Just in case you have missed some of the newest happenings in the “Bys-Kenya-Camp”, you can see some of the latest information below.

“Oh Sunday, Sunday”

by Stephanie Bys

Sunday, Sunday where do I start? Let me go back to Friday so I can explain Sunday better. Friday evening I posted about wanting to do a feeding program for the children in our village due to the drought. I wasn't and am still not sure what this will actually cost, but I knew that to get going we needed about $450 in cooking pots alone. So I made a post and through many people God provided. By Saturday evening it was clear to me that we had the funds to begin a feeding program so we decided to start Monday morning. I was excited and nervous and excited. Sunday rolled around and I had the idea that we should just announce the feeding program to our church. I told Jeff and he agreed.

Right as church was starting I realized that I could (and should) announce this exciting new program myself. If you know me you know I HATE being the center of attention and public speaking. Being a missionary brings lots of attention, wanted or not. So I text Jeff and tell him that I will announce it to the church. I'm sure he about fell out of his chair when he read that. During announcements I announced 😃 and didn't forget what I wanted to say and I didn't feel super stupid so that was great. Our church was so excited and probably shocked to see me there in front speaking. But I realized something, talking about God and what he has made possible was so easy! Suddenly I didn't worry about the 200+ sets of eyes looking at me. 💜

Later Sunday evening our sending church wanted to know if we could do a video chat real quick. We were available although I'm not sure our "WiFi" was 😂🤣😂. During our quick video chat they shared with us that they wanted to finish the 5 classrooms, teacher's office and build the KITCHEN (for the home and school) for Mercy Christian Academy 😲. I was and still am completely blown away by this. I'm so excited thinking about all the sweet children that will sit and learn in these classes. I'm excited thinking about children learning in a loving environment and I'm excited to see these children grow to know Jesus. 💜

This partnership with Revival Church has been such a blessing to Jeff and I personally. Being a missionary can be lonely sometimes. We found ourselves "floating in our own bubble" feeling somewhat forgotten and alone sometimes. Then Revival Church stepped in and now we feel like we have some "holding our rope". God has really blessed us with this partnership and now many children will be blessed for years and years to come.

At the end of May we have 6 visitors coming that are connected to Revival Church and we can't wait to share all that is going on here with them. 💜💜💜 If you made it this far, thanks for hanging in there! Thanks for following along, praying and supporting us. It is a blessing to get to be here and love on others. It isn't always easy, but it is always a blessing.

#aboutfacemissions #changingtheirstory #drought #feedingthevillage #james127 #kenya #missions #orphansandwidows #mercychristianacademy #educationiskey #revivalchurchfallcreek #Godprovides

(Picture of our sunset last night 😍)

Day Three of the Feeding Program

by Stephanie Bys

Three hundred and thirty-three meals served to our village children today! At breakfast we served about 60 liters of porridge and 161 peanut butter sandwiches. Before lunch was ready I went into the kitchen and noticed that our giant new pots were FULL of rice and beans (for both the home and village). We actually ran out of food for lunch today and had some children come in late, but no one walked away without food! 💜

We are all about food here and we go through a lot of it. Just to give you an idea we served around 690 meals today between our home and village. 😲That is a lot of food! Thank you for helping us keep up with rising food cost and feed others. Our feeding program is growing daily and it is a huge blessing to our village. AFM has been helping do work in this village for about 9 years now, but this is the most widespread help we've been able to offer. While the drought isn't good it has been a huge blessing to us because we have learned new ways to help others.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve our village in this way.

#mercychildrenshome #drought #feedingthevillage #kenya #james127 #riceandbeans #love #thankyou