passages that they have to memorize to the workbooks completely revolving around scripture! It is actually quite impressive in that aspect. These children memorize huge chunks of scripture and get demerits if they can not recite it. Their current scripture is over 25 verses long! And pretty soon they will be starting a new one! It is really amazing! Every Thursday, chapel is held at the Banda and usually lasts about an hour. The teacher I am helping, Catherine, is such an amazing woman! She is constantly telling the students about the love of Jesus and the importance of having His Word in our hearts. Last week, she talked for almost a half an hour after lunch about salvation and around 8 kids accepted Jesus as their Savior! I love the fact that prayer and scripture can be shared all day long! It is really an awesome setup. However, I do wish that there would be more interaction/ more hands on learning. All of the children in my class are from other orphanages, so I only get to see them during the school day. I know all of them now by face and name and am starting to get to know a few of them a lot better during breaks. Today I got to take a few students outside and work with them on adjectives. It was really fun getting to come up with different ways to explain things; by far my favorite part! With two teachers in the classroom now, they are making tremendous progress! This is great because many of them are really far behind in school, especially in English. On Fridays, school gets out at 1 instead of 4 so that the students can play sports. Football (soccer) is HUGE here and the kids are really talented! This Friday the boys get to go swimming and I think we are going to play volleyball with some of the girls who don't really like football. Next Friday, however, the girls get to go swimming! That will be fun! Last Friday, we took the young kids swimming and it was complete chaos! Most of them didn't know how to swim and since only Libby and I were teaching it was impossible but full of laughs. It didn't take long to realize that even the older children didn't care so much if they could swim or not as long as you were giving them attention and encouragement! Like all children, they just want attention and love; to feel like they are the whole world to somebody! It has helped me become more aware of the importance of encouraging and expressing our love to children and one another; no matter how loud, crazy, and inconvenient that it might seem to be at the time. Not only is it much needed but it's deserved!

Big Reminders in Small Packages

A few days ago, during our break at school, I was swinging at the Banda with a couple of the younger girls. They were just captivated by the bracelets (bangles) that I was wearing. Long story short I ended up giving them all away, all except one. It worked out perfectly that all of the girls had received a bangle and I still had my favorite one. I didn't think much of it at the time; all I could think of was their smiling faces after receiving the crazy Mzungu's (white person's) bangles. But then last night I was hanging out at the house and God used this bangle around my wrist to remind me of His perfect love for me. It finally had occurred to me that the bangle I wasn't willing to part with wasn't the most expensive or the most brilliantly made; it's the one that my beautiful sister Haley had made for me right before I left the States. I can clearly picture her standing in front of me with her box of strings, asking me to pick out my favorite three colors. Then she proceeded to put her best effort into making me a very special bangle. Her love for me is represented by the only bangle that I currently wear around my wrist.Yes, I could easily go out and buy a shiny, expensive, extremely decorated and beautiful bangle, but it would mean nothing to me. Sometimes I realize how inadequate I really am. I know that I have nothing amazing or shiny or brilliant to offer my King. Yet, in the same way that I find my bangle to be more valuable than gold, He sees worth in me. All He desires is my love. While everyone around me may not see anything special about this simple bangle, I consider it to be a treasure. In this same way, God treasures me. Not because I have "the best" to offer Him, but because I strive to offer Him my best and all of my love. Praise God that He can find worth in someone like me! His love is truly overwhelming!

A glance into my new home

Wow a lot has happened in the last few days, most of it seems almost impossible to explain so let me start with my new home. I live in a house with Lydia and her husband Tray, who are expecting their first child in about 5 months! Along with them are two other volunteers, Tiffany and Libby, who are also helping in the school. Our home is wonderful and is located in the compound so we get to see the kids almost constantly. We got to spend quite a bit of time with the children on Friday afternoon and it was so much fun! They are just absolutely precious! They are completely full of joy even though they have very little compared to most children in the States. In a short time, I was swarmed with little bodies each one wanting to hold my hand, arm, or basically anything they could grab onto. I can't remember the last time I have laughed so hard! Then on Saturday I spent some time with a few of the "older" girls, who act way more mature than what age they really are. They are extremely smart as well, completely blowing me away. One of them, Lucy, took me to her home and taught me how to cook! It was super fun and I learned a lot watching Lucy care for the younger children and prepare supper for 10+ people entirely on her own. Listening to these girls tell me about their childhoods completely broke my heart. To think of how they had no other choice but to work in order for their younger siblings to eat at the age of 5-6 just about rips a person's heart in half! And then to think of all of the children that still live in those conditions, and many in worse, brings tears to my eyes. But I am sure there will be more to come on that later so I will end this post with something a bit more up-beat. On Sunday we went to church at Nairobi Lighthouse Church. Service is held in a big metal building that seated at least a thousand people and first service was filled to the brim! Picture over a thousand people dancing, lifting hands and voices to our Lord! It was one of the coolest things that I have ever been apart of! The overwhelming peace and joy that filled my heart and soul left no doubt that God was present and enjoying the praises of His people! The church is having a Kesha (all night prayer meeting) this Friday and I can't wait! God is moving in BIG ways in Nairobi and in my own heart and I can't wait to see what is to come!

I made it!

Hey all! Just thought I would let everyone know that I made it safe and sound! Since I got in super late last night I don't really have a whole lot to say yet, but so far so good! I can't wait to get this day started!

Peace out US of A...well for awhile anyway!

I can't believe that this is going to be my last night enjoying the comforts of home for quite some time. This is all extremely exciting and I know that sleep is going to be far from me tonight....so I decided to get this blogging thing started! For a while I have had the ridiculous notion in my head that even though I see God working all around me on a daily basis, I wasn't going to see Him using this trip until I got over to Africa. Boy am I glad that, like usual, I have completely under-estimated my King (I really need to quite trying to put Him in such a little box). I have been blown away with all of the love and support that I have received from friends, family and random strangers! I can't even begin to describe how blessed I am to have so many amazing people in my life! I haven't even left my home yet and God has used this trip to open up countless conversations about Him! Praise The Lord! It blows my mind that He loves me so much to include me in this plan. He doesn't need me to accomplish any of this. It is us who need Him! He can do this all on His own if He so chooses. However, He has chosen to let me be an instrument and I pray that I let His light shine through me in all that I do! Welp, that pretty much wraps it up for tonight and God willing my next post will come from the other side of the world! Thanks for following and God Bless!