Thursday 12th April 2012

Jambo!!!!!!

 

It’s me, Kaylee from Saskatoon! I’m 18 years old (insert gasp from young Kenyans here) and I’m writing the blog for April 12, 2012. (cowritten by Anthony Byron Alvarez…18 years old…904DUVAL)

 

We started off by getting up and having a very exciting breakfast of bread, peanut butter, nutella and honey. It’s debatable whether I will eat any of those products again for quite some time.

 

We split into two groups shortly after breakfast, one headed to a school we visited earlier in the week to paint their gate and a couple walls. The better group (my group) headed to Diguna mission base to see what missionary life is like and to get a tour of their facility.

 

We headed out at 9 with our faithful driver, Chao, and after an hour long drive we hit Diguna where we met up with our other faithful driver Harry (who reminds me so much of Papa, although not in appearance as Harry is black). Diguna is a German based mission in Kenya that does youth camps and lots of discipleship programs. We borrowed Lazarus, our beautiful friend and truck, from Diguna as they have many of this variety of vehicle for going out into the boonies to reach those who would otherwise be unreachable. While Word of Life focuses more on bringing people in, Diguna focuses more on going out and evangelising off base. We met a man named Moses who gave us our tour. Just as we were arriving it was time for Chai. And let me tell you, this was the best Chai I drank my whole time in Kenya. We went into a room off of the kitchen that had a bunch of seats in it where we met a man who we will say was second in command. He was a German man who had been living at Diguna for… a long time. He told us about opportunities to serve with Diguna and what their biggest need is. He explained more about Diguna and answered any questions we had.

 

The other team had a great time painting out in the hot Kenyan sun and were even remembered by name by the kids. They painted nearly the whole gate and saved the school about £100 worth of paint and countless hours of work. The kids even pitched in to help the Muzungus paint.

 

Back to the good team. After an enlightening tour at Diguna we headed to Harry’s house to eat our lunch. Another great meal of bread, peanut butter, nutella and jam, but with the added bonus of canned mackerel, some home made marble cake and more than enough chai. It was here that we heard for the first time the saying ‘eat until you poop your pants’ which is apparently what parents say to their children. To make sure a child is actually full, you must ask if they have tooted yet and if they say no, more food.

 

After way too much driving due to some delays we finally ended up at a secondary school, 45 minutes after the other team. They had been talking to the students while waiting for us to arrive. On arrival, we continued to socialize for the students. Most girls on the team were proposed to during this time, Andy was offered 10 donkeys for Kaitlin, an offer he was tempted to take, but in the end declined.

 

Our meeting finally started, almost an hour and a half late (but that’s Africa time for you). It was just for the Christian Union at the school so there was about 100 students there. We started out with a quick introduction followed by the infamous Ain’t Nobody which we then made the students do with us. Hans shared his testimony and we did the car drama again (which if you have been reading the blogs you will know what that is). Andy finished us off with a quick gospel message. A few boys raised their hands to accept Christ and talked with Luke and Karsten after the meeting. Praise God. Praise God again.

 

After the school we headed back to Word of Life where we tried sugar cane for the first time which was an interesting experience. Some people loved it but I thought it was kinda weird. Different for strokes for different folks, amirite?

 

After a short stop at Wordie, half of the team scooted on over to Nairobi University where they did some door to door evangelism. The team enjoyed their visits and had several great talks with believers and non-believers alike.

 

The other half of the team sauntered around Wordie for a few hours, waiting for the return of the Unis to eat some dindin. After a delicious feast, a great convo about football, and a play date with a dog named Princess, we headed to our team meeting.

 

We had ended up nearly £2000 to give away, so at our meeting we discussed where it would go. We divided it between the majority of the ministries we worked with this week. It is so great that the Lord was able to provide us with not only time but money to help so many worthy causes for the advancement of His kingdom.

 

It is crazy that I am now writing this from the airport as we wait to board our flight back to England. We have done so much and learned about so much need here in Africa. I’m sure it will not be long before some of us come back. It is most likely that we will miss Kenya more than Kenya will miss a bunch of crazy muzungus.

 

p.s. dear family, for a bunch of computer nerds, you have been very disappointing. Where are the comments?!

 

p.p.s. Grandma, you’re the best. Keep on keeping on.

 

p.p.p.s. Yo Mom and Pop, it’s ya boi Anth! Why no comments?! Love you and miss you guys.

Wednesday April 11th 2012

This tale of 18 young adventurers is going to be told to you especially by Arianna the Great.

 

Once upon a time in a land far, far away (also known as Kenya) there was a team of rambunctious Capernwray students and their fearless leader Sir Andy Thomas.

It was April 11^th when the knights and the fair ladies embarked on a journey to the slums of Nairobi. It all started at 8 o’clock in the morning with gronola bars, juice and peanut butter/nutella/jam/honey sandwiches (also known as Greasy Hashbangers to the knights).

After having a hearty meal, the knights and fair ladies set off to a primary school with Sir Andy, Harry and Chow who drove the chariots. To get to the children we needed to make our way through the slums where townspeople were selling merchandise of many sorts.

When we arrived we put on the full armour of God and set off into the classrooms. The knights and fair ladies were able to instruct our young warriors on the word of the Lord. We did this by singing melodious songs and recounting stories from long ago passed down by people from previous generations.

