On Sunday we went to the bush for church and a baby
dedication. Church was under a tree, which was really cool. It was super short
for a Kenyan church service – only about two hours – and then we went back to
Pastor Joseph’s home in the bush (he also has a home up on the Hill) and ate
lunch. After that we just played with the neighborhood kids for a few hours.
They were ADORABLE. Some of them are part of the Oasis for Orphans bush program,
which is a feeding program on Saturdays. Others were just kids from the
community. None of them knew English (many of them didn’t even know Swahili,
only Maasai), so we couldn’t communicate with them, but the language barrier
didn’t prevent us from having fun together. We played a bunch of games and took
some pictures. This one little boy learned from Mallory how to ask politely for
us to take his picture, so he kept coming up to me and saying “Pleeease… take…
my… picha!” in his little Kenyan accent. It was so cute, I couldn’t say no.
There was one little girl named Potishoi who clung to me all day. She would put
her arms up for me to hold her, and when she got heavy and I tried to put her
down, she would wrap her legs around me as I slid her down my legs and as soon
as she touched the ground she would put her arms up again. I ended up holding
her for about 2 hours. The bush kids were super sweet and I can’t wait to go
see them again when we visit the bush program next Saturday.
This week we’ve been playing with the kids a lot and planning
for our day camp that we’re doing next week. While we’re here we’ll also be
responsible for leading devotion two to three times a week. Our first one was
Tuesday night. We taught about Shadrack, Meshach & Abednego and the Fiery
Furnace. I had actually just taught this story at Spotlight Camp earlier this
summer so this was a fun one to start with. We acted out the story and had the
kids help us act it out. We provided little costumes and even had one part
where the lights went off and we used a flashlight and sheet to show the
silhouettes of the people in the fire. It was a big hit with the kids! We had a
lot of fun and John, the chaplain of the children's home, seemed to really love it as well.
It takes a little bit of his load off to have us do devotions certain nights.
After devotion, right before we headed back down to the
guesthouse, the power at the children’s home went out. It was pitch black.
Immediately, someone turned on a flashlight and started waving it around, and a
kid started drumming on a box, and all at once everyone started dancing. We had
a little dance party in the dark for 5-10 minutes until the lights came back
on. It was SO much fun. The kids were all giggling and dancing and going crazy.
It was probably the highlight of my day that day. One of the things I love
about this place and these kids is that they can have so much fun with the
simplest things. They don’t have much in the way of material possessions, but
they have so much joy. That little dance party was a perfect example – it was so
simple and so joyful. I kind of wanted it to go on forever.
Yesterday we were able to join in on the women’s Bible
study. The mamas from the community come up to the children’s home every
Wednesday and Ann Smith leads a study. This week they were going to be reading
Daniel 3, which is the same story we chose to teach on Tuesday night to the
kids, so Ann had us teach the mamas. After we finished telling the story, the
mamas chimed in with their own opinions and interpretations. Elizabeth, the
director of the children’s home, translated. It was so cool that, even though
we come from such different places and such different backgrounds and we speak
different languages, we can still come together and read God’s word and learn
from each other. It was a really awesome experience. After Bible study, the mamas gave Shayne and Jackie their Maasai names. (Ryan and I already had names because we've been here before.) Now all four of us can introduce ourselves by our Maasai names, which are much easier for people here to pronounce than our American names. My name is Lepishoi, Ryan is Naguran, Shayne is Nainepu and Jackie is Tipitip.
Tonight we weren't teaching but a few of us went up for devotion anyway, and I'm so glad we did! It was such a great night. The kids sang worship songs at the beginning, and I was tearing up a little bit watching them. I didn't even know what they were saying, but they were getting so into it and it just melted my heart watching these kids worship God with so much passion. And right when the last song ended, every child in the room started praying out loud. For several minutes, the room was abuzz with dozens of kids earnestly praying in Swahili and Maasai. It was one of the coolest things I've ever witnessed. I totally felt God's presence in that room. After devotion, the chaplain, John, called us into his office and we spent some time talking with him. It was great. He is so sweet and we loved getting to know him more and hear about his family and his life.
Those are only a few snippets of what we’ve done these past
few days. We’ve been keeping busy and we’ve already done and experienced so
much! I would have to write a novel to recount everything that’s happened. Just
know that we’re all having a great time! Thanks for checking in :)
-Kara Lepishoi
Nentaya and me the day we arrived
Potishoi, my little friend from the bush
kids in the bush
our team cooking with the mamas
MOSES!
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