2008 African Nazarene University Project Trip Report, Nairobi Kenya

Summary Report
June 14th, 2008 to June 27th, 2008

 Picture Galleries:

ANU - Africa Nazarene University

Massi Village

Safari

Travel & Base Camp

Work Site

VBS

Report Date: August 1, 2008

 

Project Objectives:

1. First floor block construction of a four story dormitory for Married Student Housing at the African Nazarene University, Nairobi Kenya.

2. Conduct a four day Vacation Bible School and Leadership Training for Ongata Rongai Church of the Nazarene.

3. Assist and witness with a Jesus Film Project in Bangladesh, Kenya.

4. Worship with the students at African Nazarene University at Chapel Service.

 

Team Members: (11 Member Team)

Jerry Guildner, Construction Project Coordinator

Patricia Bollinger, Team VBS Director & Lay Leadership Trainer

Nick Bollinger, Team Construction Captain

Pastor Rob Bollinger, Team Chaplin & Treasurer

Robbie Bollinger, Team Member

Rachel Bollinger, Team Member

Jordan Brawner, Team Member

Carolyn Glider, Team Member & Cook

Yvonne Martin, Team Member

Nikki Guildner, Team Member

Beverly Luke, Team Member & Cook

 

Project Highlights:

1. Completed 95% of our construction project requirements.

2. Completed 4 successful days of VBS at Ongata Rongai Church of the Nazarene for 140 children.

3. Completed Leadership Training for children’s workers. They completed 1 very successful day of VBS.

4. Conducted Jesus Film Project, 35 people gave their life to the Lord!

5. Lead the students of ANU in chapel worship.

6. Made life long friends with the people of Ongata Rongai, Kenya.

 

Report Summary:

We set out on our journey on Saturday, June 14th, praying for good weather and safe connecting flights, however, God had other plans.  We got neither!

 

After flight delays due to heavy rain out of Washington D.C. on Saturday, June 14th, we managed to miss our next flight from London to Nairobi.  It was a mad run through multiple concourses in Heathrow Airport, only to find that our plane had left the gate minutes earlier.  Instead of arriving in Nairobi the night of June 15th (Sunday), we arrived mid-morning on Monday, June 16th. 

 

You know when things are not going your way when some of the people on your team arrive at the airport with no luggage.  However, never would I have imagined the airlines to lose all nineteen pieces of our luggage on one trip!  That’s right, not one piece of our luggage arrived!  We were now faced with the reality that we had arrived a day late, with no change of clothes, no VBS materials and no way of knowing if we would ever see our belongings for as long as we were in Kenya.

 

If it was at all possible for things to take a turn for the worse, your right, they did!!  Although we were thankful that some people got their luggage and some of the VBS materials arrived the next day, it was on the third day of our trip we ran out of water.  A few of our people had to endure the first six days of our journey without a change of clothing and no water for bathing.  Some would have cracked under the strain of it all, but not this team!  Although conditions were not as they had expected, I never heard one ill comment from any of them!  The only comment I did hear about their situation was from a single team member and I quote, “If the people I am ministering to have no change of clothes and no water for bathing, then I, too, can live this life!”  It was awesome to see how God humbled us before those we were ministering to and the strength God gave these troops to endure the hardship!!

 

With no materials for VBS, Patricia managed to pull together her thoughts and lead a team of school teachers from the Ongata Rongai Elementary School and the Ongata Rongai Church of the Nazarene Sunday School team in a VBS training session.  It wasn’t pretty, but she pulled it off!

 

As I stated before, some of the VBS materials showed up the next day on Tuesday, June 17th, just one hour before 140 “out of their minds with excitement” children showed up for VBS!  Talk about no pressure, anyone need a “Rolaid” before continuing to read this report?

 

It’s winter in Kenya during June so it was odd for us to see 140 children show up to VBS all bundled up in sweaters and jackets.  At a modest 72 degrees F, we had no problem conducting our ministry in short sleeve shirts.  But, then again, we didn’t have anything but the clothes on our backs anyway! 

 

As always, the children touch the hearts of every team I’ve ever taken to Africa in so many different ways.  It wasn’t until later that we were told that many of the children at the school were orphaned victims of AIDS.  Some of which are HIV positive themselves.  It was hard to imagine the strife of these young individuals until we actually witnessed the place where they lived later in our trip.

 

Our team for three days had successfully managed to split the children into three age groups, doing a craft at one station with one group, while doing games with the second group at a different station and at the same time teaching a Bible lesson with the third group of children at a third station.  It looked like craziness to an innocent bystander (me), but when you got to see what was really going on, you could see that God had blessed each child with the preparedness of our team.  The children simply loved the youth that came on our team.  Their connection with the children were second to none.  My hat goes off to Jordan, Robbie, Rachel and Nikki for a job well done.

 

After a very successful 3 days of VBS, it was time for the leaders of Ongata Rongai Church to perform the duties of the VBS themselves on the forth day.  They were ready… NOT!

 

They called out to Patricia and begged her to stay and oversee their work.  As any good leader would do, Patricia left them with the confidence that they could do it all on their own and they did!!  The next day when we saw them, they couldn’t wait to tell us all that they had accomplished with the children.  It was a great day for all of us to experience their excitement.

