We arrived safely in Eldoret on Sunday after a six hour drive! We spent Monday and Tuesday with Moses Kiptanui (3000m and steeplechase world record holder in the 90’s). On Monday, two miles away from visiting his old primary (elementary) school, the first rain of the season came pouring down. In Kenyan culture, this first rainfall is meant to be a sign of a blessing…it became an unexpected one for us. As the school was stationed at the top of a hill, and the rain was bleeding down the red dirt road, our bus swerved off the road and got its tires stuck in the muck. But we prayed for help…God answered by sending about 150 boys from another village school! For the next two hours, we were served unbelievably by these kids. The older boys pushed the bus up the hill for a mile, while the younger ones and girls entertained us by running alongside us, talking to us (and mimicking us!), and playing with our “pretty” hair!!! What a team effort! I was reminded of a prayer that a friend of mine gave me before I left: “May the Lord show you his face in the Kenyan children and empower you through your teammates so that you are drawn deeper into the riches of His love.” This prayer was definitely answered through this ordeal.
And the blessings of the first rainfall didn’t stop there…once we eventually made it to the primary school, we were treated like celebrities! The hundreds of kids shook our hands, shrieked in joy, sang to us, and listened intently to us talk about Jesus!…This was much the same thing on Tuesday as we spent time at an all-girls and all-boys secondary (high school) boarding school. God is so good! May the words that we spoke bear fruit. As Jeremiah 1:9-10 says, “Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth.” See I appoint you over nations and kingdoms…to build and to plant.”
We are at Kip Kenio’s (the pioneer of Kenyan distance running) training center until Saturday, and will be heading to Maasai Mara. Today, we will visit with Solomon’s family and his old secondary school; his smile can’t get any wider!!! So fun! Well, until we have availability to the internet again…