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!

The choice is ours

“Every time you venture out in your life of faith, you will find something in your circumstances that, from a common sense standpoint, will flatly contradict your faith.   But common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? …Believe steadfastly on Him and everything that challenges you will strengthen your faith.”  
      -A few thought from Oswald Chambers that we have found much encouragement in.

This is quite a different experience than either of us have ever had.  We are used to having a game plan.  Usually we know what is next and have a strategy for how we will go about accomplishing it.  That is not necessarily something to be proud of.  I think that when we are always prepared and have everything figured out; we miss out on the amazing blessing of wholly relying on Jesus.  So, as this is a relatively new thing for us, we are so excited to see how it will grow our faith.  We are looking forward to gaining a greater knowledge of our God and growing closer to Him through the journey.  Our desire and prayer is; whatever life, as long as it means more of Christ!  And that life of knowing more of Christ rarely leads His children on a path that looks wise through the eyes of “common sense”.   

For you who haven’t heard we ARE here!  We thank our Father for a safe flight here.  How nice it was to step off of the plane and take in the familiar sights and sounds of Kenya! It is SO good to be back J We are thankful for the kind hospitality of our friends who are hosting us until we have a place of our own.  It sounds like we should be moving into our own home early next week.   It is in the same area that we lived last year. 

Many of you have told us that you are anxious to hear what our life will hold here…. For the record, we are too!  We may not know what tomorrow holds, but we KNOW who holds it! What amazing comfort. And He asks us, is that enough my child? The choice is ours.  We can worry and fret and toil all the day, doing the work of the vine. Or, we can rest IN the Vine and let Him work through us.  And so for us, today we must choose again to resign our will for His.  We again have to choose faith over the voice of common sense that at times seems to be laughing in our face.  The choice is in our hands, which way will you choose?!  Oh that we would all follow our God where He leads, with a predetermined “Yes, Lord” resounding from our lips!
           

Happy Friday!  May God get glory from your life today!!!

Hello Fellow Soldiers-in-Christ!

Tomorrow, tomorrow! It’s only a day awayyy :) Our plane leaves tomorrow at 2:40pm and Lord willing, we will arrive in Nairobi about 20 hours later at 6:05pm the following day. We will possibly have a house by the time we arrive, if not we will be staying with some friends in the area for a few days until we are able to find one. Our friends are picking us up from the airport with a matatu, a small 15 passenger van. It will be a fun adventure stuffing in 5 people and 10 bags. :)

This is just a quick update but we wanted to touch base with you all and thank everyone who is praying! We hope to keep you updated on stories of our Faithful Lord Jesus and on ways you can be praying, as often as we can. We love you all! MAY JESUS CHRIST RECEIVE ALL HONOR, GLORY, AND PRAISE!

May our focus today be on Him who is coming :)

But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgement, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Hebrews 9:26b-28

We have been freed from the shackels of sin in which satan had us bound. They have fallen away. We are FREE! So often I get so caught up in celebration of my freedom I forget the price that was paid.  I forget God's only Son being crushed by the Fathers holy wrath for the payment of my debt. He became a curse so that my lips could declare "I am blessed."  Wow... If only I had a clearer picture of the One who gave ALL.

I was reading a magazine the other day and I read this quote and it really struck me, "Why do you think every tear will be wiped away? Is it not because many of us will realize how little we gave to the Savior who gave all?" Now, I certainly don't know every thought behind that particular passage in Revelations; however, I do think there is something to learn from that quote. Oh that we would all have a greater view of our God!  All to often I place way to high of a price on my safety and well being... trying to preserve my life. Only when my eyes are on Him and His Spirit is reigning in me can I gladly fling away my life for His use.  Everyday we remain on this earth I pray we are able to discover more of GOD.  Our journey into the endless frontier of Him has only begun... However, we eagerly await what this path will hold because it will mean MORE of Christ!!!

 

"Quicken me to obedience, dear Master. Give me a bondservant's ear to Thy every utterance. I delight to do Thy will. Make my feet like hind's feet, that I may prance upon Thy most difficult mountain heights. May I not shudder before Thy commission, oh Heavenly Father, may I not hesitate when Thou beckon me to go. Thou hast given me new life, and I pray that Thou art perfumed with my deepest honor." - Eric Ludy

25 days! Cant believe it :) God is so amazing! We would never have dreamed we could be so priviledged. May He receive all of the glory!!!!

The other night we were blessed to be able to share about this journey at our church.  People were wondering about sending us money.  We will be able to receive money in Kenya via MoneyGram.  It can be done at CVS, Walmart, Meijer ect. We have only ever used CVS so I will tell you how it works there. Next to the picture booths there is a red phone. You will arrange all of the details on it. They are very good at walking you through it, but I will emphasize a few details. They will ask you where you want to send it say "Kenya." (If they ask for the city it is Nairobi.) They will ask who you are sending it to... you can use either Chami LuAnne Ayres or Holly Ann Peters.  (Note: make sure that they are clear on the name spelling! It is never fun to get to the desk to pay and realize you need to start all over.)  They will ask whether we will have an I.D. when we pick it up... Yes, we will! Once you are done on the phone just go to the counter and they will take the money from you.  On your copy of the receipt will be a code that we have to have when we go to get the money in Kenya.... so you need to send it to us. You can text it to us or send it via Facebook or email. We will post our phone number when we get one. Our email:
2012kenyatrip@gmail.com 

If you are thinking it seems a bit sketchy be at ease... we have used it many times :)

Thank you for all of your prayers, love, and support. We are very grateful to you our brothers and sisters in the Lord!

Hebrews 13:11-13 "For those bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.  Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to Him, outside of the camp, bearing His reproach."

 

 

 

 

Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
 your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O Lord.
How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.
Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you,
and your righteousness to the upright of heart!
Psalm 36:5-10

Hello Dear Family in Christ!

I pray you all are doing wonderfully well trusting and growing in Christ every day! Truly this time has been a time of much needed preparation as the Lord prepares us to be sent out. I know that probably is true for every one of you too! The spiritual need is just the same here as it is in Africa and everyone of us who have surrendered our lives to Christ are being built up to be poured out for those around us. Every Christian is a missionary in different ways!

We have some exciting news! WE HAVE PLANE TICKETS! Lord willing August 27 we will journey across the ocean and once again breathe in the familiar air of our Kenyan home. :) :) EEEEEEEEEEKKKK!!We are just a little excited ;)
I know it may seem silly and foolish to some but that is as far as our plans go. We have ideas of what we could be doing there but it is all in the Lords hands and He will unfold each day as He so desires. We do not want our agenda to get in the way of the Lords, for His is the only one that will truly accomplish something of eternal value. As Corrie Ten boom says, "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."

Thank you so much for everyone who has been praying alongside us. We ask that you would please continue to do so, especially in these next few months of preparation. Please be praying for the children there, if the Lord desires to place some of them in our home, that He would handpick those children and prepare their hearts to receive Jesus. We love you all and are so thankful for each and everyone of you, as you all have blessed our lives in some way!

Onward and upward brothers and sisters into the endless frontier of our Father!