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System Success and our Last Day!

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Today was the last day at LLM, and we arrived early eager to run tests on the solar system. The final wiring in the house was finished in the morning, and the breaker box was turned on so that the solar ran both the girl's dorm and the main house. After this, the final adjustments were done on the system so that it met LLM's needs efficiently. The evening was then spent with the children celebrating Elijah and Dereck's birthdays (which included a Kenyan birthday tradition of soaking them in water) and saying final farewells to the children. Thank you for continued prayers, and please continue to keep us in your prayers as we begin our long trip home from Kenya.

          -Trey Witmer

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Excursion

Monday-Wednesday, June 11-13, 2018

Several years ago, I had the chance to read a book entitled Killing Lions by Sam Eldridge. This title was taken from a tradition handed down by an African tribe where the boys would have to kill a lion before the rest of the village considered him a man. This book uses the Maasai initiation as a lead into teaching boys what it means to be a man.

On Monday the 11th the team took a break from the PV work and headed out to Maasai Mara, a popular wildlife game park. Moses, our driver got us safely to the promise land. This park is well known for hosting the wildebeest migration in July. Darn we were one month off. Anyway, while we were at the park, there was an opportunity to tour a Maasai village and meet the people that live there. It was a neat and unique experience for me, especially after reading that book. The male warriors did a dance for us to see and then had us join in. This dance was performed to celebrate a lion kill and initiating of the men. Also, whoever jumped the highest got the most beautiful wife. I think us mzungu (white man) are out of luck. The next demonstration was making fire from two sticks. It took them a little while to get a spark, but to my amazement they got it. The village setup consists of small 20’ by 20’ houses lining the perimeter of the compound with the space in the middle open for cattle to sleep at night. The huts are made of sticks and cow dung (not a typo folks). Each of us got the chance to take a peek inside and chat with the people for a little while. It was almost pitch black inside the house. Overall, it was really interesting to hear about their traditions and culture as well as how they aim to maintain this culture.

The rest of our time spent at Maasai Mara was spent on safari. The park had a magnificent landscape with mountains and valleys with all sorts of low lying vegetation. There were hundreds of acres of savannah grassland with cheetahs and lions napping in them. Lions, cheetahs, giraffes, elephants and gazelle were only a scratch of the surface of what we saw. God is a very talented creator and a master painter of the sky every night. Being out in the middle of nowhere where lights are few and far between creates a night time sky filled with thousands of stars. From the creation of the galaxies to the small cheetah cub, God’s glory is evident in all!

           -Josh Patterson, 18

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Cultural Learning

Saturday and Sunday, June 9-10, 2018

              It is Sunday evening and we are back at our guesthouse after a long two days, which were fun, exhausting, and full of cultural learning, as planned by our gracious hosts.  Our weekend started on Saturday at 8 am with two Living Love staff (Hannah and Jane) securing a taxi van came to pick us up to begin our journey up north.  We drove about an hour to get to a waterfall that was at least a 200ft drop and being the rainy season it was quite spectacular. We quickly discovered that this is a popular tourist spot as nearly every shop owner available spotted us white people (“Muzungus”) and they were very strategic as each of them seemed to pick out one person to begin a conversation in the hopes of luring us to come see their shop.  We were able to delay them (temporarily) since we were first going to hike down the bottom of the falls.  It was about a 20 minute walk down and we enjoyed seeing the falls from several viewing areas.  We spent a few minutes at the bottom getting wet from all the mist and enjoying the rapids. As we hiked back up I think we were all winded and tired and we reminded ourselves that we are at about 7700ft above sea level and that made us feel better (rather than admit we might be out of shape).  After getting back to the top, we realized that although we had forgotten about the shop owners, they had not forgotten about us.  Each person was once again approached by one shop owner in the hopes that we would go visit their shop.  Hannah and Jane advised us to not shop at these particular shops as they were going to be “tourist” prices.  So we kept walking so that we would lose the shop owners and then waited to get a ride to our next destination:  the equator.

