Team Iowa: Trusting God

Habari? Hello, this is Stephanie. We are nearing the end of our journey in Kenya and so far everything has been fantastic. Being surrounded by the beautiful nature of Kenya reminds me of God's wonders and inspires me to give thanks. The people here are so kind and they love God so much. I have learned a great deal from them about what it means to be a servant, have faith, trust in God, and praise God in all circumstances.

Today we started off the day by attending the church service here. It was a great service held in the dining hall. We sang songs of praise to God, watched the children sing and dance, and listened to the sermon in English and Swahili. At the end of the service, everybody goes outside and you form a line to greet everybody. We ate lunch and then had a few hours to ourselves to relax.

At 3:00, Danette, Adele, Jennifer, Nan, Andrea, and I went to visit some children that lived down the street. We walked for about 10 minutes along the dirt road to get to their house. We arrived and Joanne, who is 9 years old and the oldest, ran out to meet us and give us hugs. There are 4 children who live in the very small house made out of wooden planks. Their mother does not live with them anymore and their father works all day, so they are home alone. Joanne runs the household. She fetches the water, feeds the other children, cleans them, and clothes them. The children all used to have hundreds of jiggers, but Adele has been going to their house and taking them out. She also brings the children food and clothes to help take care of them.

When we got to their house today, they took off their shoes and socks because they knew they had more jiggers and they wanted Adele to take them out. The process looks terribly painful, but they made it through. They are very strong children and they love God. It was so heart breaking to see the way they live. Their living conditions are terrible, no child should have to live like that. But the thing is, they have hope because they believe in Jesus.

While Adele was working on the other children, Joanne was singing "God is so good". This was incredible to me. Here's this little girl, who doesn't have parents that really take care of her, who has to step up and take care of her siblings, whose life looks hopeless, yet she has this unshakable trust in God. I can only hope that one day I can grow to have as much trust and faith in God that she has. They were so happy to see us. After 3 hours of work, their feet had been almost completely ridden of jiggers once more. Andrea and I played with the other 3 children while they waited to have their feet worked on. They had so much fun with us. Often they just wanted to hug us, or hold or hand, or have us rub their back; they just wanted to be loved.

That was the main event of our day. After that, some of us went to the children's devotions at the orphanage. After dinner, the adults had somewhat of a goodbye ceremony for us (which I skipped because I wanted to go spend more time with the children).

The trip has been wonderful so far, and I've learned so much. I can't wait for the safari tomorrow, but I'm going to miss the children here. The children and I send greetings to all my friends and family at home. I brought pictures of my life, and they asked so many questions. They probably know all your names by now. I can't wait to see you all again!

Stephanie