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Apr 01

Rain Doesn’t Stop Tennessee Students from Changing Lives in Kenya

Angela Emde

Ansel Svendsen (right), GAA student, assists in checking patients' visual acuity during a vision clinic in Kenya, Africa. Volunteers helped more than 1,250 patients during the trip, and gave out nearly 1,300 pairs of glasses and sunglasses.

Angela Emde

Forty-five students and chaperones from Greeneville Advenist Academy traveled to Kenya, Africa, to help build a bathhouse for the Kimogoro Adventist Primary Boarding School. Previously, the 298 boarding school students were using primitive facilities.

Angela Emde

Marcus Mitchell, Greeneville Adventist Academy student, carries blocks for the new bathhouse at the Kimogoro Adventist Primary Boarding School. GAA students also assisted with a vision clinic and held evangelistic meetings during their mission trip in early 2024.

Angela Emde

Rain. Rain. Rain. Every day the forecast at Kimogoro Adventist Primary Boarding School in Kenya, Africa, showed rain. “Lord, how can we work at the construction site in the rain? Please help the weather to change,” Angela Emde’s heart cried out in prayer. Emde, a teacher at Greeneville Adventist Academy (GAA) in Greeneville, Tennessee, reflected later, “While the rains still came as forecasted, God provided an even more impactful miracle — He allowed it to rain only after we were finished with our work each day!”

“I love mission trips because they put me in a vulnerable position where I must rely on God for absolutely everything,” observed Kaylee Cushing, a senior at GAA. “I love the feeling of being totally dependent upon God.”

Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” God rewarded the faith of the GAA team and Maranatha Volunteers International, and allowed them to complete the work they went to do.

When the GAA team arrived in Kenya, the 24 high school students and 21 chaperones were eager to get to work. Their goal of the trip, which took place January 21-February 5, 2024, was to complete a bathhouse, equipped with toilets, sinks, and showers, for the students of Kimogoro School. “We were building with a purpose because we knew how much they needed the restrooms we were building. Their restroom is a little hut with just holes as toilets,” observed Kenny Mathews, a sophomore at GAA. Students were previously bathing in a muddy, outdoor enclosure with a bucket of water. This new facility is desperately needed for the 298 students currently enrolled at Kimogoro.

One thing that impressed the GAA students was the joy that the children of Kimogoro expressed. “These kids were fighting over our used plastic water bottles,” recounts Rylie Tomlinson, a senior at GAA. “Their clothes were sometimes just threads. Their toes poked through their shoes. But, when I saw the looks on their faces, their smiles, and heard their laughter, saw their hard work and their selflessness, I realized that God was NOT letting them suffer. He was providing for them. And that was good enough. He is good enough. He was showing me that He is all I need to find happiness and contentment. That I do not need to dwell on my problem, I need to dwell on my problem Solver.”

Two optometrists, Brad Emde, O.D., and Linnea Stonecypher, O.D., led free vision clinics in the neighboring communities. They saw 1,266 patients and gave away 1,272 pairs of glasses and sunglasses. The students helping in the clinic witnessed the joy on patients’ faces as the glasses were dispensed. “[A] man who couldn’t see well cried when he could see things he had been missing. It was so awesome to see the blessing our vision clinic brought to the people,” said Jotham Gallimore, a freshman at GAA.

Abigail Dean, a freshman at GAA, stated, “I was reminded that a small, kind gesture, such as a smile or a pair of glasses, can be the only Jesus some people see.”

After a day of work, the team then conducted evangelistic meetings for the 298 students, emphasizing the health message and faith-building Bible stories. More than 60 students from the Kimogoro school gave their hearts to Jesus, and went forward when the baptismal appeal was made! “I will always remember when, on the last day, I had gotten down on their level, and they began to play with my hair. I couldn’t understand most of what they were saying, but I was able to pick up one of the little girls saying, ‘We’ll meet them in Heaven someday,’” recalls Jenna Felan, a senior at GAA.

Patrick Fox, a sophomore at GAA reflected, “This place was more than a vacation for me. It was a journey of spiritual awakening, where I found hope and shared it with the locals.”

Rylie Tomlinson summed up the feelings of the mission trip participants when she said, “I want to serve God … I want to inspire other people like me to do the same. And, I want to make a difference in any way I can — give help to the poor, sick children who cannot get help. And I know that one day I will be greeted by God, and He will look me in the eye and say, ‘Well done, My good and faithful servant.’ And behind Him will stand all the people that I have helped bring to Jesus — all the seeds I have planted. Oh, what a day that will be.”

Georgia-Cumberland | April 2024

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