Fried Apple Pie

Note to self… Don’t leave sweets to cool in front of the open window.  We have a little boy full of personality that lights up our house nearly every day.  It is not uncommon to hear his name being called at regular intervals.  Usually it is because he is doing something he shouldn’t.  He whirls around his eyes wide as saucers and scurries away.  Yesterday we were sending the kids home and all the sudden it was realized that the last fried apple pie was missing… so Chami goes running out the door just in time to see our mischievous friend running like the wind up the lane frantically stuffing his prize in his pocket.  We got a good laugh over that one.  
We have so much to rejoice and be thankful for.  We just purchased food for the second month of Saturday feedings.  The word seems to be spreading and the numbers seem to be growing.  Last week we counted 155 kids.  That is a lot of rice and beans. We are so grateful for our brothers and sisters here who are willing and eager to help out.  We take turns teaching a devotion.. then we try to play some games then we feed them.  We don’t simply want to be filling their bellies.  Full bellies won’t save a soul from hell.  It is our desire that Christ be proclaimed.  We pray the Holy Spirit would be working in their hearts to awaken them to grace, salvation, and love that can only be found in Jesus Christ.  He deserves to have their lives, their praises.  Oh that they would be established upon The Rock where nothing can shake them.  Please pray that the gospel would be lived, proclaimed, and believed here in Kibera.  In 1 Thesselonians 1:5 it says, “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit..”  When we share the gospel it must be more than just words.  Man’s words have no weight..  the Holy Spirit must be manifested in and through us.. He has to meet us in power.  Only He knows how to preach the gospel rightly.  Our job?! Be a vessel. Be a soul willing to be sanctified and filled.  Be a mouth willing to be used.  Be a life willing to look the fool and be used for the glory of God!! 
Most schools are now out for the remainder of the year.  Our afternoons are full of noise, laughter and life.  It is sweet.. and messy.. and loud… and Worth it!! Some of the older children come in carrying their baby siblings.   They look at us with wide eyes as they cling tightly to the one they know.  Sometimes stories are shared with us that cause us to sit, silent, no words left to say.  Life for a youngster here involves things that some adults in the U.S. have never had to deal with.  The responsibilities and burdens they bear are often much more than we think such small shoulders can carry.  We are continually thankful for our Father.  He knows.. He can fix.. He can heal.  Praise be to His name.
Continue to pray brothers and sisters! And may the Lord be exalted through your lives as you serve Him with your all.
“….that in ALL things He may have preeminence.” Colossians 1:18

boiling the bean stew

The crew

By Grace

Grace… what a precious gift! It ends the endless struggle to produce good actions out of an evil heart.  It ends the days full of unsuccessfully trying to scrub ourselves clean as we sit in a pit brimming with miry clay.  Salvation isn’t just the turning of a leaf.. it isn’t merely deciding to do better.  Salvation is the dying of an old man it is the raising up of a new life.  Salvation means a life full of new and different desires, a life marked by walking on a wholly different path.  “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 
                I was drawn to think upon this as I rolled over in my mind a statement that was made today.  A young lady appeared at our door today.  Twice she came.  The second time bringing two children with her.  We talked as they enjoyed the hot food that was set before them.  She shared her problems, looking at us with eyes that have seen and known things many of us could not imagine.   Before we sent them on their way she looked at me and in broken English and said “God has made your heart smart.” Here you would use smart to describe someone who is dressed nicely, to describe something that looks pretty.  Somehow I didn’t think “thank-you” was the proper reply.  That is something I could never take credit for.  I tried to explain that Jesus could do the same for her.  He is in the business of taking lives that know no comfort except for the bottle tipped to their lips and radically changing them! Jesus alone can take dull hearts beating only for destruction and breathe life into them.  We ask that you will join us in prayer for this soul and her family.  He is able!!
                We have now been here for nearly 2 months.  Can’t believe it, God is good!  Lately we have had some really great conversations with hearts that are beating with the same passion as we have ...A passion to know our great God and serve Him with our whole lives.  We have been doing some serious dreaming.  Thinking about the future and discussing what it might hold.  We ask that you join us in prayer as we move forward into what the Lord has for us here.  
                Last Saturday was so great! We both fell in bed exhausted but smiling.  We were able to feed around 60 children.  They are saying we can count on at least double this Saturday! We are so excited about the new relationships that God is forming with those sweet kiddos.  The floor in the building where we meet is dirt… let me tell you, the dust can REALLY get to rolling!  A step outside is required every once and awhile for breathing purposes! Haha At first all the response we get is shy smiles but it doesn’t take long before they are laughing and encouraging us in our limited Swahili.  We had great fun talking and playing with them.  They are all ages.. toddlers to teenagers.  We are so excited to see where God is going take this.  It is His.  May His will be done!
                Thank you for all your interest and prayers!  In the words of Jonathon Edwards, “May God stamp eternity on our eyeballs.”  This life is a vapor.. it is quickly passing.  Let’s make it count for the Glory of God.  May His grace not be in vain in our lives!! Onward and Upward!!!!!

