Shayenne Slone

Traveling to Kenya in 2025 with World Hope was the best thing I have ever done. It stretched me farther than I thought my faith could go, and it was the biggest blessing in return. It was my first time flying! I like to be in my comfort zone. God called and I answered. It was scary but I did it anyway. If he was calling me, I knew he had given me all the tools I needed to be used.

While in Kenya, there were two little girls who clung to my side all week. They were so full of love. They are the happiest kids I have ever met. The love they had for Jesus was so pure. It is a little crazy that the kids were the thing I took to heart, because I am not really a kid person. It was so fun to just let go of the normal and play tag and duck duck goose. To just get to have a childlike faith.

When my day goes bad, it makes me smile to think about these girls braiding my hair. They taught me games to play. They were so excited to hear me try to say words in their language. They told me that God loved me, and that’s what I was there to show to them.

I didn’t need to show them God loved them, they knew. They were being raised in an amazing school that was telling them every day that they were loved by God, and they were not forgotten. Those kids live a life at home very different from mine. but they have amazing support at Hope Academy. They go home and showing that God can work anywhere with anyone. They are living proof that God can turn any life around and use it for him. Those girls have stronger faith than some grownups I have met. It was incredible to see that my mission was to love them and encourage them to continue growing with God, but they get that everyday at the Hope Center.

At the end of the week my two girls sent me home with letters saying they loved me. Telling me God loved me. Telling me they would miss me. I have those letters hung up in my office. I have a ring and a bracelet they made me, and I wear them every day. I see them on my hard days, and it reminds me that God has everything. God loves my little girls in Kenya, and he loves me. God works all the time, everywhere, even if we don’t see it. This trip was truly the greatest thing I have ever done in faith, and it blessed me tenfold. I plan to go every year I can because there is no experience that can even come close to getting to go on a mission and serve. If God calls you, Go.