Kenya - Becoming One Team

I stood in the back of the group of students. I wanted to make sure I could see everyone at once. Partly because I have this protective instinct, partly because I want to take in all that is happening. For the past 3 days our team and the DICE Ministries Kenya team have been working hard to teach each other the dances and dramas that they had each been working on. And now would be the first time that we would be using those dances and dramas to reach students for Christ.

It was amazing. Are their dances the stuff of TV competitions? No. Is anyone from our groups going to star in the theatrical production of the Lion King? Probably not (although, that’d be awesome). But what they did was far more significant…eternally significant.

As I stood watching, it’s hard to describe the feelings of pride, admiration, gratefulness, and utter joy (I guess I did just describe it) that I was feeling. Seeing the Royal Servants team and the DICE Ministries team dancing side by side, not as two teams, but as one…all I could think of was how Heaven must have been rejoicing. I suppose the fact that we were all wearing the same shirt helped, but with the exception of maybe the color of our skin, you could not tell the two groups apart. They all belonged there…together.

As if that wasn’t awesome enough, it only got better as they broke up into small groups, and shared the Gospel with the students at the school, again, side-by-side. Sharing their own unique experiences of God and yet, communicating the same message. Jesus loves you, always has, always will. I put up some pictures, but honestly, it can’t possibly capture the feelings of hearing all of their voices. And this may sound a little dramatic, it was heavenly.

Today our team is going to a children’s home in the slums. You’d have thought I had told them we were going to a water park with how excited they were to hear that. We’ll bring juice and cookies for the kids, play with them, dance a little, the puppets will get broken out (my favorite), and our team will love on those kids like they’ve never been loved on before. I only wish you all could be there to see it. But since you can’t, I’ll keep taking pictures. I’m trying to shoot video, but it’s literally take 6 or more hours to upload.

I want to end this update with something that one of our students shared about her experience in working with the Kenyan team. It was our second day here in Kenya, and she had not anticipated the amount of time we’d spend with the Kenyan team. She didn’t mind, it’s just that she was a bit overwhelmed because she felt like she was just starting to get to know our team, and now there was 9 more people to include. Her feelings were shared by many. Given how tired we’ve been (thanks jetlag) it make sense to me. But then she shared how she chose to deal with those feelings. She wrote a song.

This is sung to the tune of “Jesus Loves Me (This I Know)”

By Morgan

Jesus help my change my mood

Cuz I need to choose to ooze

But right now I don’t want to

Oh Jesus help me!

Oh Jesus help me!

Oh Jesus help me!

Help change my attitude.

I am happy (and proud) to report that this little song absolutely helped her and the rest of the team. From what they’ve shared with me, they’re really loving our Kenyan family and are grateful to be partnering with them in ministry.

On behalf of the Kenya Team,

Margaret

PS. Some of you have seen the picture of Grace, Maurice, Christine, and I locked out of the hotel. We had to go on a late night errand and forgot to tell the grounds keeper. So they locked all the doors. No one in, no one out. Although it took us a few minutes to wake him, we did get in eventually. And I’m personally glad to know that the team is that secure at night.

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