playing catch up

Hello all!
so it's been a LONG time since I've updated this! Sorry about that. I will try to do it every Monday from now on. Here's all but one week's worth of updates that I didn't put on here:

Habari zenu! Hello Everyone!
How are you all doing? I am doing well! This week has been good, though less eventful than I had anticipated. It was our first week of doing internships, but we’re off to a slow start. With so many people doing different things, it’s taken a lot of meetings and waiting to get things going. I have only visited the elementary school once, and didn’t get to do much there yet because it hasn’t been set up. Hopefully starting Tuesday I’ll be teaching there 2 full days a week. I went to New Life Home once, but there also we haven’t been given any responsibilities other than holding and loving on babies, which is still a great thing! But can only go in the afternoons after 3 because that’s when they’re awake and outside. After Monday we should be able to do more there as well. So it seems that after this week is when things will really pick up. But the extra free time this week has given me more opportunities to talk to neighbors and bond with teammates. I made friends with a girl that owns the shop around the corner named Vivian. Ate Ugali and fish at her house the other night and met her mom and sister. She has a brother who wasn’t there, but they’ve all decided that I will marry him and move to Kenya. Haha. They are a Christian family an I really enjoyed her fellowship. I went to church with her today and she showed me around Kibera a bit more. It was a lot of fun. And then I spend the afternoon playing with little kids and meeting another neighbor, Lilian. She invited me in and I helped her cook and we talked for a few hours. I just love it in this culture how it’s normal practice to just drop by anytime and talk for hours. So relational and social. She and her husband attend a pastors’ training school that was started here in Kibera. You’d be absolutely AMAZED how many pastors here preach with no training whatsoever! We visited the training class this week and it was incredible. They didn’t know anything about the Bible or theology except for what they could interpret themselves from reading. Many pastors shared stories of how they’d just pick a verse to preach on and misinterpret it and preach false teaching. That happens all over in Africa. The pastors here need training and instruction! There is so little available for them! Lilian and her husband actually moved here to Kibera 3 months ago from there village several hours away just so they could attend these training classes. Oh how the African church needs trained pastors and teachers! I’m excited to get to know Lilian and her children better.
As I was talking to her, some kids were playing with my hair (like always). I thought they were just braiding it, but they were putting dreadlocks and knots in it! It took forever to get it out, and we almost had to cut it, but luckily Lilian was patient and helpful in getting it out. Haha.
I am writing this email late at night, so sorry if it is not as informative or descriptive as some others. I am getting a bit tired.
So, prayer requests for this week:
Prayer as I really dig in and begin teaching and working at New Life Home this week. I don’t know what I’m doing in either situations as they are both jobs I’ve never done before! It’s exciting to step out and know that they’re things I could never do on my own and will have to depend on God to use me in them.
Also, pray that I will continue building relationships with neighbors as many of them are Muslim. One even came over for dinner with the whole team tonight and said she would come to the women’s Bible study we are having here on Tuesday night.
I’m still praying about which 2 girls God wants me to disciple. I think it might be a girl named Christine and Becky (Vivian’s sister). Pray for wisdom and guidance in that, as well as for fast relationship building!
We started taking Kiswahili classes, which will only last for the next 2 weeks, but I will then have the option of continuing them at my own expense. I am really enjoying them and hope to learn a lot of Kiswahili this year. Please pray that I will learn quickly and be able to speak and communicate with people soon, even possibly getting fluent throughout the year! I know that’s a lofty goal, and will require a lot of work, but again, it’s something I know I can’t accomplish without God, so I’m excited to see Him show up in that way.
Thanks everyone for all of the encouraging emails you have been sending! It’s wonderful to check my email and have so many uplifting notes from all of you! God bless!

In Yesu,
Nicole

p.s. Just in case anyone is interested…I did buy a cell phone. It doesn’t cost me anything to receive calls, so if you feel like calling, it would be a wonderful treat for me! The number is:
011 254 720 466 974

