Sunday in Mlolongo

We breakfasted with the other teams before they traveled out to other regions of Kenya and then bid a fond farewell as one by one, they packed up their vehicles and headed out. We left Little Daughters around 9am for a 10am service. In order to get to the church, Isaac, our driver, had to do a masterful job on a muddy, hilly narrow steep incline to get us there at all. It was incredible, I've seen some pretty slick driving before, but this was masterful. He had to avoid little kids and bota botas (motorcycle taxis) as we bobbed and weaved, spinning tires as we went. One of the elders of the church guided us for the last block or two.

After climbing the steep hill

Worship was wonderful. Our dear friend Pastor James from the ELCK presided over the service and volunteers and leaders from several other Pipeline churches were there as well. There was a lot of singing of the liturgy mixed in with Kenyan praise songs with gorgeous harmonies. We were introduced to the congregants, and I got to say a few words about who we are and why we are there. I referenced the Great Commission, little realizing that it was one of the major topics of the sermon. The church feed us a meal of meat, Ugali (a cornmeal staple that is much thicker than mashed potatoes, and cooked greens. It was very good, breaking bread with old friends is a great custom.

Children reciting their Bible verses

After our meal, we went to the clinic site to scope it out and plan for where each station of the clinic would be. The building is about the same size and shape as our last one, we decided to duplicate it with a reverse flow, since there is a road by one entrance and doing eyechart exams outside needed more room which was found at the other end of the building. We came away satisfied that the venue would work for a busy clinic. Tomorrow is Independence Day and from past experience we know that it will be either a very light or a very heavy day.

The Community Center hosting our clinic

Inside checking it out

We bought our team supplies and individual snacks for the week on the way home at The Hub (a very large mall near our convent) got back to Little Daughters and had dinner, agreed on timing of breakfast, supplies each of us would bring and a departure time of 7am. We hope to set up the clinic between about 8 and 9am, have a devotion and start serving patients with the Gospel and eye care. 

Bessings everybody, I hope to begin to share more pictures as the week goes on.