last day of VBS

Our devotion this morning was on Psalms 68: 5-6...

" A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling, God sets the lonely in families...."

Something I have mentioned before is how seriously our children in Kenya take our role as sponsors -- we are now the mothers and fathers that they have lost. We are part of new families in Kenya...

We went to the school fairly early this morning. I was going to go to a class with Teri and Tom, who have been sitting in with the high school boys class all week, but Ellen snagged me to come talk to our young boy with nightmares again. You could see an immediate difference -- he had been in my memory book class and so felt much more comfortable with me this time -- but he also seemed much more relaxed. He said that he had not had any bad dreams this week. I told him that we were glad for him and shared with him the technique of having a plan prepared when he goes to sleep of what to do if he has a nightmare. He will be able to yell at the demons that he is protected by Jesus and will have power over them, not them have power over him -- and then wake up safely! He asked me to write to him in a few weeks, I am just about ready to be able to do that, after nearly a month at home...!

Ellen also asked me to talk to another girl about a behavior problem that had been reported by a teacher in her town. She was very sad and cried (I felt bad about it...) but Ellen told me that it was all right, as it was important that this girl know that people were concerned about her and were watching her behavior. An interesting cultural spin on an uncomfortable situation for me...

We also handed out the memory books (Mutie of the fancy shoes was in charge) and took pictures (of course) with everyone holding up their own book. They were very proud. We will send the individual photos back for Ellen to distribute in August.

Debbie and I also presented the stove to Mary and her children. That was really a moment -- this small thing will make a real difference to her. She will be safe taking care of her children at night, and will not have to leave her house after dark.

It was very interesting -- last day, about 11:30, the bus started to fill up. By about noon, nearly everyone from the team was on the bus. I think we had reached the limit of what we could absorb. The little children can be overwhelming -- they are so curious, crowd up very close to all of us, want to look at the veins in our arms, touch our hair and skin. It can be difficult to handle. After a while, we reemerged from the bus and found some of our favorite people to talk to...Ellen, the older girls and boys, Paul, Agnes. The younger children were off somewhere playing and it wasn't quite so anxiety producing.

Nthenya came for the last day after her class got out and came to find me. It was good to see her again before we left. I brought a little voice recorder with me on the trip and she sang a song for me -- it turned out to be the best thing that I recorded the whole week and a real treasure for me at home. I can listen to it and be totally transported back to Kenya. She has a beautiful sweet voice.

Lunch was LATE, we were starved and so were the kids, but it was worth waiting for -- a delicious stew, rice, chapatis and fresh fruit. After lunch, we had the final program, which went on for HOURS (about three hours), singing, dancing, presentations, a short sermon to wrap up the teaching by the same man who had been there the opening night, Solomon Mumo. Amazingly, again, the children hung in there and actually behaved themselves until it was nearly over, and even then, their behavior wasn't BAD, just a tiny bit rowdier. We were all sore from sitting on the hard metal chairs.

We were totally surprised by an offering they collected for the girls in Cambodia. The children had been so touched by the plight of the girls that they asked if they could take up an offering. In Kenya, offerings are brought forward and put in a basket at the front of the room -- we were all sitting there crying as these Kenyan orphans gave what little they could out of their poverty to help girls nearly half a world away.

The rest of the evening we relaxed -- a few returned for the final goodbye program (more singing and dancing). Many of us were just too worn out. I don't even remember turning off the light that night.