Elikya: ReachGlobal Africa Conference

We left Gemena on April 19th to attend the ReachGlobal Africa conference in Nairobi, Kenya. It took us a truck trip, a plane ride and a couple extra days staying in guest houses to get us there...but we made it. And, we are so grateful that we went.

We arrived in Nairobi three days before the conference began because of the limited flights from Bangui to Nairobi. But, we decided to use those extra days for a mini family reunion. Sam's dad, Jim, came a few days early from the States. Sam's older brother, Ben, and his wife, Lauren, who live and work in Tanzania also came to Nairobi a few days early. Ben and Lauren had not met Hannah yet and we had so much fun introducing them. We stayed in a beautiful guest house in Nairobi for three nights, went out to eat at nice restaurants, visited shopping malls, went to a movie in an actual movie theater and soaked up all the family time we had together.

The yard at the guest house in Nairobi

Half of the Snyder family

Then we headed up to Brackenhurst, a Christian retreat center outside of Nairobi, to attend the 6-day ReachGlobal Africa conference. Last year we were not sure if we would be able to attend this conference because of the amount of financial support we had at the time. We are so grateful that we had enough money in our account to attend the conference. We were extremely blessed during our time in Kenya. The conference had over 100 attendees who were ReachGlobal missionaries working in Africa, some of the US ReachGlobal staff and many of the African leaders who partner with ReachGlobal in various ministries. A pastor, worship team and prayer team from the States also came to lead us in coorporate worship and offer prayer ministry. It was so refreshing to fellowship with so many different people and to experience times of coorporate worship in English again.

All the conference attendees

We attended several workshops and were able to reconnect with many people who helped us come to Congo in the first place. Hannah had her first experience in childcare and, to be honest, she had mixed feelings about it. But she was so well-taken care of by a mother-daughter team who came from the US for the sole purpose of caring for our babies. We were blessed by their care and all of the special things they did with Hannah and the other babies.

Kenya is a beautiful country and it was rainy season during our stay. It was actually cold! We were delighted to bundle up in sweatshirts and fleece jackets. It was so refreshing after spending almost two years in constant heat. It was amazing to see the differences culturally and developmentally between Kenya and DR Congo. Both countries are in Africa, but they seem worlds apart. We are happy we got to experience a different side of Africa.

View from one of the hills at Brakenhurst

After another plane ride, a few days in transit at a guest house and another truck trip, we are finally back home in Gemena. And now we have less than 2 months in Congo before we come home. This time away was a great refresher for us and for the Larsens. We felt that God used this time away to refresh our hearts and speak to each family about the things to come.

It was so fun to watch Hannah experience all the wide open space and see her interact with so many people. Here are a few shots to show you some of what she experienced as well.