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April 26 C'est Fini!It's finally finished!
the video project I've been working on for the prphanage here...
it's done and burned and copied and soon to be distributed
and there were only a few frustrating "I hate technology" days
praise God
but I'm happy, it's a huge portion off my plate
now I just have to shoot a bunch of stuff for the Salvation Army and edit that when I get home
LOVE IT! approvedWe all want to know that we are loved
And we seek it from sources that aren’t capable of really loving us.
Even the people that love us the most have hurt us at some point.
But we seek the approval of others before we seek the approval of God.
We rely on people to show us love before we acknowledge Jesus standing there with His arms stretched out.
We set ourselves up for failure and heartbreak and dependence on everything that should not be depended on.
A passage of scripture was shared among our team last week
that spoke to my heart about my own dependence on the unreliable.
God's Message:
"Cursed is the strong one
who depends on mere humans, Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone and sets God aside as dead weight. He's like a tumbleweed on the prairie, out of touch with the good earth. He lives rootless and aimless in a land where nothing grows. "But blessed is the man who trusts me, God,
the woman who sticks with God. They're like trees replanted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers— Never a worry through the hottest of summers, never dropping a leaf, Serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season. "The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful,
a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be." I don’t know how to reflect on these words that would make sense to you.
I just know what they mean to me, what truths God is speaking to me.
They may mean the same to you, in a language between you and God that only you understand.
It’s like Psalm 1 and Proverbs 3 and so many other places in scripture that tell us…
Do not look for approval in men; seek only the approval of God.
Trust Him alone and we will keep us
God has already approved us and shown His love through His grace.
By sending Jesus to die for us though we are still sinners and enemies of God, that’s approval enough.
There’s nothing we can do and nothing we have done to win the love of God.
It is His to give freely and freely He gives it.
Yet from time to time we push that aside and try to win the love of others here on earth…
a love that is useless and pale in comparison to true love that is only shown by the Father.
I pray that God’s love and grace would be sufficient for you today.
Please pray the same for me. a voiceI’ve been trying to tie up loose ends here lately
Going from place to place, praying that I won’t forget to tell anyone that I’m leaving.
With 10 days left in Kibera it’s getting a little stressful
I hate goodbyes
They are awful,
especially when you know that the people you are saying goodbye to don’t have email or a phone
but God has brought me some peace about it all
He is watching over them.
And doing infinitely more for them than I could do
even if I stayed in Kibera for the rest of my days
I’ve been here for almost nine months now
and I have met some truly amazing people
people who have blessed me and taught me many things
from love, to survival, to the importance of fellowship and community
God has put these people in my life for a reason
And they will surely not be forgotten
Which is why I am going to tell you about them
Because they don’t have a voice that carries to our world,
I will be their voice
Tabitha – my Kenyan mother
From the day I met her, I knew this woman was a special gift from God
Her husband left her
She has 4 children - Privia, Douglas, Boy and Reagan
She has 3 grandchildren, that I know of – Skye, John and Ashton
She runs a business that sells vegetables just outside of her home
Business doesn’t do well but she works hard for the little she has
She praises God for all the good in her life
She calls me her daughter, and teaches me what it is like to be a woman in Kibera
and though I’ll never fully understand what it is really like,
I know that no matter how hard it is…
she is taken care of, by the Lord who loves her much more than I ever could
Reagan – Tabitha’s last born
This young man is as much a hard worker as he is kind
Reagan loves the Lord and loves his family
He calls me his sister and I’m honoured to call him brother
He wants to finish school so that he can get a good job
and buy his mum a house in the country.
A place where she can have a garden and not spend sleepless nights wondering where the rent is going to come from.
he does well in school and has been accepted to go to college this May,
he is just waiting for the money now.
Chris – my friend from home care
An amazing servant of the Lord
He has many ministries dealing with children and they adore him.
I’ve never seen a single person who can entertain a group of up to 300 children and have all eyes glued on him.
Chris is gifted with song and dance but his ministry is not just to entertain.
His ministry is to share Jesus with young people
so that they may experience the kind of joy that he exudes every day.
He is working on a book of the genealogy of Christ and his notes are so detailed they make my head hurt.
He loves to memorize scripture
and has already stored in his head 1500 verses including the entire book of Philippians.
Chris is working on an album at the moment and already has one music video.
He is hilarious and warm, a great friend.
Grace – officer at the Salvation Army
She is a strong woman, a loving wife, a great mother of three and an obedient servant of the Lord.
She and her husband are pastors of the Salvation Army Kibera Corps.
Grace had her third child four days ago and was going strong up until the hour of her delivery.
she is hospitable and loves to include people.
She leads a group of women at church that adore her and it’s clear why.
She is Grace, and her name reflects her character.
Ivon – my friend
She loves movies and being goofy.
Only 18 years old but such a maturity rests on this girl.
She is in school learning how to cook, sew and use computers.
She hopes to open her own fashion shop when she graduates.
She lives with her aunt in Kibera, it’s close to school and she helps with her young cousins.
