Kenya 2021

Today was a lot like yesterday. We woke up at the Heart Lodge, ate breakfast and headed to the Center. Yesterday, we finished the inside of all the classrooms so today we moved to the outside of the building to paint. We painted the building, the inside gate, the outside gate, the guard house and outside corrugated metal. It was a full day of painting but our team is incredible and knocked it all out.  Instead of doing a chapel service for the kids, we divided the kids into two groups and did a couple of different things. The first was a time with Amanda leading exercises. She's an instructor in the US so she brought her skills and talents with her. Using a Bluetooth speaker, she did a whole routine with the kids and wore them out. One of the unique blessings of this trip is to see each team member use their gifts in some fun ways. God assembled the right team for this trip. So many times, we see God utilize something in someone to bring Himself glory.  While that was go...

  Today was a big day around the Center. The whole team showed up after breakfast as the kids were in school. The major time blocks of our schedule were facilitating a chapel for all the kids, painting the interior of all the classrooms, and half the group going to visit the houses of Project Lucas families. We began painting the interior of the classrooms in order to get those done so that the students weren't displaced from them for long. It is a belief of Project Lucas that since these kids are in the dark much of the night with no lights in their homes, we want the Center to be a place that is bright and inviting during the day. This is why every two years we put down a new coat of paint on the whole facility. We were updating the walls with a fresh coat of yellow, the baseboard with a fresh coat of black, and the blackboards with a fresh coat of chalkboard paint. One of the things we don't think about because we are so used to it in America is the ease at which we can get ...

 This is one of the BEST days of the trip! Before coming and while all of us were raising support, we also participated in a Fitness Challenge through Project Lucas. The purpose of the challenge was to raise money specifically for backpacks. Our goal was to raise $15,000 to bring and give out 750 backpacks to vulnerable children all over the city of Ruiru. As we progressed toward our goal, it was such a blessing to see the faithfulness of God. We reached our goal with about two weeks left in the challenge. At that point, Scott upped the goal to $20,000 or 1,000 backpacks. We reached it on the last day of fundraising! Again, the faithfulness of God to not only meet the goal but then exceed it by $5,000 is just a testament to His character and His promises. This has been the constant theme of the team as we have walked through the fundraising process. When we were wondering where the money was going to come from, God brought it. Sometimes He brought it in a weird way, sometimes He br...

Today we had the privilege of going to a local church here in Kenya. This is always an awesome experience for our teams because they normally come having only experienced church in America. Typically church here in Kenya lasts about 3 hours if not 3 and a half hours. This year, due to COVID restrictions, it is limited to an hour and a half. With that said, we didn't really know what to expect.  As we arrived, we were welcomed warmly by Sylvester and his family (this is where they attend church each and every Sunday morning). They ushered us off the bus and into the worship center. Now, their worship center looks and feels very different than in America. Here in Kenya, when you are building a church, you build as you have the money to pay. So, this church building was unfinished in multiple ways. However, that didn't stop them from worshiping God every Sunday morning as a group of believers. The walls were not decorated, the sound system wasn't perfect, the chairs were plast...

Waking up today was a bit rough, I'm not going to lie. Many of the team is still adjusting to new sleep schedules. We did wake up to an incredible breakfast however. This is one of the things about traveling with Project Lucas and staying at the Heart Lodge. It is a serene place to come back to everyday after doing ministry. It's a place with great food when you are in a foreign country. They prepare local dishes as well as serve things that we are very accustomed to in the US. It's the perfect blend!  After breakfast and orientation, we headed out to visit a slum. One of the reason we do this is to expose our teams to the living conditions of the kids we help each and every day in the Project Lucas program. This year, we went to a new slum that I have never been to. We visited the home of a woman who has taken in 41 kids in the slum. She created an organization to help get the kids out of poverty by providing their school fees and getting them an education.  Education is t...

Welcome to the blog, or journal, of our mission trip to Kenya!! We want to start by saying, "Thank You!" Many of you helped fund our trips, are praying for us now, or will be there when we return to hear all our stories of what the Lord taught us and showed us these past 12 days. We can never express our thankfulness in words but please know our hearts are overflowing!  Let me (Jameson) introduce you to our team! There are 10 of us being sent from Prestonwood Baptist Church to go serve alongside Project Lucas . Go check out the website to see what they are all about and how God is using them to impact the lives of Kenya's children in a VERY real way. Here's a picture of our team.  From left to right: Jameson (me), Matthew, Caleb, Ben, Katie, Jackson, Amanda, Collin, Rachel, and Melissa Our trip started with checking in at the DFW airport. We have flown and will fly Lufthansa airlines. The check in process was a bit trying, I'm not going to lie. It took a long time...