Come along with me!

Here are just a few! I will try to put a bunch on a picture website, but I don't know of any. If you know a good one where anyone can see the pictures, let me know!:)

This was kind of the "American corner" where the interns and the people that are working full time for ELI from California live. My hut is the one on the left. Isn't it cute?














^These are just a bunch of the girls that I loooooved!




These were some of the boys that weren't afraid to talk to me! The little one on the lap was one that I played with all the time- his name is KipKarui. He's 4 and is possibly the cutest boy on earth! ---->




^This was what I did three times a day- served meals! It was fun, because everytime I gave them their food I would make them tell me their names. It actually did help me learn them faster!




This is Hope- she was the happiest baby I have ever met! She was adopted by the Albrights (the couple from California), and she was rarely found not smiling! I got to babysit her a lot, which I loved! ---->







<--- These are all the kids on my side of the orphanage. So there are 100 total, but I was assigned to work more closely with just 50 of them. This picture's kind of like Where's Waldo...i don't stand out at all, right?!:)




This is Dorcus, one of the girls I spent a lot of time with. She didn't speak much english, but she was absolutely precious!!--->

<--- And THIS is only one of the reasons I fell so in love with the Lord...

whew!

Well! What a past week it has been! i do not have the time to update about it right now because i am in a tiny internet cafe in nairobi where the shift key is stuck down so i can not punctuate anything :) So please bear with me as i can not capitalize much or use periods or anything of that sort!
Today christy jared and i flew into nairobi from our safari (amazing!! i will try to write about it later) This afternoon we are going to another orphanage that is in nairobi that is connected with christys church in new york! we are just going to check it out and see how it compares to the ilula childrens home and such
Tomrrow is the day!! i am heading home! i am torn about how i feel but at this point i am actually ready to be home> now that i am away from the village and the children i would rather just be at home! nairobi really has nothing of much interest to me! i could really use your prayer for the next couple of days though!
i again have a pretty long layover in london but this time i will just be staying in the airport< if you could just pray for safety of flights and just that my heart would not become too anxious! i am expecting the next couple of days to be pretty difficult because being in the airport is just like being in between worlds when i would rather just be in one or the other! but my time flying to kenya was so blessed so please pray that the same would be true about my time flying home!
also- tomorrow morning we are going to go to the african market which may sound odd to ask for prayer for, but we really could use it for that too! Being white, you get pretty intensely targeted, bombarded, scammed, etc. my prayer has just been that God would give us discretion. (The Shift key just popped up! ALRIGHT!) And that he would bless us by just putting people in our path that are people of integrity! They may be hard to find, but pray that God would just lead us to them!
It's hard to believe that my time here is up, but I also can not wait to share the things that i have seen, learned, and experienced here. The Lord has opened my eyes to so many things and i just may burst if i do not get to tell some one soon:)
From one continent to another,
Rachel Renee ChepKoech Naserian (that's the name they gave me in the maasai village) Grove

The Greatness Continues!

Habari!

It's hard to believe it's been a week since I last wrote. This week went very quicky and was honestly much better than my first week. I am beginning to feel much more comfortable with things and i feel like I'm coming across blessing after blessing!

Last thursday night Adele (the communications coordinator), Christy, and I threw a little party for the oldest girls (10 and 11). We held it in Adele's house and bought all these pink/red/purple supplies, and talked to them about... basically, becoming a woman. Can't say I've ever done any of that sort of teaching before:) But actually, Christy did most of the talking, and did wonderfully! We played fun games with them and watched part of Princess Diaries while eating cupcakes. It was a lot of fun!

I have been getting to know a lot of the parents here which has been so great! One of the couples was on maternity leave when I came, but they had their baby this week, so we went to see him (Victor), and he was so precious!! I have been invited into many homes for many cups of chai and long conversation. The people here are so relationship-oriented, it works great for me! I am really connecting with one of the mothers, Mary. She is incredible, and I am loving getting to know her!

One of the biggest blessings this week was how God has really healed me from my homesickness. The first week I felt very far away from everyone and everything, especially my family. It was becoming distracting as home was almost always on my mind. I prayed through those feelings a lot and saw a huge difference this week! I have found little ways that God has just provided touches of home. Like Ilula is surrounded by corn :), or like Adele lived in Cedar Rapids for a couple of years (random, because everyone else here is from california) so we can often talk about Iowa, or like the Albrights know my sister Sarah. So although I am far away, there are just little ways like that that make it seem not SO foreign. In some ways, it is really beginning to feel like a home to me! I am so thankful for that!

I am learning so much from the people here. You know what makes them so amazing? They really know the value of their salvation! I am so challenged by them...they wake up everymorning, taking complete joy in the fact that they are saved. They do not have much else, but i'm telling you, I've never seen hearts like these. I have had to take a look at my life and that aspect of it. Do i take joy in my salvation alone? Reminds me of the song "All of you is more than enough...". Is that true in my life? Oh how much I have yet to learn!

