Today we took a day trip to northern country in Kenya. Originally we were going to do a 7 hour drive, but thankfully we were convinced to take a 40 minute flight instead. After landing, we were able to make a stop at the equator and saw an experiment about the gravitational forces on the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
From there we went to visit Paul’s village and ministry he started called Amati. Paul has been with us the whole time that we have been in Kenya, helping to drive us from place to place. We knew we were planning on visiting his village, but had no clue what we had in store for us. The village was pretty far off the main road, and has only recently gotten a clean water well and electric power due to initiatives started by Paul and Mike Hyodo.
We were greeted right away by a group of kids singing and inviting us in. We later found out that these were kids from the village that are a part of the Amati ministry that Paul, his brothers, and their families started. Amati was named after his mother. She was a woman who had a heart for people and would pass out food to people that needed it. Following in her footsteps, Paul and his brothers have a heart to transform their village and give people a hope for the future. At Amati they have activities and Bible classes for the kids. We were able to play with some of the kids with the legos that we brought for them, and some outdoor sports like soccer and jump rope. Then we were treated to lunch made for us by Paul's wife, who just started a catering company so the food was great. We have been very blessed with so many amazing home cooked meals on this trip. Following lunch, we took a tour of the village to see some of the other projects that Amati has going on. One of them is a new multipurpose facility they are building to provide a space for people to gather, do activities, get some food, and have class space. It is an exciting next step for Amati.
One reason that we made the trip to the village was to visit a family whose house burned down. We were asked to help participate in rebuilding the house by plastering the walls. Our team first met the family, heard their story, and prayed for them. Then we split into 2 groups, the younger ones and Matt stayed at the house to do some manual labor and plaster the inside of the house. Ask them about the meal that they got to eat after finishing the work. The fathers and Garrett went to some of the other homes in the village to pray for some of the people. There were some difficult situations that people were in, so it was a good opportunity to encourage and pray for them. Then we made the trek back to Paul's house to enjoy another home cooked meal by Paul's wife. After dinner we went back to the hotel for the night.
