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Enjoy the following report written by trip participant Barbara Arrants.
Dear Church Friends and Family:
On July 29th the First Presbyterian Church Kenya mission team headed to Nairobi. For over two weeks, we traveled throughout Kenya, working with Stu and Linda Ross, our missionaries in Kenya, to build schools and churches, and to fellowship with God's people in the region.
Our first visit was to Maasai Land, down in the Great Rift Valley, where we built classrooms in the villages of Kimelok and Sairrashie. Staying on site among the warm and friendly people there was a true blessing to us, and one of the most moving adventures of our trip.
We also visited the church at Soitamurt which was built by First Presbyterian Church in August of 2004. Future plans for this area of Maasai Land include building a girl's boarding high school at Kimelok. The education of young women here has a direct effect on the health and well being of the entire village as higher education postpones marriage and childbirth and leads to better educated, healthier children over all.
Returning from the "bush," we spent three days working at the church and school compound in Embulbul, a suburb of Nairobi. The Embulbul church was completed through the help and funding of First Presbyterian Church last year. We painted several classrooms and blackboards and enjoyed playing with the children there. We brought several gifts for the new church and were, in turn, graced with wonderful Kenyan hospitality.
Our next mission was to Dagoretti, a poor area near the hospital compound where we stayed for most of our trip. Here we helped to build a big stone church, like Embulbul, which will be a center of worship and education for many, many years. This was two days of hard labor, laying stone block and cement, but we loved every minute of it!
After working at Dagoretti, we visited a recently completed church a little further out. The stone church at Gaitumbi was completed through the funding and outreach of First Presbyterian Church and was dedicated in December of 2005. We met with the elders, deacons, and the pastor of the church who showed us how the Sunday school rooms, choir rooms and the like are coming along. What is so amazing is how the building of the large stone churches creates such a sense of unity in the villages, that the church becomes not only the center of worship, but the true heart of the whole community. This effect was truly evident at Gaitumbi and Embulbul!
From your mission team, thank you so much for your continued support for our partners in Kenya. We were blessed to have participated and we encourage all of you to ask us about our own personal experiences.
Your 2006 team members included Sarah Ridley, Cindy Bozeman, Dr. Bob LeGrone and his brother Mike LeGrone, Anne Vincent and her two sons Harrison and Alexander, Susan Doughty, Neil Alden, Barbara Arrants and her son Baylor.
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