My Final Days with Missions of Hope

It is hard to believe that I have already been in Nairobi for two months. My time here has been very fruitful and I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to come as an apprentice to Nairobi, Kenya and work with CMF (Christian Missionary Fellowship) and MOHI (Missions of Hope International). My flight leaves today at 11:10 PM (4:10 PM EST) and will land on Dulas on Friday afternoon. As I am excited to come home and share with you my experiences and see my friends and family again I can already tell that it is going to be so hard to leave the Kamau family, apprentices (Erin & Bethany), the MOHI staff and students.

Last week I took my favorite photos that the students took with the disposable cameras to be printed as 8"x10" and framed. On monday they I received a large cardboard box that contained about 40 completed photos mounted in the frames ready and to display. I worked all day hanging the frames in the boardroom in Pangani. Everyone that came in to look at the photos while I was hanging seemed shocked when they found out that the students took the photos and not a photographer. I was very pleased with the way the walls turned out. The room has totally been transformed.

I also had the opportunity to design a logo for the Joska boarding school to be made into a sign out front and to be used on their letterhead. It was cool that I was able to use my design abilities to help out MOHI. You can check out their new logo below.

Edwin and Brian's Birthday Party

Last month I was so excited to find out that my sponsored child was going to have his birthday while I was in Kenya. So, I thought it would be fun to throw a party for Edwin and his twin brother Brian. Earlier this week I connected with the Kosovo social worker, Charity, to help me organize the cakes, presents and the visit to their classes.

This afternoon I walked with Charity with the two cakes and presents thru the slums to visit the Kosovo center. Once their I went into Edwin's class to cut the cake, sing happy birthday a gave him his gifts. Then we visited his brothers class to do the same. Both got a new pair of school shoes and socks, and hand knit hats (Thanks Mackenzie and Aunt Marilyn). It was such a blessing to have the opportunity to celebrate their 13th birthday with them and to be able to visit their home. It is always a good day when you are able to give to the less fortunate and know that you have made a difference in their families lives.

My days in Joska

This week MCC's short term missions team did VBS (Vacation Bible School) at the Pangani Center for the little kids and also did CHE (Community Health Evangelism) thru home visits. I was asked to help document the festivities thru photography. The kids had so much fun doing crafts, playing games, learning about the lord, how to stay healthy and watching puppet shows.

Before coming to Kenya I had come up with the idea of painting murals on one or more of the centers walls. I recently found out that MOHI only owns a few of their centers (most are rented) which narrowed it down to Pangani and Joska. Pangani already has a lot of murals painted on the exterior of the building so I thought it would be fun to paint the murals in the dorms of the boarding school (classed 5-8).

The middle of last week I went shopping for the paint and left on saturday morning for my hour ride to the Joska center. The staff and students were very excited to hear that they will be helping me paint a picture of an Acacia tree during sunset. I asked the head teacher to find me 4 artistic students to be my helpers. After we painted the sky, ground, and tree trunk, branches and scripture verse we had all the students from classes 7 & 8 come to put their hand prints on the wall to make the leafs. It ended up taking a little 4 days to complete the project but it was well worth it.

While at Joska I was also able to worship with the pupils in their chapel and our MCC short term missions team. It was such a blessing to be able to worship the Lord with them.

If you would like to see more photos check out my facebook photo album.

VBS Week

This weekend I went to the airport with Wallace to pick up the short term missions team from Mountain. The main purpose of their time in Nairobi is to run a VBS program at MOHI while the students are on break from school. Over the last two days I had the pleasure to take photos of their time with the kids. The team has prepared puppet shows, crafts, bible lessons, games and snack stations for the students to rotate thru. It was really cool to see all of their creative ideas over the past two days. The kids seems like the pupils were learning a lot and having a ton of fun.

Yesterday I dropped off the disposable cameras to the photo store to be developed, digitized and put on CD. I will be picking up the CD's tomorrow morning and can't wait to load them on my computer to see what images they were able to capture. I am really excited to see how they turned out.

Made in the Streets

This weekend I realized how amazing God is through His beautiful creations in the Masai Mara. You can see his hand when looking at the sunrise, lions, mountains, zebras, birds, buffalo, and even through the ugly wildebeest. If you know me well then you probably already guessed that I took over 500 photographs of my safari experience. I put up a few of my favorites on my Facebook page. My favorite safari moment was seeing a lioness carrying her cub in her mouth and walking within feet of the front of our vehicle. Bwana Asifiwe!

This week is packed with projects. On monday the Pangani center was busy checking in Joska students from class 7 & 8 and getting them on buses to go back to Joska. Before they left I had the opportunity to see Benson (Mom and Dad's sponsored child) again and had the opportunity meet his grandmother.

