With Love from Kisumu

Hey Everybody!

This post has been long over due but it's finally here!!

This last week was spent in Kisumu, Kenya; the place were I came last year with the Post College mission team, the place where I first experienced the love that God has for this place and the people of Kenya and the place that I met the 2009 Mi2 team and felt the burning desire that God lit inside me to come back as an Mi2 the next summer. So needless to say I was really excited to come back here. This last week held so many fun and amazing experiences for our entire team. We worked with James Oke, Ephantis, Mary and Moses of the Kisumu LIA Team and the five churches that LIA partners with.

Our week started on Monday with the bus trip out to Kisumu but besides that not much really happened.

Tuesday we went to New Hope Evangelical Ministries to meet some of the pastors and their TOT’s (Trainer of Trainers) from the different churches. After the greet and overview session we had some lunch and then our team went into the village to do four home visits. The home visits that we did today as well as all the others from the week were to visit and encourage widows who through hard times or struggles were taking care of their children and sometime children that they had taken in. On the third home visit we talked with and lady named Margaret and through a series of questions found out that she wasn’t saved and after talking to her for a few more minutes she told us that she wanted to become born again! Robin was leading the conversation but turned it over to Ephantis for the prayer and helping her accept Chirst’s love. After the home visit we all felt that we needed a bit of a refresher on how to lead someone to Christ through evangelism, and scheduled a mock training session for the next morning with Oke and Ephantis.

Wednesday we woke up and had our breakfast and met Oke and Ephantis in the living room of the guesthouse for our evangelism session. Through this session we watched Oke get saved by Ephantis and then Oke turned around and save Ephantis. The ball then rolled to us to do some role play evangelizing, Jacob saved Oke, and Bailey save Robin…to think they had been waiting to be lead to the Lord all this time! We left the guest house with our new training and headed to meet the next church group at Revival Church. After a very short meet with the pastor, TOT’s and the bishop we left to go on our next set of four home visits. After the morning set we had our lunch and then headed back to the church to get back in our group and go out to do some door-to-door evangelism. During one of the visits Evie had the privilege to help lead a woman named Janet to Christ and join the family! The last part of the day was a bit of Boda-Boda evangelism, which involved getting on the boda-bodas (bicycle taxis) and riding down to one end of the street and talking to them about their lives and then telling them about Jesus Christ and the immense love that He has for them. This was a really fun experience and lead to three of the dozen or so drivers joining in to the family of Christ!

Thursday was the day that Robin was out sick and had to stay back at the guest house while the rest of us went out for the days adventure. We meet at New Wine Fellowship church and meet the Pastor and TOT’s of the church and then head out for four mor home visits. The houses we visited were out in the more rural, farmland parts of Kisumu. God allowed us to work up some conversations with two of the people we visited that lead to them wanting to be born again! The day was a half-day with the afternoon for rest. We went back to have lunch and pick up robin who as feeling a bit better now and went to Hippo point on Lake Victoria in the evening to watch the sun set and then when out to eat at a restaurant that we later found our also served as the areas local Karaoke bar when 30+ Europeans came in and took the stage to “I will survive.”

Friday was the day that Evie was out sick. We went to spend the morning with the Street Child which was one of the things I have been looking forward to the most about coming back. Last year when I came with the Post we took part in LIA’s launching of the street children program in Kisumu that helps 50 teen and young men get back on their feet and work them selves out of the streets and into a new life. The teens that we saw today were almost completely different then those that I saw last year. The morning was spent playing with a soccer ball, some cards and talking to the boys. The morning also held one other fun surprise… we found RoboChicken 2.0 (refer to "Gus time' does not equal 'Bus time” blog post) whose “robotic" update from the 1.0 version was an improvement to his legs which now work normally. We also found a large white fat Rooster that was immediately named Disco Chicken due to the white fethers that went down his legs forming “leg Chaps.” Jacob and I thought it would be fun to get pictures and with the help of the boys we cornered both chickens and caught them for some photo shoots…don’t tell the US embassy, they don’t like knowing that we touched live stoke haha. The afternoon was filled with four more home visits and the joining of a new member to our family! In the evening we were able to sit down and hear the amazing testimony of Ephantis and his life growing up in Nairobi and being selected to be a Compassion Child and being supported by a man from England when he was 11 years old and how the experience eventually changed his family.

