Journey to "Kwa Mathembo"

"Be the change you want to see in the world."  (M.Ghandi)

It was an early morning reunion for our team of 13 which meet at Heathrow. Charelle, Ryan, and John Raybuck flew from NYC & met up with the Dallas families in London for an easy and uneventful flight to Nairobi. Sweet joy!! Hugs and smiles mixed with familiar feelings of community and friendship filled  all our hearts. It wasn't hard staying together as we waited 2 hours in the immigration line to apply for our entry visas. However, Kris, Anna and David Pate switched lines and that began a domino effect. New lines were quickly opened allowing all our families to move through immigration nearly simultaneously.  What a blessing. Because there were 39 large pieces of luggage loaded down with donations, every hand was needed to retrieve them  from baggage claim. Unfortunately, 15 bags didn't make our flight, prolonging our stay in the airport another 90 minutes as we had to file claim forms with British Airways. It was worth it though. As we left the airport grounds at 12:30AM a herd of zebra and gazelles walked along the road side just long enough to welcome us to Kenya! We were all impressed by the very sight of them. Once arriving to Gracehouse, our overnight accommodations in Nairobi, we slept 4 hours before the next leg of our trip began. Even without many of personal belongings and donations,  we slept with great relief and confidence. Relief that we had finally made it to Africa safely after months of anticipation and planning. Confident that the Lord would provide for our needs even with the lost bags. 

Kwa Mathembo means "place of sacrifice".  That's exactly what this trip has been as of Day Two.  Sacrifice of sleep,  sacrifice of comfort sacrifice of time. Many of you have given to the point of sacrifice to enable us to be able to minister here in Kenya. Ultimately, God sacrificed His son and Jesus willingly gave his life to rescue us from eternal separation from God.

We found ourselves traveling through an unknown land, to an unknown location, traveling at an average of 22 miles per hour on unpaved, uncharted, previously untraveled, "roads" including one named God Help Me Road. Seriously - it was translated GOD HELP ME ROAD!!  Among the nauseous and nearly green were Candace, big John, little John, and Dana. Luckily none of the team ate for 12 hours after our 820 am morning leave time.   In the end it was well worth the sacrifice. Pastor Geoffrey of Wells of Joy church in the Lunga Lunga slums of Nairobi invited us to pray and dedicate 20 acres of land that is intended to be used to rescue the children of the slums as well as the children of Kitui.  He named the land Kwa Mathembo because undertaking this project will require a heart of sacrifice.  We were able to walk the land, pray, take the elements of communion (from Pastor Mark of Naomi's Village and chairmen of the board at Wells of Joy) and worship in song in English and Swahili - thank God for the Kenyan hymnal.  What a surreal moment to be sitting in a clearing in rural Kenya with a light breeze blowing as Americans and Kenyans sang praises of being lifted to a higher ground ...

"Lord lift me up and let me stand
By faith on heavens table land.
A higher place that I have found
Lord plant my feet on higher ground. "

At midnight, we finally arrived at Naomi's Village to a dinner of samosas and chapati. Deliciousness!!  Enough said!

The photos below show us all singing in Swahili on the land and visiting a traditional shepherd hut on the Kamba tribal land.   The last picture is of our kids, Charelle and Pastor Geoffrey and his wife, Jane.