People! Hi. Hope you are having a wacky day when you read this.
For those of you that don’t know, we ended up staying in Kenya another month because of the Ebola outbreak in Uganda. Our whole squad basically wanted to leave Kenya, but God had other plans. I am so glad He is in control and writes our stories because it was perfectly orchestrated. Some people discovered or rediscovered their calling to come back to Africa and others experienced life and joy in completely new ways. For me, I wanted to leave and was looking forward to Uganda, but just trusted that He knew best. It turned out to be an amazing month full of surprises.
Here’s what went down
It started out at Millimani, again. I spent the night alone and hung out with a French Chinese man, girls from Holland, and a few guys from England. We all watched weight lifting, swimming, and futbol on the Olympics together. Good times.
We arrived in Nakuru and I ended up lying under a giant tree in the middle of a field and worshipped, prayed, and napped while goats and cows were feasting on the grass around me.
I watched Camp Rock 2 on bootleg because it’s one of my squad mates’ favorite movies: had the best time and God just spoke directly to me through it. (it’s time to be more like shane :D)
Stayed at the Millimani Backpacker’s Hostel SO much and it was basically my second home in Kenya. If you ever go, tell Mari, Mary, and Ruth Brittany says hi and nakupenda!
Discovered podcasts from Ron Walborn-look up his spiritual formation stuff.
Watched Stardust for the first time and was freaking out that the witches would win. Random but so fun.
Rode the craziest buses where they would pass everyone and everything no matter what little amount of space they had.
Half of the month I was in Bikembe and we had AVOCADOS every single meal, every single day. DIVINE.
Read books on ipods while the power was out and a candle was on the table while it was pouring outside.
Went to a school and danced with the children singing, “She Got It From Her Mama,” motorbiked for 2 hours into the interior through the most beautiful scenery of trees, flowers, and waterfalls. Walked around and evangelized for 3 hours and received a chicken as a gift (Alys carried it under her arm like a football on the way home) – this was all in one day!
Had the most amazing day of simple joy and love from my Father and ended it by dancing in the pouring rain with the pastor and his kids.
Went to a church in the interior, known for their drums, and danced to an authentic Kenyan drum for hours. Then after worship, they brought us and the pastors and deacons out for tea and peanuts and bread while everyone else stayed and worshipped. We listened to a sermon, saw a demon possessed woman, and then ate lunch after service with the whole congregation. Fun fact: most of the people in Kenya walk for at least 2 hours to get to church, they usually skip lunch because the journey is so long, and get home extremely late. I guess that 20-30 minute drive isn’t THAT bad after all for us in America…
Saw a man hit a woman for not getting on his matatu (small bus) people can get crazy.
Almost every day while I was in Bikembe, we would take motorbikes and I would literally wave and say hi to every single person I saw on the side of the road for the entire two hours. My favorite was seeing the people working in the fields, yelling and waving to them, and seeing them smile and wave back in the middle of their HARD work in the sun.
Went to a rock overlooking Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. GORGEOUS.
Met up with an E Squad team (our sister squad who launched in January with us and who we did training camp and launch with) and had lunch and exchanged stories with them.
That was the first part of the month, well most of it, but the end of the month involved a drastic change and shift….
The AIM office has been realizing that a lot of the raised up squad leaders finish the race tired and burnt out. Our coaches and field support became aware of this and wanted to protect my squad as well as me and went to the Lord on what would be best for everyone. Eventually, they asked me to step down from squad leading and to finish out the race as a racer with no responsibilities or leadership position. I will write a blog soon about my heart on this transition, but for now, I will just fill you in on the facts. After they informed Q, Pris, and I (the two women I have been leading with) we were pretty broken, and our staff gave us the opportunity for a vacation to tend to our hearts and just BE with each other. We were given the option to go anywhere and to take a break from all our duties and responsibilities until we flew out the next week. We chose to go to MOMBASA….
We took an overnight bus to Mombasa that was about 9 hours, and it was raining when we got there around 5:30 am.
