We're going to eat what?!

Wow! What a couple of weeks this has been! The first 516Missions Team has come and gone. We prayed hard, worked hard, played hard, and rested hard. I'll try to recap all that has happened so that you can see how God worked this week.

We drove down to Mombasa on Friday morning to get the group from the airport. It's always so much fun to watch everyone walk out of the door after getting safely through customs.

Most of the team had been here before, so it was more of a reunion than a shocking "I'm in Africa!" moment, but there were a couple of new faces who soaked in the newness of this culture. There were a total of 10 people who came on the trip. The group was so diverse! It made for an incredible group to work with. We stopped at a pizza joint for a late lunch before beginning our 2 hour trek home....well what we THOUGHT was going to be two hours. About 30 minutes outside of Mombasa, our bus overheated and we had to sit on the side of the road for a while before we could continue on. We finally got back to Malindi and had a quick snack of samosas and chips before a devotional time and bed.

Swahili class with Gertrude!

The group brought a new sign for the church

On Saturday morning, we woke up (and did Insanity of course) and then had Swahili class. In the middle of Swahili class, the interns went up to the church for choir practice so that we could sing on Sunday. After Swahili class and lunch, we all went up to the church here in Malindi. We split up into small groups and passed out 1200 invitations to church. With the invitations we also passed out the Gospel of John and Romans in Swahili. I was in a group with Karl and Ricklynn and we had so much fun talking with people around town. There were two visitors at church on Sunday who came because of the invitations we all passed out!

On Sunday morning we went to church in Malindi. I taught the children's Sunday School, Brittany and Julie taught the youth/young adults Sunday School, and Clayton preached in the morning service. Julie led the choir again with a little bit of Oh Happy Day! We had a lot of fun singing with them. Church in Malindi is always an awesome experience and I'm learning to pick out words in Swahili so I know what is going on some of the time! :)

Clayton preaching at church

Julie and Brittany teaching Sunday School

Teaching Sunday School with Kenya translating

Julie did a great job leading the choir

After church and lunch, we got all of our stuff ready for the basketball camps and loaded up the trailer (that the interns fixed up the week before). We almost thought for a minute that Julie and I had wired the trailer lights incorrectly. Turns out, we did everything right! woohoo! Girl power! Clayton, Ben, and James worked on the rest of the wiring for the Land Rover and got all of the lights to work (eventually). The team sorted bracelets, packed sleeping bags, assembled basketball goals, and loaded all of our waters and food. We celebrated with a game of pool volleyball before dinner, devotion, and bed.

Monday was our fun day to play. Usually on this day, we go on a safari. Since most of the team had been to Kenya before, we decided to change it up a bit and go snorkeling! Sounds fun, right? I'll let the series of pictures speak for themselves:

What a beautiful day for a swim...rainy and windy

The weather was not cooperating...

Everyone was FREEZING!

Swimming in the Indian Ocean!

We saw a lot of cool fish

We even saw a huge starfish right before the rain and waves sent us back to the boat

We got off the boat to hang out on the beach during lunch

Our boat was floating when we stopped for lunch...but that changed

Where we stopped for lunch...Devil's Rock....apparently it was cursed.

Huddling under the rock trying to get warm!

Samuel caught a sand crab.

The guides cooked seafood for lunch, so we all got back on the boat to eat.

Eating lunch on the boat....worrying about the tide

We're not too optimistic about the tide

We played with starfish as we were waiting to see if the tide would come back in.

The boat was NOT floating when we left, but the SUN was finally out!

We had to walk from the water to the road to meet our bus to get home....

So excited to have a BIBLE!

After finally getting to the house, we had a delicious dinner, a little devotion time, and bed as early as possible to get ready to leave the house at 5 AM the next morning for the village. In a very quiet 2-hour bus ride, we made it to Singwaya Primary School. They had a little grassy area at the back of their school that had been set aside for us to camp. We set up our tents and designated it the 516 Village for the week. We began our basketball camp with the preschool class. Most of these kiddos only know their tribal language, Giriama, so communication was quite difficult. Within the first 5 minutes I had one run all the way across the field screaming and crying because I tried to move her into the line. We all got through it and by the end of the rotations, the kids were having fun. We had pojo for lunch (it's so good) and then went back out for round two with some of the older kids. The best part of the whole camp is when we ask the students if any of them have a Bible at home. None of them raise their hands. Then we tell them we will be giving them one at the end of the camp and they begin to clap. You know that you're changing eternity by standing there handing them the Holy Word of God in their own language. Simply amazing.

