My first Missions Trip out of the U.S...Kenya

lets see, where to start?! God did some amazing things on this trip!! (for those of you who dont have time to read the story in its entirety, I have highlighted the most important things, though I hope you all will read the whole thing)

we had a little over 260 college age students from the Mill( a college & 20' somethings group held every week at my church-New Life Church) that had gone on this trip.
I was in a group of 11 people as were most others. we had 22 teams total headed to different parts of Africa. They were Ethiopia, Uganda, Egypt, Rwanda and Kenya. The majority of the teams left on May 30, and June 1st, while my team and about 10 other teams left on June 2, 2008.

I had to get a Passport, Visa, and 6 shots(Hep A, (2)Hep B, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, and some other one) prior to the trip. Since I was going into a Malaria infected zone, I had to take Malaria Medication 2 days prior and all through the trip.

My team and I had many meetings 6 months prior to the trip getting to know each other and building a bond as a team as well as getting trained as a team, by the time we had our last meeting, I felt confident in my team and was ready to go!!!

On June 02 2008 I left the Denver Airport at 8:20pm heading for the London/Heathrow Airport, it was a long 8hr flight. I could not sleep on the airplane at all as I was crammed in the second to last row with no leg room at all!! The airport is huge and we were bussed to a different area of the airport to connect to our next flight. We left the London Airport around 5pm and headed for Nairobi Airport in Kenya Africa on yet another 8hr flight on Kenyan Airlines Boeing 777.

We arrived in Nairobi at 7am on Wed. June 4-th where we were picked up by buses and taken to a Youth Hostel about 30 minutes away. Besides my team, there was 1 more team of 11 from the Mill that worked with us. Compassion was the people in charge of this whole thing... so we had this group that worked with us called the LDP Students( this is a Leadership Training program where students that were once sponsored through Compassion as a child can be fully trained through college and Outreach ministry. So our 2 teams got to work with about 15 LDP Students who live in Kenya and are our Translator's.
The main language of Kenya is Swahili, however there are quite a few different dialects but some knew English and can speak it.

So on Wed. We had gotten settled into our rooms, had some meetings, met all the LDP students that were to work with us and met some people in charge. We then split up into different groups and had the LDP Students show us around Nairobi a good portion of the day. We got to see a college where the LDP student lived in a dorm while attending and also got to see City life in Nairobi. Surprisingly there are three cell phone companies in Nairobi and just about everyone owns a cell phone there. LET ME JUST SAY ONE THING ON MY FIRST DAY OF EXPERIENCE IN NAIROBI! I WILL NO LONGER COMPLAIN ABOUT DRIVERS IN AMERICA, THE PEOPLE ARE CRAZY IN NAIROBI. EVERYONE CUTS EVERYONE OFF, DRIVERS SEAT IS ON THE RIGHT NOT THE LEFT OF COURSE AND YOU LITERALLY COME WITHIN INCHES OF OTHER CARS, TRUCKS, BICYCLES AND PEOPLE. IF YOU TRY TO CROSS THE STREET, YOU MIGHT AS WELL RUN BECAUSE THEY WILL RUN YOU OVER AND NOT CARE!!
Basically all of us in my team pondered at how many deaths there are each year from these crazy drivers. OH AND ONE MORE THING, THE ROADS ARE HORRIBLE!!! YOU BASICALLY FEEL LIKE DRIVING ON BIG ROCKS WITH CREVICES ABOUT EVERY 5 FEET.

What an experience for my first day in Africa!! that night we had another meeting and slept in Bunk beds.

The next day(Thursday) we got with our designated teams and LDP Students and headed off in Buses called Citi Hoppa's to Mutumbo on an 11 hour drive with horrible roads. We chatted with the LDP's to get to know them a little more and had a couple stops for lunch and bathroom breaks. We arrived in a village called Kyoani(Che-wani) at 9:30pm. We were to stay on a Pentecostal church property in small 2 person tents.

What happened next, touched my heart... all the kids in the area where we were to stay at sang us a song in English and then in Swahili about praising God while stranding in the dark! it was amazing. Then we headed into the church where they made us sit and watch as all the Women and and younger boys carried in all of our packs from the bus... These are 40 to 50pound packs!!! TALK ABOUT HOSPITALITY!!! I was blown away by that!!

The first night in the Village of Kyoani, I ate Matza(corn meal mix, not very good) Goat meat, and Goat Intestines! yea, kind of Rubbery and Chewy and not good!!!

