282/365

282/365, originally uploaded by britrosewhite.

This day finally came. The ultimate day of the trip. What we've been working towards all of this time. I was so nervous this morning! I don't like goodbyes because I feel like it's never enough. Even today, I wanted to hug all of the kids but we just couldn't do it. I wanted to talk to some of them one-on-one and tell them how much they mean to me, but I just had to wave and walk away.

We arrived around 9:30 this morning at Joy Springs. We brought Pastor Chola and Jerry, one of the awesome CMM staffers, with us. I told Rose and Charles we just wanted them to meet to have the connection, etc. And then we told them the main reason that we brought them - to help facilitate their new classroom building. We let them know that we raised $2,540 which should cover all of their expenses. I wish I could have filmed their reactions, it was almost shock. And then they jumped up and down and poured us tea!

They had opened all the partitians in the downstairs classrooms so the entire school could gather to send us off. Each class, from baby class to 7th, presented us with a song, poem, dance, or all three. Some of the classes wrote songs about us! Some wrote poems, complete with movements. Class 7 did a dance and the girls lined up and adorned Amy and I with bracelets and a necklace. We felt like queens. All of the teachers spoke and said their farewells. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much I absolutely could not believe how we were being honored.

What made it so great was that we had our turn afterwards. I played some songs on the guitar for them and Amy and I both spoke a little bit. We gave away the art awards and we played a final round of Super Bible Olympics, Class 6 vs. Class 7. All along we were SURE that Class 6 would win. But Class 7 stayed ahead the entire time and some of the kids started crying. The Class 6 prefect, Chris, cried while he recited one of the verses. I felt SO SAD for them because they are all so bright and studied so hard. I made it up to Chris later by asking him to tell me all 27 books of the New Testament, knowing he could do it. He did, and he did it perfectly as he held back tears. When he finished the kids erupted and Charles, the pastor and founder of the school, threw Chris over his shoulders, spun him around, cheered, and set him down with 200 shillings from his wallet. I hope Chris went home happy. I can't get that image of his tears out of my head.

We gave the Class 7 winners the new Bibles, wrapped up like packages. They were so excited and carried them with pride.

To close, Amy passed out thank-you cards to all the teachers and finally we gave roses to Rose and Charles, along with a card and a blessing of about $200. Rose told us she'd never received flowers before. Later, when they had us over at their house for lunch (she served us a feast!), they told us that they were meant to leave today to minister in a town 300 km away. Yesterday they paid their teachers staff and were left wondering how they would finance their travel expenses. Today, God provided.

I tell you, they were so excited all day. We had so many wonderful conversations about the Lord's provision and timing. I am so tired right now that the screen is swirling. Any writing techniques are out the window - I'm not even trying to keep your attention. More so listing the amazing things that happened. I have so many more stories just from today but seriously...swirling screen is scaring me. Here are a few pictures of the kids presenting. I got most of it on video so will be sure to share highlights later on.

If you gave or if you prayed or if you just followed a long...thank you. You have blessed many generations. And you have an invitation to come and see the difference you've made anytime.


Baby class about to sing for us! I'm sure they were very confused. But they were cute!


Class 4. One of the girls passed me a package with two pieces of cake inside. Later Amy and I opened it and found a sweet, greasy note stuck underneath the cake.


Our favorite, Class 6. These four kids wrote and performed a poem about us. Chris is the little one with the tie!


Rose dancing with Cynthia and the Class 6 girls.


This is just a fraction of the crowd. They were packed in there but we all had so much fun.

I really hope to share more about this day when I can be more coherent. I don't want to short change one of the best of the 365 days, it just wouldn't be fair. But for now just believe me when I say it was absolutely, completely amazing and...at the risk of sounding cliche...pretty life-changing.