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The second half of our time in Kenya was spent working with an orphanage called Springs of Hope and running a Vacation Bible School type kids camp. The orphanage is a smaller one with only about 30 children. Although it is a small number compared to many of the places we had been to previously. The children in this particular orphanage were babies so it was a bit different. It was overwhelming to see how much work is involved in taking care of so many small children. We bathed babies, washed clothes (by hand), changed bedding, and cleaned inside and out. It was good to spend time with the kids, but it was hard knowing that these children along with so many other children all over the world lived in such rough conditions.
For four days we held a day camp for kids in a nearby town. On the first day we had around 80 children and then every day after that our numbers were over 100 kids. It was stretching for our team to say the least. The children definitely would push the boundaries of our discipline. Each day we talked on a specific aspect of God – Creator, Father, Savior and Friend. We also had activities each day to relate to the messege such as the day over God as the Creator we made play dough and had the kids create whatever they wanted. It was the first ‘organized’ event we had been a part of since all of Africa. So often in Africa we had no idea what to expect for the day, but during the camp we had split into groups and organized what each day would look like. It was nice to have a plan and over all the camp ran so smoothly. It was nice to be able to do a new form of ministry where we were able to see the same children for 4 days in a row. We were able to form relationships with many of the children and plant tons of seed.
Our views about church were again challenged in Kenya. Sometimes it was hard sitting through hours upon hours of ‘church’ that was really just protocol for the service. So many things in the churchs that we attended seems like just fillers of time. The concept that a long service is a good service” was hard for some of us to take. It was evident that those people loved God with everything they had and that they wanted nothing more than to be ‘good Christians’ so it was tough trying to decide on how we felt about the experience.
We were all very sad to leave Kenya. We had formed such close friendships with the Kenya Y team. There were many tears on the eve of our departure. We will forever remember our time in Kenya and the inspiration and encouragement we received there.
