I know my blogs haven’t been as descriptive of our ministry
and what we are doing so I figured its better late than never to share with all
of you what the Lord is doing here this month. To begin, Kenya is beautiful, as
we drove from Nairobi to Kitale (that is where we are living this month), I was
captivated by the scenery. The shades of green and the beautiful landscape that
was before me took my breath away; I found myself more in awe with our maker. I
felt that if I walked out of the bus, I would be walking into a mystical land
from a science fiction movie, I found myself wanting to wander through the
forest and walk down into the valleys that reflected an innumerable amount of
green shades. As I stood there I breathed it all in, I am witnessing the beauty
of my creator’s imagination.
The
ride was a little bumpy but visually captivating. After several bathroom stops
and naps we finally arrived in Kitale 8 hours later. I was very grateful that I
had decided to keep my jacket with me because it is really cold here below the
equator. After about 30 minutes our contacts arrived to pick us up. This month
we are working with Ben and Christine, their ministry name is Shekinah glory.
They have been serving the Lord now since the beginning of 2000. They both left
their comfortable jobs for the calling that the Lord placed on their lives to
pastor and build churches, schools and orphanages. The ministry that we are
able to work with this month is very wide spread. They have orphanages and
churches that they have begun outside of Kenya as well.
When we
arrived at their home they had dinner prepared for us and made us feel at home
right away. This month is really like living in a really close and large
family. There are 20 of us crammed into this small house, in our room there is
a double decker and a triple decker bunk bed. I am sharing the bottom twin bunk
with one of my squad mates. As we have little personal space and time alone but
I am enjoying every bit of this community. It is two teams together this month
and I feel like there are so many complimenting aspects of our teams that have
allowed for us to get along great and learn from one another. We have morning
and evening devotionals every day with the Shekinah family. There is a lot of
structure to our schedule and I am really grateful for that, it has helped with
having better discipline
It’s
funny how much we can resist structure yet when we have it; it really changes
how we function on a daily basis. This month is going by so quickly at the same
time and it is a month that the Lord has set up for intimacy with Him in such a
glorious way. I am learning to really love and appreciate the things in life as
simple as having dinner together as a family and sitting around playing games.
Last
week we spent a good bit of it painting at one of their churches/
school/orphanage. Kenyans love to come up to you and shake your hand, they love
being talked to and their smiles are beautiful. Witnessing the poverty among
the people here really opens my eyes to see how wealth steals a sense of joy
for those who have all they could want and more. I loved on the young ones and on the older children;
all of them craved the attention that they miss out from a mother of father.
There was one little girl who in particular didn’t really talk but when she
smiles, I know the Lord smiles right back to see the beautiful smile of His
daughter. She really took a liking to Katie and unfortunately she happened to
pee on Katie a couple of times!
All of
these kids, they have so little and yet they are able to maintain such a joy
and it really all ties in with Philippians 4:12-13. They have truly seemed to
learn the secret to being content in their circumstance. I grew up with so much
that I usually take for granted, such as a nice clean toilet to use, a warm
shower most of the time, something other than beans and rice to eat for lunch
every day. So I am curious as to whether I am really going to learn from this,
am I going to go home and live, am I really going to learn the difference
between what I want and what I need? It is such an easy trap to fall into,
comfort, luxury, easy. I hope and pray now that I will not walk back into the
exact abandonment I was trying to achieve.
