This past week, I had the privilege of doing ministry with my mom and step-dad who made the journey across the Atlantic to spend a week here in Kenya with me on the Parent Vision Trip! It was such an amazing week! Here is a blog from my mom that explains what all that week looked like. A blog from my perspective can be found HERE.
(pictures added by me)
God blesses me and my family everyday. My husband and I were definitely blessed when Laura invited us to the Parent Vision Trip in Kenya.
Along with 40 other parents, we arrived at the Nairobi Airport and got to meet face to face those we have been chatting with on Facebook; what a blessing. We left the airport for our 2-hour ride to Kijabe and were housed in 2 different guest houses on the mission/hospital/bible college campus.
Every day was different for each parent; from how we interacted with our children or with the locals and our teams. We experienced praying for sick children with hydrocephalis or spina bifada and many other patients, including one of the racers on K squad who was being treated with a bad hand infection which required surgery and several days stay in the hospital.
Some of us were blessed to meet with residents in the town, like Mercy, who blesses everyone at the hospital, as well as us parents when we listened to her amazing testimony of sharing the message of The Lord with all patients and parents as they come through the hospital. Her goal is to spread the Gospel to all parts of Kenya. There is a map of Kenya with hundreds of push pins representing small group leaders she has helped develop. She hopes to reach more of eastern Kenya where she does not have much contact.
Erin, my mom, and me with some of the street boys whom we were building a house
for at one of the construction sites
We also got to meet Sebastian's great grandmother, Sho-Sho, who at 100 years of age offered us words of wisdom, through our questions, her spiritual insight, and her singing. She shared with us her favorite bible verse [John 14:1]. That evening we all went to our bibles to read this awesome, all-applicable verse.
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me."
She was such a blessing to me; she reminded me of my sweet grandmother, Mom-mom who went to heaven a year ago, also at 100.
We met so many joyful children: at construction sites and at 61project. The children have so much hope for their futures and we all have an important part in their lives since we have been a small part of their lives/memories from this trip. We played volleyball, soccer, did crafts, and sang songs with them; what a memory for all who were there! We held their hands and gave them love in stories and hand holding and a bunch of hugs. We plan to stay in touch with them through email, some parents signed up to sponsor their high school tuitions; what a long lasting blessing they will receive from our God!
at 61 Project
None of us will ever forget out Friday night/Saturday morning work. We all watch the news on a daily basis and hear of many places destroyed by storms, we all got to see and hear the storm pass thought this specific weekend, as we learned this type of storm had not hit them in over 30 years.
[for a few more details of what happened in the storm, check out this newscast:
http://www.kenyan-tv.com/3-children-buried-by-mudslides-in-kiambu/# ]
Life, death, mudslides, water outages, trees down, railroads/bridges/roads were wrecked. Wow! We all prayed for the locals and for us to know how to help them in the day of recovery. We were not able to do our planned work for that day due to roads being closed, but God had another plan for us that day, we hiked up to help a family who's property had mud from our ankles to our waists.
a piece of railroad track from a few hundred yards up the mountain ripped out by
the flood waters
We were so happy no one at this site lost their lives; only their sons home was destroyed. He was able to escape mud slides and tree trunks that covered his entire home up to our waists. The men and racers built dams and dug trenches to prevent any further mud and water from reaching the parents house in the remainder of the rainy season.
My step dad and I, just a bit muddy after the clean up
cleaning up in the flood waters on the way home since
there was limited water at the guesthouse
Women, racers, men, and children from all generations and countries combined their energy and strength to remove the mud and water from this property to help the family get through this disaster at their home of 30 years. We were able to accomplish a clean out and partial rebuild in 1/2 day. What a great feeling of accomplishment and new start for this family.
Just an update on building God's Kingdom; while in Kenya this week, we had 2 parents accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior and had several Kenyans accept Christ as their Lord and personal Savior. The racers said they have not seen that much activity during the past 8 months! So this week with their parents was such a blessing in building the Kingdom.
Our last blessing for this intergenerational experience was getting blessed by our children and blessing the K and L squads before we headed to the airport. God was working with his master plan through the initial parent vision trip idea from AIM, and the children inviting their parents to the parents being guided to attend this mission invite.
God had many plans to rebuild soft relationships to a stronger more open, honest, loving parent/adult relationship. Both racers and parents received tons of love from each other and we learned from each other. All parents were able to experience, through their racers, how God has worked with and developed our children into awesome disciples.
Our racers were able to lead and develop us through some of the work God in Kijabe and we now will take this home with us and continue our work as we return home to our communities and other family members and friends.
What an awesome experience!
Thanks, Mom for writing a blog for me!!!
And ultimately, thanks for coming to Kenya for a week to get a taste of this crazy adventure!