Passing and Defense station

Our Passing Station

Giving out Bibles and high fives!

Julie learning how to make coconut beans

Passing out Bibles

Shooting drills

Best Group EVER!

The mamas trying to teach me how to carry water

The shooting drills station

The Bible story station

My friend Hezikiah!

best drill partners ever!

The song and snack station

Clearing the basketball court

The finished court

We did another 2 rounds of basketball camp on Wednesday. My station was passing drills with Ben (Little Ben because we had 2 Bens on the trip). One of the pastors from one of the churches here on the coast, Juma, helped us translate. We had so much fun at our station! Ben, Juma, and I taught them everything we knew about passing a basketball....if you know me, you know how LITTLE that is....but we had a ton of fun doing it! We also cleared out the land where the basketball court was. Everyone pitched in at lunch and after the camps for a couple of days and we got it almost to just a dirt court. Before we began clearing it, the entire court was full of "miba" (stickers). It was not conducive to playing basketball barefoot. Since most of the students don't wear shoes, we needed to make sure it was a playable area.

516 Village

The rigged up shower house

My legs were so dirty, we played tic tac toe by wiping it off

Devotional time each night around the camp "fire"

At the end of each day, we were all pretty gross. Some people chose to wash off with a basin shower (a bowl of water) but most people just showered using baby wipes. A couple of nights, people washed each other's hair. All in all, we were pretty gross. Each night, we met around the lanterns and had a little bit of worship time and devotional. The mamas that were cooking for us and some of the other church members joined us each night. The kids from the school would bring out their desks so that we wouldn't have to sit on the ground. It was super sweet.

The church members sang for us Thursday night during devotional time.

"red beans and rice!" or coconut beans and rice

Sweet Kelsie getting us some dinner

Every day in the village we had Kenyan food. It was either beans and rice, beans and ugali, pojo and chapatis, pojo and ugali, or mahamri, but on Thursday and Friday, we had goat. Now, having goat in the village means you go out and buy a goat, then you come back and slaughter it, and then cook it and eat it. You don't just cook the muscle. You cook EVERYTHING. So jokingly, Brother James said that Kelsie (the youngest one on the trip) was going to have to slaughter the goat. Unjokingly, she totally did. She put her Kenyan woman pants on and did her thing. So, for dinner Thursday night we had pilau with goat meat. Then for lunch on Friday, we had matumbo. Matumbo is all of the innards boiled and served in a broth. Yeah....we had a small dose of culture that day.

Now what part is this?

Friday morning, Ben got to share his testimony with the whole school

After lunch on Friday, we all went over to the basketball courts and played short games with the students. There were both guys' and girls' games for each grade 3-8. The students did really well! Everyone had a ton of fun! Well, one of our team members, Aly, got banged up pretty badly, but had fun none the less.

Presenting the school with the basketball equipment

Hundreds of people came out to the cinema

Friday night we showed the Jesus Film in the tribal language of Giriama. Satan tried to deter us. It rained a couple of times, the projector went out, the battery ran out, the sound system cut out a few times, but no matter how much Satan tried to prevent it, the Father spoke through that film and at least 34 people were saved! Praise God! The church there at Singwaya got 34 new people to disciple! There's no telling how many more of the (at LEAST) 500 people who were there actually got saved as well. It was incredible! As soon as the pastor asked if there was anyone who wanted to give their life to Christ, there was a rush of people! There were people praying everywhere! It also got a little crazy with the kids that were running around as well, but all in all, it was an incredible evening!

The church plot before

The guys started the clearing to scare all of the secret critters

The church plot after

On Saturday morning, the group loaded up and headed out to the plot that the church had recently purchased. We helped them clear the land so they can build a building. Right now, they are still meeting there at the school, but soon a church building will be up where they can worship! It was amazing to see the visitors (the 516Missions team) and the church members working side by side. It's in those moments that you forget about all of the crazy things in the world and realize that God's love is way more important than anything else. Having a personal relationship with Christ determines your eternity. ETERNITY! This life is only a blip! Get your perspective right, or you may miss the whole point! Some people choose to ignore thinking about eternity because they feel like no one has the right answer. The truth is, Christ is the answer and always will be. Trust that. Trust Him. Believe. Standing in the circle with everyone erased cultural lines and brought us all under one Kingdom of God. It was beautiful.

