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.