VBS in Nandi!

The team is healing.  Regina still has no voice and a sore throat.  Continue to pray for her.  

She did manage to have a talk with Pastor Beatrice and here is a brief report on what is happening in the VBS they are having.  Please pray that they close on Friday strong in how they have shared Jesus with these children!  It is so great that the training that they received is being used!  

Don't miss this Sunday at FCBC when the team shares their stories.  

"She is in the midst of DVBS.  This is the third day and the enrollment has reached 545!  She wants us to know they are using the training techniques that we presented to them and will never forget them.  They have had to bring in some "untrained" help and are doing the best they can to show them how to work with the children.  Their trained teachers are happy though Pastor Beatrice says!  Pastor Beatrice is teaching too, although she says she has to sometimes sit down to teach.  She says though that the naproxen is still helping her to be pain free, Carolyn.

What a wonderful partner Pastor Beatrice is to us and NGCI and what a timely mission our team was able to carry out in Nandi.  Please continue to pray Pastor Beatrice and her team through the rest of DVBS, which will end on Friday.  They are truly following in Christ's footsteps."

 

Team Members are Sick

Re-entry for a mission trip can be difficult for a lot of reasons.  For this particular team there is a lot of post trip illness.  Please pray for each member as they heal.  The three members that have specific symptoms are:

Melissa:  high fever and dehydration.

Jeff: aches and chills

Regina: VERY sore throat

Pray for Carolyn and Virgil, that they stay well!

The Team is Coming Home!

THE TEAM IS COMING HOME! 

Below is the last blog entry from the field.  As I write this, the team is two hours from landing, Tuesday at 3:30.   Their work is done.  Our work is not.  The team needs our prayers as they transition back to their every day lives.  Pray that they will adjust quickly to time differences.  Pray that they will be able to process their experience.  Pray that their work will continue in their absence.  

Our wonderful morning started with a wonderful walk past the sea of green tea fields and serene hills to our first service at Nandi Pentecostal Church. We got there early to visit the Sunday School classes. The children’s voices were echoing throughout the sanctuary and the team enjoyed listening to them in the classroom. Martin and Jackie, two of our Kenyan teammates, added their Nairobi Gospel flair to the singing and taught the children two new songs. The children separated into their age groups. Carolyn and Jeff followed Class C to their room while our teammates headed to different classrooms. We really enjoyed Teacher Alice’s class and to our great surprise, she told the story of Jesus feeding the masses from John 6:11-13 by using two of the storytelling techniques we had taught them during our training (showing signs and basket story). Teacher Alice also used a great visual technique with pictures and words to help the children learn the memory
verse of John 6:35 – I am the bread of life. He that comes to me shall never hunger and he that believes in me shall never thirst. It was awesome seeing them put the training to good use! 

After Sunday School, we headed down to the sanctuary and joined the whole congregation for some praise. After several beautiful songs, Carolyn introduced the team and it was time for the sermon. At NPC, the children go outside with their teachers during the sermon. Earlier, the team had decided that the young ones would go outside and play, while the old fogies would stay inside and listen to Pastor David preach the gospel. Melissa and Jeff followed the Sunday School teachers outside and played some of the games the teachers had learned during their training. It was fantastic! 

After church, we drove down the road and paid a visit to Pastor Beatrice at her house. She enjoyed hearing the message from Kay Blocher’s Wednesday morning Bible study group. Afterwards, we talked and laughed and enjoyed learning about Pastor Beatrice’s family. Pastor Beatrice’s son, Ben, took us to his tea farm, which was a short walk from Pastor’s house. We learned the ends and outs of growing tea and the tea business. We had a great day! 

We begin our journey home on Monday morning and will arrive in the US on Tuesday afternoon. It will be bittersweet to leave our Kenyan friends – they are so dear to us! Please pray for traveling mercies for us! Pray for smooth flights, energy when we need it and rest when we can get it. We will see you soon!

PUSH

                                         

                                     A picture of Pheobe from another trip 

On Friday, we led an extra session in the morning that we had not planned to lead (we are flexible!). A few teachers came and we were able to talk to them in more depth about their Sunday School programs and the challenges they face. Many are in churches where the leadership does not value Sunday School or children’s programs. These teachers have a deep passion for children, even leading Bible clubs with 60 children in their homes (because there is no space at church) or caring for children coming from difficult situations. Their heart for children inspired us and we were able to encourage and pray for them, as well as work together to come up with some practical ways to help.  Pastor Kamar from Nandi Pentacostal Church was especially encouraging and has committed to speaking to pastors about the value of children and Sunday School. 