Then after teaching the young warriors we moved on to teaching adolescent warriors. Some of the knights and fair ladies got on stage and did a skit about Jesus just wanting to drive our chariots and take control of our lives. It was brilliantly done by Sir Luke, Sir Anthony, and Fair Ladies Beth, Kaylee and Christy. Fair lady Emily did a wonderful job at teaching these adolescents about the way Jesus wants to drive our chariot. Then Sir Andy finished off the meeting and we embarked on our next journey which was hunting for a noon meal. We found some more Greasy Hashbangers in the back of our chariot and had a picnic on the side of the road. The sun was scorching our fair skin while we sat and ate our well-earned meal.

After another hearty meal, the knights and fair ladies split up and conquered more classrooms. Some, including myself and fair ladies Amanda, Beth, Emily, Christy and Kirsten and also Sir Andy trecked almost a mile to get to a primary school. The easiest thing to compare this fine establishment to would be a treehouse without a tree. Why, you ask? It was a two-story building and we journeyed up the stairs to get to the children. When we got there, we found the floor was just planks of wood nailed into place with 2 inch gaps in between each plank. Whenever we moved it would shake. There were about 50 fine young warriors who were eager to hear what the fair ladies and Sir Andy had to say. The fair ladies sung more melodious songs and presented a Gospel skit that Sir Hans taught us at the beginning of our grand adventure.

While this was happening, the rest of the knights and fair ladies were at a secondary school where the establishment was just as unstable. They shared the good news, sung melodious songs, and played numerous amounts of games.

Eventually all the knights and fair ladies returned back to the chariots. One of the chariots departed because it was full. The other chariot was about to leave but then fair lady Briar and Sir Luke came running out of the school. It came close and if they would have come 5 seconds later they would have been stranded in the slums.

We rode our chariot back and Sir Andy stopped in the market to purchase some delicious sustenance for the knights and fair ladies which included bananas, passion fruit, mangos and avocados and these things called Paw-Paw.

Then back at our castle (also known as Word of Life) we had a hearty a meal consisting of noodles, minced meat and zucchini.

We then recounted the day’s events and gambled about the stats and comments of our scroll postings.

We finished watching the Passion of the Christ and then laid our heads for a good knights (pun intended) rest.

 

On a serious note, Kenya has been a great learning experience. Especially today when we were in the slums. We were all greatly affected by what we saw like how they live and how much they have or don’t have. A lot of us were caught off guard about how content they are with how much they have because the people where we’re from think they never have enough. It was definitely a humbling experience to see how people live like this. It’s so surprising that you can drive from the richest part of Nairobi to the poorest part of Nairobi in less than 5 minutes. It’s just so different here; the lifestyle, the children, the adults, the buildings. Today got a lot of us thinking about possessions and what we have are needs or wants.

Our team is so strong and we’ve been growing stronger throughout our time here. I couldn’t have asked for anyone better to spend this time with. Every single person here is a vital part of our team. I love them all so much.

And yesterday, Christy forgot to write something in the blog and it was really funny. The boys were driving and saw a donkey pulling a cart with a full load. The load turned out to be too heavy for the donkey and the load went straight to the ground. That meant the donkey went up in the air with all four legs off the ground. They thought it was hilarious and when they recounted the story to us we all laughed very hard.

 

Here’s a shout out to Briar’s family. She helped me write this wonderful “scroll post”.

 

And I saved the best for last!!! Shout out to my wonderful family. I wouldn’t be here without you guys…literally. I love you so much. I miss you a lot. Mom and Dad, you can comment. The word of the day: Dewclaw. (Family joke. Let it slide.)

 

ATTENTION:

COMMENT. WE LOOK FORWARD TO READING COMMENTS EVERYDAY AND WHEN WE ONLY HAVE 2 NEW ONES WE GET A LITTLE SAD. WE LOVE TO HEAR FROM EVERYONE. GET THE COMMENTS FLOWING!

Tuesday April 11th 2012

 

Jambo family and friends in Canada, America, Spain and England from Eastern Kenya!

 

Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Christy, I’m from Burnaby, BC, Canada and I’ll be giving you today’s scoop on our crazy African adventure!

As I type this I am being attacked by this band of invincible and obviously foreign bugs that I swear have 9 eyes each and are armed with some sort of weapon each – probably tiny little sensors to detect my fear in them.  Every time I think I kill one, another one comes back to life and flies past my face.  They’re mocking the fact that I have petty fears like these.

I can’t believe our time is nearly up here – only 3 days left and sometimes it feels like we just got here yesterday.

God’s work has been clearly evident over the past couple of weeks and he has allowed his love to shine through us as we have reached out to each person we have met along our journey.  God has been so faithful each and every step of the way and I could not be more thankful for that.  I have learned so much about my Creator in this short time.  All I have to do is stand outside and look around me to recognise his beauty and how awesome he is!  I have been so blessed to be a part of such an incredible team and I have really enjoyed seeing everyone grow, not only as a team but also in Christ.  After spending all this time together, I am really going to miss having everyone around when we have to part!

 

Today had a much more enjoyable start for most, since it involved sleeping in about FOUR more hours than yesterday.  I think everyone was still exhausted from yesterday’s 5am start that we really appreciated the long lie today.  After a more-than-traditional and hearty breakfast of bread, peanut butter, Nutella and honey, we started off on our first adventure of the day: a primary school not too far away.  We had to give up Lazarus, our totally loyal truck (it felt like saying goodbye to an immediate family member) and we are now using the vans that belong to Word of Life.  Be prepared for an epic story I will share later on.  Seriously, buckle up.  And that wasn’t supposed to be a pun.

