When we stepped off the plane in Nairobi and entered the warm night air, the thundering sounds of drums and singing enveloped us utterly. Some twenty to thirty friends?contacts made a year and a half before?surrounded us with their loving reception. Their wide smiles and vice-grip hugs told the whole story. "You came back!" they said, over and over again.
 
The Shiloh-Kenya Mission Team had returned to fulfill a promise. The pledge was made in 2004 that we would become more than visiting missionaries, but rather friends and partners. I suspect that while our Kenyan contacts hoped earnestly that we would keep our word, they harbored a shadow of doubt. Our white feet on Kenyan soil dispelled those doubts.
 
Thirteen members of the Team (ten from Shiloh UCC, Danville and three from Emmanuel UCC, York) traveled to the villages of Soy and Maseno to carry forward the partnership and to further develop the vision of our shared ministry. In Soy, the Sikhendu school was the site for building desks that would allow some of the nearly 800 primary students to have a seat and writing surface off of the dirt classroom floor. A medical dispensary was visited and gifted with a second-hand microscope. In one simple gesture this small gift elevated the facility from mere dispensary of care to the level of "medical clinic."
 
Many hours were spent meeting with the pastors and Sunday School teachers of the Soy area. Lessons were shared and new methods for age-appropriate teaching were modeled. Following a grand farewell ceremony, the Team traveled to the town of Maseno and reunited with friends there. In Maseno we again visited with churches and learned about their community programs to assist the needy in the area. Contributions were made to assist some of these local programs. We provided the material needed and some of the labor force to aid a local self-help group (INDA) construct a community building. For this task, our willing hands were needed. Masonry skills were optional.
 
Perhaps the greatest moment for the Team, however, occurred when we met the orphaned girls of Mercy Home. Located just outside the town of Maseno, Mercy Home is a refuge for thirty-five girls all of whom have an American "sponsor" as the result of Shiloh-Kenya Mission Team efforts. Our new daughters simply stole our hearts.
 
For so many of the children we encountered in this visit, we were the first people with white skin they had ever seen, or touched. They clamored around us shouting, "How are you?" and laughing as they touched our skin and hair. Their warm hearts and wide smiles provided us with priceless gifts to permanently enrich our lives. As we departed each town, each congregation or mission center, we again left a promise behind: "We will come back."
 
The Team is now beginning to plan for its next trip. Committees of local leaders in both Soy and Maseno have been formed to aid us in determining which projects are most needed for their areas. In the coming months of discernment a plan will develop and the necessary funds will be raised to keep the Shiloh-Kenya partnership alive and well. Covenant made ? covenant kept.
 
If you have interest in supporting the Shiloh-Kenya Mission effort, please contact  Shiloh UCC, Danville (570-275-1943).