(Tanzania)
June 25, 2012
7:33pm
Today Mark, Johnson, and I did one last day of ministry in Morogoro, Tanzania. We went walking around on a seemingly empty street until we walked up to a group of highschool boys playing checkers outside of a house. Instantly Mark Jumped in and joined their game, whereas Johnson and I began to talk to the other boys who were just sitting there. 3 of the boys said that they were “Christians” and 1 said he was Muslim. One of the Christian boys said that he was Roman Catholic so I told Johnson that he should his testimony because he grew up Roman Catholic but never really knew Jesus. For 15 minutes or so Johnson animatedly shared his testimony in Swahili while the boys were actively listening to his story. After Johnson finished he looked at me and said, “Well, aren’t you going to share your testimony?” –Oh, I thought. “Yeah, sure.” Johnson had the Muslim kid translate for me while Johnson helped him out when necessary. And so I shared with them my story how I chose to follow Jesus over following my dreams and the world and then I told them that they had a choice to make as well. Like the night on the beach in Florida when God told me I had to choose between Him and the world, they too have to choose between following Jesus or following the world. I told them that you never lose when you choose Jesus, and that if you allow God to use you –He will. Because He loves them and he has a plan for their lives –just like he has a plan for my life. Afterwards Johnson asked them what they thought and the Muslim kid piped up first and said, “I want to choose Jesus. I believe in Jesus now.” I asked him if he understood who Jesus is –he quickly replied, “He is God.” Johnson then asked him if he had a bible –like many people in Africa he didn’t, neither did any of the other boys. So I told them I would go and buy them each a Bible. So that afternoon I went into town and bought the bibles and gave a bible to each of them.
(The muslim kid is on the left in the white shirt)
(On route to Nairobi, Kenya we stopped and camped in Moshi, Tanzania for 2 days)
June 28, 2012
9:08 am
I woke up this morning in the bush of Africa –more so in the bush than I have ever been. There are wild elephants in this bush and we always have to be careful when we are walking down to the lake. Right now we are camping at Lake Chala which is a caldera located in view of Mount Kilimanjaro (the tallest mountain in Africa) –It’s beautiful here. Well, we are about to go to the lake and hopefully see some elephants.
1:16pm
Well, our walk this morning was very successful! We walked up on a herd of 8 elephants! It’s so crazy to see elephants in the wild! Then we took this treacherous path down to the lake and everyone swam except for me. I’m not really much of a fish –and besides I’m still convinced that there is some lake monster lurking in the deep –this lake is 2 miles deep!
(we spent 5 days in Nairobi, Kenya at our debrief with our squad until each team left for their ministry in different parts of the country)
July 6, 2012
2:48pm
So we are now at our ministry site in Kitale, Kenya –well we are actually staying in a little village called Namanjalala which is 5 miles outside of Kitale. We are staying at an orphanage/school/church. I’ve already discovered that there are 5 little orphan babies here and I’m really excited! Not quite sure yet what our ministry this month will all entail…
July 9, 2012
8:15pm
Today Brittany (our squad leader), Wes, and I did hard construction on an orphanage that is being built in a small village called Bikeke. Hands down the hardest work I’ve done on the race to date. We worked with 8 Africans mixing cement the old fashioned way and pulling 3 gallons of water up from a 70ft deep well. I’m pretty sure it’s what you would call “back breaking labor” because my back sure did hurt for days afterwards! But then we had lunch –the most amazing lunch at Pastor John’s house (he’s in charge of a different school and orphanage –not the one that we’re staying at).
July 11, 2012
3:00pm
I went to the doctor today to get tested for parasites; while I was there I decided to get tested for malaria while I was at because it was only about 50 cents. Well, it turns out I don’t have parasites (thank God!) but….I do have malaria. However, God graciously allowed me to catch it sooner because I don’t have any symptoms yet –which means all I have to do is take the medicine and I will be malaria free without ever having to experience the sickness part. –I’m continually reminded on the verse in Psalm 27, “I will remain confident of this I will see the goodness of the Lord…” Goodness=love in action.
