There Ain't No Party Like a Holy Spirit Party: 9-18

Today we went to Joska! It is a boarding school with like 600 kids. They are educated and fed and loved. We drove for about an hour and a half to get there – it’s way out in the country and has mountains for a backdrop. FAME was there doing a clinic for the school and community. Also, Trader’s Point Church was there doing a variety of things.

I got to work in the clinic with a nurse in consultation. I learned quite a bit. A lot of people came in with allergies and scabies. Everyone was given a de-worming pill. GROSS STORY WARNING: The craziest thing I saw was like a minor surgery by one of the Kenyan Nurse Practitioners. A boy came in with a very swollen right ring finger at the top knuckle. There was a small abscess and it needed to be drained. The nurse ran off and got a syringe and a few needles, some surgical scissors, bandages, hydrogen peroxide, and Neosporin. He came back and poked the abscess and pus started flowing out. He drained it and then took the scissors and cut off the skin above the infection so it could air out and then bandaged it after cleaning it. The kid was 12 and was so hard core. He didn’t even flinch. He said that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up. He is a student at the boarding school and is from the Mathare Valley.

A young girl came in and she said that she had lost her appetite and had diarrhea after eating. The nurse kept talking to her and the girl said that she had been really stressed. Her parents had just separated at home and she was depressed. She said that she prays anytime she is sad and if that doesn’t help she talks to one of her teachers about it. This girl was probably 12 as well. The nurse did some counseling and encouraged the girl to eat at least a little bit at each meal. She gave her some vitamins.

For lunch we had a huge delish meal! I was very hungry. I think I’m finally becoming Kenyan-ish. We got a tour of the school and dorms and soccer field and chapel. The whole school and all the guests crammed into the chapel for a worship service and some performances.  It started off with kids coming up to the microphone and reciting scripture. They just whipped out a long list of memory verses. I was humbled.

Then we sang. It was awesome. I got to worship the God of the universe with 600 kids from Mathare. We pretty much blew the roof off of that place. After partying it up a group of kids did a skit for us. Then a few groups danced. And Kenyan’s can move! I was so impressed and definitely got some sweet video footage. Then two boys came out and rapped for Jesus. It was so legit. They sounded like real rappers, but the content of their rap was godly. It was the highlight of the day for me. (And I definitely got that recorded for the folks back home.)

At the end we were introduced to the group. A teacher prayed for us – that God would bless us and provide many more opportunities to reach out and serve. It was extremely humbling to have him pray for us. I felt like we should be praying for them. It pretty much owned me spiritually. All the kids sent us off with good imaginary gifts – they picked imaginary flowers, gathered up imaginary chickens, and caught huge imaginary fish. They then showered us in all the amazing Kenyan gifts and gave us a big WOW. I will have to demonstrate what a WOW is when I return.

Basically the day was awesome. But for the first time I missed home a little, mostly the people. I just want to share so much with you all and this blog doesn’t seem to cut it all the time. God is doing so much. I could write forever and it wouldn’t be enough. In other news, I washed my clothes for the first time today! I will hang everything out to dry in the morning. I can wear clean jeans.