Praying and Preparing

The last two weeks or so have been pretty chill with most of the children on holiday and back at their homes in the village. It was good to have my friend Claudia visit from home and to have a week of quiet before things pick back up again. The Good Lord knows what we need. These next two weeks I will be doing a lot of planning and preparation for the next few months as I will be quite busy until at least January.

Some things you can be praying for:

I am teaching one missionary child, Lydia, 2nd grade, two days a week (math, phonics and reading, spelling and vocab, and health)

I have joined the choir at my church

I will be leading two bible studies for Senior High girls who are boarding at a school nearby

Bena and I will be leading a bible study for 20 jr highers beginning the third week in September and lasting I think about 8 weeks.

Bena and I will be taking small groups of Sr. High and post sr. highers on short weekend retreats focused on identity in Christ and Character of God.

Preparing for freedom camps for children who have been affected by armed forces that will take place in December and January and figuring out how to follow up and give continuing support after that.

Wisdom every day

That the deep in me would continue to cry out for the deep in God

My heart would be aligned with His heart

That our team would be more and more a team of prayer and intimacy with Jesus

Thank you for praying, these are the requests, the bare facts, though I'm sure there are more, please also when praying thank God for the work He is already doing and how faithful He has been in answering prayers. We serve a big God, praise Him with me.

Please if you could commit to praying for at least one of these items either email me or post a comment to say which one you will be praying for so that everything is covered. Or if there's something else you feel led to pray for you could include that in a comment or email.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

when nature calls...

I had two girls stay the night last night, Betty and Abella. I’ve mentioned them before, both are right around 12yrs old and have parents who are rarely or never around. We watched a movie before going to bed and during the movie I suggested that we drink our sodas, as they didn’t want them at dinner but to have them with the movie. Betty said she did not want hers until morning with breakfast. I said, that drinking soda with breakfast is a bit strange and wondered why she wouldn’t want it with the movie. Then it was like a light went on in her head. She thought out loud, “Oh yeah, the toilet is inside here. Ok, I’ll have my soda now.” It’s just not something a twelve year old in the states has to think about. If you have to go to the bathroom here, for the majority of the children I hang out with, it’s a shared pit latrine somewhere outside. And the middle of the night here is dark and I mean dark. It reminded me that I am not in the states anymore.

sabotage

I was just thinking this morning about sabotage. Nice light early morning thinking...i know. oh well. One of the frustrating things I'm finding here is how out of jealous and greed already desperate people are destroyed further. It happens in the macro sense and the micro. Warriors in one tribe raid their neighbors for cattle. Both groups are barely surviving and yet they go after one another and both groups suffer more unnecessarily. And then there's the story of the boy that escaped from the LRA after 6 years of captivity and he goes to find his land, his parents had been killed in front of him so they're not there, his relatives deny him everything, they've already claimed his land and now this one who has suffered years in the LRA now suffers as a homeless orphan on the streets. Then lately there's been jealousy showing its ugly face among some of the children and their families that visit our house. The grandmother of one is accusing the grandchild of the other trying to destroy her reputation among the white people. And I know this sabotage is done in the states too and around the world. Why is it so hard to be happy for others and not want them to get ahead? Why do the poor steal from the poor and ruin any chance of anyone getting ahead? Why do friends break relationship over the other's good fortune? The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. We must pray for hearts of love and courage to withstand the attractive allure of the evil one. Oh that Truth would prevail and we would build one another up instead of tear down. That we would be wiser to the enemy's schemes and fight for each other rather than against. Precious Savior have mercy on us.

AWP drama in Agama

The town center consisted of various “bars” (several circles of men around pots of brew sipping from long straws), a few women with some tomatoes and various other staples, and a one room clinic & pharmacy. I had come with Bena and her youth drama group; they were going to do a drama on HIV/AIDS. It was supposed to start at two, but Bena told me we didn’t need to leave until at least 3 since the drama team would not arrive till late. We arrived around 3:30pm and didn’t see any of the youth yet. There was a charismatic catholic mass going on at the place where we were going to meet the youth. We decided to join in the mass until the youth arrived; at least it was something to do. The room was filled with ladies on the left and men on the right, ladies on the floor men on the benches. There were some 30 women and maybe 8 men.Of the 30 women I counted at least 5 pregnant ones and there were many who already had young children attached to them. The singing was beautiful; I love just the voices with the djmebe drum. The “priest” had them read about the story of Martha and Mary on the day that Jesus visited their house. His teaching was opposite of what I’ve always been taught. After a while we went outside to look again for the youth, finally we saw some of them approaching from the distance, they had walked a long way, some more than an hour. By the time we had the whole group assembled it was about 4:30, by the time we made it to the town center and had everything set up it was about 5pm. Only three hours late. It didn’t matter much anyway, except that those who were drinking were more drunk. Overall the drama went ok, many people watched it, from babies to old men. I found it interesting the parts they found funny; to me often it was sad because it would be something bad that was so true to their culture.

I’ve found that even though there are many cultural differences between here and America, sin is sin, and causes pain and despair no matter the culture; substance abuse, greed/jealousy, sexual immorality, just to name a few. It broke my heart to see so many young fully capable men living hopelessly, stuck in the grip of alcoholism and poverty. Please pray for our team; that more men would join this team to reach out to the young men here. There are so many different organizations around town reaching out to orphans and widows, but so few to the men. They need discipleship and mentoring from men committed to following Jesus. They need to know that there is hope even when it seems like there is no hope. They need to know that Jesus can help them overcome.

this picture is of an old man asking his wife for money to continue drinking...you see the stick in his hands? he's willing to use it for more than just an assistant in walking...if she refuses he threatens with beating...what's a lady to do? You can see the look on the lady's face says a lot. what a hard position to be in.

some of the engaged audience during the drama:

one scene in the drama about HIV/AIDS:

Lake Nakurut Kenya

Some pictures from the time in Kenya:

Me and the giraffes...

Jennifer pondering the meaning of life...no probably just on the look out for dangerous predators...but i guess you could be pondering the meaning of life while on the look out for dangerous predators...especially since later that day we heard there were lions found in this area...woops...people, please stay in your vehicles...
this one's for you mom!
hmm...what have we here? I don't know, but it looks yummy!
this is me with a zebra in the background...i wanted some proof i wasn't just copying and pasting animal photos from National Geographic or something =)

Pictures-harvesting

Here is my friend, co-laborer Bena with some small relatives amidst the cassava bushes. The poor boy has worn right through his britches.

This is me at Bena's mother in law's house with one of Bena's mother in law's neighbors harvesting g-nuts (they're really a lot like peanuts). we spent all day picking and if i was a paid laborer i would have made the equivalent of a quarter for my work. wow. but it was a good time with a good friend, so I didn't work for pay.

Pictures-in Omoro

These pictures are from our time with the former child soldiers in the Omoro area. Here Rachel (a teammate) is explaining how to play connect four.

Here Bobby (teammate) plays parachute games with some of the children.
Some races were run.
and books were read.
all in all it was a fun day. good to watch kids just being kids.