Samson, Serah, and Singwaya

The past few days have been a blur in preparation for the first short-term team to arrive.  Wednesday we finished as much as possible around the compound. Thursday was our day of rest. All the girls went and got massages and pedicures while James, Josiah, Samuel and I stayed at the house and watched movies all afternoon. Our theme was natural disasters; first we watched Twister, and then we watched The Impossible.  Friday morning we got up and headed to Mombasa around 10 A.M. to pick up the teams. We arrived at the airport around 12:30, expecting the flight to land at 1. They didn't arrive until almost 3, and so we spent a couple hours in the airport waiting on them.  We ordered some pizza and just waited on them. Once they arrived, we made a stop in Mombasa and then headed to back to Malindi. We had some bus issues on the way, and so the drive was around three hours instead of two. We finally got back to Malindi, and after a few snacks everyone pretty much crashed.

Today we got up and Gertrude came to the house for a Swahili class this morning for the group. The interns sat in on the class but we weren't too involved since we had the lesson two weeks ago.  About an hour into the lesson, James called us and said he wanted us to come to the church property because some kids were there for choir practice.  The four of us loaded up the van and went to the church. I've been driving a few times this week and I'm starting to get used to it. It's a little different since here you drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. Also, there are cars, motorcycles, bikes, and pedestrians everywhere and they typically aren't too concerned with getting out of your way. It's been an adjustment to say the least, but I love learning to drive here. Julie, Brittany and Ashley had choir practice with the kids at the church. James and Clayton had a fire going and we were just watching it burn. Most of the time there I spent talking with a 17 year-old kid named Samson.  He regularly attends the church here in Malindi but I'm not sure if he is a believer.  James has briefly talked to him but isn't sure if he is saved or not. I'm hoping to grow closer with him so that I can talk to him about salvation.  He speaks decent English but it is still hard to communicate. I'm praying that we will be able to understand each other when talking about God.

We came back to the compound for lunch and then everyone went back to the church to hand out invitations to church along with the books of John and Romans. We handed out about 1,200 total  invites to church in about an hour and a half. I was in a group with Brittany, a girl named Ally, and Godfrey, a member of the church in Malindi. I had some really good conversations with Godfrey this afternoon. His two month old daughter, Serah, was born blind. She was supposed to have a cornea transplant a couple weeks ago, but the doctor would not do it because she was so young. On Tuesday, they are taking her to a different doctor in hopes of them cutting holes in her cornea so that she can have partial vision. Godfrey seemed a little nervous because he is not sure what the doctor will say on Tuesday. The church has been praying for Serah, and so we will see what happens on Tuesday.

Tomorrow, we will be at church in Malindi. Afterwards, we are getting everything packed up to go to Singwaya for the basketball camp from Tuesday until Saturday. Monday will be a fun day. We are going snorkeling and possibly going to a crocodile farm. Then early Tuesday morning we will head to the village for the basketball camp. Friday night we will show the Jesus Film in the local language. Afterwards, I'll be giving a short message and we'll have an invitation. Our hope for the week is to see souls saved and the church in Singwaya to grow.