More Makueni

Although slightly out of order and delayed, I am going to piggyback on some thoughts on makueni. Since we are currently in rest week we will be playing blog catch up as we process our summer together before returning home. I picked makueni as my blog subject because it was probably one of my favorite parts of our summer. Everywhere we have gone has been amazing in their own way but I particularly loved makueni for the relationships. I got to know three women from makueni the week before in thika at the women’s conference. There was a lot of time spent hearing about their family and church lives, and it was amazing to show up to makueni with friends already made. I got the privilege to yell a greeting out the window of the van as we passed one of my friends on the road. It was at that moment that I felt truly Kenyan—to pass people I know driving through town. I also got the opportunity to preach at the church of a couple of the ladies I had met. There is nothing quite like worshipping alongside ladies whose faith you have come to admire in many ways. I preached at the church of Pastor Steven who a couple of us had come to know as host after staying the night at his house Saturday night. We got to spend time getting to know his family and experiencing how they live in the day to day as we journaled by lantern light and took bucket baths. I think it is safe to say that the majority of churches in the area had white people preaching in them that Sunday because we had nine different churches with foreign guests. We got the opportunity to work alongside a short-term team from Indiana all week in makueni and they were absolute all stars. I admire their fire and positive attitude all week long through our various activities. Despite additional the additional Americans on board with us for the week, I actually spent my time growing close and learning from some amazing Kenyans. Not only did I reunite with some friends from earlier in the summer, I got to spend some time getting to know and laughing with the LIA staffer in makueni. I admired her faith in action all week long and took advantage of pretty much every moment I had to get to know her and even her church friend that taught at the local school. After about a week and a half of great fellowship and encouragement, I found makueni very hard to leave—probably only second to leaving Kenya entirely—but it was a much-needed boost and positive week for everyone. It was beautiful to see the transformation in action possible only by the movement of the Lord in makueni.

Blessings,
Molly Russell, aka Nafula

That’s right, I finally received my awaited Kenyan name. It is from the tribe of Luhya—my tribe apparently—and it means “born in the rainy season.” Was I a little disappointed when everyone else’s names meant things like “happy one”, “peaceful”, “beautiful”, etc? maybe a little, but here I guess it’s a good thing to be associated with rain so I will take it.