JULY 21, 2026 #025 (A TRIP TO KENYA) M.SIMPSON/K.SIMPSON/C.WALDROP

REPLY/COMMENT 

 In this episode of Talkin' Grit, Kaylee Simpson and Cam Waldrop share highlights from their recent trip to Kenya and reflect on the people, experiences, and lessons that made the journey so meaningful. As they look back on their time abroad, they discuss how the trip reinforced Wright Brothers' core values from serving others and building meaningful relationships to leading with humility and purpose. Their conversation is a reminder that our values don't stop at work they shape how we impact others wherever we go. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

From the job site to the office, from lessons learned to stories worth telling, this is Talking Grit, brought to you by Wright Brothers. Here's your host, Jared Waldrup.

SPEAKER_04 0:14

Hey everyone, welcome to Talking Grit. It's good to be with you again. We got a new episode for you. This is going to be a good one. We've got some special guests, and they're talking about their experiences. This is Kaylee Simpson and Cam Waldrup. Just got back from Kenya on a missions trip. It's going to be a great convo. And before you pass on this and say, well, this doesn't apply to me from a job perspective, just hang on because we're going to tie this all together to a core value that's very important in our company. So listen up. This is going to be a great conversation. And Mitchell, let's get this started because I'm excited for this one.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Yeah, this is a good one, Jared. So, you know, total selfish, proud parent moment, right, Jared? Yeah. So, you know, Jared and I talked about this while Kaylee and Cam were gone, and we said, hey, what if we get them on after the get back and they talk about their experiences on this mission trip? Yep. So they went to Nairobi, Kenya, right, Jared? And they went to they went to the slums. Tell us about the slums here.

SPEAKER_04 1:11

Yeah, so they they spend time in the Kybera slums and just to give some understanding about this. So, you know, backing up and thinking why, why is it important for teenagers, for churches, for people to to take missions trips or any sort of you know humanitarian effort. Well, you got to think past America and in the world that we live in when you have 800 to 830 million people worldwide, so about 10% of the global population live in what's referred to as extreme poverty. So that's that's basically defined on as a person that is living on less than three dollars a day.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:53

So that's over half the world in extreme poverty, and so much of that is concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa. Yeah. So a large portion of that, you know, roughly seven to ten people in extreme poverty in extreme poverty are living in sub-Saharan Africa. And so you've got a large portion, nearly 10% of the world living on less than $3 a day. The thing is, as it gets better, it's still, when you think about it from our perspective, you've got around 20% of the world living on less than $4.20 a day. And you've got around the world 3.5 billion people, nearly half the world's population, living on less than $8.30 a day. And children are the vast majority of those people that they're talking about living in extreme poverty. And so you've got the majority of our world living outside of America. Like we don't realize how blessed we are and how good we have it when the who we would consider those that are struggling in our country are still way better off than people around the world.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

And the reality of it is those of us living in America have hit the lottery.

SPEAKER_04 3:13

Oh, well not.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

We have hit the lottery of a lifetime, and we just don't understand that.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

No.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

We don't get it. And it's hard to grasp. It's hard to grasp, but look, anybody listening to this podcast today, the fact that you're able to listen to a podcast, crazy blessed. Yes. Crazy blessed.

SPEAKER_04 3:35

Yes. And so, you know, these guys went to Kenya. So when you think about Kenya itself, 90% of the population of Kenya lives in extreme poverty. And notably the Kybera slums, the largest slums in the world, right outside of Nairobi. It's the largest urban settlement really in Africa where people are just thrown together there. And you know, so roughly, you know, and with stats, you never know really like you know where they're they're drawing them from, but there's anywhere from 750,000 to a million people living in a 2.5 square kilometer area. So you've got people stacked on people, stacked on people in a very small compressed area.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

You're talking about an area that's like the size of downtown Cleveland. Yeah. It's downtown Cleveland. That's what it is. I mean it's a it's a few blocks, right? It's not that big. It's like shoving all those people in from Lee University to the courthouse. Right. It's insanity. It's insanity.

SPEAKER_04 4:41

Close to a million people. Who knows what the real number is?

SPEAKER_02 4:44

No utilities. No utility. No water, no sewer, no water, electricity.