On Tuesday Franklin, Lyn (Social Worker) and myself went to Bondeni to do some filming and got to see one of the homes he lived in for 2 months while in the "Made in the Streets" program. We also filmed him telling about his childhood and living on the streets.

Today I had the opportunity to film Franking in Eastleigh, the place he lived while on the streets. It was really eye opening meeting his street friends that live under a tree with clothing hanging in the branches. I even walked on the dirt streets that he walked every day selling drugs, and living life. It was incredible to see the difference between Franklin and his street friends. When we walked up they were sleeping on the side of the road under a tree. Their clothes were dirty and tattered and I could tell they were high on drugs and didn't look like they had much to live for. Franklin on the other hand was clean, wearing new clothes, is off drugs, and has a future ahead of him. While sitting with his friends Franklin told me, "I would like my friends to get out of the streets, for God to help them, and for them to return to their homes." It has been truly a blessing to get to know Franklin's story and I hope it touches the hearts of many.

(Franklin with his street friends under their tree)

(A street kid, about 13 years old, high on glue, trying to hold a conversation with Franklin.)

After we returned from filming I meet with students from various classes to start phase 1 of my student photo project. In short, I handed out 49 disposable cameras and gave them detailed instructions on how to use them, how to take good photos, and that I wanted them to take 10 photos of things they see or do on a daily basis in the Mathare slums. I will be doing this 3 times before getting the photos developed. This will give 147 students the opportunity to be creative thru the art of photography. Out of 1,750 photos I will choose the best of the best and make an art gallery in one of the rooms of the center. This will be MOHI's first student art show! I am really excited to see what shots the kids take.

Meeting Franklin

CMF (Christian Missionary Fellowship), www.cmfi.org, asked me if I could help them with a pending video project that they are trying to make to show to Youth Group student across the USA. It will be focusing on helping kids in the slums that have been effected by HIV and how the student can help. Keith Ham and I sat down yesterday to nail down a plan on how we were going to execute this 3 part video series. During this meeting Keith told me about a by the name of Franklin and how he was found on the streets and has been in MOHI (Missions of Hope International) Joska Center in class 7 for 2 months now. We decided to use his life story to portray the life of a typical orphaned teens with HIV and how MOHI has helped change his life.

After talking with Keith about the project I went down to the Social Work office to talk to Lynn. With her help I was able to meet up with Franklin this morning to get to know him better and to hear his life story. As he was telling me about his childhood my heart felt heavy for this young 14 year old boy. I can't even imagine how hard it must be to grow up in the slums as an orphan and finding out from doctors that you have HIV at the age of 7. I start filming Franklin tomorrow morning around 10:00 AM in the Mathare slums. I will try to post some photos of him in a later post.

Keith and I were trying to come up with a good title for this video series. So far we haven't come up with anything we like. I am looking for something short, sweet & would catch the attention of teenagers. I know that some of you can be very creative so I am asking for you to put on your thinking cap and try to come up with a title option. Who knows you may come up with a title that we think would be fantastic for the short film series. So, if you would like to submit a title option please comment on this blog post and make sure that you include your title option and your first and last name. I can't wait to read the title that you come up with.

Please be pray for:

• God to be with Franklin through the filming process.
• Help Franklin to be able to clearly portray his life in a way that will inspire students in the US so we can help others with similar lives.
• Give me a clear vision of what needs to be filmed to help visually portray life in the slums.
• God to be with me as I try to film Franklin's story in a way that will help students have a better understanding of what life is like in the slums as an orphaned child.
• Help me as I guide Franklin through the filming process.

The Weekend

On Friday all 6 apprentices (Meredith, Luisa, Bethany, Erin, David & I) were invited over to Doug and Jennifer Kurz's House to spend the night. We arrived at their home at about 6:00 PM and had a great time hanging out, eating a home cooked american meal, watching movies, and sleeping. In the morning they cooked us a pancake breakfast. YUMMY! After with breakfast it was time to head over to the Pangani Center for the Talent Show/Music Festival. I was in charge of trying to make sure that we video tape as much of the event as possible.

The festivities started at 10:00 AM and the award ceremony ended around 7:00 PM. Their were activities going on in 3 different rooms.

So I got a good workout running from the first location on the Ground floor to the second location on the 1 first floor to the third location on the 4th floor all day long. :) I am continually amazed on how many God given talents these students have been given. It was so amazing to have students from all 10 centers competing against each other. It is a rare occasion for all the schools to be together in one building. They were singing, dancing, reciting poems, rapping, doing spelling bees, and cultural dances. I told you a few weeks ago that I had fun watching Huruma practicing their talents and how I thought they were going to do good in the competition. Yesterday, the judges awarded Huruma the best in show trophy. I was spot on!!!

