Post Trip Thoughts

Hey everyone! I just thought I would throw up one last post to conclude our trip to Kenya this year. We all made it home safely AND with all of our luggage. Praise God!!

It's inevitable that when we return home we have two pressing questions. The first is, what should I do about my experience. Our team has encountered a lot and we had a lot of emotions about it. It's always our first response to ask the question, "Why?" Why was I born in the US and not in Kenya? Why do I live in a giant house and they live in a 5' x 5' room? Why do I get three meals a day plus snacks when they don't know if they will eat at all any given day? Why do I get to turn on the faucet and clean water comes out when they have to walk 3 miles to get dirty water to drink? The "whys" can eat you alive if you continue to think about them. Scott always challenges us to not think about the "whys" but to focus on the "whats". What can you do to help? What can you do to change the housing situation? What can you do to change the food situation? What can you do to change the water situation? 

Focusing on the what puts the practical aspect to the trip. We can do so much by investing our time and resources to help. It seems like a mountain of a task, but, in all reality, it is very simple. We just have to do it!

The second question we tend to always ask is, "How do I maintain this experience and the spiritual high I am on right now?" This is a great question and one I think there is a perfect answer for. First off, there is NO WAY to maintain the emotions and the spiritual high of a trip like this. You just can't replicate being in a foreign country with little to no distractions. I always tell our team that they shouldn't expect to maintain the emotional aspect of the trip once they are home. That will wane because we aren't surrounded by kids who desire our love and affection every day when we get home.

Secondly, and this is where you come into play, you must find someone to make sure you are still plugging in to God's Word and investing into your prayer life when you get home. We call this accountability and we all need it. Most of our team journals while we are gone and this trip was no different. They sit down at night or in the morning and write about the days adventures and experiences. Then when we get home, we put that journal on a shelf only to take it out once maybe twice to give it a look over at a later point in time. I believe that when you come home from an experience like this, the way to keep your spiritual life at a somewhat same level is through pouring yourself into study and your relationship with our Creator. 

It won't be the same, but it will be close. So, all in all, I encourage you to help our team out with this. Ask them questions about the trip. Ask them how they are doing now that they are home. Ask them what you can do to help out with what they experienced. And above all, ask them if you can hold them accountable! Be the community Christ intended the church to be!

Until 2015, this is our last post about Kenya! See you all in 2 years!

I love you Mallory!!!

Leaving Chicago

Hello everyone!! We have boarded our last flight as of right now!! We will be home in a short hour and a half!! See you all in Louisville!!

Good Ole Murica

We just landed in the USA!!! We are in Chicago and deboarding the plane! It's SO great to be back in America!! One more flight and we will be home to Louisville!!! Check Facebook to follow our status!!!

Travel Home

We are now on our way home!! We are sitting in the airport in London awaiting our gate announcement. We have about two more hours before we board our 2nd of 3 flights to get home. It has been a great trip so far. Most of us slept the whole previous flight since we left at midnight Kenya time and landed in London about 7am.

When we got in, we all went through security to try to go out into London but that didn't really work out! We got to go through customs and get a stamp but no luck with going out into the city. I wish we had time but, alas, we did not!! We did see grass but that was about it! 

We can't wait to be home in 15 hours and see you all!! I will update Facebook when we land in Chicago but I have a feeling we will be running to our gate since we have to go through customs. 

Love you all and see you VERY soon!!

Love you Mallory!!

Our Last Day

This trip has been an amazing and life changing journey for our team! It's crazy to think that today is the last day that we will be in Nairobi! We leave tonight for our long trek home. 

Today was filled with some fun times to cap off the end of our trip. This morning we woke up and ate breakfast like normal. Then, we headed to the Village Market. This is a complete cultural experience for our team. The Village Market is where vendors who handcraft different novelties come and set up shops. It's basically like a Kenyan version of a flea market or a yard sale. There are about 50-75 different vendors set up selling everything from carved wooden giraffes to hand painted tapestries to ostrich eggs. Everything has to do with Africa and Kenya though.

The Market is all operated on a bargaining system so you barter with each individual seller for the price that you want to pay. For instance, you might be looking at a small soapstone hippo and ask how they are. At that point, they will write down a price on a piece of paper. Most will start VERY high like 1500 Kenyan shillings. Then, you offer your price. We told our team ahead of time to decide what they wanted to pay for it and then work up to it. In this instance, I would start at 100 shillings in hopes to pay around 300. The sellers mark everything up extremely because they know most people who don't know how to barter will pay what they ask. It's a fun and stressful day for most.

