We're back!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone for all of your love, prayers, and support. We couldn't have done it without you! Our team is home safe and sound with an amazing experience to reflect on and many stories to tell all of you. We want to share our experiences with you, so please ask us! Now back to the fight against jet lag...

more pictures

Time for bed. Here are pictures. Enjoy.

Week Two

After our very full weekend, we started another week of work on the OAI property. Monday morning about a third of our team stayed behind at our hotel due to a stomach bug that left them wiped out (they've all recovered well and quickly, for the most part). That left us down quite a few people. Still, we continued to move soil by the wheelbarrow load to what will soon be the yard area on which the children in the village can play. Our total loads for that day were about 700, even with six people missing from the team!
That evening we got a special treat- authentic Indian food. We all ate our fill of a special bread called "nam" (pronounced nom), which came with cheese and garlic. We also enjoyed the colorful and flavorful main dishes, which included fish, chicken, and mutton. Overall, it was an extremely tasty experience! Later that evening we had a great worship session to end our day well.
Tuesday and Wednesday were more of the same, except we had our whole team back, so things moved along much more quickly.
Yesterday evening we enjoyed a traditional Kenyan meal, supplied by our gracious hosts at The Noble (our hotel). We tried many dishes, including pumpkin leaves, caro root, brown ugali, chipati, mashed banana (the consistency of mashed potatoes), roasted goat, and many different varieties of vegetables and potatoes. It was a very filling meal!
This morning we will be starting our day out with the final segment of scripture study from the book of James, which we all look forward to. After that, we will head to the Open Arms property one more time for a final day of work and playing with the OAI children. Pray for us as we transition out of our time here in Kenya, that we would be able to process all that has happened. Thanks for staying faithful to us!

-noelle

The weekend

We spent Saturday at the Rondo Retreat Center in the Kakamega Rainforest. It’s supposedly a 2-hour drive from where we are staying in Eldoret, but on a road with probably the most potholes in the entire world, it took a good 4 hours to get there. Let me tell you, we were so excited to get out of that bus, especially those who were car sick (or should I say bus sick).

Once we got there, we divided into two groups and headed into the rainforest with our guides. We hiked through beautiful trees and plants (our guide said there are 280 different types of plants in that rainforest), spotting monkeys along the way. After about an hour, the hike started going up the side of the mountain, and we climbed up to the entrance of a bat cave. In the pitch dark, we crept our way through the cave, holding onto each other for support, ducking when the ceiling got low, and we came to a small opening at the end. Our guide showed us a few bats with his flashlight, but it was still pretty dark, so we decided to take pictures and use our flash as a source of light. We had a blast squishing together in that little opening, blinding each other with our cameras, and spotting bats hanging on the walls or flying over our heads.

After the bat cave, the groups continued up the side of the mountain to reach the top, an elevation of about 7000 feet. There were 360 degree views of the rainforest – it was breathtaking, and the pictures don’t do it justice. After our hike, we returned to the Retreat Center for lunch, then headed back on the bus for another long, bumpy drive. It was an adventurous and relaxing day for the group, especially after working so hard on the property.

We spent Sunday at the Open Arms Village with the families who live there, sharing a church service with them, partaking in a traditional Kenyan goat roast, and exploring the beautiful property. Jonathan shared a message at the church service and the children (affectionately called the Open Arms Choir) sang songs for us. We then visited the nearby school and we played soccer (football in Kenya) and volleyball with the Open Arms childen and the school children. All of the children got a candy cane after the games as a trophy. Then we returned to the Village and shared a traditional goat roast with the families at the Village and the local tribal leaders. After, we had some free time to wander the property and see the gorgeous views around the valley. It was a wonderfully relaxing day with great time to build relationship with the families at the Village.

Unfortunately, this morning, about half of our team woke up with some sort of stomach bug. Please pray for the health of our team, for quick healing and strength to be able to work today.