I did find time to hang out with the students as they were preparing for their performances. For some reason I am a magnet for Joska kids. Maybe it is my magnetic personality and good looks or maybe it's because I had a nice digital camera hanging around my neck taking photos all day. I did become friends with one boy in particular that I kept running into thru-out the festivities. His name was Simon, he is 14 years old and goes to school in Joska and I believe is in class 7. He is a very gifted child and loves to sing in the Joska choir, play the drums, write music, sing, dance, play Football (american soccer), and his favorite subject is English class. During our lunch break we decided to have some fun and had a fun photo shoot with him, some friends and myself. It was so much fun getting to know these guys and can tell that they have a strong future ahead of them. Check out some of my favorite shots from this shoot.

Today was our day of rest, we went to church at the Pangani Center, went out to eat at the city market, and then came home to rest. Around 6:00 PM we had our normal group debrief time with Wallace, ate dinner (Mexican Monday was moved to Sunday this week) and then went back to relaxing. Around 10:30 PM I had an opportunity to catch up with my my brother, Tyler and his wonderful wife, Amy on Skype. It was so good to see/talk to them for the first time since I have been in Kenya. I have a fruitful week ahead of me and better head to bed.

Purity in Nairobi

What an awesome Wednesday! Yesterday was my fist day back working at the center since Easter. Because it is a short week I had a lot on my agenda of things to get done today.

I started off my day by filming Wallace in his office giving an update about Joska for Christ's Church of the Valley in PA. Wallace was the only person left to film to make this project complete. After lunch I was able to finish editing the film and am planning on sending the 6 minute video off to them tomorrow thru email. Technology is great!

After the filming was complete I went down to the social work department to go with Margaret Wairimu Ndungu to visit Purity Makena Kasunzu (a 9 year old girl in class 3 yellow). Purity is sponsored by Heather Lozada's 10th grade girls small group. So Margaret and I stopped by Purity's class and as soon as i walked in the door the student's greeted me as their guest, sang me songs and recited their memory verses. After we finished hanging out the kids in the class we followed Purity through the slums to visit with her mother at their home. Before we arrived at the house Purity greeted her mother at her general store. I greeted Mama Mercy and then we continued walking about a block to their 5 story cement housing complex. To be honest, I was quite surprised to find out that they weren't living in a tin structure like most people in the slums. God has truly blessed this family and has allowed her family to make enough money to rent a nicer house in the slums. Bwani asifiwe! (Praise the Lord!) Before entering the complex Mama Mercy insisted on buying us sodas! After climbing many steps and their small cement house was opened up I was able to sit on the sofa and have a great conversation with Purity and her Mother. I found out that the mother was not well educated so he speaks very little english and is so proud of her two daughters (Mercy (6th grade at Joska) and Purity) for pursuing their educations. Her husband left the family and divorced Mama Mercy. I had a great time getting to know this family and truly enjoyed their company. Purity is such a sweet young lady of God!

At one point on our conversation the mother told me (thru Margaret translating) that Purity wanted to go to the USA so she could meet the girls that sponsor her. The social told her that traveling to the US is very expensive and that they probably wouldn't be able to afford it. I then asked Purity if she thinks she could fit in my luggage so I could bring her to the US with me in May. She laughed and said "I'm sure I would fit." Then the mother asked me if the small group of girls would ever have a chance to come to Nairobi to visit their home. I reminded them how young their sponsors are but told her that maybe when they get older that they may be able to take the opportunity to come over and meet her family in person. I could tell that she feels truly bless by Purity's sponsors and has taken a huge burden off Mama's shoulders. Purity told me that she prays often for her sponsors and their families and loves them so much and thanks them for their support so she can get an education.

After hanging out in the house we all went to visit Mama Mercy's general store. She was able to open the store by taking out a loan thru Missions of Hope BDS program and Micro Enterprise weekly group training and meetings. She took out the loan for her buisness about a year ago and is now very close to paying it off. She sell's anything from Toilet Paper to snack food to the local community. Purity was really excited to introduce me to Pigron, her pet cat, that lives in the store. I could tell that she LOVES playing with the cat when her mom is at work.

Once we got back to the Pangani center is was about time for Lunch. After lunch I finished editing the video for Christ Church of the Valley in PA and took some photos for another church that helped put in a water treatment system so that the students could have pure water at the Pangani Center.

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!

Bwana Asifiwa (Praise God) for such a wonderful Easter weekend! Due to power surges this weekend and my busy schedule I have not been able to write a new post on my blog. Not sure where to start. So much as happened since my last post. Maybe I should just give a brief overview of what went over Easter weekend.