 

When we got to the primary school, we immediately split off into smaller teams so we could teach in individual classrooms.  Amanda and I took on the year three’s.  We taught them three different songs with actions, read the Parable of the Lost Son with actions, and shared the Gospel (with actions of course).  The kids were really attentive and it was an overall success.  Then we joined everyone else on the field outside.  Some kids chose to play football; other kids chose to play their version of “duck-duck-goose.”  And some kids chose to play with my hair and attempt to touch every bit of skin they could get their hands on.  In Kaylee’s words, they make her feel “hairy” since they usually try and pull at the hairs on your arms and ask you why you have it.

Before leaving the school, we presented them with two brand new soccer balls, which they were very grateful to receive.

 

We drove back to Word of Life to grab lunch (can you guess what?) and the girls went off to a secondary school about 40 km away, and the boys went to visit a boy’s penitentiary (well, it was a boarding school for boys ages 10 to about 18, but it was also a prison).

At the mixed boys and girl’s secondary school us girls went to, we started off by introducing ourselves and where we’re all from.  The students gave us all nicknames in Swahili and that was pretty cool.  They dubbed me “Nashipae,” which means “happy person” or “beautiful.”  Then we sang Amazing Grace in a’capella and How Great is Our God with Kaitlyn playing her flute.  Brita and Kaylee also shared their testimonies and Chau closed in prayer.  We had a few minutes of interaction with the students after we finished and they were able to ask us some questions and just chat with us.

 

Our next mission of the day was to get to another secondary school – about another one hour drive.  Along the way we stopped and got to meet our new pastor — Pastor Hudson and see his home.   We are all looking forward to working with him in our last few days here!

Okay, here comes the crazy part of our day.  Get ready for this.

We’re back on the road and all of a sudden we hear a CLUNK.  Chau keeps driving for a little ways and then we hear another CLUNK.  Turns out, the gear changer thing actually FELL OUT of the bottom of the van and we had to pull over at the side of the road and retrieve it.  So we’re already on a time crunch trying to get to this next school and our van breaks down.  Why not?

So to make the van lighter, we all got out and pushed.  Just us girls and Andy.  Praise the Lord and and Chau were there!  Chau managed to get a little power out of the van, enough to make it up the hills.  The rest of us walked.  It gave us the opportunity to make small talk with passing Kenyans who were also walking on the side of the highway.  We passed through some markets and bought some fresh fruit to take with us.  We also passed through some pretty sketchy areas of town.  Brita was nearly “karate kicked” in the head by a drunk guy, and a few of us girls were pinched on our arms as we passed by another man.  We’re still not exactly sure why, but I had to include that in the blog anyway.

Now being in Nairobi, the elevation was very high (about 2 miles above sea level) so the air was pretty hard to breathe for us, especially Beth who has pretty bad asthma.  When we caught up with Chau, she rode with him and the rest of us walked until Harry came to our rescue with another van from Word of Life.  Man, what an adventure that was!  Oh, and one more thing — the secondary school that we were on our way to cancelled our visit.  Of course!

Nonetheless we had a ton of fun walking through Nairobi with each other and experiencing more Kenyan culture every step of the way.

 

After dinner, back at Word of Life, we had our daily team meeting, complete with a “guess the blog stats” competition and reading of the new comments.  I want to take this time to thank each and every one of you for reading our blog and especially for praying for our team!  We are so very grateful for all your support in prayer and I know we all can’t wait to share more about our adventures when we see our families again face to face!

With only three more days left here in Africa, I’m so excited to see what God has in store for each of us as we continue to visit schools and reach out to more kids who are waiting to hear the truth!

Stay tuned for tomorrow as we continue our grand adventure!

 

Signing out, it’s been a blast!

 

P.S. A giant cheesy shout out to my family whom I love and miss very much (5 more days – can you believe it?).  Love you mom, dad, Michael, Melissa, Stephan and Joey. Xoxoxo

 

 

Alright since Christy is a girl and unable to be a boy.  It was humanly impossible for her to come to the boys prison.  The reason we thought it would be a good idea if the girls did not come to the prison because the guys might have been rude or really distracted.  It was a good call on the teams part to do that.  The guys gave us their full attention the full time.  We started off by playing a game of football with them. Hans, Anthony and Me (Luke) scored the goals.  Ty was so close to scoring,  almost had his first goal.  We won 3-1.  Our soccer skills have gotten so much better.  Look out Mormons, my soccer skills have improved greatly!

Anyways, after the soccer match Karsten talked about making choices and why they were there.  I thought he did a very good job.  I think the kids really listened to him.  Then I presented the Gospel and why we were there. We presented the ball to them.  We were suppose to leave right after we finished but our driver did not come until about an hour and a half later.  We all thank God that the driver did not come till’ later because we would have never gotten to talk to these kids if he did not.  We got to know some of these kids stories which are just so sad.  All the guys had great conversations with the boys, and some of them are there for nothing they have done.  There is so much need in these boys lives.  All they want is just some love and they have no one to give them it.  We all loved being there, and we were sad to go.  Some of them were just amazing kids, who had just tough stories.  We felt pretty useless just going there for 3 hours and then just leaving again.  We would love to go back there.  This was the best place we have been to, but also the hardest.

