“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teachings and to
the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer. Everyone was filled with
awe, many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the
believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions
and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet
together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together
with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the
people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Acts 2:42-47
During the past couple of weeks, the Lord has been speaking
to the WR team about unity and what that looks like. Every time we talk about
this, Acts 2 comes up and the Lord has spoken to us and revealed many things to
us through these verses. The Lord has told us that we don’t just need to be
unified through group togetherness, but through finances, through emotional
encouragement, spiritual encouragement, and even physical needs.
We all made a commitment to each other and to the Lord to be
more committed to each other and more unified than we ever have before. What is
yours is mine and what is mine is yours. I love the sense of
humor that our Lord has, little did we know the way that we were about to be
tested.
As we boarded the plane from Cairo to Kenya we were
surprised by the fact that the plane was already full (it was making a stop in
Cairo from Istanbul) and we had 24 people that had to get on. We all made it
on, a few short of their carry-ons because they would not fit… but were told
they would be waiting at the gate for us in Kenya. We had a pretty uneventful
flight, considering it was an 11pm-4am flight… but we didn’t know about the
events that we should have braced ourselves for.
As we got off the plane, our carry-ons were not waiting on
us at the gate. We go through passport control and VISA control with no
problems. As we reach baggage claim, we wait for over an hour for our luggage
and only 7 people received theirs. Come to find out, our luggage was not loaded
onto the plane, because it was too full.
This put us in a dilemma, the fact that blue team needed to
board a bus to get to Uganda and the South Africans, along with Jessica Sisson
and Sarah Rinn needed to board a bus to head to Tanzania. What were we going to
do? The 4 blue team girls have their luggage, Paul had his, and 2 of the South
African have theirs… that is it. We go to lost baggage, file our report, tell
them our situation, and they tell us that we can get $80 per person because it
will be over 24hrs until we got our luggage (Praise the Lord… He provides in
ways we would never expect)… we “act” upset at the fact, but know that we can
make it through without luggage (look at the year we have been living) but are
so happy because we see a way the Lord providing that we would never expect.
We pull the luggage that has arrived together and send the
South African with a couple of tents and change in clothes and send them off to
Tanzania. Blue team decided to hang out with Brown and Red at the AIM base for
2 nights and then head to Uganda when Chad’s luggage got in.
We go out into arrivals and are excitedly greeted by
Lillian, Shelly, and Mark with a sign that says “Welcome World Racers”. This
was refreshing for us. This entire trip, we have never had anyone greet us at
the airport, we always get off the plane and from there look at each other and
say “now what” and figure it out. So, it was nice to have warm smiling faces
for a changed… and COOL weather. We could not believe it. The smiles that came
upon our faces at that moment have not left. We are so excited to be here and
we know that it is going to be an amazing time.
We finally arrived at the AIM base in Kibera Kenya (in the
slums… where we will be staying) at about 9am Saturday morning. The girls on
the blue team (along with Lillan and Shelly) are here and have been so gracious
to provide us brown and red girls with whatever we needed to make it through
the next day or so.
(The airport did call this morning and said our luggage has
arrived. The guys have gone to get it now, so we are praying that everyone’s
luggage makes it. As soon as it does, blue will be heading to Uganda.)
Lillian, Shelly, and Mark are from Vancouver Canada and have
been here since March. They are with a
drama group called DRIME. This group travels around teaching pantomime dramas
set to music that reveals powerful message of salvation. They have a team in
Vancouver, Brazil, and these 3 are here training up the team that will minister
here in Kenya. They will be leaving in December, but while they are here have
been so wonderful to greet us and help us with whatever we need and minister to
us as well. What a blessing from God they have been… Thank you guys.
As I said before, a smile came upon my face the minute that
we touched down here and has not left my face since. I am so happy to be here,
I am completely overwhelmed with excitement. Even though I am still miles and
miles from home, being here feels like home and it makes me so happy. It has
been my dream to be able to come to Kenya and minister here and the Lord has
given me the desire of my heart.
This morning we went to an African church here in the slums.
My heart jumped with joy as the Holy Spirit moved in that place. I have not
felt Him this heavy in such a long time. It was such a refreshing time for all
of us and the energy that comes from the people there and their love for the
Lord, how can it not rub off on you and get you excited?
And the children… need I say more? They have stolen our
hearts. They already had my heart, but they have touched my heart in a new way
that I never expected. The love that I feel for them is hard to explain, it
something so refreshing.
While we are here, we will be ministering here in the slums
of Kibera. We will be doing open air revival, door to door evangelism,
ministering to the women and children, and whatever else the Lord lays before
us.
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever
you wish and it will be done for you.” John 15:7
Just Abide… we know all these things and more will be given
to us, as long as we abide and that is why we are here… to abide and as we do,
He does all the work through us. Amen.
Please, keep us in your prayers… regarding:
- Finances
- the
South African, Jessica Sisson, and Sarah Rinn while they are in Tanzania - the
Blue Team as they travel to Uganda and their ministry there - the
Lord will continue to give us His heart, His eyes for the Kenyan people - the
Unity of all the racers as the Lord humorously teaching us - the
people here to be saved, healed, delivered, and set free… MIRACLES!!!
Thank You… God Bless.
Praise God… the guys just got back and ALL of our bags are
here AND we got $80 per person…