Saturday, April 3 -

This saturday was very typical for us. We use this day as a day of rest and relaxation. Getting to chill at the Kamau house is so nice after a long week working in the slums. For dinner the apprentices went to the food court at City Market. I got a dish call "chicken kabob" is was so delicious. It was chicken and veggies on skewers with fries on the side and a Sprite. Soda's take so much better here then a home. Mainly because they use real sugar in the sodas here.

Sunday, April 4 -

We were asked to be guests at a church down the road from the Kamau's house. The seats are filled mainly by young ladies that attend a near by high school. We were asked to have two of the girl apprentices give a short testimony and then wanted all of us to read Luke 22-24 and sing them an american worship song. Everything went well except when we got to the low note in our song some of us started laughing and couldn't stop. It was so embarrassing but they seemed to be blessed by our bad singing. It would have sounded much better if God gifted us in singing. It would have make it so much easier. Either way we had fun. After lunch we had the pleasure of driving "up country" to visit Wallace's Mama's house. It was about an hour drive thru gorgeous mountain ranges. Once we got their we realized that it was to muddy to drive thru the dirt driveway to we ended up walking about a half mile thru the mud to get to the house. It was so much fun! We were laughing most of the way to the house, mainly because some of the girls were wearing flip flops and they kept falling off so they ended up walking barefoot thru the mud. We had a wonderful meal, and was truly blessed by the entire experience. My shoes on the other hand needed a throw washing and are still drying on the balcony.

Monday, April 5 -

Mary invited all of the neighborhood girls (about 17 total) over for a one day relationship seminar. The female apprentices helped Mary facilitate the group while David and I had the pleasure of preparing the meals for the day. At 10:30 AM we served tea, bead & popcorn. At 1:30 PM we served sloppy joes, cabbage & cheese curls to 25 people. Then for dinner we had about 35-40 guest over for Mexican Monday. For this we prepared our own taco bar which means everything is home made including the flower taco shells. We had so much fun cooking for everyone. After dinner we had a family talent show. The show didn't end until about 11:00 PM. It was such a blast. There were jokes, dances, songs, poems, skits, oh and did I mention dancing. So, Brandon, what was your talent? Thanks for asking! I hypnotized one of the neighbors "boiling" hens for my talent. Everyone was amazed when the chicken was snoring on the floor. We even closed out the evening with a dance party and a 40 person conga line that danced around the house. Good times were had by all!

Going Up Country

Mary's father called all of his children to ask them to come "up country" for an Easter family gathering. Evidently the term "up country" is a relative term. It means that you are traveling to visit family somewhere outside of your home town. It's even considered "up country" when traveling south.

So yesterday we had the pleasure of going to visit Nyeri, Kenya to see the farm where Mary Kamau grew up and to meet her large family. It was so nice to be able to eat, socialize, relax, hear a short sermon, see Mount Kenya and hang out in the beautiful country side. It was such a blessing to be able to take part in this family event.

Check out some of the photos from our day in Nyeri...

Mary's Childhood Home

3 generations of beautiful women

Left to Right: Meredith Roberts, Erin Titus, Bethany Ziegler, Luisa Fairfax, Brandon Adams, Peter Githingi Mwangi (Mary's brother) & David Freeze

"1...2...3...WOW!"

What a day. Today I continued working on filming for the CCV video update by going to Bondeni, Mathare North and Joska. The kids (as always) were very good to work with and had fun preforming for the camera. I still have a few more centers to to visit after Easter break (Friday - Monday). It is going to be so nice to have a long weekend.

While at Joska was able to hang out with my parents sponsored child Benson and Carrie Tyson-Sheffy's sponsored child Rosemary. Both of them are 13 years old and are doing great academically. They seemed really excited to hear from their sponsors and was excited about the gifts.

Tomorrow our household and some of the other missionaries will be going "up country" to visit with some Kamau relatives. The plan is to be back home before dinner time tomorrow night. It sounds like a ton of fun and can't wait so see more of Kenya.

Power Failures

Due to the nightly heavy rains the power has been off and on at the Kamau house for the last 3 days. Because of this I was unable to write on my blog.

The past 3 days have been great! On Monday morning I worked in the skills department with Meredith and Luisa. I was helping take photograph of their hand made products to be used on a website to promote their merchandise. I also had the opportunity to meet up with Heather Lozada's small groups sponsored child Purity during her lunch break. It took her a while to warm up to me but I eventually got her to have a short conversation with me. She is such a beautiful young lady of God and has grown a lot since I saw her. Unfortunately this week the students had their exams so I didn't have time to take a photo of her. I will be going to her house next Tuesday to meet her family and promised her sponsors I would document it for them. After lunch I starting planning for a video that CMF asked me to work on for them to help advertise to middle school and high school student about orphaned children due to HIV/AIDS.

