Posted in A Trip Update by Chad Mustain on 7/28/2009
Just a quick update to say that the Kenya team made it back. Those that are staying over night and flying out in the morning are at the hotel and the few that are flying home today should be on their way.
Posted in A Trip Update by Joelle Gnotek on 7/27/2009
I am just a few hours away from getting on a plane to return to my family. I am super excited to go back to them: to see my 3-year-old sister, to hear about my other sister's journey to Europe, to know that my dad is recovering well from his surgery, and to see how my mom dealt with all the chaos of the summer. I can't wait to discover how God has been working in my community while I was away... But in so many ways I feel like I'm leaving home, not going back.
I've only been here for two months this time around, but the very first day I arrived in Kenya will be a year ago tomorrow... which is my birthday. I started and ended my nineteenth year of life arriving in and leaving this wonderful country. God has given me such a love for His people here and home is not a place, but as the saying goes, "Home is where the heart is." My heart is in Kenya. While I know that God has prepared a place for me in America to abundantly receive His blessings, I also know that He is preparing a place for me in Kenya to return to.
The most wonderful thing is that it is not in my hands. I do not have to worry about anything, because God's plan is so much bigger than my own. As long as I am listening to His calling and following His leading, I will always be exactly where I am meant to be. God's plan is absolutely nothing short of an adventure.
Where do we begin? Kibera has been an experience that none of us could have expected...its been a trip of a lifetime. Our days are filled with ministry and our nights are filled with fellowship. In the short time of being here we have built so many relationships that it is going to be bittersweet to leave.
Today was our last day with the preschoolers and some of them have faced more hardships than any one person could imagine. Monica is the woman who started the preschool because of the calling to reach children in need. As a single mother, she has five biological children, five children under her immediate care that were left to fend for themselves, and then also meets the needs of 60 more children from Kibera. One of the children that Monica has taken in is a five year old boy named Davis. Davis is an orphan that has been left in her care because both of his parents died from aids. He himself has aids and Monica has done what she can to get him on medication to suppress the side effects. Monica wakes up every morning at five to start cooking mindazi's to sell on the streets so that she can have enough money to feed the children. She lives day by day trusting in the Lord to sustain her ministry because she doesn't know where the money will come from most of the time. Monica is one of the many new friends we have made that have touched our lives here in Nairobi.
Another ministry mentioned in the previous blog is the boys detention center. It's hard to articulate how much these boys mean to us in just a short span of time. There are 31 boys and they each have their own story of how they ended up on the streets. We have divided into groups and Rivers and I are leaders for the youngest boys. Most of them left because their parents saw that they were starving and sent them to find food by begging on the streets. On a positive note, one of the younger boys, Mansur, was picked up by his grandmother last week to return home. Mansur was leaving right as we arrived and we were able to pray over him before we said good bye. These boys radiate joy but the man in charge of them, Martin, said that two months ago they were unbearable to be around. Martin brought the Gospel when he came to help out at the detention center and half of the boys accepted Christ as their personal Savior. So much of our love and prayers go out to these boys because if they can't have an earthly father, our prayer is that they see their Father in us.
Please continue to pray diligently for our team as we wrap up our ministry here in Kenya. Pray that we remain in the moment and that we love these children as Christ love us. Pray that we hunger and thirst for him spiritually and that we can be responsive to His calling for us. We love and miss you all. See You soon.
Posted in A Trip Update by Amber Corley on 7/16/2009
Hello everyone! (this blog is being brought to you by amber and sara healy )
We are excited to say that we have moved to our second location...Kibera! Wrapping things up in Kijabe was really hard but we had an awesome last week and an even better last night saying goodbye to all the amazing people we met. Our first two days in Kibera were spent getting adjusted to the disperities between Kijabe and Kibera. Kibera is the largest slum in Africa, there are roughly 1 million people in a mile radius. For most of us this was our first time seeing real poverty on the streets. Houses are on top of eachoter and made of sticks, mud, and manure. The streets are made of trash and there is one river that runs through the slum that is the only water source and is cantaminated with human waste and things you could not even imagine. The first day, we had to hold our breath many times because the smell is so horrific. Despite all of these circumstances the people are INCREDIBLE. They have pure joy and live simply. Community here is much like what we experienced in Kijabe.
