Blessed as Guests

God is good! Now let me hear you say, “all the time!” and it’s like you’re here in Ngaamba with us. It’s a greeting of sorts that we heard several times on Saturday while meeting members of the community.

Our first day was a whirlwind. We arrived in Ngaamba to all 150 kids excitedly waiting for our bus outside. When we opened the doors and stepped out, we were bombarded by so much love that there just aren’t enough words to describe it. Hugs and high fives were rampant as each of us acquired a brood of kids to walk hand-in-hand with up the long hill to the school.

From there, we met the community leaders and parents in a beautiful welcome ceremony filled with song, dance and encouragement for the Rejoice Project we have in the school later this week. We met with the teams we are going to work beside and heard some beautiful stories of faith.

On Sunday, we were fortunate to be able to break up into groups and visit three separate churches in the community. When we met up that night to reflect on our day, across the teams was a mutual admiration of the beautiful singing in each church. The varying voices and harmonies seem to melt into one beautiful flood of song that just gives you chills and lets you feel the worship. Cathy put it best when she said she has never heard an organ sound as beautiful or filling as their voices.

After church, we were invited into several homes to visit and pray over the families. We shared Chai tea with the homeowners and some of us were taught the art of making Chapati, a delicious Kenyan flatbread that’s oiled and fired to perfection. It was an amazing experience to talk with the families and see their incredible stories of faith. Kelly, Youf, Kallie and Hannah prayed over a woman who has recently been suffering from Epilepsy and she told the translator afterwards that she truly believes it will make a difference. What incredible faith!

We’ve also been seeing the fruits of North Point Ministries’ “Be Rich” campaign all around us - from the medical clinic that was built for the community to meeting women who were trained on growing crops in Zimbabwe to help them be self-sufficient. It’s awesome to see the role NPM is playing in the stories of the Ngaamba people and to see how they attribute everything to favor from God.

Abraham told us that in Kenya, a guest is thought of as a blessing. In fact, a home with no visitors is considered dead all around. But I think what we’re finding as a team is that it is a true blessing for us to BE the guests here in Kenya. We are learning so much from these people and our spirits are being fed so well. We’re incredibly excited for the next three days in the schools teaching the students about uniqueness and how they can use their gifts to serve others, much like we are using ours to serve them.

Our blog updates might be scarce from here on out, but rest assured we will have plenty of stories to share when we have better access to internet. Thanks for your continued prayer and support! We are having a wonderful time here and experiencing so much love and faithfulness from God’s people in Kenya.

Lastly, for a funny story - I (Lucy) was head-butted by a cow yesterday on our walk to the bus. I was petting one cow (gently, I might add) and another cow walked up and was most likely jealous that I wasn’t petting him and rammed his horns into my thigh until I dropped everything and ran away! Fortunately, Cathy was there and ready to capture the moment, as seen below.