I wrote this blog last Sunday, the 21st, but I am just now getting to send this to my sister, who posts the blogs, because I have been without the laptop. Sorry for the delay. It is now Sunday afternoon, September 28th. I just finished teaching Sunday School, playing soccer with the children, and resting under a tree while reading a book with the cool breeze blowing around me. Anyways, here is the blog for the week leading up to Sunday the 21st. I will hope to catch up in the near future…
Psalm 13:6 says, “I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.” I wanted to start this blog by thanking God for His sovereignty in leading me where I am today. I cannot remember if I mentioned this on a previous blog, but I will say it again regardless. Bro. Scott Pace from First Baptist Daytona had one simple request for me while in Kenya. He said that during at least one point in my trip, I have to stop, relax, and say, “Wow. God is good. I am 22 and in Kenya. How cool is that?” I am not writing that out of pride or in a bragging manner. I wanted to remind myself how fortunate I am to be here, even when things get difficult—like they have this past week. This may be cliché, but if God stopped blessing me today, He will have still blessed me much more than I deserve in my short life. Thank You, Lord, for putting me where I am today.
Recently, things have been a little difficult for me emotionally. I will admit it. I don’t want it to sound like circumstances here are always peachy and that I am living in Paradise. But I won’t dwell too much on the negative. I am pretty sure my emotions have been playing tricks on me lately due to the fact that I have been sick, it was my mom’s birthday on the 21st and my birthday is on the 23rd, and I’m not home for either of them, the Tennessee/Florida football road trip was this past weekend, and Director Rose has been gone for about a week. I have experienced some loneliness recently, and even though I have written that God is all that I need, my weak body and mind do not always feel that way. I have been praying for deliverance from this recent cloudy portion of my trip. My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. This I know to be true.
There have been a few strange occurrences in my life in Kenya lately. Most of you know by now that I teach English, Math, basketball, and Sunday School, so unless something out of the ordinary happens in those, I won’t really talk about them. I continue to get the opportunity to preach Jesus to the children during Sunday School. Anyways, back to the weird happenings. Earlier in the week, I was walking back from Kakoyi Corner, which is where Director Rose’s office is located. That is where I usually get on the internet. It is about a fifteen minute walk from there back to Rose’s house where I am staying. On that walk, I always get approached by the same children who touch my hand and ask me how I am. Sometimes, they will just walk up to me and say, “I am fine.” That is about all of the English language they have mastered. Well, during the last walk, I was stopped by an Albino boy. He was a real, authentic Albino. Apparently there are some of them in Kenya, I was told. The bizarre thing to me is that he ran up and pointed and shouted Muzungu (white person) just like the other black, African children. He acted as if he had never seen a white person before. He got so excited when I shook his hand, and he ran off and laughed with the African children while saying, “The Muzungu touched me!” I am still baffled by it.
The other odd incident took place in the teacher’s office during a heavy rainstorm. This man, who I often see hanging around the area, stepped into the office to stay dry during the rain. His English is very poor. He started talking to me, but I could only catch every other word or so. One of the teachers helped me interpret the broken English. It appears that the man was asking me if someone doesn’t get married in my country by a certain age, do we take them and put them in a special place. He was asking if they get injected or taken to the hospital. Evidently, he thinks those people are diseased. None of the other teachers held this opinion, thankfully. He is just slightly crazy. He was trying to tell us that God requires marriage and that something is wrong with a person if they don’t get married. I was assisted by the other teachers in taking him to the passage in 1 Corinthians 7 where Paul talks about remaining unmarried. I won’t get into the details, but we basically shared with him that in the sight of God, it is okay to be married or unmarried. We don’t cast out people who don’t get married like they are diseased. His views on marriage nearly left me speechless.
Since my blogs are a bunch of random events that happened during the week, it is kind of hard to write them with any real semblance of organization. I am really just writing a bunch of random stories. I don’t know how to segue from abnormal happenings to the beautiful children, but that is exactly what I am going to do. This week, I got to spend the night at the orphanage again. After dinner, I decided to have the children play a game called “Sleeping Lion.” You may have heard of it. It is a game where the children must rest perfectly still on the floor like a sleeping lion while I, the hunter, look for anyone who moves or makes any noise at all. It is a good game when you want to get kids to keep quiet. On this night, I am pretty sure we played the longest game of Sleeping Lion in world history. After nearly fifty minutes of shouting, stomping, and joking with the children who were still playing to try and get them to move, we finally ended up with a winner. Three of the children, Pius, Fesa, and Helen, were completely still for almost an hour. Let that sink in for a second. It is truly amazing what these kids will do when I offer sweets (what they call candy) to the winner.
At school, I have been playing Hangman with the two older classes, class three and class four, during reading time or at the end of my English lessons. After thinking about the potential implications of me teaching these African children a game where you draw a person being lynched, I decided to call the game “Flower” instead. I drew a flower on the board, and I colored in a part of the flower if they guessed the wrong letter until the whole thing was colored. That is how the game would end—when the whole flower was filled. I know what you’re thinking: that is extremely silly or corny or however you want to say it. I realize that now. I don’t know what was going through my mind. After playing this game for a couple of weeks with the title “Flower,” one of the children raised his hand and said, “This is like Hangman, isn’t it?” It took me more than half my stay here to realize that all the children already knew the game as “Hangman.” Oh well, how was I supposed to know?