On Tuesday I walked to Kosovo with Charity from social work to visit my sponsored child Edwin Watulo Wanyonyi. He is a 13 year old boy that is currently in class 1. Currently Edwin is #6 in his class and loves math, enjoys soccer and would like to become a Pilot. He loves in the slums with his Mother and Father (Irene and Robert) and his twin brother Brian. Irene sells vegetables and Robert is a painter. After meeting him at the school office I walked with him to his house but unfortunately is mother had just left for work moments before we got there. So I promised him that I would come back sometime soon to meet his twin brother and parents and to see the inside of his house. Edwins birthday is May 1st so I am hoping to have the opportunity to visit him on that day as well.

Today I worked on starting a video for CCV (Christ Church of the Valley) in PA. Doing an update for them on there congregations sponsored children and Joska. I will tell you more about that project later on.

On Friday I went back to the Micro Enterprise department. This time I got to go with Joseph to visit the Bondeni Center for 2 group meetings. The group meetings today were very similar to meetings with Verginiah the day before. The first group was well established and was doing great at paying over and above what was expected and the second group was brand new and had not been meeting for very long and was still working on there savings and training. Because the second group was small and was just getting their feet wet in the program I was encouraged by Joseph to encourage this small group of single women. I really liked the question he asked me t before I started talking to the group. "Brandon, if you came back in 5 years and visited this group what would you expect them to have done from now to then?" I responded something to the effect of: I expect that in 5 years these ladies will have gotten married, started their own businesses, be stronger christians, paid off the group loan, had a healthy family, and would be working towards purchasing land and moving their families out of the slums. The group was very encouraged by these words and seemed very excited about what the future could hold for them.

After the meetings were over Joseph and I walked back to Pangani and visited some of his business clients along the way. One of his clients owned a hotel, another started a billiard room, another opened a grain and bean market. We were going to visit more but he and I were both not feeling very good and was feeling worse and worse the further we walked. I had a really bad upset stomach and he had flu like symptoms. Once we got back to the Pangani center we both went to get medication from the clinic on the ground floor. Don't worry I am feeling much better today. It's amazing what a little rest and medication can do for the body. I am just glad got sick on Friday so that I had the weekend to recover.

While writing this I am sitting on my bed feeling the cool evening breeze on my face and listening to the rain pitter pattering on the ground outside my window. It rained most of the night yesterday and again tonight. As I listen to the rain I am thinking about those who live in the Mathare slums. I'm praying that their homes will not flood...that they won't get sick from the standing water...that God will keep them safe and dry... and that the hot sun will dry the land tomorrow.

I had the pleasure of working with the Micro Enterprise department today by shadowing Virginiah Kamau. While there I learned about how their loan process works and how they train people that live in the slums a traid and how to start there own business. After they fill out an application and are accepted into the program they are placed into a group. They currently have about 35 groups with about 10-25 members in each group.

I had the opportunity to sit in on group meetings for Matunda (Fruits) which as 10 members and Kupendana (Loving One Another) which as 24 members. We were only able to make the tail end of Matudas meeting. This group was formed this month and is still in the early stages of getting their loan. This means as a group they have to save 30% of the loan amount before Missions of Hope can give them the loan.

Kupendana on the other hand has been together for 4 years now and is doing very well. It was very interesting to sit thru the meeting. Most of there time together was spent collecting money to be put in the bank to pay back their load and marking in the books who gave what amounts. But after that they started a discussion amongst the group in swahili. I could tell by their tone that this was a very serious conversation but wasn't sure what they were talking about. After a few minutes Verginiah realized that I was left in the dark and filled me in on what was going on. She told me that Kupendana was interested in taking out another loan so that they can purchase a plot of land outside of the slums and divide the land equally amongst the group so that they can move out of the slums. The debate was evidentially on what plot of land they should purchase. I later found out that early next week they will be purchasing the plot and it will take several years before they will be able to build homes and move their families onto the property. At the end of the meeting I gave them words of encouragement, blessings and told them that they would be in my prayers. It was so good to see a group of people doing so well and trying their best to get out of there current living conditions.

