Fun Day Bomani

Today was a great day. It was a very good day filled with love, laughter, and much more.  

We also had the privilege to go into our Bomani community and meet some of our students parents.   

We were also able to give out a few more goats to the families of sponsored students. 

We we finished our day with a Bon voyage where we prayed for the Kenyan team, and they in-turn prayed for us.  

Tomorrow we will leave for safari very early in the morning and return mid-afternoon on Friday. We may not have internet while we are gone but please know that we are using the time to enjoy this incredible country and begin to process our way through to returning home. We are incredibly grateful for your love, support and prayers!

The guys helping wash the dishes  

We did get some rain today! 

Fun Day Vipingo

Today was a great day filled with many adventurers. In the morning we put on fun activities for our kids in Vipingo. 

Bible teachings:

Crafts:

Activites: 

We also washed the feet of those who work tirelessly in the kitchen.

Then we had the pleasure to go into the communities and meet our students families and see where they lived.  

We began wrapping up the day giving out a few more goats. 

We finished our day with many teary eyed good byes. We are definitely leaving a peice of our heart here in Vipingo, and I am certain we will also be doing the same in Bomani tomorrow.  

This is what God is doing in Glenn's life this week:  

The children are in our hearts and minds forever We pray that God's blessing will always be upon them. God has come upon my heart to do as much as is humanly possible for these beautiful people. I must do all l can and give all I can to make their lives as wonderful as ours. I now understand why Jesus said as you do for the least of these you do for me . We must all give till it hurts, what if when our time comes and Jesus asks what have you done for me? What will we say to him in response to his question, please keep in mind that he already knows the answer. I will live my life for God and where he leads me to help others. This trip has come at the perfect time, God has shown me that it is truly about others and not about me. I love my God and all the blessings he has bestowed upon me, and know it is time to give it to people that have not been blessed as I have. What a great feeling it will be to work for the beautiful friends I have made. May God bless me with the strength and resources to fulfill all the needs and wants of my new friends. I pray with all my heart that God will come upon my brothers and sisters hearts, and they as well as I will do all we can to give all we can for the least of these.

Teaching Day

Today is the day that we take care of any last minute preparations that need to be done before we have our fun days in the schools with the children we sponsor. This is also when we take some time at each school and train the class 7 students who will be our helpers on those days. We enjoyed the time to get to know them!

This is Jessie teaching our helpers to take pictures.  

While the team spent time with the class 7 helpers, Jessie and Pastor Brent spent time investing in our class 8 students.

In the afternoon, we were also able to take the Vipingo class 8 students on a field trip to Hallar Park zoo.

Here's what one of our girls, Husnan, had to say about the park today:

We had fun. I liked watching the snakes, feeding the giraffes, and watching the fish and crocodiles. We learn about baobab trees too. We also watched the 2 hippos coming out of the water. There were a lot of monkeys in the trees and some were eating fruits. They even ate a biscuit (cookie) from Tony's hand. My favorite parts were feeding the giraffes, watching the people feeding the giraffes and being with the team. I also love taking pictures.

Husnan is the one doing bubbles for the kids. 

Please continue to pray for the team. The next two days are when we get to have more personal time with each class, and we can't wait. 

Celebration Day

We started off the day by going to church at Crossroads Fellowship, where we heard a great word on how we can take initiative to truly being the good Samaritan. 

Tony jumped right in this morning at church and started serving like he was at Fox River.  

In the afternoon, we spent time at Bomani reaching out to the community and sewing seeds of hope in their life. This is where I baptized my first person, and the following 19 people. Every baptism is significant and worthy of celebration, but I would like to celebrate the fact that I got to baptize one of our very own students.  What an honor it has been to not only do workings behind the scenes, but to also see the fruits of God's increase. God is so Good!

After the baptisms, we spent time with the kids and people from the community just enjoying the afternoon together. We played in the volleyball tournament and lost in the first round, but it was a close game! We also had a bounce house, face painting, camel rides, and many other types of entertainment.

Painting nails 

Lisa doing some painting with the kids.  

The evening began winding down with Fox River donating a much needed drum set. Afterwards Pastor Bobby 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 saw 20 people accept Jesus Christ as their savior! Praise the Lord! 