 

We thank God for this opportunity, we know God made us go to that School for a reason.  I know He did, maybe we will never see the results of us going there, but I believe our job is just to plant the seed and trust God to do the rest..
God bless, Luke Frisesn

Monday April 9th 2012

This is the account of Anthony son of Steve, a servant of the most high God recounting the events of Monday, April 9, 2012. The morning began quite early when Karsten son of Paul decided to go on a journey whilst sleeping. After walking on top of me and the other disciples, he said he was confused and headed back to bed. Not twenty minutes later, Luke son of Ron had a similar experience when he was startled in his dreams by some imaginary spiders. After being reassured that there were no spiders and that he was sleep walking, he reluctantly went back to sleep with the last comment “I feel sorry for the kids.” It was a terrifying experience for the six disciples. For they said “Who is this man that speaks even while he sleeps?” During the fourth watch of the night, Andy son of Ian awoke the disciples. After a quick tidying up of the area, the disciples set off to pick up the sisters. The disciples were weary after their previous days of ministry and were given a day of rest. At that time, the team departed for an African safari. The safari began with the sighting of a large rhinoceros and countless water buffalo. The disciples then sighted a family of baboons. We decided to break bread with them in order to befriend them. They received it rather swiftly, but were not grateful for our kindness. We showed them love anyway and continued on. Luke son of Ron was eager to catch a glimpse of a shark, but was unable as we are in Africa, not the ocean. Then, we exited the safari and decided to try a new meal consisting of bread, peanut butter, and nutella. The disciples were rejuvenated and set off for Word of Life. Upon arrival, everyone washed each other’s feet and broke bread for a final time in the day. Tomorrow, the team has a full schedule and is expecting great things to happen through the power of the Holy Spirit inside of them. (Side note: I understand that Luke son of Ron described me as cuddly and sassy. I’ll have to admit I can get pretty sassy sometimes, but the cuddling is hugely involuntary as I am just the smallest and most huggable. Love you, mom)

 

This is the account of Karsten son of Paul, or according to Andy Thomas, Hans, a misconception that often occurs, a servant of the most high God recounting the events of Monday, April 9, 2012. A rather early awakening of 4:45am was taken with good heart from all, including stobbemeister who enjoys a 5 step process to waking up every morning. With a hardy breakfast consisting of a granola bar and 500 ml yogurt carton for each, the day was off to a fantastic start. A tour of Lake Nakuru National Park was on the schedule today and it did not disappoint, although Christy daughter of Peter, was rather disheartened by the ill showing of any penguins. We were all rather puzzled by the baboons and could never quite figure out their hairless bottoms. But that is to be solved for another day. The tour couldn’t be complete without a little dip in the waterfall and despite the waters brown appearance; this did not hinder the male disciples from bathing in the wonders of Gods creation. H dawg took initiative to lead us into the waters and we happily splashed around to everyone’s delight, especially those of the female disciples who gladly zoomed in on their cameras to capture our pleasures. For those curious folk, no baptism took place on this occasion but this did not damper our spirits. Yes, the safari was a most enjoyable experience and we pray that many seeds were planted in the hearts of the giraffes, baboons, water buffaloes, zebras, gazelles, antelopes and all the more of Gods creation. We then headed back, of course with a quick break to guzzle down some soda and k-money’s greasy hashbangers. We now rest up in comfortable beds without bodies squeezed up against us and look forward to what God has in store for us this coming week.

 

This is the account of Hans, twin brother of Karsten and also son of Paul, a servant of the most high God recounting the events of Monday, April 9, 2012. I write this letter with eagerness to share with you all the animals we got to witness to today. We embarked on our day of rest to Lake Nakuru National Park with excitement to see some of the kinds of animals Noah managed to fit in his ark many years ago. Even though we were not able to kill any animals for our sacrificial offerings later that day we did get to see some amazing animals and breath-taking views thoughout the journey. After taking in all of God’s beauty during the safari we headed back home on our 21st century ark, characterized as “boss” by fellow brother Luke Friesen. Before heading off to bed our team partook in fellowship and prayer to bid the day adieu. Brothers, please pray for us as some of us have strong definitive tan lines coming in, including Luke son of Ron with his horrendous beater burn and Brita daughter of Mark with her classic but elegant female farmers tan. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. Grace and peace to you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

This is the account of David son of Raymond a servant of the most high God recounting the events of Monday, April 9, 2012.  Well hello everyone!  I hope you are having a ridiculously fantastic day so far.  A friend, of a friend of a very wise friend once told me that, a bad attitude is like a rotten banana… it just doesn’t taste very good.  So put that smile on your face and give someone a high five today!  Today was filled with a ton of fun and excitement.  These other accounts have covered quite a bit, so I will tell you the incredible action packed highlights of our day.  The first was the sighting of a killer whale, kangaroo and a polar bear.  You may be thinking to yourself, well that is odd!  And yes you are correct, that was a false statement.  Polar Bears in fact live in Australia.  Okay just kidding!  Just joshing with you.  The safari was a roaring experience.  (no pun intended)  I even got to become friends with a couple of the baboons, we exchanged facebook names and will be keeping in contact with each other.  He said his name was a common baboon name…it was in fact called Little Baboon.  This name means strong and mighty.  My fellow brother’s had the opportunity of fighting off a roaring Lion.  The ‘highlight of the night’ in this fighting match was H-dawg slapping the Lion and then running away.  He is quite the hero and make sure to check the highlight out on ESPN later tonight.  (it would be cool if this story was true)  Okay enough of the silly jokes.  This trip has been an amazing experience and I have learnt a lot.  My teamates and coach have made this trip a classic one.  Thank you so much for your support and prayers.  Just would like to say a quick, “I love you” to my fam jam and Dad drink a glass of chocolate milk for me.  Peace out.

 

Ps- greasy hashbangers are Karsten son of Paul’s famous peanut butter sandwiches which either includes an extra spreading of bukchunders (nutellla) or honey. These have regularly been served to all of the disciples.

Ps  2- COMMENT MORE!!! THIS IS A TWO WAY BLOG!!

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Easter Sunday 2012! He is risen!

Jambo Rafikis!

