Kenya Update 7/4/15

After a long “day” of travel, we arrived into Kenya Tuesday night. We were welcomed by the familiar (to me at least) smell of Africa and 2 lost bags. Thankfully, only one of the two bags was a student’s (which we have since retrieved and is a story in itself). Our ministry partner, Maurice, and his crew, Mel and Felix, were waiting just outside of arrivals for us. We hopped in the bus - I’m trying to send through that picture - and drove the hour or so from the airport to our guest house. I was very grateful that Maurice had offered to have dinner prepared for us. And although by the time we were unloaded it was a little past midnight, we were all starving and happy to eat a delicious meal.

The next morning our Kenyan friends also prepared a late breakfast for us, since we hadn’t gotten into bed until 1:30 am the night before. While some of the senior staff went into town to exchange money and get food and supplies, the team spent the day doing quiet time, organizing their things, and getting some needed rest. On Wednesday evening we got to meet the DICE Ministries team, a group of young adult Kenyan believers that we’ll be doing ministry with all summer. As with all initial meetings, it was a bit awkward at first, but after a combination of Maurice’s and my games, they started to get to know each other.

Learning our Kenyan friend’s names is, in my opinion, much easier than their having to learn ours. Mostly because we have so many people on the team with the same or similar names. We have Hannah, Anna, Anna, Anna, Annaliese, Emma, Emma, Megan, Megan, Olivia, Liv, Laura, and Lauren. It’s been an interesting challenge to say the least.

Thursday the Kenyan team joined us for a day of training. One of the focuses of DICE Ministries is going into schools and encouraging the students towards academic excellence, healthy relationships, and also presenting the Gospel to them. The students will be teaching small parts of each, as well as doing skits to demonstrate points. I think my favorite part from the day was watching the Kenyan’s teach our students some of their skits. I love that everything we are doing this summer, we are doing with and alongside the Kenyan students. In ministry, we are one team. We’ll do our first school program on Monday!

Friday was our first day of ministry. We - anytime I say “we” in reference to ministry, it includes our Kenyan partners - went to a school for young children that mostly come from the slums. Some of the team played with the kids while others were outside helping to prepare a meal. This meal was maybe the only thing these kids would eat that day, or even for a few days. Our team loved being with the kids. They danced with them, played games, and sometimes just held the little ones. I could not have asked for a better way to kick off our ministry here in Kenya. I wish all of you could have seen, not only the faces of the little ones we were loving on, but also the faces of each of our team members as they took delight in each of those children.

Today (Saturday) we will be visiting a children’s home (orphanage) in the morning, and then attending a youth rally for high school students in the afternoon - where we’ll join in the fun by performing a couple of the dances and dramas we learned at Training Camp. My hope is that we will be able to get the team to an internet café on Sunday after church. But something that our team has learned very quickly, is TIA, which means This Is Africa, and often things don’t go as planned. So please be patient and flex with us, as we flex with things here.

One last thing I thought that especially the parents would enjoy knowing, Maurice, Mel, and Felix are also staying at the guest house with our team. So on top of the guard and the fence around the property, it’s nice to have these guys around to help with anything that we need. Although we’ve had some interesting adventures already - having the guys around to help has made everything seem very smooth.

Thanks for your prayers for our travel and our transition. Please be praying for continued growth in our team relationships, relationships with our Kenyan friends, and each individuals growth in relationship to the Father. Prayers for continued health and safety are always good!

For the Kenya Family!
Margaret Fischer

After a long travel "day", we arrived in Kenya. We were welcomed by the familiar (to me at least) smell of Africa and 2 lost bags (which we have since retrieved and is a story in itself).

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