Hello Marafiki!
It’s been a LONG day…we woke up to another gorgeous Kenyan day and drove out to the work site to install the perlins on the roof. This is an important final step and we HAD to complete it today in order to keep on schedule. There have been a few curve balls this week, but the team has really put forth an amazing effort. We’re in a good groove with our Kenyan friends. Chai time (2x a day) is a great opportunity to learn more about them…show photos of our families…and exchange interesting cultural insights about sports, food, language and our respective neighborhoods.
Today, half the team mixed and transported concrete (for the floor of the school building) and the other half was up on the roof. You haven’t seen concrete mixed until you’ve seen a donkey deliver the water in milk canisters in a wagon. The construction site punda (donkey) makes trips to the local pond for the water used in mixing concrete. Wild. It was really gratifying to look back on our day. We really were in lock-step with the Kenyans and have such a respect for their energy and work ethic. (Belly laughing with them for at least 4 hours a day doesn’t hurt either.) Tomorrow we’ll start putting up the actual metal sheets on the roof.
We left the work site a few hours early today because tonight was a big youth really at the local Africa Gospel Church. Amazing. We weren’t sure what to expect. Last night’s concert at the Tenwek Church was familiar to us in terms of a worship style. Yet, just down the street, the worship style was completely different. The prelude to the concert was some amazing African music with the audience dancing in the pews, dancing in the aisle, and dancing in their seats. Kenyans love to worship. Everyone on the team agrees, Kenyans sing louder than anything we’ve heard. Loud as in shaking the walls. What a wonderful experience to share in worship and to see how a love for God is celebrated among different people’s. Suffice to say, we were happy to join in the celebration. When you worship with Kenyans, you cannot help but do so joyfully….with tons of clapping, jumping, shouting, singing and dancing.
Greg and Rebecca worshipped to a packed sanctuary. Their music and song was amazing. Plus, Greg and Rebecca sang part of their encore in Swahili!! And it was such a blessing to see all these beautiful people tightly packed in the church. The church held hundreds of people among the balcony and main floor, and it was standing room only. For those who miss pews, you’d love the Africa Gospel Church. Folks pretty much sit in each other’s laps. The concept of personal space remains a Western one.
These people wear their love for Christ on their sleeve. You hear it in the greetings (Hello, my name is Geoffrey, and I love Jesus). You see it in their churches (gratitude is transparent and honest). You feel it in the easy friendships that are made (our arrival at the work site each day now has many new Kenyan friends who come to greet us and check on us before the day begins.)
Kenyan Missions Team
Chuck & Amy Bemm
Serving at Tenwek Hospital with World Gospel Mission
PO Box 39
Bomet, Kenya 20400
East Africa
Land line: 254-52-22495/22496 Ext. 259
Mobile: 254-734-510708(C)/735-120293(A)chuckbemm@tenwek.com chuck.bemm@wgm.org
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