We drove back to Malindi and SHOWERED! This was after we realized that the puppies had gotten in our house and used the bathroom in several different places (and chewed up a few things). Kenya made us breakfast for dinner. It was amazing. I realized that I had a fever, so after devotional, I went straight to bed. Everyone else stayed up and watched a movie. I thought getting a good night's sleep would get rid of the fever, but when I woke up Sunday morning, I still felt bad, so I opted out of Insanity. We went out to Mangangani for church services. It's always a pleasure to get to worship with the church in Mangangani, but I'm about to shed some light about working on a foreign mission field for you.

Ben preaching at Mangangani

See, we're all human, and we all need a little help from Jesus some days. Sunday was one of those days for me. I love working in Kenya and I love worshipping out in the village, but in every missionary's life, there are days that you wish you were back in your home culture. It wasn't just one thing in particular that gave me this thought, but it was the culmination of things. Keep in mind, I'm not telling you all of these things to complain, but only to be transparent and remind you to pray for missionaries around the world who go through things like this all the time. I was still running a fever and I felt awful. When I got dressed, my shirt AND my tank top BOTH had dirt stains on them. When we got to church, it was raining, so we had to walk from the road to the church in the rain. I sat on a wooden bench about 3 inches wide for the entirety of services. Kids kept sitting in my lap and holding my hands. I couldn't use my Bible during church because the kid sitting in my lap kept wanting to pull it out of my hands. The kids all around me kept talking during services. I know limited Swahili, so communication is always challenging. There was dirt in my purse. A kid kicked dirt in my shoes. I was sweating from head to toe. A baby cried when I talked to him. Little boys kept rubbing their hands in the dirt and then running to me and touching my shirt. Then several of the kids kept calling out my name because they remembered me from last year. Not just once, but about a million times. The ladies made us food, and I did not feel like eating, so I felt bad for not eating an entire bowl of food. Now, none of these things are bad things. Most days I would enjoy everything that happened that day! It is in these moments of weakness that I remember where my strength comes from. It comes from the Lord. If we had to depend on our own strength to get through the day, I would have ended up on a plane that afternoon. I would have been in my home church in a soft chair where I could discipline the children, read my own Bible in my own language in the air conditioning, but that is not what God has called me to do. Fortunately, the Father is my sustainer. He got me through the day and by the end of the day my fever was down to almost normal. The services were great. The choir did an amazing job. Logan did a wonderful job teaching Sunday School and Ben (Big Ben) did a great job preaching. I truly am thankful for the time spent at Mangangani, even if culture shock got the best of me.

After church, we came back to the house. I'm not sure what happened because I fell asleep in the living room for a few hours. I think everyone else went to the beach. After devotional that night, we went around the circle and shared our "good, bad, and ugly." At the end of each trip, we have a time of sharing. It's always hilarious and sometimes a little emotional when we reflect on everything that happened on the trip.

On Monday morning we woke up and after a breakfast devotional, we went souvenir shopping. After a quick trip to town, we loaded up the bus and headed toward Mombasa. Traffic was pretty bad, so we got to the airport around 4:15...and their plane was supposed to leave at 5:15. There was one point where the ticket counter told them they couldn't get on the plane because they were supposed to arrive at the airport so many hours before take off. Thankfully, everything worked out and the team got off safely. They left behind two of their members. Kara and Clayton both stayed behind and will be returning with us at the end of the summer.

After the team left we were going to try to catch a movie at the movie theater, but our plans changed as time got the best of us. We ended up eating at an Indian restaurant and going to get yogurt and coffee before making our way back to Malindi. Tuesday was our day of rest. Clayton, Kara, and Logan decided to go snorkeling while Brittany, Julie, and I sat around the house all day. Fun was had by all! The rest of the week will be filled with some things that need to get finished around the house. Clayton thinks he is going to get rid of the bats that live in the roof. I'll keep you posted. :)

Please pray for our team that will be coming on July 12. It's hard to think that in less than 4 weeks I will be back on a plane for the States when the second team goes back home. I miss my family, but there is a part of me that always wants to be here longer. There is so much we will be cramming into the next 4 weeks, so please pray for all of us that we don't lose sight on what our purpose is. Matthew 5:16.

I love you all! Thanks for the prayers and support! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!
In Christ,
Ashley

Day of Rest

I had to go read my last blog to figure out where I left off because I keep losing track of the days! Where does the time go? Apparently I blogged last Friday, so it's been almost a week, which doesn't seem like a long time, but we've been working hard.