The next day(Friday) we had Bread with butter, bananas and Tea...Kenyans love their Tea! After Breakfast we then trekked about an hour out to a ladies home who needed some help. The woman had 5 kids and the father had passed away due to disease, the house(Mud Huts) she lived in was inhabitable and she hardly had enough money to feed her kids. Over the course of our stay, our teams helped build a new home for her. We later split up into a few teams to do door to door evangelism where I was a little inexperienced in this area. We came upon a man and his two friends who welcomed us to is home. We talked with him and found he was a Widowed man with a son who has wandered off somewhere, his two friends help him get his daily jobs done around his home. We invited them all to the crusade we were having that night, and told them about Jesus and prayed for them. we continued to trek to another home and found an old man who could barely hear and barely see. He was so grateful that we came to give him encouragement from the Bible because he was unable to go to church due to no transportation and the condition he is in. We prayed over him and read scriptures, I'm so grateful that God lifted his spirit by having us go there. We trekked to one more house for the day, it was so neat that every place we went to, we were welcomed and given handmade wooden chairs to sit on. we came upon a lady whose husband left her to take care of the kids on her own. We prayed over the needs that she had and told her about how much God loves her. After getting back to the church we stayed at, we had walked about 6 miles all together. we then ate dinner and got to know our LDP students more that night.

On Saturday Afternoon we helped in hosting a Compassion event for all the families at the church grounds we were staying at. Many people came, the majority were women and children and about 300 people total were there. we had a time of worship in Swahili and a couple songs in English. The head of compassion in that area spoke to them as well as testimonies and talks from the LDP students and 2 pastors. It was a good time for the people there to hear about how there kids could become strong healthy leaders if put into the program.

Before the meeting, a few people from my team and I as well as a couple of LDP students got to go to an actual Compassion school. I was so blessed to finally see what they do at with the kids that are in the program, now I know that the young girl I sponsor in Guatemala through the program is getting all that she needs and more! They teach things like spiritual, language(English) cognitive, other various subjects. The children are also taught on how to plant crops too. They are given a breakfast everyday and are able to have seconds and thirds until the food that was prepared is all gone.( the food consists of a variety on a daily basis, I saw them eat bananas and a type of multi meal with a lot of nutrients) there were 261 students in the school and about 162 students are actually sponsored by people from all around the world. they do weekly checkups on the kids and a Representative of compassion goes to the child's home on a frequent basis to ensure the family is doing okay. Compassion even goes as far as helping and instructing the mothers through pregnancy an raising there child... they do so much more than I had expected! I was able to play with all the kids there, Kicking a ball, blowing bubbles and looking at all the smiles on their faces as they chase the bubbles. I had so much fun there! we later went back to the church we stayed at where I saw the rest of our teams involved with teaching the kids there about God, words and letters in English. We then got all of our stuff out that we were going to give to the children there, things like Stickers, candy, bouncy balls, and little animal figures. They had a blast. We later had lunch for everyone there, some of my team and I helped clean all the dishes so that the women there could relax!! The women who cooked all our food the whole time are so awesome!! while we were washing the many dishes, one of our Interpreters told us that the women were impressed that us guys new how to washes dishes and were good at it. We then chilled the rest of the day and had dinner...more Matza and goat meat.
I finally slept good for the first time.



On Sunday, we got up at 6 a.m. had breakfast and got into our dress clothes for church. We all split up into several different groups to go and speak a message at the church we were to attend. it was me and two others from my team and 2 LDP students. They do things a little differently in the format of the church. Their services can go from 2 to 4 hours long.
In the middle of the service, everyone gave their tithe... even if they did not have money, they would give a tenth of what they have, so they would tithe Chickens and chicken eggs to the church.
The 2 LDP students with us chose to spoke to the congregation, so our preplanned sermons from our group did not happen. instead we later got to speak to one of the elders class of high school students. It was good though I was very unprepared because my original message was for the the congregation and not directed to high school students, but we had some good talks to them to encourage them in their studies and in life with God. We also got some time to spend with the pastors and elders of the church and they made lunch for us, they love to talk about politics and about Obama as he is from Kenya. One surprising thing about Africa is Coca cola is all over the place in glass bottles.
The rest of the day did not go too well, everyone was tired and exhausted and we held another crusade in Kyoani(che-wani) B. None of us had any energy to dance and the speakers kept cutting in and out as well as the singers felt like they could not sing well. Even during the speeches which were spoken in Swahili did not go well with the speakers. The devil used this to his advantage and kept all of us Americans attention on 2 guys who were disrupting things, One was drunk, and the other was high on something. So we had to constantly keep our eyes on them and protect the girls as they were trying to get to some of them. God kept us safe and we immediately walked back to the church we we were staying at as we did not feel safe there at the crusade. We then had a meeting in the church to discuss the crusade. No one was happy about it, and one of the leaders who was a little harsh was disappointed in all of us. We then had a pretty powerful night in prayer asking for God to help us in accomplishing his work. My team an I later got together out in the dark to express our frustrations to each other. I then told them that we need to make sure and pray before the crusades, not during for Gods work to be done. After everyone was done giving out their ideas and opinions, I had felt led to start the prayer and others prayed after me, the night ended well.
That night as we were preparing for bed one of the LDP students(John) asked me to share a word in the morning prayer tomorrow, and I said yes.


