The past couple days have been a whirlwind. We had a minor medical emergency with Andy. After some worry, a trip to the medical clinic, lab work, and a quick trip to the hosptial, we found out it wasn't malaria or a bacteria or parasite. He suffered from some bad heat exhaustion and was extremely dehydrated. But as the day went on he got better and a was a new man this morning, which was much to my relief as I was one worried and anxious fiance yesterday. So I spent the day with him running around Meru trying to get him some care. While we were doing that, the team was at another health clinic. Hannah had a great day there! She was able to give the gift of sight to 22 people with glasses donated by her work place. She said the responses people gave when they were given a pair of glasses that improved their vision was heart-warming and touching. Overall, the helped over 200 people in the clinic that day and ran out of some of the more common medicenes.
Today was great! We split up in 4 groups, each group with a clergy person, and we went to worship with congregations in the area. Myself, Andy, Ann, and June went back to St. Mary, where we had been working earlier in the week. When we drove back onto to compound of the church and school, it almost felt like a homecoming, though it had only been a few days when we were last there. The sight of familiar faces was warming and the sounds of joyous singing from the children came through the church doors before we even walked in. Worship lasted 2 hours, but it didn't feel that long. There was so much going on- so much song and dance and testimony. It was fun! They even do this cool thing with tithe and offering. During that time, people bring forth a portion of their harvest or something else they want to give to the church, and then they auction off the items right there, the money going to the church. It was odd at first, but it was done in the spirit of great generostiy and joy in being able to give back to the church and ultimately to God. The gentleman who was translating for me bought some maze (corn) and gave it to me :) The sermon didn't come until the end and that was fun. The woman who translated for me did a wonderful job, for not having a chance to glance at my sermon beforehand to get an idea of what I was preaching about. I think she preached her own little sermon on the side, because there were a couple times that I would say a very short phrase and she would then continue on for several seconds :) Seriously though, the vocabulary for their mother-tongue is not very large so I'm sure she was just having to use more words to help the people understand. I think they got the message though. I even got a few "Amen"'s! That was fun! After the sermon was sang a familiar hymn, Blessed Assurance, thought not in english. Then the service was over. I was humbled by their graciousness and kind words after the service. As the crowd thinned we gathered in a room with the other worship leaders and enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by the church ladies. Then we got to go back up to the school and see all the work they had done the last part of the week, after we left- and they did A LOT! They finished a lot of the work we had started. It was good to see how much progress had been made. We then said goodbye to our new friends and came back to Thiiri Center to relax the rest of the day. Lewis and Dottie had a great day being back at the church they served while they were here. Mike recieved hight remarks from the sermon he preached, and Wayne and Wilson got to enjoy being spoiled by the congregation they worshiped with. We got to watch some native singing and dance back that the center which was fun. This evening we enjoyed a great meal with some of the friends we made throughout the week and then had a time of closing with Issac and a few other people who were very instrumental in making this such a blessed week. Tomorrow we leave Meru and travel to Samburu to see more of the country and enjoy some of the wildlife of Kenya. I think we're all looking forward to it, but are very much going to miss the people here. I think most of us in the group hope that this will not be our last trip to Kenya. We hope to return to continue to take part in the work God is doing here through these beautiful people. What a blessing it has been! Our eyes and our hearts have been opened tremendously. God is here and moving. I believe the future of Kenya to be great! Tomorrow we enjoy a different kind of fun :) I may not blog again for a while so if you're reading this to keep up with loved ones- I'll say what my mom always says: Consider no news to be good news :) See you all in a week!
Be blessed my friends,
Katie
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