 

Happy Easter! My name is Beth, I’m from Burnaby, BC, Canada and I’m really excited to tell you about our team’s fantastic experiences this Easter Sunday spent in Kenya! It was definitely different than any Easter any of us have ever had, but because of that I’m sure it will be one we remember for a long time.

 

The team split up into 4 groups to go to different churches around the area of Njoro and Nakuru I spent hours this afternoon investigating what each group did, so here are my findings…(actually, I just got the full run-down in about ten minutes from a room full of rapidly talking girls…let that speak for itself).

 

Group 1: Briar, Arianna, David, Hans

This group went to Pastor Mishack Apitsa (pronounced ‘a-pizza’)’s church. They started off waiting 20 minutes for a taxi which ended up never arriving. So instead they walked down to the main road. There they caught a matatu, a 14-person bus used for public transport that actually had about 20-odd people shoved in it! After a five minute drive down the road, they arrived at their church. The church was a small mud hut that held about 20 people. There ended up being 5 adults and 15 children. Hans and David gave their testimonies, Arianna preached, and Briar prayed. Then they all sang a bunch of acapella worship songs. The pastor, after some miscommunication, preached again, and then closed the service.

 

Side note from Arianna: ‘Mom, you can comment!’

 

Group 2: Kaylee/Raqui/Emily/Jack/Andy.

This group stayed at Pastor Hudson’s church, our home church this weekend. It started with an hour-long Sunday School that happened while waiting for the regular leader to show up. When she finally showed up she asked if they had anything to do with the children, and they said “we have used all the things in our arsenal of material plus more”, from a church member named Kezia. Children shared memory verses and songs with the team to fill time. After finishing early, they went to a bible study. Pastor Hudson came and led the service. Emily shared a message, which was quite well accepted. That first service led into a second service, in the middle of which Andy showed up on a motorcycle.  In the second service Kaylee and Raqui shared their testimonies, Jack sang a song and Andy preached.

 

Group 3: Brita/Anthony/Amanda/Christy/Karsten/Kirsten/Harry

This group went to Pastor Ben’s church in Njoro. It took them about an hour to get to the church because the roads were insanely bumpy, and they had to drop people off places in the big truck. I’m not sure if anyone has really explained this vehicle to you, other than Luke’s definition of it being “boss”.  If “boss” means gigantic, beastly, industrial and generally awesome then that’s a pretty accurate description. The thing is absolutely monstrous and sounds likely a choir of lawn mowers rumbling down the street. Anyway, finally the team got to their church a little late and were completely welcomed in. Everyone was really excited to have them but the church was not very organized. Christy shared her testimony and an encouraging word, and then they all sang songs for an hour. Then Brita preached. Then everyone went back to a local girls’ school to pick another team up, but after a while realized they weren’t there and just came back to the home-base church.

 

This team would like you all to know that Coca-cola is awesome.

 

This team also had an awesome realization that Amanda, and now the entire Kenya Spring Break 2012 team, can do a pretty stellar impression of the Massai tribe’s style of dancing and singing. Having spent the last week with them, I’d like to say that we have it down pretty well. Picture this: Jr Asparagus from Veggie Tales hopping around while singing “I love you, Jesus, You are my Saviour!” in a slightly high-pitched voice. We aren’t making fun of them, don’t get me wrong. We love the Massai people! It’s just our special way of keeping their traditions alive in the muzungu culture.

 

 

Group 4: Luke, Ty, Beth, Kaitlin, (Andy)

I’ve saved the best for last, folks. Our group went to both a school and a church  this morning. The school was called Bridgewater Girls’ School, and it was an extremely organized and beautiful secondary school. The students were very responsive and excited about having “visitahs” on Easter. We introduced ourselves, and then Kaitlin and I sang “Amazing Grace” for them. Kaitlin played her flute, Ty shared an encouraging thought, and Luke shared his testimony. Andy finished us off with a great gospel message/synopsis of the crucifixion. A ton of girls committed their lives to Christ! It was really encouraging to see their passion and willingness to be open to the gospel.

We then walked up to the main road and caught a matatu over to Pastor David’s church, which is hidden amidst a bunch of market stalls. It’s even camouflaged into the market with a giant Coca-Cola logo on the roof. Andy left on a motorbike to go join the group at Pastor Hudson’s church. The service started up with some singing, and then Kaitlin and I left to teach Sunday School outside. It was really hot and sweaty, but we managed to teach them a few songs, including our favourite “Ain’t Nobody” and “My Redeemer Lives”. I then told them the story of David and Goliath, Kaitlin told her testimony, and we learned a song in Swahili. Then the church came together in one room again, some more songs were sung, Luke preached (Ty had spoken while we were in Sunday School), a call to be saved was given, and we prayed over the new believers and over those who wanted healing/prayer. It was really moving to see how passionate these people were about praising the Lord, but really about everything! Their prayers were so humbling. I just love how faithful the Kenyan people are.

After church we waited around for the big truck to come get us, but after a while we realized it wasn’t coming, so Pastor David called for some motorbikes to come get us. Yes, Mom, I rode a motorbike in Africa, sans helmet. Sorry. I’m still alive! It was actually really fun. We fit three to a bike, so Ty and Kaitlin went on one and I squished in between the driver and Luke on a second bike. Yet another new experience to check off from this trip!

 

The rest of the day was relaxing and fun. We had a light lunch of our favourite, peanut butter and jam (and sardines, if you’re Andy) sandwiches, discovered our Massai dancing skills, played a bit of football with the local kids, and then headed down to a local field for an intense football match. It was Manchester United (a.k.a., the muzungus featuring a couple awesome Kenyans) vs. Barcelona (local Njoro mens’ teams). We beat them 3-1. That’s right.

