enyefuraha

So enyefuraha means "joyful" in swahili! It seemed perfect as the title for this post because yesterday and today was nothing but so so joyful! Here are the many things that were so wonderful and SO enyefuraha these past couple days! My sweet sewing friend, Zipi, brought me an english to swahili dictionary today so I'm trying to put it to good use by learning some new words (get ready, there are lots in this post)!!!

1. We got to play with some "mtoto" elephants yesterday! Mtoto means baby, and as you can see these are the most precious baby elephants ever!!! They drink out of big baby bottles and their little wrinkles are the cutest!

All of these babies are orphaned due to their moms being killed by poachers or being deserted or being attacked by other animals in the national park. The people who live near the park call this elephant orphanage and the workers send an airplane out to wherever the elephants are to bring them back. The orphanage raises the little mtoto's until they are about two years old and able to fend for themselves in the wild and lets them go back! It is so cool!

LOOK AT THOSE PRECIOUS MTOTO EYELASHES!!!!!

Liz and I were so thrilled to get to spend time with these preshie mtoto's for a little while. 

AND THEN WE SAW A RHINO!!!! It was an all around legit day. 

2. "Kutia moyo" means encouragement. Today I was able to watch the sewing girls do their thing, measuring out and sewing construction paper. They practice on this before they make their projects with clothing. The time and skill it takes for these girls to make the uniforms for the school and other clothes to sell on the market, working so diligently with a smile across their face, is an encouragement to me. These girls work so hard in everything that they do and they constantly encourage me to push myself harder and do all that I can! They are such a great source of "kutia moyo"!

3. "Dansi" means dance. And we did lots of that today. The traditional dance in Kenya is done by putting your hands on your waist then moving side to side. It's SO PRECIOUS seeing the babies do this! Literally, so cute. When the babies do something exciting in class, Mrs Janet calls them up in front and the babies sing a congratulations song, and they do THE dance. I mean, it is really precious. So we did lots of "dansi" today, and I loved it. 

So much dansi-ing. If you know me, you know that 1-I have no rhythm so this was funny and 2-I love some random dance sesh's. All day everyday. 

4. "Enye Hisani" means gracious. Everytime we do a craft in the babies class, their eyes light up and they smile so big. They wait patiently until it is their turn to do the craft and they are so thankful and excited the whole time. I've continued to be blown away with these three year olds. They are so so gracious! I'm learning so much from them!!

We did a glittery craft today. We talked about how God is our Shepherd (John 10) and how we are His sheep! He takes care of us just as a shepherd takes care of his flock. We added glitter just for fun, and the babies kept saying "WOW!!!!" it was the most precious thing ever. Precious babies.

5. "Tendaji" means energetic. The babies never lack on joy or energy. They challenge me to keep up and because of that I am able to dance with them, laugh with them, run around with them, all through the strength of the Lord. He provides them so much "tendaji" and so much love, which brings happiness to everyone around them!

6. "Uaminifu" means faithfulness. Great is the faithfulness of our God and the work that He calls us to.  I have seen Him work here in so many ways that it gives me goose bumps and brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it!! I'm reminded of how faithful God has been to me by sending me to serve here and the confidence I find in that through a reading in my quiet time: "He has done it all, must do it all, and will do it all. Our confidence must not be in what we have done, nor in what we have resolved to do, but entirely in what the Lord will do." He is so faithful and I'm so thankful to be able to trust completely in Him. He is going to be faithful in my time here and in these babies lives.

7. "Huruma" means compassion. My sweet teacher I work with, Mrs Janet, has so much compassion in her heart and it is so evident in the way she lives her life. She serves the Lord with everything she does and loves the babies in her class so well. Gosh I am so thankful I get to look up to her these next few weeks. She has so much "huruma" in her spirit and I pray I have this same type of compassion for others as well. She is such a sweet servant of the Lord, I am so encouraged by her. Here is our sweet class, even though a few of the kiddos were running around when this picture was taken! 

"Kuvumbua" means explore in swahili. Something I can't wait to do more of in Nairobi. I've seen God so much these past two weeks in the hearts here in Kenya. "Kutukuza" means glorify, I pray I am able to continue to bring God glory through my service here. If you would like to support my journey here in Kenya, please click the "Donate" button on the right side of the page. Love and miss everyone lots!

Okay, last word for the day! "Lala Salama" means goodnight! Which is so weird since I'm going to sleep the same time all of you back home are waking up! Peace and blessings!

humility

Y'all I'm feeling a little sick today. Headache, fever, the works. What a great reminder sent from God. I am sick and I am weak! And I CANNOT do this on my own. But I know that even though I'm not feeling well at all today, God's continued work through my service with these babies and their hearts being transformed makes it all so worth it!!!!. I'm so thankful for our Father's sweet reminders that I need to give the control back to Him. I can't serve these babies on my own strength, but the Lord's. So as my head is pounding and my energy is so low, I look forward to tomorrow! To wake up and start again fresh, just like the grace and mercies God provides for us each day. My flesh continues to fail, God continues to be faithful. He is so good.

