Once again this morning we started with worship and devotions. Today we continued the theme around hope and that the symbol for hope is typically an anchor. We learned that the anchor is not let down right next to the boat, but out a little further where it is stable ground. Have you thought about how Jesus is our anchor? He is not right next to us, but he is the calm, he is the safety, he is the ever presence in our life.
Isaiah 49:13 talks about doing a new thing. Are we allowing Christ to do a new thing in our lives? Or, are we clinching on to everything we can expecting that to be our anchor. There is freedom in releasing ourselves to the Lord and allowing Him to be our anchor.
I sat with Caroline at breakfast this morning and we spoke about how we both feel like we are living in the days of Sodom and Gamorrah. I saw on the tv last night about transgenderism and I asked if that was prevelent here and it is growing. As more and more are becoming bold more and more are coming out. The kids are trying to emulate what goes on in the west, and it is not healthy. Social media is a big concern, although I did find that Tik Tok is not allowed in Kenya. We spoke about school and the children have to attend school and are given a twelve grade education. The children have to do their homework before they can get on their phones or watch tv. That is a priority.
While driving to our second outreach event, I tried to really notice what we were driving by and I saw that we passed the Bible Society for Kenya. Lots of street venders, motorcycles and such. While enroute to the destination we heard from Travis about the logistics of the boxes and he shared with us a story of why soap is being phased out of the shoeboxes. Because soap is made with chemicals that are not prevelent in other countries it can cause issues on the skin. One person washed her face with soap and had a chemical burn on her face, due to the unknown chemicals.
Kenya is the hub for the East Africa ministry teams. Kenya received five containers this year. Each containers contains 7320 shoeboxes which has to pass through customs. Jacenta, the prayer team coordinator has a ministry that is the consignee for the conatainers, so the shoeboxes, once they have been exhonorated are released to her ministry.
We were told a bit about the area where our outreach event would take place. It is a very heavily traveled area for trucks and therefore is a huge transient area with prostitution. Drugs are all over the place, this is an area that is rich with single parents.
We hear of stories of the widow's mite, but the pastor of the church has experienced this first hand. When he was four years old his mother took him to church and was so convicted about giving an offering and the only thing she had was her son. She gave her son, while he didn't remain at the church (at that time), that made a lasting impression on him.
His prayer for his community is for the witchcraft to be gone, the children would feel safe in a five story building being built specifically for them, the messages in his church are done in English and Kiswahili due to the high transient rate. His goal is to offer business training skills so the children can one day get out of poverty and that the people would turn away from idols.
Across the street from the church was a muslim masque which broadcasts throughout the day. The church has come up with a ministry where they too will broadcast christian music, a message and prayers to the community.
We went into the church and listened to the gospel presentation. I love the consistency of the message. The children were all learning the same way that was observed yesterday. The training that the teachers go thru to present the gospel in a consistent way brings glory to God the Father.
There were approximately 120 children in attendance, we passed out the greatest gift booklet and then the boxes. I was spending time with one little boy who honestly, was a little dissapointed in his box. He received a monkey stuffed animal and he definetly did not want it. The teacher exchanged a box for him and he received a soccer ball and was much happier. This was the first I had experienced this and I was shocked. Another one received a flashlight in his box and the batteries were dead. Honestly, I was a bit discouraged and walked over to the other side of the room. It was then that I saw a little one playing outside with a ball that was in his box. He was having so much fun kicking the ball around and playing with one of the adults outside. Then, I looked down. OH MY WORD. There was the most beautiful little girl, Gracelynn. She stole my heart. After being alone with her for about five to ten minutes, another little girl came over to ask what we were doing. I explained that I was sharing with her how beautiful she was and how much Jesus loved her.
From there we left to go to a park and eat our sack lunches. The park had swings, slides, blow up slides and such, it was like a mini amusement park. This park was huge and beautiful. After finishing our lunch we went to our next event, which was to observe a teaching session from The Greatest Journey, we observed lesson two. We learned that this community, like the one earlier in the day is a community filled with witchcraft.
At one point in this churches history there was a person who was a muslim practicing witchcraft who wanted ALL the children to die. How sad, but through the power of Gods love, this young man was shared the gospel message and he gave his heart to the Lord and is now ministering at the church.
One thing that has been reiterated over and over again is the simplisty of a shoebox gift. It is the opportunity to be able to share the gospel message, but what I didn't know is that for the past four years, shoeboxes have not been able to come into the country, but The Greatest Gift booklet and The Greatest Journey discipleship progam has been happening. The body is being built up - without the shoebox gift. This ministry is so focused on the evangelism, discipleship and multiplication that it is showing througth the faith of the children.
The children have such a rich foundation of biblical truths, there is definetly see the hunger for the word in their faces.
Today has been hard to process because of the darkness around us today on our journey. At all times I have felt safe, but the heaviness of the darkness was palpable.
Join me in prayer for the people of Kenya that they will feel the love of Jesus, come to a saving knowledge of Him and that they would turn around and continue to share with family, friends and neighbors that Yesu Anakupenda (Jesus loves them).
Blessings.
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