SPEAKER_04 4:49

Most people live in a 12 by 12 foot shack, you know, walls of mud, corrugated tin for the roof if they have one, dirt floors, maybe concrete.

SPEAKER_05 4:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:59

Yeah, no sanitation, no water, no income. And in the Kybera slums, most people there, if you're talking about extreme world poverty being defined as $3 a day or less, the people there are living on probably less than two US dollars a day. So they're they're in pretty bad shape. No jobs, no way out, really. They're just there. High disease rate, no health care. And if you go to school, you gotta pay for it. So there's there's really a a cycle of poverty where it's keeping these people pinned down. And so Kaylee and Cam with their youth group went into the middle of all of that to shine a light and do some good.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Yeah, so good stuff. So guys, let's let's talk through what y'all did. So Jared and I dropped y'all off, what was it, two Thursdays ago at what was it, four o'clock in the morning? Four in the morning, yeah. Four o'clock in the morning, kicked you out at the curb at the church and said, have a great time, right? So take it from there. After you after we did that, what what'd y'all do?

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Well, after that, we went to the Atlanta airport and we started our first flight. It was really long. How long was it? Like close to 15 hours.

SPEAKER_04 6:19

Was that your first international flight? Mm-hmm. You picked a big one for the for the first one. That's that's a long flight.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

So you so you went Atlanta to where? To Ethiopia. Okay, and then you got another plane, right? And then how long was it from there?

SPEAKER_03 6:35

It was about one and a half to two hours to Nairobi.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Okay, okay. So y'all y'all got there to Nairobi, and then when you got there, our church had set up for you guys to work with a local mission organization. What was that organization, Kaylee?

SPEAKER_01 6:52

It's called Suhiba, and it's like kind of like a hotel that you stay at in the middle of the slums, and they have people from Nairobi that work there, and the main guy that leads it, his name is Pastor Peter, and so their whole purpose is ministering to all the people in the slums. They do a lot of widow stuff, they help the kids there, and they try and help with a lot of kids' education and giving them jobs and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Okay, so so you got there, you got settled, that's where y'all landed. Took a full day to get there, right, guys?

SPEAKER_05 7:22

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

I think like over a day. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

So by the time you got acclimated and everything, you kind of lost you lost a whole day. The first major event y'all had was going to church, right? So you went to you went to the African church. What was that like?

SPEAKER_03 7:42

I think it was really great. We got up the next morning and it was about I think like 30, 35 minutes away. And you know, we got to meet all the kids there in the kids' ministry. It was a very nice church for sure. And we went in, we attended one service in English, and then we attended one service in Swahili. And I mean, the worship there is just great. It's really great. And uh Daniel, who's leading the trip, he he spoke in the Swahili service, which was a really great experience.

SPEAKER_04 8:11

Cool, cool, pretty vibrant worship, right? I saw some of the videos, it looked great.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

So, how is it compared to like a typical American service? How was that?

SPEAKER_01 8:22

I mean, in America, like you look around and everyone's just like standing. Maybe you see a little bit of clapping going on, and you go there, and when you look around and people have whistles, they're whistling. And there was one guy that had a horn and he's going crazy with the horn, and then they like took their chairs and they're like lifting them in the air and stuff, and they're all dancing, and we look so stupid dancing next to them because we can't dance compared to them at all. Yeah. But if you don't dance, you're crazy there.

SPEAKER_04 8:48

Yeah, and what I think is cool about that, you know, a lot of times, you know, for us here in America, church is just kind of part of our it's part of our week. You know, we show up and we go and it's good, you know, we have a way of going about things. It's it's almost like in some of these countries, like church is the relief and the celebration and the togetherness in the community from everything else they're probably experiencing throughout the week. Did you guys get that feeling like, hey, we're we're here and they they wanted to be at church?

SPEAKER_03 9:18

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

They were definitely very grateful to be able to go to church.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Yeah, that's awesome. So after y'all got done with church, then you got to do the first thing that I thought was pretty amazing was you all encountered a bunch of kids that don't have shoes. Right. So how how many kids did y'all get to minister to that you just simply don't have shoes? And what'd y'all do for those kids?