On Monday, I didn't get any sleep as God was instilling in me the words to speak for the meeting, when it came time, I reminded everyone that in the scriptures it talks about how the devil has no power over the righteous, and that we are Gods people, so lets remember that the devil is under our feet. The day went well, many of us split up to do construction and door to door evangelism. I did the door to door again and a couple people excepted Christ as others said they would think about it. We later had a crusade and it went well, nothing too exciting though I was the one that found out why the speakers were not working well as these were the very same we used even on our first crusade. The cables were all tangled up first of all, so I and 2 others were untangling this long cable, and then I noticed that there was a section with tape on it, I barely even pulled on it and one end of cable easily came apart. The wires were not connected so, we took off the tape, twisted the wires in together to make a connection, and then Cliff and I walked back to our camp and got duct tape for the cable. that night the speakers and microphones worked perfectly.

Tuesday was by far, one of the best days for me! I slept well, woke up at 5 am for prayer and then went back to bed for breakfast at 8 am. We were once again getting put into teams for construction and door to door evangelism. I wanted to do construction but I still haven't, I don't feel like I'm doing any work unless I am doing something with my hands, so I was a little agitated, but God showed me that I was not done with door to door. As we were started off onto our trek, God told me one thing that helped me see why he had me doing what I was doing.... God wanted me to grow stronger in Spiritual work, NOT physical work. We spoke to about 10 different people and about 5 of them excepted Christ. One of the women was not sure about this whole God thing, so she followed us to see and hear more.
We came upon a home where the women and a man were prepping the dirt for crops. unfortunately, the ground is very dry and very hard as it has not rained there in months, we went to talk with them and the man and one of the women gave their lives to Christ.
We then trekked further on and came upon a woman and her child, as she invited us into her premises her father came out of one of the mud huts. Once he saw us Mazungoos(white people) the first thing out of his mouth was, GOD TOLD HIM THAT WHEN AMERICANS COME TOGETHER AND UNITE AS ONE WITH THE BELIEVERS THERE THAT THIS IS WHEN HE SHOULD GET SAVED AND GIVE HIS LIFE TO CHRIST.
It amazed us, he then proceeded to get some papers, The man showed us that he served in the British Army in 1942 and was in World War II. This man looked like he was about 70 years old and he can move around and do whatever he wanted just fine, He is as strong as an ox. He then went into his mud hut to show us when he was born... He was born in 1908!! he is 99 years old and ready to except Christ!! His attention was consistently on me and so I knew that I was the one to pray for him and lead him to Christ. God gave me the exact words to say and the prayer for him to repeat in giving his life to Christ. I first told the man, from us as Americans we thank you for your service.
His daughter who was with him also wanted to get saved, so I had Michelle on my team lead her in the salvation prayer and I led the man in a salvation prayer. Before we led them, I told the man as it was also interpreted that this was the best and most important decision of his life.
we had them hold out their hands as a sign of surrendering their lives to Christ. I held the mans hands and led him in a prayer and told him that God loves him very much. They were so grateful that we came.

I was blown away that God used me in leading a 99 year old man to Christ! I could have never done it on my own, everything I did and said was from God, He consistently used me in talking to and praying with many others we came into contact with while going house to house. None of this was in my own nature of doing, I am a quiet person and yet God blew all that hindered away from me and used me because I was willing to do His work, whatever it was. I FELT SO HONORED THAT GOD CHOSE ME TO GO AND DO HIS WORK!

We later trekked to another home where we talked to 3 women whose husband was not there at the time. we told them about Christ in hopes that they would turn there lives over to God. All 3 women were open to hearing us and said they want to give their lives over to Christ but they have to talk to their husband first, because the man wont let them do anything unless he knows about it first. They told us to pray for the man to get saved so that they might also get saved.
I ended up praying for them and the man who was not their to get saved. I told them about the crusade we were having the next few nights so that they can learn more about God and that they should encourage their husband to come. We later had a crusade and prayed for some who wanted to get saved. It was great as God had used me to pray for those people their we then went back to camp, ate dinner and slept.

