Rafiki means friend in Swahili. Simba means lion. Nala means gift. Sarabi means mirage. Shenzi means stupid. Pumbaa means simpleton. Those are six Lion King characters whose names now have new depth for me. I love hidden meanings! And Hakunka Matata really DOES mean no worries! Disney is a genius!
Just to update you, we found out that we’re not going to Uganda. Our ministries
weren’t ready for us. We might go next month, or maybe the month after,
or maybe not at all! Who knows! But we will be staying in Kenya this
month. My team is going to a rural area near Eldoret about 6 hours away from the
capital city of Nairobi and we will be working with team Fantaic. We’ve been told that we will be doing some
construction projects, evangelism, working with children and maybe even
helping to set up some kind of conference.
Let me tell you what we’re actually doing.
We have met an amazing man of God named Patrick. He is a pastor and our contact. He has graciously taken us into his home to live with his beautiful family. I’ve been waiting to live with a family ever since the race started so I’m really excited about this!
So far we’ve been doing alot of open air ministry. What that means is that we’ll go to a local market or village, set up some speakers and play some worship music (usually complete with Patrick’s electric keyboard providing some dancey beats while he plays along with us). Then Patrick leads some worship songs in Swahili and we get our dance and clap on. Then someone from our team will go up to the microphone and preach a message while Patrick translates. After we hang out with the locals, play with the kids or pray with people if they want.
Patrick has told us that he’s felt God calling him to plant a church this month to start out the new year and he’d like us to help and be a part of it! Our timing in coming to him is so perfect! He feels called to plant one in the local village area so the people don’t have to go so far away to get to church on Sunday. He mentioned something about door to door evangelism as well. So we’ll see what happens as the month goes on. I’m really excited about it. God is working in Kenya!
Africa is so beautiful. So are the people. I just had to tell you. Actually, I’ll probably tell you in every single blog I write while I’m here, but it will never do it enough justice. I guess you’ll just have to come here someday…