Saturday Evie was unfortunately still feeling under the weather. We went to Pentecostal Deliverance Church to meet the pastors and help them with a Children program. We found out that the widow’s ministry was going to be there instead and that the children program would be pushed back to the afternoon. We had to split up to do the four home visits because of the limited time between the programs, so Bailey and Robin went with one group while Jacob and I went in the second group. We met a lady named Cypros who remembered me and the large camera that I was carrying last year when we came for a home visit, Jacob and I talked with her and to our amazement she wanted to become born again. This was amazing to me because she didn’t want to the last time that I came with the Post team came. God truly works in wondrous ways! The children program started in the mid afternoon after a quick lunch. I told the story of David and Goliath and we all taught the children the song “Father Abraham” and then played the most successful game of “duck duck goose” we have ever played here all summer! In the evening we got to hear Oke’s story of how he met, proposed and married his wife!

Sunday we split into two groups consisting of Jacob and Bailey going with Ephantis and Moses to Emmanuel Deliverance Church and Robin, Evie, Oke, Mary and I going to Pentecostal Deliverance Church. Robin and I spoke and Evie lead a song for the congregation. The afternoon held a “youth” rally I use quotation marks because the “youth” were in their 20s. We thought that the attendance was going to be children so Evie had prepared to tell the story of Jonah and the Whale and have the children act it out…so since we had prepared it that's exactly what happened! Evie told the story while Oke translated and then over half of the attendants were picked to be in the story. The whole group of pastors, TOTs and Youth really got into the story and laughed and had a lot of fun acting like children again. The evening was rather sad though because it hit us that this was the last place we would be going for the week in Kisumu but it was also the last night of the last place we would be going for the summer, say for going to Methare in Nairobi in the coming week. Lots of hugs and goodbyes were given to the pastors and the many friends that we had met over the week.

Monday morning was a bit slower paced compared to the rest of the week, Oke brought over his Motorcycle and we all got turns learning how to ride the bike up and down the road. We said our final goodbyes to Moses and Mary and then climbed into a tuk-tuk to go to the bus stop and head back. At the bus stop we were able to say bye to Ephantis and thank him for all the hard work, the fun and the amazing times that we had with him over the week and climbed on the bus with Oke back to Nairobi.

The week was an amazing end trip before our last few days in Kenya. We were able to see an awesome set of programs that came from both the Churches and LIA that have been and are continuing to be tremendously blessed by God. This week we will be working with Dr. Tom and his Medical team from Louisville, Kentucky in the Methare slum. We have a few more blogs to post before we head back to the states, along with some more amazing and great things to write about so keep an eye out for the next one in a few days!

We love you all and thank you so much for your continual prayers and support!

The Mi2’s

Zach

Mombasa

Well, a lot has happened since we last wrote…

On Sunday we gave a group sermon on the parable of the sower during the teen service at Nairobi Pentecostal Church… It was really neat to see God speaking throughout each of us in different ways. One thing we challenged the youth to do was to memorize scripture and to really hide it in their hearts. We decided that we should, as a group, take that challenge ourselves and are currently trying to memorize 1 Corinthians 13…

Sunday we also left for Mombasa at 10:30ish in the evening. After an eight hour bus ride – we finally arrived. This whole week has been spent as a week to rest and rejuvenate ourselves for the final stretch here in Kenya. We have used many means of transportation, like tuk-tuks1, boda-bodas2, matatus3, and ferries. Beth (a volunteer with LIA) has been our companion while on this trip, and has been a wealth of knowledge – especially in translating what people are saying about us in Swahili…A couple of days were spent at the beach where we rode camels, made a sand fort, buried Zach (well, almost all of him), and played in the Indian Ocean. One day we went to a neat ecological reserve, Haller Park, and saw crocodiles, turtles, monkey, and hippos among other various and assorted African animals.

