Little pieces of Joy!

Today was such a blessing that I don’t even know where to begin!! First of all, I can’t even believe it has already been our first week in Kenya! Whew…it’s gone by so fast, and it’s one of the sweet moments in life where you wish everything would slow down so you could just soak it all up. Today was no different, I felt like today was filled with so many little pieces of joy!

This morning, we didn’t have any activities, so we had the choice of sleeping in! After staying up later than I probably should have, that sounded like such a great idea. But after about a few hours, my body just couldn’t sleep anymore; that was fine as I was eager to start the day. One of the things I was really looking forward to was checking in on Stephen!  Stephen is one of the cutest boys, you’ll ever meet; although he doesn’t smile often, when he does smile, it’s radiant enough to melt even the hardest heart! So I was really hoping to see more of his lovely smile this morning.  Before I saw him, I heard Stephen battled bouts of vomiting and diarrhea throughout the night due to his medication. My heart sank at the news, but as I turned into the living room, I saw that wonderful smile of his, greeting me and I felt like the world was somehow a better place.  That sounds really cheesy but that moment totally made my day; no matter what happened later, it would still be a great day in my mind!

The rest of the day continued to be a blessing!  There were too many, but I’ll share some of today’s moments of joy with you! By lunchtime, the house was filled with the smell of great food, sounds of laughter and music (of course what is a Kenyan house without music?)  Initially, we (or, maybe it was just me) thought we were listening to a CD play, but we eventually discovered that the church choir from the church we are visiting tomorrow was practicing in the garage!  Like little children scared of interrupting, we watched from the glass window on the door, but the music drew us inside, where we listened to the band practice. It was so much fun to just listen to their amazing voices, and watch the joy on their faces as they were worshipping! We couldn’t help but join and start dancing! African dancing, what could be better right?  Eventually, I noticed that we started to drift into familiar beats, and I realized they were singing Nigerian songs! I can’t even believe I am saying this, but this was a rare moment were I wished I could speak Yoruba or Igbo so that I could understand the words they were singing.  But at some point, the language barrier dissolved and I found myself singing along to the Yoruba music and dancing.

I was kind of sad when Sammy walked in and said we had to go, but the pieces of joy continued throughout the rest of the day!  Today we got to see the sports ministry! In Kenya, everyone loves sports, so whenever there is a game, the entire community comes to watch and support the team. With such large crowds at sporting events, PFC staff normally use this opportunity to minister to the community! So I was really excited to go watch the teams practice. As we walked to the fields, we passed a herd of cows, which was yet another little joy! However, it was a sad moment when we passed the former soccer field, which now looked like a swamp. During the rainy season, the soccer field flooded; since then, PFC has been unable to find a permanent soccer field. Prayerfully, God will bless the team with a field that’s even better than their original! Eventually we made our way to the temporary soccer field and watched the boys’ soccer team practice! As embarrassing as this is for an African, I have to say, I’m the only person in my family who doesn’t play soccer so I was excited to watch in hopes of learning some soccer before I leave Kenya! Of course it was such a joy to watch the boys play! They are amazing players, and even their youngest player (who is 10!) could play better than I could ever learn to play. They were so nice and gracious to us and even invited us to come practice with them. So who knows, maybe I’ll be able to play soccer by the time I make it back to the US. They also invited us to their game tomorrow.  They previously played the team and won (yay!); however the team wanted a re-match, which I am sure they will win!

I’m so excited for tomorrow because I know it will be another great day filled with joy and fellowship!

We’ll let you know how it goes!

~ Mfon

The boys' soccer team and the beautiful view!!