In the village again...

June 7^th, 2012

When we got up this morning, our plans changed again as we did not have insurance to drive out that morning.  So, instead, Gerald acted as our bodyguard as us women went to the school and Pastor David and Zach went back to teach at the church.  We had a great day at the school, and God’s grace carried me through as I slept incredibly restlessly the night before.  We sang with the kids, they remembered their verses, we taught the new lessons and gave them their bracelets.  They beamed as we tied the bracelets on, laughing and smiling at us. 

We ate a short lunch, in which Gerald tried desperately to teach the locals what “I’m not hungry” means, but they took that to mean, “I don’t have a plate” so they quickly remedied the situation!  Elise taught him that if you just take a little rice and push it around some while they’re not looking, it looks like you ate!  We gave out some sponsors gifts and some supplies for the school and headed out to pick up the boys next.  When we arrived at the church, the men were finishing up their teaching, so we went inside to sit and hear the end.  It was what I’d imagine for a mid-1800s one room church house from the US except the floors were all red gravel.  They used plastic lawn chairs for pews, with aisles down the middle and sides.  It had a rustic plains feel with the red bricks and sunlight peering through holes in the walls! 

We left soon after to make sure we were back to the homestead by dark- I was incredibly appreciative of it!  While we arrived back early enough to have dinner at a somewhat decent time, we did it the Kenyan way and waited until around 9 to start fixing it!  While we waited, though, Zach and I broke out the guitars, and both Kenyans and Americans gathered around to sing to our King!  Somehow, worship can heal me in a way little else can, and I felt the love of God wash over me, pouring through the pains of the night before, reminding me that God just and He is loving!  To sing His praises under a light bright of flickering white lights on the blackest paper never ceases to leave me in awe!  I soon fell asleep under the amazingness of it all!

Crusade!

June 6, 2012 evening

When we arrived at the site of the crusade, we were greeted with children everywhere, and the Kenyans quickly began tossing down the hundreds of pounds of sound equipment loaded on the top of the bus.  Elise quickly began entertaining the kids with soccer warm-ups, as she had them running the length of the dusty road to the side of the designated crusade field.  In a remarkably short amount of time for the amount of work to be done, the sound system was up and running, and we were all singing and dancing, praising our Lord and Savior! 

Elise and I had huge groups of children around us, clinging to us, desperate for a moment of attention and love.  Some were from the school that day, some were just kids who lived around where the crusade was being held.  The kids laughed at us attempting to dance, smiled as we attempted to echo the songs in Swahili, and jumped at the chance to hold our hands for a brief moment in the span of their lives.  Praising God under the sweet cover of His creation is amazing!

Zach preached again tonight, giving another simple, concise presentation of the Gospel.  He did an amazing job, with many “Amen’s” echoing through the swarming throng of people.  Towards the end, several people came up to be prayed over, and a small sea of children followed us as we prayed over each one.  It ended with more praise, singing and dancing, lifting high the name of Jesus.

Because of some things beyond our control, we decided to leave the village earlier than expected.  We planned to leave the next morning, gathering our things, and getting little sleep!

In the Village, the mighty Village...

June 6, 2012- Daytime

We got a late start today, due to our late arrival in the village.  Around 10, we enjoyed a breakfast of Chapati and other sides, and by noon we were on our way to our sites for the day.  About 30 minutes down the road, the men dropped us women off with some of the Kenyans to head to the school.  Since there was no school in sight, we looked around in confusion, only to find that our rides out to the school were motorbike taxis through the jungle paths.  Elise and I jumped on one together, and we were off!

I can’t describe the excitement of riding through the jungles on the back of a motorcycle, with my side bag slung over my shoulder, a guitar strapped to my back, straddling the bike in a loose skirt!  Elise and I couldn’t stop laughing and joking around as we drove at the amazingness of it all.  We leaned with the turns, waved to the over-excited kids who shouted “Mzungu mzungu!” over and over again! 