Adventures!

Life is soo good and adventurous with Jesus! J We now officially have our bed put together, a DINING ROOM TABLE WITH CHAIRS, and a working light bulb in each socket(and electricity after a week)! Truly these things bring so much joy… the little things that we took for granted in the US now are seen as great blessings and just make our day(although if we didn’t have them it’s okay too).

Last week, we got to venture out of our box here in Nairobi into interior Kisumu. We left last Thursday morning and arrived home around 6 am Monday morning, after an 8 hour bumpy bus ride through the night. It was quite the adventure and we are soo thankful we had the opportunity to go…it is like another world from Nairobi and especially from the US.  We attended a funeral of a friend’s grandma…our first African funeral. They celebrate the person’s life that was lost one last time all night and day on Friday until the funeral on Saturday. Some people stayed up all night, slept sitting up in plastic chairs under the tent, or crashed in one of the houses. Me and Holly ended up sharing a twin size mattress on the floor with 2 young kiddos(probably ages 2 & 4) who fell asleep on our laps the night before. They, along with a lot of others, were from the village and had come for food. These kids had obviously never known what it was like to be treasured and loved on for a whole day, which made for a difficult parting on both sides. Trusting the Lord to hold and keep those precious little ones under His care.

Another adventure were the matatu’s and piki piki’s. They kept us laughing the whole time…o my..there is nothing quite like it J At one time I counted and there were 29-30 people in a 12 seater van! Only like 6 of them being kids… 4-5 people standing at the door holding on with their heads bent inside. Pieces of wood were placed over the little aisles to add a few more people. Haha When you think there is no space left to occupy, you will be amazed to watch them squeeze in another person. We had to take motorcycles (piki piki) to the house we were staying at and to the funeral because they were in the bush…the 2 of us shared one and it was quite hilarious. The driver was acting like an American since he had two white people on the back and everyone we passed he would wave and shout, “how are you?” haha

One thing we became so thankful for was water! It was sooo hot and we could not drink water without boiling it which we did not have the means of doing so. We had brought 2 water bottles with us which does not last long when your sharing it with others..haha. When we got something to drink we would try to savor it but somehow it seemed in one drink the bottle was gone! Water never tasted so good.

Lord willing, Monday we will be starting Swahili lessons with a REAL Swahili teacher 3 days a week!!! We are cannot wait to learn and be able to communicate better with the kids.

TODAY WE ARE SUPER EXCITED because we are going to spend the day with kids down in the slum where we will be doing a feeding program hopefully every Saturday with some of our friends. We are so excited to see where this will lead!! EEeeeeek! You can be praying for the kids there and guidance in the program.

Our Father has continually been putting us in awe of Him and His goodness.

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens…When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Psalms 8:1,3-4

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you! Psalms 84:10-12

We truly thank you all for praying! Oh how we need more of Him!! We pray for all of you that you will be strengthened to continually press onward, seeking and knowing Him! We love you all!

The Kitchen

Some of the kiddos that come over after school :)

the adventure continues...

