Our last few days in Kenya were some of the craziest and best days of my life. Its not often that we are given the opportunity in life to see amazing things happen and lives truly change, at least not in my everyday life, and its always when you don't really expect it. And thats what happened in our last days in Kenya and it was incredible and blessed and other words that are beyond my limited vocabulary (man, my friend Paul would know exactly what word to use here).
Anyway, one of the tasks that Katie and I had at the Children's Home was to update the biographies on the kids in the program. During that process we found that some of the kids who don’t live in the home yet, because there aren’t enough beds there, don’t have the best living situations. Some of them walk very far to get home, often in the rain this time of year, and some do not have the best home situations, especially for studying. So we began to work with the staff there and figured out a way to get more bunk beds into the home and the cost and which kids could move in next. A huge blessing was that The Chapel Children’s Ministry (TGA) had already raised a bunch of money for the bunk beds for Dorm buy over Christmas and it was just sitting there waiting to be used for when Dorm 2 opened. So since Dorm 2 is not opening quite yet, Oasis said we could buy a few of the beds early with that money. We then went on the find vendors, do some bartering (so glad I was with Kenyans for this), and figure out all that was needed. After a couple weeks of planning and finding trustworthy vendors and talking to the guardians of all the kids we wanted to move in, the big moving day arrived. With the money sent for the beds, and after some negotiating, we were not only able to buy bunk beds but some other much needed items for the kids currently living in the home. We were able to buy 4 bunk beds, 32 new mattresses, 35 new sheet sets, 26 blankets, 70 wash tubs, 60 plates, 50 cups, 73 spoons, and some sodas to celebrate the occasion. And man oh man did we celebrate. There was dancing and sodas and singing and the happiest kids you’ve ever seen.
So Katie and I spent our final day in Kenya picking up, delivering, and then giving, thanks to a lot of generous donations, 70 orphans new bedding and other goods (you would have thought we gave them a bar of gold when we told them they each got their own wash tubs). The most miraculous and humbling thing we got to experience though was watching 9 new kids move into that precious home. I wish I could describe the look on these kids’ faces when they came into that home, and for the first time knew that it was now their home. It was a type of joy I have never seen in anyone before. And then to see that they were welcomed with such prayer and celebration by their friends, and now their brothers and sisters, gave me the type of joy I’ve never had before. I know I sound like a big sap but it was one of those other-wordly God moments that you never forget. We take for granted so much, like light to study by at night or being close to our schools/work, and when you see people who don’t have those things suddenly be blessed with them, its just amazing. It was crazy, stressful, exciting, and overall incredible being a part of that community during this time, and honestly that day before we left Kenya was one of the best of my life.
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