God Willing, I Return

Yesterday was hard.

It was our last day at the BCC. The kids were taking their mid-term exams, so it didn't make too much sense to linger the entire day when we couldn't spend it with them and make the goodbyes that much harder. So we went with the band-aid mentality: Rip it off fast so it doesn't hurt too bad.  But it still hurt.  A lot.

We started off at the kitchen, as the staff requested. We went in to say hey and let them know we were around. "D" got teary-eyed, and we all started getting weepy, so we promised to come back around and take tea with them before we left.  We said goodbye to the Buckner/BCC staff and gave them small gifts, stopped into our respective classrooms to tell the kids goodbye and how very much they are loved and prayed for, then went by the medical clinic. The woman that runs it has absolutely fallen in love with Kenda (she is headed to pharmacy school, so worked there on Thursdays). She is about to have a baby at any moment now and has told us that she is trying to come up with a name with all of our initials in it because if it is a girl she wants to name her after us - Whaaaaaat?!?! Crazy! I truly think God only knows the outcome of our stay - He has worked in so many big ways, quiet ways, and unknown ways.

At this point in our day, we are miserable. Our hearts are breaking and we do not want to leave. We went to say goodbye to the T.E.C. girls. This goodbye and the goodbye to the kitchen staff were the ones we anticipated to be the hardest. But - again, the T.E.C. girls surprised us.  As soon as we walked in, they greeted us with smiles, hugs, and pure excitement. They had finished our skirts. They had worked all last week on making us each a skirt from some of the fabric we brought them. We tried them on and had a mini fashion show for them. They were delighted that we LOVED them and ensured them that every time we wore them, we would remember them and pray for them.  We spent some time taking photos with all of the girls and the instructors and hearing so much laughter and seeing beautiful smiles on these young women we have come to love so. We left, saying goodbye, but with much lighter hearts.

That classroom is where God had intended us to be - it was obvious. We love those girls; they love us. Each one told us that they are praying that we will be able to return - God willing. A few of them seemed certain of the fact that God has a place for us in Kenya. And it's pretty hard for me to argue with them.

We trekked back up to the kitchen to spend some time with the staff there.  When we walked in, it was the quietest I had ever heard that kitchen.  There was no singing, no dancing or laughing. It was somber; quite unlike them.  The air was heavy with the acknowledgment that we were leaving.  "D", in true form, made us plates of omelets, ugali, and cabbage. And of course, he made us tea. We gave our gifts to the staff, took photos, and said pretty tearful goodbyes. The sweet "Mom" of the kitchen, let us know that she will miss us everyday, "A" hugged us so hard and told me that he wants to come to the U.S. more than ever now, and "D" just wiped the tears off my face and laughed - even though he had tears of his own.

I do hope that I will be able to return some day.  Buckner's work in this country is amazing, and makes me desire even more to partner with them in ministering to these beautiful, beloved people.  God willing.

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Last night, to try to cheer us up, we had an exotic dinner at Carnivore - a restaurant in Nairobi. We ate camel, ostrich, and crocodile! oh my.


Today, our in-country Buckner contact took us to visit other ministries Buckner supports in Nairobi - we visited a school in the Korogocho slum and the New Life Home Trust - a baby rescue home that particularly serves abandoned babies that are HIV positive.

The New Life Home Trust was amazing. It was heartwrenching to hear the statistics surrounding the children they receive, but at the same time, encouraging.  It was incredible to see the Lord's hand in this ministry.  90% of the babies they receive that test HIV positive at birth, become HIV negative before their second birthday as a result of the incredible care given to them.  We saw pictures of babies that were severely malnourished when they arrived, then looking happy and healthy just weeks after being at New Life.  A vast majority of the babies that come through New Life are eventually adopted! Yay adoption!  I asked about the number of babies adopted domestically vs. internationally.  The staff member told me that historically it ran about 20% for Kenyan families that adopted and 80% foreign families. She told me that the Kenyan peoples' hearts are started to be stirred toward their own country's needs and this past year is was 50-50! She told me she prays that in the years to come that 80% of the adoptions would be in-country.