It feels really good to be sitting here on this Sunday night.  The candle is flickering in the middle of the room casting a warm glow throughout.  Ahh, isn’t life good? We are so thankful He has allowed us to live to see another day… to continue down this path of adventure.  His goodness abounds.  Seriously abounds.  It is all around… just waiting to be noticed. 
Our days have been changing a bit around here.  They seem to be filling up with little people!! Last week our friends from down the road, who we like to play with after school, found out where we live…. And apparently word is spreading.  They walk through the gate of our compound, kick off their shoes at the door and walk into our house with wide eyed wonder. I wonder what pre-conceived ideas they had about what the inside of a muzungus house would look like.  They probably think we are crazy.. still no kitchen table… one boy said “You have a big house, but small things.”  Haha yeah pretty much.  But they don’t seem to mind.  Saturday we had kiddos in and out for most of the day.  The concrete walls don’t absorb much sound, sometimes this place can really get rocking.  Occasionally we look up to see some kids stroll in who we have never seen before.  The first time it happened we just kinda looked at eachother and laughed… But, it’s good, we are enjoying making new friends. They don’t seem to mind either!   The only challenge we have faced so far is getting them to leave.  Today they were leaving and we noticed one pair of shoes that were still laying there without feet filling them.  I tip-toed to the bathroom, swung open the door and there stood the culprit.  Haha, never a dull moment. Here the doors have a small opening that you can reach in from the outside to lock or unlock the padlock.  This morning I got out of bed and walked out to the kitchen to discover a small hand reaching thru to check and see if they could open the door.  I’m not sure who would have been more surprised had the door been opened.. me, or him!  
In the next few weeks it seems we may be starting some new adventures and we would really appreciate prayers.  It is our desire that God would always have the lead in everything we do.  We will try to fill you in as it unfolds.  We are so excited to see what the Lord has in store!!
It is our prayer that you would have a fruitful week in the Lord.  Don’t get so caught up in what you call  “life” to miss out on Jesus who IS LIFE.  He is more important than jobs, and ministry, and friends.  May He have preeminence ALWAYS in ALL things!

Trusting in a God who knows all!

Good morning to all of you across the world as we are well into our day here in Kenya! It has been a rich morning listening to sermons reminding us of the GREAT GOD whom we have the privilege of serving every day of our lives!  Everyday is a new adventure here with many great laughs and new memories, like eating noodles with strawberry jam for dessert and a scrambling across the kitchen trying to catch our last decent sized mirror only to end with it shattering on the floor. Haha J It’s amazing how the littlest things can bring much joy and excitement around here: running water, a visitor, meat for supper, electricity, a room with a light bulb J The list could go on!

 As for what we are doing here, the Lord has not yet revealed to us our purpose for being here but He sees it all stretched out before Him and that is enough to keep us hopeful in this time of waiting. Many of you ask what we are doing and probably wonder what we do day to day here. Each day ends up unfolding something different. We are slowly learning to commit each day afresh to the Lord here and trust Him to plan our agenda for the day. It’s a very strange thing! We are very used to having a plan to fill our day or easily being able to find something to do and it’s tempting in the midst of the day to get impatient because we feel like we should be doing service, working for the Lord, doing something great! But is service to our God more important than knowing Him? We are thankful for these days of waiting, that we can seek the Lord without the distractions of life at home.

Friday, we spent the day at Goodson School where we spent our time last year. It was SOOO fun seeing the kiddos smiling faces! A lot of them we knew from last year and we were amazed at how much they had grown. We really enjoyed spending the day holding precious little babies. There are about 6 of them right now and one was a tiny 3 week old baby girl!

 Lord willing we will be starting a Bible study at our house with girls age 14-18ish soon, with 2 DVD series from Leslie Ludy!!! We are extremely excited for this opportunity for girls here to know more of their Jesus and what that looks like lived out. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for the girls and the preparation of their hearts to receive the Truth.

May we strive to live every moment in communion with our worthy God. He drank our bitter cup of the wrath of God which we deserve and instead gave us the cup of Life and Righteousness. Thank you dear brothers and sisters for your prayers!

We Moved!!!