Also, I was telling my mom this on Facebook and she said that as soon as she sat down at my dad’s desk to get on the computer she noticed him Bible open and the verse that was underlined was
Exodus 23:25:
“So you shall serve the LORD your God, and HE will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from among you.”
She then got on facebook and I started talking to her about my test results and she said instantly that this promise was for me –and I believe it!
July 12, 2012
8:40am
Well, I took the first dose of malaria medicine and I feel fine today. I was really worried it was going to make me feel sick because it’s pretty powerful stuff. So far so good.
7:45pm
Today I spent a lot of time taking care of the orphan babies that live upstairs. I held and fed them and talked a lot to their nanny Sella. She asks me a million questions about stuff she’s heard about America –most of the things she’s heard are a little crazy. She asked me out of the five babies which one I would want to take back to America with me. I chose Paul –because she said that whenever Americans come no one really likes Paul they prefer the other stockier babies. Paul is really small –he’s 8 months old but he looks like a 2 month old. They call him the Somali baby because his features are more of Somalia than of Kenya. But he has the biggest eyes and when he finally smiles it’s the cutest thing.
(Paul is the one in my arms)
July 14, 2012
2:37pm
I’m sitting here in Pastor John’s home waiting for lunch. This morning we went all over the village going into people’s homes and encouraging new and old believers and evangelizing. While on the road we ran into a member of Pastor John’s church who was going to go get medicine for his brother who was sick. Pastor John told him we’d stop by his house to pray for him. We kept moving and came to house of a widow who had raised 9 children on her own and found her older adult daughter outside. The pastor knew and asked why she hadn’t been at church in a while..she said that she’s been ‘busy’ trying to find work. The pastor asked if anyone had a word of encouragement for her and to my own surprise I said that I did. I told that though she has grown up without an earthly father, that she has a father in heaven who loves her and wants her to experience the love of a father. He wants her to know what it means to be a daughter, to experience the love and security that comes with that. And because she is his daughter he wants to love and provide for her. I continued on sharing more with her, and then Jill shared a verse with her and we prayed for her. After we said amen Pastor John asked her what she has learned from these visitors, she replied that she now understands that living a life without Christ really isn’t living at all, and that sometimes it takes people to pull you out of darkness and into the light.
We kept going from house to house until we arrived at the home of the member of Pastor John’s church whose brother was sick. When we arrived we found his brother Sam out in the yard and he greeted us. At this point I was not yet sure what his sickness was because he seemed to functioning normally. Sam invited us into his home and we met his other brother Paul. Pastor John then asked Sam to share with us what his sickness was. Sam said that for 12 years he had served in the military and in 2001 he became very sick and went to get tested for HIV. The test came back positive. A few years later he found Christ and by the grace of God he has been living for 11 years instead of the normal 2 years that they give most people with this disease to live. However, for a while now he hasn’t been attending church or whole heartedly following after God. I pulled out my Bible and began to speak to Sam. I said that a few days ago I got tested for Malaria and it came back positive and as I was a little worried about what the effects were going to be my mom gave me this scripture –I read to him Exodus 23:25. I told him that promise was for me and I believed it and I no longer have Malaria. “The same promise is for you,” I said. “If you, Sam, turn your heart back to Jesus and if you serve the Lord, he will bless your food and your water, and HE will remove sickness from among you.” As I was sharing I knew the Holy Spirit was working because there was an anointing in the room that made me want to cry. We all laid our hands on Sam and prayed healing over him by standing on the promises of God’s word. As we were leaving Sam called out, “Don’t forget to pray for me while you are in America. Don’t forget about Sam from Kenya who has HIV.” “I won’t forget,” I called back.
Thank you to everyone who has donated and made my World Race possible. I became officially FULLY FUNDED at the beginning of this month and I'm so blessed to have you be apart of this journey!
