for such a time as this...

where to start...? the last two weeks in Africa have been kind of a blur for me, and i apologize for not updating more often, this might be a bit long of a post but bear with me, it's a good one!

my last post was on our last day in Tarime, and let me just tell you it was a most wonderful day, indeed. the kids and staff all came out and did a little bit of a "presentation" for us, which was really sweet and a big cry fest for many of the kids. it took all the strength i could muster to keep the salty tears in the ducts, and for the rest of the day we celebrated and played. for lunch we ate bread with butter and jam, something they rarely if ever get. Then we proceeded to have a field day of sorts, including tug of war, potato sack races, a three-legged race (in which my partner was bebe leah, a grandma who watches over the kiddos at night, talk about awesome!). then when the vehicles came to pick the kids up we waved as they drove off the property and our group stayed behind, walked down to the river to sing some worship songs and close up our time at Gamasara. after we trekked back from the river and waiting for our ride we laid in the grass in the open field and stargazed...it could have been the perfect way to say goodbye. my heart is forever in Tarime in such a powerful way and i know God did that for a reason.

speaking of goodbyes and "for such a time as this" moments...our next adventure was a little bit of a holiday, a trip to mombasa on the east coast of kenya, to the indian ocean. let me preface just a little bit. a few days before our departure from Tarime, i received an email from my friend Ashlee, telling me about a job opportunity through the General Board of Discipleship....called...Pray With Africa. it couldn't have been more perfect timing and as i talked, thought and prayed about it, i decided to email for more information. the day we left for mombasa i sent in my application and resume. when we arrived in mombasa, i heard that they wanted to set up a phone interview. yikes! so there i am on the beach, having a phone interview with a group of people from the states, for a job that would let me share my passion for africa across the United States. perfect. the next day i was offered the position and the day after that i accepted it. (for more information about it please visit, www.praywithafrica.org )

so, from then on out life has moved pretty quickly for me, we made our way back to Nairobi where i began the process of changing my flight, because i wasn't supposed to leave till August 4th but i have to be in Nashville on the 2nd to begin training on the 3rd. (forgot to mention that above) with all that said i am typing this blog from my home in Kansas, i arrived home last night and am beginning laundry fest 2009 in an attempt to get everything done, see all the people i need to see, and give myself some time to digest everything before moving on to the next adventure that God has chosen for me.

i am truly sad to have left africa, (you can ask the bathroom attendant in the nairobi airport about the cry fest she witnessed from me, sad but true) because i really feel that part of my heart will never leave it, i am sad that i didn't get to spend the last week of our time in Nairobi at the Eastleigh Fellowship Center, but i know my teammates are continuing on and making a difference. on the flipside, i am so excited maybe even a little anxious, as i step into this unknown section of my life, but i know God is bigger and His plans are perfect and i know He didn't lead me here on accident, "for such a time as this..." i want to thank all of you for being encouragers and supporters of my life, my faith, this trip and this next adventure as well.

i would ask you all to keep praying for me, i leave for nashville on sunday for a month of training and then i will head out with 3 other people in a van and travel around the east part of the country (visit the site i posted above, if you haven't already--it tells all about what i will be doing). i will continue to use this blog to keep in touch so keep checking it and i hope to add some more africa pics and stories as well! i will see you all at the end of November!!

bittersweet...

today is our last day in the great city of Tarime...we are taking the kids and staff at MAHOHTT out to Gamasara for one last beautiful saturday. if you know me you know i don't hide my emotions well and today i have quite a few. i don't want it to be a sad goodbye so i pray that God will give me the strength to not let the sadness of not being with them show, because i know without a doubt that i will return to this place.

i don't think i can even begin to describe how much the kids mean to me and how much they have stolen my heart...

abundant blessings...

God is overwhelmingly powerful and gracious, and i have been able to bask in his many blessings especially over the past couple days. My friend Holly has been here in Tarime since January and when she returned to the states headed up a project we lovingly call the "stepping into each others' shoes" project. Holly, Jordan, their church, friends and family collected enough shoes for each of our 40 kids to have a pair of school shoes and a pair of tennis shoes. i thank God for stirring the hearts of all those who participated. yesterday we had the honor of distributing 2 pairs of new shoes to each child. amazing.

i want to thank each of you so much for supporting me so graciously and just wanted to give you a glimpse of how your support is helping our 40 angels at MAHOTT.

Education here is so very important for the kids, for their futures it is the single most important thing that can help them step out of poverty and make a change in their lives. having an education puts them one step closer to having their dreams come true. It came to our attention Saturday that they did not have the supplies they needed for school which began today (monday), and the orphanage funds were lacking in providing for their needs. We had the secondary students make lists of all the priorities they would need for school and we met as a team to figure out how much money we could pool together to cover as much of the cost as possible. thanks to you for supporting this cause, we were able to purchase a set of textbooks (which they haven't had before) for the girls and set of textbooks for the boys, notebooks for each child, pens, mathematical sets, rulers, and backpacks for each student. i am so thankful that they started school today with a deeper sense of hope and determination.

there is another project we are hoping to tackle this week, as it's our last week here, and i am really excited about it. Holly had the idea to teach the kids (especially the older ones) how to get a bank account, manage money, make budgets, how to save money, etc. life skills that will all need and we have been told that doing business in the banks here can be intimidating if you have no idea what is going on. luckily, we are friends with the bank manager in town and are hoping for him to meet with the kids and open a bank account for each child with 10,000tsh (which is equivilent to about $8), and teach them skills they may need. it's a ministry of empowerment and am blessed to be a part of it all.

so, thank you for blessing me, but thank you most importantly for blessing these children...may you be abundantly blessed in return!!

the kiddos with their new shoes!


lucy

Sammy

Rose

Mwita Hura

disappointed in myself...saved by God's grace...