-Camille

This morning started off with a trip to the convenience store to purchase all of the things that we may have forgotten or run out of (including aloe-everyone is at least a little bit more pink from the sun than they were when we started last week). Almost everyone also purchased a soda or two for twenty shillings apiece (about 30 cents). After, we continued the job we started yesterday on the property, including moving large piles of dirt and topsoil to create an area where the children can play. The dirt here is a strong red color, and by the end of the day we were all nice and "tan" from all the dust sticking to our sunscreen.
It is the end of the day here, and we are all exhausted and sore from two long days of work. We are looking forward to the welcomed break of the weekend. Saturday, that is, tomorrow, we will be taking a two hour drive to a resort where we can opt to either go for a hike in a rainforest or a bat cave. Then on Sunday we will be at the Open Arms Village for a traditional Kenyan goat roast (more on that later...), which we are all excited about. We'll post more pictures from the last couple of days tomorrow!
-noelle

Pictures from Kambi Teso

Here are some pictures from our first two days when we were at Kambi Teso, before we started working at the Open Arms village. Katie tried to post these with her blog, but technology wasn't cooperating. So here are the pictures of Kambi Teso.

The Village

It's almost time for bed, and everyone is thoroughly exhausted. Half of the team members could not keep their eyes open during dinner. While that sounds a bit sad, we were all content and feeling good about the work we accomplished. Today was the first day we worked on the property at the Open Arms village. We were all eager to get to work and make a dent in the list of things to do while we are here.

Today's agenda involved moving massive piles of dirt, digging through layers of rock and clay, and leveling the ground around the children's homes. Speaking of the children, today was also the first day that we got to meet all of them. We were so excited to see them, and they were just as excited to see us. We played games, sang songs, and danced in the middle of a scenic Kenyan paradise. We will make sure to write some more detailed blogs about the kids and our work on the property. Right now, however, I'm going to go to bed. Goodnight.



-Jonathan

Well, it's day four of our missions trip, and we've successfully made it to Eldoret, Kenya! We had two very uneventful (but long) flights from Portland and Amsterdam, and made it to Nairobi on Sunday evening. Thankfully, all of our luggage arrived with us!
Monday was a day of rest in the large city of Nairobi, during which we were blessed to get to explore a little bit. We fed some giraffes, ate lots of good food, and experienced sleeping under mosquito nets. The people in Kenya, we discovered, are extremely hospitable and friendly.
Tuesday morning we got up very early (5 am), which was painful for us considering that most of the group hadn't slept well the night before due to jet lag. We caught a very small plane to Eldoret (60 people or so) which took all of thirty minutes, where we met David and Rachel Gallagher and many of the Open Arms staff (by the way, just to give you an idea of the size of the Eldoret airport, you could likely walk the perimeter of it in three minutes!).
Upon our arrival from the airport, we headed straight to the Open Arms Village on our bus. David and Rachel gave us a tour of the property, and told us about some of the ambitions they have for the future of the OAI Village. We met some of the younger children who go to school on the property, and were greeted by both sets of "house parents" that live on the property. They toured us through their living spaces, and it was humbling to see how simply they lived in these small rustic buildings, yet they were so pleased with what God was calling them to do with the orphans. OAI is planning beautiful new houses for them, which we toured as well. There are five of them, and we will be working on grading the soil outside 2 of these homes, building a retaining wall, and planting some trees around them. It will be really great to have a project that we'll be able to see the tangible results of when we're finished.
After eating our first round of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (our daily lunch) we loaded up the bus once more and headed out to Kambi Teso. Kambi Teso is a small poverty-stricken community. OAI calls it a slum, but it is unlike what we might normally consider a slum in the US. "Slum" usually calls to mind images of large government housing buildings, dark back ally ways, stray dogs, and no view of the sky. This is not the case at all at Kambi Teso. On top of a hill, up a winding and rain-washed road, the sky is huge and blue. Trees and bushes dot the landscape, and in open fields patches of grass set off the red dirt in stark contrast. As we wound up the road in our precariously large bus, we passed by tiny houses with tiny yards where young children played in torn clothing. The local school was on a lunch break and everywhere, the school children in red sweaters and blue trousers hung off fences and waved to us shouting "How are you!", their favorite English greeting.
OAI has been running this feeding program for about a year and they are feeding about 120 children once a day, Monday through Thursday. For many of the children, it is their only meal of the day, and often, Monday morning breaks their three day fast between feedings. When we stepped off the bus, the crowd of children had gathered and stood there shyly, waiting for the boldest one to make the first move. Slowly, they warmed up as we smiled and asked them "Habari?" (how are you?) . Although they were clearly tired from hunger, all of them smiled and murmered "Muzuri" (good). For the next 45 minutes or so we sat with them on the ground and let them stroke our smooth hair and touch the freckles on our hands as we waited for the food to arrive. When it did, they lined up (qued up), jostling one another to be in front. Some of the smallest sat down with their bowls of rice and lentils and began trying to feed themselves. It became apparent that if they were going to get much nourishment, that they needed help. A few of the team sat with these dirty and lethargic 2 year olds and spoon fed them their only meal for the day. It was heartbreaking. After eating, nearly all the children had energy to play. We played soccer and catch and keep away and hand clap games and gave airplane rides and generally tired ourselves out. OAI also distrubutes clothing at the feeding program. Before doing this, the children sat together on the ground and sang praise songs. They sang of trusting God and being loved by Jesus and of God providing for them richly. It was glorious and adorable and heartbreaking all at the same time. During the singing, one by one, the children went forward and recieved one new article of clothing. It was a joy to see their shy pleasure at receiving something new. When we stood up to go, they clung to us, asking us questions we didn't understand. But "Auntie Metty", OAI's director of the feeding program answered the questions for us. "Yes, children! They are coming back tomorrow!"

