The first week in my beautiful home country, I spent at New Hope Children's Centre in Uplands, Kenya. Tears immediately filled my eyes as I got our of the van. Twenty kids of all ages came running up to me, hugging me and for the little ones hugging my legs. The gate into New Hope reads The Lord is My Shepard...and as we all know the ending...I shall not want. The 8 days I spent at New Hope I felt not an ounce of want from any of the kids. Even though the kids come from horrible gut-twisting pasts they are overjoyed to be alive and the little that they have. Such pasts include being burned in a church fire, being found in a hole covered in fleas and being abused sexually. My first night at New Hope we had weekly fellowship and a sweet little 3 year old named Helena climbed into my lap and for the longest time we just looked at each other. Her little eyes were filled with hope. When she fell asleep I was perfectly content to kiss her little head and watch her sleep. The fellowship seem to end all to quickly and the older girls took her up to her bed. Spending time with the kids in any way was so special to me. When the kids came home from school we would go and talk to them about their day and what they learned. The boys love to play football (soccer for you Americans haha) and we would go out and of course the boys would cream us volunteers. It wasn't about winning or losing but it was about having fun and listening to the laughs and seeing the smiles on their sweet faces.
Our time in Olkoroi was equally as wonderful. The days flew by and yet each one of them was so busy that we fell into bed exhausted each night. Satan sure tried to scare us and run us out but we know who our trust is in and He will never ever leave us. One night, mom and dad heard what they thought were footsteps in the attic. It kept them awake all night and they were scared that someone was up there. Come to find out it was just rats. We were also threatened with jail time when we went to Tanzania. The police were trying to get a bribe ans so they were telling us all sorts of things that we did wrong and saying we were "in their hands now" but, we were in the Lord's hands and 6 hours later, we were let go and sent home. The Lord blessed us in so many ways this trip. We completed most of the water project and so 90% of Olkoroi has clean drinking water. We are so thankful that stomach illnesses are becoming almost non-existent in our little village. I was blessed to have 2 of the amazing volunteers from New Hope come out to visit me for a week. Cheryl Vickery and Sarah Ross came out and spent time with us in our little village. We explored the river and laid under the stars and visited the villages. I was so encouraged by their visit and pray that the Lord blesses them as the serve in Kenya. Even though our little village isn't on any map, its so very big on the map of our hearts and we pray that the Lord does big things even while we are away. Please pray that the Lord pierces the hearts of those who are still wondering in darkness.
Bwana Asifiwe (Praise the Lord!)
Angela
pictures from our trip:
The beautiful kids at New Hope
Saying goodbye
Scooping Cow Manure :/
Sarah and Cheryl
The kids at Olkoroi