We stayed at Backpacker’s Nirvana Hostel in Nyali Beach and it was INCREDIBLE. It came with: breakfast every day, hundreds of movies to watch on the rainy days, laundry, coffee, wifi, and the beach was right around the corner from it. Go there and stay at Nirvana and tell Leslie and Charity I said hello!
Eventually the sun came out and we were walking on the beach checking it out and ran into a camel! We played with it for probably about a half hour and it was one of the coolest most random things ever.
On the beach I discovered a whole new side of worship. I would start out lying on my towel and expecting to journal, but then I would just HAVE to get up and run down to the edge of the water and dance and sing and raise my hands and kick around in the water and pace back and forth. I felt the spirit in such crazy ways. The wind was blowing and I would have to move my body around because the spirit was so heavily sitting on me and running through me! SO GOOD
While I was worshipping one day, about 8 teenage Kenyan boys came around me. So naturally I started dancing with them, and we had an exchange of “teach me a Kenyan dance and I’ll teach you one of my ‘American’ dances” Eventually I found out they were all orphans and spoke life into them and loved on them and we quoted scripture back and forth and ended the conversation talking about the Illuminati and Rihanna and Beyonce and Chris Brown…never thought that would be the topic of choice but hey I was educated to say the least!
The 3 of us went to the theater and saw Dark Knight Rises. AMAZING. Mombasa is next to Somalia and there was a heavy presence of Muslim men and women and they were dressed in their full length black burkas and head wraps, but they were decked out! Blinged out. It was like going to the movie was some special event or party, and we didn’t get the wardrobe memo. It was exciting and foreign to say the least.
Got tested for everything that Africa could have possibly given me, had the WORST poop in a tube experience ever…the lights were motion censored and they went OUT while I was trying to aim…I was in there for over 45 minutes I’m pretty sure. But it was a success yes and I am malaria and parasite and hookworm free! Yee!
Ate on the beach at an Italian Restaurant..enough said.
Sat on my towel and danced to Lecrae with some random Kenyan boy sitting right next to me. We were just banging our heads in unison, it was great and simple.
Ate at a BEAUTIFUL restaurant on the beach at night. Here was the scene: the Indian Ocean shore, the ocean breeze, a palm tree right above us, and the moon shining down on us, amazing food, and a dimly lit lantern…
Mombasa has the most amazing grocery store; it’s like Wal-Mart and even Target: Nakumatt
Posed by a camel and started this whole trend of posing sexy with random animals and in random places. It’s the new “planking”
Don’t be mad, but I ended up going to a boys’ orphanage alone, in a random unknown area, I know it wasn’t the best or wisest decision but it was totally the Lord. Anyway, I went and loved it because we all just had a huge dance party. Imagine 13 teenage boys, in their underwear (because that’s all they had to wear apparently) and then me, dancing. I love them, those Wana Wa Mola boys are precious and I plan to stay in contact with them.
Ate at a restaurant that was made out of the inside of a cliff that had sand in it that I dug my feet in while I ate amazing pasta.
Stumbled upon Massai dancers that were at one of the fancy hotels to perform for rich tourists…the whole time we were being critical and pointing out all the reasons we knew they weren’t authentic..they were too clean, their costumes were falling off, they had rolex’s, they had goatees, they spoke with a British accent etc…but watching them perform and dance was still fun and a great way to end our vacay for sure.
As you can see, Kenya the second time around was VERY different then the first month we were in Kenya. A few days after we left Mombasa our squad flew out to THAILAND! That is where I am now. Debrief just ended, the transition happened, and I am no longer a squad leader. I am on a team with 5 other women and I am GOOD! These next 3 months will be incredibly different than the last 5 have been. However, some words that have been spoken over this next season for me are: Joy. Rest. Abundance. Thrive. Intimacy. Unleashed.
With that said, we are leaving for ministry in a few hours to a place called Remember Nhu. I am in a great place and I am sue excited for what God has in store! 3 more months, I can’t believe it!
Shout out to Hayden. You leave on your race in 3 days…amen! LOVE YOU. Do great things ya weirdo. See you whenever He decides to bless us with a reunion, be it in the states or in some random country 😀