Sorry that I didn't write a post yesterday, I got busy and completely forgot. Let me see if I can give a quick recap of the day... Meredith (another apprentice) and I worked with the social work department and shadowed Jane (pronounced Jan). We took a matatu to the Huruma Center and did a few home visits. But the highlight for the day was watching the kids of the in the school practicing for the Missions of Hope 1st annual Talent Show on April 10. I was amazed at how talented these young boys and girls were. I know that they do well in the competition. Below are some photos that I took while visiting the center. I also took a few videos but I promised the head master that I would not show anyone until after the competition so other centers won't steal their ideas. They are very serious about competitions in Kenya.

Social Work Department Day 1

The agenda for the day was help social worker Mary do home visits for students that are new to the Pangani school. The point of these first time visits was to make sure their family records were correct. This is so that CMF can keep the sponsors accurately updated on their students information.

Early this morning four 1st grade students meet down in the Social Work department in the Pangani Center. We then had the children take us to each of their houses one by one. At each home we sat down with the student and there parents (typically the Mom) and filled out two forms with them. Some of the questions on these forms subjects such as medical information, family tree, income, expenses, child's favorite sport, how the child behaves at home, what they want to be after they graduate college.

After we visited all 4 homes we walked back to the Pangani center to eat lunch. After lunch we met up with 4 students from grade 2 and went to visit their homes for the same purpose as the first group of students. But this group live in an area that was much worse then the first group that we took that morning. When in Nairobi you realize quickly that each family has their own unique testimony on how they got where they are today. It was very encouraging to hear parents say things to the social worker like, "My son has grown so much academically and spiritually since attending the Mission of Hope Pangani School." or "My daughter struggled so much keeping her grades up in her old school and now is excelling in your school program."

When doing home visits the families are always so welcoming to us a visitors. The students are very proud to show us where they live and to have us meet there family. To give you a better idea of living conditions in the Mathare slums... their houses are about 10' x 15' and are made out of corrugated metal, wood and cement. This small space normally includes a twin bed that sleeps 2 to 4 people, a small wooden chair/sofa, coffee table, and a few pots and pans for cooking and cleaning and and a few other small items. Some of the houses in the slums have just enough electric to run a light bulb or small TV but most of the houses have NO electricity and you can only see by the light coming from the door or a oil lamp.

The Education Department

This week I am continuing my orientation. This morning I meet up with Stanley Jumbe in the education department of Pangani. I had the opportunity to watch him teach levels 4 & 5 in math, science & Kiswahili. As a guest the students would greet me as I walked through their door. In unison the entire class would say, "Welcome to our classroom, we are so glad you came to visit us, how are you doing today?" and I would respond by saying "I am fine, how are you?" they would then answer and I would tell them my name is Brandon and they would say "Hello Brandon!"

I was amazed at how fast they were comprehending the new material that Stanley was teaching. They are all very smart kids and has a thirst for learning. At the end of each subject the teacher would "mark" the answers to the problems that students had completed in there workbooks. I took that time to walk around the room to talk with the students and answer any questions that they had for me. Some of the questions were quite intriguing/funny. Below is a list of my favorite questions:

• Who was the first US president? ...Was it George Bush?
• Are you married?
• Are you going to get married soon?
• Who was the second US president? ...Was it Obama?
• What is your favorite color?
• How long did it take you to get from Maryland to Kenya?
• How much did it cost to fly here from the US?
• Can you drive a car from Maryland to Nairobi?
• What is your favorite hobby?
• How long are you going to be in Kenya?

Kenyan children are just so precious. You never know what questions they are going to ask you.

Sunday Morning Church, the Kamau's and Baraka

This morning we (the Kamau's and all the apprentices) attended church at the Pangani center. Todays topic was about encouraging the congregation to go into their community and disciple to those around there homes. They also challenged everyone to invite at least one person to church and disciple them to become a Christ following and to also invite people to church. And if I can barrow a Ben Cachiaras quote, "Pangani is making it hard to go to HELL in Nairobi!" I forgot how cool it is to have two people giving the message. One speaking in Swahili and the other translating in English. Between the worship and the message it was a very powerful service. I'm looking forward to visiting more congregations in the upcoming weeks.

Last night I realized that in my blog post that I keep mentioning peoples names and some of you may not know who I am talking about.

Mary and Wallace Kamau - 10 years ago they started the "Missions of Hope International" organization. With in the last couple of years CMF (Christian Missionary Fellowship) has partnered with there ministry. They have 3 children: Faith (13), Victory (11) and David (3). The Kamau family is so amazing and they each glow with His presence in there lives. They have also have graciously expanded there family by opening up there home to Baraka and the 6 apprentices. It will be such an awesome experience to be living with them over the next two months.

