Monday of Preparation

Today was another relaxing day at the compound. I've been told to enjoy days like these because the days will get very busy very soon. After breakfast I spent all morning both inside and outside in the sun, playing the guitar and focusing on worshipping God through song. In the afternoon, Kyndal, Margaret, Katie, Vickie, and I went to lunch at the River Cafe to discuss each of our projects for the next couple of months. (This was such a blessing because Vickie, founder and executive director of HEART, is always very busy. We had to leave the compound to meet because otherwise we would have risked being interrupted, as Vickie is often bombarded with needs and questions...Yet she never stops giving.)

I learned that my project will be centered around the Kids for School project. My responsibility is pretty much to play "journalist." I will have a couple of opportunities to go upcountry into rural villages this month where new offices for the Kids for School project are opening up. I will be writing EVERYTHING down, taking tons of pictures, getting names, ages, etc. My job is to gather ALL information because, unfortunately for HEART, "if it is not documented...it never happened." I will leave for Nyakach this Thursday and will return to Nairobi on Sunday. (Unfortunately, that means no blogging for those days...not to mention no toilets, no running water, and bucket baths...but with all the documenting I will be doing, I am sure I will come back with plenty to share.) Later this month, I will go to Meru and do some more documenting in a rural village there.

From my understanding, the Kids for School project works with orphans (often who lost their parents to HIV/AIDS), providing them with uniforms and goats. But they don't just hand them over to the kids. The child needs to show responsibility and will eventually pass on the goat (or its offspring) to another child who needs it. Honestly, I do not know nearly anything about it, but I plan on picking the brains of Evans and Isaac, Kenyan HEART workers, who work with Kids for School all the time.

Then after my trips and gathering all of the information and pictures, I will be responsible for using my artistic talent and writing skills to create HEART's first official Kids for School newsletter! The template will then be used for future Kids for School newsletters as well. What an honor!

I am not sure how this whole thing will go, or what it will look like the next two months, but I would love it if you continued to follow me as I follow God to wherever and to whomever He takes me.

I am excited. And scared. But my God is with me. Whom shall I fear?