Hello again!
Hope this Monday finds you excited for another great week! I’ve decided Mondays in Kenya are wonderful, because it’s our day off. J I think I like having Monday off more than Saturday. It makes Sunday a day of real rest and enjoyment, and then Monday I can get all the shopping and email and things done for school, eliminating those stressful Sunday nights at 11 pm when I need to start a paper. Hehe, I’m sure many of you reading this email this morning had just that kind of night last night! So the moral of the story is: if you ever get the choice, take off on Monday rather than Saturday.
Ha, well now that I’ve wasted a paragraph describing the benefits of Mondays, I shall move on to my actual update!
It’s been a great week! On Monday I got my hair braided with extensions, so now it is really long and quite a bit darker. It’s really simplified life by removing the need to wash my hair, which can be a pain to do here. And I did it in perfect timing because we haven’t had running water all week.
The work at school is going well. I’m growing more comfortable with teaching, and I’m starting to get to know the students and other teachers. I will be mostly in charge of teaching 4th and 5th grade, which I’m excited about. I still do some lessons for other grades, but not as much. Even though many students are Muslim, all schools in Kenya have a Christian Religious Education class. I’m not exactly sure why, but I’m going to try to find out more. Even though they’re taught “Christianity,” many don’t really know it. The students at our school can recite tons of verses and facts about the Bible, but they don’t learn about what they mean or how they connect. They recited John 3:16 and John 14:6 for me the other day, but when I asked them to connect the verses and tell me what they meant, they couldn’t. So I spent about $5 to type up and copy some worksheets that had the bridge diagram and some verses with explanations. We are going to study the salvation message together! They are all really excited because it’s something they’ve never heard before.
This brings me to tell you of one of the biggest needs I’ve seen in the school. They all need text books and paper and pens and all that, but more importantly, most of them don’t have Bibles. Even some of the teachers only have a New Testament. Bibles could even be used to help with English and reading. So I really want to figure out some way to get them all Bibles!
New Life Home is going wonderful!!! There are 3 of us girls going there several times a week (I’m at the school 2 days and at New life home 4 days a week), and we’re getting more responsibilities and trust there every day. We’re getting to know the staff ladies and invest in them, which many of them say other volunteers have never done before. Several of them live in Kibera and are struggling to feed their own families after working hard with children all day. We took one lady named Miriam out to lunch yesterday at Java House. It’s a nice restaurant that’s serves almost any American food you could want! And great coffee! Java House restaurants are all over Nairobi, and a very popular place to eat. The prices range is similar to that of Arby’s in America. Miriam had never been to Java before because she couldn’t afford it, and even after 3 years of working at New Life Home with different volunteers all the time and families coming to adopt, no one had taken interest in asking her out to lunch or getting to know her. The staff seem to just be blown away that we don’t just care about holding the babies, but we want to help mop and clean and change icky diapers. So they’re allowing us to do all sorts of things, even going into the ICU to take care of the littlest sick ones! It’s such a joy! Hopefully we’ll get to even start a Bible study with the staff ladies.
So ministry is just multiplying, and that’s only 2 of the things I’m involved in. I’m really enjoying the Coptic church I told you about last week, and the youth are beginning to open up and share with us. I talked to one girl for a long time today about some problems she was having. I’ve also visited some other missionaries in the area to observe their ministries and see if God wants me to get involved. Today I’ll be meeting with 2 girls to disciple and study the Bible with them. It’s getting to the point where I’m seeing so much need and so many amazing things to get involved in, that I’m having to choose to say no to things. It’s so hard to say no when all of them are things I really want to do!
Before I came here, I knew God was calling me to Kenya, but I didn’t know exactly what I would do. Now there are so many different things to do, I need prayer that I will be able to hear God’s voice clearer than ever, following His guidance to fulfill the purposes for which he brought me here. It would be easy to spend my time doing all sorts of wonderful things, but still miss the best thing that He purposed for me! So please pray that I’ll be able to settle down now and get a clear focus.
Thanks again to all of you who have sent personal emails. They’re all great to read! My chances to respond personally are becoming very scarce. The internet has been very slow and inconsistent lately, and I don’t have time to go to town much. So even if I don’t write you back, please keep writing because I’m always happy to read about what’s going on at home!
For prayer requests this week…Continued prayer for wisdom in teaching. Not only are there no textbooks, but we don’t even have a copy of the guidebook saying what each student should know in each grade. It’s just teaching blindly without real structure of what they need to know.
Also, pray for the relationships with the staff ladies at New Life Home. We want to be a blessing and serve them as they give their time to take care of the babies. And I’m falling in love with those precious babies! I’ve got 3 favorites now (Adrienne, Solomon, and Jerry J), and pray that they will be adopted into wonderful, loving, Christian homes. I would take them home in a heartbeat if I could! Mom? Can I have a few more brothers and sisters?!!!!!! Or maybe some nieces and nephews sis??!
Lastly, please pray for our team unity. We’ve been living with each other for over a month now, and it’s mostly been really great, but naturally there are personalities that clash and nerves that run short. So pray for patience and love with this team/family living in a house with thin walls and no privacy.
Thanks again for taking the time to read this. It never ceases to amaze and encourage me when I get such wonderful emails back from all of you. I can’t believe that so many people take the time to read such long reports about what’s happening on the other side of the world, and that you have genuine interest and support for my work here. It’s so desperately needed! Thank you! God is teaching me so much, and challenging my ability to listen to His voice and rest in His love. It’s an honor and privilege to be here and to have so many people at home that care. Thank you. Have a fabulous week, and show the love of God to someone in a new way today. Here’s an idea: buy flowers and hand them out to random people with a smile. It certainly brought a smile to the people on our matatu yesterday when a couple of us did that. They asked us why we were so happy, and we got to tell them!!!!!! Fun stuff J
God bless!