On Saturday we did our Insanity workout and went to the church again to do some more work. There were more church members there this week, even if most of them were children. The missionaries from Mombasa came with us and we all worked together to mow the compound, paint the Sunday School building, fix the roof of the Sunday School building, fix the back fence, secure the main building, cement the walkway, and of course, play with the kids. As I watched Brother James fix the roof of the Sunday School building, I had a culture shock moment. See, the roof is made of makuti. Makuti is dried leaves woven together, and so things live in these dried leaves. When Brother James was trying to put in some mabati (tin) to keep it from leaking, and the roof started raining ants! Huge ants! They just kept falling from the roof! He couldn't even fix it because ants were everywhere! He just brushed the ants off and continued working. It's amazing what you can do when God calls you to it.

After working at the church, we came back to the house and did some work around here. I swept out the guest houses, Julie measured the floors for new flooring, and Logan and Brittany cleaned out a little shed for the generator. It was Josiah's birthday, so Saturday night we had a Mindcraft party. Kenya made a cake and cupcakes and we did presents. Josiah's friend Richard made him a broom since he loves Harry Potter. It was amazing!  Richard is such a sweet kid and we have the same birthday! So guess what we did on Sunday? We had a party for Richard since he was going to be in school on Monday (our birthday).

Sunday morning we did our Insanity workout and went to church. I got to teach Sunday School to the children. I taught them the story of Gideon. Most of them had never heard it, so they listened really well. Brittany and Julie took the "youth group" under the tree to have Sunday School. Brittany taught about believer's identity in Christ. Then Julie played the guitar and led the choir in singing 2 songs. Logan got to preach. It was definitely intern Sunday!

After church we went to Shukrani to eat lunch and then Kenya took us interns into town and we bought Richard a birthday present. Logan drove the van and Julie and Brittany drove the scooter! They did so good driving that little thing! I was so proud. We came back and had Richard's birthday party and ate even more cake. We then had our English Bible study here at the house and Trent, the missionary visiting from Mombasa, led it. His children led the worship and a great time was had by all.











On Monday morning (my BIRTHDAY!) we woke up and did our Insanity workout. It was Pure Cardio. All I have to say is I better drop 4 pants sizes by the end of the summer.... We all met together and read some more of our Cross Cultural Connections book and discussed all of the things that needed to be finished before the group arrives on Friday. We planned to get a few things done each day before our day off. One of the things that needed to be done were the running lights on the trailer. We are going to be using it when the groups come to cart things back and forth and it needed brake lights, the license plate, and other lights and reflectors. We didn't think this task would take too long........except we worked on it ALL DAY LONG! I learned what a pop rivet is though! I also learned that when you touch yourself with a drill bit after drilling into a metal trailer you will get burned (I didn't do it on purpose). We still don't know if the trailer lights work, but we rewired it twice, and we'll see when the Land Rover gets wired. Oh the intern life. The missionaries who were visiting left after lunch and now the kids are a little sad because their friends went home, but we will see them again at the Fouth of July!

After working all day, we had a delicious meal of spaghetti and garlic bread and it was time for MY birthday party! Four days of birthday in a row! James, Josiah, Richard, and now it was my turn! We had cheesecake, and Kenya modified the number candles that she had to make a "26." It was one of the greatest birthdays ever. All of the kids gave me handmade cards and Josiah suggested that they buy me some tire shoes, so they got me those too! The other interns bought me a picture frame and got one of the pictures from our Mt. Longonot trip printed to put in it. It is currently sitting on my night stand. I love it. When I got back to my room, the girls had put streamers on my bed. So much fun! With the three of us in one room, it's like being in college again. It's great to have sweet roommates that make you feel special.

On Tuesday, we woke up and did our Insanity workout. Brittany and Logan went out with James to put the basketball poles in at the school where we will be holding our basketball camps next week. Julie, Kenya, and I cleaned out the garages and went shopping for the groceries for when they group is here. While we were out, Julie and I got to drive the van around town. This is the first time I've actually driven in another country. It was quite interesting. Julie and I both ALMOST hit things, but the important thing to remember is that we didn't ACTUALLY hit anything. It really wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. When we got back to the house, Logan and Brittany had been putting beds together for our guests. We fixed a couple of other things around the house.