When we arrived at the school, most of the kids had trekked home to eat lunch already, so we walked through the quiet classrooms uninterrupted by the shouts and touches of a crowd of children.  The school holds up to 300 kids from what I understood, so each of the classes from K-8 are rather large.  When the kids returned to the school, we had about an hour and a half to cover 2 lessons with all 300, so we broke them into two sessions, doubling up on lessons at the same time.  Elise and I taught them “I’ve got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy,” and since they didn’t know it, it took all the allotted American time to teach them the once song.  Clearly, the Mzungus don’t make it out to the school often!

We then taught our lessons over creation with the pictures that Elise drew, and the kids were enamored.  I followed with the story of Jesus’ life, focusing on His incredible miracles!  The older kids were especially engaged, answering questions and following the stories without the aid of an interpreter.  They mastered the first two verses of the their bracelets, and loved the Bible verse books we gave them, again, turning them into huge nametags pinned to the fronts of their shirts.  We concluded with singing “Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy” one more time, giving the kids high fives as they moved on to the rest of their afternoons. 

We left the school around 3:30, again enjoying the smooth, clean ride of the motor-taxis as we traveled up to the church where the men were running the conferences.  As soon as we arrived, we were shepherded onto a bus waiting to take us to the crusade we didn’t know we were doing that night!  We enjoyed a few minutes of down time, working up the energy for the evening sessions!

Bus Rides!

June 5, 2012

Today, we were to leave the hotel at 8 am sharp bound for the marketplace en route to the village!  Of course, being in a foreign country leads to a very loose interpretation of “sharp,” meaning the bus showed up around 11 am.  Then, after the rigmarole of loading 6 American’s bags of stuff onto the top of a large bus, overcrowded with sound equipment already, we finally took off around 1 pm.  We expected the drive to be about 7 hours… in my family, my mom has a saying that any project my dad starts will take 3 times as long and cost 3 times as much as he expects it to.  This is about the case for Kenyan time scales as well!

About 3 hours down the road, we found out we were about an hour to an hour and a half into our trip, and we were stopping for lunch.  It was great food, filling and cheap, and a chance to stretch our weary legs!  Of course, as we got ready to leave about an hour and a half later, it began to pour, and our bags were all on top, meaning we now had to finagle the tarps on top of the sound equipment to protect our precious clothes as well!  As we started off, we pressured Zach into migrating to an aisle seat so he could sit sideways and play the guitar.  I can’t tell you how much I love singing with the beautiful African harmonies sweetly claiming God’s praise in British English accents.  We sang for well over an hour, until it became dark. 

As we neared hour 8, the Kenyans informed us we were about halfway, and darkness had fully enveloped us.  As we bounced around the potholes and washed out dirt roads, we felt the bus sway under the heavy weight of the load above.  The clear African sky was speckled with bright stars, shadowy tree lines fell to the sides of us, hiding the jungle behind.  At one point, Elise was leaning out the open window when Jerry looked at her and with some concern recommended she come back in and close the window, because there are “lions out there.”  We’re never sure how real their threats are, but we take them seriously, so she slid back in and returned the window to the crack providing our AC. 

The rest of the night was a long, uneventful, slow blur of bumps and squeaks as the bus moaned under the strain we were pouring on it.  We arrived in the village at close to 5 in the morning, with just enough time to unload and collapse on any open spaces for a few hours of precious rest before we hit the ground running the next day.  “It’s all of God’s children singing glory, glory, hallelujah He reigns!”

Safaris and Slums

June 4, 2012

Today was a slower day than the past ones.  We had the amazing joy of riding in a large, pop-top van on a wilderness safari within close range of Nairobi.  I can’t explain the majesty of seeing animals basked in their natural habitat, things like giraffes, rhinos, birds, baboons and so much more!  Every time I see these tapestries of creativity, I stand in awe of God’s amazing creations!  We spent the entire morning there, roaming on the rough dirt roads left by travelers gone before. 

After a lunch at the center, Elise, Angie and I spent a couple of hours working with the kids, singing songs, dancing, reviewing the verses and playing games.  It’s so encouraging to see how much the kids absorb over the course of a few hours of teaching- truly God’s Word does not return void!  We reviewed their salvation bracelets and reminded them to use the bracelets as tools to share God’s amazingly beautiful story of creation with us!  To hear their African English calling out the words associated with each color and to see how they knew the meanings behind it reminded me of just how blessed we are to have so many tools for sharing our faith, and how little we actually use them.

