Church in Kenya is an all-day affair. It is much more like a first century church in the bible than anything we have in the US. Plus we were spending it at Lakeside, my favorite place in Kenya. The church normally has only about 20 adults and the children that reside at the orphanage...70 total on Sunday mornings. Today we had over 200 with many visitors coming from the local village. I think word got out that we had slaughtered a cow and had chickens in the pot. But hey, the more the merrier.
This trip we had dedicated to supporting the Lakeside Christian Children's Home. These kids usually get passed up, getting only a short 2-3 hour opportunity with visiting people. They get short-changed because there are only a few of them. We started meeting with them on Thursday, spent all day with them on Saturday, and now Sunday too! The kids are so happy to see us. It took them a day to warm up to everyone, but today it was all about hanging out with them.
Worship started about 30 min late. They were waiting for our Preacher of the Day...Keven. He did an amazing job thanking the locals for the work they do, thanking Jared and staff for their tireless efforts, and making everyone in the crowd proud to be associated with an orphanage that takes the unloved and loves them. I think it shocked the crowd that people so far away know about the work they do. The translator, George struggled with pronouncing "Puyallup." That became a running joke in his sermon. They wanted to get to bible studies so we kept church fairly short...just over an hour. Their spontaneous singing is beautiful with a female voice leading the songs. AFTER services (inside joke: this is a Church of Christ where instrumental music shall never be played during worship, so we kept having to clarify that services were over, and we are now using a guitar to accompany our voices) we sang a few songs for them. The kids wanted to learn them, so we spent a couple hours after that to teach them, "Blessed Be the Lord", and "Came to my Rescue". Wow, such amazing kids.
We broke into three groups: Men (inside of course), Ladies (outside in the tent), and Watoto (kids in the shade of the mango tree). Keven and I lead the men's study, Alicia and Amy lead the women, and Rachael, Ericka, Chante, Melanie, Nich and Kyle helped corral the kids. Rachael brought some kits where you can turn a drawing into a plate. We had the kids draw and color plates that we will sell in the future to help fund high school fees that are uncovered by the CRF sponsorship amount. I think that is an awesome idea. The kids colored, got their photos taken so the proud owner of the plate can know the boy or girl who's art they've just purchased. I expect to see a lot of plates around NW and Renovo churches!
The men's group was very good, and was perfectly timed...only 2 old guys started nodding off, so I knew when to quit. I had been warned to keep the lesson fairly short, because they start falling asleep before lunch. I saw two heads bob, so I skipped to the end. We had covered what I had wanted anyway, so it was sawa (okay).
Lunch is served the same as locations for the different demographics...men first, then women and children last. It seems to work for them, so I won't fight it. We had beef cooked two ways, chewy and chewier, chicken two ways (fried and stewed...same as the beef, I was trying to be funny), rice, ugali, greens, and our group favorite...chiapati's! After lunch everyone lounges around...the kids are working on learning songs, and then the men get ready to play soccer. We all walked to the local field...not a far distance, only about a mile through the woods. The teachers picked wild guavas along the way, bought fresh bananas and sugar cane for snacks. The kids carried heavy chairs for us to sit in while we watched the Lakeside boys take on the Ringroad teachers and staff. The boys play without shoes, with the teachers have their cleats, shin guards, shorts, etc. But the Lakeside boys are the better coached and more disciplined team...they nearly beat the teachers. They usually win with inferior equipment but with better shaped athletes. I have to figure out a way to get them used shoes, shin guards, shirts and shorts from the US...how many pairs of old cleats do we have at home? Every home in the US is just like that...how do we get stuff over there? Any ideas?
It was a nice, relaxing Sunday. The kids were all fed until they burst, we showed them a little love, and we all played games until it was nearly dark. A glorious day. Saying goodbye was difficult because true relationships have been forged. I can't say it enough...I love the Lakeside project and everything good that happens there is from God. I hope they know how much they are loved.
Chow!
No comments:
Post a Comment