We are staying at a bed and breakfast outside Kibera, it is about a 15 minute walk into the slum everyday. We only have 2 weeks of ministry here so we dove in right away. OUr days are a lot longer here than in Kijabe going from 9-5 but it has been amazing thus far. OUr first day of ministry was open air evangelism on the streets of Kibera. Pastor Timothy has a passion for evengelism so he pushed us out of our comfort zone. As opposed to door to door evangelism in Kijabe, Pastor Timothy saw 20 men sitting on a wall and said lets start here! The fruit that came from that day was amazing. Through the Lord's grace 15 of those men came to know Him and profess thier lives to Him that day. 1 day a week we work at a preschool where we sing and play with the children. It is a one room school house with 70 kids and 4 teahers. Another day is spent at the primary school where we teach Christian education for grades 1-7. 3 days a week we are at a detention center for kids who have run away from home, become street boys, and then are collected by the police and brought here. The boys are ages 9-16 and there are 33 of them. This has been our (Amber & Sara) favorite ministry. We really have a heart for these boys. WE came in with the idea that they would be really tough and hard to reach but we have been amazed at what the power of love can do.
God is working and we are excited to see what can happen in the next week! Continue to be praying for our team unity, for good health, and strength. A prayer that we can surrender our will to the Lord's daily and continue to seek His face in everything we do. We all love you and miss you all so much. OUr team is getting excited to come back and share stories with all of our loved ones but pray that we can stay focused and be fully present for the rest of our stay.
IN christ, sara and amber :)
From Amber- MOM I WISH YOU HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I LOVE YOU!
It's now our fourth week to ministry and God has been doing so many incredible things. We are so blessed to be His vessels and to bring Him all the glory and I want this blog to do just that, bring glory to His name because He did it all. This is the Lord's story of a man named Mwongi who was lost but now is found. Every Friday our team has traveled to a near town to do door to door ministry. The first Friday, June 12th, every home we visited was a home of believers until the last one. Lee, Joelle, two translators and myself made up our group for this ministry. We walked into the house of a man names Mwongi and were immediately greeted with joy. Mwongi is in his 70's (we never received the actually age) and he lives mostly by himself with occasional visits from one of his daughters with grandchildren. He had two wives (which is very common in Kenya for none believers) but the last one passed away 15 years ago. He shared with us his loneliness and how not many people ever come around. Two of us shared our testimonies and we asked if he knew the Lord. He said that he thinks there is a God but he doesn't have a relationship with Him and does not know who Jesus Christ is. We asked if we could pray for him and he said yes. He asked us to pray for his ears and eyes because he has a hard time seeing and hearing. After we prayed he was so happy, his smile was so bright and he was so thankful that people even cared to come talk to him. We encouraged him to go to church on Sunday and said goodbye. Our group knew that the Lord was doing something in this man and we needed to come back.
The following Friday we were looking forward to going back but the Pastor who we were working with had to go to a funeral so he cancelled on us to come back. However, that morning when Lee, Joelle, and myself woke up we felt the Lord was still calling us to go back to the town where Mwongi lives. In order for us to go back we needed a ride and a translator, so we prayed for God's will to be done. After lunch that day, God opened the door for Lee, Joelle and myself to go back to this town to visit Mwongi again. As we were in the taxi on the way over, we just kept praying that he would be at his house when we got there. We also decided to bring him some flour and rice not really sure if he needed it or not. We walked into his gate and we initially did not see him so we kept praying and we heard a noise from behind the shed and we walked around and sure enough, Mwongi was there! His face lit up in joy and he welcomed us. He said he remembered us from the week before and he was so happy we came again. We gave him the food and he said that he was so thankful because he didn't have any and didn't know what he was going to eat for dinner. Praise Jesus! After some small talk we asked him if he attended church on Sunday and he said "it is better not to lie than to lie so no I did not go". He is a very honest man and we really appreciate that. As we were talking to him, we were filled with the spirit and filled with words to say. God was having a conversation with Mwongi through us. When one of us didn't have words, the other did and it was truly amazing. Lee looked down into a chicken who was near us and he looked into the chicken's eye. He saw a silhouette of the cross in the chicken's eye and it was a confirmation from the Lord. Mwongi welcomed the good news because he said "I will listen because you came back. People come to tell me about this God and leave and I never see them again"which meant so much to us. As the Gospel was being shared he would stop and think before he would respond. You could see the Lord moving in his eyes. By the end of the conversation he came to the revelation that we were sent by God. He was so thankful for us, just to have a conversation with other people made his week. The glory of God fell upon us. It was ALL Him. We prayed again for Mwongi's hearing and sight and told him, if the Lord wills we will be back next week.