After the kids were released from school, us women and Jerry, our trip babysitter, along with Dennis walked to Jerry’s house just outside of Korogocho, the slum we visited on Saturday.  We wove through the walkways and across a crowded bridge, encountering a very drunk, very interested man on the other side of the bridge.  He insisted on conversation, making little to no sense, as we grew wearier with each word.  Finally, Jerry told him he needed to “move on or he would receive the consequences.”  We weren’t really sure what consequences Jerry was talking about, but after a few more seconds of bantering, the man moved on, and we let him move significantly past us. 

We continued along the crowded streets until suddenly we turned and went through a small walkway, seemingly into another, quieter world, free of the hoards of people.  There were a few children across the way, a few women sitting quietly, and a few shops sprinkled here and there.  We soon arrived at Jerry’s small one room house, split into two rooms with a curtain down the middle.  We sat and talked Kenyan politics, tribal customs, and everything between during the hour we spent there.  Fortunately, the walk back proved much less interesting, and we arrived back at the Center without any hassle.  We enjoyed a last meal at the local “western” restaurant, the same one we have visited nearly every night since arriving.  Tomorrow begins our “real” adventures in the village!  

If it Seems We are CRAZY!

June 2/3 2012,

Saturday and Sunday night, we held a crusade near the Korogocho slums that we visited Saturday morning.  When we arrived (and hour and a half late!), there was a massive stage set up with decrepit wood covering a metal frame nearly 5 feet off the ground complete with the praise team dancing to the deep rhythms of African praise music.  There were nearly 2000 people in attendance each night, which was an amazing sight to see!  While the men were ushered up on stage as the guest speakers, the women were instructed to stay in a group near the far edge of the crowd to minimize the risk of anyone attacking us.  It was humbling to realize that our mere presence encouraged a larger crowd but it also put the weight of protecting us on Pastor Tom’s men, who inconspicuously surrounded us.  It was interesting to later hear Gerald’s take on the wall surrounding us women and the kids we were dancing with- he likened it to how God protects us from the dangers of this world, often without our knowing.  We probably didn’t know what a risk it was to have us out there, as the following evening, we were no longer allowed to be in the crowd at all for our safety.  It makes me think of the times God’s steered me clear of danger (when the Maoists wanted to overthrow our bus in Nepal, when He rescheduled my flight out for a day before the Maoists took over Nepal…) when there’s no way I could have known to protect myself.  What a great God we serve!

Each night, there was a short message given after a few hours of worship!  The first night, Zach preached, giving a clear call to those who had never met Jesus before!  It was so neat to see him preach with such excitement and joy in telling a desperate generation about a gracious God, waiting to embrace them!  Pastor David preached the next day, giving a clear and concise presentation of the Gospel, backed with power and authority.  At the end of each of their messages, an invitation was given to come to the front to be prayed over for salvation or anything else that may have been troubling people.  This was the only time we were allowed to go into the crowd as we wove our way from person to person, praying over the needs we understood and God’s grace over all the rest!  Between the two nights, we’re estimating that nearly 150 people came to know the Lord, with hundreds of others prayed over!

As if that wasn’t enough to end the night, both nights ended with a crazy loud, excited African dance party, celebrating the new souls that will be in heaven because of the faithfulness of Pastor Tom and those he’s touched!  All of us “Mzungu’s” joined the true dancers on stage, trying desperately to find the rhythm and to learn the steps!  We laughed, shouted and made complete fools of ourselves, but all in the name of praising our God!  The verse that struck me as the summation of the nights is from Second Corinthians, “If it seems that we are crazy, it is to bring Glory to God!  If we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit!”  

