Church Events

PART I

A few weeks ago, we took our youth group on a day trip to Lake Bagoria, just a few kilometers north of the equator.  Seventeen of us packed into a matatu (van) and headed out for the lake, early-ish Saturday morning.  Lake Bagoria is known for having hot springs and an abundance of flamingos.  There is a geyser that shoots water 20-30 feet into the air, and in some places the water is boiling… so on the way up, we stopped and bought eggs.  The youth tied them to sticks and put them in the boiling water for a few minutes to cook themselves a snack!  See Pastor Wycliffe in the photo on the left standing on the rocks above the boiling water just to cook a few eggs…

After sight-seeing at the hot springs and flamingos, we got out a picnic of sloppy joes and carrots that we brought… it was the first time the majority of the youth had eaten sloppy joes.  Most really loved them and they especially liked the name, “sloppy joe,” after we explained it.  Below is a picture of Colleen and me serving up the ‘joes!

From the park, we left for a local hotel with two swimming pools.  One was a normal, chlorine filled pool, but the other piped water in from the hot springs… so it was a bit green-ish and felt like a giant bathtub of warm water.  The majority of the youth didn’t know how to swim, so we gave some impromptu treading water and dog-paddling lessons with varying degrees of success... It was quite funny trying to teach them how to swim!  There were water polo goals in the hot spring filled pool, so we had a fun hour or so of intense competition (in shallow water, so everyone could participate). 

On the left, Mathew and Aggy battle during water polo.  Below is picture of Colleen and Rael trying to be flamingos, as well as one of the whole group with the geyser in the background. 

It was a great day, primarily just of fellowship and community building.  We did have a brief discussion about how we want the youth group to progress over the next few months and how we can be encouraging each other to continue to grow in Christ.  Please pray for the kids as they face daily trials and temptations, just like all of us.  Also pray for us that we could encourage the youth and be Christ-like examples for them to follow.        Click this link to see the full album of pictures from our day at Lake Bagoria…The Ngata youth at Lake Bagoria. 

PART II

Another recent Sunday was “family day” at Ngata AGC, so after a combined (English and Swahili translated) service, we had a get together of games and fun behind the church.  Toro led some games and did a great job getting everyone involved… even the wazee (older men).  

For the first game that we played, everyone say in a circle and made a pointed their finger with their right had, then they put their left hand on top of the finger of the personal on their right… at Toro’s signal, everyone tried to grab fingers with their left hands while trying to get away with the right.  It was really fun and got everyone involved.   

Next they had three wazee and three mamas (women) place their shoes in a pile in the middle of the circle.  They were blindfolded, spun around, and then set lose to try to find their pair of shoes… it was complete chaos, but everyone was laughing so hard.  The crowd was all yelling instructions, and eventually most of the blindfolded contestants were reunited with their shoes.  The picture above is the blindfolded mamas trying to find their shoes. 

It was great to see the men and women willing to make themselves look a bit silly so everyone could have a good time laughing.  It is not as culturally acceptable here for a respected man or woman to be made to look ridiculous, so it was hilarious to all of the kids and helped reinforce equality among the different ages, tribes, and socioeconomic classes.   The last game was musical chairs, which they call “dancing chairs” in Kenya… can we all agree that “dancing chairs” is a much cooler name?  Even though I was the photographer for the events, they roped me into playing.  Again, it was great to see the adults, youth, and kids all mixing together and interacting.  I think I made it to the final 5 or so, but my mzungu (white person) butt wasn’t fast enough into the seats to stay in the game any longer than that. 

Family Day was a wonderful time of unifying and community building for the church, and I’m so glad that we could participate.  Being a part of a church body in Kenya has been such a blessing and encouragement to us.  It is always so cool to me to think about how just a few hours after we worship in Kenya, many of you praising our same Lord in churches in the US – what a big God we serve! 

Last week, I also made the church a facebook page where we can upload photos and post updates on Ngata Africa Gospel Church events.  Go to facebook.com/NgataAGC to see the page, and “like” it if you want to stay updated.  To see more pictures of the Ngata Family Day, click this link… Family Day at Ngata AGC. 

As always, thanks so much for reading. 

Here are a few more pictures of the fun at our church family day…

We had a chair casualty from “dancing” chairs:

An old mama watching the festivities:

Mrs. Kamoing’ was the life of the party!:

Pastor Paul’s beautiful wife and daughter swaying to the music:

Before and after the games, we had group stretching/calisthenics led by Toro… everyone stood in lines and danced around to the music.  I think that was my favorite part!: 

Thanks for reading!  We’ll try to post again soon about some work that we’ve been doing in camps for Internally Displaced People.  God Bless!