During the month of June, Barbra Crabtree had the opportunity to go to Nairobi, Kenya with Operation Christmas Child (OCC), a project of Samaritan’s Purse. Barbra has volunteered in various capacities with OCC since 2004 where she serves as the Logistics Coordinator for Hillsborough County for the past five years.
During this Vision Trip to Nairobi she had the opportunity to see first hand the ministry of OCC. It took 3 flights over a two day period to go from Tampa to Nairobi and once on the ground the trip was jam packed with ministry. Day 1 was all about getting oriented and going on an outreach event. Day 2 was an outreach event and witnessing The Greatest Journey discipleship program. Day 3 was worshiping at a local church and onto our last outreach event. Day 4 was for experiencing a local cultural event and beginning the travel journey back home.
On day one we went to the Precious Talents Top School where 300 children were in attendance. The school actually has 800 students, however, the students chosen for this event needed to see an extra dose of hope. In 2019, a portion of the school collapsed and killed seven of the children. The collapse was a result of poor construction of the school due to cutting corners.
Taken from https://nairobinews.nation.africa/tag/precious-talent-top-school/
The students gathered together on the morning of June 14, 2024 to hear a gospel presentation of the hope of the greatest gift, Jesus Christ. After this, they were presented with a tangible gift that had been packed by individuals within the United States. These gifts are filled with school supplies, toys and hygiene items and are a tool used in the local church to reach out to the children.
Patiently waiting to open the gift.
Overcome with extreme gratitude for a gift.
Loving the harmonics and soccer balls.
The children must remain patient until everyone receives a box, then a countdown takes place and the mayhem of excitement ensues. The children are screaming and yelling, laughing, crying. The emotions run wild as they cannot believe that someone on the other side of the world has packed a shoebox gift just for them. Many times, this is the first gift a child has ever received in their entire life.
The children are so happy to receive the gifts, the gratitude exudes from the smiles, the thank you and the hugs.
Many of the places that we visited on this trip are in areas that are extremely poor, drugs are readily available, children live in single parent homes, prostitution on every corner, and witchcraft was evident.
One blessing while sitting and chatting with the children was that one wants to be an engineer, a lawyer and a neurosurgeon. These kids have high goals to get out of the poverty that they live within. I believe that these young ladies will one day reach those goals and be making a difference in their community.
A piece of my heart was left in Kenya when I had to return home on June 17, 2024. But, I have hope still as I am partnering with a store in Lakeland, Take Heart Africa who have a scholarship program for children within a remote area of Kenya. In September I will be participating in their annual 5K that will be raising money for educational endeavors for Kenyan youth.
Special Links
Operation Christmas Child - https://samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/
Take Heart Africa - https://takeheartafrica.org/
Barbra’s Trip Information
Photo Gallery - https://barbracrabtree.smugmug.com/Operation-Christmas-Child/2024-Kenya-Vision-Trip
YouTube Channel: @BarbraCrabtree1 - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaKk5hdtsT_Fo2mw7D8NGcg
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