We spent the morning just walking around and observing what we wanted to buy. We would come back after lunch and then purchase whatever we were looking for. About 10:30 we headed to the bus and loaded up to go to the tea farm. The tea farm is an awesome oasis up in the Limuru area of Nairobi. It is where a lot of tea is harvested throughout the year. A lady by the name of Fiona manages and runs this now small tea farm. Her family used to own about 350 acres and now they only own about 35 and only grow tea on about 2. 

This is a picturesque place if I have ever seen one! It's crazy beautiful! We went on a tour and then sat down for lunch on the lawn. After an awesome lunch, we bought tea straight from the farm and then loaded the bus. We then headed back to the Village Market. Most of us went shopping for people who supported our trip and our loved ones back home. After about two hours of bartering our way through the market, we loaded back up and headed to Heart House. 

Once there, we ate our last dinner and then it was time for arguably the most anticipated mission trip awards show in East Africa...The Scottys! They happen ever two years as our team comes to Nairobi. It was a glamorous event and the best one yet. This years event was unprecedented with a total of 31 awards being handed out to each team member. It was an incredible evening of fashion and celebs. 

After the Scottys, we packed up our stuff and loaded the bus to head to the airport. We arrived about 1 hour later and began the journey home! I will try to update you as we travel depending on the availability of internet!

Love you all!! Especially you Mallory!!!

Day 7

Are we really this far into the trip?  It's so hard to believe.  This edition of the blog is brought to you by the one and only Amy Austin!  ;-)  

Today has been an extremely emotional day for all of us on the team.  We had our second backpack ceremony this afternoon.  Some of us went to a very rural part outside of Nairobi, while the others stayed at FOCUS to complete the work projects.  Rairu is a very poor community nearby a coffee field.  Most of the parents of the children that get to attend school work in the coffee fields and are barely able to provide for their families.  There were five schools represented today, the most vulnerable and needy of the kids getting to receive backpacks with school supplies.  When we arrived, they were all seated in a field, listening to Charles tell stories.  He works for FOCUS and is great with the kids!  

As I looked around the crowd of students, I was blown away by the poverty.  There was not one child whose uniform didn't have rips and tears in them...and when I say rips and tears, I'm not talking about a seam that may have been stretched a little too far that needed mending.  I looked at their clothing and knew that no one that I knew back home would allow their kids to wear the same clothing.  Sweaters were shredded, pants had gaping holes in them, shoes wear literally falling apart.  A few brought with them water bottles filled with drinking water...muddy, brown water.  They didn't even have access to clean drinking water.  My heart was broken for all of them and those throughout the rest of the world that they represented to me today.  

We split the kids up into their schools and one by one we called out the names of the kids who would get a backpack.  One by one, I was able to put a brand new backpack full of school supplies that will last them up to 1.5 years of school.  One by one, I saw the hope and joy on their faces as they received the gifts we gave.  Nothing that we could have done for them today could have meant more to them than that.  We were giving them resources they need to study and work hard.  We were giving them a chance at a future that is better than the present they now know.  After they had received the backpacks, we served them lunch.  Bread and juice.  For us, that may seem minimalistic, but I heard stories from other team members that the kids were putting bread in their backpacks to take home to their families.  It meant so much to them!

We then went back to FOCUS.  Our last day to play with the kids and love on them.  We were anticipating having to say goodbye to them all day, which did not make it any easier.  Bit by bit, they wandered their way in after school let out.  They'd get their after school snack and find their Mzungu (white person).  Mary, the little girl I had bonded with, came to sit with me.  It was hard to hold her hand and hug her, thinking it was the last day with her.  When it was time to leave, we all gathered outside the gate in a circle.  Mobs thanked us for the impact we made on the children and that's when the tears started.  I couldn't look down at Mary or I knew I wouldn't be able to hold back the floodgates.  I could see her looking up at me several times but I still couldn't do it.  How do I tell her that our very short time would come to an end?  How do I explain that I'm leaving her?  I still don't know.  I hugged her close and told her I'd miss her.  I looked at her and saw tears welling up in her eyes.  I held her close again and told her, "Naku penda."  I love you in Swahili.  She let go of me to get a handkerchief because she started crying as well.  I looked around to see most of our team in tears having to say goodbye to these precious children.  I will leave tomorrow having questions...

What more can I do?  How can I become more involved?  How can I make more of an impact?  I never asked, why was I born into the life I have or why am I the one blessed with more than I can imagine?  I know why I was born into an American family who isn't in desperate need of these things.  God placed me where I am so that I can do more.  He has given me resources so that I can give and make a difference in the lives of these kids.  I can't wait to get back home to start contributing.

