This morning, I went to our base at Kipkaren to take pictures of a children's ministry event. More than 300 kids showed up for day camp where they played some games with a visiting team from Nuevo, California, but mostly spent time singing, praying and memorizing Bible verses.
The kids are so cute. Whenever someone introduces themselves, they start with "Bwana asifiwe," which means "Praise the Lord." Usually, the response is a simple, "Amen." However, these kids respond with a boisterous "Amen-Hallelujah-Amen!"
There were 300 children present, and by the time we left, more children were still arriving...
There is so little entertainment in rural Kenya that any program usually attracts large crowds. What amazes me is that some of the children would walk for an hour or more just to attend a program such as this! Even little 3-year-olds would walk this far!
Edna does a wonderful job working with the kids. A week ago, she ran a big Sunday-school teacher training seminar in our region, too. (I was unable to attend that function due to my sister's visit.)
Other things that went on at ELI this weekend: Tomorrow, our Anti-Alcohol ministry (alcohol rehab center) is taking in a new group of men and women for their 3-month training. The son of a member of parliament is one of the guys who is part of this intake, so today, his family had a big send-off for him. I was invited to go and take photos at the event, however, I had committed to the kids' camp first. Please pray for Pastor Rono and his team, especially over the next 3 days. They wean the participants of drugs and alcohol cold turkey, so the first few days are especially tough!
There was also a soccer tournament near Kipkaren, the first round of play-offs that will lead to finals during an AIDS campaign later this month.
And at Ilula, a visiting team spent the day working with our kids. The kids were drawing Christmas cards so that we can print the best ones. So there was no movie today. Which meant that I could actually take a rare Saturday afternoon nap. (Which I needed due to my lack of sleep on Thursday night.)
Many of our Kenyan staff were away for the day as it's the first Saturday of the month. That means that they could go and visit their children who are in high school and are living in a dorm. They're not allowed to visit any other time, only on visitation days.
Tomorrow, I'll be at our local church since we have a visiting team. In the early evening, I'll be picking up Jared and Christy (interns) from town as they had been away for 3 days.
It's been raining a lot lately, which is great for the maize (corn) crops, but terrible for the roads. It's been an interesting learning experience for me to drive in really bad mud, and I saw a truck today on a road off one of our roads that was totally dug into the mud! Every time I reach home safely, I thank God for blessing me with a good vehicle that can make it through the mud without any problems!
So, that's that. I'll write my May/June update tomorrow, too, so you should be hearing from me by e-mail soon...
Thanks for being part of this journey!
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