A trip of a life time!

How do words begin to express 2 weeks in Africa, 2 countries, over 500 children, 5 ministries, 22 team members, and 1 million amazing memories?! "Amazing" doesn't even seem to do justice to begin to describe our experience but I will try!

Curtis and I both have had extensive mission experiences in the past. He has gone on more than 11 short term mission trips that brought him to nearly every continent in the world. and I had been to eastern Kenya for a total of about 17 months. But with all my time overseas, I had not spent much time specifically in orphan ministry. So I have to admit that even I doubted at times how effective we could be in such a short time there. But the most amazing aspect of this trip was to see how such simple acts of kindness could so deeply affect an orphaned child. These children are so hungry for love and attention that the simplest touch, hug, kiss or word of encouragement is something that they will remember for the rest of their lives. What seems small and insignificant to us ... means the world to them! Wow! What simple, yet powerful love?!

What I continued to hear over and over again from the local people was such an expression of thanksgiving. They thanked us continually for being willing to leave our comfortable homes in America and travel half way across the world so that we could spend some time with them. They were so blessed by our visit and we were so blessed to know how much it meant to them!

Our team was on a mission not only to love and bless the orphaned children but also to relieve some of the burden for the workers. They work so hard day in and day out to care for the children so we wanted to go and serve them as well. There were times that we told the workers to go take a break while we cared for the children for a while. And twice we were able to shop for, prepare and serve a feast for the workers and children (And in Africa that is no small task!).

We also brought so much needed supplies like clothes, baby formula, wipes, diapers, medicine and more! My mom had brought an entire suite case full of supplies and had been praying about where to distribute the formula she had purchased. She didn't feel like she was supposed to give all the formula to the ministry that specifically requested it and so hung on to it, not knowing there was a need at the next orphanages we were going to. But sure enough, at "Haven of Hope" in Kenya my mom asked the owner whether or not she needed formula and the woman started crying and praising God... She had been praying for a week for formula because they were out. Both my mom and the owner broke down in tears because of God's goodness.

(Owner at Haven of Hope)

We also did a VBS lesson for all the children. We told them that they are beautifully made in God's image and that we are kings and queens in God's royal family when we believe in Jesus! We then had paper crowns for each child that they could personally decorate and keep. One of the girls on our team had brought a polarized camera. So we took a picture of each child with their crown and gave the picture to them to keep so they could always remember the truth they learned that day.

In Kenya especially, the older children like to write letters to you as a sign of friendship... and of course they would like a letter in return. At one of the orphanages we were staying at, the children wrote so many letters to us and they took the stickers and jewels that we gave them to decorate their crowns and used them to decorate our letters. How selfless! These children were taking what they had (what we had just given to them) and giving it to us!

These are just a few ways that we were used in Uganda and Kenya to serve the people there! Later I will post about individuals that we met and how they stole our hearts!