A while ago, I had a paragraph full of random thoughts or events that had happened to me recently. I will do that again here. (1) I got to see the birth of a calf. It was one of the more disgusting experiences of my time here. It took everything those men had to get that thing out. (2) Barack Obama’s dad is from a town called Kisumu which is just a couple of hours away from where I am. I flew into Kisumu. His face is on shirts, hats, money, and vehicles, and he has had several songs written about him. I heard one on the radio not long ago. (3) This next bit of information may mean nothing to most people, but to those who know me, they will be surprised. I got to put a fence together with Hesbon this week. I finally feel like a man. I got to hammer the whole thing together. That poor fence probably won’t last a week. I have also been able to do some planting, harvesting, and starting fires—the village way. (4) My head hits everything. Kenya was not created for tall people; I hit my head on something almost every day. I have to do a lot of bending over or slouching so my back hurts a lot as a result. (5) I “preached” this past Friday to the entire school. I used a storybook to teach them about David and Goliath. In a few weeks, I will talk to them strictly about how they can be saved and know God personally. (6) I am teaching most of the children the song “How Great is Our God,” with some African flavor. I hope to tape this, along with the Gator fight song and the “Go Gators” chant that I am attempting to teach them.
That is just about everything I can think of that has taken place in Tumaini for the past ten days or so. I want to close by sharing with you all what God has been teaching me this week. As I wrote earlier, the last several days or so have been difficult for me. It has been during this time, thanks to my mom’s reminder, that I have been forced to remember that Christianity is not all about our feelings. So many times back home I “feel” great after worship services, after time in God’s Word, or after talking about the Lord with friends. However, John MacArthur said, “Living by emotions rather than right thinking will produce instability.” I have felt some of that instability lately as I have occasionally put too much faith in my feelings and emotions. Chris Rice wrote the lyrics, “I’ve never ‘felt the presence,’ but I know You’re always near.” I am not saying we cannot sense His presence or that you never have before, but we won’t always feel it. I have been alone a lot lately, and while there have been times where I have been confident that God is near, I have not always “felt the presence.” I have had to, more than ever, trust in God’s promises in His Word. If we live according to our emotions or our fleshly feelings, we will experience times of doubt, sorrow, and loneliness. If I trusted my emotions, I would have a difficult time making it through this entire trip. In between periods of fullness and joy that I have experienced here, there have been times of loneliness and spiritual valleys. Paul describes this battle with our flesh in Romans 8, saying we are at war with ourselves.
What have I done about these difficult times? David said that we need to hide God’s Word in our hearts and meditate on it day and night. It has been my desire to call on God’s Word whenever Satan tries to bring me to despair. When I am in the midst of sorrow, I pray several verses to God. “Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11). “My soul also is greatly troubled; but You, Oh Lord—how long? Return, Oh Lord, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake” (Psalm 6:3-4). “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13). I try, and it is sometimes difficult, to praise God even when I am feeling so far away from everyone and even Him. I am praying that God will use these lows to strengthen my faith and to allow me to know Him more intimately.
I would not trade this time in my life for anything. Even though there have been tough times, this has been an incredible experience. I can’t believe my time is almost up here. I am praising God that He has me right where He wants me and that this is His will for me. I am praising God for His goodness. As Mr. Potochnik shared with me this week, “Mungu ni mwema wote,” which means “God is good all the time.”
I love every one of you! Goodbye!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Quit Monkeying Around!
Hello, hello, hello! I’m not sure why I wrote that three times. I guess I just wanted it to be enthusiastic. I know I say it so much, but I want you to know that I genuinely miss all of you back home and love you very much. I am not homesick right now, but I still think of and miss my friends in America a ton! That will never change. I thought about America a lot on September 11 in disbelief that it has been seven years since the awful tragedy. I wish I could have been there to see how the fallen heroes were honored and memorialized. I cannot tell you how much more grateful I am for America after this experience of being away from it for a while. I also wanted to say that if you are writing comments on the blogs, while I do appreciate them greatly, I cannot read them as of now. I write this blog on a Word document, send it to my sister, and she puts it up for me. The computer I am using along with the dial-up internet makes it very difficult to access the website. I will definitely be reading them when I get to Nairobi, so please keep them coming! But I digress…moving on to the beautiful children of Tumaini.
The big talk among the Tumaini kids this week was the “Back–to-School” Party we were throwing for them on Friday. The children seldom get a break from their routines, so this was a welcomed interruption for them. Karlee, the Australian volunteer, really did the majority of the planning. She did an amazing job! We started the party with the class races. There are currently six classes in Tumaini: the baby class, pre-unit class, and then classes 1-4. We took a bunch of cones and all of the children out to the soccer field, and let the children take part in some friendly competition. The races started with the baby class which was complete chaos and bedlam. They were running all over the place. Each race had four teams of about six children, and the winning teams all got candy for a prize. I have never seen kids so excited over a relay race. We also gave the children a Koolaid-like drink, and they all got candy in the end just for being there. The music turned out to be a bust because the radio did not work. That was definitely a bummer. All in all, it was a happy time for the children.