Since I am in a small, slow, internet cafe AND I'm completely computer illiterate...I have not been able to put pictures on here. However, as soon as I get home I will put a few up for you to look at. But I don't want to tell you too much or show too many, because that's what coffee and lunch dates are for :)

Oh- and I am going on a safari to the Masai Mara this coming Thursday through Saturday! I was not planning on going, but a door opened up at a very reasonable price, so Christy, Jared, and I will go on that together. Then I will spend the day in Nariobi before flying out late that night. Awesome, huh?

I really thank you for making this trip possible, for interceding for me, and for just being a part of my life enough to read this! I really look forward to seeing you when I'm home (July 3rd). I pray that you are all doing well too.

If you want to keep praying this week just pray that as I wrap things up at the childrens home that I would just really cement relationships. Pray that I would not become weary as I end my time here, but that I would continue to DELIGHT in the Lord, and would find joy everyday as I am able to serve these people and looooove these children! One week left- may I be even more purposeful and not lose sight of why I am here! Thank you!!

Ubarikiwe (Be blessed),
Rachel ChepKoech

JAMBO!

Well Hello...
Greetings from Africa!! I see that my dad discovered how to post to let you all know that I did make it here safely! Not only safely, but i actually enjoyed my two days that it took to get here! I actually did go out into London, and had a great time! I found a park, journaled, read, ate lunch, etc. It took me a little while to figure out the underground, but i did it! it was great, just like a LONG one-on-one date with the Lord! I don't know that I'll eve have another opprtunity to do that. But He really carried me the whole way.

Now...Africa! Since I arrived on a Friday, and fridays are our day off, I wasn't able to write you until now. I will try to just give you a brief overview of what it is like here!

First of all, the people are WONDERFUL! The children in the children's home are simply angelic. They have completely stolen my heart! I have never seen children like this. I've worked with children a lot at home, but what a difference it is! These kids have the biggest smiles and the biggest hearts that I have ever seen. They just looove to love you! And they are SO easy to love! On example is the other day we were singing the song "He's got the whole world in his hands", and you know how in america, the verses are "he's got the itty bitty baby...you and me sister, you and me brother", etc. Well here the verses were "He's got the people of Sudan, the people of Kenya, the people of KipKaren (the other village ELI works with), and the people of America." wow! They are just wonderful children that I am loving working with!! God blesses me through them everyday. Learning names is a big challenge. But i was very determined this week to make a concsious effort to learn as many as I could. I almost have all of the girls on my side down (24 of them), but the boys will maybe be my goal this next week. And i doubt that I'll ever get all of the other side memorized, because I don't spend much time over there. There are two "sides" to the childrens home- east and west. I am on east side with Christy, and Jared is on west. We can switch if we want to, but that is just the side we are supposed to focus more on and spend more time with kind of. So there are 50 kids and 2 sets of parents on each side.

The food is not bad...it is just the same eeeevery day. It is some sort of stew on top of rice for lunch, and then cabbage on ugali (a thick poridge-like thing) for supper. I am reaaaally missing variety of food! I am craving fruit and juice and milk! It's hard to get a balanced diet here, so I'm trying to stock up on some food here in town to take back and keep in my room to hold me over. But again, the food tastes fine, it's just always the same. :) And I can't believe how much these kids eat! They have never ending appetites, but then i remembered, they never snack during the day or anything. What they get at meals is all they get!

Bugs are not a huge problem, but get this- lizards are! We still sleep under mosquito nets, but i haven't had much of a problem with mosquitos. However, I'm not a fan of the lizards! I still jump everytime I see one.

I am staying in a little hut with the other girl intern...her name is Christy and she is from New York. It's fun to have our own little hut! She has been very helpful because she has already been here for 4 weeks, so she is helping me with who's who and how things work. Christy, Jared (from Kansas, but goes to APU), and I spend hours a day working on something called the paper project. ELI had a program set up to help recovered alcoholics. Many of them got their money from brewing alcohol, so ELI helped them recover from that, and then gave them work with making paper. However, it got a little out of control, and there is now TONS of paper and nothing to do with it! So we spend a lot of time sorting through it, folding it, packaging it, and getting ready to sell it...we don't know where yet. I will bring some of it home if anybody wants some:) It's really great stationary!

The language is a bit of a barrier. The adults all speak pretty good english, so that is great. However, ths children are still learning. Esepcially the younger ones really can't speak at all. It gets hard and sometimes discouraging, but i can still play with them and hug them as much as I want:). I am learning some swahili...kind of picking up on it more than I thought I would. But it's coming to me slowly. "Habari" (hello/how are you) is the most common greeting, to which you are to answer "mzuri". ( good) At the beginning of the week, I was asked "Habari" and I answered "Mzungu"...which means white person:). They got a kick out of it. But they never make you feel stupid. They love to teach you!!

