Day 3 - Sunday June 13

Hello everyone

Today was our third day here and everyone is still doing well and feeling fine. I'm trying to get some photos to upload from Mimi's camera but have been waiting around 15 minutes for 2 to load and can't yet tell if it's made any progress at all so we'll see. If not, I'll try again later from a different computer.

Today started out with an early breakfast at 7 a.m. and then our various groups started heading out to about 8 different churches. Today, Jon and I took Rachel Hailstone and Ryan to our church group. A different Scott student accompanied each team wherever they went, as always. The Scott students are required to have an assigned ministry while they are here, so they have established relationships with most of the places we visit. Our group started out visiting an all-girls school church service. The service is run by the students and was quite impressive. They sung to us for about 45 minutes before we were introduced. Ryan was quite the gentleman and volunteered to go first giving his testimony since Rachel was looking a little nervous. He did a great job and got quite a lot of cheers from the all-girl congregation. Next, Rachel got up and looked completely calm as she talked. She started to sit down when she was finished and someone from the audience yelled to her "Sing us a song". She got a panicked look on her face and said "WHAT?" And they said "Yes, please sing for us - who wants to hear her sing? We all want to hear your voice" I was panicking for her. She tried to tell them she doesn't really sing but they would not let her sit down so she finally just broke out in Amazing Grace and guess what? Turns out she is an amazing singer! We were all impressed and they loved it. Jon then got up and gave a sermon before the service was over. On our way home, we visited another church that our Scott guide goes to and were invited to stay for their entire service as well. This one was all in Kikumbu (their local tribal language) We had no idea what they were saying but enjoyed the singing and dancing as usual.

Brian and Camille were at another church with Salem, Megan Meek and Autumn. They said all 3 kids did very well giving their testimonies in front of this church with around 150 people. The students get a little braver each time they have to speak in front of people. Camille then got up and shared her testimony and discovered that about 20 of the women in the congregation were involved in the widows ministry so she was able to talk with them and they encouraged each other. Brian then preached a sermon James 1: 2-4.

Shae is sitting in the computer room with me so I asked her about her service this morning. She went to the Scott Community chapel for a 4 hour service. Quincy preached a sermon on Romans 6:23 and Paige, Shae and Linda Halbert all ran the kids church during that time. Quincy always does a fabulous job preaching - it is definitely his calling and I'm hoping someone got some of it on video for us since all the others in his group were sent out doing the kids ministry.

After everyone got back from all the church services we split into 2 groups. One group went on the school bus to the Woodcarvers village about 30 minutes outside of town. Hey Jill - guess what? I was able to somehow put a suggestion in Jon's head that he didn't need to go there this year (since the bus would be too full) and still make him think he came up with that idea all on his own. If you know us, you know that my husband has a severe problem with buying too many African knick-knacks and we literally have nowhere else to put them. :) Anyway, everyone came back with lots of goodies. The rest of us - Jon, myself, Camille, Roger A., Gary O., Katie, Meg, Autumn, Ellie, and Frances all went for our annual hike up into the Iveti hills right behind Scott seminary. Two of the local Scott friends came along to make sure we didn't get lost. John McCutcheon, you would have been proud of us - we made it all the way to the top this year. We got lots of great photos which I can't post yet because they're on my camera without the cord. Anyway, we had fun handing out candy to all the kids and soon had a whole entourage of about 25 or 30 kids following us everywhere we went.

Mostly, today was just a fun day of rest. We are saving up energy for more digging tomorrow morning bright and early. I've gotta' run to the group meeting real quick but we hope everyone back at home is doing well and enjoying your Sunday as well. Thank you for all the comments and thank you to James Hall and our ABF for praying for us today! Ya'll are so awesome! And please tell the ladies they cannot have Keeno at my house this week. :)

p.s. I've tried 3 times and the photos won't load. I'll try again tomorrow! Sorry!

Jenni Millet