Kenya Team Day 2

Our day began early with breakfast and devotions… we boarded the Mataatoo (pronounced Mataatoo - an African short bus) and made our way to “God is Able” government school that has an all Christian staff. They have a long standing relationship with Calvary Chapel of Nairobi and this will be our 3^rd time we have conducted a Children’s VBS there. The drive to the school was a real “E ticket”, down crowded narrow pothole riddled roads; we arrived with a real adrenalin rush – ready to go. We divided the 100 smiling African faces,4- 15 years old, into 4 groups and our team went to work.

We have great pictures of the kids singing, doing funny dances, various crafts and you haven’t lived till you seen 40 kids sprinting toward Ashley Priest and Mike Cooper in a game of Red light- Green light. The dust rose in red clouds from the red clay dirt, we all have been sneezing ever since. All the teachers did a great job of teaching their bible lessons and dealing with translators. The kids love to shake hands and say with a thick African accent “How are you?- I’m fine” which for most is the only English they know. All of their faces lit up with joy and red dirt… a very successful day of ministry.

As we were finishing up, a mortuary van showed up and began to set up for grave side ceremony right there on the school property (We were wondering what the huge hole was for). It turns out the elderly property owner had passed away and was being buried right there on the makeshift playground (there were even some playground toys that had fallen into it). The whole thing was a little weird for our western sensitivities, but a stark reminder of the thin line between the joy of life we see in children and the reality of death here in Africa. Whether due to extreme poverty, HIV-AIDS or various other diseases, life is real hard in Africa and death a very visible part of life here. It makes the message of Jesus and the promise of life …… really good news and we are glad to be here proclaiming it.

One last thing to report, we took the late afternoon and piled into 2 safari vans and took a 3 hour drive in the local game reserve. It was amazing to see rhinos, antelope, giraffe and a few Pumbas(warthogs) running free. The highlight though was finding a small pride of 4 lionesses lying close to the road. We took tons of pictures. Man, what a treat to see real lions. Then our drivers turned the vans around in the road and one of the vans got stuck in the ditch right in front of the lions. They had to get out nervously, push like crazed maniacs to free the tires and get back into the safety of the van. It was a lot funnier after they were inside. Wait till you see the pictures!

Pastor Gary