I am so humbled by this reminder that we can do nothing, literally nothing, without our God! Sweet family and friends, prayers would be great! He is so faithful!

A week of firsts

1. Sweet smiles. This isn't really a first, but these sweet babies were too cute to not post. So, kind of irrelevant to the title, but look at these faces!!!!!! This is Tricia and Jeremy, precious babies.

2. First time we made this craft today! We cut up pieces of construction paper and wrote "I am loved" on one side and the babies name on the other. We handed out the paper and my teacher, Janet, explained to them what it meant! She explained how God loves them so much, their families love them lots, and how Teacha Anna and Teacha Janet love them a whole lot too! 

Upside down, woops. The babies smile so big and love so much!

How special it is to tell the babies how much they are loved by the Father and how much we care about them! It warms my heart just thinking about how big they smiled today when we were doing this craft. 

We got to hang the craft/chain on the wall in their room. Everytime they look at it they will remember first that God loves them so so much and that we love them lots too. That way it's a constant reminder to them- they are so loved! Look how precious Mrs Janet is, I am so thankful to spend so much time with her!

3. We cooked cow intestines the other day. I couldn't take a picture. Y'all I don't really eat beef at home and WE COOKED COW INTESTINES. They look exactly like what you would think, so please just use your imagination! 

4. Liz came to hang out with our class today for a bit! This was the first time the babies got Liz all to themselves and they loved her a whole lot!! Just waving it out, showing some love!

5. This one I am so thrilled about- FIRST FINISHED SCARF!!! Y'all, the girls were so excited and proud about finishing their first scarf! It is beautiful and perfect, they will take it to the market soon to sell! How fast these girls learn, not to mention so joyful!! 

6. We made our first trail mix today!!! I guess it's technically a nut mix, but we bought a whole lot of ingredients from the store: peanuts, almonds, macadameon nuts, and raises and threw them all together in a bowl. IT IS SO GOOD! We are thinking about creating a patent for it- yep, that good.

 7. First time the girls in the sewing class did the chain craft! This time since these girls are older, they each wrote prayer requests on three different pieces of paper. The girls all come from different regions in Kenya so they speak a little english, all swahili, and then their mother tongue. They wrote the prayers in their mother tongue so that the other girls "couldn't read their requests". We hung the chain on the wall so that every time they see it, they remember God's faithfulness and that no prayer goes unheard. It's so cool how many languages there are even just in Kenya, there are 42 different tribal languages! I'm reminded of how I'm struggling to learn Swahili, how I did straight up terrible in spanish class in high school, how half the time I don't know what the girls are saying. God knows each language we speak by heart and He speaks every one of them. He is so big and universal, and understands our cries and prayers. How thankful I am that our God knows each of our hearts, our language, our cries. He listens to them all, no prayer goes unheard! 

8. First time carrying beans on our head from the store. It is harder than it looks and women in Kenya carry bags on their heads without using their hands!!!! Just casually walking around with kidney beans. "Got beans on my head, but don't call me a bean head"-Liz

Today, I got to talk to Zipi, who is in charge of the sewing room, who told me about how she had been praying that God open new doors for them. Before coming to Nairobi, she was praying they could expand their program for the girls. She told me today that they have loved knitting so much that they are going to start splitting the time during the day, half for sewing and half for knitting! She has been praying for an open door and she believes part of me coming here to teach them to knit was an answer to her prayer! It is so neat how God works, opening doors and answering prayers when you don't even realize it at the time! He is so faithful in the little things. The girls are going to start selling some of the things they knit in the market, and I'm so thankful they are able to learn ways to make profit and teach others to knit! The nurses and other parts of the BCC are coming to the sewing room to learn, it is so fun! Liz got to hang out today with the girls and I, and of course they loved her! I'm so thankful that we get to have this ministry in the BCC!

Love all of you who are praying and I ask for your continued prayers!!! If you feel led to support my trip, please click on the "DONATE" button on the right side of my page!

pictures finally!

So here are some pictures from this past week of the babies, the town we're in, and our cooking adventures. Some are blurry, sorry about it!!!! 

These are some of the sweet smiles I get to see every day. Sweet sweeeeeet babies in my class!

This is the town our compound is in. It takes at least an hour to drive there every day and you eventually end up on a dirt road leading to the BCC. 

More pictures from the giraffe center! We got to feed them and eventually the giraffe people convinced us to feed the giraffe treats from our mouth. Giraffes have 25 cm long tongues. TWENTY FIVE CENTIMETERS LIKE WHAT? 

LOOK AT THAT NOGGIN!

