Super-na-tu-ral! Super-na-tu-ral!

Super-na-tu-ral! Super-na-tu-ral! That’s the song that has been in my head since Sunday. This past Sunday afternoon we put on a Back to School VBS for the children in Nando. It was my first experience being part of a VBS & I was incredibly blessed by it. We’ve been working with the children’s ministry leaders (Chris, Wallace, & Nicholas) for the past month planning for this VBS. Because we didn’t have the finances to fund the VBS ourselves we did a car wash in our neighborhood to raise funds. I never would have thought that I would be doing a car wash in Africa to raise funds. I think the neighbors really enjoyed watching 3 muzungu girls washing cars! Praise God, we ended up raising 3,100 Shillings (roughly $47) to purchase juice, biscuits, & prizes for the children.

Car Wash Fund Raiser with Chris

Chris is a guy in his late 20’s that is a leader in the children’s ministry here at church. He is extremely gifted in working with children & he is quite the visionary. He lives in Nando slum & has a huge heart for the poor children in Kenya. I believe a few years ago an American girl worked with Chris here in Nairobi & she fell in love with him. He was offered an internship at her church in America & possibly had the opportunity to marry her & live in the States. For most African men that offer would have been a dream come true but Chris turned it down because he felt so strongly that God was calling him to stay here in Kenya to work with the children in the slums. I couldn’t believe that any African would have turned down a chance to live in the States & marry an American. I can’t say that if I was in his shoes I would have made the same decision. Chris is truly one of a kind. His desire is to share the love of Christ with children; he even goes to such extremes as sleeping in the streets with the “street kids” to love them like Jesus. When we got to Kenya, Chris & the youth were in the Bush on a mission trip. He raised his own support from the Natives here & was able to go on a 10 day mission to share the Gospel in an unreached area of Kenya. Arie & others at church spoke very highly of him, so we were excited to meet him. But upon meeting Chris for the first time I didn’t think there was anything special about him. In fact I was a little disappointed in my first impression because he seemed very immature & silly to me. He was always joking around, arriving late to our meetings, we couldn’t take him seriously & every time we tried to practice our drama skit or plan out the crafts he would put off the task at hand. To say the least we were a little worried about working with him. But I figured he’d done this before so I trusted that he knew what he was doing.

Well come Sunday afternoon he proved himself alright. At the start of the program the kids were running around crazy but as soon as he jumped on stage and started leading the kids in dances, all eyes were on him. The kids were mesmerized with Chris’ electric personality & staring at him like he was a celebrity! It was precious. Somehow I was pulled up on stage too as part of the performance group. I was definitely out of my comfort zone at first having to dance in front of all these kids. I’ve never worked with children in the past & I didn’t think that I even had the heart to. But I tell you, as I was up there dancing, singing, seeing the kids screaming, smiling, dancing, having a grand ol’ time, I was lit on fire inside!  

Me & Wallace quizing on study

After the worship we broke up into groups by age range to do the teaching & craft. I taught ages 7-8 with Wallace my translator. We taught the Good Samaritan story & memory verse 1 John 4:20.

Doing crafts

 After serving the snacks we gathered back around the stage & performed our Good Samaritan skit. Christina was the injured man, Anna-Marie & Jamie were the robbers & I was the narrator. Our skit had a Kenyan flair to it as we changed the nationalities of the characters to represent different Kenyan tribes. There is a bit of tribalism in Kenya so we were trying to convey the message that Jesus calls us to care for all people even if they belong to a different tribe.

Good Samaritan skit

Christina, Jamie, Anna-Marie

After the skit we did a puppet show, memory verse quiz & then closed out with prayer groups & more dancing.



Puppet show with Wallace & Chris




Me & Chris quizing the crowd



Anna-Marie & the kids

Being my first VBS I was very pleased with the turn out. Chris came through, the youth were a big help & overall I had the sweetest time dancing, high-fiving, & watching the kids enjoy themselves. A few times tears of joy were welling up in my eyes as I was looking at big smiles in the crowd below me. What a joy it was to be able to provide these sweet children an opportunity to learn the Word of God & escape their hard lives in the slums for a few hours. I’m not sure who was more blessed the kids or me.

It was a long day of serving the children but it was the best day I’ve had so far since I’ve been here in Nairobi. God is doing a work on my heart towards children & I can’t wait to work with Chris & the other leaders again on the next event! I feel like this VBS broke down some walls that were up towards the Kenyans that I’m working with. It has been a little challenging working out the cultural differences. But working together in this event has brought us to a new level of friendship. It has also brought me to a new level of appreciation towards my time here in Kenya. Just a few days ago I was fighting a bit of homesickness because I’ve been so bored. I haven’t been seeing my days here as a gift from the Lord. Today the Lord opened my eyes to what I’ve been missing. I thank Him for allowing me to be part of this special day. I know there are many more to come!