God Made Me, VBS Day 1.... Kenya Part 5

As the title suggests, God Made Me, or creation, was the theme for our first day of VBS in Mabatini, the school we would be working in all week.  We woke up early and after some time studying the Bible we all ate one of Lucy's wonderful breakfasts before heading to Mabatini.  After breakfast we all grabbed our shoes and hopped in the van for the ride to Mabatini.  Below is a video where you can see some of the drive before we enter the valley:

This was the drive we took everyday, at the point where the camera just goes crazy we hit a large bump in the road, which is not uncommon, and my dad's camera went flying.  Below is another video of us actually entering into the valley.

Once in the valley we came to Mabatini.  It is currently in a temporary building, but this spring they are hoping to begin construction on a permanent building.

After arriving at Mabatini we were brought into one of the classrooms where we saw this chalkboard decorated to welcome us!

Several of the children came in and welcomed us to Mabatini before we began VBS for the day.  They were all so sweet, with the brightest smiles you will ever see.

After the children welcomed us we went outside into the school yard where the children were having their morning assembly.  They sang some worship songs, as you can see in the video below, and also had a small devotion, and then they were all introduced to us.  We each told them a little about ourselves, and then we were ready for the day!  The song in the video below was one of our favorites we sang, it is all about how they praise God because He is so faithful. 

After assembly we went to our respective classrooms to begin VBS for the day, there were a total of five stations the kids would move between and the one I worked at with dad and Bryan was crafts.  We ended up being split into two classrooms that were next door to each other, dad took one and Bryan and I took the other taking turns slipping over and making sure that dad wasn't needing any assistance.  Our craft for the first day was to create lion puppets, we explained to the kids that God had made everything, and just as He had created the animals, we thought they might like to create their own puppets of Lions.  What we had not thought of was the fact that the children did not know what puppets were so we demonstrated one of them for them so they would understand what they were creating.  Once they understood they were laughing and thinking it was so neat.

All of the kids were so great and really seemed to enjoy themselves creating their puppets, they especially loved having their pictures taken with them.  I literally have hundereds of pictures with the kids and their puppets, but knowing that my blog can only hold so many, I have kind of managed to pare them down a little.  :-)

This precious little girl came up to me to tell me that her name was also Michelle!

 

After teaching VBS during the morning we had lunch, during which time I met one of the social workers, Sheila, whom I would end up becoming very close with throughout our time at Mabatini.  Over lunch she began teaching me some basic Swahili and continued to do so every day!  After we had all eaten lunch we were broken up into smaller groups to do home visits, I was placed in a group with my dad, Anita and Bryan that was lead by Sheila and Daniel.

Sheila and Daniel would take our group to a home, and once we went inside we would begin conversing with whomever lived there, telling them about Jesus.  While we did this, someone from the mission would climb up on the roof and begin to cut a whole in it, once it was cut they would place clear, corrugated plastic over the hole so that there was light in the home.  Many of the houses do not have windows, so this gave them light during the day.  It was also an excellent example of how our lives are dark, but when Jesus comes in, He brings light just like the hole in the roof brought light into the home. Everyday we visited three to four houses, at the end of the week we learned that twenty-seven people gave their life to Christ from the visits!!!

Here you can see Bryan with the ladders they used to climb on the roof.

Wherever we walked we always attracted children, after our last home visit for the day we had attracted quite a crowd.  We all enjoyed loving on them before we had to leave.

All of the children knew the peace sign and thumbs up and loved doing it for pictures.

You swiftly learned to take your pictures while standing up or they would crowd so close you could not get everyone in the picture!  :-)

This picture is one of my favorites from the trip, this sweet little girl found me everyday after our home visits and would give me a hug.

Blessings,
Michelle

Orientation.... Kenya Part 4

Hey everyone!

Thank you for being so patient in waiting for the next part of the series!  With the holidays blogging definitely took a back burner, but I am back now and hopefully You will all be able to be caught up really fast!  Monday morning I wok up really early and made my way downstairs to do some reading and journaling.  It wasn't to long before I was joined by some more of our team members. After a wonderful breakfast we all made our way out to the van for our ride to Pangani (not sure about the spelling) where we would have orientation.

Once we arrived at Pangani we were taught how to act in the Kenyan culture and given a run-down on how our week would probably look, knowing all the while that being flexible was key.  It was during orientation that I discovered that come Friday I would have the opportunity to get to teach one of the classes!!! 

Our team during orientation.

Two of our team members, Steve and Jim, were able to meet their sponsor children while we were there!  It was so neat to watch!!!

Below are some views of the valley from the classroom windows.

As part of orientation we were given a tour and were able to visit one of the classrooms.  In the classroom we visited there was a little girl named Michelle whose favorite color was also purple!

The pharmacy at Pangani.

They also had a new dental clinic for when dental teams cone over!

We didn't get a picture of it that I can find, but they also have a hair stylist school, sewing school and jewelry school that the moms can go to so they can assist in providing for their families.  While teaching the women how to provide, they are also teaching them about God, so they are meeting both their physical and spiritual needs!!!

After the tour we were taken out into the slums.  Everywhere you go little children follow you and call out in this adorable sing-song, "How are you?  How are you?"

Everywhere we went the children would follow us and hold our hands. 

Above I am showing some children the picture I had just taken of them,  they all come running to see their pictures.

As you can see from the above picture, we always collected a large crowd of children.  :-)

I hope you enjoyed this peak into our first full day in the valley.  This was my only full day at Pangani as our team spent most of our time in Mabatini, but that is for the next few posts.

Blessings,
Michelle