I am running on very little sleep (something like 16 hours over the past four days), so I apologize in advance if this post is a little more emotional than most, but I think the only way for me to move on is to write about it, so here it goes….

Over the weekend, we had three kids from Kenya and their chaperone, Dan, staying with us. They were all with the Daraja Children’s Choir as part of a cultural exchange of hope. We weren’t allowed to give the boys gifts of any kind, so while they were here I wanted to provide them with some unique experiences like rock-wall climbing or my fall back plan of seeing the new 3-D Christmas Carol movie as a way of making their stay memorable. But one of the boys, Eddy, wasn’t feeling well and the rest seemed pretty tired, so instead we spent a lot of time just hanging around the house. Little did I know this was all to make my weekend unforgettable.

The choir sang at Watermarke Church on Sunday morning and the rest of the time they did ordinary things that any boys their age would do; they watched football, they played video games, and played outside. Moses learned to ride a ripstick and Kevin schooled my neighbor Will (a high school soccer player) in soccer, and my son Jordan (a former varsity basketball player) in horse.

And through their actions, they spent the entire weekend schooling me on the fruits of the spirit. Though it may have been a low-key weekend for them, it was one of the most extraordinary weekends of my life. I can’t get those precious boys out of my mind. In fact, I just admitted on Facebook a few minutes ago that my thoughts are probably borderline obsessive, thinking about things they said and did. My hope is that by blogging about it I’ll not only clear my head and solidify the things I learned, but also open up a conversation with those of you who’ve had similar experiences.

Over the next few days I will be blogging about the five lessons I’ve learned from the Daraja kids. I’ll update this post each day with the links to each lesson so that you can find them all here as they get posted.

Daraja Lesson 1: The Place of Prayer Matters (11/12/09)

Daraja Lesson 2: Does your God Reign or Rain? (12/21/09)

Daraja Lesson 3: Joy is Often Outside of My Comfort Zone (2/5/10)

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In the meantime, I want to upload one more video from Watermarke.

This was my favorite song. Perhaps because I needed a new hallelujah this weekend and I got it.

More to come.

~Jennifer