Jenny Freeman Hall's post

Our Family Trip To Kenya:

It has taken me far too long to write this post and for that I am embarrassed. At first when we got home, I was overwhelmed with the jet-lag, the adjusting back to the fast pace life that we lead here in the US and processing the emotions of the trip. Then, all the sudden we had been back for over a month and the blog post was still to be written. Better late than never I guess!

I was born and raised in the Philippines since my parents were missionaries and planted churches and discipled people there for the first 13 years of my life. I have always loved that I grew up overseas – I know that it affects the way that I process things in my daily life (such as how I spend my money) and what experiences my family chooses to incorporate into our lives even when those choices might make life messy – like choosing to be foster parents or travel as a family to Kenya, Africa. My daughter on the other hand is growing up with the “American Dream” intact, not wanting for anything and even having a surplus. While I don’t feel it is necessary for her grow up overseas, I see the “I needs” creeping in more than I would like and this trip was intended in some part to help her remember that there are people who live with much less than we do.

Africa is not what I would call a touristy destination. Don’t get me wrong – we did have an amazing time when we took the Witt Family with us on a 3 day safari at Masai Mara Game Park ½ way though our trip, but most of our time was spent in dessert-like conditions, not in 5 star all inclusive resorts. But I wouldn’t have traded this experience for anything. I know we could have gone on a vacation as a family but it wouldn’t have had the same kind of eternal impact for the Kingdom of God as this trip did – both for our family personally and I hope for the people who live in the places we were privileged to visit.

Besides the impact on our family and hopefully on the people we got to interact with, we were blessed above and beyond to witness our amazing friends, Bekah and Jason and their family humbly live out the gospel in their DAILY lives – with absolute joy even in conditions that would have made most people uninterested in including joy in their lives.

Joy is not the same as happiness – life there is really hard – on a daily basis the floors of their house and in fact all surfaces need to be cleaned and dusted because it is so dry there. The heat can be suffocating, especially in the afternoons when the temperature can reach above 100 degrees F. There also are no comfort foods or modern amenities available – they go as a family to Nairobi and are able to buy things like cheese (!) or Doritos but that is not done often because of the drive of 6 hours over crazy potholes (some that could swallow you whole!). They have a very small mini-mart they do their local shopping at or the open food market where they live. There of course is no air-conditioning, much less central air or dishwashers which my husband thought should be fixed as soon as possible.

It didn’t take long for us (my husband and I) to see the real love for the locals that the Witt's had. They didn’t let themselves get discouraged that they had been there so many years and yet were still in the seed planting phase.

When people asked what I did while I was there, at first it was hard to articulate – on some level it felt like I didn’t do much, on another it felt like I had lived there much longer than the one month because I had experienced so much. The short story is that I was Bekah’s shadow – I did what she did while Cullen accompanied Jason to the farm most of the days working on the tractor, or fixing things that needed fixing. Bekah home schools her four girls and cooks (from scratch) and visits ladies who live in her town building relationships, praying for them as the situation allowed for it. I was honored and humbled to see how she daily invests in her girls making them a priority always and includes them in her ministry to the point where her 9 year old is becoming quite the evangelist!

One of the big reasons I wanted to take this trip was to expose my 4 year old daughter to another culture yet again. I feel that it is so easy for kids (and adults actually) to get caught up in the “easy life” that American living offers, the life that is materialistic and dare I say downright shallow. While we were in Kenya I was able to show Eleanor how a simple life can be a great one, and when we got home from our trip, one day after school Eleanor said to me, “Mom, I am starving!” I was able to correct her saying “No, you are very hungry maybe, but not starving. There are kids in Kenya who literally are starving.” All was quiet for a moment as she processed that thought and then she asked what kids were starving. I was able to explain that kids who sold things on the side of the road in Nairobi or who begged for money were starving. She then seemed to really understand and it was a moment that wouldn’t have had the same effect had we not visited and been able to put faces with the concept I was trying to teach her.

Bekah and Jason and I have been friends since Bethany College – and since 2005 when we graduated our paths have taken us to different places and the most amazing part of this trip for me was to live the lives of missionaries even if just for a month to walk in their shoes. I very much enjoyed being with Bekah – talking about deep subjects only to be interrupted by one of our 5 girls needing something “urgently” and being OK with that because we knew that we would have another chance to talk again. It was a breath of fresh air to live a different life – a much slower paced life than I live here in the US and recharge in that way. To have great friends who listen to you, laugh with you, even cry with you is priceless. Our time in Kenya is one that I will not soon forget, a memory that I will cherish for many years to come.