Upcoming Worship Leader

This weekend was my first “free” weekend this year. It didn’t come until the end of February, but finally I had a weekend without travelling somewhere or football practice or teaching or any other commitments. It gave me a little time to reminisce. As I was catching up on some projects on my computer, a friend showed up at my front door. Maline Shaline is now in 7th grade at a local school and is actually one of the brightest young girls in the district. The first day I moved to Kenya in 2004 she came to visit me with some of her little friends who all called her “Baby.” At the time she was in Nursery class and was a neighbor of mine. I remember playing hide and seek with them on that first day and then sitting down together and watching the amazing sunset.

After that day, she pretty much came over every weekend and would color, draw, read some books laying around my house, do some math problems, show me how she knew how to do her ABC’s or write the words she knew on a paper. She was always curious about so many things and very inquisitive. Another thing I remember about her was that she loved to sing. When I would be practicing my guitar, she would always try to sing along with me. She learned many classic worship songs during those times like “Lord I Lift Your Name on High,” and “I Will Call Upon the Lord,” “You are My Strength When I am Weak,” and many others.

Some years ago she moved away from Mbita and lived in Nairobi for a while and also went back to her mother’s home to attend school there. Occasionally she would come back to visit, but she moved back to Mbita at the beginning of this year and soon after found my new house outside of ICIPE. Though she doesn’t like being called “Baby” anymore, Maline’s love for singing and worship hasn’t faded over the years. In fact, she was given a guitar by someone and was now asking me to help teach her how to play. When she came this weekend I was able to show her a few chords and how to strum and we started practicing some of those same songs she used to like singing with me many years ago. After we finished the lesson, she started to share some of her favorite songs with me. Some of them were Cece Winan songs and other popular international worship artists. She is a remarkable and well-rounded young girl. She amazed me as a 4 year old and is continuing to amaze me even now.