My Neighbors

June 2, 2012

Today we spent the morning in Korogocho, one of the worst slums in all of Nairobi.  I don’t know if I can even describe with justice what it’s like there.  There’s trash everywhere, dirty kids playing on the muddy, sewer laden roads, drunken men staggering about, and desperate women manning booths of vegetables and other odds and ends for sale.  If you dwell on your perception of sadness, you can be overwhelmed by the disparity between how these people live compared to how we live.  In reality, those dirty, “hopeless” kids often have friends, play games, invent toys, and enjoy life.  In contrast, they may not know what the next meal will be if it comes and they may not go to school because it’s expensive and they may face the darkness of witch doctors throughout their nights, filling their minds with nightmares and fear. 

This was the first thing that struck me of the day- I could not fix the problems of Korogocho, even if I had all the time and resources in the world.  What these kids and their parents need is the light of Jesus, and only then will their lives begin to change.  But what I could do, I did.  I gave the kids a smile for the day.  The joy of the Lord flowed through me, and I couldn’t stop the cheek-breaking painful smile that plastered itself on my face for the next couple of hours!  And they would laugh at us and cry out “Mzungu!” (white person!) as we walked by, but they LAUGHED!  And for that day, that’s what we could offer, so that’s what we gave them! 

As we walked through, we had the opportunity to pray over many people from the church and their neighbors.  We prayed against those nightmares, the sickness, the alcoholism, and the desperation of living in poverty.  We prayed in faith that God will use these people as LIGHTS to their corner of the world, just as we are called to be LIGHTS to our corner of the world!  Their small one room shanty’s barely allowed us to crowd in together, making it hard to believe that these people lived there with families of 5-8 people!  My heart broke especially over the desperation of my sister’s in Christ- their desires to see their husbands know the Lord, their ambitions to raise their children in the Lord, and their hopes for work and provision from the Lord were so humbling.  And each of the could rattle a list of other homes we should visit before leaving because their occupants had some need. 

Which brings me to the second lesson of the day- how many of us KNOW our neighbors?  How many of us know what they need prayer over?  How many of us even know if our neighbors know Jesus?  It’s amazing what sort of self-centered blinds materialism drops over our eyes.  I don’t even know all of my neighbors’ names.  What if we all went out of our way to just reach our neighborhood for Christ?!  Forget the rest of the world for a second- what if we followed the Great Commission right where God has us now, faithfully spreading His Words to the broken, dying people around us?  What if we dared to reach out?  How would our country change?  I guess it’s like a saying I saw on a t-shirt, “I need Africa more than Africa needs me.”

Life to the Fullest :)

May 31, 2012

Today was another amazing day!  I’m sorry, that sounds so cliché.  Let me make up for it…

We split off of the men today, as they went to teach a Pastor’s and Worldview conference at the old children’s center about a 10 minute walk away.  We once again started off the day with slight confusion to how exactly VBS was going to go, but Pastor Tom’s wife Anna quickly solved our dilemma.  We decided to combine classes 4, 5 and 6 and to teach them all at the same time, followed by class 3 and ending with class 2.  Classes 4, 5 and 6 definitely got the box seats, as we took our time with the lesson, while class 3 was on the first deck and class 2 was in the nosebleed section!  It may not have been that dramatic, but our lessons definitely became more abbreviated as the day went on, with class 1 merely getting the radio broadcast of the gift of a salvation bracelet without the lesson (to be fair, though, they understand very little English, so we’re focusing on the older classes more…)

Elise reviewed the previous day’s material with the classes who had seen it before, and taught it for the first time to the kids in class 2.  The kids were enthralled with her beautiful artwork depicting God’s glory in creation and the incredible mess we made of everything.   Next, we had the kids make salvation card books- small index card sized laminated books with each of the 6 verses typed in a cute font on its own page with the salvation bracelet color represented as the background!  The kids did an amazing job with it, and they all pinned them to their shirts when they were finished (the books were bound with safety pins- thanks Mom, it was a FANTASTIC idea!), creating a whole hoard of kids who literally had God’s Word on their hearts which simultaneously meant everyone was now wearing name-tags!

