This is from Julie Ellen who talks about her experience going to church on Sunday. She especially enjoyed the circle greeting after church. Someone took this picture a couple of years ago of the circle greeting. President Baneck wrote a wonderful devotional about that and how the circle of the body of Christ extends all around the world =
Today was interesting to say the least. Let’s start off with the fact that I woke up 10 minutes before breakfast was supposed to start. My bad. Although I did get ready in time. We ate then left for church which was about a 45 minute drive, but that’s not exciting enough. We got stuck. Now that adds to the excitement! We tried to get unstuck for about 15 minutes then decided that won’t happen so we ended up walking 40 minutes to church. We were walking at a leisurely pace too. Meaning we got to church when it was supposed to start.
But of course we needed to rest so the pastor took us to his house up the hill and we rested for almost an hour before going down to church. All the people just played music and hung out until we got there though. We had church with the pastor that came with on the trip, Pastor Rick, preaching and another man translating. Church was about two hours which is normal.
After church everyone walks out singing and stands in a line and you literally shake everyone’s hands. We briefly met with the church elders and then went to pastor’s house to eat lunch. After that we went to the school next door. We got a tour and had a presentation from the students which was very nice!
Then we walked back to the bus. But the day wasn’t exciting enough because it decided to downpour on us. It was amazing. Personally I loved it although not everyone in my group was fond of it. When I got back to the bus it stopped which was fine.
The reason I enjoyed walking to church and back from church in the rain is because that is how most Kenyans in the area get around. By their bodies, not by pink buses. It makes us realize how well off we have it and gives you sense of reality.
Oh but excitement doesn’t end there either. We get back and have no power. No big deal right?! Wrong. It gets dark at 6 so lights can be a good thing. Oh and did I mention that all our stuff got wet so everyone has things all around the cabin trying to dry. Trying to dry in lots of humidity. Doesn’t work so well. But even though a lot of our worldly possessions got wet and it does bother us, it is a nice reminder that those things are worldly possessions. Those are things that are nice to have but we don’t need them. The positive we should be looking at is the everyone is safe, happy, alive, and enjoying this amazing country God created.
We had a lot of little moments today that helped us to take this land in how we probably wouldn’t have if we had a bus the whole time. We got to spend more quality bonding time with one another that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Looking at the whole day I can say that this is one of my favorite days so far in Kenya.
