Day 9 : Saturday June 19

Okay, so power outage #3 just wiped out all of my typing for today so far. :) I'll try again.

Today we split into 3 groups for the morning. One group stayed here and finished out the work project on the Scott chapel. They are now DONE and accomplished all of our goals for the chapel. I am sure one of them got photos, but I don't have them here on my camera so sorry I can't post that. When we get home, we will put all the photos and edit the video into a dvd movie for the students.

We left another group of students here at Scott to run a VBS program for some local children. Wes and Shae offered to step up and run that and did a great job. We did another VBS later in the afternoon as a large group and the students really have gotten this thing down now. Lauren Wright had written out some questions and was handing out candy to kids who were listening well and answered the questions right.

Jon and I, Gary, Autumn, Dale, and James all went to the orphanage to deliver the tubs of supplies you had donated. We were also very blessed to get to participate in a groundbreaking ceremony for their new property. Mary, the director, was so happy because she was really wanting us to see the beginnings of the work and was worried she wouldn't be able to get the building permit on time. The official who oversees the permit department has for some reason turned her down in the past when wanting to make improvements to the existing orphanage building. But she was happy to find that when she went to the office, the old official had just been let go - as of last week - and the new guy is very supportive and made sure she had the building permits in hand before she left. So we were able to go to the new property and pray over it with her and shovel the first couple of piles of dirt together. We know that the new property will allow them to take better care of the children and will be a huge blessing for them.

One other really cool thing that happened today at the orphanage was with a little boy they have there named Dennis. Dennis is significantly handicapped, about 8 years old, in a wheelchair most of the day and doesn't really ever seem to make much eye contact or respond in any way. Jon and I always make a point to go and visit with him. This year we gave him a giant teddy bear that they could strap in his wheelchair with him to help prop him upright. So today Jon and I went in to say goodbye to him and decided to pray over him. As Jon was praying, he suddenly started chattering away and when we looked up, we saw him smiling and looking straight at us - something he's never done before. Please pray for him to find a loving family that can meet all of his needs. If we could take him, we would, but to adopt a Kenyan child you have to actually live in Kenya for a full year...something we obviously cannot do at this point in our lives.

By the way, for those of you who asked, we THINK we calculated this correctly - but it looks like a new commercial grade washing machine would cost around $1500. This would greatly help them, but she will never directly ask for or expect anything. They are always just so grateful for any help and supplies that we can give.

We did hear from the Kajairdo group last night that everyone is doing well and that KJ is feeling better again. Camille and Mary apparently had an interesting day as their Land Rover only turned out to be able to get them HALF way up the mountain and then died on them coming down about HALF the way down. They didn't fully explain how they managed to get back ( they were having a meeting when we called and so we only talked briefly) but they were both laughing about it and said it was quite the adventure.

Also, they said that Salem was able to go preach in the open market and reported that two people accepted Christ. They were very excited as one of those two people is a very key leader in the Masaai tribe and we hope will be an encouragement for others to believe as well. Tomorrow, the whole group will be trekking up the mountain - about a 2 hour hike - and then will be having church with the people in the village up there and staying for the early afternoon before returning. Please pray for their safety as they go.

We will be splitting up here tomorrow to about 7 different churches. All of the men and all four of the boys here - Wes, Dale, James, and Kevin will all be doing the sermon in the church they visit. As you can imagine, these young guys are a bit nervous so please pray for them as well. Tomorrow afternoon, we will be going to the other side of town to a pretty river area for a hike. Tomorrow night we will be packing up to leave early Monday and meet up with the other group in Nairobi and then travel together to the Safari. The time has gone SO fast but has been a great trip.

Parents, your students are AWESOME and we have been just so impressed with how hard they have worked and how they have been so willing to step up into uncomfortable situations with evangelizing and sharing their testimonies and preaching. They have done a great job and we hope they have grown a lot from their time here. They have all had great attitudes and have been extremely respectful so you can all be very proud of them.

OH, I almost forgot to post this but I want to brag for just a second on Autumn Adams. She has just been FABULOUS this whole trip, as have all the other kids. But yesterday, we were all so amused at her presentation that she did with Katie at the Mumbuni Primary school. They came up with a whole storyline on the 10 plagues they wanted to present and Autumn came up with a visual aid for every one. They had Kool Aid to turn the water into "blood". She even went out and caught some grasshoppers AND some little frogs and brought them along in a water bottle for the kids to see. She is truly Bob Adams' kid for sure! :) Anyway, she did a great job and the students just went crazy over the whole thing so I just thought you'd get a kick out of that.

Okay, so tomorrow MAY be the last post you will see depending on whether or not we find any internet connection at the Safari Site. Some have them, others do not. Thank you for your prayers over the past few days. We have definitely felt them and it has been a GREAT trip!

Sincerely,

Jenni Millet