Sensing that we were slightly exhausted, we had an earlier dinner and got an extra hour to sleep in on Wednesday. We worked on getting a few things done before the groups arrive. Julie and I fixed the light pole and rewired one of the security lights (and learned later that we did the wrong one). Logan and Brittany dug a trench for the cords to the generator. Kenya made all of the beds for the guests and we all finished a few other things that needed to be done. Julie got on the roof and pulled grass out of the shingles. Logan and James rewired a few things. Brittany and Kenya went to go get the Land Rover out of the shop. It was a full day of work before we all climbed in the tv room to watch Inception and Dumb and Dumber. :)

Today (Thursday) was our day of rest. We intentionally schedule these in so that the things we are doing do not become overwhelming. We all slept in, but because of the schedule we've been keeping, sleeping in consisted of being wide awake at 8 AM. We had a late breakfast and then all of us girls headed into town to treat ourselves to $12 pedicures and massages. Well, I didn't get a massage, but Julie and Brittany did. After hanging out at the salon, we came back to the house for lunch. After lunch, Kenya took the other interns shopping and I took 3 of the kids to the beach with the puppies. When I got back, there was a note left for me. There is a Bible study on Thursday nights at the church. We lost track of what day it was, so they forgot about Bible study before I left to go to the beach. They were all at the church! I felt terrible that I forgot to remember about the Thursday Bible study, but they came back and got us afterwards so that we could go to Shukrani for dinner. We had a pleasant day just relaxing a little bit before the craziness of the 516 Missions team gets underway. We will head out tomorrow morning to pick them up from Mombasa. Please pray with me for our mission team and the work we will all be doing over the next 2 weeks. Pray that the Gospel is spread and that many come to know the Lord and get plugged in to the local church. Pray for our strength and we will be going from sun up to sun down everyday.

I will blog when I can, but no promises until after the group leaves. Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers!

In Christ,
Ashley

Intern Expedition 2013

Wow! Is is already June 7th? Crazy! Happy Birthday, Brother James! And Happy Birthday tomorrow, Josiah! We interns have spent the last few days on an amazing expedition (check out the video on Facebook if you haven't already). We woke up at 4AM on Monday morning and climbed in the Land Rover. Brother James decided to take us on a trip to get away and get our focus on why we are here before the busy-ness of the summer gets underway. With the three girls in the back seat and the boys in the front, we set off on our adventure. I'm going to be honest with you guys, the Land Rover isn't the most comfortable road trip vehicle, but it does an excellent job in Kenyan traffic, that is, when it actually starts... There is something wrong with the starter, so along the way the four interns had to push the car to get it to start. Thankfully at 4:30 in the morning, Brother James was able to get it to start on its own and we were on our way to Nairobi. Take a look at the map below to follow our journey:

We started in Malindi and went through Mombasa and then through Voi and on to Nairobi, about a 10 hour trip. Along the way we fellowshipped and listened to Bob George's book Classic Christianity. It is a fantastic book and a great way to get our hearts where they need to be before we start our intern duties. As we got closer to Nairobi, there is an Ostrich farm where you can RIDE AN OSTRICH! So what else would you do when you are this close to a place like this?

It was awesome! If that is not on your bucket list, put it on there. We finished the journey to the Hoppers' house (they are missionaries in Nairobi), and they took us to a place called Diamond Plaza. Now we didn't know this, but they did this on purpose just to laugh at us. When you sit down at Diamond Plaza (or Little India as they call it), you are swarmed with people and menus. There are several different eateries, so each one wants your business. Brother James and the Hoppers just sat there and watched us as we struggled through this little experience. We finally figured out what to order and got our food. It was delicious. What came next was not so much. While we were in the car, Brother James told us that we were going to have to eat something called paan. He did this with a smirk. So when we were finishing our meal, he hadn't mentioned it in a while, so we thought we were off the hook. Nope. They walked us over to the little shop and ordered an "after dinner mint." None of us knew what paan actually was, so we sat there in amazement as we watched the guy prepare this leaf with stuff on it. He put some red stuff, some green stuff, some seed-looking things, some spices, some other stuff, and some more red stuff and then folded the leaf up and handed it to us.

It was awful. Ernie and Michael Hopper love this as does Brother James. The interns however...well....Logan barely got it in his mouth before he gagged and spit it out. Brittany chewed a little, then spit it out. Julie got most of it down, but couldn't take the leaf anymore and spit the rest out. Me? I ate the whole thing. Not because it was good, but because it was a matter of honor. :) I think I'm going to do like Sissy Hopper and put that as my New Year's Resolution: Don't eat paan.