PS- Mallory, Jameson loves you with all of his being and misses you greatly!!

Safari

"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."

Genesis 1:31

If there was one word to describe the past three days of our trip here in Kenya, it would be brilliance. Over and over again, God kept bringing to mind the word brilliance. His creation is pure brilliance. 

Every trip to Kenya, our team takes two days (minus drive time) to just go and refresh ourselves and really think about what we are encountering here. It is a really good download time for the team. It takes about 7 hours to drive to the Masai Mara where we stay from Heart House in Nairobi. The road is incredibly bumpy and is almost like an old wooden roller coaster for the last 3.5 hours. There's no really good way to describe this journey other than that. Until you live it, you really have no idea what it's like. 

After the journey though, you pull up to our lodge, the Fig Tree Camp! It is a pretty spectacular place. Everyone has a "tent" to sleep in. This consists of a military grade tent with a bathroom attached to it and a roof over the whole thing. It's a very nice place. And no matter what Scott says, it's not camping. After we arrived around 1pm, we ate lunch and then settled into our tents. We met around 3:30 for our first drive of the next few days. 

As we set out, I was reminded that this was my third time to the Masai Mara. How crazy! God has blessed me with the opportunity to come to this amazing place for the THIRD time. As we began to drive, God impressed on me the first thought of how brilliant a Creator he is. As I stood up in the open roof van, I was just looking at a 360 degree view of brilliance. God has created places on this earth that we might not ever see. God has created places on this earth that no human might ever see. God has created places that some of us will see. All of these places hold one thing in common...they are HIS creation. 

Imagine sitting at the beginning of time and just looking at a blank canvas. As you sit there, what comes through mind? What are you impressed with to fill that canvas? Is it a landscape? Is it a person? Is it an animal? Flower? Tree? This must be how God felt. He had a blank canvas and he could create, or make, whatever he felt like making. And I do mean whatever because he is God and there is nothing out of his reach. As he began, he created the heavens and the earth. Then he created light. And then water. And then sky. Then he made dry ground, produce, vegetation, stars, the sun, the moon, sea creatures, birds, living creatures, and then man.

What?!? I mean...what?!? Out of a blank canvas, God created all of this! He had order. He had meaning. He had purpose. He had vision. He had creativity. He had brilliance!! God is such a brilliant being. The definition of brilliance is excellence or distinction or magnificence; conspicuous talent, mental ability. 

Our God is a God who is excellent! As I sat in that van for the third time in the past 6 years, I was reminded that our God created all of this with great excellence. He didn't do anything half way or somewhat, he did it with full intent. He didn't settle. He didn't say, "Well that looks ok." He said that what he had just created was very good! Not good. Not somewhat good. Not ok. But VERY GOOD. 

Our God is a God who is distinct. No other God has created all that I saw today. He is a God that is very different from any other God. He is one of a kind. I can see that in all the animals and all the beauty I have beheld over the past three days. Our God is as distinct as the hundreds of animals we saw. He is as distinct as each zebra's stripes. He is as distinct as a giraffe's spots. 

Our God is a God who is magnificent. He is incredibly awe inspiring. I thought of how creative I am compared to God and how if it was up to me, I would have run out of creativity at the warthog. That's about as creative as I can be. But he moves so much past that. He created a universe that's teeming with life and breath. One that moves along the ground, one that swims in the sea, and one that flies in the air. He is great and what he made is very good!

As we finished our ride that night, it began to pour down rain. Again, it was just a reminder about how awe inspiring our God is. If you can come here, to the Masai Mara, and look at this beauty and this creation and not feel the very presence of God in your heart, there is something wrong with you! I would beg to argue that you are not human. All I want to do while I am there is stand in the van, look out over the vast landscape and drool!

Not only does this place show you God's creativity, it blesses you with the knowledge that we serve a God who is FAR greater than anything we will ever face here on earth! Our God is great and greatly to be praised! Our problems and our issues are nothing compared to how massive and over arching our God is. He is incredibly brilliant!

I could really go on and on about all that God has graced me with again this year during our time on Safari. But I will leave you with one last thought..."May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works. He who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke." I pray the glory of our God will endure forever and I pray that I am reminded daily of that glory. I pray that I rejoice in his works of creation. I pray that I think about how powerful and great he is that he can make the earth tremble and the  mountains smoke!

I serve a BRILLIANT God!!

I love you Mallory