Nicole
P.S. Check out www.adventures.org, then go to trip reports, Kenya 2004 FYM to see a few pictures of our house and team!!! Also some of me with kids J

Hello everyone!
Words could not even describe the amazing, wonderful, beautiful experiences I had this week! It was our first time to travel outside of the city area and see other parts of Africa. I went to the school Monday, and to New Life Home on Tuesday and Wednesday before leaving town on Thursday. Internships are going really well and I’ll continue to keep you informed on those, but for now I’ll focus on our adventures in the Rift Valley!
We visitied Kijabe, Iburu, and Ewaso for 3 days this weekend. Our change of surroundins was nearly as drastic as the change coming from America to here! It felt freeing to be out of the confines of our crowded, sewage infested slum and out into some of the most gorgeous creation I have ever seen! We stayed with a pastor’s family there, sleeping in tents in front of their house. Every morning I woke up at 5:45 to a picture of the amber sun rising over the vast valley below, framed by green mountains in every direction. Looking at that kind of creation leaves no doubt that there is a God, but it does remind me of Psalm 8. Who are we that such a majestic God cares for us?! God also convicted me, because I can always appreciate His amazing power when looking at the beautiful landscape, but I often forget to marvel in his creation of other people, and even myself. The same beauty that takes our breath away in a sunset is alive inside of us and ready to be displayed through us. Wow.
Each day of the weekend was full of a completely different kind of ministry. One day we visited a missions hospital and sang, shared testimonies, and prayed with patients. We did the same thing in a hospital for crippled children. I got to use our frog and sheep puppets to lead some singing and share about the parable of the lost sheep. A few prayed to accept Christ that day, and many were encouraged in their fight with different illnesses. God was really working in those hospitals already, and it was fun to come in for an afternoon and join in!
The next day we went to a remote village in the bush called Iburu. The first time they saw white people was in June when a different AIM team lived there for a month and helped start a church, so we came back to check on the church and encourage them. As seems to be the theme of this trip, God continued to pull my heart to the children. We sang and played games with them, just loving on them and holding them. I had at least 15 kids gathered around trying to play with my hair all at one time! It was exactly as you might picture a small African village in the bush—no running water, no electricity, no schedule, and no watches. We worshipped together for hours with drumming, dancing, and singing in Swahili, Kikuyu (the tribal language), and English. It was refreshing, encouraging, and wonderful to us and to the people there.
Finally, yesterday we went to Ewaso. It’s deep far down into the valley and bush, and we spotted a giraffe and lots of zebra and gazelle on the way there. If we thought we were in the middle of nowhere the day before, we were definitely beyond nowhere now. To picture what Ewaso is like, just open a National Geographic. Everyone was adorned with beaded necklaces, bracelets and earrings lining their stretched lobes. Their traditional outfits included red blankets, or a decorated cloth draping their shoulders. We visited a church that was for Maasai Christians, and the only service available in their tribal language in that area. It was fun to make some friendships with these amazing Christians and see them worship in a new language I’d never heard before. I spoke in church and shared greetings with them from our churches in America! I told them how so many people in America were praying for them and wanted to encourage their brothers and sisters in Africa.
Traveling like this helps me better understand why Paul was always sending greetings in his letters in speaking of his desire to visit. For churches like the one in Ewaso, contact with other Christians and other churches is so rare, and to know that other people are praying for them and thinking of them is an of the most amazing pieces of encouragement we can give! So please remember them in your prayers J
As wonderful as it was to experience a weekend in a new part of Africa, it felt great to come home! It really did feel like returning home when we came back to Kibera. AND, when we got back, not only did we have running water (which we haven’t had for 2 weeks) but it was gushing! They put in a water reservoir and fixed our pipes while we were gone! So we will be able to clean and bathe so much easier from now on. It’s a great blessing.
Thanks for praying this week! It’s been wonderful. Still seeking direction for focusing in. And thanks for the emails and confirmation of some things that you’ve sent! Especially after this weekend, I see that my heart is really drawn to children and babies! So I just need to continue to focus from there.
So please keep praying for all the past requests as they’re still relevant! Also, pray for the team. 2 of our members are not coming back after Christmas, one of which is my roommate who I’m getting really close to. And we’ll have 3 new members next semester. So it will be a tough change, so please pray for that! And that the 2 girls leaving will still feel useful and important to the team during their short time left.
Thank you! The internet is really sketchy lately, so I can’t write any personal emails, sorry about that. Hope you are having a great week, and you are all in my prayers daily! God bless!!!!!

In Jesus,
Nicole