Baraka - A 13 year old boy who grew up in the sprawling slums of Nairobi, Kenya. He had three strikes against him: He was poor; he was an orphan; and he was deaf but he was able to go to school at one of the Missions of Hope Schools and through a series of amazing connections of Christians, missionaries, teachers, pastors businessmen and doctors from 4 different countries they were able to supply Baraka with the gift of hearing a speech. (If you would like to learn more about Baraka's story click here. This is one out of the millions of stories of people in the slums.) He is now living at the Kamau house and attending school at the Pangani center. It has been so much fun getting to know him over the past week. He is such a fun, smart, and strong man of God and is learning more and more everyday.

I mentioned the other day that the Kamau children had fun playing with the Photo Booth on my laptop when we were in Mombasa. At the time the internet was being slow and would not let me upload photos or video to the post. So, for your viewing pleasure here is a video David Kamau (3 years old) singing a song with Victory Kamau and Baraka goofing off in the background. You can also check out my Facebook album to see some of the photos they took that night as well. It has been so much fun getting to know the personalities of each of their children.

Before I talk about my day let me fist say that I appreciate all the comments on my blog posts and Facebook status/photos. I enjoy reading each and every one and feel truly blessed to know that you are praying for all the good work that is happening in the Nairobi slums through Missions of Hope International and CMF. Please continue to pray for me, the other 5 apprentices, the missionaries, teachers and staff bring His light to a dark place.

This morning I woke up at 6:30 AM to get ready for a long day in the slums. I went downstairs and eat breakfast with the family (13 of us) wished Victory happy birthday and hopped in the van around 8 AM to go to the main office/Pangani Center. Today was my second day of orientation with the CHE (Community Heath Evangelism) department. This time I was shadowing Robert to the Baba Ndogo section of the slums. Because it is far from Pangani we had take a matatu there. Which is always an interesting experience.

Once we arrived in Baba Ndogo we visited several of the homes of people who have volunteered to be leaders of a CHE group in there village. Our job was to encourage and pray over those who have recently finished there training and are now trying to figure out what there community project is going to be. Most of the time these visits are fairly short (about 10 minutes) but today our last stop lasted about one and a half hours. Near the beginning of our visit she told us that they thought it would be good to open a nursery/daycare center so the mother could go to work during the day. By the end of our meeting she told us about her second idea which consisted of of using her sowing machine that she currently uses outside her home to mend clothing for the community to make mosquito nets and sell them to her neighbors to help prevent the spread of malaria. Both sound like great ideas of ways to help her fellow Kenyans and to spread the word of God's love. It is great to see God's hand working thru the people living in the slums change there own community.

After we were done with our visits we hopped (and I mean that literally) back on a matatu to head back to Pangani for lunch and worked at the center until it was time to leave at 3 PM to come home. As I told you earlier today Victory turned 11 years old so, for dinner we picked up several pizzas and a two of the apprentices baked him a chocolate cake with triple chocolate frosting and sprinkles on top. What a great end to a long week!

Around 6:30 last night we returned from our trip to Mombasa. It was a long and exhausting 9 hour drive but was well worth the trip. Some of the highlights of the trip was visiting Fort Jesus, touring Old Town, driving our van onto the ferry to cross the river, swimming in the pool and playing on the beach. The only downside was that Mombasa is extremely hot and humid. But the cool pool temperatures make up for the hot sun beating down on us. The Kamau children had fun one night taking photos using my laptop camera one of the nights. I will be putting those photos on my facebook page soon.

Today was my first official day working at the Missions of Hope International. Mary Kamau has me working with the CHE (Community Health Evangelism) team for my first few days of work then shadowing another leg of the ministry. Today I had the opportunity to work with Ann and Dan doing home visits following up to see how some of there core team CHE members are doing with there community projects and visited with people who are in the middle of training to be a CHE Member. It was a great experience walking thru the slums and siting in the homes of some key people that will/are making a difference in there part of the slums. For example one of the teams is trying to raise awareness of how to prevent common illnesses that are running rapid in the slums.

It has taken a few days but I think my body is finally getting adjusted to the 7 hour time difference between Kenya and Maryland. The weather has been much easier to get used to then the time difference. Today it was a high of 80 degrees and a low of 62 degrees.

I have arrived in Nairobi

The last two days of traveling has been long and exhausting. Wallace and David Freeze (one of the 6 apprentices) living at Mary and Wallace's House picked me up from the airport. I am now sitting on the top bunk of my bedroom with David beneath me also working on his computer.

On my way to the house Wallace told me that tomorrow the Kamau family, the 6 apprentices and Baraka are going on a short vacation to Mombasa until Wednesday. So I guess that means that I have a 8 hour car ride tomorrow morning and then hanging out on the beach, and touring my first few days in Kenya. We will be staying with Mary's brother Charles and his wife while there.