SPEAKER_03 9:43

I'd say it was around like 50? 50-ish? Yeah. Well, we they were brought in. A lot of these kids probably lived off the streets, lived near the slums, and so they were brought in, and some of them went to the church there at Swahiba because they'll do services every Sunday there. And you know, just one at a time we were able to wash their feet and give them new shoes and socks and just minister to them. We'd talk to them about the Lord and ask if they knew Jesus, and you know, we'd pray for them after. And you know, I think that was very eye-opening for me because you know, you see you see these kids where it's they don't even have shoes. And so when you're still able to show the Lord to them and teach them about Jesus, I think I think that's a very big blessing for you know us and them.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Yeah, yeah. So that obviously was a big deal. It was a moving deal for y'all. All of us are sitting here, have shoes. We're blessed to have them. And then after that, the next day, you guys did a series of vacation Bible schools, right? So wh what did that look like? Where were you doing it? How was that organized?

SPEAKER_01 10:53

So Swahiba has a place, it's like the rooftop of where you're at, and we have all the kids come in and we have different groups, and so we did four different VBSs and we got to switch groups every time. So there was a craft group, skit group, gang group, and then the song group. And so the first day, me and Cam were in the same group for doing these. The first day in the morning we got to do crafts with the kids, and our theme for VBS was David and Goliath. So we helped them make a slingshot, and then they got to color David and Goliath coloring sheets after, and they loved coloring. Like it was the highlight of their day. They thought it was so cool. Like they wouldn't even like we'd try and go talk to them while they're coloring, they wouldn't even talk to us, wouldn't even look at us. They're busy. And then the next so we did two VBSs the first day, and then in the afternoon, we got to do a games group with them, and we did Kim was Goliath, and they had a slingshot, and they they took marshmallows and they slung it at him, and then we got to do like soccer with them and stuff, and they love arguing about Messi and Ronaldo get so into it.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Who won the soccer game? Them or y'all?

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Them.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

Yeah, y'all are slow. Hey, so you told me something yesterday about the slingshot. You were using marshmallows for the slingshot. What was their perspective about you using the marshmallows?

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Some of them didn't even like know what marshmallows were. They were asking us, they're like, What is this? Some of them would just like put it in their mouth and eat it, and they didn't even know what it was.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

But once but once they figured out it was food.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Oh yeah, they were all eating it.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

They they were amazed that you were playing with food, right? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

And they were like, Why are we like wasting this type of thing?

SPEAKER_03 12:38

They slowly started to disappear from the back.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

They were all gone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:42

But talk about something we don't even think about though. Yeah, something that just isn't even on our radar.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

Yeah, so y'all are using the marshmallows for the for the for the stones, right? And the kids figure it out, and their mind is blown that you're doing that. Yeah. So that that that's amazing, right? That's amazing. So you did the VBSs, you did four of them. The other big event you guys did was you went to several different schools, right? What were the different schools and what were y'all able to do when you went there?

SPEAKER_03 13:15

Well, so after the first VVS, we went to a school that was let's say probably about 25, 35 minutes away. It also takes longer to drive through the streets because you know it's very rocky. Yeah, yeah. And so it was a guys and girls school, and they we first got to the first school location, and I mean it wasn't bad, it was pretty nice for uh the area because we had seen some other schools that were definitely a little bit more in poverty. And so we had to walk a little ways to get to the second location of the school, and that's where all the older kids were, and they let we introduced ourselves and they let us in worship. That was a great experience. I mean, you know, they just they're able to worship so freely and they don't really care about what others think, and there's not like this need to be like too cool for school almost. And uh they're all just very humble in their worship and they do it strictly for the Lord. And then after we were done with worship, we split up and we got with a partner and we led small groups for all the kids, and that was a great experience too, because I was with my friend Cooper, and at first they told us that we needed to, you know, just have fun with the kids, maybe play a few games, get to know them, just ask what they like to do, and then spend a little bit of time preaching about Jesus because you know, like they're still kids and they have short attention spans. And uh, you know, me and while me and Cooper were doing that, we just kind of felt the need to do less of the games and more preaching to them. And so we just decided to kind of preach to the kids, and towards the end of it, you know, God moved in such a wonderful way for our lives and for their lives, and three of the girls in our group gave their life to Christ that same day.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

Awesome. That's amazing. Awesome. So so that was school one. You guys got to do that two more times, generally the same setup, different every time.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