After touring the facilities, we were allowed to feed the babies/play with them for a while.  I was assigned to the crawlers/toddlers. What precious, precious children! When I entered the playroom, I had a little one attach himself to my leg! Oh, my heart!  We ended up getting to take them outside for play time and we had so much fun loving on these babies.  I am happy to say that there were many volunteers at the Home and the babies were very much cared for and content.  I have a feeling that one of these precious children belong to my family in the years to come. =)

It has been an emotional ending to our stay here in Kenya, but a satisfying one. To God be the glory for anything accomplished while we were here.

The next two days will be strictly fun - a blessing from Buckner before we leave. We are going on a safari! Whoop!  We leave tomorrow and will return on Thursday. I will try to blog about it on Friday.  Then, Friday night we start the journey back home!

So please pray for us as we travel, come home, then make the adjustments of returning.

God willing, I will return to Kenya. A piece of my heart will be here forever.

Kissing Giraffes and Kazuri

A more light-hearted post today!

Today was our day of rest, or as it has been rechristened by Melody - our "day of adventure"! Our driver had tried to so hard to make it possible to take us somewhere to ride a camel, but that hasn't happened. Instead, we did something WAYYYY cooler!

We kissed giraffes =)

This morning, we drove to a smaller town just outside of Nairobi called Karen. It is named after Karen Blixen (the author of Out of Africa), as it is where she resided and because of the great impact she had on the Kenyan people.  In fact, her estate remains and has been converted into a museum.

Anyway, we went to the Giraffe Center (www.giraffecenter.org). The Giraffe Center was a sanctuary established to save the endangered Rothschild Giraffe. I loved it because it wasn't like a zoo - the giraffes have over 100 acres to roam and live.  They have a building that sits on the edge of the sanctuary where you can stand and feed the giraffes pellets - they are so friendly and love you if you have treats in your hand. Apparently, it is the thing here to "kiss" a giraffe - hold a pellet between your lips and let the giraffe grab it.  Haha - we had way too much fun taking photos and treating the animals.  A man from the Giraffe Center gave us pellets and was great about letting us have all the time we wanted with the gorgeous creatures; he even suggested photo-ops and took one of our group for us. Soooo much fun!

After the Giraffe Center, we visited the Kazuri bead factory and shop. I had heard of Kazuri before coming to Kenya and saw the sign on our way to the Giraffe Center, so we went on a whim.

It was incredible!! You can see some of the beautiful work on their website and read about their story:  www.kazuri.com

Some info about Kazuri:

Kazuri is a Swahili word meaning "small and beautiful".

Mission:
The mission of Kazuri is to provide and sustain employment opportunities for disadvantaged members of Kenyan society.
In order to achieve this we must produce top quality hand-made and hand-painted ceramic jewelery and pottery. This will ensure that we are well equipped to compete in both the international and local market place. The Kazuri workshop in Karen employs over 340 women, mostly single mothers.
It is equipped with a clinic, providing free medical care for the employees and their immediate families. Kazuri also absorbs 80% of medical bills for treatment received outside the factory clinic.
In the developing world of today’s Africa, the greatest contribution we can make is to create employment, especially for the disadvantaged and this remains our guiding philosophy. The result is reflected in the strength of the Kazuri Family and the beauty of our products.

The updated number is that Kazuri employs over 400 women, mostly single mothers. We were touched by their story and their mission to not only create livelihoods for these women, but also provide them with health care.  We were able to tour the factory and speak with some of the women as they made the beads and pottery. Their handiwork is beautiful and they seem very proud of the product that they make. They were so kind to allow us to take pictures as we saw each step of the process. This company's story and membership with the World Fair Trade Organization made me eager to support them.  (Kazuri also is a big supporter of a local Children's Home.)  Each bead  they create is stunning not only because it is one-of-a-kind, but also because of the mission behind them.

It was a great, relaxing day - but now we are ready to spend the rest of the evening preparing for VBS at the BCC tomorrow. (Our last Saturday.) I think the kids will love it - our focus is on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and we will be making friendship bracelets for the kids to have.

