Day #3 – Let the hard work begin!

Today was another exciting, yet exhausting day on the Haruma front! The fun began with chapel in the morning. These kids have chapel every day for an hour, in which they have worship time and then Mama speaks to the children. It was so fun watching the kids singing the songs. One song even had hand actions with them where they were pointing to their eyes and ears as they sang in Swahili about listening and watching God.

After chapel, the kids went off to school as we split into two different groups for our work projects. The majority of the group stayed at the home, where they did prep work for the painting that we will be doing all week. They scraped the windows outside the chapel of crusted on debris and washed them spick and span. More of the group scraped the walls of the boys dorm in order to prepare it to be painted. The walls are concrete, and when they were made, big chunks of concrete dried on the wall. So in order to paint, the walls had to be smoothed down. Others members came behind and painted, leaving the room with the extreme smell of paint fumes. Due to the lack of air circulation in the rooms, some of the group members got extremely nauseated! That is definitely going to be a challenge for the group, so prayers are appreciated!

The second group set off to Nairobi to fetch missing luggage from the airport and get needed supplies. Our Canadian friends, Melody and Leesha, had their luggage lost in London, which finally arrived today. It has been a rough couple of days for them. When we got to the airport, they were able to get three out of four of their bags, but found out that one of Melody’s bags was still in London. To make it worse, it was her bag with all her clothes in it, so she is still clothes-less. After the airport, we headed to get supplies needed for our work projects and living quarters. On our way, we started to sense something was a little off in the vehicle. The van stalled while traveling along and Lisa had a hard time getting it going again. It was like the clutch went completely out and stopped working. Luckily, we got it going again and were able to drive a little ways. Soon after, we began to smell a burning smell coming from the van. We pulled over and realized the clutch was completely fried. Stranded, we sought refuge in the nearest place, which just so happened to be a mall! Lucky us… a woman’s dream come true! Ha! There, we were able to look around, get some lunch, and pick up the necessary supplies from a big store that was similar to a Wal-Mart. After a couple hours, a driver and a mechanic came to the rescue, and we headed back to the home.

When we got back, the work project team was finishing up, so many took showers, hung out with the kids, and relaxed for awhile. Garrett had fun showing his sketches to the children, as they were all memorized by his talent and begged him to draw them. Iris had just a little time to teach the kids some hip dance moves like the monkey, snorkel, and 70s disco. They loved it! Any type of little attention they are given is such a blessing to their hearts!

Dinner came and our group feasted on delicious tortillas, potatoes mixed with collard greens, and chips and guacamole. We are definitely not lacking on good food. Mama has hired cooks for us and they are amazing! 

After dinner, the majority of the team headed off to prayer time at the chapel. Every night, the students have an hour of worship and prayers to close their evening. There, Mama plays songs on CDs as the students sing along. In another location, the home’s praise and worship band met for a special practice to prepare for tomorrow’s chapel. Normally they only lead the music on the weekends, but tomorrow we are mixing things up and having some of us Cornerstone people join them. Kaelen, Patrick, and I (Erin) went and jammed for a good hour and a half, praising God all together! It was an awesome experience to be a part of and to realize that no matter where we come from, we have the same love and desire to bring worship to God through music! I’m excited for tomorrow. 

After our jam-fest and the students’ worship and prayer time were finished, the students began their hour of homework and study time they are required to attend every night. They sat in silence the entiand hour working diligently on their studies. It was crazy to see all the little kids through big kids all working on their schoolwork. If only we could teaour the kids in the U.S that one! As they studied, our team headed to our group share time. We had an amazing time together, sharing about what we feel God is revealing to us as we are here at Haruma. God is clearly working in each of our lives and we can’t wait to see the rest of what He is going to do and show us over the coming days!