So the second school we went to had about like 500 kids. Well, yeah. It was it was so insane. And before, like, they had Daniel preach at that school, and before we, you know, Daniel preached and we did the worship and stuff, they were like, Okay, like you guys can go talk to kids. And so we got to go in the crowd, and all these kids are surrounding us and just hugging us and like high-fiving, all the things. They're so excited to see us. And they were just like obsessed with us. Like they thought we were the coolest people ever. Like, we didn't even have to do anything, not a word came out of my mouth, and they're like, You were amazing.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

They'd never seen Americans.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Oh, yeah, they loved our hair a lot, they're touching our hair and stuff. But we got to kind of talk to them about like their stories, and you know, like, hey, are you a Christian? Yada yada. And I got to talk to a bunch of girls, and they were talking about like I was like, Are you guys Christians? And they were like, Yeah, and they got to share their favorite Bible verses with me and things like that, and that was really cool. Um, and then Daniel spoke to them, and they had about like 70 kids raise their hands at the invitation. Wow, and so that was just so cool, like seeing that many hands come up to accept Jesus as their savior.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Yeah, that's awesome. So then you had a third school. What what what happened at the third school?

SPEAKER_03 16:26

That was the all-girls school. So we had done another VBS before it, and then it was later that afternoon. We went to an all-girls school, and this was the school for you know, young women if they have like really bad home lives and suffer from abuse at their houses, they would get sent here, and they'd have a few teachers and they'd go every day, and you know, they'd go through school, and then they'd also teach them the Bible. And Swahiba, the Swahiba Networks, they would uh work with them a lot there, and they were trying to raise money to get a better building and add to the building to uh just give them as much as possible. And so we got there and they were really shy at first, but you know, we they led us in some worship, and then they led us in one of their songs they were doing, and we got to uh we we got to sing a song that we had been doing all week with motions, and uh at first we didn't really think they were gonna enjoy it, but you know, it just turned into a big dance party eventually with worship.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

It was really fun. Yeah, it's cool.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

That was really great. And then after that, you know, we sat down. One of our leaders, Kenna, who took us on the trip, she was able to speak a little bit, and then another another one of the girls on our trip, Claudia Boyd. She shared her testimony, and that was really good. I think that was really it related a lot to the girls there, and so that was great. And after that, we we made two small group groups and we split our team up with all the girls there, and that was really great because a lot of the girls there had already heard a lot about Jesus, they were all saved, but it was just really great going in depth with them.

SPEAKER_04 18:01

Cool. Yeah, making that connection. Kayleigh, how did that impact you walking into a situation like that, all these girls and kind of have an idea of where they came from, like, you know, as far as the abuse and the stories behind it, you know, you being a young woman, how did that impact you?

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Honestly, like it was really sad because a lot of them also went to that school because if they had brothers and their parents had to choose between who they're gonna pay for to go to school, they weren't gonna choose them, they're gonna choose their brothers. And so this was the school they were sent to because their parents couldn't affect like afford to even pay for their school. So they picked their brothers because that's gonna be their family and they're just gonna marry off the girl. And so going into it, I was like, I'm really blessed to my parents, like I have three brothers, and my parents, like obviously, I get to go to school, and not just me, but my brothers also go to school. And it was really eye-opening because we were sitting in small groups and they were asking us, like, everybody, the girls and our team included, to kind of share something, encouragement, you know, what God's laid on your heart. And this girl sitting next to me, she was saying, she was like, I think we should all be grateful for everything that we have. Even if we have nothing, we should be grateful. It was really eye-opening for me because how often am I not grateful for everything that I have in America? And this girl in Africa who has near next to nothing is talking about being grateful. And it made me feel very selfish, to be perfectly honest.

SPEAKER_05 19:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Because she was talking about like, yes, like I might not have anything, but I want to be grateful because God's given it to me. And like, even the little things, I sit here and I like I complain and things like that. But her talking about being grateful for things really, really humbled me. Yeah, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

So so so after the schools, one good point you made right there is school in Kenya, you gotta pay for it, right? So here in America, everybody gets a chance to get an education, everybody can do whatever they want to with it. In Kenya, that just ain't the case. And most places around the world that ain't the case.

SPEAKER_04 20:11

So yeah, and a vast majority of kids in America don't even want to be at school. Yeah, they're finding ways to get out of it. That's right. Or just kind of squander it and don't realize the importance of education. Yeah, when you don't have it, man, you know, the rest of the world's fighting for it.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

It's a problem.