Being that we are all engineers (staff and students) we were all very excited to actually get to be at the actual equator.  You might be wondering how would we know we were actually at the real equator (that imaginary line that divides our hemispheres)?  We had been discussing this ourselves and we remembered from our science classes that water going down a drain would spin clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southern.  We all could not wait to see this happen as we found out that the transition from one to the other apparently is only the difference between 30 feet.  We arrived at the spot and were greeted by a very old man who seemed so kind, gentle and just excited to see us there.  He had a few makeshift lab equipment (two buckets, a wooden match, and some water). This man was named James and he was so excited to show us this rather marvelous experiment.  He took us to a spot and poured water in one bucket that had a hole (drain) in the middle of it.  He then put the wooden match in that same bucket and used another bucket to catch the draining water (don’t want to waste the water).  He was such a kind man and just carefully told us as best he could in English what he was doing.  We watched the match start to make counterclockwise circles in the draining water. We then moved very close to the sign that said “Equator” and he performed the experiment again but this time the match stayed in one spot as the water drained.  We were now right on the equator.  Then we moved another 30 feet away and performed the experiment that we were all waiting for.  We all marveled as the match swirled around in a clockwise pattern as we proved that we were now in the northern hemisphere.  I am not sure if James ever had a more captivated audience!  James then took us over to his table where he was selling some craft items.  Several of us bought some items (candle sticks, marble vase, a hand drawn globe). We really enjoyed getting to meet James and buy something from him.  It was a special meeting that we all enjoyed talking about later.  

After leaving the Equator we went and had lunch with Hannah and Jane.  We then headed back to Living Love to spend some time with the kids.  We were excited that the ground was mostly dry as it had not rained.  Zach and Josh had worked hard on the futbol (soccer) nets and we were finally thrilled to be able to get them out and present them to the kids.  The kids were so excited to have official goals and we quickly formed into two teams. We had about 15 of the kids and most of our team playing soccer in a 100 foot section of grass (if that).  We then played for close to two hours.  Now that I am about to turn 43 (June 13th – this Wednesday) I am always a little careful with how I play sports as injuries just don’t heal as quickly as they used to.  I let my guard down though and played the full time.  We all had so much fun and the kids had a blast.  It was rather chaotic at times trying to dribble a soccer ball through 5 or more kids at any given time but no one got too hurt. I think we all needed that time with the kids and as I took 3 Advil before going to bed and my body hurt all over I smiled to myself and thought it was worth it.

Sunday morning we were able to sleep in a little as we were not leaving for church until 9am.  We had an hour drive up to Nakuru to attend church of a Pastor who is involved with Living Love.  We had sung “Here I am to Worship” last week and in the last few days practiced “Blessed Be the Name.”  We had been asked if someone wanted to bring the message but none of us felt led to. Most days we leave our guest home at 8am and get back at 7:30pm and then have a team meeting.  We have been working hard with not much downtime and so I think it is understandable that none of us felt led to give a 30 minutes message.  Therefore, we figured we would sing two songs and give a few minutes of testimonies. The congregation was much smaller than the church we attended last week.  I think we all enjoyed this service much more as we felt more comfortable. We got up and sang our songs and as we were singing I was very proud of our team and the fact that we were willing to sing several songs even though back in the states we would not be considered musicians (well, maybe Dr. Fish and Trey).  The church really enjoyed our singing and Steven and Zack shared a few words of encouragement, doing a great job.  We also enjoyed hearing from Pastor John who preached from 2 Chronicles from the story of Manasseh and how he was an unfaithful king but eventually realized his sin and turned back to the Lord.  It was so neat watching Pastor John get excited as he preached.  He preached in English while another man translated into Swahili.  It was really special watching these two men work with each other as sometimes the translator helped to correct any mistakes that Pastor John was making.  We were at church from 10 to 12:30pm and then they wanted to have tea and some fruit and “donuts” with us.  We were trying to get back to Living Love by late afternoon but we were quickly realizing our efforts might be in vain.  We left the church at 1:30pm and then went to a place where we could do some gift shopping.  We spent an hour at this one store where you put everything you want in a bag and then bring it all to the lady at the register, who was the owner and person in charge, and then tried to barter.  I think we all felt like it was a frustrating experience and we ended up paying more than we should have.  Some of us ended up paying around $100 for our goods but the starting price she quoted would be over $300 and it took some convincing and haggling to get her to come down.  I think we were all tired out after that.  We then went to visit George’s church in Nakuru.  He really wanted us to see his church and it was a place that Zack had attended back in 2010.  Thankfully, we were the only ones there and so we were able to go into the church building and pray together. George asked me if I would pray a blessing over his church and then George prayed for our team and time remaining. We then needed to run a few errands in the city of Nakuru and then headed back to Living Love.  We didn’t get to LLM until 6pm and were only able to say hello to the kids (that was disappointing) and then we soon ate and headed back to our guest house.

