My Big Fat AFRICAN Wedding!

Yep, that's right. Christine and I were bridesmaids in an African wedding this month! Our two core Kenyan staff members, Lydiah and Francis got married and we got to be part of their special day. In preparation for this day, Christine and I got our hair braided with weave for the first time, as per Lydiah's request so that all of the bridesmaids would match, but instead of trying to explain every little detail of the differences and similarities to American weddings, I thought I would explain it, picture by picture....

 First, after the bridal party is ready, the women who represented Francis during the dowry process (the process by which he had to pay Lydiah's family a bride price in order to be able to marry her) have to come to Lydiah's mom's house and sing until Lydiah's women let them in. Their singing went on for about 10 minutes until Lydiah's family welcomed them in and began singing with them, Kikuyu worship songs.

 They continue to sing as we are being led out of the house kind of like a parade.

BUT, we were not allowed to walk on the dirt, so while  these women are singing, they are laying down Kanga or Kitenge (a form of African designed fabric) for us to walk on all the way to the car.

The relatives are dressed in their best Sunday outfits ready to attend the wedding themselves!

Before we began the procession into the wedding, the same women who "sang" us out of Lydiah's mom's house, met us at the gardens and began singing us up to the location of the wedding so that everyone would know arrived! There was a LOT of honking the horns too...

Then, the wedding began! The whole wedding party choreographed a dance to do down the aisle before Lydiah made her grand entrance! This is me and my partner, Francis' brother James!

Christine and her partner as well as the more of the wedding party breakin' it down aisle.

We all turned and made a way for Lydiah and her mother to pass through. I don't believe anyone could hold their tears back!

The bride, her mom, and the flower girl making their grand entrance!

Stacy, the flower girl and Lydiah's niece

As Lydiah made her way down the aisle, we all followed her and the groomsmen followed Francis. Since, African weddings last for around 2 hours, the wedding party sits down at the front, men and women on opposite sides, until the couple is united in holy matrimony.

After the wedding, the Uhuru Child Kenya staff (plus Maggie, one of our stateside staff members) took a picture with our new married couple!

The Uhuru girls were able to attend as well and thoroughly enjoyed themselves! In a world where so many couples are dysfunctional or torn apart because of sin and circumstances, it was nice to know they were seeing Holy matrimony between two people who love each other and more importantly love God and seek to glorify Him through their becoming one.

This is a picture of the Uhuru Shamba or farm workers from Jikaze who made it to the wedding!

The whole wedding party :) Soon after this, we left to go to another set of gardens to take more wedding photos with just us....

On our way back in, the honking the horns incessantly began again and the same women who sang us out of the house and into the wedding, sang us into the reception where two enthusiastic emcees were energizing the crowd for our arrival!

We had to dance into the reception, doing what the emcee was telling us to do all the while Swahili songs are playing in the back ground! It was so much fun but also made me nervous at first, having all of these eyes on us before they could join in the dancing.

The fun band who brought the party!

Us dancing into the reception and everyone joining in!

We made a big circle and basically started a conga line but with much MUCH more dance moves!

Lydiah and Francis enjoying their reception!

At one point, we all had to get on the ground and start dancing.... when in Rome!

It was so fun even the caterers had to join in!

Once it was time to eat, we crossed this bridge and went to the seats set aside for the wedding party, while the guests sat under the white tents that surrounded the central tent where the cakes were.

This is the hut the wedding party was seated under! Just beautiful!

One of the bridesmaids, Frida, and Christine in our beautiful custom made bridesmaids dresses!

Me, Frida, and Christine relaxing after all that dancing...

Naomi, Frida, and Christine showing off their dresses!

Me, Frida, and Christine!

After eating, Francis and Lydiah received gifts from the guests. They came up one by one and gave them their gifts and some gave speeches if they felt led. Kenyans LOVE a good soap box speech...even if it does last for 30 minutes to an hour!

Francis, then proceeded to the cake table where he had to dance around it...

The really cool African safari themed cakes! Totally stealing this idea for my wedding cake.....

After dancing around the table, he had to come back and get Lydiah so they could cut the cake together...

They both danced to the cake table...

They cut the cake, fed each other, then their wedding party one by one, then the wedding party served the cake to the guests.

More bridesmaids pictures in between...

Loved theses dresses!

I don't know when I will get another chance to wear it but I did not want to take it off.... other than it was super hot being in the sun in it all day!

Lastly, after the cake was cut and everyone got a piece more dancing happened before the reception was officially over! It was so fun and they had a great band so we were sad for the day to end!