I got to share my testimony with the crowd after the game, and Arianna did as well. We sang “Ain’t Nobody”, which had lots of the kids giggling away…mostly at David’s Elvis-like hip action.

We then headed back to K.A.W. (Kenya Assembly of Worship, our home base) to have a service and watch a movie. The service basically consisted of loud, upbeat African worship songs, lots of crazy dancing, and an extremely long conga line. Many of us had cramps from all the dancing! The conga line even took a couple trips outside the church door, around the building and back into the church again. After the singing we settled in to watch ‘Indescribable”, an awesome Louie Giglio film that talks about how small we are, how big God is, and how incredible the solar system and His creation really is. I have to be honest, I fell asleep half way through…not because it was boring, but we had had a really long day! I was woken up by someone whispering “Dinner’s ready, let’s eat before it gets cold” and walking outside to smell Jack’s AMAZING cooking once again. Seriously, Jack is da bomb. And I don’t use that term lightly, or ever really, so you know I mean business. He had made us some amazing sweet and spicy chicken, beans, carrots, and pasta. We also had chapattis, the delicious sweet African thin bread I’ve come to love. It was easily the best meal I’ve had in ages, partly because we were all so starving!

 

Well, that was our day! I’ve got to say that although I miss my family and can imagine the feast I’m missing back home, I was reminded so much today of the true wonder of the cross, and how universal that wonder is. No matter where we are in the world, we can stand in awe of the sacrifice the Lord gave for us broken, sinful people. I’m so happy that I had the opportunity to spend this special holiday with such wonderful people, in such a blessed country. Even this whole week it has been a privilege to preach and live out the gospel everywhere we’ve been. I have felt God’s hand guiding us and protecting us every step of the way, and it’s crazy how smoothly things have gone. Our first week is now done in Kenya, and we have 5 more days to go! I’m so incredibly excited to see how God uses us and moves in us as we spent the next week in Nairobi.

 

Special shout out to everyone’s parents (I figure if you haven’t gotten shouted-out-to yet you’re feeling left out, so this one’s for you Mr/Mrs ____), especially mine whom I miss and love very much. A big “jambo” also goes out to Joe, Megan, Laura, anyone from BMBC and anyone else who loves me enough to read this. I miss you guys lots but seriously, I’m in love with Africa. Don’t worry, you’ll see me again soon, but don’t expect it to be very long before I’m back on a plane bound for Kenya!

 

Please continue to pray for safety and provision for our team as we travel from Njoro to Nairobi and as we spend the next few days ministering in slums, schools and other areas. We are so utterly humbled by and thankful for your committed prayers. Praise the Lord for his faithfulness and grace!

 

He is risen!

 

 

 

April 7th 2012

Hello family and friends from Najaro, Kenya!

My name is Brita Erickson and I’m excited to get to share with you today! This morning we had a very nice wake up call from a rooster attacking Christy inside of the house! All of the girls are staying with Pastor Hudson and his wife Florence; she is so sweet and has made us all really feel at home. There are 11 girls staying at their house…we all have become VERY close (literally). As usual we started our day off with our favorite… peanut butter and nutella sandwiches and Jack surprised us with what looked like a whole banana tree. It was delicious. We are all so thankful for the blessing of food especially seeing how many people go without. After that we got the opportunity to go to Najaro Special School where, “disability is not an inability”.  They gave us a tour around the school it was a really nice facility with nice workers. A lot of the students work at the school and the they are trained for practical work so that one day they will have an opportunity to use their training to get a job. We were greeted with a warm welcome, especially Hans (or Karsten? I get the twins mixed up sometimes) with a long lasting hug.  We joined in some songs including “making melodies in my heart”… everyone in Kenya loves that song! Hans, Karsten and Beth did a puppet show while Jack (our favorite cook) translated. Kaylee told the story of David and Goliath with the help of Anthony, David, and Luke. For the rest of the afternoon we to play with the kids and see some of the amazing things they have made. I can speak for everyone in saying we had a great time at Najaro Special School. We then came back to the church and had our, you guessed it, favorite peanut butter and nutella sandwiches,with bananas.. I love you bananas… We then embarked to a nearby market square and lead a crusade. Meaning we had a gathering of people around our worship team and one of the pastors shared a message and Amanda and David shared their testimonies. We spent most of our time playing with the kids that live in the village. They are so much fun and very enthusiastic about everything. They run up to you, touch you and run away laughing.  After being in the village for a while we led a huge group of people to play some football. The game got interrupted by a crazy about of rain, so we went back to the church. We were going to have our church meeting and then the power went out! So we still had it in the dark. It was a great time just bonding all together with the team and Ty led us in a message. We sang songs for a few hours in the dark while the strange bugs flew around. We all called it a night, it was a long day! Everyone is so nice in Kenya,so enthusiastic welcoming.

 

Hello to my family- I love you all very much, im doing great, staying well and I cant wait to see you!

 

Fri April 6th 2012

Hey everybody, its Briar here.

