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Kenya 2016

Kenya 2016

Thank You!!

It has been about a month since I got home from my short term mission trip in Kenya and that is very bittersweet. The experiences I had in Kenya and the people I met will forever be monumental in my life. I wanted to say a special thank you for all of the financial support and prayers - I will never be able to convey what that means to me. God did amazing things while my team and I were in Kenya and I am so excited to share them with you!

Above is my team. There were seventeen of us total - 2 trip leaders who are on staff at Next Worldwide (the organization that my trip was through), 2 interns from Next Worldwide, 3 workers from my church, The Village Church, and 10 high school students from my youth ministry. It was so fun getting to know them all so well!

Are we there yet?

Getting to Kenya was absolutely chaotic - because of weather, we missed out first flight to Detroit, causing us to miss our connecting flight to Amsterdam, causing us to miss our flight to Kenya. We were able to fly to Detroit late the first night. We got there around 12 am (their time) and sat in the airport until almost 2 trying to figure out new flights to get us to Kenya. We ended up staying the night in Detroit with plans to split the team on two different routes the next day... but when we got to the airport, there were issues with that and we ended up missing our flights again! Thanks to awesome airport staff, we finally got a flight plan: Detroit, then Germany, then Amsterdam, and FINALLY Kenya!! Lots more chaos ensued in each of those airports but we finally eventually made it to Kenya (a day late, sadly). It was neat to see how God worked all of the crazy for His good, whether that was some good team bonding or neat conversations with people we otherwise would not have met.

God is Moving in Kenya!

Our team focused on doing ministry in a village outside of Naivasha called Moi Ndabi, a predominately unreached village. In their culture, woman are of low value so originally, we were told that us girls would have few opportunities to actually share the Gospel or pray for the people. However, God did what He does best and opened countless doors throughout our trip for girls to love, pray and share with the people of Moi Ndabi. Every night, our team would get together and tell countless stories of people who had accepted the Lord. It was truly amazing - and almost hard to believe at times. Our end goal was to plant a church in this village, so we all returned Sunday (after attending a church service at Rift Valley Fellowship - a church in Kenya that my church in Texas partners with). The turnout for the service (which was literally just a microphone and keyboard set up on a patch of grass and dirt - a cool picture that a church is not a building but rather the body of Christ gathered) was unbelievable. It was mostly all in Swahili so when a bunch of men and woman stood up and gathered in groups, I assumed that they were just praying. It wasn't until later that I learned that those were all the men and women that had chosen to dedicate their lives to Christ! All I could do at this sight is cry - I think it can be easy to put God in a box - I know He is more than able to save but to see just how able He is to do so was life changing. In total, we had over 50 people come to know the Lord, most of which were men. That is unbelievably profound in their culture - men are typically very closed off to new ideas. In addition to the time we spent in Mod Ndabi, we also spent time in Maii Mahiu praying for believers there.
Our team of seventeen divided into smaller "mission groups" - the groups we went from house to house with when sharing the gospel, praying over people, and giving food and Bibles. My team consisted of Jordan, Julie, Pastor Rodgers (a pastor in Mombasa, which is on the coast of Kenya, that came to help us translate and share for the week), me, and Momma Rose. It was so amazing share in experiences with them and I am so thankful for these people.
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I had the opportunity to share my testimony at the first ever service of the church my team helped plant. This is an experience I will never forget!

Some of the girls from my team led worship as well, after we sang and danced to some songs in Swahili. It was so neat to sing in the different languages and know that regardless of what I could or couldn't understand, God was being glorified.

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The kids of Moi Ndabi absolutely loved taking pictures -because they loved getting to see themselves after! The Swahili word for "white people" is muzungu and we heard that a lot! They were especially intrigued with my freckles (many thought they were dirt and some tried to wipe them off), blue eyes, and braces (I was asked by countless kids to take them off so they could try them on). We got to teach the kiddos to high five and fist bump - they LOVED it! I've truly never met kids with more joy than the kids of this village. I miss them more than I could ever say!
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This is probably the biggest house I saw in the village. Most houses were one to two room huts. The people of this village had so little yet they were so willing to give. I didn't meet a single person that didn't invite me into their house or offer me food. Many of them had a ton of kids living in their small homes and could barely manage to feed them, yet they were so hospitable and generous. Seeing the way they loved and gave opened my eyes to how much I take for granted.
One of the greatest blessings of my trip to Kenya is the people I had the opportunity to meet. Joan and her husband traveled to Kijabe from their house in Nairobi to serve with out team for the week. Momma Rose was part of my specific mission group. She didn't speak a lick of english but I could always count on her for a giant smile and a big hug. Grace was a sweet, sweet woman that spent the week with our team. I also got to get to know her adorable daughter Stephanie (who renamed me Skennedy so our names could start with the same letter) and her mom Rosemary. I'm not exaggerating when I say that my heart aches when I think about how much I miss these three and so many more. Thank goodness for Facebook so I cam stay in touch with some of them!
Meet Jan. She lived in the village where we did most of our ministry in Kenya. On the first day, I was immediately drawn to her and her to me. At first she was so shy towards me, but everytime I'd turn around, she would be pointing at me and saying something to her friend. She ended up following me to every house we visited to share the Gospel and by the end of the first day, we were running and laughing and holding hands. I taught her to fist bump and high five, how to fix her oversized flip flops, and how to hug but my biggest prayer is that I taught her that she is loved by someone far greater than me. I would do anything for one more hug or really hard fist bump but for now I'll settle for praying that her life is marked by a fierce love for the Lord. Thankful for her pure joy that wasn't found in the things I so often get caught up in.
All in all, Kenya was something that changed me forever. I would LOVE to go back next summer, so that is something I am praying about. I would also love to eventually live there and either teach at a school there or start some sort of ministry. So much more than I can fit into a newletter happened so if you are interested in hearing more, I'd love to grab coffee with you!

If you are considering going on a short term trip, I encourage you to do so. It is a life altering opportunity. But you also don't have to go across the world to spread the love of Christ - live missionally where you are!