Then, I got to talk with them about Jesus’ miracles.  As most of you know I definitely lack in the artistic realm of the world, I had to rely on my sheer craziness and bouts of unfathomable energy to carry us through!  But really, who could be bored hearing about Jesus’ miracles?!  I mean, they’re AWESOME (thanks, Grace Bible Church for deepening my understanding of them over the past semester!) and they so deeply reflect who God is!  I honestly didn’t have to conjure up much energy- it just boils over when I think about how amazing Jesus’ LIFE was here on earth!  I mean, feeding 5000 people on 5 loaves and 2 fish?  Healing the lame?  DYING on the CROSS?!  It’s incredible!  Maybe that’s why God tells us to talk about Jesus’ life every day!

After teaching 2 classes, we went outside for a break with the kids while we waited for the rice to finish cooking.  Since we didn’t have time during the lesson for songs, I pulled out the guitar and sat outside, and a mob began crushing in as every child pushed for a front row seat, making the front row eventually on top of the guitar!  The kids LOVE singing, so we can sing the same song 800 times and if I say, “Again?!” they’ll exclaim “Yes!”  I ran out of the planned 4 songs within a few minutes, and in a desperate attempt to not drive all the adults crazy with “Rejoice in the Lord Always” for the 801^st time, I asked the kids for some other English songs they knew.  We played a few, but my favorite was by far “Awesome God.” 

Some of you know I have a deep seeded love and passion for the musical genius of Rich Mullins and I’ve probably listened to most of his songs a hundred times over.  But “Awesome God” will always trump the rest, and I’ve probably listened to it thousands of times!  The story of creation, the fall, our Redemption and God’s general awesomeness never fails to move me greatly.  In fact, in typing this, I had to pause to turn it on!  But today I realized the only thing better than Rich Mullins singing “Awesome God” was a shore of African orphans, pouring out their hearts to God, singing with the rich African tones of worship that I so envy!  We may have sung that one 8001 times!  I just couldn’t stop playing it, and they only sounded better over time!  I found myself closing my eyes, hearing angels in the highest join in the sweet fragrant worship of orphans, worthless to the world, but priceless jewels in the kingdom of God.  And off to the side, my 4^th grade boys were dancing and using the motions I taught them earlier.  They were free, unhindered by fear or shame in their desperate desire to sing to God.  And that brought tears to my eyes. 

I know there’s probably a thousand other things I could share from today with you, but that’s my take away from the day- John 10:10, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.  I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it to the fullest!”  Satan has stolen, killed and destroyed these children.  He has broken their spirits, crushed their hope, and filled them with a sense of worthlessness.  But Jesus came that they may have LIFE, and not just in heaven, but today, in THIS VERY MOMENT, and that they may have it to the FULLEST!  And these kids have been redeemed through this promise- they are living life to the fullest, one twinkling smile on their face is proof of that!  And the beautiful thing is that God has saved you and I from no less- Satan sought to steal, kill and destroy our lives, but Jesus has redeemed MY life that I may live it to the fullest!  I pray that these beautiful orphans and our team will truly learn to live life to the fullest, every single day no matter what Satan schemes against us!  He who the Son sets free is free indeed!

Clinging to God

May 30, 2012

Where to begin… my first day back in Africa was AMAZING!  To get up to the sight of such a beautiful creation is incredible!  I so quickly forget the amazing artist I serve, and to see His masterpiece with fresh eyes is such a blessing!

When we arrived at the Victory Christian Center for our first day (the school the kids attend), the older kids welcomed our bus with smiles, laughter and songs.  They were so excited to see us and just wanted to be near us.  They clung to our legs, arms, t-shirts and anything else they could bra as “their” territory.  After hugs and broken introductions, Tom took us around to each class to introduce us.  I find it so humorous that my name is so easy for them to pronounce as it fits neatly into their accents! 

The classrooms were much like in Nepal- overcrowded with old desks, a small chalkboard in the front and many eager faces waiting to soak up the shared information with a few faces painted with dread sprinkled in!  When we walked in, though, their attention was riveted by this strange group of Americans invading their space!