 

Today we left from Word of Life and headed to Njoro, which is about 4 hours north of Nairobi. It was a long drive, but about an hour in we drove down the Rift Valley and it was the most amazing view I have ever seen. We drove along the top for a bit then head down it and it was stunning. Google it because you all should see it. : ). While we were driving we saw our first wildlife which was pretty cool as well. We spotted tons of zebras and a few baboons along the side of the road. It was a long and rainy drive after that and we were all tired but it was good to finally arrive at our next destination. We met up with Pastor Hudson at his church and he welcomed us with open arms, then took us back to his home where they had prepared an amazing meal. After a meal we head back to the church where we were expecting to lead a Good Friday church service to a congregation, but it turned there was only about 6 other people besides our team in the church. Despite the lack of people we continued on and led a service for the night. We sang “Aint nobody love me like Jesus” which has become our theme song, and Beth led us in “My Redeemer lives.” After that Karsten and I had the privilege to share our testimonies, then Hans gave an incredible message on the Passover and how it symbolizes the death of Jesus Christ and we rapped up the service reading about the crucifixion. The boys are staying overnight at the church so they just set up their beds in there and the girls head back to Pastor Hudsons house where we are spending the night. Overall, it has been a long day but still a great one. We spent a lot of time just hanging out and bonding as a team and celebrating how great our God is and also remembering the sacrifice He made by sending His son to die on the cross.

 

p.s shout out to my fam. Olive you Mom, Dad, Robyn and Christian. And also a shout out to Christy’s mom! : )

Thursday April 5th

Jambo, family and friends!

 

For those of you that do not know me, my name is Amanda, I am from South Dakota, U.S.A., and I have the privilege to update you through our blog today.

 

This morning marked the last morning camping in the African Desert and “showering” with baby wipes. We were all excited about what lay ahead today, but were really anticipating coming back to Word of Life Nairobi for a shower. After four days of no shower and getting coated with a new layer of desert sand everyday, our bodies were begging for some water.

 

We made our first one-hour journey through the desert to a Boma in the middle of nowhere (like most are). For those that don’t know, a Boma is a small family tribe all living together…kind of like a little village. When we got there we were greeted by a group of Massai women. They greet the girls on the team with a handshake and a blessing by touching the top of our heads. They are absolutely beautiful with all their beaded jewellery and many layers of African fabrics. We instantly feel loved by these people when we arrive. Their smiles make us smile and we always feel so welcomed. Our plan was to have a one-hour church meeting with them, but in normal African fashion, we ended up staying for at least two hours. Most women from the Boma came to the meeting, along with the children, and a couple men. The cool thing about this family is most already attend a church regularly and love the Lord…so we really wanted to encourage them in the Lord! They first thanked us for coming and tell us they love us and are so happy to have us there. They sing us a song, which is always such a blessing. They sing their hearts out in praises to the Lord as we clap along. They have such a joy in the Lord which is contagious. We started by introducing ourselves, then we sang them a song (with actions), and following that Tyler and Kirsten shared encouraging things the Lord had laid on their hearts to share. Finally, Kaitlyn played on her flute, “Our God is an Awesome God” and we joined her in singing along. We ended with prayer and thanks and had the chance to meet them more personally after the meeting. A few girls got to pass around the beautiful babies and got loads of pictures. Before we left, some women went into their huts and came out with bags of jewellery and gave some of the girls bracelets and earrings.

 

The second part of the day we attended Pastor Isaac’s church service where we sang a song and Brita preached. We were on a time crunch to arrive back in Nairobi before nightfall…so after a quick shop through the jewellery they had brought to sell, we headed back to our camp sight.

 

We packed up our bags, took down the tent, and packed up the truck. Our Kenyan friend, Jack, is an amazing cook and made us lunch before we left. Earlier this morning, Pastor Isaac killed one of their goats so we could eat it for lunch. We were all just sitting around getting ready, brushing out teeth, and Pastor Isaac walks through our tents carrying all the intestines and innards. A couple minutes later he walks by with the goat’s head. We were shocked and interested at the same time. Some girls said they wouldn’t eat the lunch, but we all did, because it was amazing.

 

So we took off back for Nairobi, which was supposed to be a two and a half hour journey, but quickly turned into four hours due to truck trouble. But Praise the Lord, we are back safely to showers and a cozy bed! We had a great experience camping in the desert with a backpack of belongings, a headlamp, and water bottles as our source of normalcy. But what a privilege it is to be back to a building, a bed, a shower, and a toilet. J

 

Every morning I’ve woken up here, I see the beauty and glory of God all around. He has made such beautiful things and it is a blessing to be able to see this part of the world he created.

 

We’re headed off to Nakuru for the weekend tomorrow morning, excited about what the Lord has planned for us there.

 

Sending love from all the team to their families…please keep praying that the Lord uses us for His glory!

 

P.S. – Special shout out to my family…I love you all

Wednesday April 4th

 

Hello Everybody!!!

I am not going to say Jambo, because I still do not know what it means… Yeah I am terrible at learning languages.  Well I am writing about things that happened on Wednesday, well here it is, first hand experience from me!

First thing we did was wake up, it has been an amazing last couple nights, sleeping in a tent with a breeze coming in from it, but still very warm from the sun that happened to be on all day.  Apparently Africa is known for being a very hot country… who would have guessed it? Anyways the sleeping was amazing I had wonderful sleeps there, and I got to share it next to Anthony who happens to be a very cuddly guy!  We had breakfast and I can not remember but I think we had PANCAKES, if we did have PANCAKES they were absofruitly delicious! They were the mix between a crepe and a PANCAKE and were very sweet, Jack (our cook) is fantastic, I love his food, sorry Capernwray this guy just moved to my favourite chef.

 

After breakfast we went to the primary school, kids are cute. That is a fact, do not argue with me, and African kids are cuter.   That is even more so of a fact so do not tell me that you have the cutest baby, because unless you live in Africa you do not. We had a great time, In my team it was me David and Beth.  Great people in it! They did all an amazing job talking to the kids, even if we have no idea they understood us!  It was just amazing to see our team talk about Jesus and why we came all the way to Africa to share God’s love with everyone.  The team we have here is amazing, I could not ask for a better team.  God placed every single one of these people here for a purpose and it is so cool to see all these people do what God wants them to do!