On Wednesday we woke up at 5am for prayer and then went back to sleep till breakfast at 8 am. Today I helped carry some metal sheets about 50 minutes out to the woman's house we were helping to build. Right after we dropped them off we turned around and went back to our camp. We were again split up into teams to do construction and door to door, this time I was able to work with my hands. I helped with painting the inside of the church we stayed as it needed paint and patch work. we later had lunch where our leaders who had helped spear head everything came to see us, they were very impressed with our stories and our friendship between us and the LDP Students.

Soon after lunch, we headed down to Kyoani A this time for our crusade, so it was a little closer this time. We started off worship with a small amount of people, but we slowly drew in more crowds of children and adults. John from the LDP program who I got to personally know is a great man of God who started speaking to the crowd about Jesus and about his life. After John Spoke he then asked for anyone that needed prayer for healing, if they are sick or wanted to get prayed for to come forward... Many people came forward, so I and several others came up to pray for them. It was an incredible time, I first prayed for a woman who has chest pains, so I prayed over her and commanded that the sickness leave her body, the next one I prayed for was a little boy who was sick in the stomach and said demons were attacking him, I prayed for both. I then prayed for another boy who had Epilepsy and also was sick in the chest area. John(LDP Student) had told the crowd that the ones who were prayed for to go to the right side so that we may talk with them. So John talked to one of the women and said that she was prayed for and she has no more back pain and she was completely healed and proved it in front of everyone, then a few others came and spoke of them getting healed, a couple were ones I prayed for. After hearing all this happen, John spoke to the crowd and said, " If you do not believe these things are happening, then come and test our God." Many more came forward, and by this time all of our prayers became louder and more fervent, The LDP students consistently pulled me from one person to another to pray for them. God used in me in a powerful way, I prayed many to except Christ, to be healed, and for sicknesses to leave their bodies.

One little girl came forward who was unable to see in her right eye, some were praying for and I as well as others joined into pray for her, She was completely healed, and tested with a flashlight to confirm movement from her eye. She was healed, We then joined in to pray for a little boy who was very hard of hearing. Her mother said she had to Yell in order for him to hear. We prayed for him, and he was healed, John tested it by calling out to him in a quiet voice about 6 feet out, he could hear, then 12 feet out, He could hear him and responded to him every time! God healed him. I also saw a man on crutches further out from the crowd who needed prayer, I grabbed an LDP student to translate for me, and I prayed for the man, for the pain he was in and for his deformed foot. Earlier I saw one man in particular argue with one of the LDP students, not knowing what was going on, I continued to pray for others, later one of the LDP students grabbed to go pray for this man, the same on who was arging earlier, I was told he could understand english and that he wanted to be reborn as a Christian, I prayed over him and told him that God loves him very much and he kept hugging me and thanked me that I prayed for him. He told me he is going to go to college and then he asked, where can I learn more about God! knowing that I had no bible to give him, I told him to go to church and continue to go. Many came forward to speak on the microphone to tell the people thatthey had just been healed, including a few I prayed for. I then realized that God has given me the gift of Healing, though I was not the one who healed them, God did it all but He used me as a Vessel to do it through. The crusade ended late as many people were rejoicing and dancing that God had healed them. God was so incredible in Africa. I was so amazed that God used me to do his awesome work, what a testimony for me to talk about to the end of my days, that God used a man who had never gone on a Missions trip out of the US and had no experience in crusades, house to house evangelism, and healing only because I chose to give God my all, I told God that he can use me in any way, and that I will not hold back.


God blew the doors wide open and used many of us to do his work, and not one thing was done by me, but by God in me. we then went back to camp and rejoiced and went to bed


On Thursday we had 5 am prayer and I was still pretty tired. We then had breakfast(Hot tea, read and butter, crackers, and Bananas) We all treked to the ladies home that needed a new house where we were to dedicate the house to her and her kids. we also brought alone with other essential things that the widow needed, we brought bags of Matza(Corn meal mix) which will last her at least 3 or 4 months given the fact that she has 5 kids and we also brought a Lantern with a years worth of oil. We dedicated all of this to her and she was so thankful but also embarresed that should could not cook food for any of us as that is a customary way of thanking people there. It was a good feeling to do that. We later treked back to camp and got prepared for another Crusade in Cheyani A. It went well, a few pastors spoke, specifically one of them that so graciously allowed all of us to camp out on his church property. A few more people got saved and we had a good time. we then went back to camp and had a Bon fire and they had earlier slaughtered a goat to prepare for us. I had unfortunetly skipped dinner because I was so tired and exhauseted, I did not intend to sleep the whole time, just until dinner was getting served, but I slept all the way through.