SPEAKER_04 20:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

So after that, so I think if I remember right, they get you through Wednesday, right? Is that right? Yes. So then Thursday, you guys had two other events. You were done with VBS, you were done with the schools. First event was you went and got to see widows in the slums itself, right? So talk about that, how that impacted y'all. Tell us what what you saw there.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

Well, so we woke up and we we met in, I think it was the third floor where we do a lot of the ministry at Swahiba Networks, and we had some kids in there that you know, we gave them food bags as well because they had a lot of trouble at their homes, and we we just ministered to them and we prayed for them and gave them some resources. And then the widows were there as well, and we did the same thing for them. It was great because we got to hear the kids' stories, and we also got to hear the widows' stories, and I think that was really eye-opening just to see you know what they've been through throughout their lives because they shared a lot of like real struggles. And so after that, we split up into our groups, and we went with each group had two widows that they went and they visited. And so I think that was really great because it was we went deep into the slums and with my group, this one woman, she uh in her house she didn't really have a roof on it, or the sides were all messed up, and so whenever it would rain and Nairobi. It would flood where she was living, her living space. And she didn't even have enough room to fit a bed. So she told us that she forgot what it felt like to sleep in a bed. And she was sleeping on the ground for months and several years. She lived down there for five years and just really struggling with money too. Cause she owned a shop that she would also sell stuff out of her house. And so one of the guys on her trip, this was his fourth time there, and he had helped pay. And the Swahiba Networks helped pay for her to get a roof and a second story to her house. And they had a bed now. And she said when they first gave her the bed, she didn't open her business for two days because all she wanted to do was sleep.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

Well, time out real quick. Explain to everybody how big this area was. You say a house.

SPEAKER_03 22:57

For the house, I would say for like the bedroom in my room, I would say for my bedroom, it was probably like either the size of my bedroom or a little bit smaller. And so when you're going through, she had like barely a hallway. And so when you're walking through the hallway, it's like you can't even push your elbows out. Like you're walking and your shoulders are touching the sides when you're walking through.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 23:26

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

Okay. So I mean it's it's tiny.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

It's very tiny.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

15 feet wide at the most. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:34

And probably wall to wall with a bunch of other and in a lot of these houses, houses, yeah, too, they're living with like four or five people in one.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

And they'll only have one bed in there for all of those people to sleep in.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

Yeah. So you went to another one.

SPEAKER_03 23:50

So the other one, we were walking through the slums even deeper, and you know, you look to your left, and there's just sewage and trash all through there. And then you look to your right, and it's like you have a door, another door, another door, and they're all sandwiched in. So I mean, they're almost living in like the same building, like the same exact room almost, because they're all like connected. And so with this woman, you know, it was really great getting to meet her. Her she only had one story in her house, and it was really crazy because just to hear her story of how bad she was struggling financially, because the people that were over her house had doubled her rent, and she was four months behind on it already. And so if you weren't up to date on your rent, then they would lock you out of your house until you could pay it, or for the night. And so she lived with four other kids. She lived with two of her kids and two of her grandkids, and she was around 55 years old. And one of her sons got in a really, really bad street fight, and the family that it was against pressed charges against their family. And so it was either she could pay $200 to get her son out, but the case stays open, so he still has a chance of going to jail, or unlawfully pay five hundred and fifty dollars to the family. And you know, it's just they can't she couldn't make up five hundred dollars or two hundred dollars just like that, especially being four months behind on her rent. And I thought that was just so crazy because you know, for it to be like her rent for us would cost about twenty-five, like for it to be four months behind, it'd be like two hundred dollars for us, which you know, for some people in America, you know, like they can come up with that money pretty easily.

SPEAKER_04 25:38

Yeah. Yeah, but her back's against the wall.

SPEAKER_03 25:41

Yeah, and so you know, we prayed for her a lot for all of her needs, and you know, we're just wanting to see what God will do there for her. Because, you know, I thought it was really crazy because even though she's in that bad of a financial position, she would still attend church every day. And she was still talking about her faith and still talking about how she has faith in God. And I just think that's like that's a valuable lesson for me because like a lot of the times I don't want to have faith in things because it's like you know, I have everything I need already here in America, and you know, it's like there's not a lot of wants or needs that I actually need here, and so I thought that was just very eye-opening for me.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

Yeah, yeah. Kayleigh, you got anything from from the widows?

