Blessings Upon Blessings

I titled this blog Blessings upon Blessings because my time in Ethiopia and my time in Kenya so far have been filled with so many blessings. Having the opportunity to pour into orphaned kids has been a blessing. Having my heart touched by these kids has been a blessing. Being able to spend lots of time reading scripture has been a blessing. Sharing my testimony has been a blessing. Numbers 6:24-26 says, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” I was recently in a car, looking out the window at God’s creation, and reflecting on the last eight months. I thought, “Thank you, Lord, that you chose me and called me to go on a journey with you.” I can’t help but be in absolute awe of His protection, provision, goodness, grace, and love for me.

The last few weeks of our time spent in Ethiopia looked similar to the first few. We spent our mornings teaching the kids a Bible lesson and spent the afternoons playing games or watching movies. Towards the end of our stay we had three different other groups join us. The first was a team of four people (Gilian, Sherine, Ruth, and Esuar) from the Netherlands. Their focus is sports ministry and “playing for the glory of God.” They brought lots of energy and lots of fun! The next team were two Italians (Madelana and Alessio). They came and did ministry with us while they waited for the rest of their group to arrive. The last team was 17 Italian high school students who were friends with Madelana and Alessio. They came the last few days we were there, so we didn’t spend a lot of time with them. Ethiopia has been the hardest goodbye so far. All the kids wrote us notes before we left, and I’ll cherish their sweet words forever. To be known and loved by the Testimony kids was something really special.

We arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, on August 10th. The first four days we spent time with our new teams, finding out new roles, and doing ministry orientation. I have a role again. I am the treasurer for my team, which means I handle all finances. It’s been an enjoyable and easy role so far. After our time in Nairobi, we traveled to our ministries. My team, Abby, Alex, Ella, and I, are in a town called Isiolo. A fun fact about Isiolo is that it’s in the middle of Kenya, so it’s often called the heart of Kenya. The ministry we have partnered with is called New Dawn African Girl. Their mission is “to care for orphaned, abused, and neglected young girls. To show them Christ’s love and teach them life skills that will sustain them and give them a secure future.” When we first got here, there were 12 girls. On Friday three more girls came in. The girls’ ages range from 5 to 16. They all stay in a six-story girls’ home. The home can house up to 60 girls. It’s a prayer that one day it will be full. We are also staying at the girls’ home in the guesthouse, which is on the fifth floor. Our first couple of weeks we spent a lot of time with the girls because they weren’t in school yet. In the mornings we read a chapter of Esther and did a devotional about what we read. In the afternoons we would watch a video about a Bible story, recap the video, and then do a craft. Every evening at 8:00 p.m. we worship, give a word of encouragement, and pray before the girls go to bed. Last week on Tuesday the girls went back to school. We woke up at 4:30 in the morning to give the girls their first-day-of-school notes before they left at 5. The rest of the day we spent relaxing and as a team. On Wednesday morning we heard Mama Nancy’s (our host’s) testimony, and then in the afternoon she taught us how to make chapati. We love chapati and are excited to make it for our families when we get home. Thursday was our Sabbath, so we spent the day relaxing. Friday we went to the market with Mama Nancy to get fruit. It was quite the experience. After the market we went out for lunch and ate goat meat. I enjoyed it but wouldn’t want to eat it again. On Saturday we went to a village. The people in this village have very, very few resources. It was heartbreaking to see but so sweet to see the joy they had. They were all so appreciative of us spending the afternoon with them. Some of the girls that are in the care of New African Dawn Girl came from this village. Today we got the opportunity to go to the church that all the girls go to. We sang a couple worship songs, gave a message, a word of encouragement, and got to pray for the church community. I have loved getting to know these girls and seeing them become more open with us. I’ll post some photos in the next couple of days!

With love,

Lillie