Day of rest, and nearing the end :-(

Sorry for our absence the past couple days! After a long week completed by a Saturday afternoon in Korogocho visiting and praying with people, yesterday was a great day of rest for us. We headed to church and worshiped with our family there, singing more beautiful songs in Swahili, Luo and other languages as well as English. After the worship, we were asked to share a few more words and tried as best we could to articulate how humbled and honored we were to be welcomed by our brothers and sisters in Korogocho, and to see their beautiful faith. When we finished that, Evans took the microphone and shared a short message of his own. I wish we could have recorded it; he talked about what faith is and was so passionate and encouraging in his speech. Not to mention, Evans *knows* the Word - he put more relevant Scriptures together in 15 minutes than just about any preacher I've seen. The one that stuck with me most was 2 Corinthians 4:18:

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

I thought about how cool a verse this is, especially for that congregation, since what is visible to the eyes is often so sad to look at. Praise God that, for as many as have received Christ, Korogocho is not forever, but a better world awaits!

After church, we headed back to the Abungus' home and were later joined by Ben and Evans for a praise and worship jam session. As Justin said, this ought to be a requirement for every missions trip. It was a great time, learning a couple of Kenyan songs and sharing a few of our own with them. Ben is a budding keyboardist and was so excited to learn every new song we could put in front of him. He would have jammed all night if the rest of the room hadn't finally given up and headed to bed!

As I type this, we're getting ready to leave for school again. Today is exciting as we will have the chance to minister to the teachers and give them some gifts of their own. Anna suggested we make sure to focus on the teachers as well as the children, so we hope to be able to minister to them in this way. Today is also a little bit sad as it's Alisha's last day at school. Tomorrow we have other things planned and she is leaving early Wednesday morning for the second phase of her trip - a visit to a teaching hospital in a village several hours away. Justin and I will have most of Wednesday to spend with the children, but for Alisha this is goodbye. We're going to visit each class and talk and play with the kids as much of the day as possible, but it is really sad to know Alisha has reached the end of her time with them and Justin and I are so close. Pray that the stories, love and provision we're sharing with the children would be used by God long after we leave them physically!