We spent today doing VBS split between 2 classes.  While I would lead worship with Zach in one class, Elise and Angie would teach the Bible story in the other.  Gerald and Pastor David floated between the two groups.  I wish I could have seen Elise teach because I hear it was phenomenal!  She taught the creation story, complete with hand drawn pictures of each day of creation on poster board to keep the kids engaged! 

We sang several songs with the kids- most of which they knew already!  Zach had one of the classes beat-boxing with the songs which brought that coveted African heartbeat to the strong rhythms of their voices!  Some of our most enthusiastic singers were the 4^th grade boys, a couple of whom would express their excitement when singing with wild gesturing of their arms, as if they were in the finale of some great and majestic musical, which in many ways we are!  I loved worshiping with the kids and seeing them pour their hearts and vocal cords out before our God!

What struck me the most today was our first encounter with the kids- the clinging as if when they let go, they will cease to exist.  What if I lived my life like that in terms of God?!  Can you even imagine the headway that we could make in the kingdom if we truly clung to God, desperate for a tender look from His eyes and a smile to renew our sense of worth and belonging?  If these orphans can cling to complete strangers with banana colored skin and tired eyes, why DON’T I cling to a known and loved God who chose to love me and chase me before I was ever His?!  What has stopped me?  I want to be so desperate for God’s love and attention that I beg to grab ahold of His hand every moment of every day- fighting myself for that place of love and honor!  Because that’s what I realized- I have to fight myself, in my pride and arrogance, I assume I can do it and God’s too busy for me.  But in actuality, He’s waiting, just waiting with an open hand to walk with me through the muddy streets of the slums of life, bringing hope and light everywhere we go!  And that’s my prayer for these AMAZING Kenyan orphans- that they would know how DEEP God’s love is for them- how he so desperately wants to take hold of them and gently kiss away the tears of pain and betrayal and bring them to their place of royalty in His kingdom!  

Kenya Bound!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

It’s been awhile since I blogged, so I’ve got to shake the dust off and remember how this goes! It was a fast finish to a great year again at Still Creek, and I just finished Thursday, meaning that Africa went into full throttle Friday and today! I’m getting more excited as we get closer to leaving and my nerves are giving way to a fresh anticipation of what awaits us next week! We will be working with a church and orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya as well as in a village, started by Pastor Tom Abungu. We leave on Monday, May 28th and return on June 14th.

Once again, I ask for your prayers! I’m traveling with a team of 6 from Albuquerque, NM! Here’s a brief description of the people I’ll be traveling with:

Zach Grafe: Zach is the worship and missions pastor for Celebration Baptist Church outside of Albuquerque, and he’s the one who organized this trip. He is a good friend from A&M who invited me to travel with the group this summer!  

Gerald Grafe: Gerald is a patent lawyer out of Albuquerque, NM. He will be organizing and teaching a worldview curriculum for a conference in Nairobi, Kenya. He will primarily working with pastors and the men of the church there.

David Brittain: David is the pastor for Celebration Baptist Church and he’ll be joining Gerald in the organizing and teaching the worldview curriculum. He’s also looking to deepen the bond between Celebration and the church we’re working with in Nairobi, as they’re developing a permanent sisterhood between the two churches.

Elise Grafe: Elise just graduated from University of Tulsa and is pursuing different jobs for the fall. She will be working with the children’s group as we do VBS four days with the kids in both Nairobi and a village. She will be staying a few weeks after we leave to work with a second orphanage in Kenya as well!

Angie Robbs: Angie is the mother of 5, including one boy she and her husband adopted from Ethiopia last year! Angie will be working with our VBS program and she also heads up an organization called Hydration 2 Others (H2O) which raises money to put in clean water wells in Kenyan villages which don’t have access to clean water. We’ll launch 2 new wells while we’re there!

From our descriptions, you got a piece of what we’ll be doing- a little bit of everything! We’ll be doing VBS, worldview discipleship, outreach conferences, well installations, and helping wherever else we’re needed! It will be a whirlwind trip, but we know God’s going to do huge things while we’re there! We’re so blessed to be partnering with Pastor Tom, and to see, learn from, and embrace the body of believers there! Please pray for unity, safety, health, and that God will completely and totally clear the way for us! Thanks for your support!!!