Friday, as our last day, we decided to do something a little special – go see some caves. Beth made our reservations and the van was to pick up at 7:00 am. We woke up to the sounds of birds chirping, the ocean’s waves, breakfast – and Jacob vomiting. Thinking it would pass and that it might just be a flu, he stayed behind while the rest of us went to see the caves… except that on our way we found out that we would not be seeing caves. We were to go snorkeling on a coral reef (thank goodness we brought our swimsuits!). While on the boat ride (a very little tiny boat on a very long boat ride) we got a phone call that Jacob was going to the hospital with the lady who runs the guest house we are staying in. He was going to be tested for Malaria. The rest of us enjoyed our time snorkeling… the fish we saw were so colorful and plentiful – we did quickly find out that Beth is not a very avid swimmer – even with a life jacket on. Sometime later we got a call and from what we understood he had Malaria. So we then spent the rest of our time trying to figure out what the next step was and how this would affect the next couple of weeks. At one point during the afternoon, Zach started feeling achy and getting cold chills. To say the least, the girls were slightly concerned. Then when we got back we found out that Jacob did not have malaria. Somehow, the “I have been tested for malaria” turned into “I have malaria”… O’ the joys of communication in the fallen world ☺. He instead had a stomach bug and was on Tylenol and anti-nausea medicine. Friday evening was pretty low key – Zach was still feeling under the weather and so he and Jacob made it an early night.

This morning, Saturday, we left the guesthouse at 6:30ish for our bus ride back. Sunday will be a rest day for us and Monday we leave for Kisumu.

We hope that you all have had a week that was filled with Joy…

The Mi2 team
-Evie

1. Tuk-Tuk: like a carriage, except instead of horses there is a motor bike
2. Boda-Boda: Motorcycle with a spot for a passenger or two
3. Matatu: a van that is usually filled to the brim with people… seat belts? What are those?
*The picture was taken by Jacob and the person in it is Zach. We all helped to create the letters. The blob on top of the Frisbee is seaweed. This was also the day where Evie, Robin, and Bailey burned their backs… really bad.

Kibera and Asbury and Birthdays... Oh My!

So when you think of what might be the best day of our summer you wouldn’t think trash pick up, but Tuesday is a contender for the best day of the summer. We woke up to a call from Robert at 7am informing us that we needed to make not 30 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but over 110! Unfortunately we didn’t have enough jam to do the job right away so we went back to sleep until the supplies arrived and then went to work! Over a hundred sandwiches later we were ready to go and were picked up by Jacob who took us to join the Asbury team in Kibera. (They had gone ahead of us because the sandwiches delayed us in the morning) None of us were all too excited to spend the day cleaning but we arrived in a cloud of dust, threw on our face masks and gloves and set to work. Turns out the clean up was phenomenal. Getting to work with the Asbury team and the people of Kibera was amazing. The people of Kibera thanked us profusely and some even joined us in our efforts. It felt like we were literally participating in a movement. Indescribable. After we had cleaned the length of a street and out of the slum we went to Pastor George’s church for our lunch where we ate in fellowship with all of the people who participated. Everyone loved our PB & Js!! After the cleanup we went back to the guesthouse where the Asbury team was staying and then set out for the Maasai market (a few people had forgotten to get a few necessary gifts). Everyone had great luck and came out with some awesome treasures. When we got back we had to have training for the health evangelism. After training, we had pizza for dinner since it was “Terrific Tuesday” (pizza was buy one get one free). The pizza was delicious and the night was relaxing.

Wednesday was my birthday!!! Yay finally 20! Before I start explaining the greatness of this day I must preface by saying that my teammates were very unkind leading up to my birthday. They had told me over and over again that because the day was so busy we would just have to celebrate the 8th so I was fully expecting to be totally disappointed in the day. I had even searched their closets for cake mix but didn’t find any. Anyways, I woke up Wednesday morning to the smell of cake! I came out and found that they had decorated the entire apartment with balloons and streamers. They had gotten up around 6 to make sure my cake was baked by 8. Evie even used some of her white icing to write my name in the chocolate icing. It was amazing. We got picked up from the apartment around 9 to go to the guesthouse and sort medicine with the Asbury team. Us Mi2s popped iron pills out of their wrappings and packaged them in groups of 30 for around 2 hours! It was fun though because we turned on music and had good conversation with the Asbury members. After lunch we went to Nakumat (the Kenyan Walmart). We were totally out of groceries and also had to get the supplies to make a very large amount of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (to be accurate, we made 116 sandwiches). Once back we made dinner and cupcakes to be shared with everyone and were taken to Biblica where we had a small birthday celebration. Overall it was quite a successful birthday.