So, I have concluded that at some point in the life and ministry of a missionary, you feel like you just don’t have what it takes, that you’ve failed at something in particular, or that you feel inadequate to the task before you. It’s part of being human. My dear friend, Jenny, spent 3 months in Kenya this year and she blogged once about being the worst missionary ever. Now if you know her as I do, you would be thinking there is no way that she would ever be called that. After being in Africa for over a month now, I have experienced that same feeling. This last week I definitely felt the overwhelming heaviness that I was the worst missionary ever. Let me explain…

This last week my fellow Kansans and I had the opportunity to travel to our friend’s village (the village where Sonny was born, he is the basketball coach at the center in Eastleigh in Nairobi). We took a 4-ish hour bus ride, spent a night in Mwanza, met up with Sonny and Lynette (our friend from Eastleigh, she plays some mad b-ball and Sonny is her coach) and headed on an 8 hour bus ride to the town of Bukoba, then hopped a 45min taxi ride to the village. African travel is definitely an adventure. Sonny’s mother comes from the Haya tribe and they are known for building their homes amongst the banana trees, so we got dropped off on the side of the highway and walked the footpaths through the banana fields to the mud house and hut. It was almost a bit surreal.

Our first full day in the village was spent going around the village and meeting Sonny’s extended family, entering their homes to say hello and introduce ourselves and then heading on our way. We even walked to the next town to see Sonny’s sister, who has quite a bit of land on a hillside and we hiked to the top for one of the most amazing views I have ever seen. We were so close to the Ugandan border that we decided to make a small pit stop, took pictures at the Uganda sign and returned to the village to have dinner with the family.

Our second day there started so beautifully. I awoke to the sound of Sonny praying out loud in English. He was praying over his mother’s house and his family; casting out demons in Jesus’ name, demons of laziness, poverty, oppression, disease, etc. He also prayed for the entire village to know Christ and prayed blessings upon them. I thank God for allowing me to witness Sonny’s heart, his genuineness, his love for God and most of all for blessing me with an example to follow. Now, after a start like that, how could things go wrong? “Things” didn’t actually go wrong it was more my fallible humanity that got in the way. And here’s where the “worst missionary ever” story continues…

The previous day I had cut up my feet pretty bad hiking and walking was almost excruciating. I didn’t bring a pair of tennis shoes so I had absolutely no protection for the cuts I had received. I just had to wear my sandals and get over it. Easier said than done. The plans for our morning that second day was to visit Sonny’s uncle in the village. I’m thinking no big deal, right? Just a short jaunt into the village to say a quick hello and then my feet could rest easy for the day. Well, as you may have guessed it wasn’t a short walk and mind you we are on footpaths in the bush, not a paved road. I spent a large portion of the walk being angry about the pain of my feet and wishing that everyone wouldn’t walk so fast so I could keep up. I was almost wishing I hadn’t come for this particular visit and I was most angry about having such an awful attitude about it. Every time we would approach a dwelling I was praying that it was the one, and it wasn’t about 3 or 4 times before reaching our destination.

On our way to Sonny’s uncle, we came upon a woman who was ill and hadn’t been able to talk in a long time. Sonny asked us to stop, share a word with her, lay hands on her and pray. It was such a moving experience that you would have thought it would have turned my bad attitude around, and I am ashamed to say that it didn’t. I kept arguing with God…wondering if this is really where He wanted me on this particular morning. It was great to pray with that woman, but I was being selfish and wanted to be free of pain and I apparently couldn’t get past the pain. We continued on, visited his uncle, stayed for a bit and prayed over him and his house and headed back. We made another stop on our way home, one that God used to slap me out of my selfishness and experience the power and glory of my creator. When we stopped and prayed for the woman, a young boy witnessed us and followed us from there to Sonny’s uncles and asked if we would come and pray over him, his education and his home. After talking with him, we found out that his mother had died, and I am not sure that his father was around much.

So, here I was, complaining to God about how badly my feet hurt and wishing it wasn’t so hot and that I had brought a bottle of dasani with me…blah blah blah. And here was this young boy who had followed us, waited for us and had the courage to ask for prayer. Probably one of the most humbling experiences of my life. We sat around him, laid our hands upon him and prayed for his life, his family, his education, blessed his house and as the tears streamed down my face I was so humbled and thankful that despite my poor attitude, God graced me with getting a glimpse of the power of prayer and how much intercessory prayer means to people. May I never miss out on an opportunity like this again because of my own personal convenience and comfort. God is so much bigger than my pain and I only pray that he would continue to stretch me, my understanding and my faith; and that He would continue to open my heart and take away the things and attitudes that cause me to miss out on giving Him all the glory.

“As a saved soul, the real business of your life intercessory prayer…” ~Oswald Chambers