Naomi's Village Day 5

My best friend in the whole world got to go on this Kenya trip with me. She lives in South Carolina so I didn't get to see her much at all during the school year. When we got out for Christmas break she surprised a lot of her friends at school! She came over to hang out and I told her all about this trip and how amazing it was going to be. She went home and prayed and talked to her parents about it and a couple months later they call us saying that she can go on the trip. I just about freaked out when I heard that she could come!
So. saying that, Milana and I woke up at 6:30 one morning to go and feed the babies. They were so happy in the morning! We went back to eat breakfast and kind of hung out and got ready for the day. We were picked up by buses and Bob and Julie (owners of NV) and headed over to see the new school Naomi's Village is building.

In Kenya the school system is very different. There are around 80 kids in a class with one teacher. That would be crazy just to start with. If you do good in school you are praised and raised up in front of the class. If you do poorly in school they will physically beat you and emotionally tear you down to where you really don't want to go to school anymore. This is why so many kids are not in school. They can't afford the uniform or they have had a bad experience while being in school. It is very sad.

At NV they have a school called Cornerstone. All of the Naomi's Village kids go to this school. They are building a new school that the NV kids will go to and people from the surrounding areas will go to as well. We got to go to the work cite and see people working on the school. Bob told us the whole story about the school situations in Kenya and why they felt the need to start this new school. We got to walk around and pray over the school. It was very cool!

Milana started to feel really sick right before we left to go have lunch. Right when we got to the cafe she got sick. After, she felt better but she was very weak. So I went back with Milana to NV while the group got to go to a primary school to play games with them. When we got back to NV I was kind of disappointed that I didn't get to go to the primary school. Milana went right to sleep and I didn't really know what to do. All of the kids were still in school, and all of the babies were taking a nap. I used that time to draw and read my Bible to reposition my heart as the trip was coming to an end. When the kids got out of school I went to see what everyone needed help with. I got to read and do homework with the first graders, play with toddlers, and help feed babies while the aunties ate their dinner. It was actually good for me to take a step back and have that little chill time.

When the whole group got back, we ate and I started to go through and edit some of the pictures! The biggest thing for me that day was to trust the Lord and let Him lead me. I didn't like that I couldn't go to the school with the rest of the group, but the Lord used me with the first graders to give the teachers a break, same with the toddlers! I just need to fully rely on the Lord! 

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" Matthew 6:25-26 

Mckinley Tyler :-)

Naomi's Village Day 4

It was Tuesday. We were waking right up to go to a place called the safe house. The safe house is a place for kids to stay if they don't have parents and people are trying to find an orphanage for them, or their is abuse in the home. So going into this I knew a lot of these kids were hurting. When we got there I saw 22 kids all nervous and really quiet. We had planned to do a VBS with all of the kids. My dad and I got to teach them some worship songs with motions, and then we had a large group bible study. Most of the older kids opened up and started to answer questions in the lesson, they were getting more involved. After the lesson, we played games. This is when all of the little kids got loud! They were not scared to be around us anymore.

After the game we got to talk to the kids and do a craft with them! I met a little girl named Praise. During the big lesson all she wanted to do was play with my hair, on my head and on my arms. If she wasn't playing with my hair, she was playing with my bracelets and watch. She followed me around the whole day! After the craft we left and went to a market.

When we got to the market we were confused because there was only one tiny shop. Then when the owners of NV came to talk to us and see how we are doing so far they showed us another market area. It was downstairs under a three story building. It was a very small market. I was expecting a huge market with so many things to buy! It was not that at all! But there were still some fun little things that I got to remind me of my Kenya friends!

After the market, we headed back to NV. We took a back road to get to Naomi's Village. I really don't know why we did, but we did. It was SO bumpy and muddy! It was actually really funny! We ended up getting stuck in the mud! Once we were out of the mud, our ride back was much smoother.

When we got to NV we ate dinner and them had some free time. We could take a nap, go to bed if we wanted, help kids with homework, whatever we wanted to do! I went to the baby room again to help feed and play with the babies while the aunties went and ate their dinner. I couldn't figure out how they could put all of the babies to bed (age 3 months to 22 months) and have them not cry and all go to bed at the same time. It was crazy! After the sweet babies went to bed I headed back to the guest house to go to bed too. Day 4 was one of my favorites! Kenya has my heart!

Our God is so big. So strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do.