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Yeah. So the first widow that I went to to get to her house, you have to go through like a bunch of different alleys. And kind of like Kim was saying, like you look to your left and there's like houses everywhere stacked on top of each other, and there's just trash and dirt, and like it's not like a normal like sidewalk or anything. There's like just nasty like sewage. You look to your right, there's like water that is the most disgusting water you've ever seen. Like it's brown, it's not even water at that point. And you have to like hop over a bunch of things, go through all these alleys to get to her house. And we get in there, and you know, they they want you to sit down. They always have you sit down because they're like, you're our visitor, you sit down and you have to go sit on the beds or you know, wherever they have in their house for you to sit. And the first widow we got to talking with her, and she was talking about how she has about three or four kids staying in that house with her. And then she was like, But I work at a bookstore, and she was really grateful to be able to work at this bookstore. And so we're like, okay, okay, like she works at a bookstore. We're thinking like American bookstore, you know, you walk in, there's books everywhere. We're walking back, and we actually got to see her bookstore, and it was these books lined up on a brick wall, and they were hanging on the wall, and these people they stood on the road and they would sell you books from the road. Wow. And that put into perspective, like, wow, like this isn't what we were expecting at all. And she was so grateful for it. But then we got to walk to our next widow's house and she lived in a little bit of a nicer area, you know, she had concrete floors. And she we walked in and we all got to sit down. And this lady, before we had left Swahiba, they all told us their testimonies. And so this lady had told us that she was a hairstylist, but in the middle of the night, the government like they came and they completely knocked down where she was working at, destroyed it. All of her hair supplies, too, was still in there. So anything she could have had to continue working all in there. And you know, she comes to work the next day and it's just completely obliterated. There's nothing she can do. And so, you know, but she's like, Man, like I'm praying and God will provide for me. And I think it's kind of like in America, we go we look around and we see like we have everything. We don't really have to trust in God too much to provide for us because we've already been provided for. But in like there in Kenya, like they truthfully have to trust in God to provide.

SPEAKER_05 28:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

And they don't have anything else, like God's gonna provide for them. They have to trust that. And so we got to pray over these widows. And the last widow we went to, we prayed, each of us prayed over her kids, and she was just in tears because there was somebody who cared so much about praying for her kids and over her job, especially, because obviously, like she didn't have a job at that point because where she had worked was torn down. And just seeing like how grateful she was for us praying for her, but also how much trust she had in God providing for her.

SPEAKER_04 29:31

Yeah, it's amazing. You know, we a lot of times we pray to God with plan B already in mind. Yeah. Hey God, here's here's here's what I what I need and what I want, but in case you don't answer the way I think you should, I've already got something else worked out. You know, we we kind of live in a lot of times in those situations. You you get to other parts of the world and you see this this desperate kind of faith where all they have is is God. They're relying on God to provide. And seeing that, I'm I'm sure is it's pretty rattling when you realize like you know, you have people that are living their day-to-day is I have to trust God because I don't have anything else. It's wild, you know. It's wild, makes you check yourself a lot for sure.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

So then after that, you guys, the the last ministry activity y'all had was you went to a correctional facility, right? So who was at the correctional facility and why were they there?

SPEAKER_03 30:36

So it was the correctional facility was for, you know, a lot of boys from really as young as it gets to have a really bad offense up until you're around 18. It was sort of a prison for kids that would get caught, you know, going against the law. And they would get sent there and they would they would have a school there that they would learn, but then they would stay there for a few months. It kind of depends how bad their case was, and then they would end up getting sent out, whether it's another holding facility or go into prison if they're of age. And so, you know, there were kids there for living, like they had a lot of street kids there, which they would have bad home lives and disobey their parents so much to where their parents would kick them out of the house and they would live off the streets. There were several boys I talked to there who were in there for stealing and they got caught for that. Some were in there for selling drugs and using drugs, some were in there for uh really bad fights and getting into many fights, really all sorts of reasons. And I thought it was great getting to go there because a lot of them really didn't know Jesus that much. You know, they had heard of him and they'll say, Yeah, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but like they didn't really know him until and so that's why we were there trying to, you know, just minister to them. And so we were once we got there, I would say there was around a little less than 50, maybe around 40, 35-ish. And so, you know, we all circled up, split up between them, and they uh they did some dances for us. And then after that, we led them in worship. We did our song again that we had done at the other schools.

