We completed a Church Building project in Ziwa

The Church dedication began after we had finished the building. It brought many of us to tears as we saw the gratefulness of the people. We were also able to donate $400 of the money we raised to buy this church 2/10 of an acre. As they grow in attendance they will be able to expand and eventually build a larger building. The people rejoiced and again we were humbled to be apart of the experience.

It was quite a scene as 25 Muzungu's (white people) build a traditional mud building. A memory we will never forget.

We are home!

We arrived on time in Boise last night. We were excited to see our families and get all of our luggage. A few of the wooden decorative canes that we were forced to check were broken when we got them in Boise, but aside from that small incident everything else was in on piece and accounted for.

As a team we were starting to get weary as two of our adult team members had horrible stomach flu like symptoms the day before we left. We also travelled over 44 hours and by the time we arrived in Boise we were thrilled to see our loved ones. I missed my babies so much it ached, so holding them last night was beyond what words can describe. :)

Now that we have a strong Internet connection, we should be able to share pictures and stories with our friends and relatives.

The day we left we met Patrick Mwangi.

He lives in a slum area of Limuru and our youth ministry supports him through compassion international. Being able to place a face with his picture and meet his mother and brother was very exciting for our team.

His mother made us tea and sweet potatoes and the students looked at me with udder fear as she was preparing for them to eat. I tried to explain to the leaders that although we were so very grateful for the food, we could not partake of it because we had two sick members and we would be flying out that evening.

We took the sweet potatoes with us (choosing not to eat them, but desiring with all our hearts to show gratitude and thankfulness) and hugged Patrick goodbye.

We left a soccer ball, a new Boise State outfit and hat, some small cars/trucks, pencils, a new toothbrush, a backpack, and we prayed over him and his home. His mother shed tears when we piled into her mud home covered in cow dung and newspaper. Her gratefulness was obvious. I could only pray that our gratefulness radiated as bright as hers did.

There is so many wonderful experiences we could share. One of our students told his mother he would have loved to have stayed in Kenya. Another is changing her major from Elementary Education to Missions. I am certain that these last 12 days will be apart of our lives forever.

Lots of pictures will be loaded shortly....................

Last Day.

We are nearing our final day in Kenya. It has been such an incredible experience. Yesterday at the Vacation Bible School over 1100 children came and over 600 gave their lives to Christ. When we arrived back at the house we were slightly sunburnt, exhausted, but thankful that God gave us the opportunity to be apart of such an incredible day.

Here is our itenerary for the trip home.

Monday, June 21st we will leave Nairobi at 11:45pm on Kenyan Airways (2:45pm Boise time)
Tuesday June 22nd we will arrive in London/Heathrow airport at 6:45am (11:45pm June 21st Boise time)
Leave London/Heathrow at 1:05pm on United Airways (6:05 Boise time)
Arrive in Denver at 4:01pm
Leave Denver at 6:15pm on United Airways
Arrive in Boise at 8:13pm

Thank you for being apart of this incredible and life changing opportunity. 17 teenagers left home and saw first hand the incredible work that God is doing across the world. We are excited to share our pictures, stories, and all that we have learned. This has been a gift, and we are grateful.

We will post more about Sunday services this evening.

Happy Father's Day to our Dad's. We love and miss you....

Day 6 in the Eyes of Joel

Today, we went to the orphanage (owned by Kip Keino) and two primary schools in the area surrounding Eldoret. When we arrived at the orphanage, we split up into our three groups to take a tour of the orphanage. Compared to most of the buildings that I have seen in Eldoret, the building itself was really nice. There was an open air courtyard which seemed the main focus of the floorplan. When the tour finished, we went outside and were greeted by a bunch of little Kenyans who had just started their playtime. It was amazing to play with them on their expansive playground with many features. Some people rode on a swing, some played soccer, and some climbed over jungle gym equipment. We were then instructed to pick a little kid to walk with and we headed over to the cow farm. Many of the little kids fell asleep in our arms as we walked, and others wanted to walk al0ngside us while holding our hands. We continued our tour and looked at the fields that grew pineapples and beans. We continued walking and saw the old building that used to be used as the orphanage. There was a huge plot of land that the orphanage was on, so it took us a while to make it all the way across. Tori gave me her camera during the walk since I didn't have a child in my care, and I took a bunch of sweet pictures. We would upload some of them onto this post, but the internet connection here is very slow and it would take far too long.
We eventually made our way back to the playground and played with the children for a while longer. Then, we made our way back into the dining room and proceeded to have a feast! The food was absolutely delicious (especially the chapati, which is like a tortilla, but better) and it was in no shortage of quantity. After we had stuffed ourselves to our heart's content, we made our way back to the Golden Eagle (our bus) and left the orphanage.
Then we went to the primary schools to pass out flyers for our VBS tomorrow. The first one we went to was in Kapsoya, and we were greeted by several hundred kids. Missionary Randy introduced us as a group and made a few jokes about us in Swahili so we couldn't understand. We then went down the line and introduced ourselves and said our names. We were then swarmed by many many little kids who wanted flyers and were dying to shake our hands and ask us "How are you?". I'm pretty sure we all got pretty close to breaking the world record for most handshakes in five minutes.
Then we went to the next school and basically did the same thing, except there weren't as many kids. Instead of shaking our hands, they all stood around us and looked at us. We head the word "mzungu" many times, which means white person. After, we headed back to the compound, and I ended up writing the blog for today. So long for now.

Day 5, by Danika and Amanda!

