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

A Day of Rest and Trying to Adjust... Kenya Part 3

Hey Everyone!

I realize that I covered our Sunday in our last post, but I found some pictures that I did not realize we had.  (Thanks Anita!)  Just for the record real fast, all of the pictures on my blog from Kenya are a mixture of ones taken by the whole team.

As I mentioned before, we spent our Sunday afternoon after church trying to adjust to the time difference as we had just arrived.  Most of us tried to stay a wake, so we found some fund ways that also helped us prepare for the coming week, like blowing up the soccer balls we would be taking to the school!  After blowing up the soccer balls several of our team members played soccer with the Kamau's kids, David and Victory.

Here are some pictures, I hope you enjoy them!  I have also included my sketch of the church we attended that I was working on that afternoon.  I am sorry, it is not very good and not near the quality I would like to have it, but I did not have my drawing supplies with me and I was going by memory and I have not taken the time to redo it since we got back.  If I am going to be honest, I don't know if it will ever be finished, I have a pile of pictures in a drawer here at home that are still waiting on me.   Yeah, I am one of those artists.  :P

Anyways, without further ado, the pictures:

This is the Kamau's son, David.  He loved kicking the soccer balls around and had so much energy.  He kept us all laughing on the trip.  :)

L to R:  Samuel (he taught me how to play volleyball later that evening and was a wonderful teacher), David and Josh

L to R: Victory, Bryan and Steve

David again, I know it is blurry, but I love this shot.  :)

Me sketching while watching the game.  It got a little dangerous at one point when a ball almost hit me in the head, but it other than that it was a great place to sketch.  ;-P

My sketch of the church.  I don't know why it is vertical, I flipped it horizontal but it just won't stay, so sorry about that!

Blessings,
Michelle

Here At Last..... Kenya Part 2

Hey everyone!

Thankfully I was able to get plenty of sleep on the flight from London to Kenya, which was a good thing as we went to church hours after arriving.  Our flight landed in Nairobi minutes before six Sunday morning.  I have never been so excited to reach a destination, I was finally in Africa! After approximately forty-five minutes of waiting in lines, filling out paperwork and collecting our luggage we finally made it through customs.

After customs we stepped out of the airport and I had my first true look at Africa, it was beautiful and not at all as I had expected!  I don't know why, but I had this mental image of Africa as some picture out of the "Lion King,"  and while it is that way in some areas, it is not like that in the part of Kenya we spent most of our time.  Nairobi is a beautiful mixture of tropical, hills and just a hint of midwest America!

Outside the airport.

Some statues outside the airport

Excited to finally be in Kenya!!!

Dad excited to be here too!

After a short time we found our ride and loaded our luggage into the truck and then climbed into the twelve passenger van and began to make our way to the home where we would be staying.  We were originally going to stay at a local hotel, but one of the guys on our team, Bryan, was friends with one of the CMF interns, Zach, so they arranged for us to stay at the guesthouse.  Within minutes of leaving the airport I saw some giraffes off in a field off in the distance.  It was unbelievable!  The roads were really bumpy, but that just made it more fun in my opinion.  When we started to enter the city, we began to see homes made of logs and corrugated tin.  Pedestrians were everywhere, it takes a talented driver to weave in and out without hitting anyone.  It was amazing though, it was gently raining and yet there were ladies walking to church in the mud in high heels!  I was glued to the window trying to take everything in, this was my first view of Kenya and I did not want to miss a single moment.

The Kamau's  (the missionary family) home was beautiful!  I loved being able to stay there, it was such a nice relaxing setting for our team to be able to be in the evenings.

Our sitting area where we hung out and were able to have worship in the evenings.

Behind the sitting area were these stairs leading up to the bedrooms.

I shared this bedroom with Anita and Lynn.  You can see our mosquito nets tied up above the beds, at night we would untie them and they covered the bed to protect us from the mosquitoes.  None of us ever experienced any problem from the mosquitoes though, thankfully.

My bed.  :)

The dining room where we had our meals.

The staff had a wonderful breakfast awaiting us when we arrived, for which we were all so thankful.  While I loved all of the food in Kenya  (Lucy was a phenomenal cook)  one of my favorite parts of breakfast was the fresh fruit, I have not had such wonderful pineapple in a long time.

After breakfast we all hurried to get ready for church.  Within two hours of arriving we were all back in the van again, headed to Mathare for church.  I don't know how to explain what I thought when I first saw Mathare.  In many ways I wanted to cry over the poverty I saw, but I was also partially in a state of shock and was kind of numb from it.  Swiftly though, I began to notice the children.  They were smiling and waving to us, calling out greetings.  It brought a smile to my face and I found myself waving back.  As we stepped out of the van and walked into the church, children would come up and touch us or shyly wave from a distance.

Church was incredible.  I cannot think of another word to describe it, I mean, how do you describe church in Africa?  It is a wonderful, very humbling experience.  It was not a grand, beautiful church like I am privileged to attend, it was just a simple frame of logs with corrugated tin nailed to it with a dirt floor.  Yet, the people were some of the most joyful people I have ever met, praising and worshiping God with everything in them.  I wish I had the words to describe it, but all I can say is, you must go for yourself and experience it, I promise you will never regret it!

After church we went to lunch at Java House, a restaurant that would become a favorite among our team while we were in Kenya.

Dad, Peter our driver and Steve at Java house

L to R:  Anita, Bryan and Jake

L to R: Jake, Jim, Aubrey and Josh

Me at Java house.

After lunch we went back to the house.  We spent the afternoon taking it easy trying to adjust to the time change.  A few from our team were very tired and went ahead and took a nap, but most of us tried to stay awake.  I spent a large part of the afternoon sketching out the church we had attended, I would share the sketch with you, but I still have not finished it yet.

I hope you have enjoyed this peek into my first day in Africa.  Hopefully I will soon have part three in this series of posts up!

Blessings,
Michelle