However, I did leave out one minor glitch in the party. It all started when someone requested the teachers to race. We were to run to one end of the soccer field and back. It was going to be the headmaster, teacher Baraza, Hesbon, and myself. The first attempt at the race was a failure because a couple of the teachers false started. I said we should try it again, and they all agreed. We figured out the starting system, and we were out of the gates. The race finished (I shouldn’t mention here that I won), but no one was really paying attention to us. I could not figure out why, at first. They always go crazy at the end of a race. But I saw them all crowd around someone on the ground. It was Headmaster Hudson. Apparently, he had slipped on a rock and face-planted on the ground. He had some terrible cuts and bruises on his face, and sorry to be graphic, but there was blood everywhere. That kind of put a damper on the second half of the party. Needless to say, he was not at school on Saturday (yes, they do have school on Saturday). It seems that he will recover, and I believe he will be back at school on Monday.
This next experience may not seem as interesting to you as it was to me, but I absolutely loved it! On Friday evening, a few of us walked to the orphanage after school to take the children to get their heads shaved. Well, on that walk, a few of the children spotted some monkeys playing on a huge rock. A lot of the kids moved on because they see monkeys quite often, but I stayed back for a little while to watch them play. In the time I was there, nearly forty to fifty monkeys appeared and had a big party on that rock (probably a much better party than our party). There were monkeys resting, playing, rough-housing, and some babies following closely to their mothers. It blew me away. I never get to see monkeys back home. It has always been a dream of mine to own a pet monkey. Anyways, it is not really much of a story, but I just found it incredible that you can see monkeys playing just a short distance off of the “road” (it’s more of a path) here. How neat is that?
There is not a whole lot more to report on the Tumaini front. School is back in action, and everyone is back to their normal schedule. I teach English, Math, and three or four basketball classes every day. By the way, basketball has been going extremely well. The children are in love with it. I also continue to teach Sunday School. I have been busy with all of that, and I have also been helping to pick maize or corn at home with Rose—the Tumaini director. When I say picking corn, I mean to say picking each kernel off of each corn cob. There are literally thousands of corn cobs. Each evening, we bring in a bunch of corn and dump it on the floor in the sitting room. We spend the next few hours picking the kernels off the corn cobs and piling them all over the floor. I wish there was a better way to explain it. Clearly I am not a farmer, and I don’t know the word for the whole process. You will just have to see pictures. A huge highlight of the week for me was when the children came to the house for a couple of hours after school to help with the corn. It was a great time to work with them and joke around with them. We are really becoming close friends, and I love them with all of my heart. It is going to be hard to leave them in one short month.
There were several little random occurrences that happened this week that were special to me, but I think I will have to fit those in another blog at some point in the future. I want to finish by encouraging you with a verse that a great man, whose name will remain nameless out of respect for him (Jake Mcgee), shared with me this week.
Psalm 73:25-26 says, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Those couple of verses have spoken volumes to me over the last few days. I know I have mentioned it before, but it bears repeating: as Christians, we have to make the Lord our only desire. There have honestly been very few times in my life where my entire heart has solely desired God and nothing else. There is always something there to steal my attention from the Lord. But I have been begging Him to bring me to a stage in my life where I understand that I have no one in heaven or on earth but Him. He is answering my prayer. Being in a place that has caused me to deal with the struggles of loneliness and homesickness has taught me to remember that I must make Him my only source of satisfaction. I am slowly learning what it means to make the Lord my refuge and my sanctuary. The first couple of weeks here had pointed me to the fact that I was entirely dependent upon the Lord. As I have grown more comfortable here, it has been easy to forget that sometimes. But I am now being reminded that He is the strength of my heart always. When my flesh is weak and fails me, I must hold fast to the truth that He is my portion forever. Anytime that I feel longings for home, I pray that God would fill up those longings with Himself. I pray that we would all make God our only desire this week. I pray that the worries of this world would not have a death grip on our hearts and minds. Let us fix our eyes and our hope on Christ alone this week and forever!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog. I love you all. You will be hearing from me in the near future, and I hope to hear from you as well!
The big talk among the Tumaini kids this week was the “Back–to-School” Party we were throwing for them on Friday. The children seldom get a break from their routines, so this was a welcomed interruption for them. Karlee, the Australian volunteer, really did the majority of the planning. She did an amazing job! We started the party with the class races. There are currently six classes in Tumaini: the baby class, pre-unit class, and then classes 1-4. We took a bunch of cones and all of the children out to the soccer field, and let the children take part in some friendly competition. The races started with the baby class which was complete chaos and bedlam. They were running all over the place. Each race had four teams of about six children, and the winning teams all got candy for a prize. I have never seen kids so excited over a relay race. We also gave the children a Koolaid-like drink, and they all got candy in the end just for being there. The music turned out to be a bust because the radio did not work. That was definitely a bummer. All in all, it was a happy time for the children.