 It was a full two days and now we are headed to Masi Mara to go on a two day Safari. We are excited to be able to go on this adventure but I think we are all feeling a little sad that we have so little time left with the kids and staff at LLM.  We hope to be back by mid day Wednesday so that we can have some more time to work on the solar system and spend with the kids.  Please pray that our final work with the system goes smoothly as we are waiting for a cable to be mailed up to us so that we can properly program the system.  

         -Dereck Plante

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Two Kilos of White Powder

Friday, June 8, 2018

I almost could not fall asleep last night because I was too excited for the Great Kenyan Cooking Adventure of 2018 that was to take place today Friday, June 8. Don’t tell my mom or else she might try to make me cook dinner after we come home next week, but I had a fantastic time learning about Kenyan cuisine. The team boldly strapped on our aprons and braved our way to the kitchen for the first time. Our hosts at Living Love organized the morning to teach us how to prepare some Kenyan specialties. We prepared Chapatis, Samosas, and Mandazi alongside some of the staff at LLM. By the way, each dish includes a bunch of flour for those of you wondering what was going on with the white powder joke.

The experience in the kitchen was full of laughs and smiles, proving once again that the love shared in God’s family transcends any and all cultural or language barriers. To tell the story of this trip is to tell the story of the power that God’s people have when they come together to serve and live in a manner that lifts the name of the Lord on high.

The solar system is installed now, though there remains some work to be done to configure and program all the settings. There are some last minute adjustments to be made to make sure the system is doing exactly what we want it to before we leave. As we inch closer and closer to our departure date, we pray the Lord will bless this project and guide our hands so that we may finish and deliver a quality product to our brothers and sisters here in Kenya.  

Amen.

         -Zack Engle

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It’s Almost All Together…

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Today was a bit of an odd day. For the first time in over a week the team was not all together. Dereck, Trey & I went on a day-long car trip to Nairobi to pick up the final parts needed to complete the solar system. Jess, David, Matt & Dr. Fish stayed back at the Children’s Home to begin documenting our work thus far, while Josh and Zach spent most of the day out in the fields with the cows…I mean doing survey work. Apparently while surveying a field on the Home’s property (that will likely become a new futbal [soccer] field in the near future) cows came and visited them to encourage their work! (Yes, pictures were taken as evidence).

All in all, it was a good day. The trip to Nairobi took about 4 hours each way, so needless to say – we were sore and tired by the end. We traveled all that way to get a cable that was missing from the original order of the solar equipment that we needed to turn the system on and program it to function properly. Unfortunately, we returned too late from Nairobi to doing any testing today. However, Lord willing, we will get the system functioning tomorrow and preform the necessary testing to ensure proper operation. We are excited where the Lord has brought this trip thus far, and we wait with anticipation for the final pieces to fall into place.

