*We are on the ship Victoria on Lake Victoria!*Day 36 ~ Sunday
I write you with sheer exhaustion although I do believe it is the best feeling of exhaustion a person could ever have. The kind that comes from giving all that you have – spiritually, emotionally, ect. – to the most amazing children God ever created. We all went to church this morning and it went very well! I am not sure if I have told you but the orphanage has its own church service and we all attended their service today. It has lots of African singing, dancing, praying, and is quite exciting. During the sermon (since it is in Kiswahili) I caught up on my journaling for the past few days which was quite nice. Right after that we passed out all of the school and tennis shoes for the children…Christmas in July! Then we took the secondary kids (14 of them) to get school supplies because school starts up again tomorrow and they were in dire need of supplies. We bought textbooks, notebooks, pens, and backpacks. Although they need many more supplies, that should get them off to a good start. Once finished with all that we treated them all to a soda and then Holly and I went to the orphanage to drop off the supplies we had bought and I got to hang out with the children by myself for a little bit. I love them with all of my heart and every second I spend with them is a blessing.
Seven days. I get teary eyed just thinking about it. We leave next Sunday morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, for Mombassa and then to Kenya to teach an English camp. I will try my absolute best to be a happy camper but know that I will be totally crushed not to have my children, my little brothers and sisters as they call themselves, around. There isn’t just one or two that I have fallen for…but all of them. They all have a piece of my heart and instead of wanting to take them home with me I just wish I could bring all of you to them. You would love them, I just know it. I can’t really describe what it feels like to know that you matter. When I give hugs and receive them I know it isn’t just a hug but something so much more than that. That little brother or sister needed that hug or word of encouragement, or pat on the back, or tickle, or, or, and, and…it matters. They know when they get that hug that they matter. (Sigh.)
I apologize for not writing for so long but we have been on the road for the past week and internet was not a possibility. This past week the Kansas team (minus Jordan because sadly he was sick but is doing just fine now) headed to a friend of ours, named Sonny, village. The village was located in the ‘bush’ of Africa and took a good while to get there (about two days traveling). It was an amazing experience. To give you an example of the peoples’ lifestyles that we met I will try to explain. They fetch their water from wells quite a good walk from the house. Those buckets are carried on their heads. They then start their own fire, boil the water and add their own homemade coffee grounds to make coffee (which was delicious!). They also plucked and fed a couple of chickens to us which is an extreme honor. Needless to say, we were wowed by the feast knowing how long it must have took and how hard it must have been to do it all by hand. Mattresses are hard to come by and extremely expensive for them (they had two) which they loaned to us as their visitors. They slept on grassy/straw beds and a flat matt that they had weaved themselves. There were at least 15 people living there (including children). In this part of Africa they had over 15 types of bananas. There are baby bananas, sweet bananas, cooking bananas, ect ect. A part of the culture there was to go around to the local huts (yes huts) and introduce the visitors to everyone…so we did. We were very welcomed by many people and had the honor of praying over their homes and families. The second day there we went around and prayed for individuals. We prayed for a woman who had been paralyzed in the arm, recovered, and then lost her voice and has not had a voice for a month. Tears streamed down her face as we laid hands on her and prayed for healing. There was a young boy who saw us walking around and somehow knew that we were people of God. He stayed with us as we visited a few homes and asked if we would come and pray over his home. What a privilege…God is working here.
While there I experienced the most amazing hospitality that you could ever imagine, the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen, the closeness of God and His people, and meeting many strangers that already felt like family. I would like to thank everyone once again for all that you are doing for me here. I can feel your prayers working, your thoughts flooding over me, and your joy filling me. Also, because of support I was able to supply half of the funding to buy a new bicycle for Sonny’s family (which is as nice as a brand new car there). You have never seen a woman so grateful and excited in your life as Sonny’s mom was to receive that gift on behalf of her family!
On the way to Sonny’s village we had the amazing luck to spend a night in a hotel boat settled on Lake Victoria. On the way back we took a cruise ship back across Lake Victoria and spent the next day on the most relaxing beach in the world on Lake Victoria of which we swam in! (We had time to spare because we were waiting on our bus from Mwanza back to Tarime.) While in Mwanza we also got to have some good ol’ American food such as pizza, a cheeseburger, and the wonderful taste of a chocolate twix candy bar. J
Time. Time here is so much different from that in America. For those of you who are “To-Do List” people like me Africa might be a struggle. In America it is quite easy to make a simple list to buy the groceries, pick up your mail, and visit a friend. Although that may take an hour or two in America, that could be an entire day venture here. Patience is most definitely a virtue here in Africa.
I pray that all of you are living God’s will and feel the happiness that I have felt while here.
