Blessings in Disguise

What a day this has been! But first, lets rewind to last night. Our devotion was Psalm 20. Part of our discussion focused around how everything happens for a reason and God will work through situations in ways we may never dream of. A recent event for me came to mind. This past semester at school was particularly hard for me. When I was given the choice between two options for completing my senior recital requirements I chose the option to perform at home. (Most, if not all other, music majors perform their recital at school for faculty, family, peers and friends). I was extremely disappointed this was not a available to me. So, the decision was to perform a recital at home. God works in amazing ways because by doing my recital at home, I was able to raise over. $1300 to bring to Kenya donating to Project 24. If I would not have had to do a recital at home, the orphan children of Kenya would never have benefited the way they will now. Thanks to the generous support of everyone who made this happen for these children! Even though I was really devastated that I had to do my recital away from campus, there was obviously a reason and that reason was the children of Kenya. This was a blessing in disguise!

On our journey to church this morning our bus could not make it over a culvert in the road. We tried to prop rocks up so the bus could make it over without scraping the bottom, but it did not work. So, we decided to walk. It was a 40 minute walk one way. The weather was perfect and the scenery was beautiful along the walk to church. We decided to make the best out of the situation and realized that we would have not noticed the scenery if we did not walk. Blessings in disguise!

We attended church at the Propoi Congregation of the E.L.C.K. Chepareria Parish. It was quite the experience to attend church in another country. It reminded me of the churches on reservations from when I have traveled there with L.A.M.P. Ministries. We were told church was at 10 am, but the sign said 10:30 am but it really started at 11 am. During church the pastor that is traveling with us was able to deliver the sermon. It was neat to see them translate for the rest of the congregation. We were all brought to the front of the church and officially welcomed by the people. The church service lasted two hours.

After church we were invited for lunch at the pastors home. It was delicious. The principle of the Propoi Primary School was there and also invited us to visit their school. This is a boarding school for 437 girls and 18 teachers. We were given a tour of the facility, and the students all gathered for an assembly to welcome us. They performed a few skits, musical numbers, and various people spoke to welcome us. The girls are so talented!

Shortly before leaving the school it started to thunder. Soon after we left it began to down pour. Many of us were a bit apprehensive because we knew the long walk we had in front of us back to the bus. It didn't take long  to realize that I could not change the situation and my clothes were going to be drenched no matter what. 

Now every layer of our clothes is laying across our cabin, our rooms and outside on our porch. I was scared to look in my backpack because I was hoping nothing got ruined. But, my bible pages are soaking, passport is crinkled up and wet, all of my money is soaked, photo album and pictures are destroyed, and my journal took the hardest hit. I was a little upset about this because it is he journal I have had on every trip I have taken for the last couple years. Hopefully it will dry out enough to be able to read again so I could transfer it to a different journal. However, even though this has happened, these are all material things. Every thing can be replaced. It was just another reminder of how good we have it. Blessings in disguise!

Not long after we got our things sorted out and hung up, the electricity went out again in our cabin (it was out this morning as well as yesterday). As I am writing this on my iPod the six of us girls are sitting in the living room writing in journals, talking and attempting to call back to the US. Our Kenyan hosts gave us a phone we could use, but it did not come with the right charged so as have to be careful with using it. I was able to talk to my mom so that was good. A couple of us had to leave messages for people so that will be a nice surprise when they listen to the messages. Even though the power is out, we are able to spend time together as a group. Blessings in disguise!