This past weekend, our group took a trip to a village called Eburru. Eburru is a small farming village at an elevation of 9300 feet sitting in the crater of a dormant volcano overlooking the
Great Rift Valley. From
Nairobi, we traveled for a few hours over roads that shouldn’t even be called roads, climbing up the mountains until we finally reached Eburru. We were welcomed by around 20 people from the church, most of them from the Kikuyu tribe which means they spoke no English and little Swahili. Regardless of the language barrier, their smiles and never ending handshakes told us that we were very welcome. There were also many children present, as they had heard that there would be a VBS soon. From where our camp was located, we could look out and see hundreds of “shambas” (farms) and dotted across the landscape were women tending the fields. We could also see little specks running through the maize fields, those little specks would turn out to be children running as fast as their feet would take them to come get a glimpse of the visitors.
By the time we arrived, people in the church had already been on site for hours planning for our arrival. Everything we needed was already there thanks to these amazing servants of the Lord!
Soon our students started the VBS, with around 200 children there. They were all smiles as they watched every move of the phenomenon called the white people. There was singing and dancing, Bible stories and crafts and more singing and dancing. We all had a great time with the little ones. After the VBS was over, the women of the church directed us around back where they had been preparing the porridge we were able to buy to help with the feeding program. They insisted that we serve the porridge to the kids. For the next hour or so, we made sure that every child had a cup of steaming hot porridge to sustain their hungry stomachs. We sat with the 200 kids on the hillside and soon all the laughter and chattering was silenced and all we could hear was the sound of slurping as they enjoyed their porridge. It was quite a sight!
After the children left, we ladies met with around 40 women that came for a women’s fellowship time. They shared songs and testimonies of what God has done in their lives lately. Then we were able to share some of our worship songs and a Bible study with them. It was a great time to pray with them and to encourage them as well as just pour into them and remind them how special they really are. Soon after the women left, the men started arriving for the men’s fellowship time. Our boys had a great time with them, sharing and encouraging.
During the afternoon, I was able to help Mary, Pastor Steve’s wife, in the clinic. She is a nurse and has turned one of the mud huts into her little clinic. People from Eburru and surrounding areas will walk for hours to “the hospital” as they call it. For many of them, this is their only chance to ever see a medical professional. She treats all sorts of ailments every Saturday and Sunday. It was an eye opening experience to get to help her in the clinic.
Before we knew it the sun was setting and we were all scrambling to find warm clothes to layer on. With the high elevation, the temperatures get pretty chilly at night. We all sat around the fire and took tea as we visited with Pastor Steve and Mary and the few remaining church members. It was encouraging to hear stories of what God is doing in this village.
We slept in very nice mud huts with dirt floors and thatched roofs. There must be something about the cool, crisp and clean mountain air that promotes a great night’s sleep as each of the sun-burned visitors awoke fully rested the next morning. We had the privilege of attending Pastor Steve’s church there and spent the whole morning and into the afternoon worshiping together. The rain and cold wind came about halfway through the service so we all crammed in the makeshift tent which is the church building. We threw our ideas of personal space out the window as we relied on body heat to keep us warm. There were around 250 people crammed in this tight space measuring around 15 feet by 40 feet. The tarps flapping in the cold wind, the sheets of rain, and the occasional leak in the roof didn’t seem to bother anyone as they all listened intently as the message was shared. After church was over, around 1:30 our students organized a fellowship for the youth due to their request to have something specifically for them. By 4pm our time was running out and the long trip home was soon to come.
The weekend couldn’t have gone better and each of us found leaving hard. I pray that next semester we will be able to return to Eburru for a longer time than just a weekend. As we were sitting around last night after dinner, we all shared stories of what God did in Eburru and of all the amazing people we had met. Pastor Steve who is our contact there and a dear friend of ours told me that Eburru is very close to Heaven, both physically and spiritually. And I think after this weekend I can agree with him. I’d been to Eburru twice before during my time in
Kenya, but something about this trip was different. I fell completely in love with the people of Eburru and just the place where a completely different culture exists from what we are used to here in the city. God is very much at work there and I am honored that we got to be just a small part of that this weekend.
