Trip Update- 12 Days in Kenya!

[Katie Jones]

Hello Pilgrims and Victors!  (forwarded from mass email!)

Greetings from Kenya! I have just run (literally) into the guest house at Naomi's Village after a most wonderful day with the kiddos here and I thought I would write you an email! Since I am emailing a wide variety of friends and family- I will give you a little background! For seven weeks this summer, I am serving as an intern at Naomi's Villlage, a children's home that houses, educates, and raises 59 kids ranging from 3 months to 13 years old (google it for more info!!). Heads up- this email is long. Just remember: you signed up for this goodness!

Our first three days here, me, Gracie, and Keri (the other two interns) were tasked with learning ALL of the kids names, as well as the staff (no big deal). I am happy to say that after 5 days I had them DOWN (thank you, past two years of learning 120 names in the classroom). Since then, we have been tasked with different assignments that fit with our gifts. We were given the glorious job of completely reorganizing their storage closet, which was completely stacked with luggage full of donations and enough random items to make your head spin (this project is still in progress). Thanks to my past work with Alternative Breaks, I am helping them also to develop a reflection guide for the short term mission trips that come in! 

I am super pumped because starting tomorrow, I get to start teaching!! Because kids come in at various ages and with various schooling background, they are separated into classes (we call them grade levels) not by age but by ability. So I am teaching geometry (of course) to classes 3, 5, 7, and 8. I would love prayers for the one student in Class 8- her name is Evelyn and this fall she will take a very large and challenging exam to qualify her for secondary school (all secondary schools are boarding schools). She is aiming for one of the best boarding schools in Kenya- so prayers for her as she continues to study relentlessly for her test.

This Sunday we went to worship at a church in Mui'Hangiri, which is a IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp about 20 minutes from Naomi's Village. It is a community of about 25 families that have been living in tents since the civil violence in 2007. One of Naomi's employees stumbled upon it about a year and a half ago. Since it was far off the highway, it had not received the same assistance from Habitat and other relief organizations that came in after the violence. Naomi's asked how they could help and they requested a church! So we went to the newly built church. We have also been helping build temporary homes that families have added to the tents they have had for 8 years. I wish I could convey in this email the joy that radiated around that church as they danced and sang to the Lord. It brought me to tears to see people worship the Lord so fully when in our eyes, they have so little in material wealth. After church, the families invited us to see their homes and meet their kids. We spent about an hour talking and touring their homes. I have never met kinder or more hospitable people. 

I told you this email would be long. Good news: we are wrapping up right here! I will leave you with some prayer requests. Keri, one of the other interns, has been called to start a children's home in Kenya. She is here this summer to learn from the staff and kiddos how to run the best children's home possible. I am so excited to see what the Lord is doing in her life and I am praying that the Lord shows her the next step she is supposed to take after this summer. Other than that, just a continual prayer that we would learn and grow from working together that we may love the kids and the staff well. I have already been so immensely blessed by the perspectives and ideas of the people here, I hope that in turn I am able to love and encourage them well during my time here. Thank you so much for all being amazing and reading through this sucker! I would love to hear from all of you- so feel free to reply (not reply all) to this email. 

With love, 

Katie Jones