However, I did leave out one minor glitch in the party. It all started when someone requested the teachers to race. We were to run to one end of the soccer field and back. It was going to be the headmaster, teacher Baraza, Hesbon, and myself. The first attempt at the race was a failure because a couple of the teachers false started. I said we should try it again, and they all agreed. We figured out the starting system, and we were out of the gates. The race finished (I shouldn’t mention here that I won), but no one was really paying attention to us. I could not figure out why, at first. They always go crazy at the end of a race. But I saw them all crowd around someone on the ground. It was Headmaster Hudson. Apparently, he had slipped on a rock and face-planted on the ground. He had some terrible cuts and bruises on his face, and sorry to be graphic, but there was blood everywhere. That kind of put a damper on the second half of the party. Needless to say, he was not at school on Saturday (yes, they do have school on Saturday). It seems that he will recover, and I believe he will be back at school on Monday.
This next experience may not seem as interesting to you as it was to me, but I absolutely loved it! On Friday evening, a few of us walked to the orphanage after school to take the children to get their heads shaved. Well, on that walk, a few of the children spotted some monkeys playing on a huge rock. A lot of the kids moved on because they see monkeys quite often, but I stayed back for a little while to watch them play. In the time I was there, nearly forty to fifty monkeys appeared and had a big party on that rock (probably a much better party than our party). There were monkeys resting, playing, rough-housing, and some babies following closely to their mothers. It blew me away. I never get to see monkeys back home. It has always been a dream of mine to own a pet monkey. Anyways, it is not really much of a story, but I just found it incredible that you can see monkeys playing just a short distance off of the “road” (it’s more of a path) here. How neat is that?
There is not a whole lot more to report on the Tumaini front. School is back in action, and everyone is back to their normal schedule. I teach English, Math, and three or four basketball classes every day. By the way, basketball has been going extremely well. The children are in love with it. I also continue to teach Sunday School. I have been busy with all of that, and I have also been helping to pick maize or corn at home with Rose—the Tumaini director. When I say picking corn, I mean to say picking each kernel off of each corn cob. There are literally thousands of corn cobs. Each evening, we bring in a bunch of corn and dump it on the floor in the sitting room. We spend the next few hours picking the kernels off the corn cobs and piling them all over the floor. I wish there was a better way to explain it. Clearly I am not a farmer, and I don’t know the word for the whole process. You will just have to see pictures. A huge highlight of the week for me was when the children came to the house for a couple of hours after school to help with the corn. It was a great time to work with them and joke around with them. We are really becoming close friends, and I love them with all of my heart. It is going to be hard to leave them in one short month.
There were several little random occurrences that happened this week that were special to me, but I think I will have to fit those in another blog at some point in the future. I want to finish by encouraging you with a verse that a great man, whose name will remain nameless out of respect for him (Jake Mcgee), shared with me this week.
Psalm 73:25-26 says, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Those couple of verses have spoken volumes to me over the last few days. I know I have mentioned it before, but it bears repeating: as Christians, we have to make the Lord our only desire. There have honestly been very few times in my life where my entire heart has solely desired God and nothing else. There is always something there to steal my attention from the Lord. But I have been begging Him to bring me to a stage in my life where I understand that I have no one in heaven or on earth but Him. He is answering my prayer. Being in a place that has caused me to deal with the struggles of loneliness and homesickness has taught me to remember that I must make Him my only source of satisfaction. I am slowly learning what it means to make the Lord my refuge and my sanctuary. The first couple of weeks here had pointed me to the fact that I was entirely dependent upon the Lord. As I have grown more comfortable here, it has been easy to forget that sometimes. But I am now being reminded that He is the strength of my heart always. When my flesh is weak and fails me, I must hold fast to the truth that He is my portion forever. Anytime that I feel longings for home, I pray that God would fill up those longings with Himself. I pray that we would all make God our only desire this week. I pray that the worries of this world would not have a death grip on our hearts and minds. Let us fix our eyes and our hope on Christ alone this week and forever!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog. I love you all. You will be hearing from me in the near future, and I hope to hear from you as well!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Life Is Just One Big Slumber Party...
This is the day that the Lord has made! I don’t know when this will be posted, but I am writing this on Sunday afternoon, September 7th, on a beautiful Kenyan day. We finished Sunday School a couple of hours ago, and I just wanted to come and write to you guys before school starts back tomorrow. I will be really busy for the next few weeks, so I am not sure how often I will get to update you. Hopefully it will still be every week or so.
As usual, I first want to update you on what I have been doing with the orphans. This was definitely the slowest week I have been here so far, but it was really good to spend some time with Rose, Hesbon, and the children at the orphanage. Sometimes I catch my mind drifting to home during the slow days, but I always remind myself that I will be longing for these days when I am home living the busy American schedule. I am trying my best to stay in the moment, and that is getting easier and easier as this place is becoming more and more like home. I have really been accepted here by the Tumaini people as one of their own. That is such a great feeling!
Earlier in the week, after lunch, Karlee (my friend and volunteer from Australia) and I were set to go to the orphanage for the afternoon. When we opened the door to leave, the orphans were standing at our door. They had come down to play for the afternoon, and it was then that I got to witness an historic day for the Tumaini children. I got to be a part of the first basketball game ever played in the village. I was the coach for the children, who played just two games because each game took so long to finish. It’s safe to say very few baskets were scored. The cool thing is that it did not matter to the children. It was exactly how sports should be played. I hate to say that the children were bad, but let’s just say they have a lot of work to do. I was trying to teach them the rules, but I think they only selectively heard some of them. They would barely dribble (bounce the ball) every ten steps or so, and they would literally tackle each other whether it was a boy or a girl. It was the roughest game of basketball I have ever seen. It was hysterical, and I had to catch myself to make sure I just let them have fun instead of beating the rules into their heads. I will have time to teach the rules when the team begins practicing. This was the happiest I have ever seen kids play sports, and it made me think how wrong we can get it sometimes taking the joy out of the game. I know I have been guilty of that. Anyways, that was an amazing experience for me and hopefully for the kids.
