Victory Highway: Day 1 (Mary Lou Tells It All)

Mary-Lou, on behalf of the team

What a day this has been for the team. For some of us here for the first time it has been a day of finding out exactly what a training center really is. For those who were here on a previous trip it was a day of touring all that was here again and all that has been added in the last four years. Let me share just a few thoughts of how God has blessed the Illula training center in that short amount of time.

We began our day with hearing from Samuel Teimuge and how the Lord allowed a vision of helping the Kenyan people to match the same vision that the Lord had given to Don Rogers. Both visions meshed with thoughts on what could be done with a place of training and modeling for the Kenyan people. It was to be a place where they could come and learn how to grow better crops, more variety for better nutrition and for caring for their families. It was to be a center where people could learn how to care for livestock, how to build an oven for baking, what plants would provide a natural fertilizer for their crops without costing money they didn’t have.

Not only did we hear, but we saw the areas that are the models for what any Kenyan can do to provide for his or her family if they receive the training and then implement it at their own property: double-dug gardens, fish ponds with tilapia growing in them, the oven they can build, the broad variety of vegetables that can be raised, even growing them in a vertical garden if their space is very limited.

The next part of our morning was touring the new orphanage and the wonderful home-like atmosphere they have created for some 90+ orphans. There are four sets of house parents whom these children look upon as their true parents. Most of the house parents have biological children of their own, but each of the 21-24 additional children is treated as their own also. While most of these children were attending the new school facility also within the compound we were able to see the homes they live in, the dining areas and the administration building. Each of these buildings was designed to allow these orphans to remember their places of origin: round in design with the dining gazebos having the traditional thatched roofs, but all of them closely connected so they know they are family. Each sleeping hut has room for 12 in bunked bed, each bed made up each day by the child, and they were done neat as a pin with towel folded neatly awaiting the time of their daily shower. The children all have chore responsibilities for each day, and they are given ownership of their new home by caring for not only their bedrooms, but also the grounds outside.

The administration building houses the offices as well as a conference room and numerous bookshelves waiting to be filled with books that the children and parents can check out for reading pleasure and study. Again, all was neatly in order and very clean.

We divided into two groups in order to go and share lunchtime with the children who come home from school to eat in the two gazebos. It was a wonderful time of hugging these young boys and girls who are so eager to share love with us. So many smiling faces and eager minds to learn about who we are and where we come from. We were invited back for their evening devotions time so we could share a Bible story with them as well as sing with them and listen to their wonderful African songs. What a delight!

Part of the team drove back to Eldoret to pick up the other half of our luggage and action-packers (the plastic boxes we packed all the tools, crafts, sewing machines, materials, etc. in that we brought along), and all were retrieved but one. We have yet to see if that one will arrive safe and sound. Some of the team members were relieved to see that their luggage arrived so they wouldn’t have to wear their same clothes a third day. It helps us all realize that some things aren’t quite as important as we think they are; we do survive without them, but getting them was a blessing anyway.

Once again the Lord allowed the boxes/bags to pass through customs with hardly a hitch. Our night of arrival they waved us through without asking to see a thing in Nairobi, while this time they wanted to check them all, but a call was made and whoever took the call said the right words and they were passed through. Thank you Lord!

Our cook Joel (Jo-el) is doing a wonderful job at each meal and we are truly appreciative of his skills in the kitchen. We also had a birthday cake for team leader, Bob Booth, this evening, and that was a treat to have cake. Amy Rogers was especially glad it was chocolate. We ended our day with singing praises to the Lord, being led by another of the house parents, Dorcas and Nelson. It is wonderful for all of us to get to know these people who have such large hearts of love for these children.

Some of the team still deal with the effects of jet lag, so we hope everyone will get a good night of rest. The huts are so comfortable for us, and the rest will have us in good shape for another day of being with some of the children, the men preparing their action-packers for leaving for Tanzania on Monday morning, doing some home visits and getting organized for the week ahead of us.

We all feel so blessed to be here (again), to share in the work that God is doing in this part of Kenya and Tanzania, and to make memories we’ll hold dear for a lifetime.

Good night to you all.