We arrived at the compound in the morning, took tea and went to the church. People were already milling around. We were sung to again, and treated to a drama presentation by the children.
Then we lined the children up and gave them the T-shirts and candy. As soon as word got out there was a crowd outside the church and threatened to quickly get out of control, but several of the men were great in bringing the children one by one. Some of the children cried, and later I found out that the room we were in was the same room they use when the doctor comes. They line the children up and they go into this small room to get a shot!
Imagine their surprise when they received a gift instead!
Then the maize arrived. A large truck pulled up and several men got out and started dumping it on the floor at the back of the church. It was a mountain! Four tons for this church - enough for every family in the church - and one ton went off with the truck to a smaller, sister church. It took hours to line everyone up and scoop it into whatever they brought to carry it in. Some very happy people left the church with all the maize they could carry. It was glorious! The church had a carnival atmosphere and the sounds rang through the village!
One of the women came up to me and said "We will eat today! Praise the Lord because it is Christmas and we will eat!"
We have no idea what that means. There is so much in America. But there are places in the world that the choice is not what to eat but whether to eat at all. Imagine. That is the reality for many people in this world.
The happiest person of all that day was Jessica who, for five years collected cans and bottles to raise enough money to pay for all of this! Such a small thing that grew to something huge for these people! She just laughed and laughed...and took pictures.
Then when we got back to the hotel it rained. It was a deluge. We heard it coming ...it sounded like a freight train. I was watching when one of the waiters came up to me. I had told him what happened that day.
He said, "We Kenyans believe that when you do something good for a community, then it will rain a little and that is God's blessing on you. But look at this rain. You must have done something so great to bring this kind of blessing!"
Christmas day in comparison was somewhat of an anti-climax. We endured a really long hot church service (it went from 11am until almost 3pm) followed by a feast - they slaughtered a ram. We handed out more gifts to the family and tootsie roll pops. It was a bit of an endurance test.
God is Good!
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