There were two other significant things that took place this week with the children at the orphanage. On Wednesday, Karlee and I had a slumber party with the children. That ranks near the top of my list for my favorite experiences here so far. We played games, sang songs, read a Bible story, gave them candy, and just spent time with them. They normally go to bed at nine o’clock, but on the sleepover night we kept them up until nearly eleven. It was definitely a treat for them. Something special for me was getting to hold the two-year-old baby orphan named Doro for about an hour. She gets a kick out of giving hugs, high fives, and big kisses on the cheek. The first time Doro saw Emily and me, she cried and cried and cried. But now anytime I see her she wants me to hold her. I held her for a while just looking over the miles of fields, hills, and huts as the sun was setting. God gave me a huge peace at that moment that this was the exact place that He wanted me to be. It was an incredible time!
Finally, the last thing that I wanted to tell you about concerning the orphans was Sunday School today. God placed in my heart even more peace about being here. I got to share “Daniel and the Lion’s Den” with them out of a children’s story book, and they really were excited to hear about it. But I am most pumped up about the end of Sunday School. I know that I get to spend a lot of time loving on the children, but it is my heart that at least one of them will come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. I cannot say if any of them accepted Christ today or not, but for the first time, I got to give an extended description of the Gospel message to them in a way they could understand. I told them about their sin, the consequences of their sin and the punishment it warrants, but also about the incredible news of the salvation that comes from Christ alone through the forgiveness of sins that His death on the cross offers. I will be spending more time in the near future following up on who has confessed or desires to confess Christ Jesus as their Lord. I may not see anyone come to Christ in my time here, but I know the seed has been planted. I am praying for God to do the rest. Salvation is His gift alone!
That is what has been happening with the kids here in Kenya. That is all I am going to say about the children in this blog. If that is all that interests you, then you don’t have to go on reading. I wanted to stop here and keep this installment short, but I just had to express what God has been teaching me. I hope that this section of the blog never sounds too “preachy.” I am trying my best to avoid that. I never want to command anyone about what they need to do or sound like I know everything. This is all about what has been happening in my heart lately.
I told my parents earlier that coming to a foreign land where I know no one has been a difficult and sometimes painful growing experience, but I would not trade it for anything in the world. Coming to a slower-paced culture has given me a lot more time to read, pray, write, and think than I ever get to do at home. Also, being here without any of my friends or family has taught me a lot about myself. It exposes even more sins and insufficiencies within myself than I wanted to admit. I have always known about some of my core problems and faults, but being alone in a strange land has smacked me right in the face with them. It has been a humbling experience being in this vulnerable state.
God has revealed this to me: I place way too much of my dependence on and seek way too much of my satisfaction and confirmation from the people around me. More often than not back home, I fill the voids in my life with the people I surround myself with and a busy schedule. However, here I don’t have those things, so I am confronted with the truth. I try to please people more than I should. Wanting people to be happy can be a good quality, but I frequently take it to the extreme.
What am I going to do about it? I am praying about it every day--confessing to the Lord my insecurities, and asking God to remove this burden and transform my heart. I want to be secure with who I am in Christ alone. Who else is there to please? My identity is in Him. Galatians 1:10 says, "…if I were still trying to win the approval of men, I would no longer be a servant of Christ." I am praying for Him to fill up any emptiness or longing to be confirmed by others with the fullness of Christ.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support throughout this entire process of my going to Africa. As I have said before, it is an experience I would not give up for anything right now.
I wanted to finish by giving a shout-out to all of my friends in Gainesville, Florida. I miss you all so much. On Saturdays, I think I experience the strongest longings for home due to my missing the tailgating and Gator games. Please enjoy them for me! That reminds me, it is Sunday afternoon, and I still don’t know anything about yesterday’s game. My mom was supposed to text Hesbon (cough cough).
I also want to say hello to my roommates: Justin, Jeff, and Cody. How is my empty room? Turned it into anything cool yet? I hope you are getting plenty of cave time, playing a ton of Mario Kart on Wii, and watching more college football than is humanly possible. I won’t put anything too sappy on here for fear of being mocked and scorned by you guys. Maybe I will save that for an email. But I do miss you guys!
I love all of you! If you ever feel like emailing me, the only email that I check is rowdyreptile50@earthlink.net. I may not be able to respond, but I'd to hear from you soon!
As usual, I first want to update you on what I have been doing with the orphans. This was definitely the slowest week I have been here so far, but it was really good to spend some time with Rose, Hesbon, and the children at the orphanage. Sometimes I catch my mind drifting to home during the slow days, but I always remind myself that I will be longing for these days when I am home living the busy American schedule. I am trying my best to stay in the moment, and that is getting easier and easier as this place is becoming more and more like home. I have really been accepted here by the Tumaini people as one of their own. That is such a great feeling!
