Fun day at Bomani

To day we are having a guest blogger - Erica is going to share the day from her perspective. We have completed another eventful, spiritual, and amazingly wonderful day. It is so hard to believe that we only have one more day left at our schools! It feels like we just got here. For some of us we are already planning how we will fundraise to come back next year, but for some, this may be the last time we see the wonderful children and staff.

We started our day by making foam visors with stickers and the kids' names on so we could call them by name. One student even brought Jason a visor that he made for him last year and ran to him when he saw Jason! How amazing is that!!!!

After we finished all the activities and the students ate lunch, the team was treated to THE BEST MEAL you will ever get in Africa. Chef Anne at Bomani school has to be the most amazing chef ever! She treated the team with what seemed like a 12 course meal! Lets just say chicken tastes WAY BETTER fresh, and by fresh I mean the chicken was walking around about 3 hours before we ate it!

After lunch some of the staff presented the team with gifts. We were all overwhelmed. These people have so little, yet they love to give gifts to those that have made an impact on them.

The team learned a whole lot more about working as a team while building the mud hut and what a thrill you can get out of working together, especially if it is to help someone in need.

Please continue to pray for the team as we still have not received all of our luggage and as we get ready to prepare ourselves for saying goodbye to our schools tomorrow. We will need God's strength to get through it.

Bomani Community Day

We started off the day by going to church at Crossroads Fellowship where they were having their 10th anniversary service, Pastor Guy did the message. The church did cardboard testimonies that some of you might remember back when we did them. If you haven't seen it before google it - its really good. One of my good Kenyan friends gave her cardboard testimony and it was surprising to me at what she had on her board. (see pic below) It was amazing to see how God has used her to do so many great things for Him and never complain about her hardship because of life's circumstance. To see her faith and how she trusts in God everyday that His plan seems like the perfect challenge to me. Are we all living in search of Gods plan and trusting in Him that His plan is perfect? In the afternoon we spent time at Bomani reaching out to the community and sewing seeds of hope in their life. We spent time with the kids and people from the community just enjoying the afternoon together. We played in the volleyball tournament and won! It was so close that it came down to last game and wining by 1 point! At the end of the day Pastor Guy shared about a free gift that God has for each one of us just like the free gift of flour and beans we were giving to the people of Bomani and all they have to do is take it. What would your friends say if you passed up free food supplies? Just like passing up the food we need to make sure we are taking Gods free gift.

We have reached the halfway point of this amazing mission trip but our work is not even half way done. Please continue to pray for our team as we still run into new trials and triumphs every day. We know God has a reason behind all of the obstacles that have come in our way but we serve an almighty and powerful God! All of us can't WAIT to get back to Bomani to do activities with the children tomorrow but this feeling will be bittersweet as most of us will be saying goodbye to many children and teachers that we have connected with.

The Big Day

Today was the big celebration day at Vipingo. We had a football tournament (American soccer), volleyball, a bouncy house, a choir competition, acrobatics, and more. Even though it was raining off and on, the turnout was good. The team was able to help serve the community lunch and help throughout the rest of the other activities. Each team member was surrounded by both Vipingo and non-Vipingo students proving that even though we don't have our toys and gadgets we can still provide a fun, entertaining, and exciting day showing God's love to everyone. On the way home, we took a few minutes and talked about our experiences from today. It was really cool to hear how the day impacted us all differently. Pam talked about how she had a group of three girls that she hung out with all day and when one of them got a small peace of corn she broke small parts off for all of them. She was only given a little, but she wanted to share what she was given with her friends and even her new friend Pam. To see a kid that has nothing be given a small amount of food, and see her willingness to share is so humbling to me. I think about how much I am given and my first reaction is not to give some to everyone around me. Luanne shared how she loved being able to serve in different areas, but still be apart of the big team. It takes all of us - Kenyan and Fox River teams - coming together as one big team to make an eternal impact!

At the end of the day, the team was worn out and ready for showers, dinner, and some much needed rest. I returned to the airport today to pick up one bag. They have found one more bag in Paris so now we are down to 15 bags still needed. It has been cool to see how God has provided just what we need in His time - like the bags I picked up the last two nights have had shirts in it. Our shirts are used on our big outreach days to help us spot each other and to show that we are one big team working together. Tonight the bag I picked up had the shirts to wear at Bomani, which is where we're going tomorrow. God's timing really is perfect!

Community Day in Vipingo

Today we spent the day in the village of Vipingo hanging mosquito nets, inviting the community to the big celebration day on Saturday, handed out shoes, and we were able to be a voice of hope to the people we spoke with in the village. We were able to share about the free gift God has given each one of them and how to receive it just like the nets we were giving out. We had 6 accept Christ as their savior and hundreds of seeds planted. We will continue to pray for God's working in their lives. Installing the mosquito nets was very humbling as we entered people's houses and got to see first hand their living conditions. Many sleep on the wood slots on a bed frame; there is no mattress. Other's had thin pads which were thinner than a throw pillow and some of them don't have anything to sleep on but the dirt floor. It quickly changes your view on what you sleep on and your living conditions. It was a lot to take in for the team and people are still processing through what they have experienced today.