         -Steven Carpenter

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It’s All Coming Together

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Today was a day of small steps leading to big progress.  Yesterday we had gotten 12 of the 16 batteries wired up along with one of the two connections to the Charge Controller.  That is a lot of work but it does not do anything.  Today Jess and Matt wired up the last 4.  Only 25% of the work but all of a sudden, we had a reliable power source.  Earlier some of the team had run wires from the Combiner in the roof all the way down to the Electric Room.  But you could not turn anything on because the ground wire was not connected yet. 30min of cable run work and all of a sudden we were ready to flip the switches and send Panel Power down to the Charge Controller.  Yesterday most, but not all, of the wiring was finished to connect the Charge Controller and Inverter preparing them for connection to the batteries and the panels. Today working diligently in a dark cold room, Steven and David finished the wiring and all was ready.  The batteries were sending power, the panels were sending power, the cable was run to the main house, the Charge Controller light was blinking showing that it was ready.  Steven pressed the button on the Inverter to bring it all to life. Nothing happened.  A group formed to re-read directions.  We all looked at the Inverter and combining our over 40 years of Engineering experience we agreed that when there is only one button with two positions, your options are rather limited.  I’ll save you all of the discussion and prayer.  In the end we found that you needed to not only press the button, but hold it for 2 seconds.  So THE SYSTEM IS WORKING.  Tomorrow when we get that final part we will actually start powering the loads in the main house.  Everyone is having a good time with each other and the wonderful people here.  We remain overly well fed, mostly rested and optimistic about God’s plans for the rest of our time here.

          - Randy Fish, Messiah Engineering Faculty

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From Surveying to Samaki

Monday, June 4, 2018

After spending most of the weekend with the kids, it was strange this morning to drive to LLM and not have the kids there to greet us (as they were at school). At the same time, it was time to say our final goodbyes to Mark and Josh (friends of LLM, who joined us for our first week).  I think we all felt that Mark and Josh were part of our team and we had quickly formed a bond with them and so we were sad to see them go.  After seeing them off, we quickly got back to work. 

While most of us continued on the solar project, Josh Patterson and Zack (being civil engineers) began surveying the LLM property to help kick off a new project in the Collaboratory.  LLM has a desire to use some of their 30 acres to create a nice recreational field so the kids can play soccer, which they love to do, and also serve as an outreach to the community.  Zack, who brought the partnership with LLM into the Collaboratory, first came to LLM in 2010 and he was excited to come back to reconnect with some of the kids and staff who were here eight years ago.  It is so amazing to think that Zack’s mission trip to Kenya so long ago has resulted in a wonderful partnership with LLM which will hopefully result in a solar system by the end of next week and then continue with the development of a recreational field as well as a solar water pumping system.  Just as God desires a relationship with each person He uses relationships between people to expand His Kingdom and bring His love to people.  I am grateful that Zack decided to join our team and come back to Kenya as he has been a wonderful addition to our team and he and Josh have enjoyed being together and starting their surveying.

We are hoping that by Wednesday we will be able to power up the system.  We had decided on Friday to bring back a local welder to help fabricate a racking system for the equipment (invertor, charge controller, and DC junction box).  When it was 10am and the welder had not arrived, I was nervous that he was not coming today.  Thankfully, it turned out that he was on “Kenyan time” and so he arrived around 10:30am and Trey and I walked him through what we were looking to do.  It is always so interesting to describe technical or mechanical things to other people when there is a language barrier.  We did lots of pointing, measuring, and grabbing pieces of metal to demonstrate our ideas.  Patrick, the welder, is clearly very skilled and so he quickly caught on and by the end of the day we had an amazing racking system mounted to the concrete wall which will be all ready for us to mount and wire our equipment tomorrow morning. 

I think we all had a fairly productive, but not too strenuous day.   The kids got home around 4:30pm but they were instructed to go take baths and do their homework.  Around 5pm our dinner was ready and it was the first time we had fish (“samaki” in Swahili).  The food has just been amazing!  In 8 days we have not had the same thing served twice.  The fish tonight had been fried with some onions and green peppers and the flavor and taste was tremendous. 

Since Moses (our driver) had taken Mark, Josh, and Elijah down to Nairobi, we had to be brought back to our guest house by George, a member of the LLM board, who also lives 45 minutes away.  George wanted us to leave early so that he could get back home.  While this was quite understandable, it meant that we were not going to be able to hang out and play with the kids and I think we were all disappointed.  Hopefully, for the rest of the week when Elijah is back, we can resume our normal schedule of getting to play with the kids for an hour after eating dinner.  We are all taking advantage of a quiet night and will get a good night sleep to be ready for a full day tomorrow. 