Earlier in the week, after lunch, Karlee (my friend and volunteer from Australia) and I were set to go to the orphanage for the afternoon. When we opened the door to leave, the orphans were standing at our door. They had come down to play for the afternoon, and it was then that I got to witness an historic day for the Tumaini children. I got to be a part of the first basketball game ever played in the village. I was the coach for the children, who played just two games because each game took so long to finish. It’s safe to say very few baskets were scored. The cool thing is that it did not matter to the children. It was exactly how sports should be played. I hate to say that the children were bad, but let’s just say they have a lot of work to do. I was trying to teach them the rules, but I think they only selectively heard some of them. They would barely dribble (bounce the ball) every ten steps or so, and they would literally tackle each other whether it was a boy or a girl. It was the roughest game of basketball I have ever seen. It was hysterical, and I had to catch myself to make sure I just let them have fun instead of beating the rules into their heads. I will have time to teach the rules when the team begins practicing. This was the happiest I have ever seen kids play sports, and it made me think how wrong we can get it sometimes taking the joy out of the game. I know I have been guilty of that. Anyways, that was an amazing experience for me and hopefully for the kids.
There were two other significant things that took place this week with the children at the orphanage. On Wednesday, Karlee and I had a slumber party with the children. That ranks near the top of my list for my favorite experiences here so far. We played games, sang songs, read a Bible story, gave them candy, and just spent time with them. They normally go to bed at nine o’clock, but on the sleepover night we kept them up until nearly eleven. It was definitely a treat for them. Something special for me was getting to hold the two-year-old baby orphan named Doro for about an hour. She gets a kick out of giving hugs, high fives, and big kisses on the cheek. The first time Doro saw Emily and me, she cried and cried and cried. But now anytime I see her she wants me to hold her. I held her for a while just looking over the miles of fields, hills, and huts as the sun was setting. God gave me a huge peace at that moment that this was the exact place that He wanted me to be. It was an incredible time!
Finally, the last thing that I wanted to tell you about concerning the orphans was Sunday School today. God placed in my heart even more peace about being here. I got to share “Daniel and the Lion’s Den” with them out of a children’s story book, and they really were excited to hear about it. But I am most pumped up about the end of Sunday School. I know that I get to spend a lot of time loving on the children, but it is my heart that at least one of them will come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. I cannot say if any of them accepted Christ today or not, but for the first time, I got to give an extended description of the Gospel message to them in a way they could understand. I told them about their sin, the consequences of their sin and the punishment it warrants, but also about the incredible news of the salvation that comes from Christ alone through the forgiveness of sins that His death on the cross offers. I will be spending more time in the near future following up on who has confessed or desires to confess Christ Jesus as their Lord. I may not see anyone come to Christ in my time here, but I know the seed has been planted. I am praying for God to do the rest. Salvation is His gift alone!
That is what has been happening with the kids here in Kenya. That is all I am going to say about the children in this blog. If that is all that interests you, then you don’t have to go on reading. I wanted to stop here and keep this installment short, but I just had to express what God has been teaching me. I hope that this section of the blog never sounds too “preachy.” I am trying my best to avoid that. I never want to command anyone about what they need to do or sound like I know everything. This is all about what has been happening in my heart lately.
I told my parents earlier that coming to a foreign land where I know no one has been a difficult and sometimes painful growing experience, but I would not trade it for anything in the world. Coming to a slower-paced culture has given me a lot more time to read, pray, write, and think than I ever get to do at home. Also, being here without any of my friends or family has taught me a lot about myself. It exposes even more sins and insufficiencies within myself than I wanted to admit. I have always known about some of my core problems and faults, but being alone in a strange land has smacked me right in the face with them. It has been a humbling experience being in this vulnerable state.
God has revealed this to me: I place way too much of my dependence on and seek way too much of my satisfaction and confirmation from the people around me. More often than not back home, I fill the voids in my life with the people I surround myself with and a busy schedule. However, here I don’t have those things, so I am confronted with the truth. I try to please people more than I should. Wanting people to be happy can be a good quality, but I frequently take it to the extreme.
What am I going to do about it? I am praying about it every day--confessing to the Lord my insecurities, and asking God to remove this burden and transform my heart. I want to be secure with who I am in Christ alone. Who else is there to please? My identity is in Him. Galatians 1:10 says, "…if I were still trying to win the approval of men, I would no longer be a servant of Christ." I am praying for Him to fill up any emptiness or longing to be confirmed by others with the fullness of Christ.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support throughout this entire process of my going to Africa. As I have said before, it is an experience I would not give up for anything right now.
I wanted to finish by giving a shout-out to all of my friends in Gainesville, Florida. I miss you all so much. On Saturdays, I think I experience the strongest longings for home due to my missing the tailgating and Gator games. Please enjoy them for me! That reminds me, it is Sunday afternoon, and I still don’t know anything about yesterday’s game. My mom was supposed to text Hesbon (cough cough).
I also want to say hello to my roommates: Justin, Jeff, and Cody. How is my empty room? Turned it into anything cool yet? I hope you are getting plenty of cave time, playing a ton of Mario Kart on Wii, and watching more college football than is humanly possible. I won’t put anything too sappy on here for fear of being mocked and scorned by you guys. Maybe I will save that for an email. But I do miss you guys!