The whole wedding and festivities lasted basically all day. We were awake since 7 am getting ready and the reception did not end until 7 pm that evening. Twelve hours of fun African craziness! We were so thankful to get to be a part of it with our braided hair, traditional dresses, and African jewelry! It was so also just encouraging to see the true meaning of what a wedding represents biblically displayed in Kenya. There are so many broken families here, just like in America, but this glimpse into the true purpose of marriage was the mean reason why this day was so glorious. It was a great display of the metaphor of marriage meant to symbolize Christ's relationship with the church, as we are His bride. I can only hope that Lydiah and Francis will live out the rest of their lives displaying their Christ-like love for one another to their communities and families, being an example of the true purpose for marriage in their society.

Finishing Strong

Exciting things are happening as of lately! As you know, Christine, Lydiah, and I have started a bible study for the pre-teen girls in Jikaze, the IDP camp Uhuru Child is involved and invested in. Most of the high school girls attend boarding schools and are not there during the term, so the younger girls are who we are mainly ministering too. Well, while the girls that attend Uhuru Academy from Jikaze were home on midterm break, they assisted Christine and I (Lydiah was not available that weekend) in translating the message. We were going over the story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac and the covenant God made with Abraham. We barely had to do a thing because our Uhuru girls took their bibles and ran with the story! They seemed to really enjoy being teachers to these young girls and applying their leadership skills learned at Uhuru Academy, in their community setting. So, after chapel one night at Uhuru Academy where I was giving a message on sharing the Gospel and the Great Commission, one of the girls that helped us that previous weekend, came up to me afterwards and offered herself to teach for us when this third term is over! Of course, I said we would love to have her plan with us and help lead this bible study! After all, aren't we trying to equip these girls to be leaders in their communities anyway?? Also, Christine and I will be in the states over Christmas break and would love to be able to pass on the responsibility to these Uhuru girls who are part of the community the pre-teens belong to. Being able to see the process we were implementing through this discipleship program come full circle where the girls now are equipped and ready to take their knowledge, leadership skills, and faith to their communities is so worth all the time and effort spent this past year!

One of the Uhuru girls teaching about the sacrifice of Isaac

Another one of Uhuru girls teaching about the covenant with Abraham

Worshipping after hearing God's word!

Dancing to songs of loud praise to our God!

We also had a community event at Uhuru Academy this past Saturday where everybody who was anybody was there! We had some important faces there from the community to promote our school and get our name out there for the upcoming school year. It was cool to see how far we had come from the beginning of the year and getting to take responsibilty for being part of such a great movement for girl's education and discipleship. We showed the attendees the school grounds, had a flag raising ceremony, face painting, science demonstrations, a BOUNCY CASTLE,  games, and the students performed some songs and skits. All of these activities were then followed by the Director of the Education Office who had nothing but good things to say about our school! It was quite a success and we will be praying for more students to see and hear about all our school has to offer inside the classroom as well as outside and that our attendance would grow by more than 400% !

Our banner!

The girls manning the face painting station

Christine and I serving pilau (rice with meat), mokimo (potatoes and maize), stew (veggies), and chapatti (flat bread)!!

One of the students giving me a flower tattoo

The bouncy castle was a huge success!

Me, Christine, and Lydiah representing Uhuru Academy with the rest of the staff in our polos!

One of our students doing her part as Hannah, mother of Samuel, in our skit about Women of Strength in the Bible!

The Form 1s performing "One Step At a Time" by Jordin Sparks

The girls performing a skit to promote Uhuru Academy!

As the school year is drawing to a close and we are wrapping up our last few clubs at Uhuru Academy, Kamandura Girl's High School, and Jikaze, I can't help but just sing praises of thanks to God for just how far out of the water He has blown my expectations of what this year would look like! And it's not even over yet! We have two winter teams coming before this year is over with as well as the social business to keep running so the load is only lightening so much. Also before the year ends, we will be inviting our 20 students at Uhuru Academy back for a little thing we like to call GLOW camp! It's a camp based on our life skills club called GLOW club (Girls Leading Our World) that we do at both Uhuru Academy and Kamandura High School. The girls will be inviting one of their friends to come with them and will board at the school for 3 days as we continue to teach and equip other girls with the life skills necessary to succeed and become leaders! The December volunteer trip as well as some of the Uhuru girls will be helping lead this camp, so we are really excited for the future endeavors before Christmas break! 

I would just ask that you continue to pray for these girls as they go home for the end of the year break and are faced with some decisions that will test their faith and their strength. We pray they would consistently choose to follow Jesus and all he has been teaching them this year and be able to impact their communities, families, friends, and ultimately their country is an uplifting and positive way!