Mckinley Tyler :-)

 

Naomi's Village Day 3

So, right now in Kenya, it is winter. It's not very cold at all! The whole time we were there it was 60-75 degrees! It was so nice! But for all the people living in Kenya, they were chilly! It was so cute to see everyone in their hats in the morning to keep their ears worm until the sun came out! So, keeping in mind that it's winter their, and they are wearing hats and winter coats until noon, you would think that they wouldn't want to go to a swimming pool. But we did just that! Naomi's Village gave us the opportunity to take all of the kids to a public swimming pool.

The kids didn't get to do this very often so they were excited even if the water was going to be freezing! Driving down to the pool felt like forever! I get car sick really easily, and that is without 3 kids sitting on me while we drive on a bumpy Kenyan highway. It took us a little over an hour to get to the pool. The pool was very nice! It looked like a public pool here in the US.

They split all of the kids up by age and split our group up according to where they needed us. I got to go with the little toddlers! They had a little playground that we played with them on. We taught them how to go down the slide, and pushed them on the swings. Next they moved us to a big field area to just play with the kids. We had brought little balls for them to throw and kick around.

In one of the pictures below is a little girl on my shoulders named Mercy. Throughout our whole stay at Naomi's Village she was always one of the first little kids to come grab my hand. She has the sweetest heart! While we were playing with the balls someone stole the ball away and she just sat there and cried. When I saw her crying I ran over to see whats wrong and tried to cheer her up. The only way I could get her to stop crying was to put her on my shoulders. She thought it was the best thing ever! It cheered her up pretty fast.

Next we finally got to go in the pool with everyone else. It's funny because in Kenya, you are never allowed to show anything above your knee, except when swimming apparently. So all of the women wore very covered one-pieces with longer shorts to make sure we looked appropriate.

So by the time I get ready to get in the pool I am sweating. I have been running around with the kids for about an hour and a half. I get in the water and it is FREEZING!! It turned out that it was around 65 degrees that day. When I got in the pool all of the kids were so happy to be swimming but you could tell that they were freezing. After we had been swimming for an hour, I would have little toddlers come over to me and ask if I could wrap them up and make them warm. So I would just wrap them up in their towel and hold them until they stopped shivering. It was the sweetest thing.

We had lunch and headed home. On the way home I sat with Mercy and Richie. Richie was the youngest toddler at NV at the time. He fell asleep right when we got on the bus. The bus ride back seemed a lot faster than the bus ride to the pool. On our way back we are driving down the highway and see giraffes! It was so cool!

We went back to Naomi's Village, had dinner, then played ultimate frisbee with the older kids. When it was almost time for the kids to go to bed I went down to the baby room to help the aunties feed them and put them to bed. The babies are the cutest!! We went back to the guest house and went straight to bed.

What I learned and realized from this day was that I saw it as just going to the pool. In our 'perfect world' here in America, we would of not liked the pool because it was too cold, or too crowded. These kids just loved that they had the opportunity to be in water! On the bus ride back I sat with Mercy. Right when we left the pool she reached over and grabbed my hand. For the whole 50 minute drive back she held my hand. She didn't talk to me at all. She just looked out the window and would rub my hand every so often. Holding her hand so long made me realize how much she has been through. This four year old, who is one of the calmest, sweetest four year old's I have ever met, has been through more hurt in her four years of life than I will my whole lifetime. Yet she still is so joyful and wants to make you happy. That was a big day for me to realize and think about what all of these small kids have gone through. But what an amazing transformation it was to see these kids lives changed because of the work Jesus has done in their heart.

 My heart will sing, no other name, Jesus, Jesus.

Mckinley Tyler :-)

                                                       This was on the way to the pool!

                                                                 This is sweet Mercy!

Naomi's Village Day 2

          
         I was woken up at 5:30 by a rooster that lived down the road. We all got ready to go to church. We were going to a place called Mwi' Hangiri. (Muy Hungary) It is a camp with a little over 30 people living in it. These people have been living in tents for over 7 years. 8 years ago the government was having an election to select a new president. Something happened to where all of these people were ran out of their homes to stay safe. After a couple of months Habitat for Humanity came in and built houses for many camps. Then an announcement went out telling everyone that there are no longer any camps, everyone has a place to live. They had only built houses for the camps that were right along the highway. There were still camps way far back that no one knew about, still living in tents that were falling apart. One day Naomi's Village found them and asked them how they could help and what they needed. These people have no water, no food, they barely have a place to live, and the first thing they asked for was a church to be able to worship in. So NV built them a church and is in the process of building them homes. When I say home its not what we think of as homes. The homes being built for them are 6ft. by 6ft. homes made out of sheets of in roots. They are so proud of their homes it is amazing. 

