The Journey to the First Day

As you know, on December 26, 2010 I headed off to Nairobi, Kenya for 10 days. The week in Kenya was amazing! There are so many stories to tell and so many things that the Lord has taught me. I cannot even begin to describe them all in one post. But I want to give you an overview of what the week was like and how the Lord worked and answered your prayers.

Oh airports...

That prayer is mighty is one of the biggest things I was longing to see on this trip. From the very beginning the Lord was showing me the power of prayer. It began on Sunday, the day of our departure. It was snowing here in South Carolina. Our flight was canceled. We had two separate flights, four of us on one, seven of us on the other. After much prayer and waiting, the Delta attendant let us know that we had round trip tickets, but that our first leg out of Charlotte was stand by. The Lord got us on the plane! And the other seven team members got a flight to Rome. However, they missed their connection and had to stay there until Thursday. The Lord used this time for them to show them that He is sovereign above all things. Ironically the four of us that made it were the ones that had never been there before! Needless to say we were a bit nervous about how we were going to help run a camp that we had never been to before and where we did not know all the ins and outs.

The Lord allowed me to be a part of the whole trip and I am so thankful for it! When we got there, the children were a little shy. But after a bit they began talking with us. Their native language is Swahili, but they also speak English. At first I found it hard to communicate with them because they just looked at me and smiled. This is part of their culture though. They don't just immediately jump in like we Americans do. But as they grew more comfortable, they began to open up.

Our first teaching session began soon after we had gotten there. Each session we did worship, then prayer, and then teaching. I remember now the first song they sang. "Mungu yu mwema", which means God is good! It is roughly to the tune of the American song "God is so Good" As I stood and listened to them worship in Swahili, I was moved by their genuine, unfettered, real worship. They are broken and raw and poured out before the Lord. I began to cry and my heart was overflowing. The passion with which they sang and the pure and airy beauty of their voices washed over me and I was moved. These children, who live in horrible conditions by our standards were lifting up their voices to the Lord in praise. They are rich beyond measure. You would not even guess that they lived in one of the poorest places in Kenya.

The place where we worshiped

My first day was beautiful and magnificent, and yet difficult and discouraging. I was so moved by the faith of these youth, but I found myself frustrated that I could not understand much of anything throughout the day. I felt awkward starting up conversation. I asked the Lord to give me courage and a way to connect with them. At one point I almost felt so discouraged that I wanted to go home, thinking that there was no point in this because I was not cut out for it. But when I got to the room I was sleeping in with all the older girls from the Kibera church, they greeted me and asked me to pray for them. I did and they thanked me and asked my name. They told me it was a beautiful name. Then one of the girls, who earlier had thought I was ignoring her when she greeted me, asked me to tell a bedtime story. I thought she was joking at first, but she was serious. So I told them Cinderella. They laughed a few times once I got more comfortable with the story. They thanked me and I told them they had to tell one the next night. They giggled and said they would, and offered for the shyest girl to tell it. I held her to it, too, yet somehow she always wriggled her way out of telling it the whole week! It wasn't until we made the trip to the Shunam house (the house where some of the girls stay-more on that later) on Monday that she told Jack and the Beanstalk! It was a treasured moment for me, because she had stepped out of her comfort zone to do something she knew would mean a lot to me.

That was the perfect ending to the day and I slept well, even to the chorus of heavy breathing and occasional snorts and snores. It almost became soothing to me. I never was able to fall asleep with people snoring, but somehow I could when I was in a room full of them. The Lord sustained me with all His energy which He powerfully worked within me. It certainly was a blessed day.