Before our training, Phoebe led our group in a wonderful devotion that turned out to be so timely. We wanted to share it with you: 

Dealing With the “Nothing Phase” of Your Prayer 
1 Kings 18:42-44: Ahab got up to eat and drink. Elijah went to the top of Carmel and bowed down on the ground to pray. He said to his servant, Please go back to Mount Carmel, and look toward the sea.” He went up, looked, came back, and said, “There’s 
 through six seasons of prayer until finally “a little cloud like a man’s hand” appeared. We are not told how long it took this warrior of prayer to bring down rain after three and a half years of drought and famine but I can tell you, it did not take less than six hours of continuous prayer even after God had promised to send down rain. Elijah knew how to deal with delay in his prayer
life. 

Please PUSH in prayer for these teachers – that they will not lose heart and will put into practice what they have learned. Pray for the pastors and elders of their churches to understand how valuable children are and how important it is to teach them. Pray for the children in these churches to know that God loves them. Pray that God will give even us a passion for children that will match these beautiful teachers. 

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY ADVENTURES!  

On Friday afternoon and Saturday, we were treated to some wonderful sites and people! After the additional teachers’ training on Friday morning, we headed out to the Yala River, just a short ride from where we are staying. The Yala River feeds Lake Victoria, which feeds the Nile River. Giant rocks formed some beautiful rapids and falls surrounded by lush green trees and plants. Jeff wanted to swim but we convinced him not to take the plunge since at least two members of our team would have probably had heart attacks if he did!

Next, we drove down a long, dirt road through the second largest rainforest in Africa to Rondo Retreat in Kakamega Forest. This is a former English estate built in the 1800’s. A large English-style house and several cottages are surrounded by giant trees, lush green vines, vivid flowers and serene grounds. We wandered through the estate, watched some monkeys playing high up in the trees and took tea (with chocolate cake!). It was a beautiful and calming place.

On Saturday, we had the honor of visiting with Jackie’s family in nearby Busweta. We shucked maize; met the hens, chicks, cows, rabbits and goats; had an amazing meal (mandazi and chapatti) and saw Jackie’s childhood home. Best of all, we got to meet Jackie’s mom, Esther, and some of her sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews. They received us with such joy and generosity and we all left feeling so grateful to have been there. 

GRADUATION DAY! 

We have been blessed to be here in Nandi to lead this fantastic teacher training. The teachers from Kenya have shown great promise and have a great passion for teaching kids. They can’t wait to take our training back to their churches and put it into action! Our morning was spent playing and teaching games like Catch the Lion’s Tail, Cat and Mouse, Guess Who, Ships and Sailors, Blob Tag, Trust Walk and Protect Me. We ended the training with a planning session of “What Do Sundays Look Like.” The teachers used all the knowledge they had gained from the 12 sessions of our training to plan out two complete Sunday School lessons. 

The highlight of the day was the group graduation where each teacher received a graduation certificate and a bag of supplies to bring back and use to teach the children at the church. The team is blessed with great support from home and from Kenya. God has allowed us to train these wonderful teacher to help spread the Word across Kenya. 

Please pray that the teachers will be able to share their new learned skills with others, changing discipleship for children all over Kenya!  

Amazing Work!

                                               Storytelling and Puppets
                                                      Sample Puppet by Jamie Hughes


Jeff continued Session 7 from Tuesday on helping children pray. The activity he taught was how to create and use a prayer cube to make it easier for children to get started praying. During the rest of the morning of our second day of teacher training, we 
focused on creative story telling techniques. Melissa kicked off creative story telling with a revival of Jesus calming the storm. The Kenyan teachers and Melissa stomped, clapped and rubbed their way to an Oscar winning performance in an audience participation story. Virgil led the group through the story of Noah using a fill in the blank technique. CNN would have loved to produce Regina’s interview with an eyewitness (Martin) to the battle between David and Goliath in her interview story, which the teachers loved and learned how to create. Next, Phoebe and Jackie instructed the teachers on how to tell a basket story which included a teammates’ pair of smelly socks and almost drowned a Kenyan
teacher. She survived and the group loved the techniques that Phoebe and Jackie taught them. Last but not least, Jeff showed off his best teaching style (according to his teammates) – being silent! He showed signs to tell the story of David and Goliath. At the end, he got a rousing round of applause but he was not sure if it was for his story or his silence! 

After lunch, the team and Kenyan teachers got our hands dirty making puppets. What a great success! For two hours, we cut, sewed, folded and colored puppets. Each teacher got to make one felt puppet and as many paper puppets as they could make. Carolyn showed off her Freudian side by teaching the class how to talk to a puppet and use it to teach the Bible. We had a wonderful day!