Real life story: I pick favorites

   It's true, I've always been the kind of person who picks favorites. I have a favorite teacher from highschool, a favorite professor from college, a favorite pet, and now Kenya is my favorite country. It's completely amazing here. Last week we saw a lot of the ministry we will be doing here, and I'm loving it. We wake up around 5 every monring and walk to the chruch to pray from 6 to 7. We are normally late though, so it's more like 6:20 to 7, but I think God understands the struggle with a 23 person team and getting anywhere on time in Africa. After we pray we have breakfast and a team meeting. Somewhere during the meeting the children normally start arriving for school. Which brings me to my next favorite. My favorite part of Africa is the children. They are so happy everytime they see the Mzungu (mah-zung-ews), all they want to do is shake our hands and play with us. Deliverance Church is who we are partnered with, and they also have a primary school, with kids around 4 to 8. They are all so adorable! (Also, go ahead and brace yourself because this will be a long blog because God has blessed me so much this past week!) 

   The kids at the church are so adorable! News flash, I have a favorite. I'm sure that doesn't surprise you at all, but let me go ahead and tell you about him. He's around 4, and has completely stolen my heart. His name is Nga'nga' (Nah-nah), and he is quite possibly the cutest kid I have ever seen. He came and sat with me during our meeting the other day and he started to cry and try to get away when I had to take him to his classroom. So pitiful! If it was up to me I would have just played with him, but I knew he had to learn. As soon as the kids get our for their break in the morning I find him and we hang out until class starts back. The first day I met him he was wearing a little jacket and a toboggan. This is so crazy to me because we are so hot here, but all the kids come to school wearing winter clothes, because even though for us this is hot weather, it's considered their winter time. Of course, after we have played with the kids for a while, their layers begin to shed. Nga'nga is so adorable, and we have this game where I stand a little ways away from him, holler his name, and he comes running and jumps into my arms. I have no idea what I'm going to do when I have to leave this sweet boy.

      We also did hospital visits this past week, and that was extremely hard. The first ward we went to was the childrens ward, and it was hot and dim. Most beds had at least two kids on them, some containing four. There just isn't room for them all, so they just keep making room by putting them on the same bed. Tuesday through Thursday we were at the hospital from 4 to 6 visiting and praying for patients in all the different wards. On Thursday my group prayed for this one woman Gladys whose husband Francis had had a stroke and he couldn't talk or walk. He was asleep the entire time we were there, but Gladys prayed with us and began to cry afterwards. Her faith is so strong and it was awesome to see how passionately she was praying in such a hard time. I didn't return to the hopstial on Friday because I was on another mission (which I will talk about in a minute), but my team went to check on Francis and said he was sitting up and able to talk to them, and that Gladys was just beaming. How awesome is God?!?!

      The next favorite of mine was the adventure I had on Friday. So far, it is quite possibly my favorite day in Africa. Tiffany, Josh, and I headed to a school about an hour away to hand out Bibles to an elementary school. Talk about excitement! We were at an elementary school, and the kids swarmed the car as soon as we got in. They were so happy to see us and have us visit that they were crowding around us just to shake our hands and touch us. It's hard to imagine, but some of these kids had never seen a white person before, so they were beyond excited to see us. One of the teachers got them to make a path for us and we went to the office to meet the headmaster. When we left the office and went back outside all the children were gone, but we heard singing coming from the side of the building. We walked that way and found what had to be around 700 children singing for us. We sat at a table that they had brought out and every eye in that crowd was on us. We were handing out Bibles that had been donated by the Gideons international, so one of their representatives was there and fluent in Swahili, so he was able to translate for us. It was so amazing. After handing out the Bibles we took pictures of the children and they just went ballistic! They screamed when the camera flashed and didn't stop smiling the entire time! It was awesome! It started to rain and we had to go, but the kids never left our sides. At one point I somehow was separated from Tiffany and Josh and found myself surrounded by the kids. Luckily, Josh looked back, saw what had happened, and ran back to pull me out! It was incredible how they reacted to us. As I type this blog and talk about the experience with my teammates I can't help but smile.

   There is so much more that I can't wait to share with each and everyone of you, experiences that I can't give justice to by simply blogging about. I am constantly blessed by these people and their faith in God. This week is both revival and the crusades, so saying it will be crazy is an understatement. Thank you for your prayers and I will blog again soon!

"Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge."
Psalm 62:8