On Friday we woke up at 4:30 am to pack and leave on the busses to go back to Nairobi. We said good bye to all of them and thanked them for their hospitality. They all wanted us to come back soon. we later stopped for lunch after being on the bus a few hours. Then we dropped all the LDP students off who have been tirelessly working with us and said our goodbyes, they are such great people and they made us laugh. I miss them a lot. We then got to our Hostel in Nairobi, and took showers. We got ready for a Dinner and a meeting at a nicer Hotel where we had The Mill style worship and sermon in Kenya Africa( it means we had a meeting where we felt like we were at home!!). Everyone that went on the Missions trip went back to this hotel right before we were all setting out to leave the next day or two. Aaron Stern, our college age Pastor for the Mill was there and spoke to us, he was also in different parts of Africa with our teams. It was a good time to meet up with some other friends and chat a little bit. We then went back to our designated hostels and went to bed.

On Saturday, we had breakfast and then headed back to the nice hotel for a huge group picture with all of us there! we then had a meeting and set out for a fun day of stuff to do. A lot of us went to the Nairobi Market there and met up with a few of our LDP students to translate for us as they live in Nairobi. We also had to get some of our money exchanged too. I had a good time buying some fun stuff and seeing what they had, the sellers are very persistent there, and two of them wanted my cheap sunglasses for a trade. We then headed back to the hotel for lunch and another meeting, I actually got to have Lamb for the first time, and it was actually really good!
At our meeting we had peoples testimonies to hear and we then broke for another fun activity. About half of the teams left today as they had arrived ealier in Kenya than we had, so we got a couple days to kill. We went to a Cultural festival where we got to see some interesting things outside on the premesis, like different eras of they people lived and what they had, later we then got to see a whole bunch of dancing and drums inside the auditorium as well as an aerial team that did some really cool stuff. We then headed to an Aligator farm where there is a really good restaurant. Because there was so many people, they set up an area outside, it was good food and we all had coca cola drinks. We then got to hang out over by the Aligators and watch em even though it was getting dark. We headed back home to the hostel and slept.

On Sunday, we dressed up real nice, ate breakfast and split up to go to some churches all around Nairobi. My team and I went to a church in the slums where they were in the process of building a new church that has taken them over 7 years to build and it is still in the process. They had 2 services, one in English and one in Swahili. It was very good, worship was good and we all gave our tithes. One of the guys from another team got up and spoke a touching message. We then went through half of their second service, and met some wonderful people.

After church we headed back to the Hotel for lunch, we had a meeting and then went back to our Hostel to get packed and ready to get to the airport at 7pm where our flight was to leave at 11:30pm and my team was the last team to make it through check in at 11pm.


We then flew into London/Heathrow on a long 8 hour flight and got there at 7am. Most of my team and I got to get on a train and go sightseeing through London! it was a lot of fun to see it all before we headed back to the airport only to find our flight was delayed for another 3 hours as the President of the United States was there in the process of taking off from that airport.

For me, a man who has never been out of the States before and experienced many things for the first time, I can truly say it has changed my life. One man can make a difference as long as he has God on his side. God completley took care of all my fears and worries away on this trip, God took care of it all. Most of all, God did some amazing and incredible things through me and in me, so much more than I ever expected. God used me, because I told Him I am ready and willing and that I will not go unless God was with me. These were my experiences, and they changed my way of thinking as well as changed my heart. I am a quiet guy fairly reserved guy and yet God used me in a completley new and open way where God took charge of me to do his work, where if I was on my own, I would have never done those things. I love God and I hope that this will encourage you, that we all need God and that we all need to tell others about Jesus, whether here or across the world. I am who I am only because of God.

In all, over 2,000 lives accepted Christ out of all the teams sent to Africa! I would love to go back as well as do other missions, I encourage everyone to go at least once in their lifetime, and age is not an excuse!! my mother, Linda also went on her first missions trip out of the country to Uganda and has some amazing stories, she is in her 50's(sorry mom,lol)

Thankyou for letting me spill this extremely long story to everyone, I wanted it to be very informational as well as holding great stories. I hope it has touched you! if you would like to contact me, here is my E-mail Silvertigereclipse@juno.com