Team East Africa B landed safely in California on Thursday afternoon! Thank you to everyone who has prayed for this team throughout their trip. We have seen the Lord’s faithfulness and goodness throughout their experience.
Please continue to be praying for the East Africa B team as they re-enter the US and experience jet lag and reverse culture shock. Pray that they would be able to process all that they saw and felt while in country and that the Lord would bring them peace and encouragement as they adjust to their lives back in the states.
Make sure to ask your team member about their experience and how you can be praying for them and supporting them specifically! We thank you all!
As our time in East Africa comes to a close, we got to spend our last few days with the girls and staff of the organization we are working with. They taught us LOTS of new card games, and we taught them fun sports like spikeball and Uno. Both Monday and Tuesday we were given lunch cooked by the ladies at the House and got to eat with the girls. Cameron also led us and the girls in some awesome CrossFit workouts each morning! While most of the team was spending quality time with the girls and little ones, PJ and Cam helped the staff finish constructing new laundry lines and a new garden at the House, as well as holding leadership seminars for the executive team. Both Monday and Tuesday began with team devotionals at the Cafe, and Monday ended with our last dinner at the cafe, which was SUPER delicious. PJ was also able to make homemade Mexican tortillas as a special treat for all the girls, which was a super fun surprise! Tuesday afternoon, we had to say goodbye to the girls, which was bittersweet to say the least. We were incredibly touched by the goodbye that these girls and staff gave us, and for blessing us with farewell cards and traditional African outfits made of Ketenge (cuh-ten-gah) fabrics. After many hugs and tear-full goodbyes, we headed into town to make some last-minute souvenir purchases. Tuesday night ended with a dinner with an incredible rooftop view, and we headed back to the hotel to pack up and get ready to come home. We have been overwhelmingly blessed by our time here and the relationships we each were able to build with the girls, staff and leadership here. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported our team in donations and in prayer, we can’t wait to make it home and share about all the beautiful things that our God is doing in East Africa! Please continue to keep us in prayer as we make the long trek back to the US; we will keep you posted along the way!
Jambo! Melissa here. Our time here is wrapping up but God has increasingly demonstrated his love and mercy with each passing day. We kicked off our Saturday morning with a trip to the local market with some of the CLA (the 18+ leadership academy) girls. After bargaining our way through, we rode back to the cafe in bajajis (that’s what they call taxis here). The day’s main adventure took us to a local mountain village to start our hike up a side of Kilimanjaro. Many of our team members took some slips and falls down the muddy landscape. Thankfully, we had some amazing guides lead and help us along the way. After the arduous trek snaking around narrow and muddy trails, we finally made it to our destination: the amazing Materuni waterfall! The view was definitely worth the hike! While some of us ate lunch sitting on the rocks, a couple of us decided to take a chance in swim in the freezing cold water. Definitely an experience for the books! On our way back, we joined the Coffee Boys (the local coffee makers!) and regained our strength with a freshly brewed cup of Arabica coffee. After a night’s rest, we met some of the girls from our organization for a Sunday church service. After a beautiful worship session, the pastor started preaching from Matthew 16:13-19. He explored the question of “Who is Jesus to you?” and explained how important it is to have a genuine, personal relationship with Christ. After church, we had time to go back to the hotel and rest until dinner time. We had a pizza dinner at the cafe and spent some time with the CLA girls and their babies. We ended the night with a powerful worship and testimony session with our very own musician, PJ, joined by pastors J and B. To top it off, we circled around some bonfires and treated the girls with good ole fashioned s’mores (with a sweet African flair of course!) The Lord has been more than good and His faithfulness has never been clearer. Our time spent with the girls and staff has truly been a gift to us! We can’t wait to share what happens over the next couple of days as we wrap up and prepare for our return to the States. Please continue to pray, first and foremost for the what God is doing at this organization and in all of our hearts. We love and miss you all! Tutaonana baadye rafiki! (See you soon friend!)
Hi family and friends! We were incredibly blessed by a family from the states to be able to experience a three-day safari sabbath in the middle of our time here in East Africa. After a 4 hour commute we arrived at the National Park. Immediately after entering the park we encountered a giraffe on our way to the Safari Lodge. The lodge was incredible, and the view on top of the ridge overlooking the nearly dried up river was breathtaking. It was not long before we saw monkeys running around the lodge and swinging in the trees.
