Thursday, December 31, 2009

Aaron's Update from Kenya

Aaron is with a group from a church in Kansas, and I read this with joy on their website today:

UPDATE FROM AARON REID
Wednesday, 30 December 2009 11:29

Jambo from Kenya. It has truly been an excellent experience thus far. God has been good to our group in bringing us safely to Africa, and the stories are already starting to build.

I want to share a Scripture that has been real to me: Psalm 139:7-10 "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even Your right hand will lay hold of me."

His presence has been with us here, just He has been with all of our families over there.

Today we experienced raw Africa. We traveled to a remote village on Mt. Elgon about 9,000 feet up. The road was not good because it rained all night and there was alot of mud. Our vehicle only got stuck once, and it took about 10 Kenyan men to lift the back of it up and back onto the road.

The village was singing and dancing when we arrived and we had about a 2 hour church service, followed by a vintage Kenyan meal. We were the first white people who had ever traveled to this village, and there are always crowds of little kids that smile and watch us with joy wherever we go.

One funny thing so far is that several times when someone realizes I don't speak Swahili, they will say Obama! and smile very big.

These people are amazing with the little they have to survive with. It is truly primitive conditions clothed in Western fashions. The sanitation is heart-breakingly bad. We have already seen some small things that we could do to help the Kenyan people to help themselves in the future.

More to come from others; with love and grace,
Aaron Reid

1 comment:

anne said...

We loved reading this too! and we look forward to more updates... and Happy 15th Anniversary! Like you said, I'm sure it seems like an "odd" day, but I hope you have had a good one and that Aaron has too! Bet this is the farthest you've ever spent from each other on the big day, huh? ;)
See ya soon!