Some final thoughts upon our return...

Greetings from the Derse Family from back here in the United States!  Ann and Rick Smith have asked us to share with you some highlights of our 5 months living at The Hill in Kenya for the July Oasis newsletter.  We immediately said “of course,” and started quickly making a list of all the different activities and projects that we were involved with there but quickly realized that we are still trying to understand how God moved through us to minister to the people there and, just as important, how He changed our hearts forever in ways that we are still struggling to fully comprehend.  We spent months planning our “to-do” list before our trip only to quickly realize once we arrived in Kenya, God’s plan was much different than ours’ in ways that we could never fathom.  What follows are what we feel were some of the highlights of our ministry opportunities and we will try our level best to convey what we feel God was trying to accomplish throughout and what He was trying to teach us and how He was transforming our hearts in the process.

 

It was evident to us upon our arrival at The Hill that God had prepared these children’s hearts for significant growth in their spiritual life.  What a privilege and blessing it was for our family to see God moving so very powerfully in this area of their lives.  Over seventy of the children prayed the salvation prayer and invited Jesus into their hearts for the first time!  What an incredible praise!  It was great to work hand-in-hand with the staff to develop Bible memorization and implement Bible curriculum to help provide for continued spiritual growth of the children. 

 

We are also so very thankful to have been welcomed into Pastor Andrew’s small community church and for giving us many opportunities to share.  Kathi and Scott were able to preach several Sundays to this congregation.  Quickly after our arrival in January, Kathi discerned a huge need in the spiritual lives of the women in the community and felt burdened to help in this area.  She joined the weekly women’s Bible study and this grew rapidly- drawing 30-40 women every Wednesday to study God’s word and we witnessed significant healing of hearts and relationships.  This culminated in an all-day women’s conference which was attended by 108 women from the surrounding area to hear God’s word through several different speakers and to worship together.  God also gave James an awesome opportunity to serve God’s people there.  He was able to film and produce music videos of the church choir performing several worship songs.  These will soon be uploaded onto YouTube for viewing.  The choir was very excited at the prospect of bursting onto the internet as the newest worship sensation!  Matthew and James also spoke on pursuing careers based on the giftings and desires that God gives us.  This was an important message for children of this community to hear as there is a real cycle of poverty and hopelessness which squelches many of the hopes and dreams of the young people there.  Sarah spent many hours in the kitchen learning the finer points of making chapatti and how to prepare meals for 100 hungry kids as well as helping out with the afternoon preschool and just running around playing with the kids.  Megan, returning to the Hill after finishing her spring semester, came with tremendous enthusiasm and passion to love each one of the kids as well as organizing and conducting the annual sponsor calls.  Trying to coordinate these calls with all the sponsor families given the 8-hour time difference, peoples’ busy schedules and the communication challenges in a 3^rd world country was no small task but seeing the kids’ faces light up when talking to their families was definitely worth the effort!

 

Our entire family was involved in various building and other projects.  James and Matthew worked diligently on building many large storage cabinets.  Matthew learned much about building and construction and was also able to mentor several of the young men as they assisted him in these various projects.   A huge thank-you goes out to Nate and Kurt for helping them get started on this project!  Every dormitory room received a fresh coat of bright paint and 8 new sets of bunk beds were installed.  It was amazing to see how happy the children were with their new “digs.”  Friday nights were movie and popcorn nights.  The 3 hours spent every Friday afternoon popping over 100 bags of popcorn was a burden of love.  This was all the kids could think about towards the end of the week and it was great to see them lose control as we handed out the popcorn and started the movie.  We enjoyed many special Bible studies, nightly devotions, anatomy/physiology lectures and numerous special events (group birthday party, staff appreciation party, bonfire devotions, all-week Easter celebration, etc.).  All of these activities became important avenues for us to build relationship with these special children. 

 

As we reflect back upon this amazing experience, we are aware of the many mistakes and cultural faux pas that we made but the staff and community were more than gracious to us and welcomed us into their lives and loved us anyway.  For this, we will be eternally grateful.  Despite encountering significant spiritual warfare, times of discouragement and life-threatening illness, the privilege and blessing of loving and serving those 98 children has had the greatest impact on all of us and we will forever be changed because of it.  All six of us miss each one of these beautiful children deeply.  We can still see their faces, hear their laughter and singing and feel their arms around us.  God has imprinted these kids on our hearts forever.  We have seen God move in miraculous ways and He has taught us that He is indeed faithful and His ways are absolutely beyond what we could ever plan for, hope for or expect.  Thanks to all who have supported us financially and, more importantly, with prayer.  We know that it was through this on-going prayer that God was able to further His will there with children on The Hill and the Massai people.  It was also a privilege to serve alongside the Smith family and we would like to extend to them our thanks and love for all that they did to support our family during our stay in Kenya. 

 

In God’s Service,

 

Scott, Kathi, Megan, Matthew, James and Sarah Derse