          -Dereck Plante, Collaboratory Staff

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Family

Sunday, June 3, 2018

After recovering from our pool day with an early night in at our guesthouse, our team geared up for a long day of church-related activities. We were warned early on by our Kenyan friends that although the sign states church runs from 8:30-10:30, we could expect the service to go until at least 12, if not later.

They weren’t wrong! Although our team enjoyed getting to worship with our Kenyan brothers and sisters in a mix of English and Kiswahili, after a 3.5+ hour service, complete with speaking in tongues and some prophecy, we were ready for a break, so we returned to the guest house for a light lunch and siesta.

Afterwards, we headed back to LLM for an afternoon of play and an evening “Thanksgiving Service” with the kids. Our team had a blast playing futbol and drinking chai tea with the group, all the while appreciating how comfortable we feel with the kids and staff of LLM now. We all agree, it’s starting to feel like “home” every time we drive through the gates and are greeted with some “Jambo!”’s (typical Kiswahili greeting) from the children.

This feeling of familiarity and closeness only solidified with the Thanksgiving Service, which consisted of songs of worship sung by the children (some of which we joined in on!), words of encouragement from the staff and our team, poems performed by the kids and LOTS of hugs.  As I looked around during the service, what hit me most was how quickly this group at LLM has become our family. Where on our very first night our team sat as one group, separated from the LLM staff and kids, tonight you couldn’t find two Messiah people sitting next to each other without at least one LLM kid nestled in between, sometimes napping, sometimes playing with our hair or faces—but in all cases, acting as family.

What a beautiful picture of God’s Kingdom, and what a testament to God’s ability to bring people together in His Name! It only seemed fitting then, to worship our God together as His family, which is exactly what we did.

The kids closed out the service by leading us in “Go Light Your World” (by Chris Rice), which reads, “There is a candle in every soul, some brightly burning, some dark and cold. There is a Spirit who brings a fire, ignites a candle and makes His home. So carry your candle, run to the darkness, seek out the hopeless, deceived and poor. Hold out your candle, for all to see it. Take your candle, and go light your world.” Living Love exemplifies this idea, as they shine brightly into the lives of the hopeless in their own community. What a true honor it is for us to be able to help our brothers and sisters as they bring that light!

Please pray as we head back to work tomorrow that our progress on the system continues smoothly, and that we continue to deepen these relationships in God’s family!

Thanks for following our (God’s!) story!

         -Jess Kline, ‘18

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Rest and Relaxation

Saturday, June 2, 2018

Today was a refresher after a long week of work on the solar system at LLM. Instead of going to LLM as per usual, we instead met the children at a hotel in Nakuru, a city about an hour from Ol Kalou. At this hotel we were able to relax and enjoy a fun day of swimming in the hotel's pool with the children. Although the water was cold, we were still able to enjoy the pool and swim with the children.  

At lunch we had an amazing meal at the hotel, which consisted of chicken, chapati, and Kenyan chips. After the meal we went back to the pool for more fun and found that the sun had helped to warm the pool up so that we could continue to play with the children. After many hours of poolside fun (and a couple of basic swimming lessons for the kids), we regrouped and headed home for a night of rest, relaxation, and movies!

Thank you for your continued support, and please keep us in your prayers.

          -Trey Witmer, ‘21

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Madaraka Day

Friday, June 1, 2018

Today was a good change of pace for the team as we ended our first week in Kenya.   We celebrated Madaraka Day with LLM, which marks the day that the Kenyan people ruled themselves, similar to Independence Day in the United States.  Everyone was off work and school so we had time to spend with the people at LLM in the afternoon.

In the morning we started work as usual on the wiring from the panels to the combiner box to the battery room.  Everyone else was either working on finding a way to mount the components in the battery room or evaluating the panel in the main building to find the circuits that LLM wants on solar.  The construction of the system has been going very well in the first week and we could not have gotten as far as we did without everyone at LLM, who have been happy to help when we needed it.

