Hello again! It's around 1 p.m. here in Kenya. It's been a busy couple of weeks, but we cannot believe that we head home in four-ish days. We miss you all, but at the same time we love it here and can't fully imagine leaving all of these wonderful, beautiful people. You've probably heard before, but we could not feel more at home. Everyone here is so welcoming! They are amazingly loving.

Anyway, lately we've been in between VBS programs. This left us with more free time with our families and with each other. The kick-off of the World Cup has kept us up a little later, but the party atmosphere has provided the energy we lack. We had a lot of fun and it's been great to strengthen the relationships with our families, new friends, and team members. Today we start VBS up again, this time for the older kids, so no more late nights and face painting. We'll be starting computer classes and tutoring again too, now that the kids are back at school. They were off for the weekend, and only have a third of a school day today. We're not really sure how you have a third of a school day, but apparently it's possible.

Yesterday we went to church again. We weren't so tired so it was almost possible to pay attention. :) Just kidding. Church here is very different then at home. There's no real start time – we're on Kenyan time which is essentially show up whenever you're ready. Various people from the community said a few things, praising God, lifting prayer requests, and introducing us again. Throughout the service people led us in Luo hymns, which are translated from traditional English hymns. They don't tend to use hymns we know in English though, so we just hum or clap a long. A few of us tried to read the Luo, if we happen to be near someone who has a hymnal. The adult choir, the kids choir, and the young adult choir all led two or three songs each as well. We led three songs. There were short scripture readings and speeches and prayers mixed in between all of these songs. Then the verses Pastor Bill was preaching on were read in English and Luo. Someone else delivered a short speech. Another hymn was sung. And then Pastor Bill spoke with a translator. We sang another hymn and took offereing. Then someone prayed and we were “dismissed” which means we went outside to talk to everyone. It's very rude to leave then, so it might as well be part of the service. It's a unique experience and lasts a long time. It would be completely wonderful, except way too many people are shoved onto wooden benches in a very warm room. But if you can fight off the warmth and discomfort you will be truly blessed.

That's really all I have to say right now. We hope you all are doing well and don't miss us too much. It was fun to see the kids at Eastbay Adventure Camp via Skype yesterday. Please continue to pray for our ministry and health and that we would get home safely. Please also pray that good-byes won't be too difficult. These people have essentially adopted us, and it will be hard to leave them without any garuntee of seeing them again, even though we're getting ready to come home.

~Leah

Hey everybody!! This is Lily speaking. I'm excited for all you readers. I'm sure you love hearing from all of us and how we're doing.

I'm wondering how my family and friends are doing also. I MISS YOU SO MUCH! Seriously! (Nat: are you Miss IL yet????? I really have totally forgotten the date of Miss IL, so I have no idea. Haha. Oops. But anyway-----)

So...There's just so much to tell, that it's hard to know where to begin. Explaining this trip and trying to do it justice is an overwhelming task!! :P But I'll try my best! I've really been learning a lot on this trip, about the culture and stuff, and also with God.

I'll start with describing what our home is like. It's me and Leah who live with the Ndeges.

There are quite a few family members that are around. There is Mama Deborah, and Baba Silus, who are the mother and father of the family. They are wonderful. So welcoming, warm, and caring people. Baba doesn't talk excessively, he is a soft spoken man, but is very intelligent and curious. Mama is very motherly, and it's no secret that she adores us. The reason she hasn't talked excessively is because of the language barrier. Her english isn't as good. But we still communicate, it's cool. (Me and Leah have been learning Luo, the local dialect, and I must say we're learning rapidly. :] it's so fun. Best way to learn a language is to live there: it's true. )

Joash is the the eldest son and he's a teacher in a different village close by, so he's only around at certain times. There's also Nelly, Esther, Quele, Helen, and little Dorothy. Beatrice is one of the neighbors that's also around a lot. I COULD go into detail about each one of these amazing people that i've gotton to know. But that would take too long. It's hilarious because at nights or in the early morning I just am so delusional!! I think i'm thinking clearly, but then later I think back and realize how incoherent I was. So last night, Joash requested that Leah and I write down 10 english vocab words that aren't used often, plus their definition, so he can learn more too. Once I was finished with that, it was about 11:30 ish, and for some reason I just started writing/rambling.....I wrote everyone's name and described them with many....adjectives.....I then proceeded to the living room and placed the papers on the table for Joash to get in the morning before work, and went to bed. HAHA, wow. (I entertain myself, making fun of the weird things I do while i'm incoherent.)

More generally though, I'm so grateful for the relationships that i'm building with my host family. (And making a lot of friends with people from other families in the village also, of course) It's incredible how close we've gotten in just an amount of days. I'm not kidding when I say that I feel like I am a part of their family. What's more is that I actually AM apart of their family. A few days ago, Mama said this speech thing that Joash translated for us. She was basically saying that Leah and I are now considered one of them now. I had a hard time not losing it, I had tears in my eyes. What a blessing my family is to us, and us to them. Tyler was talking in one of our team meetings about how one of the reasons we are here, is to refresh each other's hearts and be encouragements to each other. I agree. I feel so blessed to be apart of what God is doing here, in these people. I feel so thankful to be used by God here.

Chores are very interesting. We wash dishes every morning. There are 2 buckets of water, one is soapy from the bar soap that is used to clean about everything. And the other is the rinsing bucket. The wash towel things are pretty raggedy but they get the job done. We lay the clean dishes on a metal structure to dry. This is all outside, by the way, next to the kitchen.

Washing clothes is interesting. There are about 3 big plastic basins of water. We soak the clothes in one, then move them to the soapy basin and hand wash them, and then rinse and squeeze in the 3^rd basin. We clip them on the clothesline to dry in the sun. :D

Food preparation: Takes a while, because everything has to be made from scratch basically......I feel like i'll either let someone else describe that, or explain in more detail later, because i've been blogging for a while now.

One more thing though, it's been a lot of fun teaching some of the young adults how to type, and about computers.

Thank you so much for your prayers. Please continue to pray for: health, that we'd continue to do our best at following what the Holy Spirit wants us to do, and that we'd continue to bond with our families and friends here in Kenya.

Until later,

Love you all,

Lily Sherer