We are so blessed to have this opportunity to come over to Africa, and we want to thank again for the people back home for giving us this opportunity to do this! It means so much to me and a lot to the team as well.

After that we headed of to a high school.  I do not know if anyone has mentioned our transportation vehicle but if I could describe it in one word it would be Boss.  This vehicle is so cool! It is like a big safari truck and it is just so cool riding in it, even if we are so cramed packed in it.  One of the things that is going around right now is called the Sass game.  It is not a game it is just if anyone is being a sassy sally then they get their picture taken, I have almost 80 pictures of people being sassy on my camera.  The leaders are ahem Anthony, David, Beth and I think Kaylee. I even get a few sass comments in there.  I guess Africa brings out the sassy side of people!

 

Anyways the high school, we introduced ourselves by saying our name country, dance move, and favourite soccer player. David did the Bernie, as usually he looked amazing while doing it.  My favourite soccer player is Hope Solo! If anyone was interested.  My dance move was the dougie. It went well.  We then shared a song with them, called aint nobody.  We do a good job, David probably the best, but everyone would already guess that.  We then did a drama, the car drama, where Jesus keeps asking this guy if he can drive his car, and then the guy driving the car keeps picking up more people and putting them in the back seat until you can not see Jesus anymore.  The he gets into a car crash and Jesus gets out of the trunk and walks by the guy and says ‘All I wanted to do was drive your car’.  This is for my brother Cody, umm yeah I played the guy who was driving.  After that Jack gave his testimony Brita explained the drama and Anthony gave the gospel.  Everyone did such an amazing job!!

 

We are so blessed to have Andy as our leader, he does such an amzing job it is so cool to see God work through him.

 

We then played soccer with the high school kids and almost won.  I think we should have but, who would believe us that a bunch of white kids beat some amazing Kenyans…. Yeah that will never happen.

After that we went back to camp and then Karsten, Hans, David and me went down with Andy and we finished watching Faith like Potatoes.  Good movie.  The kids enjoyed it a lot.  It is so good being around them.

We then got back, and Jack had supper prepared and he absdelciously made his food yet again amazing!  I love Jacks cooking.

We then went off to bed not knowing what we are doing tommorow which is better because it gives the holy Spirit a lot more wiggly room as Andy likes to say.  Which I totally agree with!!

Guten nacht, (The only other language I know)

 

Much love Luke Friesen

Tuesday 3rd April

Hi folks, we are back in the land of cell phone network, so we are able to blog!  Sorry that it has taken so long to be in touch.

Jambo family and friends of our April Kenya crew!

My name is Emily Rowell and I am from British Columbia, Canada and I am really excited to update you all on what has been happening here in Kenya on this lovely day of Tuesday, April the 3^rd!

 

This morning started off bright and early at about 6:30AM with this goat alarm that was so loud as to be ridiculous!  It had been our first night sleeping in the tents and it was certainly an adventure!  The area that we were in was called Oltepesi and it was about 50 kilometres away from Magadi.  It was definitely the ‘middle of nowhere’ and we all had to rough it which made for some great bonding experiences.

 

Our first ‘real mission activity’ was a primary school in the area of the boma (compound) where we were camping.  At the school we split into groups of about three and went to each class.  It was such a neat experience because in Kenya there are no rules or boundaries that stop you from sharing the gospel in any way, shape or form.  God really blessed our time there and allowed us to share Christ and invite the children to start their journey with Christ that very day.  Our prayer for the children who did pray with us to receive Christ is that their commitment would be sincere and that they would have fully understood what it was all about.  We also would pray that they would stand firm in this new faith and that their faith would be kept untainted by various traditions; may God bring people across their paths to help them grow closer to Christ.  After talking in the classrooms we were able to spend time playing football, netball and other random games with the children and simply interacting with them which was just a ton of fun!

 

After the primary school we went to another boma where they were having a Masai warrior graduation and we went to speak at that.  They didn’t speak any English and so everything we said had to be translated for us which was an interesting experience but God really spoke through everyone who shared.  We were able to talk about David, a warrior in the Bible who found his strength in God and to also talk about how Jesus is the one and only way to get to heaven.  This village had a tradition of relying on witchcraft and the witch doctor so we made a heavy emphasis on Jesus being the only answer and that witchcraft does not satisfy or fill the emptiness in our lives.

 

We had a quick lunch in the middle of a random field (everything was random fields because all of our driving was basically ‘off roading’ as the roads are just dusty paths with faint tire tracks) before going to a second primary school.  Just as we arrived the heavens opened up and rain came pouring down.  I don’t think I have ever seen it rain that hard and I live in a VERY rainy climate!  We were supposed to play sports with the students but the rain was far too heavy so we tried to wait it out.  Instead we went into one of the classrooms where the tin roof and the rain made a deafening combination and tried to use big voices to speak and sing to them.  Just as we were about to leave the rain stopped and we were actually able to spend some time playing football and ‘Stella Stella Ola’ with the children.

 

To finish off this jam-packed day of ministry we went to the grocery store in Oltepesi and showed a film called ‘Faith like Potatoes’ to the locals.  We were able to talk and interact with them while the movie played (and whenever we had technical difficulties, surprisingly no one on our team is a techy!  It made for some interesting moments.)

 

We had our dinner at about quarter past ten at night and then all spent time together ‘showering’ which involved wiping the dirt off of our arms and legs with baby wipes!  Who knew that baby wipes were so useful?!

 

That was a pretty crazy day, you must be tired if you made it all the way through reading this blog.  Congratulations if you did make it all the way and thank you for your support.  God bless.

 

Kenya Team