         Right when the vans pull up to the church all we hear is loud voices singing in Swahili and drums beating.  We all file in and stand in the back clapping along to their idea of worship. It was so beautiful. We did that for over an hour. Then they had different people come up and speak about God's goodness. It was so cool. Then my dad was called up to lead some of the worship songs we sing in America. I got to go lead with him. They knew most of them. We sang 10,000 Reasons, Our God, Amazing Grace, This is Amazing Grace. Then I got to teach them one of my new favorite songs called Good Good Father. After I finished singing, I look up at the crowd and all I see are smiles. Then I was told to sing more of the song so I just kept repeating the chorus and after doing it 3 times I could hear little voices singing it with me. Soon everyone in the church was singing, "You're a good, good father. It's who you are, it's who you are, it's who you are, and I'm loved by you. It's who I am, it's who I am, it's who I am." It was life changing looking at them with their eyes closed, smiling, shouting praises to our King. 

          After the service, a lady named Margaret invited my family to see her home. We walk in and can barely fit 5 of us standing in there. She was so proud of her home. She explained how 6 people live in that house and she is so blessed by all God has given them. She is such an amazing woman. I got to meet her daughter Juliana. She is 16. I was asking her about school. She explained that she walks 3 hours to school, goes to school from 7:30-5, then walks home 3 more hours. She never complained. All she could say was how blessed and honored she was to be able to attend school. 

         We left and went back to Naomi's Village. We played with babies and played soccer with the older kids. We ate dinner then went to have movie night with all 59 of the NV kids. We watched the Croons. The whole movie, I had toddlers crawling in and out of my lap whispering things in my ear that I would nod and reply with, "ya!" to even though I had no clue what they had just said. 
We went back to the house and went to bed. All I could think about was the church experience I had had at Mwi' Hangiri. It was the most amazing thing I had ever experienced. Our God is so powerful! 

Our God is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than another. Our God is healer, awesome in power, our God, our God. // For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God. 
2 Corinthians 13:4

      

Naomi's Village Day 1

           

          First, I would like to apologize for not getting these blog posts done while being in Kenya. The wifi there was not very good at all and I couldn't publish anything! Very sorry! 

          Day One: We woke up at the resort in Nairobi and ate breakfast. At 8 we got in the car to go to a market place to exchange american dollars for shillings and to get any last minute food items before we got to Naomi's Village. Within 2 minutes of driving we saw a huge slum. This was my first time to ever see something like this. I was in tears within seconds. Then we see little kids with no shoes and ripped clothes chasing each other laughing and having the best time. This was the first time I realized and picked up on the fact that these people really don't have anything at all, yet they are so joyful. 

You would think that they have everything in the entire world. 

           After driving for an hour we arrive at this huge cliff. The elevation was so high that there were clouds right in front of us. So much that the driver had to slow down to be able to see the road. Before going to Kenya, I thought it was going to be a desert with red dirt everywhere and nothing around. Turns out, it is the complete opposite. There are beautiful green mountains and trees everywhere! It is so amazing! 

          After 2 hours of driving we arrived at NV. It is so pretty! We pulled up to the guest house, where we were all staying, and quickly got out to look around. The whole group went into the house to unpack and get everything settled. I look outside my window and see a swarm of kids running out to the soccer field with soccer balls. We found out that on Saturdays they host a soccer program that invites Naomi's Village kids and also kids all around the community to participate in soccer drills and 'matches' as the kids would call them.

          Milana and I ran out to go meet some of the kids and try to play soccer with them. They were so good!! The first girl I met was named Essie. She is 11 and the first thing she asked me was if I knew how to sing. If you know me, you know that I love to sing! I told her that I loved to sing and her face lit up! Then she asked, "will you sing a song with me?" At that time I didn't know how much english she knew or what songs she knew in english. So I asked her, "what song do you want to sing?" All she did was lift up her hand and point out her pointer finger and started waving it around. She wanted to sing This Little Light of Mine but she didn't know what it was called. So we started singing and she was so happy! Throughout the whole trip she would come up to me and stick out her pointer finger and we would sing that sweet little song. 

          Then, my brother Mitchell, and I taught the kids how to throw the football. Within 10 minutes they were kicking it around. I'm not sure they liked using their hands. Then we all went in to eat lunch. At NV they have a playroom for the toddlers and a baby room for all of the babies. So right when I was done with lunch I went into the playroom to meet the toddlers and play with them. The toddlers are so different from the older kids. The older kids are very shy at first because they don't know you. The toddlers attack you right when you sit down. I sat down on the floor and immediately had 2 kids in my lap and 3 holding my left and and 1 holding my right hand. They were so precious. Everyone went up to eat dinner. 

