Finally, an Update From Kenya

So first off, I would like to apologize to everyone who is reading this and to everyone who isn't because they have checked my blog soooo many times and are finally fed up with there being nothing new. It was definitely not my intention to be in Kenya for three weeks without a single blog post telling how the trip is going and updating people on my life and where God is and what not. I hope all reading this can forgive me for not being diligent in what I said I would be doing while I was here in Kenya. I am making it my goal to write at least once a week, and more when I find the time and energy to do such. With that being said, lets move on the the stuff you have been waiting to see for weeks.

To say the last few weeks of my life has been crazy would be an understatement. In fact, I am not sure how to express my last two weeks to someone without jumping from one point to another, going from thought to thought, and not taking thirty different sidetracks before getting to the end of a thought. Just to give you an idea as a reader I am going to do something they told me in my public education to never do: use a long, probably fragmented, run on sentance that will most likely make not a lot of sense and seem crazy and unorthodox, but afterall, that is the point.

So in the last two weeks I have been dumped into a new culture, tried to learn a new language, learned how to use public transportation, met new people, traveled to another part of kenya, tried goat intestines, met new people, walked 400 miles (or so it seems), moved in to a guest house, loved on some kids, met new people, won a basketball game, visited the slums, witnessed a mosquito attack, learned how to cook, been hustled, swam at the beach, met new people, been pet like a dog, kicked a cat (oops), walked 400 more miles, crammed into a matatu with 25 other people (supposed to have a max of 14), had a slumber party, hit on by prostitutes (one of which gave us her number), painted some rooms, taught Kenyans how to play BS, met new people, and slept (a little). Just a little hectic and jam packed.

Add all that together and you get a wicked awesome place with some of the most incredible people you will ever meet, a place that you will fall in love with just as fast as you fell in love with Lucy Ricardo. At least that is how I feel.

Kenya is incredible to say the least. What makes Kenya special to me though is the people, the relationships. Notice in my long sentance I put 'met new people' like a hundred times. That was completely intentional. The reason meeting new people is in there so much is because out of everything we have done, all the adventures we have been on, all the things we have learned, meeting new people and building relationships is what has been the most impactful thing to me. Not what I expected.

I am a very relational person and I should have guessed that the people would be the best part about this trip. That is not what I had in mind, however, coming into it. That is not where I had invisioned God being the most present. I, probably like a lot of people going on a mission  trip for the first time, thought the service we would be providing to help would be the purpose for God bringing me here. As I look back on the last few weeks, that is not at all I am here. God is doing something much bigger, something that will last much longer than the paint on the school walls.

It is very exciting to me to see where these relationships go over the next few weeks while we are here and even after we go home. I have been extremely blessed to have met so many great people and my hope and prayer is that I can inspire and impact them just as much as they have done for me.