Christmas In March

Our last day (Sunday, March 15th) with the Open Arms team was spent at the OAI Village located about 25 minutes from downtown Eldoret and five minutes from their international airport. Note: Driving distance is measured in time NOT length in Africa. It can take two hours to travel twenty miles, depending on the road conditions.

Many of the area village elders joined us for the day. Our worship was filled with wonderful music - The OAI children’s choir sang, Metrine (OAI Kenya Feeding Prog Coord) lead us in singing worship/praise songs in English and Swahili, and Levi (OAI Kenya Operations Coord) sang two songs. Two of our team members (US & Kenyan) shared their testimonies of God healing them from physical conditions. I told stories of God’s healing power at the medical clinics in Kambi Teso. Pastor Peter Kimeli (OAI house parent) gave a powerful sermon about the harvest being ripe and laborers few. He challenged Kenyans to take the gospel to other countries and those of us from the US & UK to continue to bring the good news of HOPE to Kenya.

A traditional goat roast meal was served after the service. Then the children experienced “Christmas in March”, when they received boxes of gifts prepared by Al’s church in Texas. You can imagine the excitement of our OAI children when they opened their precious gift boxes.

It was a wonderful way to end our OAI outreach time in Kenya!