 

During the mornings, before our team went off to perform our VBS, our team worked on the Married Student Dormitory project for ANU.  Our objective was to complete the first floor block construction of a four story dormitory.  I need to confess, I misled our team when I told them they wouldn’t be lifting blocks weighing more than 20 lbs.  (It was a leftover thought from my Ethiopian construction days).  Much to my surprise, instead of building out of light weight cinder blocks like the Ethiopians, the Kenyans choose to cut their blocks out of stone quarries!  Needless to say, my team felt like a Shanghaied sailor when they encountered 50+ pound BLOCKS!  I must admit, I felt a bit stupid!! 

 

Our project went well despite the fact that many of our people on the team worked at the construction site with just the clothes on their backs.  Some of them worked in sandals, instead of work boots; others with sweat pants, instead of jeans, and all of us worked without gloves or tools to perform our job.  It never ceases to amaze me as to how God provides even when we are feeling totally inadequate for the task.  By the end of our project we had raised 9 rows of block on the first floor of a four apartment dorm.  By the hand of God, we came through a very rough two days of trying to fit in with the local construction workers on the site.  By the third day, we were working hand-in-hand, side-by-side with our African friends.  On the last day, neither team member nor local construction worker could believe how much we had accomplished in the short time we were together.  The local missionary there shared a comment from one of the local workers on the project the following day.  Much to our surprise, a disappointed local construction worker was wondering why his helpers (us) weren’t coming back to work with him on the rest of the project.  It warmed our hearts to know that we touched their lives in a way that it called for our return.  Through the sharing of food, our morning devotional times, the laughter, the pitching of mud at each other and the sweat of our labors, we built something grand together.  The experience of it all has changed all of us forever…  Our “Team Hoss Award” goes to Carolyn Glider!!  She moved more block then Paul Bunion chopped trees!!   Awesome!  Many thanks goes to our Project Team Coordinator, Jerry Guildner, for keeping us on track.  Additionally, we could not have done what we did without the “Block Watering Team” of Bev Luke and Yvonne Martin.  Did you know that when you water blocks that they grow?  Yeah!

 

As most know, victories do not come without its cost!

 

Perhaps the most significant thing that happened on our trip was when our team decided to move out from the security of our 16 foot high block wall (capped with four rows of barbed wire) encampment in order to venture into a place were the streets have no names, so that we could be Christ to a people in a darkened slum area called Bangladesh that is across the street.

 

Bangladesh is a not so good place where people literally fight to survive.  It is a place were families deal with the destruction and death of AIDS very day.  It was there that our team wanted to show the Jesus Film.

 

We had been advised by the local missionary there that this was not a safe place for Americans to go.  However, it did not stop our team from going out to do the Lord’s work that night.

 

Looking back on that evening has revealed more to me than I can consume of how God can pour out His love for His people.  We could have never planned for our security team to show up in the way of little children; the ones we ministered two days earlier in the VBS.  Like a small platoon of Marines, the children of Ongata Rongai School came out cheerfully to greet us.  Excited to see that we came to their home, one by one, they identified themselves to us with the Gospel bracelets they made during VBS.  As soon as the children embraced us, the adults came out to do the same.  As the darkness fell over the night, the Jesus Film started to speak to the hearts of the people there.  At the end of its showing for the night, one-by-one individuals came to know the Lord.  There were 35 people in all that came to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior that night.  As they came, our team encircled them by holding hands and praying for them.  We later invited them to church on Sunday in order that they might learn about the commitment they had just made with Christ.  We left there that night with no fear!  God had showed up long before we got there in the form of little warriors for Jesus!  With their Gospel bracelets tied tightly around their wrists, the children of Ongata Rongai School and Bangladesh are still, to this day, sending out the Good News of Jesus Christ!!

 

The final experience of our trip that tied together everything we were involved with happened on Sunday morning at the Ongata Rongai Church of the Nazarene.  All during the week previous we had been teaching the children some new songs to sing in their school and we had been telling them to invite their relatives and friends to Sunday morning service to see them perform their songs to the congregation.  Much to our surprise, many people showed up to watch.  When Pastor John Ngugi of the Ongata Rongai Church got up to greet all the people in his church that day, we were amazed at how many he greeted as first time guests.  Pastor John Ngugi recognized the many relatives of the children that had come for the first time just to see the children.  He also greeted some of the teachers that teach at the school but do not attend the church.  He greeted those that had come to know the Lord from the Jesus Film days earlier and some that had come with Joshua, our construction foreman, who is a member of the Ongata Rongai Church of the Nazarene.

 

Nick gave an awesome message that begged to question who we are in relationship to Christ.  Pastor John wrapped up the message and we finished our day by eating a wonderful meal with all the leaders of the school and church there.

 

We will never forget the wonderful children and people of Ongata Rongai.  We will never forget the wonderful hospitality of our African hosts, Ruth Wambugu and Kate “the Great” Mukoko (A.K.A. Koko).  We will never forget the wonderful meals our dear African friend Nancy cooked for us.  We will never forget how Job, our African driver, patiently drove us everywhere we needed to go.  We will never forget the hard work of our missionary friends, the Reeds, and their family as well as the work prior to our trip by Don and Evie Gardner. And, we will never forget the passion Pastor John Ngugi of the Ongata Rongai Church of the Nazarene has for the people of his community! 

 

God is doing great things in East Africa, Kenya, Nairobi, Ongata Rongai and the hearts of the people there.  We are forever thankful to have been a small part of what God’s plan is for this region.

 

As a team, we are grateful for the Westminster Church of the Nazarene and your commitment to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world!

 

Praise be to God for the work He has done and continues to do in East Africa.

 

Pastor Rob