Author: Adventures

If I had to choose one word that describes this trip for me I would choose JOY. I have always been a pretty happy girl, but here I have experience JOY in abundance! While in Kenya, I have learned the powerful difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is a good feeling… And it is simply a temporary emotion, while joy is a good place in your heart that never fades. I have also learned that joy can only be found one way: through the Lord. Until now I thought that I was experiencing joy through circumstances and relationships, which I have realized is actually temporary...

This has been the trip of a lifetime, but I have also experienced growing pains. I came on this trip to grow in my relationship with Christ, which has happened more than I can even explain.  But also in the process, I’ve seen so much worldliness. I have seen poverty, illness, death, homelessness, drug use, injustice, and true suffering firsthand.  Back home I was the girl who always cared too much for others, the one with the tender heart.  God must have a great sense of humor for sending my tender heart to a third world country in order to experience this kind of pain...

Busia, Kenya has officially been my “home away from home” for 3 weeks now.  My team and I are finally getting into the swing of things and becoming well-adjusted to the culture shock that initially caught us off guard.  We’ve settled into a rhythm of activities and relationships that gives us confidence in the ministry we’re doing.  Even though that may sound corn-y, I can ensure you that my experiences in Busia are truly a-maize-ing (see picture below). But it’s more than that, too.  I love it here.  From the...

  Before Kenya, I had never been to an orphanage before. The orphanage we go to often is only a few minutes away from the church we are at, so we go there on Sunday afternoons, and sometimes during weekday evenings. What strikes me more and more each time we go is how it is such a family there. The kids aren't related. There may be a few siblings, but not for the most part. Yet it feels like such a family. There is so much love in that place. It's definitely my favorite place to go.  They have a play area out back that we always go to when we get there. The walls of the...

As I thought about how I wanted to begin to write this blog, I allowed the memories and events that happened over this past week to flow through my mind once more and refresh my memory of all the tiny yet significant details. I have had many “firsts” here in Africa and experienced things that I certainly did not expect. I have seen Jesus in people and situations that blew my doors off. I have loved people who I can’t even hold conversations with because I know very little Swahili and they only know, “How are you? I am fine,” in English. I have shed more tears...