I have decided the theme of this trip is : complete dependency! Every single day, I have to beg for strength to do this. I am away from ANYTHING that I can depend on normally. No family, no friends, nothing I'm familiar with. The Lord is expanding my heart and teaching me that he is ALL I need. I'm used to living with Him + ...those few other things that I think I "really need". But i have had that stripped from me for a month, and what a stretch this is. But is is great! God is sufficient and this is how I should have been living long ago. I am learning to daily lay down my life and give all of myself to the Lord and to these people. It is difficult at times. Sometimes I feel lonely, sometimes even purposeless. Sometimes I wonder if I'm really going to affect these kids, but then it comes back to: I, Rachel Grove, am totally incapable of anything. It is only in the Lord that I find any strength or purpose!

I appreciate your prayers so much. I think of you all every day and know that without you lifting me up, i would be falling so much! THANK YOU all. I love each of you and can't wait to tell you again. And i loove hearing from you. Becuase my time on the computer is limited, I may not be able to write you back, but know that I really do appreciate your emails!!

Until next week,
Rachel Chepkoech (that's the second name they gave me...everyone here has two names)

Report #1.....I made it!

Good morning. This is actually Rachel's father reporting on the Rachel's experience. She can only get to a computer on Friday's and yesterday she was traveling to her destination, Ilula, Kenya, so she was unable to "report in". However, imagine our joy when the phone rang this morning at 9:30 and on the other end was Rachel! Totally unexpected. She was in the home of Brian and Kristin Albright, the USA Laisons for ELI who also live in Ilula. Coincidently, they went to college at Azusa Pacific University and knew Sarah very well. (If you google Ilula Kenya, there is an article in the Durango CO. newspaper about the Albrights....Kristin is from Durango) Anyway, she asked her technologically challenged father to try to get on the blog and report that she made it to Kenya....that it's amazing....and that she can't wait to write next week. She was very very happy (and tired...8 hoiur flight to London, 13 hour layover....8 hour flight to Nairobi...and then a short flight to Eldoret in Western Kenya, very close to the Uganda border. Ilula is about 20 miles outside of Eldoret). She has a couple of wonderful stories about her time in London.

Let me encourage you to go to Empoweringlives.org and learn more about this orphanage and ministry. It is awesome. I had to tear myself away to write this short message. You will be touched by what you see.

So, that's all for now. Sorry it's me and not Rachel, but from here on out, unless she contacts us with a special request, it will be Rachel who writes. Check back on Friday.

Keep praying!
Greg Grove

So close!

Well...welcome to the world of blogs! It's new for me too! But i've been able to read the other intern's blogs and it seems to be the easiest way to reach people back home. This way i can hopefully load some pictures onto here as i go also (i'll have to be taught!)

Well I leave in 4 days. Hard to believe it came up that fast! I graduated, threw a senior recital/party, and now am working to get ready to leave! A crazy time, but it's good.

I found out that I have a 13 hour layover in London. I thought it would be fun to maybe leave the airport and explore London for the day...but you can imagine how my parents would feel about me doing that alone :).

Right now, i am pretty torn about how I'm feeling. I never knew i could have so many different emotions about one happening. I don't know what to call it...but it's a mixture of nervous, anxious, scared, excited. (those are just a few.) I know that I'm walking into something amazing and life-changing. I'm trying to not have too many expectations right now, because really, I have no idea what to expect. I think it will be so cool to just discover what it's all about as I go!

I ask for your prayer in a few ways. One, my adjustment! The other intern who i'll be joining wrote to me and shared that she is just now feeling adjusted and like she belongs (she's been there for a couple of weeks). I am praying for a quick adjustment, because if mine takes that long, i'll be leaving shortly after! I know that there will be big cultural differences that will take some getting used to, but if you could just pray that those barriers would be knocked down as much as possible BEFORE I get there.

Also, if you could just pray for the travel. I'm a little nervous about traveling alone (until London, where I'll meet up with a girl from California) If some of you know me well, you know that i'm not ALWAYS the most independent person :) But this will definitely stretch me! If you could just pray that I will walk with the Lord through it all. I want to just feel Him beside me and that I would make wise, safe choices in the airports. Please pray that I'll rely on Him for company, and that my fears would be replaced with confidence knowing that He is beside me.

Thank you all for joining me in these prayers. You can leave a comment on here somehow (i think you just click "anonymous" if you don't have a blog, and then just sign your name so i know it's you!) Otherwise, I'm sure that I'll still have e-mail access (about once a week). I just probably won't have time to reply to each of you. But know that I DO love to hear from you, and would love any word from home. You are all wonderful!

Rachel