My First US Team

The first Baptist Volunteers in Missions team of the season arrived Friday night. The team from North Carolina is a great group. And I love this “job!” (I don’t know if it can really be called a job if you don’t get paid.)

My job is to prepare for and assist teams that come from the states and work to create continued partnerships with communities, families and individuals in need here in Kenya. I went on the vision trip for this team’s ministry in mid-March, before I even knew I would be working with Baptist Volunteers full time. On that trip, we met with the pastor the guests will be working with and visited their hotel and a few of their ministry sites. I can’t tell you how exciting it was to greet this first team at the airport and begin to see all the preparation and planning form into reality. God has great things in store for these guys, and I’m blessed to be a part of it!

On Saturday morning, this team had a little time on their own, then met us for a short orientation to let them know a little more of what to expect at their ministry site. We went to a shopping center for them to exchange money, have lunch and do any last-minute shopping they needed at a Wal-Mart type place. Then, we were on our way to Murang’a, a town about an hour and half outside of Nairobi.

I had so much fun being the “American Liaison!” The team had some great questions and it really helped me remember the things that mission teams wonder about when they go to a new country. I also realized that I have learned a lot more about Kenya than I thought I had.

The best part of the day was meeting the team at their first ministry site. While we finished up with some logistics stuff, they went to meet the kids at an orphanage they will be working with a little bit over the next 10 days. The kids love to have visitors. They love to sing and recite memory verses. The team sang a few songs in English, then the kids sang the same in Swahili.

God is so good! This is exactly where He has placed me, doing exactly what He wants me to do! And I’m loving it! I love doing the logistics type stuff that is all culminated with the goal of people coming to share the love of Christ with the Kenyan people! All the preparation comes together when you see people loving people and sharing the hope of Christ!