I love you all! : )
I write you with sheer exhaustion although I do believe it is the best feeling of exhaustion a person could ever have. The kind that comes from giving all that you have – spiritually, emotionally, ect. – to the most amazing children God ever created. We all went to church this morning and it went very well! I am not sure if I have told you but the orphanage has its own church service and we all attended their service today. It has lots of African singing, dancing, praying, and is quite exciting. During the sermon (since it is in Kiswahili) I caught up on my journaling for the past few days which was quite nice. Right after that we passed out all of the school and tennis shoes for the children…Christmas in July! Then we took the secondary kids (14 of them) to get school supplies because school starts up again tomorrow and they were in dire need of supplies. We bought textbooks, notebooks, pens, and backpacks. Although they need many more supplies, that should get them off to a good start. Once finished with all that we treated them all to a soda and then Holly and I went to the orphanage to drop off the supplies we had bought and I got to hang out with the children by myself for a little bit. I love them with all of my heart and every second I spend with them is a blessing.
Seven days. I get teary eyed just thinking about it. We leave next Sunday morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, for Mombassa and then to Kenya to teach an English camp. I will try my absolute best to be a happy camper but know that I will be totally crushed not to have my children, my little brothers and sisters as they call themselves, around. There isn’t just one or two that I have fallen for…but all of them. They all have a piece of my heart and instead of wanting to take them home with me I just wish I could bring all of you to them. You would love them, I just know it. I can’t really describe what it feels like to know that you matter. When I give hugs and receive them I know it isn’t just a hug but something so much more than that. That little brother or sister needed that hug or word of encouragement, or pat on the back, or tickle, or, or, and, and…it matters. They know when they get that hug that they matter. (Sigh.)
I apologize for not writing for so long but we have been on the road for the past week and internet was not a possibility. This past week the Kansas team (minus Jordan because sadly he was sick but is doing just fine now) headed to a friend of ours, named Sonny, village. The village was located in the ‘bush’ of Africa and took a good while to get there (about two days traveling). It was an amazing experience. To give you an example of the peoples’ lifestyles that we met I will try to explain. They fetch their water from wells quite a good walk from the house. Those buckets are carried on their heads. They then start their own fire, boil the water and add their own homemade coffee grounds to make coffee (which was delicious!). They also plucked and fed a couple of chickens to us which is an extreme honor. Needless to say, we were wowed by the feast knowing how long it must have took and how hard it must have been to do it all by hand. Mattresses are hard to come by and extremely expensive for them (they had two) which they loaned to us as their visitors. They slept on grassy/straw beds and a flat matt that they had weaved themselves. There were at least 15 people living there (including children). In this part of Africa they had over 15 types of bananas. There are baby bananas, sweet bananas, cooking bananas, ect ect. A part of the culture there was to go around to the local huts (yes huts) and introduce the visitors to everyone…so we did. We were very welcomed by many people and had the honor of praying over their homes and families. The second day there we went around and prayed for individuals. We prayed for a woman who had been paralyzed in the arm, recovered, and then lost her voice and has not had a voice for a month. Tears streamed down her face as we laid hands on her and prayed for healing. There was a young boy who saw us walking around and somehow knew that we were people of God. He stayed with us as we visited a few homes and asked if we would come and pray over his home. What a privilege…God is working here.
While there I experienced the most amazing hospitality that you could ever imagine, the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen, the closeness of God and His people, and meeting many strangers that already felt like family. I would like to thank everyone once again for all that you are doing for me here. I can feel your prayers working, your thoughts flooding over me, and your joy filling me. Also, because of support I was able to supply half of the funding to buy a new bicycle for Sonny’s family (which is as nice as a brand new car there). You have never seen a woman so grateful and excited in your life as Sonny’s mom was to receive that gift on behalf of her family!
On the way to Sonny’s village we had the amazing luck to spend a night in a hotel boat settled on Lake Victoria. On the way back we took a cruise ship back across Lake Victoria and spent the next day on the most relaxing beach in the world on Lake Victoria of which we swam in! (We had time to spare because we were waiting on our bus from Mwanza back to Tarime.) While in Mwanza we also got to have some good ol’ American food such as pizza, a cheeseburger, and the wonderful taste of a chocolate twix candy bar. J
Time. Time here is so much different from that in America. For those of you who are “To-Do List” people like me Africa might be a struggle. In America it is quite easy to make a simple list to buy the groceries, pick up your mail, and visit a friend. Although that may take an hour or two in America, that could be an entire day venture here. Patience is most definitely a virtue here in Africa.
I pray that all of you are living God’s will and feel the happiness that I have felt while here.
I love you all! : )
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