To Kenya: January 2009

Here is the plotline of our trip:
12/28:
Arrived around 3 in Nairobi, Kenya's capital. The plane rides were long, particularly from Dubai to NY, but I watched Batman, The Office, 30 Rock, and Get Smart, so it wasn't that bad. We took two vans and a big Land Rover from the airport to the restaurant in Nakuru where we will be eating dinner throughout the week. It took about 3 and a half hours. The ride was beautiful. We stopped at a ridge where we could look down into the Great African Rift Valley, which goes all the way across the continent veritically (Like an inversed Ande's Mountains). It was beautiful. Once we got to the restaurant, the food was surprisingly very good. We had tomato soup, fish from Lake Victoria, and potatoes and rice, the main staples of our diet throughout the trip. After dinner, we headed to the Marin Guest resorts. Our rooms had flushing toilets! The water was freezing cold, unfortunately. I went to bed pretty soon after getting there; the planes had exhausted me.
12/29:
Wake up, have breakfast at the hotel (Toast with really good jelly, an omlete, and really good fruit juice. Better than what I normally eat!). A member of the team leads devotions (The Swahili word for the day is Karibu, meaning welcome). We find out that we actually do have hot water, you just have to flip a switch outside the shower. That was great news! We head down to the center (Mama Helens, where the boys who our church sponsor live) and meet the boys for the first time.
Many people on the trip had been there before, and many sponsored boys (meaning they pay for their food, clothes, and school fees). They jumped right in and were having fun with the kids. The rest of us were standing off a little unsure of what to do. We tried talking to the kids. Eventually, after some awkward introductions, we got to know some of the kids. Two of them took me down to show me the rabbit cages.
Around 2 in the afternoon (I think; they don't keep track of time as much as we do. Everything they do is less formal and more relaxed) We went into the meeting room. There were about 300 plastic chairs facing a stage with a drum set, four mikes, and a computer that one of the boys used to dj. They had borrowed all of the equiptment from Bishop Mina's church. Bishop Mina, or Pastor Jackson, is the pastor from our sister church, the Victorius Community Church. He had the vision to start the orphanage and has been leading throughout the time.
For the next few hours, we sang worship. We danced, swayed, clapped our hands. It was much more energetic and joyful than any worship I've ever been to here. A few times throughout some boys got on the stage and danced. They were all so good. By the time we left for dinner, most of the kids had arrived for the conference.
12/30: First day of conference! After a devotion on the word Twende (Let's go), we headed down the dirt road to the center again. When we arrived, they were already in worship, and the Bishop was talking to them. He was preaching from Romans 12:1-2. This scripture was referenced throughout the week, as the theme of the camp was Be Ye Transformed.
After Pastor Jackson had finished, Brett Edy, our high school youth pastor, hit the stage. I was very nervous for him. Sammie, a local youth pastor in the Bishop's church, translated for him. He talked about the Belt of Truth. Then we had small groups.
My small group consisted of 10 students, ages 14-17, and Ken, my co-leader. Ken is a member of Pastor Jackson's church. He did a great job facilitating conversation when we had long silencs. All the kids were very quiet the first small group, and I did a lot of the talking. After small group, we went down to the fields for compitition. We tried to organize relays, but it didn't work out very well. We ended up just all sitting in a circle and having two people run around the outside at a time. Next we had lunch, which was a pile of rice, two potatoes, and a small piece of meat. Then, we had a second session, on the breastplate of righteousness, which Mark Foland, our middle school youth pastor gave. Mark was less comfortable talking with a translator than Brett, but he did a great job setting up the idea and prompted some good conversation in small group. The kids were asking questions and were genuinely interested in what we were talking about. Sometimes the conversation would change into Swahili for a little, but Ken always told me what they were saying. After small group, we walked down to the field to play soccer and volley ball. It was great hanging out with the kids. They get into the games a lot, but they're not super competitive. Playing volley ball, they cheered so much when they won a point, but as soon as the game was over, no one rubbed it in the other teams' faces. When the ball landed near the line, they didn't fight over whether it was in or out. They just went with what the person closest to the ball said and kept playing. It was much more fun than any of the other times I've played.
12/31-1/1:
The next two days were similar to the first as far as order of events. What we did at the field varied, but we played soccer at least once a day. We had two big kites out one day. Another time, we used pieces of fabric to spell out the word transformed on the ground. One kid was blind folded while the rest of the team told him what to do. We were split into three teams, red, yellow, and blue (red being the best, of course), and each team was timed to see who was the fastest. One afternoon, instead of going to the field, we had a dance compitition. It was more like an exposition because we didn't choose a winner or anything. It was amazing to see how much the kids loved dancing and cheering for eachother. It lasted a couple of hours. There were kids doing back flips and all kinds of stuff. My friend Nick was amazingly good. In the video I'm going to post that Andy filmed you'll see him a good bit.
On the morning of the third day, the first day of 2009, Brett talked about the Helmet of Salvation. This talk was "the cross talk", where he talked about what Jesus has done for us and how we need to personally ask to recieve His forgiveness. After, Sammie did a sort of alter call, and 23 kids walked up to the stage! Brett prayed with them. It was awesome to see.

I'll finish up telling about the trip in a future post. Thank you for taking such an interest in what we did! It's very encouraging to know that there is a community that is aware and cares about what our church is doing in Kenya.

To see Andy's Video from the trip CLICK HERE

To Kenya

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Swamped

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