When the afternoon came, the team enjoyed a meal with the children and staff at LLM.  After the meal we played games with the children which included soccer or football.  When the rain came, we enjoyed UNO and checkers indoors.  Before it was time to leave, the children enthusiastically sang two songs, in the second, they invited each of us to participate which was a fun way to end the day.  

Thanks for your support and interest in our site team.  Please keep us in your prayers over the next two weeks as we continue to work with LLM to complete the system.

         -David Moretz, ‘18

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Progress

Thursday, May 31, 2018

Today started earlier for us than most of the other days, for a few members of our team traveled two and a half hours to see the other Messiah Collaboratory team in Kijabe, Kenya, the Clubfoot and ROCK teams. From what they said about the trip, it was enjoyable to see the other team, and to see how members from Living Love Ministries instantly became friends with our colleagues. After a short breakfast provided by LLM, the remainder of the team went to work. The morning started off slow, but progressed quickly. We split into two teams, and I had the privilege of working with both throughout the day.  The group I worked with in the morning was tasked with running the conduit from Pamoja Hall to the main house through the trench we dug yesterday. It was difficult to run the 100 meter wire through pvc pipe, but the task got easier as we went along and developed a strategy.

In the afternoon, I switched to the second team, which was running the cables from each string of solar panels to the combiner box. In all, there were five cables that had to be cut and run. Working with the team to accomplish such a big task was a lot of fun and we had some good conversations, but one moment that stuck out in my head the most today was when I was up on the roof to help wire the panels. From the roof of Pamoja hall, you can look out in almost every direction and see God's beautiful creation that LLM happens to be blessed with. Green fields of crops, lush grass, forests, a small lake, and many kinds of animals; the whole experience was breathtaking. As evening approached and the kids started arriving home from school, it began to rain for the first time since our arrival. We had to stop working and go inside, but we still got to watch some of the kids play and color before we had to leave for the evening.

Although in the moment progress seems slow, looking back on all we have accomplished has made me realize two things. Our group works great as a team, and God has always been there guiding us through our troubles.

          -Matthew Laven, ‘21

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Dig a Trench, Dig Dig a Trench. Quick Before the Hyenas Come

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

It really is mind boggling to reflect on the creativity of our Creator. From the golden beautiful full moon that lines the Kenyan sky on our journey back from a long work day, to the uniqueness of each person’s laugh. I was inside the one building listening to the children play outside and thinking about how joyful and wonderful each laugh really is.

The day began with a 7 am alarm and breakfast at Mumbi’s house. Believe it or not our road trip to LLM every morning consists of a relaxing massage for about 20 minutes. This massage is free and mandatory for all. Those of you who have ever been on an African dirt road will understand what these massages are like. After being encouraged by our driver to flirt with a police officer, we began working on the PV system. Several members traveled to the hardware store for supplies while the rest of us began digging an 18 inch trench from Pamoja Hall to the boys’ dorm building. It felt great to get our hands dirty, although we were out dug by the Kenyans. We had a harder section to clear out though, with the first 6-8 inches consisting of almost solid rock.

By lunchtime all of the panels on the roof had been mounted. The local welders were a tremendous help and deserve most of the credit for getting the panels and racking together. Solomon has been impressed with the progress our team has made thus far. He even admitted that he was nervous that we won’t have enough work to do in the time we are here. Hopefully, we will be able to assist Living Love in another project or two during our stay.

As the work wrapped up for the day, the students began to arrive in small waves from their school day. There is a green grass island in the center of the LLM campus with lush green grass soft enough to pass as a bed. Anyway, somehow yoga came up and before we knew it, most of our team was at Jess’s mercy in a yoga lesson. It was neat when George (one of the LLM board members) and several of the smaller kids joined in our yoga circle. Later after dinner, we joined the students out on the lawn for some play time before departure back to Mumbi’s. Imagine thirty kids running around with nerf footballs and other balls playing catch. Meanwhile there is an intense soccer (my mistake futbol game) going on in the same narrow area.  Some would call it chaos, but our team would call it bonding with the children and the team. Pure excitement in the mist of pure chaos.  Many times, this is when God is most real. When life is chaotic and appears as a 10000 piece puzzle all scrambled up God is right there by your side guide your footsteps.