Today we painted a church. We arrived ready and excited to work, and the Kenyans were happy to welcome us. The Kenyans themselves are such happy, friendly, and loving people that it seems they can always brighten our moods. We painted and splattered and took plenty of pictures, giggling all the way! :) It was hard work and took some time however, we managed to hold a smile the whole day through. In the windows of the church little children were watching us crazy "mzungu" (white people) paint and get it all over ourselves as well as each other. The children gradually became comfortable around us and I have a feeling it was mostly because of the suckers Andrea brought. I, Danika, managed to get some of the youngins to paint with us, which was a cool experience on both parts. As more and more kids joined us inside the church they became obsessed with being in the pictures and seeing how they looked. In no time 50+ kids were attacking us, trying to get in the pictures, or get more suckers than the friend with them. As we pulled away from the church a group, a very large group, of the children chased after the bus waving and yelling excitedly.
The hardest part of today was definitely the bus ride back to the compound. Everyone who didn't want to pee in a cornfield really needed to go and the bumps were not helping at all. As Chance put it, "You know you're in Africa when there's more craters in the road than there are on the moon." Everyone was tired, somewhat stinky, and sticky from the paint.
We finally got back to the house, and sat around in the living room with our Kenyan friends that has been helping us the last couple days. We went around the room sharing our testimonies and thanking everyone for all that they've done. There were incredible stories and so many people that were blessed and are continuing to be blessed by the rest of the group and ultimately, the Lord.
Here are a few things we learned in Kenya today.

• Taco doesn't mean taco in Swahili. (It means butt!)
• The Lord can work in incredible ways, even half way around the world
• Even though we Americans and the Kenyans are thousands of miles away from each other, we all serve and worship the same, all mighty God.

We can't wait to see what else the Lord has in store for us while we're here and we're looking forward to every second of it.

Day 4 through the eyes of Brooke Troutt

So today when we were going to mud the church I was rather unsure about the whole thing, everyone was on edge about parasites in the mud and getting our new clean shoes drenched in mud. However, when we arrived there were a bunch of adorable Kenyan children singing and dancing, praising the Lord. That in itself was touching. These people only have small little mud huts and different mixed matched clothing yet everyone is still fantastically excited and just overwhelmed with joy that we, Americans, came to mud a church for a poor Kenyan community. When they began to make the mud some boys automatically took off their shoes and started squishing the mud with their feet and getting it all in between their toes! Danika and I looked at eachother and instantly took off our shoes and joined in. I did not have the intention of getting 100% covered in mud but then the mud battles began (and it was a BLAST!). Smearing mud on each others faces and in our hair and down our backs and all over our clothing was a very great way for us, as team members, to fellowship with each other and just have fun and do work for the Lord in an amazing, unique way.

It was a really enjoyable experience to help these people who don't have much. They were just over joyed with our help and they sang to us with such passion and love for the Lord. After we worked putting the final coat of mud on the church we all went in and sat down for a short service. The children sang and danced for us again and they announced that we helped them purchase some more land. It was awesome sitting in a church that we helped to build that will be a place of worship for greatful, humble, joyful, beautiful Kenyan people.

Day 4

To describe today in words would be difficult. It was by far the best day we have experienced since coming to Kenya. We left early this morning on public transportation. Fifteen Kenyan teenagers from the local churches joined us again today. We drove North from the City of Eldoret to Ziwa. This is a very small village where farming is a means of survival.

In typical African fashion we were stopped by the police twice and our bus broke down. While we waited for the fundi (mechanic) to arrive we walked down to a Kenyan home. The woman who lived in the home, Mary, and her baby were cautious but welcoming. We peered into her tiny mud home with a grass roof, and realized immediatly that she owned nearly nothing at all.

They slept in a pile of ash and one dirty blanket lay across the floor. There was a tiny chicken running through the courtyard. The only thing she asked of us the entire time we visited was for prayer. We prayed over her home and with her. She was thankful. I caught myself holding back tears most of the visit.

Once the bus was running again we headed to Ziwa where a brand new Church building has been built, Bondoni Baptist Church. Our team placed the final layer of mud along the outside of the walls. The teens and adults did not hesitate as they started layering mud from one end of the building to another. As you can imagine 25 white folks mudding a traditional Church would draw a crowd. Indeed, we drew a fairly large crowd of spectators.

After we had completed the Church building we went inside for a Church dedication service. The choir of young adults/children sang traditional African music. It was wonderful. After they sang we were able to share with the Church that as a youth team we had brought enough money with us ($400) to pay for the 2 tenths of an acre behind the tiny property. They would now own enough land to build and countinue to grow. They rejoiced, danced and praised the Lord for the land. This Church started as 4 believers and is now running 110. Tears ran down our faces as we shared in the service with them. The prayers humbled us. The music touch us. The faces burned images into our souls. The joy was intense. It was truly one of the most incredible days of our lives. We will never forget these people, their church for which our hands touched, or people we conversed with. We are so honored to purchase this land for them and to watch them leap as they rejoiced in what GOD has done!

I was dropping things in my room after we arrived back to our host home. Two of the teens with us were conversing in the hallway. I over heard one of them say to the other, "that was the most incredible thing I have ever done....better than playing any video game."

On the way home as we bounced along the road covered in thousands of potholes we saw two beautiful King Cranes. It was the cherry on top of our already incredible day. We enjoyed God's people and saw more of His amazing creation!

P.S. I have tried to upload pictures for an hour without any success. The internet here is not fast and so uploading pictures is difficult. We will share thousands of them with you when we return.