May the Lord be praised!   
Yes we are still alive and kicking over here. Sorry for the delay and lack of updating activity.  We didn’t have internet for a while. Then we got it and our computer crashed.  Thanks to some brainy computer guy it is now fixed and we are carrying on as normal.  Wait, what is normal?! haha
We are moved! YAY! It is so good to be here!  The house has one bedroom, a sitting area, a bathroom/washroom and a kitchen. (we will post pictures soon) The night we moved in we didn’t have electricity and it was getting dark so we hurried and tried to clean the bathroom and the kitchen as best we could in the fading light.  We were just finishing up when the heavens opened and started pouring torrents of rain… we shortly found out about the lack of guttering on the house.  We scrambled in the dark to find a way to curb the swelling tide(haha). We looked at eachother as we waded around laughing at the memory that was being made. Now our house is freshly scrubbed and shining. We feel blessed to call it home! We pray that it is an environment that people find inviting and most importantly where the Lord is welcome and Reigning!                                                                                                                                              As we sit here tonite we are enjoying our tea to the sound of rain on the roof. God is good. We are blessed.  Our bellies are full from a sort of “Thanksgiving meal” we just enjoyed in celebration of finally getting gas so we could cook.   Tonite we broke the three day diet of bread and bananas to enjoy a family sized box of macaroni and cheese.  We enjoyed all six servings thanks to our dear friends back home in Indiana! Thanks you two!!! 
Currently we are in the middle of applying for our work permits.  We are just amazed at the connections God has provided.  Sometimes we just don’t have words to say… His faithfulness abounds and His grace is continually sufficient.  I cant say enough what a privilege it is to be on this journey with Him.  When we met with the man who is helping us with our permits he asked what we would like to do. We told him we would like to work with kids and possibly have some kind of home.  He laughed and said “You might be here forever.”  Only the Lord knows… we are certainly excited to find out!
Thank you all for your prayers!  As we walk through each day we see and feel the evidence of them.  May God bless you! Continue dear friends! As you pray for us.. we are also praying for you. 
Specific prayer points:
For our sanctification and growth in the knowledge and obedience of the Lord
For Heavenly discernment and wisdom
That the Gospel would be preached and believed
That young children would be freed from sin and experience love and salvation in Christ
That God would be exalted and glorified in ALL things
Asante sana! May the world be drawn to Christ as they see His church living for Him.
All praise be to our gracious God for sustaining all of us thus far.    

“Lets come and cast ourselves at the feet of the nail pierced Son of God and tell Him that we are going to obey Him, and love Him, and serve Him, as long as we live because He is worthy!” –Paris Reidhead

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21

Isnt is amazing that our God is far bigger than our tiny little minds can grasp? We often limit Him with our little faith, fears, and doubts. To us, He is only as big as we allow and trust Him to be in our lives. Every moment we walk with Him we see He is bigger than we knew Him to be only a moment before, especially in trying situations. So we have seen here…we thank the Lord for the situations in which He puts us, even if they are hard, for we may have never known the Lord in the way in which that situation would allow us to know Him. “Hopeless and impossible situations” are nothing other than perfect opportunities for the Lord to show us His greatness and put us in awe of His faithfulness. His power is IMMEASURABLE. His grace is SUFFICIENT. His love is PERFECT. J

Before we left the US, we had seen that Paul Washer’s ministry(HeartCry) supported 2 pastors in Kenya and we had seen that one of them used to attend a church in Nairobi. We excitedly looked it up and to our amazement found that they were strongly Bible-based and had quotes from great Christian father’s of the faith. We were sooo excited to find like-minded believers and a church in which we were challenged to grow and seek Him more. It was not based on the culture and trying to attract people but upon Jesus Christ and the Cross. So we now officially have a church!!!!!!!!!

Lord willing, tonight we will be moving into our house J J It is around the same area where we stayed last year. We have been staying with friends for the past 2 weeks, whom we have very much enjoyed getting to know. Every day after school the neighborhood kids pile in our compound, and we play games and run around until we are all exhausted and the sun has went to sleep! It has been so much fun and we pray that the Lord may show these kiddos the His love through us.

Thank you all for praying and please continue to do so. We are hoping to meet with someone this week to figure out our visa situation. You can be in prayer for the Lord’s guidance in that.  Asante sana!