Saturday, May 31st - Youth Retreat in Malindi

As you can see, we've skipped an entire week of ministry since the last update. I'll fill those gaps in later when I have some pictures. For this installment, the pictures aren't all that great but it's what I got. I was having issues with working the camera and was really wishing for my photographer sister Robyn's assistance.

On Saturday, May 31st we woke up very early in the morning and traveled about 1hr north to the town of Malindi. Friday night the brakes on our rental van failed, so we got the privilege of taking a public matatu all the way. Thankfully, our friend Duncan Ziro arranged one that we filled up ourselves and that would take us directly to the Uzima Christian Training Center instead of dropping us off at the public bus stage and then having to find another means - probably a tuk-tuk, or lots of them - to get us to UCTC.

These are tuk-tuks in downtown Malindi. They are cute little 3 passenger vehicles that have suddenly appeared in Kenya since we moved away back in 2003. I "borrowed" this picture from the Internet, but thought it was a good view of the streets there.

Once we arrived at Uzima, we were greeted by the director of the training center Jeremiah Muramba. They had kindly prepared chai and bread for our breakfast and he oriented the students about the facility and the program for the day. This was a one-day youth seminar that had about 100 youth in attendance! This was a fantastic number considering school is still in session this time of year.

Youth from local churches came to Uzima for a weekend of encouragement, teaching and games. Fun was had by all!

This is Jeremiah leading the group in a few songs as the Aggies for Christ group prepared to teach.

Lindsey Waites got a chance to share her testimony and a 30 minute lesson with the group of students, as did the other AFC students. She and Crista both felt this was a great opportunity for them as ladies to prepare a lesson and give a testimony that they don't often get in the US.

Crista's going to kill me for posting this video...

Our American group quickly learned that Kenyan students have a much greater attention span than kids at home.

The sessions seemed to drone on for hours and hours and hours, didn't they Wade??

It wasn't boring for the Kenyan students at all. The AFC group prepared some awesome lessons and there was much time for games outside and other activities. It does get rather difficult, however, to participate in day-long events that are conducted in a language you don't understand!

"Hey, Mike! Dude, you got something really shiny hanging out your nose! You might oughta check that!"

While I didn't get any pics of it, we ate some great meals at Uzima. Beans and coconut rice for lunch was a big favorite among the AFC group. They were amazed at the portion size, however. Each of us got a HUGE helping of the steaming meal and only SOME of us were able to finish it!

I like this shot of Jeremiah. It appears he is focused on the best thing possible - the cross of Jesus.