For the not so faint of heart, this was something we so on our safari...

This is a short version of the dance the Massai Tribe Children did for us!

We are half way home! In Amsterdam waiting for our flight to San Francisco! 10 hour flight. Lots of video to post when I get home! Stay tuned.

Amazing, we were literally 15 feet away from these creatures!

Great shot if you blow it up.  We could only get about 50 feet from these large lions but great shot of him roaring.

We were only about 5 feet from these lions!?!  There were 5 in total.

This made the trip feel like Africa.  These kids from Compassion put on this amazing dance and then presented all of us with beads.

Very energetic people.

This is Peter, our host from Compassion US in front of the home of the Massai family that we visited.

Last Day in Kenya

Hi everyone.  We just returned to our hotel from a long journey out to visit the Massai Tribe.  We were able to visit one Compassion Project that has 370 kids in the program.  They put on a traditional Massai Warrior dance for us which was amazing.  The kids did the dancing and was a lot of fun to watch.  We were able to visit their church, their school and also one home.  The home was made of sticks and cow manure.  It was suprisingly comfortable after the homes that we visited in the slums.  The only issue was the small fire that they kept going in the middle of the hut for warmth and cooking.  Their was no hole in the roof, so the exhaust from the fire was a bit overwhelming.  Before Compassion arrived here, there was essentially no school for the kids, no church and the girls were often married off by their families between the age of 12-14.  Now, there are several girls beyond that age that are still in school and doing great.  Amazing stuff.

We also had the opportunity to visit another small church about 10 miles away from the previous one.  This church is in the middle of an area with a lot of kids, but they can not get to the current Project because of distance as well as they are full.  Their is a man, Salomon, who just graduated from Kenya University as part of the Compassion Project.  He is 25 and has been part of Compassion since he was 4.  He is now done, and is moving back to where he grew up and is trying to start his own Compassion site.  The minimum for starting a site is a Church, classrooms, an office, bathrooms and a kitchen.  They already have the Church and through Salomon's work, they just completed the bathrooms and kitchen.  When Pastor Ray from Bayside visited this church last year, he was amazed at the passion in this young man and said we would try to help.  Bayside raised enough money for the Dandora Project that we were able to put some of the extra towards helping to build the school buildings and office.  They are hoping to have it done by Christmas of this year.  So, by this time next year, their will hopefully be another Compassion Project in the area that is serving 300 kids and teaching them about God, feeding them and teaching them Trade Skills.  Our brief visit with Salomon was great and he shared his vision and plans and is excited about being able to give back to the community through the organization that was able to rescue him.

Kenya Update

Hello all, sorry for the delays and not getting any new news up the last 48 hours.  We got into small bush planes and flew out to the Mara area for a short Safari.  No internet service.  It was truely amazing.  I have lots of pictures to share, but now my camera card reader is not working, so cant upload any new pictures!?

Tomorrow we will be heading out to the Massai Warrior Villiage.  There are several Compassion Project sites out there and they are working on starting a brand new one.  Our church has also raised some money to give to this project so that they can build some classrooms.  We will be assessing the site for the building and Bayside will more than likely be sending a team back later this year to begin construction on those facilities.

I will hope to give you all some updates tomorrow night.  We board planes tomorrow night at 11:30pm in Kenya, heading home.  I land in San Francisco Tuesday around noon.

This is the sewage running down the side walk path.

This is the creek that the sewage runs into.

Should this kid be on a billboard?

This is Dancan, a child that our family is sponsoring.

Day 4 Update

So today was pretty rough.  We visited the Mathari Slum.  It was really, much worse than anything we have seen at Dandora.  The best way to describe it is that the people in Mathari looked dark and sad with emotions, almost waiting for the end.  The people really just wonder if they will be around tomorrow.

We toured the slum on foot with several of the locals from the Compassion Project.  The sewage literally runs in an open "gutter" down the side of the road.  It then empties into a small creek, in the creek, people were standing up to their knees searching the bottom of the creek for anything volumables that they can sell. 

In the middle of this is the Compassion Project, and it is described as a little bit of Heaven in the middle of Hell.  In this slum, we were not really welcomed except for in the Compassion Project.  In the project, we met 3 kids that are graduates of the Program.  They were 3 amazing men and they way they talk about Hope and love that they get through the program.

I also had the pleasure of meeting a child that our family is sponsoring.  His name is Dancan and he lives in the Kebula Slum, which is 1.2million people living in a 2 square mile area.  We spent about 3 hours talking, playing football, fresbee and games.  It was awesome.  I also called the family at about 5:45 am and woke them up and put them on Skype.  It was an amazing experience for the kids to be able to meet him that way.

Tomorrow we head out on small planes for a Safari and will not be back until Sunday.  I will be without internet connection for the time, so you will not see any more posts until Sunday afternoon.

Thanks for all of your prayers!