I love all of you! If you ever feel like emailing me, the only email that I check is rowdyreptile50@earthlink.net. I may not be able to respond, but I'd to hear from you soon!
Monday, September 1, 2008
Orphans, Oranges, and God's Creation
Hello everyone!! I know that I say this every time that I write, but I want to tell you all how much I love and miss you. It is unbelievably reassuring to know that people at home are praying for me. I can’t even explain the confidence that gives me. I can certainly feel the power of your prayers right now. God is hearing you, and He is moving! There is definitely spiritual warfare going on here, and I am praying for the lives of the sweet children.
Let’s move on to those sweet children. I can’t imagine that there could be a more precious and well-behaved group of kids than those here in Tumaini. If a teacher leaves the room for a few minutes, the children will sit in their seats quietly until the teacher returns. I have never seen anything like it. I love all of these kids so much, but the orphans do hold a special place in my heart. This is because (a) God calls us to look after them (James 1:27) and (b) I get to spend a lot more one-on-one time with them than the other students. Right now, all of the kids are in a special two weeks of school called tuition. School is from 8 AM until 1 PM, but when official school returns, it is from 8 AM until 4 PM. My schedule now is to teach during school hours, and then I either use the afternoon to visit the orphanage or to take care of things around my place. Next week there is no school, so I will be spending almost every day at the orphanage. School officially returns on September 8th. I have to use this upcoming week to spend a lot of my time with the orphans, because things will get busy at school after that.
There is not one huge thing to report, but there are several sweet stories. One day when I was at the orphanage, a boy named Samuel called me “papa” while we were sitting at the table. Another amazing boy named James has called me “dad” recently. This really saddens me that these boys and girls have no one else to call “mom” or “dad.” I try not to encourage the notion that I am their father. I always try and call them my brothers, sisters, and friends, because I do not want them to have a false hope that I will ever be their father. But it does give me joy that I am able to be a positive male figure in their lives for a couple of months. If I can even love on them for two and a half months, I feel like I have done everything that I came here to do. Also, earlier this week a volunteer from Australia bought oranges for the kids, and we went to the orphanage to deliver them. Their reaction amazed me. They sat in complete silence, intently waiting on the oranges. Once we gave them their two slices each, they devoured them. It broke me how excited they got over these oranges, while I take things like oranges completely for granted. Finally, I am most excited about what I am getting to do at Sunday School with all of the orphans and some of the other students. Each week, I teach a Bible story out of a children’s book, and then I almost always share the Gospel of Christ with them at the end. I love being there, because the kids sing songs for almost a half an hour, and they do it with such excitement in their faces and in their voices. Please pray that souls will be saved at Sunday School. Even though I said loving on the orphans is why I am here, it is my ultimate desire to see these children come to Christ!
One way God showed Himself to me this week was through His incredible creation. As I have mentioned before, the part of Kenya that I am in is breathtaking. I am in a secluded location that is filled with green land and mountainous terrain. Sometimes I have to catch myself and make sure that I am not worshipping the creation, but the Creator. Every night, and I mean every night, there is a gorgeous sunset that gives off some of the most beautiful colors in the sky. This reminds me of the beauty of God. Almost every day there is a powerful afternoon rainstorm. In fact, just a couple of days ago it hailed for a half an hour. This reminds me of God’s power and might. And every night as I brush my teeth, since there are no artificial lights around, I see a greater number of brilliant stars than I have ever seen. This reminds me of how huge God is, and how He is bigger than any of my problems or concerns. The creation here has directed me to stand in awe of our Creator. If you can, take a minute to appreciate God and His creation this week.
Since this is very long again (and I have given into the fact that these will be long for the first couple of months—sorry!!), I wanted to make this [almost] final paragraph a collection of a bunch of random things that happened in the last week. They will have very little, if any, explanation, so this paragraph is going to be all over the place. (1) My iPod broke for several days and then turned back on; this was nearly tragic. (2) A drunk man on a bike, that rode by us yelled, fell off his bike into a bush. It was hilarious. (3) Did you know that the Lion King uses the Swahili language (the language that is spoken here)? Simba means “lion” and Rafiki means “friend” in Swahili. (4) Hesbon and I sing the coolest (a bit of an exaggeration) rendition of “Lord, Prepare Me.” He sings it in Swahili while I harmonize in English. We do a lot of songs in Swahili and English: Swenglish. It is awesome. (5) I am teaching the kids how to hug. It is so cool to see how hugging is so foreign and to see some of them hug for possibly the first time. (6) Apparently, a lot of the people eat termites when they catch them. This week, I ate a live termite. It wasn’t too bad actually. (7) I was screamed at by a mentally insane person on a mutatu (public transportation around here; like a taxi but you are squeezed into a van with 30 other people). He evidently asked in Swahili why I was looking at him. I never remember looking at him. It wasn’t scary at all because a lot of the other Kenyan people were telling me not to worry about it. They had my back. It was definitely more comical than upsetting. (8) I just had basketball sign-ups at the school. The first week of school we will have tryouts and assemble a team. This week we are killing the grass so the court will be hard enough for the kids to dribble the balls. I am so excited!
Well, sorry again for the length of these! I am just so excited, and I am learning a lot. As I said, I just don’t have the computer/internet access to write much, so when I do I have to write a lot. Just read what you can, if any at all.
