Updates... updates... and more updates....

JAMBO! I know, a week since I last posted. That just means I'm about to post the longest post ever on here. No seriously, I have a lot of catching up to do!

Our recent team arrived on Monday. They are the third and last Servant Life team for this summer. (www.servantlife.com) We've really really enjoyed the teams they've sent. We are so thankful for our new partnership with them and look forward to many more great teams they will send in the summers.

This team is from Louisiana. We like our southerners! The accents always make us smile and feel right at home. And it's a bit humorous to watch them try and communicate with Kenyans.

This team has been extremely well organized (thanks to their leader!). And when I say organized, that is a bit of an understatement. They've had their team signed up since last August. And they've been practicing and preparing ever since. They all have every role on their team planned out and practiced and in case someone were to get sick, they all knew each others part. They've had puppet shows, games, bible stories, prayer walks, school assemblies with two different public schools close to Mattaw, and even threw our birthday party for us! Oh and one of the guys on the team plays guitar and brought his and they all learned swahili songs ahead of time. Our kids were thrilled about that. I haven't been out with the team too much but the days I have are very full! I could spend weeks updating on what they've done. For now though, I'll just show what I got in pictures today....

Bubbles! Some of the children kept calling them "doubles" in their cute little accents.

Our newest girl, Sheila. (which I still need to give the full story on her and her sister!)

One of the adult leaders, Mrs. Barb, and I at the entrance to Mattaw. She is artistic and painted this by just looking at our business card and using sidewalk chalk and yarn to trace it. I was super excited to pull up this morning to find it done!

Even though there's not much wind, they had fun running circles around Mattaw with a kite.

And it never fails. Teams try playing and realize how incredibly good Kenyans are at soccer. They try though!

Every day they've helped cook, chop, clean dishes, sweep floors, pick up trash, cut grass, make bricks, organize, and clean, clean clean. What a servant driven team they are!

Sheila and I. I love this girl!

The church that this group is from had a vbs for their children recently. They had an offering for missions and the team leader here brought that offering and waited for the right thing that God would prompt his heart to use it for. The first thing was soccer cleats. Bud went and bought them in the second hand market here in Kitale. Our children get flip flops, school shoes, and one other type of shoe but with that they want to make them last and do not want to wear them to play soccer. So our children play barefoot and their feet get so nasty. Now they wont! We are so grateful to have these. Our children were absolutely thrilled!

David, one of our oldest boys.

Bud helping Juma find a pair. He's an awesome soccer player.

And the boys on the team decided to collect some of their personal money they brought on the trip and invest in soccer nets and wood to make a new goal for our children.

And this team also brought birthday stuff to throw the children's birthdays for this month. They decked out our biggest classroom and surprised us. It was awesome. There were streamers, balloons galore, punching balloons, balloon animals, table cloths, birthday plates and napkins. They even brought their own cake mix and icing and made the cakes for us last night. So we celebrated Nelima, Sharon and little Jose.

This morning I went and grabbed new outfits for them all at a grocery store in town. I usually guess at sizes and with some miracle I end up getting them right 90% of the time! Here they are in their new outfits. (our girls started asking for new trousers for their birthday since they get new dresses for Christmas)

One of the girls on the team made all these head bands for our girls! Yes, she handmade them all! Our girls absolutely loved them and looked so precious in them.

And because it's Friday, I haven't forgotten to throw in a fruit and flower for this week!

Today I chose some wild flowers. Actually maybe they aren't so please correct me if I'm wrong and let me know the name of these!

Gracie

Georgie giving Claire a flower... not so sure how I feel about this!

And the fruit is blood fruit. Also called red passion. I think there's another name too, not sure. It's super good. You bite of the top and suck it out. Sweet and sour at the same time.

Ian and Jordan.

Jordan just got here a few days ago and is here for a few months. He came with his entire family last year on a team. He is the oldest child in his family and just graduated high school. We're happy to have him around. He is really great with the Mattaw children. And Ian and Caleb are happy to have a new bunk mate in their room out in our guesthouse.

Oh gosh, and I haven't even mentioned Rachel on here! Ish! She is one incredible young lady that just spent a month here. I'm sad she flew out last night and we all hope she will be back in the future. She stayed in the new girls' house where Betsy Davis is running the new girl's discipleship program for Mattaw. On Tuesday three young ladies will arrive and go through the first official month of this program. We are thankful for Betsy's vision for this and her heart to lead and serve these girls. I'll try and get some updates on here throughout this month about this. It's open for young women ages 18 and up. More info to come...

We love you Rachel!