Day 2: Saturday

Hello again from Africa. Today was a huge long busy day so I will try to tell a bit of what everyone has done.

Oh - before I forget I am supposed to give a special shout out to Hannah from Lauren Hardison!

Good news! Quincy got word from the Airline that his bag IS now at the Nairobi airport. Someone is supposed to bring it to him on Monday.

Started out this morning with a morning devotion from Mary Ndungu and breakfast at 8. I am enjoying walking up the halls each morning and saying "Rise and Shine, It's another Beautiful Day in Machakos". That's a shout out to Hank Harmon so those of you who've been on Wilderness trip know that. Anyone who knows me knows I am SO not a morning person.

After breakfast, the group went down to our work project and put in a TON of heavy labor for about 4 hours straight before lunch. They started leveling the land around the new chapel and got quite a lot done. The girls all formed an assembly line and for a solid hour they passed giant cinderblock type rocks along from a pile in a field to a couple of rooms at the back of the chapel. WHY are we putting rocks in rooms? Because they are next going to crush them and use them to mix concrete for the floors. :) The girls enjoyed singing Disney show Tunes as they worked and I think made it through the entire Mulan soundtrack. I'm sure there is video footage of that. The boys spent that hour removing a GINORMOUS tree stump out of the way. They had to dig it out of the ground, all the way down to the roots and then worked for a long time to move it by tumping it over and then shoveling dirt under one end so they could prop it up a little. Then more dirt, more propping, etc. until they were finally able to remove it completely. All were great sports and worked quite cheerfully.

Camille and I were assigned library duty during this time. Hi Carol Bjorkman - remember that job? It's fun. They started out by having us wrap some books in contact paper, but after I wrinkled a couple, and got one completely crooked, they decided we would be put to better use entering info. from donated books into their computer system. I'm not sure but I think we were fired from the book wrapping job.

We met for lunch around 1 and recouped for awhile. At 2, most of the team went back down to do more digging and I took my 10 awesome students and we did a VBS for some of the local kids here at Scott. We were able to hook up the video and sound for this one so the kids really enjoyed seeing Chadder Chipmunk and all the fun stuff we get to do like at home. Max and Kevin played guitar and are sounding so great - I think they should form a band. Shae and Wes did a great job on the skits again and Heather and Lauren Wright did a GREAT job with the puppets and had the kids all giggling and loving it. Frances, Ellie, and Paige took turns telling the stories and did a great job. Drew was our extra and made it fun, as usual with just being himself - he is sort of a child magnet over here.

Camille Millet (my sweet sister-in-law) was able to go and meet this afternoon with a local ministry for Widows. Most of you may know that my brother-in-law (her husband Greg) passed away suddenly last year while on their 25th anniversary trip. She said it was a very sweet time meeting with 2 of the ladies and sharing their experiences. One of the Scott students started this ministry which now ministers to about 1,000 ladies all in different small groups in homes. They are working with the women teaching them to provide for themselves by growing and selling mushrooms and various other things. I am so thankful that Camille is along with us on this trip. Greg was going to come along with Jon last year, but died before he was able to. He would have loved being here and meeting all these people.

Around 4, we all switched gears and met the local organized kids soccer team in the field as promised yesterday. They wanted to play us vs. them. :) Many of them play barefoot, mind you and are used to running around all day at mile high altitude. I don't know much about soccer - futbol so Roger told me what to write here. Drew scored one goal and Peter B. scored 2 goals and one assist. Dale and Salem were a great defensive duo and apparently Rachel Hailstone and Shay could take on any guys soccer team at any time! They played two full 45 minute periods and were tied at 3/3 until the last 15 minutes. Here is where it pays to be Kenyan. By the end of the game, they had beat us 6/3. It was a great time.

At the end of the game, Salem got up and gave his testimony and told about how his dad had been an NFL football player and he had been trying to follow in those footsteps but had broken his back in early highschool. Since that time, he has felt God's calling to the ministry and wants to become a doctor so he can come back to Africa and set up a medical practice. Next, Peter Bjorkman got up and gave a very powerful speech using the Evangi-ball we had brought (has colors representing salvation through Christ) and did a fantastic job integrating his testimony into each part of the speech. The local kids who are really struggling could really relate to him and listened very intently. Next, Mary Ndungu got up and did an altar call and four young boys prayed to accept Christ right there. We will be following up on those boys giving them bibles and making sure a chaplain from Scott keeps discipling them. We left the Evangiball with their coach along with some candy to pass out.

Oh, the other interesting thing that has been going on today is there has been an African wedding taking place ALL DAY. It started at 10 a.m. and is still going on now around 8:30 our time, from what I can tell. They got married in the church next door, and for a solid hour this morning there were people cheering and motorcycles and cars honking as they drove up. Then, came hours of sounds of singing and celebrating next door. There are 4 huge tents set up right next to the dorm we are in at Scott where they have been celebrating at the reception since around 2. Their entire church choir is here singing and dancing conga lines and all kinds of fun. The bride and groom arrived here at the reception around 6 in a procession of honking cars. They were both on a motorcycle in their suit and wedding dress and drove around the tents in circles four or five times before jumping off and joining the choir dancing. I want to get married all over again (to Jon, again, of course) and have the fun party they are having. :)

Tomorrow we are off to several different churches and schools where most of the men and several of our older boys will be preaching the Sunday service. Please pray for them as they are preparing what to say.

Some of the kids told us they couldn't sleep last night, so Jon has now announced that anyone who doesn't get to bed on time will be put on his brother, Brian's taskmaster working team. He
somehow manages to get those kids working harder than anyone else around here. And he manages to do it with great encouragement and fun. Anyway, a day of heavy labor with Brian is the best way to insure they will most definitely be tired the following night. And let me tell you, they will ALL be ready for bed early tonight!

Thank you again for your comments on the blog. I take and read them all to the students. They were especially amused with Leslie Gilbert's "You sow girl" comment to Paige. She turned slightly red but it was funny. Jeff, I can't wait to tell Brian about the filming with Newman in his office. That is so random and hilarious.

Oh and YES, I will TRY to get some pictures up. We brought a ton of cameras, but unfortunately forgot the cord that connects to a USB port. I think Mimi has one with her camera so she has promised to let us try to upload a couple of photos from her camera tomorrow sometime.

I will try and get another post written tomorrow but not sure if this room will be open on Sunday so if you don't hear from us, don't worry. All are still feeling relatively well. A couple of people have mentioned minor tummy ailments but nothing of the sort like last year that seemed contagious. Everyone is showing up for meals and nobody is in bed or anything like that so we are doing quite well.

Can't end without saying Goodnight to my sweet kids...Marshall, Mikayla and Marie! We miss you! We love you tons! And thanks to Kelly and Helen and baby Grace holding down Fort Millet while we're away and taking such good care of them! We love you all!

Jenni Millet