          After dinner I went to the baby room. Oh my goodness, it is the happiest place on earth. They are so sweet and so well mannered. There are 6 babies in the baby room right now. Virginia is always laughing and giving kisses. I never saw her cry the whole time I was there. Julia is very sassy. If you don't give her what she wants she throws her head back, kicks her legs, and screams so loud. I don't think she liked me as much as some of the other kids. Haha. Hope, Baby Hope, she was so sweet. Hope was the size of the newest baby who was a little over 3 months old. She came to NV around Easter weekend. Hope is 13 pounds and 2 years old. She is so small because she was so malnourished as a baby. Since she has been at Naomi's Village she is much happier and healthier. Jake was my buddy. He was 22 months old and he was huge! My mom joked by saying he was Mitchell sized. Mitchell, my brother, is huge. Jake liked to play a game where i could sit on the ground and he would run to the other side of the room and sprint over to me and knock me over. We played that game everyday. Robbie is another baby boy. He loved being held. Every time I walked into the room he would put his arms up and say, "upa, upa auntie, upa!" He was telling me that he wanted up, up auntie, up. Then there was baby Franklin. He was the newest baby at NV. He was right over 3 months. He was so sweet. All of the babies were adorable. 

           After the baby room I went back to the house to get supplies for s'mores. They were having a big bonfire and we were making s'mores for them to have. For over 2 hours we sang praise songs around the fire. It was so amazing. My first day at Naomi's Village was one I will always remember. It is such a special place. 

Set a fire down in my soul, that I can't contain, that I can't control. I want more of you God, I want more of you God // As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. 

Psalm 42:1

Traveling to Kenya/ First Night

On June 18th we all met up at the church  at 12pm. There, we packed everything up and headed to the airport. We had packed a ton of extra supplies, clothes, and crafts for all the kids. 

Our flight was at 3pm. We loaded the plane and sat through an 8 and a half hour plane ride. The plane was really nice!!! I just watched movies! Our first stop was Paris! Even though we never left the airport I think I can still tell people that I have been to Paris!! (Haha) 

We had about 3 hours until our next flight to Nairobi, Kenya. We got to see and talk to the group that had been at Naomi's Village the week before and ask them about the trip!! (Which made me even more excited to get there!!!) We loaded our plane for Kenya.

The plane ride was right at 8 hours long. It felt like forever!! I couldn't really sleep because the seats were so close together!! Once we got to Nairobi a bus picked us up off the plane and we went to go get our luggage. Everyone got all of there own luggage!! (That was a blessing) But we were missing 2 huge bags of clothes and crafts for the kids!! Turns out they were left in Paris. They said they could send them to us the next day. 

So we then had to find the Naomi's Village busses to take us to the resort we were staying in that night. After about 20 minutes, we found them!!! The resort was only 25 minutes away from the airport, but I don't remember any of it because right when we got on the bus I was out!! I fell asleep so fast!! The resort was in Nairobi. It was pretty small but the staff was very sweet to all of us. 

So right now it is Saturday morning and we are eating breakfast about to go to Naomi's village!! I can't contain my excitement!!! It is 2 hours away from the resort with traffic, and from what I am hearing, the driving is crazy in Kenya!!!! So that will be a fun drive over!! 

Please be praying for our safety and for the hearts of everyone on this trip. Pray that we would be bold and ready for what is about to come. The Lord is going to do amazing things!! 

Thank you so much for all of your support!! 

McKinley Tyler :-)

Isaiah 49:6

"I will make you as a light to the nations so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth." 

T-shirt Sales !!!

I have sold SO many shirts!! Thank you so much to everyone that has pitched in and helped me raise this money.

I have sent out most all of the t-shirts so be expecting yours soon if you don't have it already. :-) But really, thank you for helping me raise money for this awesome trip.

I knew that God was calling me to missions, and I knew I wanted to go on a mission trip, but I didn't know how I was going to get there. I am so excited to say that I am close to fully paying off my trip, shots, and everything I would need to get to Africa!! You helped me out AND you got a pretty cool shirt!! 

If anyone asks about the shirts, please tell them I am still selling them and ask for them to pray for the kids in Africa, and for the kids at Naomi's Village. Again, thank you so very much :-) 

Mckinley Tyler 

"And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father." 

Colossians 3:17