The last few weeks have been incredible...and incredibly busy! We have been all over the place. We spent a week in Maasai Land in Ngagatak, Kenya building a chicken house, a week in Western Kenya in Bungoma, planting trees and visiting churches, and 1/2 a week in Jinga, Uganda where we got to raft the mighty White Nile!
Western Kenya:
The adventure continues: from driving down the dirt road filled with countless potholes at 75 MPH, to running out of gas on the side of the road, living with a random Kenyan family in a mud hut, drinking 3 too many orange Fantas because they are offered at every meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner haha)…I was extremely blessed this past week in Western. We stayed with a Kenyan woman named Mary Stella and her family. We arrived late at night. It was pitch black except for the twinkling stars overhead… and abruptly greeted with the strong embrace of Mary Stella’s HUGE hug. This was the kind of hug that best friends give after not seeing each other for years… you know, the ones where you rock back and forth over and over again. (This hug reminded me of when my cousin Kristee and I were younger. We would try to hide from our moms when it was time to go home after a holiday or meeting half way between Dallas and Ft. Worth at Crystal’s Pizza…we would never want to leave each other so we would just continue to hug and hug. Not letting go because we didn’t want to say good-bye.) Mary Stella was a hoot! We laughed together. And I cried tears of joy when we worshipped together. The family that I stayed with was simply a blessing and a gift. They were so hospitable, even though none of them spoke English.
Uganda:
Fourth of July- However not spent with red, white and blue fireworks lighting up the sky, eating watermelon, and singing the national anthem, the day was still really great! We spent the entire day on Kenyan public transportation (not the best) but still celebrated by singing "America the Beautiful" while crossing the border into Uganda. haha Maybe a tad bit obnoxious? But, we laughed the entire time.
Rafting the Nile was INTENSE. I was in a raft with Kasey Musgrave, Jackie Maldonado, Jonathan Knight, Bradyn Boone, and Tyler Fleet. Aka…The Dream Team! haha We had a blast.
The river is beautiful. Extremely wide. The water and its currents are mighty and strong. The rapids take you under, and you feel like you will never return up for air. We were thrown out of our raft 50% of the time... Nonetheless, it was still a blast! The bank of the Nile is completely green, scattered with splashes of yellow, red and purple flowers, monkeys roaming in the trees, and birds flying overhead creating a tranquil scene contrasting the pure intensity of the class 5 rapids that we were rafting down (or swimming through because our raft had flipped!)
I can’t imagine what it would have been like for Pharaoh and the nation of Egypt when God turned all water in the Nile to blood… What a mighty God we serve!
Tomorrow we head back to Lukenya for three weeks of camp. I am so excited and ready for camp to start again! Please be praying for our team- for stamina, joy and strength that comes from the Lord. That we could boldly and powerfully proclaim the name of Jesus, and rely on him for everything. Also pray that through these efforts children and their families would come to know the amazing grace and love of Jesus Christ.
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