Tuesday, July 8

Tuesday--

Today was another beautiful day at Tumaini. We began our day having devotions with Reverend Mundi. We have so much to learn from him.

After devotions and breakfast we began our projects. Our groups painted and worked on a fence. I painted blackboards at the primary (or elementary and middle) school. It looked like to me that we were creating a huge distraction for the school day but the headmaster, Samuel, was so excited we were there. The deputy headmistress cleared our all the classrooms of the school so we could paint and told the children to go to the field. There are 738 students at the school. You cannot even imagine the mass of children that came from the classroom and then kept coming. The work forced me to put aside my perfectionism and to realize that I cannot fix all the problems at this school. There are about 60 children in each classroom, yet the teachers seem so happy and excited to teach. As we painted the blackboards a crowd would gather at the doors and windows of the room we were painting. The children would ask us questions. Their favorite question to ask is "Are you English?" While we were painting one classroom the kiswahili teacher even taught me head, shoulders, knees, and toes in Swahili. After a while Samuel joined us to paint even though he was dressed in his best clothes. He was so excited and enthusiastic about our presence. Other requests started coming in while we were painting. There is so much that is needed and our time is so limited, but it is very difficult to say no. One of my favorite moments painting occurred when we returned from lunch. Samuel said that he would organize that children and be ready to work in 10 minutes. And he seriously had over 700 children sitting quietly grouped by class less than 10 minutes with no other help.

Today we also had our vacation bible school and youth group. Interacting with the kids here is so wonderful. There is such joy as we play games and sing songs. Communication is definitely an issue at times but we are still able to laugh together.

Our time at Tumaini has been so incredible. I cannot really describe it. God is so clearly at work in the lives of the kids here. God has been teaching me a lot about listening to his plan and how to put aside my own plan. His plan is always better. He has been helping me to reexamine how I live my life and how I see the world. I know He has much more in store for me in the coming days.

Please continue to pray for our team as we continue our time with the children at Tumaini. Thank you for all your prayers so far; we can definitely feel their impact. God is doing great things here.

Denise