Day 8 and Day 9
Both these days started out as the ones before with breakfast and devotion all together.  However, these days were ordained for relaxation, regeneration, and transition.  Part of this time is meant to get us ready to go back to what used to be our ordinary life.  However after experiencing Kenya and village life, how could any of us go back to life as before.  We have all had very individual experiences as well as experiences as a team.  God has dealt with our hearts and will continue to deal with our hearts for a very long time.  There is no way that a person can go on a mission trip and not be changed forever.  Thank you Father and thank you supporters for sending us out to serve.  There are just no words that can explain what is in all of our hearts.

For fun, the team finished up our time in Kenya with a two part Safari.  First we spend some time on Lake Naivasha observing nature at it's best.  We say lots of birds, Giraffes, Zebras, Water Buffaloe, Rhinos, Gazelles, etc.  Just the sheer beauty of this lake is more than proof of the existence of God.  How could anyone see and experience these things and doubt???

We then drove to Lake Nakuru and a land Safari where we saw and experienced even more wild life in their natural habitat.  Just as the sun was starting to go down, the storms once again came dumping an abundant supply of rain.  Off we went to our last night in Kenya.  We stayed on the preserve at Lake Nakuru in a rather nice place.  All of us were a little sad that we could not spend more time in the village but knew that it was getting time to prepare for our return to home.  The hotel hosts a nightly show with Kenyan music and dance.  This was a great time as some of our team members took up the challenge and participated with the festivities.  Following the 'party', we enjoyed a great meal, had our debrief, and went to bed exhausted. Friday and travel was fast approaching.

We awoke to a beautiful morning with plans for more wild life then off to the airport.  Of course, we did have a little shopping to accomplish as well.  You can't NOT go shopping!!!  And, Muchai was an expert at finding the best places.  We stopped at a few places and did some bargaining but the best was when we stopped a Kazuri.  This was a wonderful experience as we learned how the clay beads are hand constructed, hand painted, glazed, fired, and compiled into absolutely beautiful jewelry.  Look it up on the internet.  This business was started on the outskirts of Niarobi by 2 single mothers to help support themselves and their families.  In a very short amount of time by business standards, it have grown to over 300 employees (mostly single mothers) and ships all over the world.  Now that is a successful business.  We could learn something from these entrepreneurs.














We also went to the Giraffe center where we were able to hand feed Rothschild Giraffes and observe their interaction with humans.  These are the most marvelous creatures I've ever seen.  I repeat myself.....
           how can anyone doubt God's existence after seeing these creatures???

Pizza, don't know who thought of it.  Doesn't really matter but oh, my what a treat!  Imagine pizza at a "shopping mall" in Niarobi, Kenya.  Following our 'last supper' together as a team, we were off to the airport and subsequently home.

FINAL NOTE:
Just want to say thank you to everyone that supported the Hope Missions International Kenya 2012 team whether monetarily or in prayer.  This has been an experience of a lifetime and as a team our sincere wish, prayer, heart desire is that we have been the hands and feet of our Savior.  That we have been the voice, speaking God's love.  And, that we have shared the heart of the almighty.  Our lives are forever changed!

Day 7--Wednesday
Sorry, folks!  We are actually home now, so I must catch you all up on the happenings of the past few days.

Wednesday was bittersweet as we started out the day with the knowledge that it would be our last day in the village.  But......this was meant to be the GREATEST of days.  Each of us were forging lifetime relationships with the people of Kiria.  Of course, this is a simple thing to do when you are spending time with such loving people.  We did start out with some bad news.  You just never know what you might face in this area.  Overnight, there was a break in at the school.  Apparently the robbers did not find what they were looking for but they beat the night watchman badly and left him for dead.  Muchai, our trip leader, thought that perhaps the robbers were looking for the chain link fencing that was being used to set up a parameter around the school property.  They did not find the chain link but took some of the children's school books as a measure of defiance.  The night watchman was taken to the hospital.  He is is going to recover but it will be some time.  This did put a damper on the enthusiasm for the morning.  But our team is so wonderful, we were all determined to have this be a fabulous day to spite the news.

