Kenya Blessings!

Kenya:
 
The last month of Kenya was truly a great month. I think I realized that I often in my blogs I usually reflect on what hard things I am going through or what the Lord is teaching me. I want to always share what God is doing in my life through the blogs, even when it hurts and it’s hard. My hope through these blogs are to be as real as I possibly can be. I want to share what I am struggling with and the growth that the Lord is doing within my heart and life. But I also don’t want to forget to share the amazing blessings that the Lord has blessed me with through the month. So as I reflect on the month of Kenya I want to high light all of the blessings that God has blessed me with.
 
I have been reminded that this journey that I am on for these 11 months is truly a gift from God. It’s a gift from God whom God chose me to go on. I think I have been so focused on getting through the journey and through the struggles, that I have forgot to see this journey as a gift. A gift from God and a gift from all of the people who have supported me and continue to support me through prayer, finances, support, and most of all love.

It’s a gift that God has called me to go on. It’s another year of school where I am learning about God and growing closer to Him. Not a year of school in the class room, but a year of school in growing closer to God by seeing and meeting Him in and through the people that I meet and the places that I go.

I guess this month, even though it was hard for me in ways that I wrote about in my last blog. It has been a wonderful reminder of why I came on the race.

It was a month of laughter, joy, and happiness with playing with amazing Kenya children. I got the opportunity to share the love and hope of Christ with people I met by playing futbal (soccer), volleyball, and by meeting people in the market when praying for them. We met many wonderful people who invited us into their homes and made us wonderful African food. We were blessed with an amazing family who we came to love and who loved us.

I got the blessed privilege to have the opportunity to preach in the church we were working with where I really felt the presence of God move at. I was blessed to go and be a part of different small groups where we met amazing people who truly loved the Lord. I was also blessed to make friends with people who didn’t know the Lord and I hope by the friendship that was established that they now know a little more of Jesus’ love.

The month was hard and growing for me in the hospitals, but it was an amazing blessing of seeing Christ in little children’s smiles and feeling God’s love for me in deep ways.
Two of those ways came through two awesome blessings for me. The first one was through a book my Squad leader Rachel gave me to read. It’s called “Going from Spiritual Slavery, to Spiritual Sonship: Finding your Destiny.” The book is written by Jack Frost and Wow did the Lord speak to me through it. God is teaching me truly what it means to be a Son. ….

See I believe that all of you are Son’s and Daughters of God who God loves. But I honestly struggle to believe that for myself sometimes. I still find myself feeling like I need to strive to prove myself to be worthy of His love. I feel like I need to prove myself to others and to myself…

God is teaching me to live my life as His Son and to truly receive the Father’s love and rest in my life.

If anyone of you connects with how I have felt at times, it is an amazing book to read that I truly believe the Lord’s speaks through in an amazing way. I highly recommend it. It will remind you who you are and most of all WHO YOU BELONG TO….

The second blessing that I received was from my dear friend and sister in Christ, Carly Cronin. Carly is a special friend to me that has done so much for me to be on the World Race right now. She truly blessed me this month by writing a blog about me in a way where I was so humbled, honored, and blessed. In her blog titled “Honoring Men” Carly talks about me and my two others friends. I was so blessed by it I wanted to share it. I am so honored and blessed by the words that Carly wrote to describe me that I was and am completely blown away and humbled with such thankfulness!

 http://carly.breadmessage.org/blog/honorable-men-0

Carly explains who I am and why I am on the world race. In reading Carly’s blog about me it reminded me of who I hope to be and why I came on the race. It’s funny how sometimes you can forget your own story.  Sometimes you can forget who you are and where you came from. Maybe that is part of the journey and process of becoming more like Christ as Luke 9:24 describes…. But in reading Carly’s blog, the Lord is reminding me of my own story and why I am on this journey. It inspired me, motivated me, and reminded me of what truly is most important…..

I am on this race to share God’s hope, light, and love with others. But most of all I am on this race to see Christ in the faces of others. I am on this race to love Christ more.