Day 12: Chilly Beginnings and Warm Greetings

Today we visited a few different churches under the leadership of the pastor that the Irungu family has been networking with since they arrived in August. As we drove down, and further down the mountain in the cool of the morning, passersby stopped and waved. We were entering a place that didn't see a lot of vehicles or Mzungu's (white people).

 We got out and went into the cold, dusty stone church. We had a short worship time, while various groups got up the sing. What seemed to be the ladies choir, if you will, sang a few songs with a large drum made of animal hide. We even got up to sing some songs that the church knew in Swahili.
We seemed to do that a lot :)

I sat with the Irungu kids and kept them out of trouble while George, John and Matt shared a message with the church. After the service was over, we had some T Shirts that we brought from our church to hand out.

While we were handing them out, two pre-teen girls had been talking to our Carrie. They said that their mother sent them to the service and said good bye before they left in case they were given an opportunity to come back to America with one of the visitors, meaning us. Carrie was so gracious in saying that they could stay with her someday when they come over either for school or work. It was so sweet to hear the girls' stories. They went home with the consolation that they would be welcomed if they ever got to come to America.

 

There was another woman there with what we thought was a baby, but in fact it was a girl about 5 years old who was so deformed that she looked infantile. To have a child in this condition was such a shame for the mother and if anyone touched the child, they too were thought to contract whatever deformity the child had. Carrie prayed with the woman, the child and the bystanders by laying hands on the child (you can see her holding the child in the front row wrapped in the pink blanket).  This as I mentioned was unheard of. But the women all prayed along and agreed in their hearts for God's provision.

This was a shorter day as we were preparing to go to Nairobi the next morning.