God is so good. I was reminded today that even though we use the verbiage "Ask God to show up" the truth is, He is always with us and He was on our trip the entire time. Our trip was filled with incredible moments. From the time we met in Temecula a week and a half ago, to the time we returned last night, God was constantly with us, and reminding us of his presence.
As we headed back to Nairobi on Friday, we shared wonderful stories of the past week. We reflected on how the children of Imani had loved on us -- and how we all needed Africa more than Africa needed each of us. The stories we all shared involved much laughter, and moments that we will never forget.
Rita shared a story about how the children asked her to sing the national anthem. She said that no matter how many times she tried to explain what "not being able to sing" meant, they remained persistent in wanting to listen to her sing the national anthem (and I am sure she sang it beautifully)!
Kelly shared stories about how each child wanted to see pictures of her family back in the states, and how they had remembered her daughter Katie from the last trip, and asked to send a video to her -- I don't have the video to post, but it was super cute hearing the kids record it saying "We love you Katie, come back to visit!" With their English spoken perfectly, with Swahili accents.
Mic and Cyn have stolen the hearts of each child by learning both Swahili and Kembu (the local dialect) so that they can communicate in more than one language together. They also shared many pictures and videos of the children exchanging songs they have learned together (for example: "head, shoulder, knees, and toes").
Nancy and Dave shared their stories about the kids excitement to write letters back to people in the United States, and how perfect the children's handwriting was (personally -- I saw kids writing about animals they were seeing at a wild animal park, and even on the bumpy bus they had perfect handwriting -- very impressive). They also shared how articulate the conversations with the children were. Nancy even taught them sign language! Seeing the kids sign "I Love You" was truly heart warming.
Our fearless leader Bryan was given the Kenyan name - Murithi which means "Shepherd." His given name could not be more perfect! From the moment the idea of Imani was formed back in 2010, he has been the schools Murithi, and has done such an incredible job of leading the rest of us to fall in love with the children of Embu, and the mission of Imani Christian Schools.
Thank you for joining us on this journey! The work we do here to serve the Imani community is work that blesses us as much as we pray we are a blessing to them. I hope you will continue to check back into our blog as we keep you updated throughout the year on the accomplishments of our students, and news about the school. Be Blessed!