Oh hey baby giraffe, I see you!! So precious!!! Also, there is a giraffe hotel that was next door, where the people staying there get to feed the giraffes from the window. Same one I saw on pinterest!!!!! We wanted to stay there for a night until we found out it was 500 per night. 

Sweet Leonia. This is one of my new buddies. Precious little girl.

This is part of my class! Note how they are all a little blurry, the joy this class has is contagious! They never stop moving or laughing, and I am learning so so much from them. Love these babies.

The sweetest little cheeks. I am so thankful I get to spend time with these preshies for a whole month!

Today we learned how to make chipaties!!! They are the yummiest thing and is what everyone eats here in Nairobi. The chef at the BCC, Paul, is showing us how to fry them. Paul says that in Kenya "if you can't cook chipaties, you can't yet be a wife" and was being 100% serious! Liz is being so brave and frying over an open gas stove. You go girl.

Hannah and I got to roll out the dough for the chipaties with Alex. It was kind of like rolling out pizza dough, so we had fun!

Chipaties. Yum. They rock. All you need is flour, water, salt, and oil. Holla at me and I'll cook ya some!!!

We got to spend time with the children who live at the orphanage at the BCC today. They are DARLING. I'm not even kidding, these are the most precious girls ever.

Sweet Mary (7) and Elizabeth(9). I am learning so much from these sweet children who are here at the orphanage about trusting the Lord and depending completely on Him. The JOY the Lord provides at this place even though these children have tough lives is wonderful. We get to spend time with the orphanage on saturdays and sundays, and I am looking forward to going to church with them tomorrow!

Liz is such a baller and plays futbol with the guys in the orphanage! She plays soccer at Baylor and she is bringing so much joy to the futballers at the orphanage (because we all know I couldn't kick a soccer ball to save my life).

We are so so blessed to be serving here. And I'm learning His grace comes everyday, and His love and faithfulness are overflowing. So thankful.

First full week!

Today marks the first full week I've been gone! It has been a busy, overwhelming, wonderful week! Yesterday I started to help out in my classroom with the three year olds! The BCC calls them the "babies" because they are the littlest class at the compound. And what a sweet class the babies are. The joy and excitement each of the children in my class have is so amazing. The teacher I help is named Janet and she is the most patient and sweet woman! I got to color and play with the babies all day and love on them! The Lord is so present in the staff and the children at the BCC and I was constantly reminded of that all day! Hannah, Liz, and I have talked so much recently about how important it is to live for the day. Carpe Diem, YOLO, whatever you want to call it, but putting your whole heart into the day and how important that is! The hours and hours I've spent planning and worrying about what's to come next is crazy. The babies live for the moment, excited for what the day brings. And the joy- the complete JOY the Lord provides them each day is wonderful! I can't wait to learn so much these next few weeks from the new friends at the BCC. (Pictures of the babies to come!!!)


 Later that afternoon I started to teach knitting with the older girls in the community. The language barrier is going to make things a lot harder than I thought but I'm excited that the girls will be able to knit things to sell on the market!! It's so cool how the Lord uses our own gifts and talents to bless others, and even though knitting is the most random thing, I'm so thankful that I can teach them!!

So today was the greatest day. WE WENT TO THE GIRAFFE CENTER. And oh my gosh. We got to play and feed giraffes and their babies and I wanted to cry tears of joy (and halfway did)! We had the day off and it was great getting our energy back. I already missed not seeing the babies today- I can't imagine how sad I'll be saying goodbye!

The Lord's presence is so evident here. I see Him working in so many ways and in all of the smiles of the people here. I can't wait to see how He continues to reveal Himself to me and would love continued prayers!!

PTL we finally made it!

Jambo!! After two long 8 and a half hour flights and hours driving/waiting, we finally made it to Nairobi!! It is so amazing to be here finally and it's been wonderful already! 

We're just leaving Dallas about to start this adventure! Little did we know how much flying and time (30 something hours) we would spend traveling! All of it was so so worth it!

Hannah and I finally met Liz our third team member! She is just the greatest and we are so glad we're all together! This is sweet Victor, who says he is going to be our driver, dad, body guard, bestie for the next four weeks. He is so nice and has the biggest smile ever, we love him already!! We found out we will be in an apartment for the month so we went grocery shopping... STRUGGLE. Good thing Victor is so nice and patient and helped us the whole time! 

This is just a little bit of the slum in Nairobi we will be working. Our compound has 400 children is so great! It's called the Baptist Community Center and is sponsored by Buckner. It is a school/self sustaining farm/med clinic that serves and houses children and orphans in this community, provides water/fresh food/medical services to everyone in the area as well. So wonderful and I can't believe I will be working here for a whole month! The Lord is going to do great things in this ministry and has blessed us so much so far! Tomorrow is our first day to start working at the BCC and cannot wait to share great stories to come!!!!