Day 4-Prayers, Oatmeal, Good Talks and the Huruma Nursery!

Friday, November 13th

We woke up to sunshine and praise songs this morning. The sounds of children singing echoed through the guest house. Mama lead chapel this morning. Every few minutes of speaking, she would suddenly start singing a song and all of the children would join in. She also sent off the transition students and encouraged them to take what they have learned at Huruma and keep living a God honoring life. After chapel, mama Dolores made delicious oatmeal for breakfast while Brittany and Mariah read the Jesus Calling devotional for the day. We all walked down to the dining area and the students watched a video about abstinence, STD's and the repercussions of pre-martial sex. Meanwhile, some of us went into town with mama to get more bathing buckets from the Ngong Market and pick up a few last minute items for the student's start up kits. When we got back from the market and the video was complete and boys and girls split up for some Q&A time. We were able to share personal stories and give answers to their questions. It was another time of bonding with our wonderful transition students. We spent the next hour or so portioning out the bulk food we bought for each student and filling their start up kit crates. After organizing everything, we boiled and shelled 82 eggs for breakfast tomorrow morning. It was yet another productive day. We, along with the transition students, are so excited about move in day tomorrow! We are praying it goes smoothly and that the rain holds off until we finish! 

The Huruma Baby Nursery is coming along!!!! Thank you Bethany Christian School and to our Quilt Raffle Ticket Holders---5 Kenyan babies will soon have a soft bed and sweet place to be raised!!!!

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Day 3-Burritos, Questions & Spiritual Gifts!!

Thursday, November 12th

It was another great day at Huruma! Dolores and Christa worked hard at making breakfast burritos for the transition students. Although we couldn't find tortillas at the market, the cooks at Huruma made chapati, which closely resemble tortillas. They were delicious! Brittany and Mariah lead the students in another day of Jesus Calling. While the first day the students just listened , today they really opened up to discussion. They had many questions about what they should do in certain situations and why God said what He said in the Bible. Our team pulled together to give their best insight to the students. It was a beautiful time of mentorship. Jenni then lead the group in a study about spiritual gifts. The students loved learning about their own spiritual gifts and how they could use those to honor the Lord. She also touched on personality traits and how to interact with people who have different personalities than your own. After finishing the session with Jenni, the students showed us how to play one of their favorite games called "Big Booty". It was hilarious! We spent the last part of the afternoon playing basketball, Uno & marbles. We ate dinner a little bit later than usual and ended up getting to bed early. Turns out all of us were pretty exhausted. As usual, we had a wonderful day today. The personalities, strengths and passions of our transition students are being revealed to us more and more each day.

Day 2-Budgets, Fun Lunch and Ngong Market!

Wednesday November 11, 2015 

Today was filled with so many exciting things! After chapel in the morning, we prepared breakfast for our transition students. We introduced them to Nutella for the first time and their reactions were priceless. Needless to say, they were big fans of it! Each student was given a Jesus Calling book and Brittany and Mariah lead them in a morning devotional. This was a time to really demonstrate the importance of starting your day off with the Lord. So many of the students seemed eager to continue these readings each day. 

Next, Andy lead them in a lesson about budgeting and finances. The students are going from never handling money to suddenly having to pay rent, buy food, give tithe and allocate money for their electricity bill. Andy did an awesome job of explaining what the Bible has to say about money and the importance of spending it wisely. He also talked about negotiating with people at the market to make sure you get the best deal... Apparently that was one thing that the students were familiar with! We all went to Karen and ate at Big Square for lunch in Karen, a nearby town. Our team split in half and took the boys to eat first while the girls shopped for more necessities for their new home. We ordered all the students a chicken sandwich, French fries and a Coke. After explaining what ketchup was and that it tastes really good on French fries, the boys devoured their meal in no time. They absolutely LOVED it! After the girls finished eating, all the students were treated to an ice cream con

Day 1-Shopping, Kit Packing & Christmas Music!!!

It was a beautiful day at Huruma. We enjoyed our first chapel with the kids and were shocked to hear that they are already listening to Christmas music. In fact, they started listening to it on October 1st... Just soak that in. They listen to almost 4 months of Christmas music... And people in America complain about listening to it before Thanksgiving! After music, we heard a wonderful passage from the new pastor, James. We got back to the guest house and started unpacking the supply bags... All 23 of them. The team organized things and started to fill each crate with items for our transition students. Each crate had the basic necessities of starting a new home like a pillow, bed linens and kitchen ware. People from back home sponsored each child with their "start up" kit...what a blessing! A good portion of the morning was spent planning for the next few days and meeting with mama about our upcoming events with the transition students. Mama was so excited that the bed frames were purchased and had already been put in the transition students' homes. 

Our team split up for the afternoon to get some different errands done. Some of the group went to buy rice, flour, sugar, salt, beans and cooking fat for the students food kits. They also ordered cribs, a changing table and a rocking chair for the new nursery! The people making the rocking chairs weren't quite sure what a rocking chair was, so Andra sketched up a drawing of one to help the man out.

The other half of the group went to pick up all of the beds for the student's houses. Picture this... A bus half-filled with people AND 12 twin sized beds adjusted like Tetris blocks in the back of the bus. 9 of the mattresses were stacked on top of the bus held down by some small twine. After loading up the mattresses, we waited for a herd of cattle to finish crossing the road before we could back out of the shop. Only in Kenya... 

We dropped off the mattresses to our anxiously awaiting students and headed back to Huruma for lunch. 

Some of us jet-lagged wimps took a nap, and the others went out and played with the kids. We were served a delicious spaghetti dinner before heading off to prayers. We jammed out to Christmas music once again, and hugged on the sweet kids before heading off to bed. It POURED rain all night long...a perfect ending to our gorgeous day! Today went by quick, but it was so exciting getting a clear vision of what we will accomplish during this trip.

Written by our awesome team blogger, Paige Libsack