Upon arriving at the primary school, we split up into two teams.

Some working on the manual labor of the fencing and others spending time with the nursery school.  We brought projects, crayons, coloring sheets, and all sorts of items to help with time with the children.  It is amazing to watch these 5 year olds color one sheet.  They are so meticulous at coloring in each area.  Some of these kids are quite artistic, quite talented, so intense!  More than anything else, I was impressed with how well behaved the children are, to be so young.  Whenever the teacher would speak, the children would respond respectfully.  It is truly a joy to watch the interaction and know that these kids really want to be in school.  These kids really appreciate what school can do for them.  Their teacher is a young woman who really enjoys the children.  It is evident that she is right where she wants to be.

After time with the little ones in the classroom, we went out to the field to spend time with ALL the kids.  The soccer balls, bubbles, jump ropes, etc all came out.  A fun time was to be had by all.  You should have seen the tug of war games.  It was amazing.  And.... a 50 cent bottle of bubbles provides hours of fun for these kids even up to the teenagers.  Speaking of teenagers, we split up and took some time with the teenagers.  Our male team members went with the boys and our female team members went with the girls.  In this type of culture, things about growing up are not discussed so we wanted to allow time with this age group for questions or discussions, if they felt free to share.  The girls are very reserved but our team was able to spend time with them and encourage them to stay in school, work hard, and love God.  They even shared some memorized scriptures with us.  The boys had a wonderful time.  After their discussion, Dave shared a little martial arts with them but had to teach them about not hitting/kicking for fun.  It was hilarious to see Dave with the boys. They were doing an exercise where Dave had them repeat "I will not hit, I will not kick",  Then, pandemonium broke out as all the boys started play hitting and kicking each other.  You had to be there.

We took a short lunch break prior to spending time with the adults.  The men played checkers and the women came one by one to have their nails polished by our team members.  This was soooooooo much fun.
These women really enjoyed spending a little time just being women, feeling pretty and pampered.  It is amazing how much personality comes out when women just get together to be girls.  Some of these women are quite spunky and fun.....playful!  Man oh man do these people love to have their picture taken.  Wish you could just hear their accents saying 'take one pikcha, please'.  I have no clue as to who had more fun, the women of Kiria or us.

As the afternoon went on, we realized it was time to wind down.  The leadership counsel wanted to have an assembly in the school courtyard to say farewell.  All the children and adults gathered around for the assembly.  Patrick, our driver, had allowed us to have a full day (our only full day) in the village.  He was determined, no matter what the weather, for us to be able to stay.  Patrick was wonderful in getting where we needed to go safely all week but he wasn't about to let the weather keep us from having a full last day.
During the assembly, we were able to show our appreciation of the hospitality of this village in word but some of us were very emotional.  It is difficult to leave a people that have welcomed you with open arms and open hearts.  But, we were all happy.  Just happy to be blessed to have this time.  Happy to develop these relationships.  Happy to learn of another culture that is so blessed and so close to God.  To have so little, but so much.  The lessons learned are impossible to describe.  I will forever be grateful to God for this experience.  My prayer is to be able to someday return to my new friends in Kiria.

We returned to Lake Naivasha for our last night there with only minor difficulty due to the roads.  PATRICK IS THE MAN!!!  Debrief included a talk by David from Brightpoint for Children an organization where you can sponsor a child in Kiria.  Look it up! https://www.brightpointforchildren.org/index.php  This is a fabulous way to help the children of Kiria from a distance.

Day Six Reflections:
At debrief last night and devotion this morning, we circled around team members to pray for health.  We have a couple of colds and some stomach issues that we wanted to lay at the feet of Jesus.  Getting on the road this morning, everyone was filled with faith that this was going to be a great day.  Today was going to be unique and eye opening as we were going into the homes of some of the villagers and to spend time getting to know one another.  The language barrier alone was going to be a challenge but 410Bridge has worked with the leadership counsel to have someone go in with us to these homes to assist.

