After a 10-hour bus ride from Nairobi, we arrived in Busia, Kenya for our 5th month of ministry. We were greeted by an assistant pastor from Deliverance Church (our ministry host for the month) & soon received by Pastor Gideon, who picked us up in the family station-wagon on drove us to his home, where we met his wife Jane (who we were told to call Mama) and had a home-cooked dinner. We were pleasantly surprised by the home/ accommodations for the month & immediately treated like family. We were so blessed to be welcomed into this home for the month, where we can have some of the comforts of home & really feel like a family with our sweet Ma & Pa for the month (who happen to remind us of the Berenstain Bears.) They have been married for 26 years, and their back-and-forth banter is hilarious, especially when Mama is shushing us all because she can’t hear the Spanish soap-opera she watches religiously each evening. Life here in Kenya this month is full of blessings– a far cry from the dirt-floor-sleeping, mud-hut-living, bucket-bath-from-a-well-taking, limited-food life I had prepared to live. We have the ability to prepare our own breakfast & dinner, which for me usually consists of lots of delicious fresh fruit (the pineapples are the sweetest I’ve ever tasted & only cost $1.) Ma prepares traditional Kenyan food for lunch each day before we return for our break between morning and afternoon ministry. The joy & thanksgiving in this home is contagious, and so my month in Kenya begins with a full & joyful heart. How fitting that we would be here in such a home to celebrate Thanksgiving & share a new tradition with our current family. We went to the market with Ma for ingredients & the 4 girls spent the afternoon preparing a somewhat-American dinner consisting of: chicken (stuffed w/ local fruit & baked), creamed local corn, dressing, sweet potatoes (we weren’t quite sure about these because they didn’t look or smell like our sweet potatoes, but turned out wonderful mashed w/ brown sugar, honey & cinnamon), fruit salad, rosemary mashed potatoes, home-made biscuits & apple-pie!
Pastor Gideon praising the Lord as he cooks ugali in the back yard with Logan
We spent this first week of ministry visiting patients at two local hospitals, which I absolutely love! Each morning we spent a couple of hours praying with the patients at a private hospital near our home. In the afternoons, we walk across town to the public government-run hospital to pray and encourage the sick & their families. Day #1 of ministry (Tues), we were faced with some extremely tough cases: a demon-possessed woman named Belina who was seeing & communicating with evil spirits & creatures, an emaciated 20-something year-old girl named Helen who just discovered she has malaria & HIV (*her 7-month old baby tested negative for HIV), & a terribly-burned little girl named Lillian. Amidst the pain and heaviness of our first day in Busia, we were blessed with such joy & hope as the mother of a sick baby we prayed for told us she would like to accept Jesus!
Day #2 (Wed) was also equally encouraging & devastating. We met two female patients, both of whom had struggled their entire lives with suffering & yet continued to look to the Lord with hope and expectancy: 1) Violet (26 yrs)- suffering from heart condition since childhood; also lost her mother as a child & doesn’t know her father, yet she still believes the Lord loves her & will heal her. 2) Lois- a long-time widow suffering from malaria & pain on the right side of her body; refused to remarry because she was so thankful to God for her first husband & didn’t want to discount that love & blessing; she raised two very ill children suffering from rheumatism & sickle-cell anemia, but in her hopelessness & loneliness turned to the Lord and devoted her life to him. After this encouraging morning, meeting strong women of faith, I approached the afternoon ministry with a joyful & hopeful heart. At the public hospital, we faced the unimaginable tragedy of talking to a family as their infant passed away before us, yet I was able to keep strong faith in the Lord. The Lord was so sweet in comforting my teammate Jessica who had caressed baby Claire as she took her last breath, giving her the opportunity to joyfully hold a brand-new healthy baby the following Thanksgiving morning.
As we begin each morning with team worship or Bible study, I am overwhelmed with the new grace & blessings we receive with each passing day. Our team is growing with each day of intentional worship & prayer. I feel like a new woman since arriving in Africa, and the joy and love that fill my heart is undeniable. There’s just something about the people here that tugs at my heart & makes me grin like a fool (especially the little children). My team has seen a huge change in my attitude and demeanor since arriving at this ministry, and I can feel a change in my heart and spirit. I wake up each day ready to serve God and love on his people.
I just began reading the book One Thousand Gifts, which is coincidentally fitting for the Thanksgiving season and my new-found bliss, and I would encourage you all to read it as well. As the book encourages me to soak up each moment & see the blessings in front of me, I notice myself smiling a lot more. Rather than thinking of myself and my needs, I try to use the moment to listen to the sounds around me or see the beauty in an otherwise ordinary thing… #48 sleeping in a hard rain, #72 ice cubes, #99 dancing freely at an African church, #103 lightning bugs, #117 freckles…
#74 African children's smiles
#278 African children yelling, "How are you?!"