We woke up early on Tuesday morning and drove about an hour and a half to the Rift Valley. If that's not on your bucket list, add it on there. It's amazing to see God's handy work. The Rift Valley is visible from space because it's so big. We drove to a place called Mount Longonot. This is an inactive volcano. You can hike up the volcano and then you can hike around the rim of the volcano. So we did just that. I'm not going to lie, I am really out of shape, and being 9000 feet in the air when I'm used to Louisiana sea-level is not conducive to physical activity such as climbing a mountain. Yes, I stopped quite often, but we made it to the top. On our way up, we met a Polish man named Chris who was hiking by himself. We met him later on, but he finished way before us. When we got up the side of the mountain, we stopped to eat lunch. We had MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) packed for our trip. I have never had an MRE (or military food as I called it) and so we were all a little worried. Well, the chemical reaction that is supposed to heat the food didn't work, so we all traded the different things in our packages (and our sun-warmed main dishes) and ate enough to get us through the rest of the hike. While resting for lunch, we met two German guys who were hiking the mountain as well. They looked at our MREs and said something in German as they snacked on their little sandwiches. I'm sure it had something to do with Americans being fat because there are like 3000 calories in one of those things. A little later a group of fifth graders came up the mountain. This is the end of the year trip for the International School of Kenya. It was so neat to sit and listen to these students. It made me miss my kiddos a little bit. They all knew what our MREs were (which I would never have known about at that age). Most of the students had some sort of accent, but all of them spoke English. I chatted with the teacher (who was also a math and science teacher) about his job at ISK. I think that there should be a class in college about the different opportunities teachers have once they get out of school. There are schools all over the world looking for teachers, so if any of you out there are looking to go off somewhere, just looking into some international schools.
After our lunch, we set out around the edge of the volcano. We reached the highest peak and kept trucking along. It was a lot more difficult than it sounds. I thought it was going to just be walking, but it was much more intense. It was incredible to see God's creation from such a high point because you realize just how small you really are. Why would the God of the Universe choose to love a tiny little thing like me? And why would I do anything except spend my life living for Him?

That night we were going to camp at a place called Hell's Gate, but it was getting late and we decided instead to drive back to Nairobi. We were super gross, but we wanted to go to this one shopping center that was kind of nice, so we parked in the back of the parking lot and "took a shower." We really just changed into cleaner clothes, wiped the dirt off with baby wipes and water in a wash tub.

We went to the food court and guess what I had for dinner? An ostrich burger. Yep. I mean where else am I going to be able to order than on a menu? Julie had the ostrich fajita and everyone else got Chinese food. We had a wonderful conversation at dinner and really learned a lot about mission work. We went back to the Hoppers' house and stayed with them another night. On Wednesday morning we ate at a place called Java House which was super awesome and then set out for Voi. We decided to break up the trip coming back because we needed to stop to do some things in Mombasa on Thursday, so we wanted to be close enough to get there at a decent time. We got to Voi and ate at a little gas station there. Brother James ordered peppered steak and they had to bring us another bowl of gravy because it was so good that everyone wanted to eat it with their food. We set up camp near the Tsavo Game Park and sat around the little camp table reading and discussing the book Cross Cultural Connections. If you are planning on going to a different country for any reason (or if you plan on traveling at all) you should read this book. After reading a few chapters, we settled in for the night. It blew my mind that we were sleeping less than a mile away from zebras, elephants, and possibly even lions. Don't worry, we were in a gated area with a guard.

The next morning we woke up and went back to the gas station for breakfast for some more peppered steak and eggs. We headed toward Mombasa to go to a meeting at the school in Miritini that the second mission team will be working at. We stopped at the pastor's house for a moment to pick him up. You should have seen all of us stuffed in the car. There were all of us and then the pastor, another church member, and a third church member who was also in charge of the orphanage where a lot of the students from the church live. I wish I would have had my camera because the area where the school is is absolutely breath-taking. The school deputy was very receptive and excited about the basketball camp we will be doing there. We walked around the school to see where we would set everything up. The July team is going to have an awesome time out in this village with the basketball camp and the showing of the Jesus film. July team, get ready...it's gong to be amazing.

After leaving the school and dropping off our extra travelers, we went to do some other business in town and then ate lunch. After lunch we got to go to a place called Haller Park. As you drive into Haller Park, there are giraffes just walking around. No cage. It was crazy! We got to feed the giraffes and walk around the park to see monkeys everywhere! You know how you can walk around most college campuses and see squirrels everywhere? It was like that, but with monkeys. We saw crocodiles, hippos, cape buffalo, eland, tortoises, and very dangerous snakes. It was a pretty neat little place. We continued on to Malindi and crashed pretty hard.

Today was our day of rest. We got to sleep in! We still woke up before 9:00. After a delicious breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy, we got the house ready for guests. A missionary couple and their kids are staying with us for a few days. After getting their rooms ready, we did the first day of Insanity. Yes, we are all starting the Insanity work out and plan to do the whole two month program while we are here. We jumped in the pool after our workout and played with the kids. We've had a wonderful evening fellowshipping, celebrating Brother James' birthday, and eating tacos! (Every Friday is taco night). Tomorrow we are doing Insanity in the morning and then going up to the church to do some work. It's a little sad to think that we only have 7 weeks left in Africa, but there is so much that we are going to cram into those 7 weeks that it's going to fly by. Can't wait for the first 516Missions team to get here next week! Do work! Affect Eternity!

