Habari from
Busia, Kenya!
Blessed is by far the most accurate word that I could ever
use to describe my experience here thus far.
After a 10 hour rollercoaster ride, we arrived in Busia to Reverend
Gideon and Pastor Steve’s joyous smiles.
They were so incredibly welcoming and couldn’t say enough about how
blessed they felt by us being here.
Reverend Gideon has hosted teams in Busia in the past and they typically
stay in a guest house, but since we are a smaller women’s group, he and his
wife Jean decided we were to stay with them.
Right away that gave me a sense of peace and security and gave me a
glimpse of the servant’s heart that Reverend Gideon has.
After about a 5 minute drive, we
arrived at our new home for the next month.
It’s a very comforting house and much nicer living conditions than we
were expecting. We are all sharing one
bedroom, which is great cause I love snuggling 
and then we have another room for
all of our packs. We also have great
cooking amenities, toilet inside for nighttime, super WONDERFUL smelling
squatty potty for the daytime (I’ve got my positive pants on) and water that
can be used for bucket showers whenever we need. We were greeted by Gideon’s wife Jean (or
Mama) and the sweetest little Kenyan man, Chef Lucas. He is most definitely the most joyous man I
have ever met and he cooks AMAZING food.
We ate chapatti, rice, beef, lentils and spinach our first night
here. He kept telling us how “welcome�
we were.
It truly has been such a blessing
being here. The way Reverend Gideon and
Mama serve us is so beautiful and truly of the Lord. They love having world racers stay with them
and they keep mentioning the ways in which they want to provide for future
missionaries coming through. It’s so
humbling hearing all they ways they want to bless us and provide for us. They also love hearing all about our lives
back in the States, as well as sharing about their culture and way of living
here in Busia. They are very proud to be
Kenyans, as they should be.
Although we have not started doing
our specific ministry yet, we have gotten a glimpse into what the culture is
like here in Busia. Busia is a rather
large city, with 90,000 people. There
are little fruit/meat stands all up and down the main road, with goats,
chickens and cows weaving in between.
Reverend Gideon has a car and has graciously taken us to the market to
get fruits and vegetables, the “supermarket� to get milk, rice and beans and
now to the Cyber Café to email and blog.
We definitely stick out as Mzungus (white person) and especially as a
group we get quite a few stares. I love
it though, especially when the little children are the ones doing the
staring. As soon as we smile at them and
say Habari (Hello), they break into huge smiles and giggling fits .
Please pray for continued unity and for
boldness for our team here in Busia! We
also have our first Friday fast day tomorrow, to prepare for the church
happenings on the weekend, so please pray that the Lord will reveal big things
to each of us. Thanks again for all of your love and support, I miss you all very much!
