Africa in our hearts!

Here comes a little summary of a couple of fantastic weeks!!!

Background: Håkan has travelled to Kenya for over 10 years, where he has primarily trained leaders, often together with Dave Richards, from England. I was in Nairobi for a women’s conference 8 years ago, and that was the beginning of our travelling every year or so to Kenya.

The vision of taking along youth in teams to see and help teach was something God spoke to me about a long time ago. Now we’ve gone with teams to Tunisia, China and made several trips to Kenya.

”We carry on – you go!” said Håkan from his hospital bed when I asked what we should do about our trip to Kenya.

Our destination, this time, was the church in Umoja (a suburb of Nairobi), their school, children’s and youth work, and worship services on Sunday; they have three services in a row, with about 3000-3500 people in each.

We also helped out a few days in Mukuru, a slum area which has existed for over 35 years. A congregation has started there in the middle of the slum, with a school, church, girls’ home, and a clinic. It was great to see all our youth get into the work and leave a little of their hearts there. We had with us 18,000 crowns for the work in the slum, which is enough for a lot of food and medicine down there.

We have visited the Salvation Army’s orphanage every time we’ve been in Nairobi. There are 67 orphans there, and wonderful leaders, who give their lives for the children. They are like a big family. We had stuffed animals, footballs and a bunch of good things for all the kids, and even 18,000 crowns which they will use to buy Christmas presents for the kids and have a real Christmas party with a little extra good food. Previously, we’ve paid for school bags, shoes, and school uniforms for all the kids, so they could all go to school.

After our hard work, we went willingly on to Mombasa, where we stayed by the Indian Ocean, rested a little, and tried to take in everything we’d experienced. On Sunday, we took part in the service at a church there in Mombasa, with song, dance, testimonies and preaching. To be able to come there and see what God has done since we were there last, was totally amazing. Thank you, Lord, for what you’ve done and are doing in Mombasa!

On a free Saturday, we went to Lake Nakuru, a national park, a three-hour drive from Nairobi. There we met Africa’s awesome animals, in their natural surroundings. That’s a day we’ll carry with us for a long time.

We are so thankful for the trip to Kenya, everything we’ve experienced, everything we’ve learned, everything we’ve been able to give. A big “Thanks” to the church in Umoja, who took such good care of us, gave us rice and chicken, and to all our old friends and the new friends we’ve made.

We concluded our trip to Kenya by going to Nairobi’s oldest park and praying for the country. Janne Sääf got a Bible verse which we shared and prayed from: ”The scepter of the wicked will not remain over the land…” (Psalm 125:3)

If you want to follow along and see a little of our trip, click on the links to the videos, under ”Kenya 2009” to the right.

Thank God for a wonderful trip!
Thank God for all the great youth who were with us!
Thank God for everything we got to help with!
Thank God for your protection during the trip!
Thank God that we can continue to pray for Kenya!

God bless you all!
Gunilla