Please continue to pray for:

• The logistics of possibly setting up a scholarship fund for the T.E.C. center
• Our team - health, spiritual strength
• Relationships that have been built
• VBS tomorrow
• Church on Sunday
• Monday - our "goodbye" day at the BCC. This is going to be a hard, hard day.
• The country/government of Kenya - there are some difficult struggles in trying to create their constitution
• Our families - I know they miss us, and us them! Pray especially for our Dads - Father's day is Sunday. Being here reminds me over and over again how blessed I am to have a father that is faithful in showing me my Heavenly Father. So many of these kids don't have that.   Daddy - I love you. Thank you for being the very best father to me and loving me enough to show me Christ. And for loving Christ more than me, and supporting where He leads me.

Love ,T

Proverbs 31:13

Who knew a few meters of fabric could mean so much?

On our day off on Friday, we went back to the Maasai market with the intent of buying fabric to take to the girls in the T.E.C. program.  We found some beautiful fabrics for very good prices and as a team bought 24 4-meter bundles of fabric.  On Monday, we took the fabric to the instructor at the T.E.C. center. When we started pulling fabric out of our bags, she looked shocked. A few of the girls had immediately asked if they could make us skirts, so we each picked out the fabric we would like and they measured us.  We visited with them a while, then went on to our respective assignments for the day.  Melody and Kenda would go back to the T.E.C. center on Tuesday, then Delaney and I on Wednesday.

Tuesday afternoon, Kenda and Melody came into the kitchen where I was working with tears in their eyes.  Kenda told me how the instructor had told her over and over how grateful they were for our gift. She told Kenda that we brought enough fabric for each girl to make a dress, and that she was going to use the scraps left over from making our skirts to make herself a skirt. It didn't matter to her that all of our fabrics were wildly different and did not match. She said that every time we wore it, she would remember us and praise God for us. I teared up just hearing Kenda's account of their conversation.

Then today...Oh, today.

On Wednesdays, the girls in the program spend the afternoon in Bible study. Last week, the instructor asked Delaney and I to lead it, and we led it again today. We were able to spend all morning with the girls just talking and watching them sew. Then, after lunch, we led them in the Bible study. 

We talked about counting the cost of following Christ, and discussed how we can give to Him our talents and skills, time, resources.  When we were finished worshipping, discussing, and praying, every single girl stood up and addressed Delaney and me.  They told us how they had prayed for someone to come and spend time with them and they had prayed for fabric. They thanked us for coming, for being their friends, giving them such a gift, and sharing the Word with them. They prayed blessings over us, our families, and our country. They told us they desired that God would enlarge our territory for Him and continue to bless everything we place our hands on. They spoke of their deep love for our families, even though they have never met them, because they allowed us to come to them. They promised to pray for us often, and asked that we would pray for them.

The instructor told us that even the morning we brought her the fabric, she had prayed for fabric. That she hated that the girls had to sew paper bags - she wanted more for them and couldn't afford to supply it herself. She said that when she went home that evening and spread out all the fabric, she wept and thanked God for us - that He had sent us as a blessing. She told us we had changed their lives, not just by purchasing fabric, but showing them friendship and making them feel worthy of being loved. She encouraged us to ask God why He sent us to their classroom. She said she knew it was just a small step - that our Lord has big things for each of us. That she loved us and would never forget our faces.

I didn't just tear up. I didn't just cry. I bawled. These women have been such a blessing to me.

Their encouraging words, simple faith, and complete adoration of our Lord is staggering. Oh, God - that I would be content with little. That I would rejoice in You always and acknowledge every good thing in my life as a direct gift from You - because it is!
   
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." James 1:17


I am so honored to call these women my sisters in Christ. I love my Kenyan family and know I will leave a large chunk of my heart here with them.


Please pray for:

• More donations to the T.E.C. center for fabric and scholarships for the girls that cannot afford to come, or continue to come
• The Buckner staff
• The kitchen crew =) We love them so much. They have been so good to us and I think are already dreading us leaving - they have made us a "special treat" every day this week!
• the kids living at the BCC
• the other children going to the school that live in the slums. The only time they hear the Word of God may very likely be at the BCC school.
• More financial support to the BCC - they need books, and materials for the classrooms
• Our team's continued health and strength. I felt pretty crummy for the first time this morning, but praise God, it hasn't lasted.
• That the words coming from our mouths would be God-breathed and truth. That they would land on receptive hearts.
• Rest - we've been especially tired this week.