A busy week and relaxing break!

You know how it goes when you’ve had a really busy schedule and haven’t sat down to rest all day, but you so enjoy everything that fills up your day that don’t even realize that you’re tired until you sit down to go to sleep that night? Well, stretch that day into the past month and a half, and the restful night to this weekend, and you can get a picture of how this week has been! I got the wonderful privilege of coming to Nakuru (about 3 hours away from Nairobi) with some missionary friends from Kansas, John and Anne Martin. They came to pick me up, so I’ve gotten the chance to be away from the close quarters of team living for a few days! I did not realize how exhausted I was from my first weeks in Kibera until I came away from everything and relaxed. I took my first nap (over 3 hours) and bath since I’ve been in Kenya, slept in a real bed, and washed and dried some clothes in a washing machine! Some great food, a beautiful visit to the game park (some really close pictures of lots of animals and almost got charged by a rhino!), and joined in some of the ministry they are doing here. I got to see the birth of a brand new church in the slum here, as well as meet a group of HIV+ Christians that are speaking all over the country and really helping change lives. What awesome people! God is really using them. They’ve had struggles and dealt with death of family and friends in ways I could never imagine. So many tragic stories redeemed to tales of joy and victory through God’s grace. God knew just what I needed this weekend, and the Martins have been such a blessing to me. Hurray for wonderful families and homes!
Before I left for this weekend’s trip, God was still busy using me in Kibera. I am still doing all of the same things, and getting more and more involved. I cooked the teachers at the school some American food one day and had them over to the house for lunch. I’ve never seen adults eat so much macaroni and cheese! Each had 2 heaping plates full! It was such a joy to see God use me to help provide that day’s meal for them. I am blown away by home much time they give to teaching and the school without getting paid a dime, while their families are going hungry and some don’t even have a home of any kind to live in. Please pray for God to provide salaries for the teachers.
New Life Home is going well. Many babies that have been adopted are leaving this week. It’s going to be such a bittersweet time for me! I’m incredibly excited and grateful that they have homes, but I sure will miss them a ton. I’ve grown to love those babies more than I ever thought possible, and I’m sure my love will only grow in the months to come. I just can’t get enough!
We’ve found a new way to pray for and minister to our neighbor, a close friend of ours who is a M. Every morning at 4:45 comes a very loud call to prayer over the speakers from the mosque just across the street. Several of us have decided to also get up and pray at that time for the M’s that are up praying and devoting themselves to a false god. We really focus on praying for our neighbor, and I know that many m’s in our area are critical of Christians since we lack the commitment and fervor for prayer that they practice. So I hope that he can see this as an example of our love and devotion to God, and that there is more to Christianity than lots of money and charity projects. We are truly seeking and sacrificing to worship and love God. That’s what he needs to see.
One more thing to tell you about this week. I am working on getting Bibles for all of the students in school. I found a place to get New Testaments (in either English our Swahili) as well as small work books for only about 12 cents a piece. To buy them for the whole school will be about $20. Also, for next semester I am praying about buying full Bibles for the whole school. This would cost somewhere in the ball park of $500. If the funds are there, it would be really great to get the teachers study Bibles, since they’re teaching this stuff and only 1 out of the 5 even own a Bible at all! So we’re looking at around $550 total. I am telling you all of this because I know some people have expressed an interest in helping. Please don’t feel pressured or anything by this. Most of you have already given so much just to send me here! Again, I’m only asking for you to pray and listen to God’s direction. I’m helping make you aware of the need, but leaving it to God’s leading for whether you should help financially or not. As I’ve been here, I’ve been learning SO much about how trustworthy and faithful God is. He keeps doing little things to provide for me or even just to make me smile that I know are from Him, serving as specialized reminders that God wants the best for His children!! So listen to Him, and please don’t send anything unless you think it’s what God wants. I trust that He is in control and will take care of it. Pray about the whole situation this week, and then I’ll let you know next week how you can help. There are so many people and projects in Kibera that need support, and we need to seek for God to lead to the right places since we can’t help everyone! So, to summarize this incredibly long paragraph…please pray J
Well, I am on my last night of my weekend off, and I think rather than typing the night away, I’m going to head off for some more rest on my comfortable mattress! Blessings to you all and thank you for all of your much needed prayers!