So we're going simple today. Here's a Month 8 Recap!
Location: Challenge Farm- Kitale, Kenya
(challengefarm.org)
If you'd been following along you might know that Kenya was not a part of our original race route, Uganda was. But thanks to the crazy EBOLA outbreak, we were promptly rerouted to Kenya for month 8 instead. God knew we were going there all along and it couldn't have been a more blessed and perfect change of plans.
A view of the soccer field, classrooms, and library
Ministry Description: Challenge Farm is a farm (cows and everything) that is home to over 100 former street kids. This ministry was started by Mama Cheri and her late husband in 1992 and has grown to what it is today since then. They have a full school on campus, a chapel, libraries, dormitories, dining hall, a running farm, and more. There are over 30 Kenyan staff that help overseas the ministry and Cheri is the International Director of the organization.
Some of the most precious children in the world
Hosts: Cheri Thompson (also known as Mama Cheri) and her two assistants Eutin and Sanyo! They all were amazing and made us feel right at home from the moment we arrived, tired and overwhelmed from the sudden change of plans.
Team: America's Next Top Missionaries: Suzanne Hofer, Nicole Ruggiano, Liz Purrull, Kathryn Chinn, and myself. This was our special womanisty month team just for month 8. I was also the team leader! 🙂 We were also partnered with two other all women teams for the month and we had a blast!
Accommodations: A bunk room (for 10 of us), a UN Refugee tent (it sounds bad, but it was actually VERY nice, and our tents for sleeping. We had a “hut” for cooking and meals, and we had an outdoor bathroom situation was two showers (cold) and two WESTERN toilets. It was a great set up. And I, of course, slept in the bunk room 🙂
This is our hut
Ministry Activities: They gave us free reign to use our gifts and strengths to bless the farm and the kids. So since they were on break from school the month we were there, we had organized classes of music, dance, bible, games, and crafts in the mornings and would help with other needs in the afternoon like counseling, tutoring, painting, and organizing files. Oh and Tabby worked hard on the farm all month, too!
Craft time with the kids
Best food: Every single meal my team cooked. We took turned cooking dinner every night and every single thing we made was amazing. We had LOTS of eggs and LOTS of avocados (they are both super cheap). We cooked pasta, omelets, salads, egg sandwiches, etc. Oh and we also had amazing donuts and cinnamon rolls that Daniel (the baker) would make us for breakfast!
That's an avacado with brushetta on top with cheese (that's a big deal), rolls, and chocalate for dessert!
Worst food: Corn and beans. It sounds good, but the corn was hard so it was very difficult to eat. I promise I tried.
Malaria: Only one case and it wasn't on my team and she's all better now.
Tabby worked hard on the farm this month
Other sicknesses: Even though we kept malaria away for the most part, other sicknesses were around a lot. I even had to go to the doctor for an infection on my face, in my ears, and in my eyes. No worries, we all survived and everyone is all better.
Daily routine:
8:30 am: Wake up and eat breakfast with all the women then get ready for the day
9:30 am: Tea time and get the schedule worked out for the day with Joseph, the head teacher
10:00 am: First class with the kids (Either music, bible, games, crafts, and sometimes dance)
11:00 am: Break
11:30 am: Second class (Same as earlier, just a different age group)
12:30 pm: Lunch
2:00 pm: Other activities around the farm: counseling, tutoring, organizing, painting, and sometimes more dance class 🙂
3:00 to 4:00 pm: Wrap up the day, hang out, and enjoy the sunset
5:00 to 5:30 pm: Start cooking team dinner together, eat dinner, then have team time together
8:00 pm: Free time to relax, spend some time on the internet, and read
10:00 pm: We were pretty much all asleep by this time or a little later.
Note: The World Race makes you into one of those people who go to bed early and well, you like it, too. At least, I do.
Transportation: Since our ministry was on the farm for the most part, we didn't have to take a lot of transport! 🙂 But when we went into town to grocery shop and such, we would walk the mile (or less) to the main road then catch a matatu (a microbus made for 15 people stuffed with 20+ Africans and then us) to town for less than 50 cents. Some girls took boda boda (motorcycle taxis), but I definitely did not after almost getting in an accident on one in Rwanda.
Free days: Wednesdays. Well, we loved Kenya, but the options of fun things to do was rather limited in this part of the country (at least on our budget). So we would go to the coffee shop in town, eat some Western food, and some girls went to the local museum. Our last free day though, we saved and stopped in Nakuru on our way to Nairobi for debrief and that was a fun little side trip.
Aren't they adorable?
Favorite memory: Teaching DANCE CLASS! In the first class I taught to the older teenagers, I had about 15 to 20 full grown African boys doing thriller with me in unison. It was a amazing and something I'll never forget!
Funniest moment: The funniest things happened with 16 girls living together for the whole month. I laughed more that month than I have in a long time, about anything and everything. It was a blessing. Oh and I thought it was really funny when we would hit the cows with the ball when we played kickball!
Grossest Moment: It's a tie. Seeing HUGE rats up close and personal multiple time during the month and while playing kickball in the soccer field, getting covered in cow dung from the ball. (It was gross, but totally worth it!)
At least we killed one…
Favorite Day: One of the days, right before we left, Cheri took us to the slums outside of Kitale called Kipsongo, where most of the kids come from. It was humbling to see the slums and their living conditions, but a blessing to be able to pray for so many families while we were there. It was also amazing to see the joy of the community and the stories about how God is providing for slum in big ways.
In the slum families live in houses made of plastic bags, mud, or simple cement depending on their circumstances.
Biggest challenge: Even though we loved Challenge Farm and we all loved our women teams, it was very evident that it was month 8. At times during the month, motivation was low, due to tiredness, fatigue, and homesickness. We all pushed through though and God continually refreshed us within our community and with simple things like iced coffee from our host and watching Friends together at night 🙂
Craziest Moment. Helping to cast out demons from a little girl on the Farm. Yes, it was crazy. Yes, it was real. Yes, this story will get its own blog.
Lessons learned: This month, I was nervous to transition back into leadership after not being in “official” leadership for such a long time (about a year). I felt like I had learned a lot over the 7 months on the Race by being a follower, but I was still nervous to step back into leadership and try to find the balance between what I knew about leadership from before the Race and what I'd been learning.
God helped me to find the balance and grow in my leadership style while learning to listen to the Spirit and discern where I felt God was leading the team. This also helped to show me how I had grown over the Race so far. It really encouraged me to be in leadership for the month, see the changes God had been doing in me, and learn how to discern God's leading in a new way.
Most of the kids in chapel on Sunday
Biggest Victory: Finding the courage to tell my story. It's posted here: “The Blog I Never Wanted to Write (Part 2)”
Prayer requests:
E squad: We only have three months left on The Race! Please pray for healing from sickness on our squad (we've had more malaria and typhoid going around during debrief), for us to continue to stay present even though home seems so close (to us at least), and for direction as we all pray about the next chapter in our lives.
Challenge Farm: Please pray that God would continue to grow and bless this ministry. It is one of the most well run organizations I have seen on the Race and they have a genuine love for the children. It is evident that God is present and working there, but also due to the spiritual nature of Africa, the children are often tormented by nightmares and demonic attacks. Please pray for protect, freedom, and continued guidance for the farm and these precious children.
Our sunset every night
Overall it was a great month. The kids there are amazing and God is doing a new work in all of their lives. It was so encouraging to see a faithful and hard working woman of God following the call she felt on her life and then to see how God is using her to change the children and the country of Kenya.
God is moving all over the world and the longer I'm on the Race, the clearer that is.
