A full Sunday

 This will be a shorter post since today was long and it’s late and bed is calling! We were blessed to start the day with church at the Christ Empowerment Church in the Gituamba community, less than a half mile from the school. We were blessed to be part of this church’s history, going back to when building first started in 2016. Bill and Chat had asked the community residents back then if they wanted a community church, and they agreed that they would. They had a facility at the time that was nothing more than a mud hut with a few benches and corrugated metal roof. The first few pictures show the steel of the church being raised in 2016 with the mud hut church in the background. Some of our team members (Marie Robinson, Cindy Wolff and Julia Churchill) are shown inside the old building. We ultimately poured concrete and installed walls and windows in later trips. 

But today we had the opportunity to worship again with the congregation as we did previously in 2024. The praise and worship was awesome, the church formally recognized Bill and Chat for their commitment and grace in having the vision and backing to build the new church. Sarah Harris did an awesome job singing Amazing Grace acapella, and  Dale Plummer did an amazing job bringing the solid gospel message. As a result, two of the church women came forward to the altar call to give their lives to Christ. It was a beautiful culmination to a wonderful worship service. 

Following the service, the team slipped out early to set up a “Loaves and Fishes” food distribution. This has become for us one of the highlights of our trip. We get the opportunity to give various food staples to members of the congregation. Inflation in Kenya has been really difficult and food scarcity is a real, real problem. We were able to give out food supplies to 85 families that will give the basic materials that they need for a month for preparing food. This includes things like salt, cooking oil, sugar, flour, rice, beans, and other necessary staples. The problem are overwhelmed with gratitude for the provisions. This is another area where the excess funds our supporters contribute go directly toward helping the Kenyan people survive in a difficult economy. 

Following the activities at the church, we went to a garden restaurant for a time of good food and fellowship in a beautiful setting. We finished the day by traveling to the worksite to see construction that is happening on homes for Happy J and Grace. It was wonderful to see the progress and the joy on the faces of these two faithful workers of SWOK.