Hi all!! I hope that you are all doing wonderful in the States! We are all having a great time here and loving spending time with these kids. I am going to make it a day-by-day blog so you all can see what our schedule is like this week.

Sunday – On Sunday we all attended class and church at the Kamulu church of Christ. What a wonderful experience that was! Bible class consisted of “ask Kulu” which means “ask Charles.” That means that anyone could ask Charles any question, OT or NT, about the bible. Members and MITS students were all so intuitive and asking very intelligent questions about the Word. The worship was real and the members were all so enthusiastic about the Lord. The singing and fellowship was beautiful. After that, we were invited to eat at Charles and Darlene’s house for lunch. Their house was beautiful and very homey. They surprised us by making Mexican food!! We were so excited for the American meal and needless to say we ate it all up. In the afternoon, we had girls time and boys time. It rained a lot in the afternoon so the boys went to play soccer, while the girls went and played in the mud. Us girls travelled around trying to find the MITS girls and when we had no luck, we played by ourselves! That night all of the team ate dinner together which Jaxon cooked most of… Spaghetti!

Monday – Monday was a normal school day for the MITS students which consisted of class in the morning and the farm in the afternoon. The staff, students, and all of the AFCs went to chapel in the morning for more beautiful singing and fellowship. From there, we all headed to the learning center and helped teach classes. Some of us had our own classes while others just aided the current teachers. I can say for all of us that it was an enjoyable and very rewarding experience to see the impact we can make on these children. They love to learn and cherish the education that they are receiving. In the afternoon, we all just chilled in our compounds and also helped in a few classes. After we all ate dinner together, the guys had a devo with the MITS boys and we left to do the same with the girls. Us girls separated into groups of two and went into a cabin to hold a short devo. Personally, that has been my favorite thing of the trip thus far. Shannon and I went into a cabin of 4 girls who are all 15 years old. We discussed Jeremiah 29:11 and what that means in our lives. After that, we opened it up for questions that the girls wanted to ask. The girls, like the Sunday class, were so intuitive and genuinely eager to learn more. They asked really good questions about baptism, women’s roles, and also a lot of OT questions. The children and people at MITS are sincerely thirsty for the Lord. They have hardly any material possessions and are truly dependent on God for the hope that He has promised. I feel like we as Americans could use more of that. We are a very independent nation and have all that we need plus a million times more, so why do we need God? I was truly touched by their willingness to learn the Word and was challenged to by their curiosity. Shannon and I will be returning to their cabin every night of our stay here and I am excited for what I can teach them and what they can teach me.

Tuesday – Tuesday was another normal school day. The boys went to Eastley for the day which they will be blogging about soon. Eastley is a slum in Nairbobi which many of the MITS kids came from. Us girls helped with classes in the morning and just aided the teachers whenever we could. I personally, along with Taryn, was able to help in making true African food for all 130 people at the school for lunch. That was quite an experience! We had huge bowls and these giant wooden sticks to stir the food making me feel like I was straight out of the movie Ratatouille. In the afternoon, we had a small break and then us girls painted a wall in the girls compound. For dinner and after the boys had returned from Eastley, we all split up and went to eat at a staff member’s house for dinner. The staff is so welcoming and friendly here and truly embodies the love for others as commanded. Jaxon, Micah, Shannon, and I went to Irene’s house for dinner. She is an English teacher her and oversees the girls compound. She cooked fish, rice, and tomato soup and it was wonderful. It’s the first significant portion of meat that we have had since we came to Kamulu. Aftet that, we all played Phase 10 and had a such a fun time!

Thank you again for being patient for taking a while to post these blogs. Us girls along with a few Kenyan men staff are going to Eastley tomorrow so please keep us in your prayers because it will definitely be a humbling experience. We are having a wonderful time and keep checking the blogs because we are trying to post them more regularly.

Love,
Laura