In Christ,
Ashley

Ni vizuri kuona tena!

Jambo! Habari gani?

So, we made it to Kenya. Malindi, Kenya to be exact. We had a very eventful time at the airport on Wednesday. We decided to leave at 8 from the hotel because our flight was at 11. We figured that would give us plenty of time. Well, we walked into the lobby as the shuttle was driving off, which means we had to wait another 30 minutes for the next shuttle. This means we got to the airport around 8:45, but we walked to our counter to see this:

I was a little nervous. My compadres would say that I was a lot nervous if you asked them. I did NOT want to miss the flight across the ocean. So we waited in line, forming new friends as we went along. 

Julie and new friends Isaiah and Nathaniel

We finally got up to the counter and the guy was sooooooo slow. The lady next to him checked in 3 separate groups while he checked in the four of us. We checked in our luggage (and they didn't even charge me for my overweight bag) and went to security. Again....the line was sooooooo long. I looked so nervous that the girl in front of me let the 4 of us go in front of her. I'm telling you, we had our liquids and computers in our hands way before we were at the front of the line. When we finally got finished we made it to the tram that took us to our terminal. It was like 10:50 at this point. We ran up the escalator (I'm EXTREMELY out of shape) and made it to the gate in time to SIT ON THE PLANE FOR ANOTHER 50 MINUTES! Yep, we got on the plane just before 11 (the time our plane was supposed to take off), but did you know that those long flights have a built in extra time for boarding???? Yeah, so I was all nervous for nothing, which is what God was showing me the whole time. 

The plane ride was ok. It was not the best by far, but it wasn't bad. Julie's tv didn't work, so we switched seats in the middle of the flight, just so she could get some screen time. When we landed in Ethiopia, Julie realized that her guitar was with the "checked" carry-on baggage and we were getting out the back of the plane onto the runway and going to a different terminal altogether from the arrivals, so there was no where to pick up the checked guitar. After a series of people, she was promised that a phone call would be made so the guitar would get to the correct flight. (It did, for all of you who are nervous for her) While at the airport in Ethiopia, we met a man working for E3 ministry (check it out, it seems really neat) and just chatted until it was time for our final flight into Mombasa. I can tell you that none of us remember this flight because we were so exhausted that we slept through all 4 hours of the flight, stop in Kilimanjaro, and flight into Mombasa. 

When we got off the plane we filled out our paperwork and we were the last ones to go through customs because we wanted to make sure all of our stuff was filled out correctly. After getting our luggage, we proceeded through the customs section where they tax you. We had a couple of bags with things for the Taylors, so he made us open one, saw the printer we were bringing, and made us pay tax on the printer. When we got all of that taken care of, we went outside and there was no sign of James. We didn't have a phone number or anything, so we just waited. It's in those moments that you realize "What did people do before cell phones?" He got there shortly and we were off to Malindi with a stop at the mall in Mombasa. The ride was pretty quiet:

And driving at night is pretty dangerous. I don't know how Brother James does it and survives. There were people walking, big trucks, little cars, tuk tuks, bikes, motorcycles, and animals all on the road and the sides of the road. It would definitely take some practice to get used to using that much brain power while driving. 

When I got to the house, I got to see all of the Taylors and Ricklynn and Safari. It was so good to see everyone! Ricklynn pointed out that I was bigger than I was last year (which is a compliment in Kenya, but not so much for my self-esteem) so we will all be doing Insanity the rest of the summer. :) 

On Friday morning we met with James about the summer and then went to language class with Getrude. It was so good to see her! I missed seeing her all of the time. She is so much fun! She is a wonderful teacher and gave us a few words to use while we are here. After chai time (that's tea time and it is necessary) we went back and had another meeting about what our internship was going to be like. We all realized just how short our summer is going to be. Friday night was movie night, so we watched The Croods and ate ice cream. 

Saturday is a church work day. Every Saturday some of the church members go up to the church to work on the property or just clean and get ready for Sunday. I don't have any pictures, but we cleaned and painted the whole outside of the church building and the men completely tore down the choo (toilet) and rebuilt it. It all looks so nice! I will post pictures later. When we got back to the house, it was rest time, so everyone went swimming, and then Logan, Brittany, and Julie drove down to the beach for a few minutes. 