Well it's getting late here and is time for me to head to bed. I will not be able to post again until we return from Mombasa. Utukufu kwaka!

A look at my last week in Maryland

Sunday, March 7

• I went to church at Mountain Christian Church's 9:49 AM service and was truly blessed by Luke Erickson's message. If you missed it you can watch it here. I have a feeling that I am going to miss some amazing messages at Mountain while I am gone.
• Mom and I drove to Dundalk to visit Kenyan Church DFI Baltimore "Light on a Hill". What an amazing congregation to worship with. During the service they gave first time guests an opportunity to introduce ourselves. The microphone was handed to me first. At this time I shared with the congregation that I will be going on a mission trip to Nairobi, Kenya on Friday. After I finished with my intro Pastor Steve Magua asked if they could pray over my travels to there motherland. At the tail end of a very spirit filled worship and message time Pastor Steve asked for Mom and me come up on stage with him and his wife, Catherine. He prayed a beautiful prayer over me, my family and the people I will have the opportunity to witness to while away. After church was over we were invited to have a cup of Kenyan tea in the social hall. And if you know me well you would know that I can't turn down a good cup of Kenyan tea.
• At 6:30 PM I arrived back at church to help run the lighting system for High School Fuel.

Monday, March 8

• Went to work at Mountain Christian Church and did graphic design work from 9 AM - 5 PM.
• From 6:30 - 8:00 PM I led a 7th grade boys small group, but this week when small group started they surprised me with a send off for my trip to Nairobi. Erik Sundquist read some scripture verses, some of the boys shared some heart-felt words of encouragement and prayed over me and my trip. At the end they surprised me with a card that they all wrote in (I laughed at some of there comments) and they included a generous gift for my trip. I truly appreciated all of it and hung on every word they said. Such a wonderful evening... thanks guys!!!

Tuesday, March 9

• Worked at Mountain Christian Church from 9 AM - 5 PM.
• After work I ate dinner and then spent the evening organizing and packing my suitcases. It's amazing how long it takes to prepare everything. I did find that if you put things in zip lock bags and squeeze all the air out you can fit a lot more into your suitcase.
• I eventually crawled into my bed around 1:00 AM.

Wednesday, March 10

• I worked from 9 AM - 5 PM but at lunch time the church staff gathered for a pizza send off party. And man was the pizza good. Thanks Rob for the pizza and the opening prayer. After we all enjoyed the food, the staff circled up laying hands on me while Tom Moen prayed a beautiful prayer over my mission. One of my favorite things that he said in his prayer was that my mission trip to Kenya is not "good for me" but instead "good for us." Referring to "us" as Christ's Kingdom and that the things I do while in Kenya can make a global impact.

I would also like to say thank you to the church, family, friends, my men's small group, and my 7th grade small group for all of the LOVE, SUPPORT and PRAYER for my 2 month apprenticeship in the Slums of Nairobi, Kenya. It has not gone unnoticed! You are all such a blessing in my life. Without you this trip would not be possible.

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I will be flying over to Kenya in 16 days. I still can't believe that I will be in Kenya in 2 1/2 weeks. It feels so surreal. I have been so blessed so far in this process and can't wait so see what God has in store for me and the people I be working with during my two months in Nairobi.

On Saturday I went shopping with Nana for 4 hours purchasing items that I needed to take with me to Kenya. This evening I purchased 50 disposable cameras. I will be taking these over with me and giving them out to the students with detailed instructions and will be putting together a photo gallery with the best of the student's photos. I am really excited to see there photos once the project is complete.

Please be in prayer for my Dad (Steve). This morning while loading up cows for slaughter our largest bull (1,500+ pounds) decided to charge him and thew him over 10 feet and then ran over his left arm. Mom and Mackenzie took him to the hospital thinking that his arm was broken. After an x-ray and exam the doctor determined that his arm was just badly bruised. He is in a lot of pain tonight but is very lucky that the bull didn't do any more damage. Please pray for him as he goes through the healing process.

The Countdown Has Begun!

Wow, I can't believe I started my blog on September 30th. A lot has happened since then. I am now 25 days away from my apprenticeship. The plane tickets are purchased, all my funds are raised and now working on final details and trying to figure out what needs to be packed.

I covet all your prayers and and am so thankful for all your support. Please continue to pray for the ministry work happening in Kenya, the missionaries, me as I finalize all the details.

Students Post Outstanding Test Scores

Thirty-six of the thirty-seven Missions of Hope eighth-graders who took the placement test this fall that is required to move on to higher education in Kenyan schools scored above the passing mark, reports Wallace Kamau, director of Missions of Hope International... read more.

Congratulations 8th Graders!!!!!