Stephen and Jessi are getting married! It is about time.

See some more photos on Stephen’s blog and check out how it happened on Jessi’s blog.

This trip to Kenya for the Kiini Project was Jessi’s first trip to Africa and she had a blast.  It’s one of those places that it’s hard not to fall in love with.  Here’s a shot of Jessi from our day with Bishop Matolo in Muchakos.  Also check out some shots that I did for Times Square Church in Texas a few months ago when we were building homes to ship to Haiti HERE.

I’m down in Alabama for the summer (shooting weddings) and I arrived to an awesome surprise…the film from our trip to Kenya with Kiini was back!  I just downloaded it and did a really quick thumb through and it’s really really fantastic.  I can’t wait to get it all edited and start working on the project in the next couple of weeks.  Here are a few of my quick favorites from the bunch…be back soon with more!

It’s 10:30 pm on my first night here in Zambia for Times Square Church and I’m beat.  I’ve been moving for 23 hours now and, a good portion of that was on airplanes and in airports.  Once I landed here in Lusaka I made my way straight to the Kakabalika house to visit the kids and see the farm.  After that dinner with Warren, one of the missionaries here and then some guitar playing before I made my way back here to my hotel room.  On that note I’m going to bed.  Ask me about the project tomorrow…it’s amazing and I’ll have a lot to say!

The home where many of the boys live at the Kakabalika House in Lusaka Zambia.  These boys were ’street kids’ before being taken into the home.

Preparing a typical meal made of corn meal or ‘mealie meal’

Two of the boys cary the finished meal into the kitchen to be served for dinner.

While we were in Kenya working on the Kiini Project we also had the opportunity to visit one of the Charismatic Episcopal Church’s Bishops, Bishop Matolo. You may recall that I spent some time with Bishop Chunge during my last trip to Kenya, another of the CEC’s bishops in Kenya.

Bishop Matolo lives in Machakos, a town East of Nairobi. We were able to spend a day with him and visited several of his churches and the project that they’re undertaking. Here are a few shots from our time with him!

A pastor for one of Bishop Matolo’s churches prays while we visit.

Some of the women in the above pastor’s congregation.

Bishop Matolo shows us the plans for the future church building they hope to erect around the small, semi-permanent existing one.

Bishop Matolo prays at one of the churches we visit in his diocese.

This church that we visited has a small farm that they use to help provide food for the congregation so that they can save money.  This is a model that Bishop Matolo is using with several churches in his diocese.

The congregation comes to greet us.

We spent some time visiting with the congregation and sharing tea with them, a common custom in Kenya.

The head pastor and his wife are introduced to us.

Bishop Matolo is asked to bless this pumpkin, the first fruit that their fields have yielded this year.

The congregation wave their goodbyes as we head to the next location.

This is the only finished, permanent church in Bishop Matolo’s diocese.

Bishop Matolo is also working on an irrigation project that he hopes will provide more food for the people in his congregation.

The crops in the fields that are irrigated are much healthier than the surrounding fields that depend on rainfall.

The water is pumped from the river nearby to the fields.