A day at the beach

When we walked from the hotel down to the beach we immediately drew the attention of the locals who were selling their stuff.  The locals were asking us to buy everything from a boat trip out to the reef, to braided hair, to wood carvings in all sorts of shapes and sizes.  After they stopped selling we were able to get to know some of them.  One of the guys I met was a guy named Tito.  I found out he became a Christian about four years ago and he even used language like "I made a decision to follow Jesus."  In our conversation he found out I was a Pastor and asked if I could share something from the Bible with him.  The next day I brought my Bible to the beach and shared Romans 5:8 with him and then spent some time just talking about various questions he had.  He had lots of questions about the difference between how the Muslim's see Jesus and how Christians see Him.  I did my best.    

As the kids filtered down to the beach Tito suggested he teach us a Christian song in Swahili.  We got all the kids together and learned the song.  We then asked if we could teach him one of the songs we have been practicing for the orphans.  He said o.k and Nate brought his guitar down to the beach and we taught him "Lord I lift your name on high" with motions and all.  As we started singing many of the merchants gathered around and we realized that they knew this song as well as several others that Nate had brought.  What started out as a simple conversation ended up in about 30 minutes of worship on the beach with about 10 of the African merchants.  It was a very cool moment.  

One of the people who came to sing was an orphan girl named Shika who was dressed in a very old and worn dress.  Here is what Rachel wrote about this experience in her journal.  "... All of a sudden this whole entire group of people came over with a little girl.  Her name was Shika.  All the people started to sing with us.  The girl was really really nice.  Nate played the guitar.  Then we went up to eat.  We brought Shika down my skirt, Katie's shirt, and a pair of my swim shoes.  The minute we gave them to her she went behind a rock and started to put it on.  She came out and she had a huge smile on her face.  We were so happy.  I think Jesus felt so happy with us.  I'm so happy that I did that even though I gave up my favorite skirt."

Thanks for praying everyone.