Pastor Bobby and Pastor Brent  

here are some of the lady's enjoying the day.  

Ann with her girls  

Some of today's fun!  

Each family got a bag to take home!  

Today, we were also able to give out some of the chickens and goats. We worked with the local churches to be able to give them to families in need in both of the communities Fox River has partnerships, Bomani and Vipingo. These animals will be a great help to the families in this community. Thank you so much for your donations. 

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! 

-Pastor Brent

We got called up on stage today to see if we could dance better then the Kenyans  

And the winner was..... (A loaf of bread was the prize!)  

We had about 1,500 people today hear the Word of God!  

The Big Day

Today was our annual celebration day of all that God has done at Crossroads Vipingo! We invite the community for a soccer tournament, activities, food, entertainment and the gospel. The celebration was such a success thanks to the support of people at Fox River! We were able to feed and share Gods love with over 5,000 people! The team really enjoyed getting it do activities with the community, let's take a look at some of the fun things they got to do!

Introductions

For our first full day with all team members having had a good night's sleep, we began our day visiting Hanzi. He is one of our kids with special needs. Having realized we had helped him as much as we could, we were able to place him in Sahajanand Special School in February. This was our first visit to Hanzi.

I thought we were going to have a short visit in what I assumed was a small school for special needs children. Upon arrival, I was very surprised to find a large facility with 800 special needs children and adults from ages 6 to 50. Our hearts were quickly won over by the children and the amazing care givers in this facility. 

Because Hanzi is an adult, he is learning life skills and a trade. The students in his class are learning to make beaded jewelry. We had the opportunity to directly support Hanzi and his school by purchasing some of the items he and his classmates have made. Even though we were only there for a short time, our hearts were deeply blessed with a lasting impression of hope.

Next, we were off to tour Vallerye McMillion High School where 60 of our graduates from Bomani and Vipingo attend high school. They are thriving in this new environment and we are incredibly thankful that our partner, Manna Worldwide, is sponsoring our students. 

Lunch was a stop in Mtwapa at Pizza Inn & Chicken Inn. Yum!

The afternoon was the introduction to the center in Vipingo. We were greeted by the whole school welcoming us with singing. Afterward we heard recitations and songs by our sweet children. We exchanged gifts with the staff and set off on a tour of the facilities: Crossroads Fellowship Church, Crossroads Academy, Bible Institute and Life Spring Rescue Center. The rescue center was the big hit with all those adorable little ones!

We had Human Hungry HIppo fun with the staff and had the opportunity to each spend some one on one time with a staff member where we heard about their role at the center and prayed for them. Before we knew it our time was over and we had to head out.

After supper together we had our first team meeting during which Pastor Brent challenged us to "Be Great. Serve." We closed our day with a short walk down the beach for some gelato. It was a good day and we were very blessed!

Tomorrow is the Big Day at Vipingo. We are looking forward to this community outreach and fun day! Thank you so much for your support and prayer!

The Journey Begins

Wednesday, while Team B was in route to Kenya, Group A took the Bomani class 8 students to the Hallar Park zoo. We enjoyed learning about the animals and our class 8 students. Two of the highlights of the day were watching the crocodiles being fed and feeding the giraffes. After having traveled for 36 hours with very little sleep, Team A did an awesome job!

Thursday, Team B arrived on time at 7:30am and hit the ground running. After a quick shower and preparing staff gifts, we headed to Bomani. Our first stop was the government school where we toured the facilities, heard a few presentations and gave gifts to the school. Class 8 students were each given a geometrical set - a necessary and treasured educational tool. A large water tank was given to store water for use when their tap water is unavailable. Can you guess what gift Pastor Brent is presenting in the picture below?

That's right a toilet! They were so excited to receive them!  

Our next stop was New Life Academy - the Fox River school in Bomani. The team was blessed by the songs, poems and Scripture recitations of the students. While the students had lunch, Bobby & Lisa Bechtel treated the team to a tour of the facilities and a history of the center. The team was treated to a special lunch cooked with love by Matron Anne and her incredible team of cooks. 

After lunch we enjoyed having some fun with our partners in Bomani.

It was a good day and everyone did an excellent job pushing through their jet lag to represent Fox River well. 