Thursday and Friday were the medical clinic days. They were amazing! There were five stations set up: the waiting tent, the registration tent, the physician and clinician tent, the pharmacy tent, and there was a place for voluntary AIDS counseling and testing. The Asbury team dispersed themselves; some going to the registration while others went to the physician tent and the pharmacy tent. Evie and Bailey helped in the pharmacy tent and although it made for a long day of counting pills and dispensing liquids, it was very much enjoyed. Jacob was in charge of taking pictures with the LIA camera and buy the sheer volume of pictures he took one could tell he was having fun. Zach was playing with the children the whole day… He met two children in particular who were his shadows: Jackie and Michael. I helped out with the wormer station – each person was to get a dose of anti parasite medicine (unless the were pregnant or breastfeeding). The look on some of the children’s faces as they swallowed the liquid was priceless. The days were tiring, but they were fulfilling. It was neat to be able to help with the physical needs of people and then to see their spiritual needs taken care of as well. On Thursday the clinic saw 200ish people. On Friday the count was over 400 people!

Friday evening, we went to the Nairobi Java House for dinner with the Asbury team. They have really good food there, and this time we all tried the burritos – they were heaven in my mouth! After dinner, it was back to the guesthouse for a good nights sleep.

Saturday was our rest day. We decided to be adventurous and go downtown by ourselves and go to the Saturday maasai market. After a slight mishap that occurred while trying to get off the bus (don’t worry no one got lost or hurt…) we made our way there and cleaned the market out. We have all gotten pretty good at haggling and enjoyed our time. Saturday afternoon was spent listening to a sermon and preparing for our sermon that would be given Sunday morning at the teen service. That evening we said goodbye to the Asbury team as they headed out and were able to pray with them before their flight left…

Tomorrow we not only preach a group sermon but we also leave for Mombassa with Beth from LIA. It should be an adventurous week!

We love you all and hope that you all are having a wonderful day!

The Mi2 Team

-Robin

Dr. Seuss meets Kenya

an attempt at putting the last few days into rhyme...

Wednesday came the day bright and alive

We visited a place where children do thrive

New Life Home was the place to be

For children who were orphans, had AIDS, or special needs

A place was seen where love abounded

Where children could live lives so very well rounded

Thursday was a day that we would prepare

For the Asbury team would soon be there

Grocery shopping for things, sandwiches and gloves

Snickers bars were found, which all do love

Zach accepted a water challenge that day

Over six liters of water were consumed, too much he does say

Friday morning arrived with new people to meet

The team from Alabama four did greet

Poor Bailey was down, a stomach flu

The rest went to Mathare and Kibera too

In Mathare there is a school, which is a church as well

We heard about their AIDS support program, quite swell

In Kibera the schedule for the week we learned

Then back to our dwellings and beds we turned

Saturday was a day where pastors we did meet

So many of them we were privileged to greet

Hearing about the challenges the pastors do face

We all prayed they would be given lots of grace

Split up into five teams, we were

As we visited the homes of the Pastors we would serve

Poor Zach spent the day at the apartment, so sad

He was sick; he caught what Bailey had

Sunday came a day to Worship the Lord

Different churches were gone to, some with a dirt floor

The faith and the strength of the people we met

Left some of the team with cheeks so wet

Some were given a chance to teach

Others listened to what was preached

The Maasai Market was visited by most

Robin and Zach stayed home, their stomachs were toast

Monday was spent going to schools

Crafts were made; games were played – so cool

The children were so very polite

The teachers made sure they were learning what was right

Stories were taught and lessons were learned

And when we were done, to the vans we turned

Tomorrow is a new day and should be bright

We love you all; have a good night!

The Mi2 team

- Evie