I just wanted to say that God is teaching me to look only to Him for all of my confirmation and satisfaction. I am praying that we will all put our confidence and trust solely in Him this week. He is more than able to handle our every need! I love you guys so much! I will talk to you soon!
Let’s move on to those sweet children. I can’t imagine that there could be a more precious and well-behaved group of kids than those here in Tumaini. If a teacher leaves the room for a few minutes, the children will sit in their seats quietly until the teacher returns. I have never seen anything like it. I love all of these kids so much, but the orphans do hold a special place in my heart. This is because (a) God calls us to look after them (James 1:27) and (b) I get to spend a lot more one-on-one time with them than the other students. Right now, all of the kids are in a special two weeks of school called tuition. School is from 8 AM until 1 PM, but when official school returns, it is from 8 AM until 4 PM. My schedule now is to teach during school hours, and then I either use the afternoon to visit the orphanage or to take care of things around my place. Next week there is no school, so I will be spending almost every day at the orphanage. School officially returns on September 8th. I have to use this upcoming week to spend a lot of my time with the orphans, because things will get busy at school after that.
There is not one huge thing to report, but there are several sweet stories. One day when I was at the orphanage, a boy named Samuel called me “papa” while we were sitting at the table. Another amazing boy named James has called me “dad” recently. This really saddens me that these boys and girls have no one else to call “mom” or “dad.” I try not to encourage the notion that I am their father. I always try and call them my brothers, sisters, and friends, because I do not want them to have a false hope that I will ever be their father. But it does give me joy that I am able to be a positive male figure in their lives for a couple of months. If I can even love on them for two and a half months, I feel like I have done everything that I came here to do. Also, earlier this week a volunteer from Australia bought oranges for the kids, and we went to the orphanage to deliver them. Their reaction amazed me. They sat in complete silence, intently waiting on the oranges. Once we gave them their two slices each, they devoured them. It broke me how excited they got over these oranges, while I take things like oranges completely for granted. Finally, I am most excited about what I am getting to do at Sunday School with all of the orphans and some of the other students. Each week, I teach a Bible story out of a children’s book, and then I almost always share the Gospel of Christ with them at the end. I love being there, because the kids sing songs for almost a half an hour, and they do it with such excitement in their faces and in their voices. Please pray that souls will be saved at Sunday School. Even though I said loving on the orphans is why I am here, it is my ultimate desire to see these children come to Christ!
One way God showed Himself to me this week was through His incredible creation. As I have mentioned before, the part of Kenya that I am in is breathtaking. I am in a secluded location that is filled with green land and mountainous terrain. Sometimes I have to catch myself and make sure that I am not worshipping the creation, but the Creator. Every night, and I mean every night, there is a gorgeous sunset that gives off some of the most beautiful colors in the sky. This reminds me of the beauty of God. Almost every day there is a powerful afternoon rainstorm. In fact, just a couple of days ago it hailed for a half an hour. This reminds me of God’s power and might. And every night as I brush my teeth, since there are no artificial lights around, I see a greater number of brilliant stars than I have ever seen. This reminds me of how huge God is, and how He is bigger than any of my problems or concerns. The creation here has directed me to stand in awe of our Creator. If you can, take a minute to appreciate God and His creation this week.
Since this is very long again (and I have given into the fact that these will be long for the first couple of months—sorry!!), I wanted to make this [almost] final paragraph a collection of a bunch of random things that happened in the last week. They will have very little, if any, explanation, so this paragraph is going to be all over the place. (1) My iPod broke for several days and then turned back on; this was nearly tragic. (2) A drunk man on a bike, that rode by us yelled, fell off his bike into a bush. It was hilarious. (3) Did you know that the Lion King uses the Swahili language (the language that is spoken here)? Simba means “lion” and Rafiki means “friend” in Swahili. (4) Hesbon and I sing the coolest (a bit of an exaggeration) rendition of “Lord, Prepare Me.” He sings it in Swahili while I harmonize in English. We do a lot of songs in Swahili and English: Swenglish. It is awesome. (5) I am teaching the kids how to hug. It is so cool to see how hugging is so foreign and to see some of them hug for possibly the first time. (6) Apparently, a lot of the people eat termites when they catch them. This week, I ate a live termite. It wasn’t too bad actually. (7) I was screamed at by a mentally insane person on a mutatu (public transportation around here; like a taxi but you are squeezed into a van with 30 other people). He evidently asked in Swahili why I was looking at him. I never remember looking at him. It wasn’t scary at all because a lot of the other Kenyan people were telling me not to worry about it. They had my back. It was definitely more comical than upsetting. (8) I just had basketball sign-ups at the school. The first week of school we will have tryouts and assemble a team. This week we are killing the grass so the court will be hard enough for the kids to dribble the balls. I am so excited!
Well, sorry again for the length of these! I am just so excited, and I am learning a lot. As I said, I just don’t have the computer/internet access to write much, so when I do I have to write a lot. Just read what you can, if any at all.
I just wanted to say that God is teaching me to look only to Him for all of my confirmation and satisfaction. I am praying that we will all put our confidence and trust solely in Him this week. He is more than able to handle our every need! I love you guys so much! I will talk to you soon!
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