Saying goodbye, from left to right: Pastor Mwiti, Dylan, Edith, Salame, Betty, and Doris (our host grandmother)
Our home for 3 weeks
Dylan and I woke up at 6 AM so that we could say goodbye to the kids (Mweti, Mercy, and Kevin) before they left for school. Those kids are tough; they didn't cry or do anything like that as we said goodbye to them. As Dylan and I packed our stuff, Betty, Salame, and Edith came over to our host family's house one more time to hang out with us. To say that this day was bittersweet is a huge understatement. On one hand, we were finally going back to Nairobi where we would have running water, electricity, internet, etc. We would see our teammates in a matter of hours. Yet, I think Dylan and I both knew that Weru would always have a special place in our hearts.
Pastor Mwiti was actually going to accompany us to Nairobi, because his wife and children live there. Dylan and I were pretty stoked about this because this meant spending one more day with the man we had gotten to know so well over the past 3 weeks. So as the three of us got on motorbikes to head to the local matatu stop, I couldn't help but glance back at the sights which had become so familiar to me. The family's house. The church, Weru Worship Centre. The long dirt road. As we rode away and Doris, Betty, Edith, and Salame faded from sight, I knew in my heart that it would be a longshot for me to see these people ever again. This was definitely the hardest goodbye I have ever had in my life. I had come to love Weru and its people and it saddened my heart knowing I would probably never see or talk to these brothers and sisters of mine ever again.
Pastor Mwiti took me and Dylan to his home in Nairobi to meet his second wife (his first one sadly past away a few years earlier) and two of his other children, Bernise and Dennis. After hanging at his apartment for a couple of hours, we finally left for Little Sister's Spiritual Centre, where we would reunited with our teammates.
What a reunion it was. I can't even describe the feeling as ministry pairs trickled in from their journeys from all over Kenya. You know that scene in the last Lord of the Rings movie when Frodo wakes up after destroying the rind to find the surviving members of the Fellowship standing over his bedside? Remember all the laughter and joy they shared? I guess our reunion was kind of like that haha. It was so awesome to hug each other and begin to share stories about how God worked in and through us. When at last the last pair (Mike and Josh) arrived, something just felt right. There we were: a bunch of American college students who had all been in the middle of nowhere in Kenya doing ministry and learning what it means to follow God to whatever end and finally, we were all together again.
Like everything else in life, we must move on. Though I said goodbye to Weru and its people, it was time to continue to see what God had to show me for the rest of the GP. It was time to be in community with my friends from the GP again. Now was the semi-hard part (like any other spiritual experience): I had to take what God had shown me in Weru and not forget. Never, ever forget.
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