amyimel's Wednesday July 4th, 2012

when we arrived in the village we immediately unloaded the vehicles and began to set up camp. once we had that out of the way I began to notice how many children had congregated just along the path watching us, not saying a single word. they were so beautiful and so curious, but completely shy as they sat and just stared. I walked over to a group of girls and began to talk to them doing my best with my swahili-greeting them and asking their names. they smiled shyly and began to back away from me. I told them not to be afraid and asked them their names again. they practically turned and ran away from me! I knew they would be back so I turned to a group of boys. they talked with me, although hesitant at first.

a few minutes later I noticed that the girls had found a shady spot under a tree just on the other side of the path. I grabbed one of our translators and we went and sat with them. we invited the boys to come sit with us and they did. we sat there under that tree and began to talk to them about Jesus. we have complete freedom here to talk about God so why waste any time, right? some of my team
members joined in and we told them who Jesus is, we sang songs about Jesus, we danced, we clapped and then we had them sit and we told them stories from the Bible. what started out as a group of about 12 kids quickly turned into more than 30 before we finished. this went on for maybe an hour.

later we ate dinner together and had an evening church service with the pastor and congregation of this church where we are camping.

God didn't waste any time with making connections here. we are already building great relationships and enjoying the company of our new friends and neighbors.

please continue to pray for me to take advantage of each moment such as the beautiful opportunity God gave us to minister today. please pray for our teaching and sharing tomorrow as some of us will be leading the training and some will be in the village ministering in people's homes.