Made it home! After approximately a 30 hour trip… All of our team members made it safely home! Thank you to everyone who kept us in their prayers for a safe journey these past two weeks! We had a wonderful time and it was amazing to see our KenyaHELP graduates and current students. We are grateful for the incredible hospitality of the Thiiri Center and Genesis Expeditions. We are so blessed with our excellent partner schools and are grateful for all of the resources who took the time to meet with us and help us continue to figure out ways to sustain and improve KenyaHELP in the ever shifting landscape. If you would ever be interested in joining us for a future trip, please contact Jill Thiede. Next year‘s trip is looking to lineup for mid to late May 2026! If you’d be interested in doing your own Safari trip to Kenya… We can always hook you up with our guide, Bundi, from Genesis Expeditions. He can help cater to your specific travel plans and needs.  The entire mission team wishes to thank everyone who helped make this such a wonderful trip! And now we are gonna take a very long nap!  (fb)

Day 17 - Saturday - our last day in Kenya Well, it is our last day in Kenya… We don’t fly out until almost midnight. So we were able to still have some good adventures. There is an actual game park in the capital city of Nairobi. There is also a shelter for abandoned baby elephants. You can purchase a ticket that allows for entrance to both. So we got up early again and headed out to the game park. We were able to see two things that we had not yet encountered… Rhinos and hippopotamuses. The rhinos did not disappoint. We saw more rhinos than we could ever imagine. The hippos… were pretty much submerged the whole time. But we did see one open its mouth and could see just how large they could possibly be. In addition, we got to see a male lion. That was really exciting. We also saw a mama lion with four cubs that were adorable. Also, we saw many more ostriches, zebras, giraffes, guinea hens, and different types of antelope! At the shelter for baby elephants, they do a fantastic presentation sharing how they found each of the elephants, what its condition was, and how far along it is in its recovery.  They currently have 18 elephants under the age of four. They work to rehabilitate them and then re-introduce them into the wild. They are brought to a special Conservancy where they can still interact with people, but also can choose to go with an elephant herd if they desire. After these adventures, we returned to the little café where we had our first sodas and snacks back on day two. It was a great chance to reflect and also think about the future!  (fb)