The new puppies were so cold after swimming in the pool!

 Saturday night we sat at the dinner table for a long time just talking. It's so nice to have Christ-centered conversations. We get so caught up in our everyday lives that we forget that Christ should be our everyday lives. We need to have more Christ-centered conversations at the dinner table.

Sunday=church day. We went to the church here in Malindi. Julie got to teach Sunday school for the kids and we had a great service. I got to see a lot of people that I know and even got to see Mama Cedrick's new baby, Serah. Pray for Serah because she is getting a cornea transplant next week to help correct her blindness. She is one month old.

Julie teaching Sunday School

Logan holding baby Serah!

After church we had business meeting, choir practice, and then lunch. We got back to the house and got our supplies ready for our camping trip. We are going on an intern retreat Monday-Thursday and I will tell you all about it when we get back. Pray that we have a safe and enjoyable time preparing our minds for the summer. We have our tents and sleeping bags ready and we are leaving at 4:30 AM! 

I'm so excited to get to spend this summer with such incredible people all around. God is doing awesome things and will continue to show is might and power. Continue to pray for us interns as we learn what God has in store for us! 

Kwaheri!

In Christ,

Ashley

Papa Steve and Internship 2013!!

Hello everyone! After a year's absence, the blog is BACK! I had a draft of the blog from the last 2 weeks of my last internship, but life got away from me. So, I apologize for not keeping you updated for the time that the group was there. It was crazy busy!

So the school year has come and gone and another group of 5th graders is now prepared for middle school. I took my precious DI team to Global Finals last week, and we had a blast. Now it's off to my next adventure. Kenya Internship 2013!! I just want to say thank you for everyone who donated money or prayed for me and my trip. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.

I didn't sleep last night because I guess I just like being incredibly busy. My mom, dad, and I left at 4:30 AM. As we are chugging down I-220 I suddenly realized that I had forgotten my passport in the safe. *GASP* So....we ended up leaving Bossier a little later than planned in order to get to Little Rock. We all planned to meet at the airport at 8:30 to meet each other and get checked in for our 11:00 flight. As I entered the airport and saw my fellow interns, I felt an overwhelming sense of comfort. As many of you know, I travelled alone last year, which was fine, but having a group of people to share this experience with just makes it all the more enjoyable. I've only known these people for a day, but this is going to be an awesome summer with an awesome group of people, even if they were born in the 90s. :)

So we got through security and onto our first flight in Little Rock with ease. It was a great flight and we arrived in Charlotte, NC on time. Since we were STARVING, we decided to eat at this little cantina place close to our gate. As we are standing in line to eat, this older couple was standing behind us, and I simply asked where they were from. We interns began a small conversation which turned into a huge blessing. The couple was from northeast Tennessee and had been in Houston seeing their oldest grandchild graduate from high school. As we continued to talk, he told us that he was stationed in the Congo during the liberation in the 60s. This was a neat coincidence in that Julie was just reading a book about that exact subject on the plane. The couple then switched lines to a different restaurant and we went on our way....or so we thought. As we were sitting there eating our delicious Mexican food, the man, I call him Papa Steve, came and pulled up a chair at our table and continued with the conversation we were enjoying earlier in the line. We told him all about what we were going to be doing this summer and he told us a little about himself. After about a 10 minute conversation we said our "take cares" and he went on his way....or so we thought. A few minutes later Papa Steve came by and placed a hundred dollar bill on our table. WHAT?! Did that just happen? He told us to treat ourselves to $25 each and wished us a safe summer. We all shared our thankfulness as we parted ways. Logan, Brittany, Julie, and I sat there in amazement at how wonderful our God is. We decided to put the money in the missions account to buy more Bibles for our camps we will be doing this summer. It's incredible to think about what a simple conversation can lead to. Take those small opportunities to show kindness to others and let God do His thing. This simple act of kindness gave us the umph we needed to get through the next 4 hour flight delay there in Charlotte. Apparently our plane needed some sort of maintenance, and the announcer kept informing us of our later departure times. We got to know each other a little bit and I even fell asleep sitting straight up.

We finally got on our plane around 7:45 and made it to Washington. A couple of our bags did not come out with the rest of the bags, but we got it all taken care of and thankfully got all of our luggage. We are staying in DC tonight and will return to the airport tomorrow morning to get our our long jump across the pond tomorrow at 11:00 AM.

Please continue to pray for Logan, Brittany, Julie, and me as we continue to travel and hit the ground running when we reach Kenya. We are so excited about what God has in store for us this summer.

In Christ,
Ashley