VBS Day 2

Today was another fantastic day at Point of Grace.  You could tell from the very beginning that the kids were warming up to us.  They were talkative, super smiley, and attracted to cameras!  I saw a shift in team as well, they really did well in our Jonah skit.  We had the kids involved as the people of Nineveh.  I told them to make the meanest face they could, most of them smiled. 

I think the biggest hit of the day was he fish party blower.  The kids were the first to take a liking to noise makers, but by the end, the teachers were having more fun that everyone else!  I can’t wait to share some videos from that classroom with you. 

The library shelves are officially underway!  The team spent the afternoon sanding the shelves, watching the carpenter prepare the wood.  It was an eye opener and pretty neat to watch.  We were told that by the time we get back to Point of Grace from the safari, the project will be complete.  We have been told by everyone that this will be a great addition, especially for the Form 1 kids. 

I had the chance to teach two classes today, both Pastoral Program of Instruction.  The first was for classes 5-8 (roughly 160 kids) and the afternoon session was Form 1 (32 kids).  They did very well, considering who their teacher was!  Dale and I were invited into the teachers evening meeting, and the general consensus is that VBS is a hit, for both students and teachers.  

  

After supper tonight we headed over to the dorms to have a tour and see a few of the kids.  At the moment they are packed tight!  As of tomorrow though, nearly 100 boys will be moved to the third floor of the school.  They have said that there is a need to separate the boys from the girls.   

All and all a great day, capped off by a Tusker beer. 

VBS Day One

Phew, what a first day!  Considering we have been living in below zero temperature all winter, today's 95 degrees wore us out.  Add in the fact that it was a full day, I think we will all sleep well tonight.  The teachers requested that we “team teach” with them, which mostly observing.  Some marked English assignments, others worked on math with the children.  It was so neat to be able to see the kids and teachers at work.  They all work so hard. 

After observing a couple of different rooms, we jumped into VBS, which was a head first dive.  You can only plan so much when you are dealing with 150-200 kids in a room, but team did great!  The school choir (30 kids strong) sang a little before we started and after we ended, it was beautiful. 

After VBS we became servants to the kids by serving them their lunch.  The amount they make to serve 450 kid is unbelievable.  But they have it down to a science, there was very little left over.  The nutrition of the children is very important to the Meeker’s.  If someone doesn't get what they need, their studies will suffer. 

Our afternoon was spent starting the library project.  This was something marked as one of the most important needs for the school.  We cataloged nearly 400 books, which was about 5-6 hours of work.  The shelving materials were delivered this evening and will be ready to being construction tomorrow.  The kids and teachers are looking forward to having these books available to them.  Until today, they were in storage.

The team had so much fun interacting with the kids.  Some sponsor children were visited and introduced to their sponsors.  I think that lifelong friendships are in the making! 

 

Our travels are done.....for now!

We have arrived!  What an amazing day of traveling we had.  All of us had our eyes opened with rush hour traffic in Nairobi (4 million residents).  It was basically a free for all, thankfully we had an experienced driver. 

I had to eat my words a bit today as well.  I had talked up the roads from Nairobi to Kisumu as some of the worst on the planet.  Well, we were able to travel on PAVED ROADS the WHOLE way!  What a fantastic surprise.  It really is easy to see the progress being made in the country. 

Everyone enjoyed the scenery, the entrance into the Great Riff Valley was breathtaking.  Among the many animals we were able to see today were zebras, gazelles, wild pigs, and baboons.  Our driver was always very willing to slow down and let us take a few pictures. 

But what we were excited for the most, to be able to officially say we are at Point of Grace!  After we got our bags situated, we took a walk over to the school.  We were able to see the dorms (and kids!) and check out the third floor of the school.  What amazing progress is being made.  By the end of the week we were told the scaffolding will be down, lights installed, and two rooms will officially be ready to be used as the older boys dorms. 

We are all excited to get a good night’s rest and start our work in the morning.  As always, thank you for your prayers!  

Jambo!

Hello everyone!
    We arrived safely in Nairobi last night at 8:25 PM local time.  We had very smooth flights and although we spent 2 and a half hours in the airport here, it was pretty smooth too.  We got some sleep last night, not great but more than we got on the planes.  We will be leaving in about 30 minutes to start our drive toward Kisumu and Point of Grace.

    We had the chance to come in contact with another mission group from western Minnesota (they are apart of a small Lutheran denomination) who were headed to Tanzania.  It was really neat to be able to share our trips with each other.  It is really amazing that half way around the world, Lutherans are working to share the love of God.

     Please continue to pray for our safe travels!

 
Side note: A special thanks to my wife, Jana, for being a relay person and getting word out on Facebook when we can't.  It was great to be able to call her last night, even if we did get cut off.