Day One: Friday June 11

Jambo from Africa!

We have just finished dinner the first day. Jon and I are sitting here reading all your comments and writing them down to share with the students when we meet up in just a few minutes. So let's hope the computer lets me type all of this and push send before anything shuts down or we have to leave. Thank you for your comments to us - they are all a huge encouragement.

By the way, for those of you who are used to reading Jill Cox's highly detailed, extremely entertaining blogs in the past...well, let's just say I'll do my best but this may not be quite the caliber of what you are used to. I can be amusing, but mostly only to myself. :)

We got here at Scott late last night around 1:30 in the morning our time. We quickly realized at the airport that we were not going to fit our entire team and all our luggage into just one bus and the Scott van so we waited while they called for a third van to come for us. Thanks to James Ndungu for helping coordinate that via phone. OH, and for those of you who heard my pathetic news of how I lost my drivers license literally within one minute of crossing through the security at DFW ...GOOD news! I FOUND it in the very bottom of my backpack last night while unpacking. So thanks to my kids especially who were praying for that. And don't worry - I am usually not that irresponsible and promise not to lose any students!

This morning we slept in a bit and had breakfast around 9. Then we had a couple of hours to finish preparing for the various places we would go today. We sang Happy Birthday to Quincy and yes, Michelle, we got it on video. In fact, we did it twice because Jon started to say nice things about Quincy BEFORE I had the chance to turn on the camera; so I made him start over and repeat it all again. Which is why Quincy won't look actually all that surprised in the video but he enjoyed it and we are SO thankful to have him along on the trip again because he is amazing and has such a great heart for God! :) We haven't heard anything from the airport about his missing suitcase yet but he does have a few changes of clothes in his carry on bag and seems to be just fine with it. We then met with the headmaster and the Scott students who were accompanying our teams today. We got a brief tour of the new chapel being built and saw our work project we'll be working on starting tomorrow.

Around 2:45 we started heading off in various groups to about 10 different schools. My team and one other led a short VBS program at 2 different local primary schools. Kevin King did a great job leading the music on my team and Shae and Wes performed a skit and then did a very amusing puppet show as Paige told the Bible story of Peter being freed from prison by an angel. They all did a great job. Amber Marshall took Ellie, Drew, Max and Lauren H. to do the other VBS and I heard they did a great job as well. Amber, Ellie, Meg Griffin and Rachel H. all later got to join in an impromptu dance at an all - girls school and enjoyed trying to keep up with the locals.

The rest of the teams all went to highschools in small teams of 4 or 5 and gave their testimonies. It sounds like most of the schools had at least 400 students so it's always a little overwhelming to have to get up and speak to such a large group, especially on your first day in Kenya. But as Jon reminded them all this morning - it's not really our testimony and not really about us. It's the Lord's testimony of what He has done and what He is doing in our lives.

I got to sit in the field and watch Kevin King and a new friend we met last night - an American from Louisiana who is here by himself to serve this summer named Luke. Anyway, the two of them joined the local kids for their soccer practice and a quick game of soccer. We suddenly remembered that we are at a much higher elevation here. It's about a mile high so the locals can run circles around most of us but it was a fun game and the local kids are all expecting them to come back and play again tomorrow.

All of us are feeling fine and in good spirits. Lauren H. is FINE and I think maybe a little embarrassed that I told everyone that she threw up on the plane. It was just a slight case of motion sickness and she is fine now. We are all taking every precaution to do whatever it takes to NOT get any stomach issues going around this year.

Tomorrow we will be starting early working on a project helping at the new chapel building for Scott. They showed it to us today and from what we can understand, here is what we're doing: There is one small hole dug near one end of the chapel that is about 2 feet lower than the entire rest of the area. We will be digging EVERYthing within a 10 foot radius around all sides of the chapel DOWN to the level of that hole and then carting off the dirt. We have been told that they have shovels for us so we are looking forward to lots of good video footage of students digging their little hearts out for the next couple of days. I think we are also moving some rocks they have for fencing afterward. There are no machines, just us, but we have all remarked about how much we enjoy the simplicity and the lack of useless noise.

We will be taking another larger, bigger, group of students to do another Vacation Bible School program tomorrow for some of the local children. They LOVE the puppets we brought and seem to find us funny for some reason.

By the way, can I just say to the Bjorkman family...your Peter is WONDERFUL!!!! Oh my goodness, we are so encouraged to see the amazing things God has done in his life and hear some of the stories he has been sharing with us. For those of you who don't know, Peter is a former TCA student, who graduated a few years ago, and came with us as a student on this mission trip 3 years I think. He went off to college and last year felt God calling him back to Africa so he has been living here for the past 5 months serving God and ministering to people in some small villages. He is already fluent in Swahili and speaking to the locals as though he was born here. He was there to meet us all at the airport last night and has already been a HUGE help to us and a great encouragement for the current students. He has a true servants heart and I have noticed little things like after we all left the cafeteria from lunch today, he just went back in the kitchen and got a rag and started cleaning up to help out the staff. Plus, he's really funny. I now feel a tremendous urge to fix him up with a wife but Jon says I cannot meddle or interfere in his life at all so "whatever".

Okay, I will sign off for the night. To my kids...we love you and miss you and I will send you a message through facebook if it works in just a minute. But I am glad to hear you are brushing your teeth and taking care of each other. Give Uncle Kelly and Aunt Helen and Grace a big hug from us and thank them for taking such good care of you while we're gone. Good night everyone! More tomorrow.

Jenni Millet