LIVE from Machakos, Kenya... it's JILL!!! :)

Well, hellllloooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Goodness, it does my heart good to finally be able to post. When the library people saw me this morning they rushed me right in to the computer lab... ha ha... I am sure they were thinking, "oh, finally, this girl will leave us ALONE!" I've been sort of a pest. Oh well- bygones.

Those of you who have been on the trip before with us may be thinking, "COMPUTER LAB? WHAT IS SHE TALKING ABOUT?" Yes, I am in a huge room in the new wing of the library with about 50-60 computers. This new building is gorgeous and such a wonderful blessing for the Scott students, I am sure. They no longer have to share two computers! Side note: The number one website I saw as I walked from the back of the lab to the front? You'll never guess... Facebook. Ha ha. There were only 4 computers that had it up but I just almost laughed out loud when I saw it. The swine flu hasn't reached Kenya yet, but Facebook has. :)

First of all, I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to my mom (Mary Jane) and Jenni Millet for posting for us. I know the parents are so glad to be kept in the loop! You guys have done an awesome job! Also, thanks to all of you who left comments- when I told the kids at our meeting this morning that I'd bring back all the messages, they were so excited!

Now, a word of warning... those of you who are not used to reading my blogs will have to forgive the narrative nature of my posts. There's not really any time for me to sit down and compose a post in a proper format (sorry, English teachers!) so I may ramble a bit and go off on rabbit trails. I also abuse the use of parentheses. I am sorry. You've been forewarned. :)

AND NOW... THE LATEST FROM MACHAKOS!

I believe the last post on here from Jenni said that she hadn't heard from us yesterday. That is because it was a marathon day with a crazy amount of activity and we got home very late last night. In a nutshell:

• EARLY MORNING: breakfast, devotionals
• MID-MORNING to 1:00ish: work project, Lauren/Drew/McCutcheon speak in chapel
• AFTERNOON: VBS/presentation at Masaku School for the Disabled
• EVENING: high school ministry at St. Luke's School in Machakos

Now the detailed version.

In the last post, Jenni mentioned Jon's brother, Brian- he is a cross-country coach at TCA and a super nice guy. But you know, Brian is also a distance-running, disciplined-to-the-max, Type A personality marathon runner. So when our work project called for the daunting task of chiseling into the floor down to the concrete so we could lay stones, who did Jon put in charge? You got it- his brother. And it is a good thing because, man, we got that project DONE! Brian had everyone except Lauren, Drew, and McCutcheon (who were speaking in chapel) and five others who were at the orphanage on a rotating schedule of chiseling or sweeping, so when you weren't chiseling your heart out, you were "resting" by sweeping up after your teammates. Listen, I'm not gonna lie. I thought I might have to kick Brian in the shins a couple of times, and truthfully, if he says "put some muscle into it, Cox" one more time, I may do just that. Oh, okay, I am only (mostly) kidding. But we are all so grateful to have had Brian "Taskmaster" Millet at the helm yesterday. He was positive and pushed us just the right amount while still making sure that everyone was both working AND getting the proper rest time. We got that work project done so fast that we were done by lunch with the entire building. THE. WHOLE. BUILDING. And, the best result was that there was such a sense of teamwork and camaraderie because of the way Brian organized us. Trying to get 17 people to all stay on task is enormous. And Brian was a genius at it.

And allow me to give a shout out to Quincy T., Haley M., Will P., Paige G., Ellie T., Max M., and Wesley D., who are, in my opinion, the backbone of the chiseling crew. We were all working hard, but those kids were BEASTS. I was afraid for the floor. :)

The orphanage team (Haleigh L., Frances R., Tyler M., Jennifer S. and Amber M.) started the mural yesterday. Jennifer and Amber took care of the babies and toddlers while our students started working. I saw that Jenni posted info about Springs of Hope orphanage. They have an incredible ministry. It is a bittersweet experience to be there.

On the schedule, you might have noticed that yesterday was meant to be the VBS at the orphanage. Hmm. Well, ONE HOUR before we were to leave, Jon comes up to me with a look of fear and trepidation (haha) and says, "ummmm, we need to do VBS at Masaku instead of the orphanage today... is that okay?" But you know, I'm prepared for this kind of change in the schedule, because they always happen. So at 2:30 yesterday, the entire group headed over to the Masaku School for the Physically Disabled and did a short VBS presentation. The Masaku school is an incredibly moving place, and if you asked the team members what motivated them to want to serve on this trip, I guarantee you that most of them would say the video footage of this school in chapel was a huge part of that motivation. We love those kids, and it was so fun to get to spend the afternoon with them. We sang songs and presented the Gospel, and then presented them with some toys and toothbrushes. It was a great afternoon. Special thanks to Ellie T., Paige G., and Lois N. for being my right-hand women front and center on the VBS team. They are amazing young ladies.

Right after the Masaku school, we had to hurry back to Scott for dinner (side note: the food this year is even better than before, with even more variety. I know that you know this, but Kenya is in a drought and food is scarce, so we are especially grateful that despite hard times, the Scott staff really wants to take care of us!). And then right after dinner, we headed immediately to St. Luke's School. Jon told us this morning that that school has many kids with discipline problems, but we did not see a single hint of that last night. Those kids were VERY respectful and listened attentively as McCutcheon presented the Gospel and Tyler M., Lois N., and Quincy T. gave their testimonies. All of them did an incredible job, and I thought that the student testimonies were particularly powerful. We then watched Prince Caspian, which was a pretty funny experience. I'm not sure what the students thought about talking lions and beavers. It was hilarious.

NOW, TODAY'S LATEST NEWS!

At the moment, you are all asleep in your beds, and it is 11:55 here. The work team has been putting the stones in place in the girls' dormitory (on top of the areas we chiseled out for them yesterday), and also stucco-ing the outside walls of the building. The VBS team met and worked out our plans for TWO VBS's tomorrow- one at the orphanage and one for the kids of Scott staff, etc. And this afternoon, we are splitting into 3 teams to do school ministries, with another school ministry tonight as a complete group. It should be interesting, to say the least.

A couple of quick notes:

• Please continue to pray for our safety and health. While everyone is currently in good spirits, working hard and enjoying each other's company, we are doing manual labor so we need prayers for safety for that (as well as for the obvious traveling mercies!). Also, everyone has been pretty healthy- we've had a couple of stomach issues, some sleep-deprivedness, some jetlag, etc. But for the most part, we are well.
  

• The kids on this trip are INCREDIBLE. I mean it, parents, you would be so proud of your kids. No complaining AT ALL- they are a bunch of little worker bees who are taking delight in being in Kenya and in serving the Lord. It is a blessing to the sponsors, and really, I think they are encouraging us more than they even know.

• Please continue to pray over our ministries. There are a lot of things going on, and it would be really easy for us to get distracted, side-tracked, etc. Please pray that the Lord will use us to be His hands and feet here in Kenya. That's what we desire.

• Each day, the person in charge of devotionals has been giving a "word for the day" as well as a scripture. I'm posting them underneath the clocks over there so you can follow along with us as our team grows closer together as a group.

I have been in here quite a long while now so I need to get going. I will hopefully post again tomorrow sometime! Thank you again for reading and for leaving comments... we love hearing from you guys! And thanks again for all of your prayers!!

Love,
Jill