For lunch time we were able to return to our school and serve lunch to the Kids and had some play time. After our time with the kids we went back to hang the remaining mosquito nets and speaking about the hope God offers.

On a fun side note - our Vipingo girls choir went to a companion today and took first in 3 out of 4 areas.

This evening I went to the airport to pick up and check on bags. It was a good trip we got 7 more but we are still missing 17 bags. While it's hard to think about all the fun stuff we packed that we are missing out on, the team has done a great job of being the entertainment them self! =) I learned that we probably will not be getting the 17 bags anytime soon leaving us disappointed but still trusting in God. This is His trip and we will serve how ever He sees fit. Tomorrow is the Big Soccer day that we spend the whole day with kids from around the area. We planed to have lots of fun stuff to do with them now its just us! If any of you guys have ideas of games or fun things to do with the kids please write us and let us know!

Please pray for good weather and that people will be open to the message of hope we will be giving. God is doing big things here - I know He is because the devil is trying every way he can to bring us down such as lost bags, travel advisories and health and weather. We serve a bigger God and know that He has His hand on us. Thank you for your prayers.

Vipingo

Today we spent the day at Vipingo. The kids were lined up sing to us as we got off the bus. They had a presentation prepared for us that was really cool then we sang for them (they got a kick out of that!). The video from us singing at Vipingo can be seen on the Fox River Facebook page. The teachers gave the team Kenyan shirts that were really cool. It is amazing to me how we go to serve and bless them and they give it back to us ten times more. They collect their own money to have something they can give us to show how much they appreciate Fox River and all that we do for them. After the kids presentation we spent time with the staff at Vipingo like yesterday, we did some team building activities. The afternoon was spent walking in the community inviting people out to the big soccer day on Saturday and playing with our school kids. I know I have said this before but I will say it again this team has done amazing work with all the changes that have been going on. Normally at this point we would have lots of fun toys and things to play with the kids but because we don't have any of our bags all we have is us. It has been cool to see that it is not about what we bring or what new toys we have for them - it's really just about spending time with us. Everything that we packed to do with them is not why they love us so much; it truly is for us and who we are. It's a good reminder not to get caught up in all the stuff, even here in Kenya. God's love is so much bigger then that.

We had a few people not feeling well today, but God has been working to heal them. Please continue to pray for them to get the rest that they need to do the work God has brought them to do. On the baggage note I have good news and ok news...We got two bags today but the other 9 bags they found are coming in on a late flight tonight. That leaves 11 bags that we don't know where they are. Because of that we are having to change up our plans with the kids a little bit. Tomorrow we are going to be working in Vipingo hanging mosquito nets and giving out shoes. Feel free to ask questions in the comment if there is something you would like to know more about = )

Pray

This morning we made a trip to the chemist because we have a few that are not feeling well. It has been a lot for team to adjust to and not having any of there stuff has been hard. I would ask for extra prayers for the teams health and our bags. We have never had this problem before so are trying to problem solve as well as me can. We know Gods plan is in motion we just need Him to help us see His will for this adventure!

1,500 shoes

After a good night sleep for most of the team we started the day off with orientation. The challenge was placed before us to be great and serve - today we got the chance to put that in to practice fist hand. We then went the Government school in Bomani giving out all the shoes you guys help raised for the school. To be able to go and hand out over 1,500 pairs of shoes in 3 hours was really good. The team as been amazing with rolling with changes! We got to the school thinking that the shoes were sorted in the bags by size and it turns out they were not. We had to have operation sort 2,400 shoes! After a few casualties of some miss fit shoes we were on our way to the first classes. It was a bit of a rocky start but soon they were in the rhythm and done before lunch! Have you ever wondered what 1,500 pairs of shoes looks like? Here you go...

After we went over to Bomani to hear our kids sing and spent time playing with them. We had an amazing lunch prepared specially for us- yum! The afternoon went so fast we spent some time with our Kenyan team doing some team building. It was exciting to see the new connections and friendships come to life.

We went to the store on the way home because unfortunately we are still missing the bags. We did get word that 9 out of the 26 bags should be on a flight here in the morning. Please continue to pray for them to get here. We really need them for the events we have planed for the weekend not to mention that the team would really like to have their cloths!

In our hotel at orientation

This Is the shoe team

At the Gov school working through the shoes

Shoe teams and there class's

Serving lunch to our kids at Bomani

Ron was helping out the cooks. (that is rice)

Having lunch with our kids.

There is nothing like Ann's cooking!

Time with our staff.

Kenyan M&M anyone?

Safe and sound

After 48hr of travel and 4 country's later the team is all in Mombasa safe and sound!! Thank you for all your prayers. The next big thing is getting the bags. We have two days to get them in before we really need them. The team would probably like to have some clean cloths but we can get them through till the bags come. Pray for a good night sleep we have a really full day tomorrow!

Almost

Most of the group is just about to land after there long journey. Jason, Jon and Luanne will get in Lord willing at 7:30 tonight. They don't have there bags so please pray for them.

In Nairobi

The team is in Nairobi! Praise God - one flight to go now. Please pray that they get all there bags :) will keep you posted as we here more.