Under The Trees
Saturday, October 11, 2025
Today surpassed my high expectations. I’m struggling to put into words our day in the village of Atulelo. Let me simply describe my day.
I woke up in time to watch the sunrise over the Ewaso River. A beautiful morning listening to and spying new birds.
At 8 am we drove south to the town of Isiolo. Before we exited the Shaba National Reserve we saw our first two elephants feeding by the river. A troop of baboons stood around waiting to see what morsels fell from the trees as the elephants ate. It was an extraordinary way to start our day.
We drove to the Anglican Church of Isiolo to meet their pastor who is also the arch-deacon (assistant bishop) over the church in Atulelo. After we shared a second breakfast with their men’s bible study fellowship, we turned our vans around and headed north to Atulelo.
The village of Atulelo sits 11 miles off the highway on dirt paths through scrub grass and Acacia trees. It took us an hour to drive. When we arrived, I saw the two Acacia trees Sam mentioned to us in our pre-trip communication. A whole village looked to be sitting under the tree. As we climbed out of the van someone said, “Are they singing?”
I looked up to see a line of brightly dressed African women standing shoulder to shoulder singing and dancing coming towards our team. I pulled out my camera to video them. I thought this was a beautiful performance. I didn’t expect to be encircled by the women and invited to participate. Soon, I was holding hands with the women with their bright bead necklaces, walking, attempting to dance, and making our way through lava rocks back to the trees.
Under the trees, the village welcomed us. The mission pastor of this church said, "Welcome to our church,” as he pointed to the swept ground under the trees with rocks forming a regular border. “And this is our altar,” he said with great pride.
A ceremony of welcome commenced with speakers including the tribe’s chief - a political designation - who had driven through the night from an event in Nairobi to be with us this morning; several ministers; our Africa Exchange personnel; and then the two visiting ministers - Courtney Willis from Greensboro and myself.
The leaders then broke us up into pairs and sent us with English speakers from the village to visit the homes. This is a pastoralist tribe centered on livestock - goats, cows and camels. Traditionally, they are transient. These days, they have settled, but life still revolves around the needs of each family’s livestock.
I was honored to visit a compound to hear the family’s story. There were three houses with a corral of acacia wood to hold goats at night. The women and children were excited to talk about the new preschool which will be built. Not only will the school provide learning, there will also be access to water, latrines (a first for the community), and daily meals for the children. The moms clapped when they realized their kids will be able to go to school with full stomachs (provided by Africa Exchange through our donations).
Africa Exchange's work requires sweat equity. The foundation of the school will be rocks, stones and sand (along with cement). Before the foundation can be built, the community has to collect the rocks and small stones. AE will then bring in a dump truck and the village will help load it with sand from closeby. When the tons of these supplies are collected, AF will bring in a Kenyan crew to build the foundation and the school.
Simon is the associate director of AF. Simon told me how excited he is for this project and how sure he is of its success. “In some communities the women are motivated to build a school and the men are not. In other communities, it's the men who are excited and they have to bring in the women around. Here, though, the whole village - all the men and women - are excited and motivated to make this project a success. This will work!” I agree. I saw the energy and joy in everyone’s faces.
After our home visits, our team and the village shared a meal. The women of the village cooked us rice, potatoes and goat meat. We provided boxed lunches from our lodge with oranges, sandwiches and juice boxes. Everyone found something to enjoy.
As the day was concluding, the Arch-deacon pulled the community together once again under the trees. As he was trying to say something important, a dust tornado picked up and passed by forcing all of us to scrabble to get away. I laughed at the timing - something like this always happens when the preacher is trying to get his point across. Others, though, saw the wind in a different way. Betsy said, “Oh, this was the holy Spirit who had something to say to us.” I think she’s right.
The wind of the Holy Spirit blew through us when we were not expecting it. We had to scatter to get out of the way before we realized God was here with us all along.
I am grateful for this day. I feel changed by it. It is one of the most authentic days of my life. This day could only happen here with these people. Everyone was simply ourselves - the village, the leaders, and our team. When we are ourselves, God has a way of doing something with us.
Thanks be to God.
Eric