SPEAKER_04 32:19

Same dance party after.

SPEAKER_03 32:20

Yeah, we weren't really expecting them to talk that much, but they really enjoyed it and they were dancing and singing, and that was really great. And then our leader, Daniel, spoke to them again and he preached for them, and we split up into small groups again. And it was really great getting to hear their stories, just hear what they had been through, and getting to tell them, you know, the news of Jesus and why it's so important that you know they become a follow for him and live their life for him. And uh that was really great because you could tell like some of the kids they want to do better, and when they leave there, they want to do better, but it's they just don't really know how. And a lot of them were thinking, you know, like I can live my life as good as possible and go to heaven, and that's just not how it works. And so uh we were uh we were just really trying to pour into them and tell them like you know, like the only way to change your life is if you live for Jesus every day, and we were really showing them how to do that, and I thought that was really great.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

Yeah, good stuff. So then after that, you know, y'all got to have some fun, right? You got to go to you got to go to the national park, right? You gotta see a bunch of animals, you got to go see some giraffes, you got to go see some elephants. I saw all sorts of pictures on that. Some monkeys, some monkeys, camp monkeys. Yeah, you got to play with the monkeys, right, Cam.

SPEAKER_03 33:40

Almost got attacked. Yeah, you gotta be careful.

SPEAKER_02 33:43

So out of all of that, you know, then when you got done, you got to, what was it, a 16-hour flight back? It was worse coming back. How long was it coming back?

SPEAKER_01 33:53

It was a two-hour one and then a 16 hour. Well, we did six hours and we went to Rome and we stopped and we got gas and we had another 10 hours to Atlanta.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

You had to refuel, right? Because you were flying back against the wind. But you didn't get off the plane in Rome, right?

SPEAKER_04 34:05

You just had to sit there.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

We just sat there.

SPEAKER_04 34:06

Yeah, well, you check the box, you can say you've been to Rome. Right. Yeah. But still it's like what 16 hours straight on a plane.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 34:14

That's a lot of time.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

We slept the whole time though, for the most part, because it was like our night there, so we slept a lot.

SPEAKER_04 34:21

Probably just exhausted after the week. So it's oh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

So just closing thought from both y'all. What what what do you take away from the trip? What do you what do you take away from it? What's your big takeaway?

SPEAKER_03 34:36

I would say like I definitely want to well, going there and seeing how freely they were just able to worship and not really care what other people think, and you know, very judgment-free. I really want to bring that back to America. And, you know, going on a trip like that and just seeing how eye-opening that is, that starts with us that we're on the trip. And so, like, it's our job to bring that back here if we want that back here in America. Because, you know, here in the US, like, you don't our churches are not like that. They're not like that. It's just that's the bottom line. And so, you know, it starts with being a leader and leading the others to show them, you know, how to act. And I thought that was great. And another thing I take away was just definitely being grateful for what I have and having like a better sense of faith, I would say, because you know, knowing God is like in control, because being there, the uh even down to the widows, they had that faith, they had nothing, they were um living in horrible conditions and you know, horrible financial situations as well, but they still had that faith for the Lord and a very great faith. And so that's that's really what I want here.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

Good stuff, good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

I think for me, a lot of things about joy, because joy shouldn't be rooted in your circumstances, it should be rooted in your creator, and you go there and you see all these people with such joy, like they have immense amounts of joy, and you can tell they don't root that's not rooted in their circumstances because you look around, it couldn't be rooted in their circumstances, and they really root that joy in God. And so, you know, coming back here, I really want to root my joy in God and not in my circumstances and what's going on around me. But also kind of the worship thing, I really want to stop performing because I think that's a big thing here. We want to perform. And when we look around to everyone around us, we want to see, hey, does this person like me? Does this person like me? And there you see, they don't even care about performing. It's not even a thought that crosses their mind. All they care about is seeking his presence. And we could really tell that in church, but really just talking to all these kids also like performing isn't a thing for them. They really just want to seek his presence, and that's all that matters for them.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