Ivon loves to laugh and often lightens the mood on our walks by translating random conversations we hear along the way.
But she translates them wrong to try to fool me.
She has the makings of an independent woman in Kenya, which is slowly becoming more popular.
And though she receives some backlash from those that are fighting the change,
she knows what she wants in life.
But she also knows that her success in life lies in her dependence on God to get her through it.
Francis and Edward – friends from church
These guys are amazing and funny and… annoying.
But only annoying because they try to be, and I love it!
they are like brothers to me... in many ways.
They are among the few Kenyans that I feel completely comfortable around
and they are like part of the team sometimes. We can joke with them and they get it.
Francis has a heart to reach Kibera and does so, little by little by going door to door with Brian, on a weekly basis.
Edward is in school and studies hard.
Both of them are very encouraging.
Their lives show their love of Christ
and their actions show their faith.
This is only a few of the closest friends I have here
They are a huge blessing to me
They need prayer, life here is hard and they live it the best they can
But they need prayer
Some things they need prayer for are included in what I have said about them
But if you truly want to pray for them, ask God to reveal to you what to pray for.
He will show you,
and as you think of our brothers and sisters here in Kenya,
I believe you will experience a deeper love that the Father has for all of us.
In North America we have a voice.
Let’s use it to pray for those who don’t. lazarus and zuri updateI had to give the puppies away
and though they were only with us a few short days...
it was hard to see the little rat like, stinky, eyeless pups go!
my friend Douglas, who works at the Salvation Army,
did some asking around for me to find someone to take care of them
the night watchman there said he would do it and so Douglas came to collect them
After laughing at me for having bought the puppies a bottle, he escorted them back to his place.
I haven't seen them since they left
but I will be heading over there today
I hope they are alright
I'll find out soon enough April 19 Lazarus and Zuriwe have two new additions to the team
two baby puppies who were brought to the house by one of our young friends Brian,
after his father had instructed him to "throw them away"
the first day they came we sent them to the neighbor hoping that his dog would mother them
but that theory failed.
they were brought back the next day freezing cold and one of them barely breathing and close to death.
that day the black one, who we thought only had a few hours of life left,
used his last bit of strength to suck on my pinky finger as I forced some milk in his mouth with a syringe.
a few hours later, they had received a bath from Anna S
and were now the inhabitants of a comfy box complete with hot packs and a blanket.
they looked like different puppies... moving around and snuggling with each other
so we decided to keep them.
the black boy is named Lazarus
because he nearly died but is now doing really well (thanks to Brian's prayers)
the brown girl is zuri
(meaning "cute" in Swahili)
I bought some whole milk and a bottle to feed them with and they are learning really quickly to drink from it
last night I woke up a few times to feed them and worked out a feeding schedule
I'm very sleep deprived right now
but I think it will get better as we make sure they are warm and fed consistently
What will happen to them when we are all gone?
well....
Scott is staying here until September, working with summer teams
so they will be his to take care of as they grow
and they will be his company while he is here all by himself.
there is a picture of them below
they haven't even opened their eyes yet. April 05 wasted timeI haven't written much lately
because every time I sit down to type something I can't seem to make sense of my thoughts.
I've been thinking about a lot lately
good things, bad things, future things, selfish things...
my mind has been so occupied lately
and mostly by things that it shouldn't be
I have to confess that occasionally I forget why I'm here
I actually convince myself that how I am feeling is important to my time here
when in reality the reason I am here has nothing to do with me at all
as selfish people we let ourselves be consumed by emotions,
what we think we deserve,
what we want rather than what we need...
trying to get out on top
but we've got it all backwards
in Philippians 2:5-8, Paul says,
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! I can't even get through a day without being selfish
and the one I serve came and gave everything...
everything!
I strive for that, but fail so often
just yesterday I was with Scott on the train tracks
waiting for the train to come cutting through the slum so I could film it
and as we waited, Scott was approached by 4 different strangers asking for money
by the fourth guy (trying to sell Scott a book on advertising for small businesses),
I was frustrated... and it wasn't even me who was being approached.
But as Scott sat there and talked to this guy I watched and listened
he asked the man to go get him a Christian book - from his shop on the ground a few feet away
The man came back with a book about a sect of Hinduism
and as Scott was explaining the differences between Hinduism and Christianity
he had the opportunity to share the gospel with this guy
and the guy was genuinely listening at that point
sure, he was still trying to make a sale but his attention was on Scott and the words that were coming from his mouth
I was thinking... this is what it's all about
it's not about me
it's not about me at all
it's about God and His glory and His love being shown to everyone
not just at church
not just at allotted ministry times
but all the time
even when the 14th person comes to you saying, "I have five kids and no food."
The last part of that section of scripture in Philippians 2:9-11 says,
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. that last line is the whole point
"to the glory of God the Father."
this is our mission, this is our goal, this is our life
and though I miss the mark constantly I am given another chance
always another chance
through forgiveness and grace
and so...
I am trying to make every moment count
every interaction, every thought, every task
What would glorify God in this situation?
this is the question I need to seek to answer every day |
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