We got to the village with only minor travel difficulties due to lots of mud but once again, Patrick, proved to be "the man".  First thing, we split up to do some manual labor.  Some slung hoes, some a machete, some dug holes, and some, well, if you consider playing with pre-schoolers manual labor, I just might have to share my machete with you.  During this work our goal was to build relationships with the people we were working alongside.  This is a pretty easy task here as the people of Kiria are friendly and open.  They want to know everything about us so at times, we had to jump in with quesions for them.  They have questions for us about family, home life and work life.  We talked about family and work life and believe it or not the language difference didn't seem like such a large barrier.  While learning to sling a machete to manually clear a field, I learned that the Kenyan village people have many children for very practical reasons.  One of the reasons there are so many children in each family is to assist with the work.  Milking cows, working in the fields, caring for the younger children, grazing sheep, herding cows........In Kenya, girls are a hot commodity for more than just being girls.  You see, when a girl gets married, the young man must present the girl's family with a dowry.  This can be in the form of money, cows, sheep......This is a monetary commitment to the marriage.  Girls bring in a higher dowry depending on the number of 'desirable' qualities they possess, such as dimples which signify beauty, a gap in the front teeth which helps in blowing the kitchen fire to get it started better, and a larger body size which assists in child birth.

After the manual labor for the day, our team divided into the 3 groups again.  Off we went for home visits.  At each home visit, we took supplies to make chiapati (a type of bread much like flat bread that is rolled out and fried in a cast iron skillet over an open fire) and chia tea (made with mild and sugar).  Chiapati is actually a special treat for these families as most can not afford to purchase the flour to create the bread.  Chiapati is generally only served at family gatherings such as holidays.  Each team shared the warm, overwhelming welcome that was received.  The Kenyan people treat you as though you are a cherished relative from afar.  Therefore, we all felt at ease as we began to develop relationships to spit the language differences.  At the conclusion of our home visit, we walked back to the primary school compound enjoying the local scenery and clean mountain air.

We enjoyed playing the early afternoon away with the school children prior to having to leave due to rain once again moving into the area.  Life here is so simple.  A place where children are happy with a jump rope, an old bicycle tire rim and a stick to push it, a bottle of bubbles, or even just a song........these are the things that we should all be able to appreciate.  Everyone, adults and children alike, love to have their picture taken here.  Only the more affluent can afford a camera but they sure do know what one is for.  The children say "take me one picture???" and then they want to see that picture.  I wish I could relay just how precious each
and every small pleasure is here.  And, how simple that pleasure is.  Oh, to be more content and happy without all the daily stress and clutter that our society acquires through what we call "success".

Short version is that we all had a fabulous day.  Mission team and villagers alike.    It is sad to say that tomorrow will be our last day in the village with all the people we have grown to love in a very short period of time.

Day 5--Monday
NEW EXCITEMENT:  The teacher strike here is OVER!  Oh, I forgot to say anything about that. There has been a teacher strike here due to low pay and no government changes to help that.  But praise God, it has ended and all the children, I mean ALL of them, will be back on Tuesday.  We are so excited to see the ones who have been missing.

Today was a very exciting day with memories to die for.  We hope that everyone reading this will want to come after learning of all our fun.  The day started out with a Zebra sighting not far from our hotel. Patrick was accomodating enough to pull over so we could stop and take pictures.  There they were just grazing in a field, out in the open by the highway.  Well, one of our incrediblely comedic team members (John) decided to walk down to them, just as the Zebras decided to cross the street.  Our team member (John) took off running behind the Zebras.  It was such a sight.  You can only imagine by seeing.  Check out:  http://themollybuckley.com

So how do we top that for a day of fun?  Try fence building, gate building, play with the kids, lots of pictures, and lots of afternoon rain.  Our team has started developing deep relationships with the people of Kiria.  Adults and children alike.  Of course when you mix lots of rain with VERY bad MUD roads, hills to climp and descend, and curves to take, it can make for a very exciting time!  Before we had even gotten out of the village, we were stuck in the mud.  12 people on a 20 or so passenger bus in the middle of Kenya in the rain.  But we have the best driver in the world, Patrick, and he managed to get us out.  Off we went again.