Tomorrow/Friday, we will visit Hanzi in his special needs school, tour the high school where our students attend after our schools and meet our kids and partners in Vipingo. Please continue to pray for this team. They have shown themselves to be mighty in God's grace! We are grateful for your prayer and support.

The team event got up and learned some Kenyan dance moves! 

Together Again!

After lots of praying and God moving in big ways we are all now serving in Kenya together! 

Please pray that we can adjust to the time difference quickly as we have already hit the ground running!  

Adjusted Kenya Schedule

This has been a wild ride! I know that God is not surprised by the event in Turkey that caused our team to be rerouted. He intends to bring good out of all of this and I cannot wait to have them here in Kenya to begin to see that plan unfold! We are all humbled and grateful for your support and prayer.

I have worked with our partners in Kenya to devise a new itinerary for the next few days. During this time that I have waited for the arrival of our team, I have been blessed to spend time with a family of four who came to Kenya to spend this first week with our team. Their daughter spent 3 months in Kenya when she was 16 and returned with a passion for what God was doing in this place that drew her to prepare to return to Kenya one day as a missionary. But God had other plans. In that year after her return she was killed in a car accident. Her family has traveled to serve as she served and learn about this place that captured her heart. It has been a joy to get to know them!

Here is the adjusted schedule:

*remember they are 8 hours ahead of us

• *Today/Wednesday, July 20: Group A arrives at 7:30am after 28 hours of travel. We will take the Bomani class 8 students to Hallar Park zoo for the afternoon. 
• Tomorrow/Thursday, July 21: Group B arrives at 7:30am after 28 hours of travel. We will go to Bomani with the same activities that were planned for Wednesday: visit government school, go to our school, New Life Academy, to hear children's presentations, tour the school, serve lunch to the children and have fun activities with the staff.
• Friday, July 22: In the morning we will visit one of our students who is in a school for special needs students then travel to visit our students who are in the MANNA high school. In the afternoon we will go to Vipingo for the scheduled events we had planned for Tuesday afternoon.
• Saturday, July 23: The community outreach day at Vipingo - no change.
• Sunday, July 24: Church at Crossroads Fellowship - Jim Horne's church. Afternoon community outreach in Bomani.
• Monday, July 25: Leadership training with class 7 in both schools in the morning. Class 8 from Vipingo to Hallar Park zoo in the afternoon.
• Tuesday, July 26: Fun day with Vipingo students.
• Wednesday, July 27: Fun day with Bomani students. 
• Thursday & Friday: Safari
• Friday evening: Group A departs
• Saturday evening: Group B departs

These next couple of days are going to be very taxing for the team because of a lack of sleep. Please join me in praying that they will get the rest they need to do what God has brought them here to do. Thank you!

Prayers for our Kenya team

The Kenya team needs our prayers.

Travel has become really messy with the commotion in Turkey.  The team was supposed to fly Turkish Airlines Sunday night, but their flight was canceled.  

Pastor Brent, Denise (from Kenya), and many others have spent countless hours trying to figure out a new plan.  The new plan is for the team to split into two groups and travel both Today (Monday) and tomorrow (Tuesday).  They are no longer flying Turkish airlines.  It's a bit of a set back, but God has it under control and we need to keep remembering that! 

Denise and the Kenyans are anxiously awaiting their arrival and there are lots of activities planned that rely on the team being there.  But above all else we want to make sure travel is the safest we can make it, and being patient right now is the only way we are able to make that happen. 

As you can imagine this is quite the process and this team and its leaders could really use your prayers.  

The team came together to pray. 

 Will you join the team in praying specifically for:

Guidence for the leaders

Patience for the team

Safety 

Understanding

Families~ there are family members sending off their loved ones and in all this I'm sure fears have arose.

Rest~ that each team member will get good rest on the flights because they will hit the ground running because of the set back.  

The spiritual warfare that this team is facing is so real... So pray they will focus on the God they serve in the midst of all the chaos!

Turkey~ is in a place of destruction and could use so much prayer.

Denise~ she is already in Kenya and this is her team.  I am sure there are many things she is wishing she could do to help from so far away.  

God is working in this and has a greater plan! 

Thank you you so much for partnering with us in prayer.