All Glory to God!

          -Josh Patterson, ‘18

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Thunderstorms

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Last night several of us were awoken by a very short “thunderstorm” (the hot water heater on the roof of the place we are staying failed and made a loud noise). This “thunderstorm” set the tone for our day – we had some momentary difficulties, but soon they passed and skies cleared up!

Today was our first full work day at LLM and it started off slow. We ran into a few issues with the panel mounting. Also, while digging the trench (for wiring between buildings) in the morning we encountered a pipe running water to the main building, which complicated the digging process. However, in the late afternoon we had a welder arrive to help us put together the remaining panel mounting. He had experience with this type of mounting system, so he was able to assist us install half the panels today! After a difficult morning, it was a great relief to see the panels on the roof of Pamajo Hall by the afternoon.

Meanwhile, other members of our team worked carefully to assemble scaffolding to reach the roof from the inside of the building in preparation for running wiring to the downstairs in the next few days. As a team we spent a good bit of our time in the air today as you can see!

The kids arrived in the late afternoon, and we played frisbee with them for almost an hour before dinner. At one point we had 7 frisbees flying around with about 30 kids and 8 adults all chasing to grab them. It was a lot of fun! After dinner we followed up the fun with a game of soccer as some of the younger children played with Jess’ hair for at least a half hour in the middle of the soccer field, haha!

All in all, it was a great day. We definitely hit some significant roadblocks, but we thank the Lord for giving a clear path forward.

         - Steven Carpenter, ‘19

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Coming (Back) to Kenya

Sunday and Monday, May 27-28, 2018

Our God works in great and mysterious ways. He directed my path to Kenya in 2010 for the dedication of Living Love Ministries’ children’s home and has planted seeds and relationships that have grown to change the trajectory of my life forever. I am incredibly blessed to be able to return to Kenya with such a great project and group of people. I stand in awe as I see the faithfulness of God in the many new developments and relationships that have come to pass in Living Love Ministries over the past eight years. I can’t help but be reminded that those who are faithful with whatever they are given, will be continually blessed with more. We have all been welcomed as family, brothers and sisters in Christ, who are here to share in the glory of God as we act together as the hands and feet to carry out His will.  

The team has spent its first two days getting acquainted with Kenya and Living Love Ministries. The locals may say it is cold, but the weather is beautiful. Our home is beautiful, there should be no problems recruiting students if there is new solar project work that could be done here! We have experienced Kenyan food and fall in love with Chai tea more and more each and every day. I think it is safe to say that one of the best highlights of the trip for everybody will be meeting the children for the first time. They were waiting for us at the gate singing and dancing in eager anticipation for our arrival. The celebration and smiles of the children brightened the night sky as we drove through the gates. Our hearts are full after meeting the children and staff. Solomon and Elijah gave us a tour along the entire property of Living Love to see the different farming plots and livestock that contribute to the self-sufficiency of the home. God is moving at Living Love and we are blessed to be a small part of His great plan here.

Tomorrow starts our first full day or work, and we pray that God’s presence would continue to bless us as we continue to grow together as a team and strengthen relationships with the children. I’m not sure how teachers do it, but I know I could use some prayers for help remembering the many, many names of the children!

          -Zack Engle, ‘18

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Saturday, May 26th, 2018

We have made it to Kenya safely! The picture above is of our team just before we left from Dulles Airport in Washington D.C.. After about 30 hours of travel, our team arrived in Nairobi on Saturday at 5pm Kenya time (10am EST). We stayed at a hotel in the city on Saturday night. Tomorrow, Sunday May 27th, we will drive 4 hours to Ol Kalou, where the orphanage is, to complete the final leg of the trip. Thank you for your prayers and praise God for providing us a safe arrival!