Some time later, we pulled over for a 'squatty potty' break.  We noticed that we had a tire going flat.  Patrick said let us continue.  It is not that far.  It wasn't long before we realized that we would have to stop and change the tire on the road.  That was an adventure but with a little bit of entertainment from one of the nearby village gentlemen named
'Krees-to-far'.  He gave us the 'Lye-own' story.  See this amazing video on youtube, just search Christopher and the Lion Story.

Of course, there were many other things that have occurred along the way but you must come to be privey to those.  We returned to Lake Naivasha, our home away from home to an evening of fellowship and letting our feelings flow.

I want to close with just a few words about this mission.  I personally came on this trip with only one expectation.  That is to share the love of God.  However, I am receiving  more love than I could ever give.  The people of this country are so giving of themselves. The sense of family and community oneness can only be explained by the scripture Mark 12:30-31.  Abbreviated version:  love God and love your neighbor as yourself.  The people of Kenya......
what love they so freely give.

God is sooooo good!  All the time!

Another Blog to follow.

Check out Molly's blog for more on this trip and for pictures:  http://www.themollybuckley.comhttp://www.themollybuckley.com

Sunday:
Worship day.  Devotion and prayer got our day off to a fabulous start.  It was beautiful and we were really excited.  So we loaded the bus and headed out.  BUT, did not get far.  We were stopped at a police checkpoint before even getting out of town.  The police here are very corrupt (most of the government is).  It was a female officer and long story short, she commandered our vehicle for bad tires.  The officer took is to the police station by boarding the van and directing us.  This , of course, was after wanting a 3000 shilling fine on the spot or a 1000 shilling bribe to let us go.  Kudos to David Muchai and Patrick for saying no and standing their ground.  While at the police station, in typical New Hope fashion, we went ahead and started church.  We had praise and worship, scripture, and prayer rigt there in the back police yard.  There were quite a few onlookers, let me tell you.  Long story shortened, David refused to pay the fine because there was nothing wrong with the tires.  We were detained for some time as the attempted to 'make us' do what they wanted.  But soon, we were back on out way.  A little late to church but they saved plenty for us.

Our team of 10 was divided into 3 groups to attend 3 different churches.  We were prepared for anything as we had been told that it was custom for the guests to do something....sing, speak, read scripture.  New Hope can be happy that we all represented well.  All of the above were done.  Everyone had a fabulous time.  The worship was beautiful and pure.  Can I tell you, this was New Hope Kenya from beginning to end.  The welcome, the music and dancing, and the word.  I can't wait to come back.

Let's back up just a little.  We were asked just before leaving the US if we were willing to make a little change to our plans for Sunday.  The village wanted to have an afternoon crusade, where all the churches would meet at a central location and have 'church' again, together.  There were music and drums and preaching.  Even our illustrious Dave Brown gave a rock solid message.  The children all latched on to us and worshipped right alongside.  There is nothing like the hunger of these children for our company and our relationships.

Once again, we had to cut out and run for the lower elevation as the rain moved in quickly.  We had already gotten tons of rain during the regular worship time and the roa9ds were only going to get much worse.  I cannot relay to anyone how the roads are here.  You just have to come and experience the roller coaster of Kenya for yourself.  Off to rest and refresh we went.  Back down the mountain.

Dinner and debrief, then bed.  Exhausted again but very full of emotions and spiritual wakefulness.

So, here we are again and we really need to get caught up.  To finish day 3--Saturday. We  made it back to Niavasha and our hotel after a very bumpy ride and a little rain.  It had done way more than rain a little along the way.  Can I tell you?  We have a very good driver.  He was able to manuever in ways I never dreamed of.  Somewhere along the way, we were ablegot our precious memory of the day.  These little kids were running down this fairly steep hill shouting and waving wildly.  These kids couldn't have been more than 3-5 years old.  The smallest one tripped or slipped or fell somehow face first, skirt flipping up, bare behind shinning.  But still managed to give us the biggest grin you have ever seen.  I just know that she went flying back up that hill screaming, I saw thw Muzungu!  What a cherished memory that will be for all of us.  Just too bad that we didn't get it on video for youtube.  After a great dinner and intimate debrief, we all went to bed VERY exhausted.

Day Four to come...