That's awesome. Good stuff, guys. Good stuff. Super proud of both y'all, proud that y'all got this opportunity to go do that. And you know, Jared, this is a different podcast than what we usually have, right? And you know, I just want to tell everybody look, I'm not trying to tell you what to believe, but you know, we know what we believe. Okay. Everybody needs to find something bigger than themselves to be able to work at and work on. You know, all of us here in America are so blessed. And Kaylee Cam, appreciate y'all coming on and just talking about at a very young age how you all did something selfless. You went, you saw and helped those that are in great need. And all of us need to think about that. I mean, it's hard for us to understand how blessed we are at times, but here in America, there's lots of need. There's lots of people that have needs, and all of us need to try to think beyond ourselves if we can.

SPEAKER_04 37:57

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, when you look at these trips that, you know, churches take or other groups take, first I'm I'm glad they're actually happening again because they kind of stalled out during the pandemic. Yeah, COVID messed it all up. Yeah, so seeing that there's groups that are ramping back up and being able to do trips like this is amazing. And can you go to Kenya and fix everything? No, you can't. But you can allow the Lord to leverage that experience to fix a lot of things in you and then allow him to work through you to at least in that moment bring relief to somebody that you encounter that is going through just the the hard times of life. And so the the kids that you connected with and the widows and the boys at the correctional facility, um, is it fixing everything for them? No, but you brought some joy, some relief, you brought some love and some gospel and the good things to their day. But what it does is it in turn, you know, as you guys are reflecting, it's forming and shaping who you are and understanding, man, you know, I'm I'm blessed, you know, coming home and realizing that you've got more things in your room laying around than uh really any of those kids will probably ever own in their entire life.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

More stuff on the floor than those kids.

SPEAKER_04 39:29

For sure, right. And when you let that gravity like sink in, you know, it it it changes you. And you know, it I think it's so important for not only for you guys, but for everybody and everybody out there listening to have these moments where you just choose to be selfless.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

And that ties into the Right Brothers' core value, right?

SPEAKER_04 39:52

Core value, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 39:54

Selflessness, yes, and that's part of why we're having this conversation.

SPEAKER_04 39:57

Exactly. Right. Because when we choose to put others before ourselves, everything gets better. Yep. Whether it's on the job, whether it's in your family, whether it's you know, in the relationships you have with the people that are close to your life, in your community, when we choose to be selfless over self-ish, everything gets better. When it's not my way or the highway, or it's not just my perspective, or it's not just the way I want to do it. Now, when you when you choose to operate in conjunction with the team, and you put the other person first, the the people beside you first, and you're doing the work or you're doing whatever you're doing for the good and the benefit of somebody else, then everybody starts winning. And you know, when we choose a selfless perspective, one uh it should make us better, it should should change us. Yeah, we start looking at the world a different way, we should start shifting our environment. We're gonna get along with others better, we're gonna see other people differently, it's gonna start shifting the communities that we live in. Because then all of a sudden it's not just, hey, I'm doing this in this place, it's like this is where I live and it matters. So I'm gonna make a difference here.

SPEAKER_05 41:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:20

And so if we all choose to take on that core value of selflessness, it's gonna impact you. It's gonna impact the brother and the sister around you, it's gonna impact the place where you work, where you live, your family, your marriage. So choose to be selfless. You know, why not?

SPEAKER_02 41:38

We should. And you don't have to go all the way to Kenya to be selfless. No, but hey, great example, guys. Great example. Proud of both of y'all. Appreciate y'all coming on the podcast, speaking to all of us, and appreciate the example you've given to all of us. So thank you for that. Kaylee, Cam, proud of y'all. Appreciate y'all. So, Jared, I think that's I think that's the story for today, man.

SPEAKER_04 42:03

Great convo, and that's gonna wrap it up. So, thank you for tuning in to Talk and Grit. Tune in next time. We'll have a fresh episode for you. Until then, hit us up with any sort of feedback at podcast at wbccci.com. See you next time.

SPEAKER_00 42:17

That's gonna do it for this episode of Talk and Grit. Thanks for listening, and thanks to everyone out there putting in the work day in and day out. If you liked what you heard, be sure to follow the show and share it with someone who knows the value of hard work. We'll catch you next time right here on Talking Grit.