Rachel's Reflections

Yesterday I went to visit Mama N again (from last weeks blog) and she asked me if I saw her two older girls at our kids program last week. To be honest, there were so many kids in our yard last Saturday that it was hard to keep track of who was there. But praise God those sweet girls had indeed been there and had gone home to tell their mom everything they had learned, especially the music we had sung. The girls came over while Mama N and I talked and, grinning at me, they started singing one of the songs all on their own, a week after we had taught it to them. I joyfully joined in, gently reminding them of one or two parts they had missed. Their mother listened happily and then tried to join in the third time around.  When we finished she thanked me for teaching her children things they did not know yet. The songs were about God, the Creator and that God is Love. The story we were able to share with all of the children last week was how God created everything both visible

I sat and listened as Mama F and Mama N chatted away in Kimwani about the news. One of the news items here is about COVID-19, but it has no direct affect on the lives of the people yet, therefore news is more along the lines of the most recent attack from the terrorist group north of here, who in the neighborhood is sick with Malaria, or what the monkeys stole from the garden. Mama N changed the topic and asked Mama F for help her with her little radio. She went inside the house to get it and came out with her two month old baby who had just woken up. As Mama N fed the baby, Mama F began to look at the radio (Audio Bible in Kimwani).  Mama F showed Mama N how to get the radio back to the beginning (Matthew 1) and we started listening to the genealogy of Jesus. In the pause between chapter 1 and chapter 2, Mama F told Mama N to pay special attention when she listened to the radio so she could learn from it. I was happy to sit back and listen to Mama F share with another Mwani lady a

A simple outing to the beach to build relationships... turned into more than we bargained for. "Are you ready to go to the beach?" I asked my friend as I walked into the neighbors yard. "Almost," she replied, "I just need to finish cooking for my grandma." I smiled inwardly, this would take a while so I settled into my chair and started a conversation with Bibi. "Don't worry Rachel, pasta doesn't take long," my friend reassured me as she poured a bag of pasta into a boiling pot of water on the open fire on the veranda where we were sitting. "No problem, I'm just going to go tell Lauren you're almost ready. We still need to go pick up her friend too," I responded. 30 minutes later we left: Lauren, me, our neighbor, along with her little sister and an unplanned stop at the ATM to draw cash. Lauren pulled up near her friend's house and hopped out to get her while the three of us waited in the car. We saw them c