Prayer

Three days until we leave.

The bags are being packed and the checklists are are being checked. We're preparing to head off to Kenya on Saturday morning, but as we prepare, we would like to invite you to prepare with us. We need the prayers of our friends and family as we prepare, travel, and serve on the ground in Kenya. We would deeply appreciate your prayers.

Here are some of the general things to be praying about for our team.

- Safe travel and smooth connections at the airports.
- Staying healthy
- Openness to whatever God has planned for us, even if its not on the schedule.
- Courage. Many of us have never been out of the country.
- That our hearts and attitudes would be prepared to love, serve, and learn.
- That we would not be able to walk away from this experience unchanged.

We will be doing a lot of physical, tangible work on this trip, but it is important to remember that God is at work in our lives and in the lives of the people we will be serving. We ask that you would be praying alongside us as we prepare and take part in this trip. Thank you again for all the support you have given us so far.

-Jonathan

Team Commissioning

In just two weeks from now (hopefully) we will be in Nairobi, resting from our travel, visiting the local markets, and getting ready to catch a puddle-jumper into Eldoret, our destination. I don’t think it has quite sunk in for any of us that we will be leaving so soon, although I imagine most of us will feel the same way at the end of our trip. We’re all buzzing with excitement and nervousness, going over checklists and making sure we’ll be prepared. We’ve been having meetings to prepare us for the culture, the travel, and the work we’ll be doing, but there is still a significant feeling that we are heading into the unknown. As I said, none of us can really believe that we are leaving in less than two weeks.

I had the privilege of going to Eldoret last summer, but it has seemed completely surreal to me that I’m going back. I was sitting on the porch last night, and for a moment I could remember what the air felt like in the evening, and what it smelled like right after it rained there. I had a brief reminder of my trip from last summer and I was immediately filled with excitement and anticipation for our upcoming trip. I can’t wait to go back and share the experience with my community.

Speaking of community, our team was commissioned yesterday at New Hope. We all wore our stylish blue shirts and went before the church community for some prayer and a good old fashion sendoff. Mind you, we’ll still see everyone for the next two weeks, so it was an early send off, but it still felt good to get the support from the congregation, many of whom have been supporting us through prayer and finances. I know I speak on behalf of my team when I say thank you to all of you who have been supporting and encouraging us. Without our friends, family, and church community, we would not be able to take part in this adventure that God has laid out for us.

-Jonathan Cotton

The Team!