All week we prayed for Mwongi and Friday we had the door opened for us to go back to the town where he lives. We walked into his gate and he was standing there farming and when he saw us he was so happy and so joyful. He could not stop smiling. We asked him how his ears and eyes were. He said that the pain from his ears is gone but he is still struggling to hear and see. We asked if he went to church on Sunday and he said no because if he went he would not be able to see and hear. He said he prayed to God all week but did not feel anything. We then felt God telling us to show him the "bridge illustration" which illustrates Romans 6:23 in picture form so that he could understand more of who Jesus is. When we were done, we watched him as he was thinking and it suddenly clicked for him. You could again see the Lord working inside him. He began to say things such as " even thieves and satan know who God and I will no longer be confused, God is real and so is Jesus". We were blown away and we asked him if he wanted to be in relationship with Jesus Christ his savior and he said YES! We prayed with him and he began to cry. The Holy Spirit was moving through him and us. We also prayed for his hearing and sight again. Afterwards he said "its okay if I die now" and we were almost speechless if it wasn't for God being there. We encouraged him to continue praying and to go to church on Sunday. He said, "I will tell everyone about God and Jesus!" We bought him a Bible in his language and plan on bringing it to him this week. Praise the Lord for His love and grace for all of His children! Pray for Mwongi that the Lord will continue to captivate his heart and if it is in the Lord's will for him to be healed.
Posted in A Trip Update by Stephen Lepke on 6/24/2009
By Stephen Lepke written on 6/20/2009
Well we've been
here almost 2.5 weeks now and I can't believe just how much God has been
doing.We've been very busy helping
build a 3rd and 4th grade school, leading a 1st
and 2nd grade school, playing with kids during P.E. (physical
education), and also going to the hospital.I think in every instance, God has been moving and working in ways we
couldn't imagine.
For example, one
of my favorite moments thus far has been spending time with the workers who
have been building the 3rd and 4th grade school.We've spent two full days with them, digging
ditches and laying the foundation to the building.During our days work, we've been engaging the
workers in conversation and talking to them about God.They open up a lot since we are doing manual
labor along side of them and have earned their trust and respect. During our
second visit, one of the older boys named Samuel invited us to eat dinner with
him at his house.At first I thought he
was just being nice, but not going to follow through with the invite.But God knocked me in the face and the next
day Samuel came up and said, "So you are coming tomorrow, right?"So he came by and picked us up the next
afternoon and we had an amazing Kenya dinner.We had Chapatay (like a tortilla), fried cabbages, potatoes, shredded
carrots, and a fruit bowl.They fed us
so much food and were very hospitable.We talked about the differences of culture, school, football (soccer)
and God.
Stay tuned for more... We're experiencing technical difficulties.
Posted in A Trip Update by Katie Propheter on 6/24/2009
Here we walk the earth, through the jungle, miles in the
morning to get to church. Here we lay down our selfish pride, cast aside
mirrors, and let Christ define our beauty. Here we have no house, but make a
tent full of friends our home. Here we have come, forsaking our families to
follow God, only to find family, communion with our Father and brothers and
sisters. Here we came because we worship God. Here we came to worship God and
so we do.
We have not
forsaken all. Far from it, we are finding out All in All the Great I AM. Laying
under the stars we meditate on our insignificance. Standing in the Greatt Rift
Valley we praise God for our usefulness. A child hangs from every limb, and ten
more press in from every side, just to touch us, only to talk. We are not
significant because of who we are, or what we are doing here, but because God
allows us to be his living love to the people here.
Life in this close
community is not simple, but Christ's love covers over a multitude of wrongs.
We are weak but He is strong it as simple as that. In the valley there is
extreme poverty among the people of the IDP (internally displaced people)
Camps. Water is a scarcity, and clean water nearly impossible to come by.
Children run around hungry but glad for the distraction we bring. Parents talk
about the homes they left with longing, longing for the farms that feed them
and the people that were killed in the political uprising. The first night as a
team we questioned God. Why? Why God? Why do I have much and they have little?
Why couldn't you have done this to me in their place? Why don't you multiple
the simple amount of food we brought so there could be enough for everyone. WHY
LORD ARE YOU SILENT WHILE THEY SUFFER?
God answered us.
"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace
yourself like a man; I will question you and you shall answer me. Where were
you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked
off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone while the morning
stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? Who shut up the sea
behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its
garment and wrapped it in thick darkness when I fixed limits for it and set its
doors and bars in place?"
So we fall on our
face in worship Which is why we are here in the first place. God is Holy and we
are not. He is the savior and I am not. I will praise Him all my days for He is
faithful.
Faithful. Promise
keeper. We petition Him, simply cry out to Him to remember His promises to His
people and relieve their suffering, to provide for their needs.
If only pictures
and words could fully convey all that I see, taste, hear, feel, experience, and
learn. Then I would spend every free moment writing to you that you may be
blessed as much as I by what is going on here. Sadly, I cannot do God's work
here justice. However, know this.
Here I find peace
because I am where I belong, following hard after God, for the fist time in
years. Here my life is being changed daily. Here I am returning to the joy of
my childhood. Here I learn the simple truth of children's songs. Here I am
finding ‘I am weak but He is strong, Yes, Jesus loves me' Amen
Posted in A Trip Update by Daniel Power on 6/24/2009
Hey Person Reading This!!
So this is just a quick update for all those interested in the doings of the Kenya team in Kijabe.
I don't know where the last person left off so I'll just wing it.
We landed in Nairobi after a long day (or short two days, I'm not sure) of travel . Three or so hours of Matatu action and we are in Kijabe, Kenya. The town in primarily a missionary town and there are a ton of believers here. It's cool to see God working all the way around the world, but still proving me wrong daily. Turns out Africa is not just a giant desert, who knew...
For ministry, we have had a WIDE variety of opportunities. From teaching, playing, laboring, praying and worshipping, to just chillaxing in the forest, it seems like we've done so much.
Do not be alarmed!!
Most of team has been sick at some point or another but God knows what He's doing =)
Everyone is now well and kickin it old school with a few beats to spare.
The last week has been awesome. Though we are doing a lot of the same things each day, God brings up new opportunities to develop relationships and glorify Him. Thanks Big Man.
Anyway, here are few things we need prayer for:
1) COMMUNICATION! This is huge. With 17 people on the team there have been a lot of miscommunications that Satan likes to use to divide us.
2) Patience. With each other and with the people here. Different lifestyles and leadership styles make it difficult to wait on people and, much more importantly, God.
3) Love. Pray that God's love shines through us and that we wouldn't try to use anything in ourselves to help these people.
Thanks for reading =)
-This has been a blog post by Dan Power. Hope you enjoyed it.
This is not going to be a long update, I just wanted to share about what God is doing in my heart.
This trip is halfway over, and the most important thing I have learned is that God's plan is so much bigger than anything I could ever formulate.
Our first two weeks were difficult. We prayed for God to multiply food at the IDP camp and there still wasn't enough. We visited the hospital and met people who knew the gospel inside and out, yet still rejected it. We struggled as a team learning to communicate with each other and the people around us, and also with physical health and ability to be out in ministry. We prayed a lot and suffered a lot and saw a lot that we didn't understand or like. But God has a way of turning things around in His own time, and the past week has been a healing experience for almost everyone. We were able to distribute food at the IDP camp and return with an excess, and we were encouraged by the joyful attitude at the hospital the second time around. My teammates were able to plant a seed for Christ in a man outside of Kijabe who barely knew about the gospel before.
I am constantly reminded of God's timing and the paths he will take you down that you never would have expected. I have nothing deep to say and no fascinating story to tell. I am just encouraged by the growth God has forced me to make in my trust in his providence.
Sarah
PS- Congratulations from Africa, Josh Evans :) :) :)