After lunch we went swimming, and a snake slithered its way out of a nearby water drain. One of the workers ran to a man nearby, whom quickly grabbed a broomstick and chased the snake up a tree. The man who came to the rescue was B, the owner of the lodge and our tour guide during our stay. He told us the snake was known as an African Tree snake and it was extremely poisonous. B personally had never seen one as large as the one we encountered.
After settling in we went on our first three hour safari tour around the park. We were amazed at the vast number of wild animals, including wildebeests, zebras, elephants, giraffes, monkeys, vultures, mongeese, and a variety of others. The first day was capped off by seeing a leopard hanging out in a tree right next to the road and overlooking the land nearby.
Over the next two days we toured the park three more times, and we were blessed to see the three main cats, including the lions, a leopard, and a cheetah. Arguably, the pinnacle of the trip was witnessing a family of lion cubs wrestling and a family of elephants that made their way through the lodge as the scanvanged the trees for food.
Hello family and friends! Here’s an update from our most recent day. We started our day early for church. We left at 7 to a church that was located at a hospital. They had a special service for father’s day. The choir sang and danced. We danced and sang with them. It was amazing to praise God in such a joyful way as a community. The preacher was a doctor and he taught on biblical fatherhood. We then had lunch with the girls which was delicious. After that we went swimming at a ymca pool and worked on teaching the girls how to swim. They were nervous at first but eventually all of them were excited to try. Some of the team stayed out of the pool and hung out with the babies. We also did water aerobics with the girls which they thought was hilarious.
-Tabitha
We look forward to giving you more updates soon! Please continue to pray for the team and for their spiritual, mental, and physical health!
Hello family and friends! Our first full day in East Africa has been one for the books! We arrived yesterday, after a grueling 24+ hours of travel and little to no sleep. We took a bus back to the town we would stay in (fun fact: they drive on the opposite side of the road like England!) and showered, then had an AMAZING dinner at our organization’s Cafe. After a good meal and full night of sleep, we woke up the next morning and drove to the organization’s school. We were welcomed with singing and dancing and the girls waving palm leaves in the air; it was a grand entrance, for sure. Then the girls put on an awesome choir performance for us, and we introduced ourselves with some games and Swahili lessons. We then ate a delicious lunch made by the staff, and then went to a Christian Childrens’ Crusade that happened to be taking place that day in the town. There were over 5,000 children in attendance from all over the town and surrounding areas. We sang and danced and talked with the children, a lot of whom spoke a few words of English. After a few hours with them, we headed back to have tacos for dinner that were absolutely incredible, and ended our day at the Cafe. The whole trip so far has been an incredibly moving and humbling experience, and we are beyond honored to be here and be a part of something so beautiful and powerful in these girls’ lives. Thank you so much for continued prayer and support, we would not be here without you! You are a blessing! Check for more updates soon! 🙂
After a long day of travel, Team East Africa B has arrived safely at their base in country. They are getting settled into their hotel and even got to take some long-awaited showers already! Please join us in praying for the East Africa B team, that the Lord would give them energy and peace as they adjust to a new place (& time difference) and new culture. Pray for openness and strength as they begin to get settled into their ministry routines as well.
Praise God! The team arrived safely at the airport and made it through security with no issues. As they board their flight and get ready for a long day of travel ahead of them, please join us in praying for their physical safety and health, and pray that the Lord would provide peace as they prepare to enter a new culture and do the work of ministry in a new place.
We will update again when the team arrives and gets settled in East Africa!
Thank you for checking in on this East Africa B team! We are so grateful for your partnership in prayer as this team prepares to serve in East Africa very soon. Before we depart we would love your prayers for a few things:
Pray that our team would remain completely healthy before, during, and after our time on the field.
Pray that our team would grow closer together in friendship and authenticity, and that we would grow in unity together.
Pray that God would prepare our hearts now for the work he will have us do in-country, and pray that we would exude the love of Jesus to everyone we meet.
We are so excited to be able to go and serve alongside an incredible organization, and we are so appreciative of the support and prayers of all of our family and friends! Make sure to check back here every few days to see any new updates and prayer requests from the team while in-country.
