Community

We got to spend the night at Heavenly Treasures for the last two days. The food was amazingg!!! and it was really nice be out in the country rather than in the city or in the slums. The scenery is beautiful.
We were planning on spending two days with the Heavenly Treasures kids, that's why we spent two nights there, but when we got there the people told us that the kids weren't going to come the first day! ): We had nothing to really do, so we went and worked on building these rabbit cages that he funded and then we decided to go on a walk around the community. When we walked around, all the people in the community came out to see us and they would shout "How are you?!" from all the way across the valley. It was actually pretty funny, they were inviting us to their homes too! It really is like a community there.

The thing is that when you're a "Mzungu" (white person/foreigner) in Kenya, all the kids and Kenyans are really interested in you. We would step outside the Heavenly Treasures gates and all the neighborhood kids would be waiting there for us, it was the cutest thing ever! They went on the entire walk with us and they helped us build the rabbit cages and when we went on a walk the next day they came with us then too. There was a little boy that help my hand the whole entire walk the second time and his name was Joseph. He had these really cute puppy dog eye with long eyelashes and he was really sweet (: During the walk he kept looking up at me and smiling and when I would smile back he would get all shy, i

Derek and one of the neighborhood kids holding hands during our walk

Rolling his tire toy along side us

It's late here and we all have to get up really early tomorrow so I'll make this pretty short, but I guess its hard to sum up all my feelings anyways. My point though, is that I'm glad that God allowed us to have that "free" day, because it really allowed us to reach out to the community and the kids that live around Heavenly Treasures. I definitely feel like I got closer to the neighborhood kids than I did to the Heavenly Treasure kids. God has really shown me his love through all the kids we've met and I really just wish I could take them all home with me ):

I gave this boy, David a pair of my flip flops becuase he had no shoes. He was so shocked and his smile made my day (:

On our way home from Heavenly Treasures we stopped off at Mcedo school again to drop off some soccer uniforms for their tournament on Saturday and we got to see some of the kids that we saw last Thursday! Last time I just took pictures of all the cute little kids, but this time I was able to actually talk to some older boys that could speak english and it was really nice! They were very interested in America and Washington and where I came from so I showed them some pictures on my camera and told them a little about Washington. It's sad though, because you can tell how high they put America in their minds. If they saw America for themselves, they would change their minds..

There was a little boy named Rinaldo that I met the first time we went to Mcedo and he had such a cute smile and these adorable eyes and he always did a thumbs up when I would take a picture of him. When we left last Thursday he chased after our van ): I looked for him again this time but I couldn't find him! So I asked some of the boys I was talking to if they knew him and one of them went to go get him for me. But then we had to leave ): As I was sitting in the van though, I heard a knock on the window and the boy had brought Rinaldo to me! It made me SO happy! But at the same time I was sad to see him, becuase it was just a clear reminder to me that he was staying there.. in that dirty, smelly, somewhat hopeless slum that he may never get to leave and I get to go back to a nice home with a great meal and a bed.. That's just so unsettling to me. I won't ever forget about him though, and I pray that he'll learn about God so that I'll get to see him again in heaven. That gives me a little hope (:

Please pray for these children, I want everyone to have the privilege of meeting them in heaven (:

P.S. Mom, I'm replying to you e-mails, but I think that for some reason you aren't receiving them ): But I love and miss you guys and I can't wait to see you when I get home (: