Hello Everyone

Hello from Kenya! I spend 40 days in this lively place and Im going to tell you all about it

Life Update

What's it like in Kenya? The people are friendly and kind. There is a deep love of chai (black tea) and an even greater air of gratefulness. The people here face a lot of challenges and they are some of the most joyful people I have ever met. There is a lot of food insecurity in the region and many families will only each once a day or as little as 3 times a week. The dream most individuals have seems to be to get money so they can get out, but the moms will almost always answer that their greatest wish is for their kid to be well and go to school. In the village a home is commonly the size of one room no matter the number of people living in it and tight spaces with limited water means there were runny noses in abundance amounst the little kids. There were few dogs and cats about and they were regularly beyond skinny, though goats and chickens on every street were a regilar occurance to see. They speak Swahili and English there so communication was fairly easy.

The ministries we were at during the week each day are a center and a school in Utange Kenya. The team lives at the Dream Center and helps with all programs the school and center run. During the day the team goes to school and starts the day helping in the kitchen to get breackfast (porridge) and then lunch out to the students. Most start like that though 2 of us usually start in the library in the morning, working one on one with the kids who need some help with reading. After lunch we visit the classes from pre-k through 9th and help with what they are working on and sometimes teaching a class until any after-school activities start. After school some hours home but some move to the Dream center to have a Bible study, a gently led mothers ministry or a movie night. The school houses 16 little girls from tough homes right on the premises and we did a sleepover with them one night as well. On Saturday we do the "500 club" and do Bible study, Worship and a feeding program to feed 500+ of the local children. Sometimes we would teach and other times we would just help, but every time we would play with and love on the kids.

We even had a racer on my team ask their church for funds to buy every child in the 500 club shoes and they did. We handed them out and although it was a little chaotic it was also so sweet.

They are always looking for sponsors to help send more kids to school and donors to help feed the kids and build the facilities compacity to hold and do more. So if you interested reach out to me.

On the other end I was able to do some fun things while we were present during our adventure days. I got to snorkel over a coral reef, go on a Safari and cliff jump into the ocean. Each experience was both wonderful and deeply humbling. We have so much and it reminded me that stewardship and helping those have less is so important, because I found that for the little they had they had something I struggled to find my whole life, joy. They shared their joy with me as I shared everything I had and I am here to tell you that they had so much more of whats really worth having. I cant thank you all enough for keeping me able to do what the Lords is doing out here. We are making a difference.

What's God doing in Kenya?

We were able to choose our schedule amongst the options that were running daily and I loved the school breackfast and lunch serving, chapel, visiting classes, joining class reading times and playing with my newfound friends at recess, then going back to do the woman's Bible study. It was a joy to help support this lovely center and God has been so kind to bring so much hope to this region even if it is only 500 kids and 200 families, that is 500 KIDS AND 200 FAMILIES that are being met by Jesus and supported.

God is bringing hope to Africa.

I have two stories that touched my heart while I was working here that I am going to share with you straight from my own journal.

Today a little girl wanted to know Jesus more and have a real relationship with Him. She has grown up in a Christian school and can quote you just about anything you want from the Bible. She always has her hand up and an answer ready and you can bet it has something to do with Jesus. Her housing is the boarding center at the school. The pretty rooms wrapped in scriptures and beds topped with handmade quilts are a cozy home to 16 girls who need it. She is maybe 10 years old and, at this moment in time, has just walked the dusty dirt roads with the other girls to the center after school today. It's girls Bible study like every Wednesday afternoon. I am sick so I help do last minute tweeks on the message we chose for today and send my team out. They are meeting just on the other side of our bedroom wall where I am resting. I know the setup well. Two picnic benches, a ring of chairs and some grass mats in the center. Each seat filled and all the little girls will have scooted in, packed snug, to hear what we will choose to share today. I can hear muffled chatter through the thick cinder and I imagine its going well. A part of me wished I went. Only the worship carries though the wall and I dont know the words in Swahili, but my heart sings along. After teaching, my friend came in and told me casually that after it ended, that little girl came up and asked my friend to help her to know Jesus more, one like the relationship that we had been describing. I was overjoyed. This particular little girl probably would have rolled her eyes at me if she saw the way I lit up as my friend told me, so I was glad in this moment to be sitting in my hot little room. I giggled and jumped around for joy. She has chosen the best thing, my favorite thing! My team gets to stay a while longer here and I hope we get the honor of seeing her change as she encounters the one who loves her the most. The one who has been chasing after her so fervently that He sent some random strangers from America to her little town in Kenya just for her. Just for her. I pray He tells her that and that she keeps moving all the knowledge she knows in her head, shifting down into her heart because it will change everything and it will be so good.

Update: The Lord send her a Bible from a member of another squad who joined our team by chance and had carried a Bible with her sisters name on it from Fiji to the US to Rwanda to right where we were in Kenya, with the instruction from the Lord that she was to give it to a little girl. My teammate had been looking for almost 2 weeks for any Bible for this little girl after her request to know the Lord personally since she had none of her own and had come up empty handed. Both girls stood in awe over this Bible as the plan of the Lord came together before their eyes. The Bible had the little girl's name written on every side in big red letters. That Bible was for her. They gave it to her and shared Their testimony of it and at the end of it all the first thing the little girls says is simply "Thank you Jesus". Thank you Jesus.

Today over 600 kids showed up to be fed. They gather for worship and sit with us in Bible study before getting a container of cooked beans and corn. Some of the kids may have only eaten 3 meals this week. I get to sit with them as we carefully watch the beans cool. You couldn't tell they are almost starving. They are full of smiles and hugs and games so much so that they forget about their beans. Some pack it up to take home and other eat there sharing bits of it amongst their siblings and friends. Little colored bowls by the hundreds. Little soft hands times two. As they line up for the flour on the way home sometimes I have to look away as the flour runs out before the line ends. We fed 670 kids today. The program is called the 500 club because thats how many they used to have. 170. Thats how many new hearts were given the gospel and sent home full. God is doing great things here.

Fundraising Update

I am not fully funded yet. I am 82% of the way their, but if faith could fill it up it would be overflowing. Please ask the Lord if joining me in partnership for what he is doing here either in prayer or in funds is part of what He has for us in this season. And Thank you for the 82% that has been given so graciously.

Spiritual Update

The Lord has put me in the position of Team leader and I think I was just a bit overwhelming to start. I had let some situations speak lies over me that I was "not doing anything right" and until I saw them and broke them my heart and mind had that lense on them. The Lord was kind to show me the lie and faithful to move me through it. It is hard to love lots of people, back home I can count my best friends on one hand and good friends on two. Being close to people is a lot of work for me because I want to be SUPER intentional. It gets hard as you add people because I just cant be deeply intentional with 30 people at the same time and it weighs on my heart. The Lord challenged me to love like He does and love each person I meet deeply and truely, but he also showed me that He had his closest friends be 3 people and good friends be 12, so He acquainted with what it means to be human like that. He loved all, and took rests away, hung out with his good friends and invited His best friends to be present during His hardest moments. I want to love like Jesus and he doesn't demand I have compacity for the world, just the people He puts in front of me and the ones who are going to be by my side while I love the ones in front of me.

He is kind to me beyond what I can convey, with peace that settles my restless heart to confidence and He has that for you too.

Prayers

Pray for my team as we travel to Ethiopia

Pray for soft open hears for the people we meet

Pray for wisdom of the Lord to know when to rest and when to pursue

I pray for the people back home to encounter the Lord deeply and be changed from glory to glory to reflect His light and heart

Answered Prayers

My cold is finally gone praise the Lord!

God is growing my team and squad to look more like Him

Thank you

Thank you Jesus. Thank you everyone who is here reading and giving in time, prayer and finances. These are your stories too and I invite you to share them as a testimony of Gods goodness to us and to the world He loves.