Cindy's Missions Journey...: July 2015

Abby, Julie and me at Happy Life Children's Home 2015

I've returned home from our mission trip to Kenya with a full heart and feeling totally blessed for having this opportunity to return to Africa and spend an amazing week loving on all the precious children we met there!

We had a wonderful stay at Happy Life Children's Home in Nairobi. It was a blessing and joy to meet the staff and serve alongside the African "Mothers" who care for the children.

We were thrilled to be able to bring almost 400 lbs. of clothing and donations with us to bless the children and staff at Happy Life! We were also able to provide 2 new washing machines and purchase school books for the children through the generous donations we received.

We spent the most part of each day in the infant room during feeding times, helping the mother on duty with feeding the babies and prepping them to be changed, bathed....and my favorite part, giving the babies some extra love and attention before putting them back down to bed.

Me and baby Max

Infant Nursery

With 10-12 babies in the nursery we joked with one another that it was like a baby "assembly line" getting them all feed, changed, bathed, snuggled and loved on....and back to bed! It's hard to imagine how one momma takes care of all these little ones on her own for a 12-hour shift, so we know what a huge help and blessing it was to have 3 extra "volunteer mommas" on hand in the nursery for the week!!

Happy Life would love to see more overseas volunteer teams coming to help throughout the year, but they are blessed to have student volunteers come out during the week from the local University as part of their Community Service Program. It was great to meet some of these young people and see them invest their time in the lives of these precious little ones and be such a blessing to Happy Life!

Student Volunteer with baby Max

We had the opportunity to visit the Happy Life Juja Farm School one afternoon and had fun meeting the children and playing with them during their afternoon recess...and taking lots of pictures!

We enjoyed taking 26 of the younger school children on an outing to the Giraffe Center to feed the giraffes and have a picnic lunch. This was a blast for all of us!

We went into town on Friday afternoon and shopped for souvenirs and gifts at the Maasai Market in Nairobi, where the locals sell their handmade artwork and jewelry. Our driver, Paul helped us bargain with the merchants for good deals.

Maasai Market

The highlight of the week was having the special privilege to go along with Happy Life's Administrator and Social Worker, Sarah to pick up a baby from the hospital who had been left there by his mother, and bring him to his new home and "family" at Happy Life. It was awesome to see how much the doctors and hospital staff loved and cared for baby Eric during his one month stay....this was a very moving experience for us!

Happy Life Children's Home is a wonderful place where the children are loved and cared for as a family. It was such a joy to serve there!

Julie with baby Eric at Happy Life

It was a pleasure meeting Bishop Peter and his wife, Pastor Faith, who oversee this ministry, and all the wonderful staff who serve there....and I look forward to the opportunity to return to serve and share God's love in this wonderful place again next year!!