well, today we traveled from arusha to nairobi and we've arrived safely.
our last couple of days in tanzania went really well. we did a lot of last minute work on the church. yesterday, the church in majengo had a tree planting ceremony for us. we each planted a tree at the work site and the whole church came out to watch.. that was a really nice way of kind of completing things. we squeezed in a lot of house visits in these last couple of days as well... lots of families wanted to have us over before we left... each family showing sooooo much hospitality towards us all.
it was hard for alicia and i to leave our family today.. you can tell the whole mood of our entire team has kind of changed... no one is ready to go. we're going to have these two days of debriefing so hopefully that will prepare our hearts a bit more... we are all praying!
it's been so nice to hear from you all through email and messages... i'm glad to hear that things are going well... i'm sad/ excited to say that i've filled up all my memory space on my camera so i have about 1000 pictures to share when i get home.
i'll see you all very soon.. stay safe!
xoxo
-Jen
Monday, August 6, 2007
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
another update...since i've been slacking
wow,
i havent updated for awhile so i think it's about time i do that...
things are definitely still very exciting and i am enjoying my time here so much. we just have this week left in tanzania and then we drive back to kenya and fly back home on the 8th... i cannot believe how fast time was gone by.
everyday i have tried to 'soak it all in.' i feel like my time here in africa is way too short and that it's important i don't take anything for granted. i've been trying to live each day here to the fullest and to take complete advantage of all the experiences God has blessed me with.
i've enjoyed working with the kids here. they all just want to be loved. each saturday we've worked with kids through compassion international. i've been so encouraged by these children. they have so little and yet they are so generous and happy. we've also continued the construction of the church daily. that's been quite interesting... i am getting very good at shoveling dirt, that's for sure. God has given us a bunch of opportunities to minister to the people we see very often. like, the family that we pass each day on our way to work and other workers that are building a house close to where we are building the church. so many people in this area are excited about the work we are doing and are very curious about Christ.
so definitely a highlight... we went on a safari on monday and tuesday... we saw tons and tons and tons of animals... herds of buffalo running around our truck... elephants crossing the road right infront of us... zebras drinking water right beside our window. giraffs fighting each other just meters away... there were so many times on the safari when i just had to stare out of my window in awe of all the beautiful things that God has created. at the end of the day on monday we still had not seen any lions. we were driving out of the park and we saw another truck stopped up ahead of us. they were pointing up into the tree so we thought it would just be another bird or something but as we got closer we realized that there were two lions (male and female) sleeping up in the tree right on top of us. the tree hung over the road so they were literally right on top of us. it was amazing. i couldnt believe i was so close to 2 live lions, just in the middle of the wild... i really can't explain the feelings and emotions i had when i experienced that.. i was once again just in awe. the second day of the sarafi was just as amazing.. we saw most of the same animals but we saw 12 lions instead of two. two of the 12 lions we saw yesterday were actually mating... haha... that was an experience in itself. we also saw a lion in the process of hunting down a herd of wildabeast... that was very exciting. we saw tons of hippos too. when we stopped for lunch we were basically having lunch with about 8 hippos... they were right infront of us in the water... they also had a baby hippo with them and that was so cute... i'm still soaking in all of the things i saw the past two days... God has some serious creativity.. that's for sure.
i think that updates you all till today...
we're working on the church again today and also doing some house visits. tonight we have a youth prayer meeting.. i think it will be the last time i'll see a couple of friends that i've made here before we leave so that might be a bit hard saying bye today... on thursday we are going to do basically the same thing as today but i'll be speaking at a different youth service. i'm excited to share all that God has been doing with some of the locals. on friday we are going to go into town to do some shopping at a market place. saturday is compassion with the kids again.. sunday is church and packing and then monday we travel back to niarobi... this week is going to go by way too fast... i'm definitely ready to just sit back and watch God do huge things for the last little bit that we have here.
xoxo
-Jen
i havent updated for awhile so i think it's about time i do that...
things are definitely still very exciting and i am enjoying my time here so much. we just have this week left in tanzania and then we drive back to kenya and fly back home on the 8th... i cannot believe how fast time was gone by.
everyday i have tried to 'soak it all in.' i feel like my time here in africa is way too short and that it's important i don't take anything for granted. i've been trying to live each day here to the fullest and to take complete advantage of all the experiences God has blessed me with.
i've enjoyed working with the kids here. they all just want to be loved. each saturday we've worked with kids through compassion international. i've been so encouraged by these children. they have so little and yet they are so generous and happy. we've also continued the construction of the church daily. that's been quite interesting... i am getting very good at shoveling dirt, that's for sure. God has given us a bunch of opportunities to minister to the people we see very often. like, the family that we pass each day on our way to work and other workers that are building a house close to where we are building the church. so many people in this area are excited about the work we are doing and are very curious about Christ.
so definitely a highlight... we went on a safari on monday and tuesday... we saw tons and tons and tons of animals... herds of buffalo running around our truck... elephants crossing the road right infront of us... zebras drinking water right beside our window. giraffs fighting each other just meters away... there were so many times on the safari when i just had to stare out of my window in awe of all the beautiful things that God has created. at the end of the day on monday we still had not seen any lions. we were driving out of the park and we saw another truck stopped up ahead of us. they were pointing up into the tree so we thought it would just be another bird or something but as we got closer we realized that there were two lions (male and female) sleeping up in the tree right on top of us. the tree hung over the road so they were literally right on top of us. it was amazing. i couldnt believe i was so close to 2 live lions, just in the middle of the wild... i really can't explain the feelings and emotions i had when i experienced that.. i was once again just in awe. the second day of the sarafi was just as amazing.. we saw most of the same animals but we saw 12 lions instead of two. two of the 12 lions we saw yesterday were actually mating... haha... that was an experience in itself. we also saw a lion in the process of hunting down a herd of wildabeast... that was very exciting. we saw tons of hippos too. when we stopped for lunch we were basically having lunch with about 8 hippos... they were right infront of us in the water... they also had a baby hippo with them and that was so cute... i'm still soaking in all of the things i saw the past two days... God has some serious creativity.. that's for sure.
i think that updates you all till today...
we're working on the church again today and also doing some house visits. tonight we have a youth prayer meeting.. i think it will be the last time i'll see a couple of friends that i've made here before we leave so that might be a bit hard saying bye today... on thursday we are going to do basically the same thing as today but i'll be speaking at a different youth service. i'm excited to share all that God has been doing with some of the locals. on friday we are going to go into town to do some shopping at a market place. saturday is compassion with the kids again.. sunday is church and packing and then monday we travel back to niarobi... this week is going to go by way too fast... i'm definitely ready to just sit back and watch God do huge things for the last little bit that we have here.
xoxo
-Jen
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