saturday

1-7-12
From allie
Today we had our first vbs, we planned for 100-150. When we started we had almost 200 kids. By the end we had over 400 kids, it truly seemed like every time we took them outside they multiplied :) we were able to give each kid and most of the adults the beaded bracelets that tells the salvation message... it was so cool to hear them repeat what the beads stood for in swahili but at the end it was so sad because we passed out dollies and we didn't bring enough toys to pass out, but they love candy, they call them sweeties, so we passed out sweeties and our old water and coke bottles and they loved that. As we were leaving the kids and adults didn't want us to leave, pastor shadrach said we have been planning and praying for this for so long and it came and now its over, a very sad feeling for us and we were very sad to leave this village at mawe tatu. A funny thing happened at vbs, we wanted to teach them a verse and as a group we decided on john 3:16 and Cole didn't realize he was going to be the one to recite it... he was put on the spot and when you have an interpreter you only say like 3 words at a time well he said "For God so loved the world... that whosoever believeth in Him... Never skipping a beat but he totally forgot part of it and our whole group was cracking up... he fixed it so don't worry the children in Kenya know the right verse! That was just a reminder of the nervousness we feel when up in front of the people here. If you know Cole you know he's not a spur of the moment kind of guy but he did great. As a group we are making some great memories. We have so much to learn but as long as we put the Lord first he will take care of the rest. All of the men and whoever else wanted to had a chance to climb to the top of mawe tatu, the mountain in which the village was named after. I went with the guys and climbed, we were told that it was an easy climb and anyone could do it, let me tell you it was not that easy and at 10,000 feet climbing a steep mountain with tiny trails wasn't so easy for me... some of the guys just flew right up it but anyway it was fun and so gorgeous once we got to the top. Some kids at a nearby house started climbing with us and half of them had no shoes and were going way faster than me it was amazing. When we were done we headed back to the village to pick up the rest of the girls and say our goodbyes... that was so very hard. In 3 days we made some great friendships and got to know some really amazing people. We headed back home and we all got to take hot showers and headed over to bro chucks house for dinner, devotional and testimony time. Sis Teri is a great cook and made BBQ pork sandwiches, homemade coleslaw, fries and for dessert German chocolate cake... dad you would of loved it :) it was a great day, we are so tired and a little sunburnt looking forward to church services tomorrow in nammurabi, night!!
c&a