A Taste...more to come

Ryan and I being commissioned to Thika.
Working in Pastor's Shamba (garden)

Ryan and Pastor are cooking dinner. Men, in Kenya, usually never even enter the kitchen. So this was a big deal that our Pastor helped with household things. It was fun for us because when our mama was at work we could cook for her.

We had an avocado tree in the front yard, this avocado is almost the size of the pineapple!

First Sunday: Ryan is preaching at Kihiumwiri church.

We are home!

We safely arrived home Saturday night and are now battling with jet lag. Thank you for all of your prayers and notes of encouragement while we were gone. We will hopefully post some pictures of our trip and write some more about our trip once we get ourselves organized and adjusted to the time here.

Right now it is 5:46 pm here and 2:46 am in Kenya so we are fighting to stay awake right now.

Please be praying for our team's re-entry and adjustment back to American culture. Along with application of what we all learned from and about God this summer.

Oh and Kenya sends its greetings!

Mungu awabariki (God Bless you)

Last post until we are home: July 24ish

Hey Everyone,

This is probably the last chance we'll get to email. We have been very busy. Today we spent most the day at Huruma in a Mother Theresa orphanage and disabled children's home. The babies and disabled kids who live there were either thrown away or left on the steps of the home. There are 30 babies there and over 50 disabled children. It was a very emotionally and spiritually draining day but God's joy and goodness was among the suffering and we feel blessed to have been a part of it today. I saw a boy there who is disabled, that I saw 3 years ago and remember feeding and playing with. He has an extremely big head, and his body is just bone and the size of a 3 year old but must be at least 10 years old. I will have to write more about him later but it was good and sad to see him again. At least he is still alive but not adopted or getting better. I don't know his name but please pray for him.

We also have had a Islam day and a Hindu day which both days God kept reminding me of darkness that people live in and He is the only Light and there is an urgency that I now understand in sharing the gospel to people and helping to show them the Light of Jesus.

Tomorrow we are going back to Thika to do prison ministry...so Ryan and I get to see our pastor again! Very exciting and please be praying for the prisoners as we go that they may see the Light of Jesus. Prisoners here are the lowest of low so we took an offering and collected money to buy some simple supplies to give to them...like soap and underwear.

So much has gone on and God has been teaching us many things. We will write more when we get home and have had time to process the lessons and things we are learning and seeing.

Talk to you soon!

Back from our 3 week assignment in Thika!

Habari Zenu! We just got back from our 3 week assignment in Thika and it was so wonderful! It was hard to leave but now we are back with our team in Kasarani for our last few weeks here.

We were with a wonderful family. Pastor Patrick and Mama Clementine. Our mama works at the Del Monte pineapple factory and they live in the Del Monte housing, so we were living right next to fields of pineapples. So unlike last time both Ryan and I were in Kenya, we had electricity and a toilet this go around! This was a great blessing for us, I think we had enough squatty potties for the rest of our lives ;). And we got fresh pineapple everyday! I do not think I will be able to eat pineapple in the US after having it fresh from the shamba (farm).

We did a lot of everything. We preached at 2 churches every Sunday, in two different towns. We talked at many schools and even taught at one. We did evangelism (hut to hut home visits telling people about the love of Jesus), we prayed with and over the sick, we played with many many kids, we went home to home encouraging people and built many relationships, we had 2 open air crusades, and cooked, cleaned and rested :)

So some details about where we where. We lived at Del Monte which was in between Makongeni and Kihiumwiri. (so we were actually never in Thika, Thika was just the biggest town that was close to us). Our pastor's church was in Kihiuwmiri which was a small and very poor town. One pastor in the area said it was a slum, but I did not think it was like a slum. It was actually a very beautiful place. It was on a hill and it was so green! Everyone had their own shamba (farm) so we ate food fresh from the ground or tree. this is where we did most of our ministry. Most kids there had never seen a white person before so we attracted crowds of children where ever we went. The people of the town were Kikuyu and many knew English so we got to build many relationships while we were there. Four people got saved while we were doing Evangelism and 3 people got saved when we had an Open Air Crusade, Praise God. Oh and now I can say Praise God in 4 languages!
Swahili: Bwana Asifiwe! Masaai: Mesisi Yesu! Kikuyu: Mwanthani Arogoswo! and English: Praise God!
We also traveled to Makongeni, which is a bigger town and did ministry there. We preached at their church which had 200-300 people in it!

We became very close with our host family. Some nights we would laugh and laugh. They taught us how to cook and some nights would only talk to us in Swahili so that we could learn it faster. Ryan is so good at Swahili, it has been like being with a Kenyan. He has picked it up really fast!

Please keep praying for us as we enter the next phase of the Global Project. And please be praying for the people of Kihiumwiri and Makongeni.

Our pastor and mama send their greetings!
Love you all!