I am home safely!

Well, I am back in America. Hooray! I was able to get on a flight on Friday night and got home yesterday afternoon. It is great to be home, great to be with my family, and great to take a shower. Unfortunately I've been pretty sick. I have only gotten about 12 hours of sleep in the last five days, so that stinks. I am going to the doctor this afternoon.
My last week in Africa was spent in Kenya with Dolly and Eunice. It was a very relaxing week and I didn't spend much time doing 'missions' work. I think I still learned a lot though. Life needs balance. There are times in life where God asks us to just be; To just love him and love those around us. We can still be living sacrifices even if we aren't hanging out in slums and orphanages. I found delight and joy in the Lord and was able to accept his blessings and rest.
Now for the cool airplane stories. I got to the airport four hours early to try to get on my flight, and after waiting for over an hour and praying nearly the whole time, I got on. The first flight was from Nairobi to London and I flew with Josh. We both asked the people next to us if they would switch so we could sit together, and nobody wanted to. The woman i ended up sitting next to was a retired school teacher returning from a missions trip in Kenya. We were able to talk about our experiences and the things that we learned. She ended up asking the man next to her if he was a Christian, and he responded, "I'm Catholic." She proceeded to preach the gospel to him. Her boldness challenged me.
After a long layover, I boarded my next flight to Chicago. Someone was sitting in my seat, so I switched with him. He was with a group of adults who were returning from a missions trip in Romania (ironic, huh?). I began talking to the woman across the aisle from me and we just talked about the things we had been doing on our trips. Turns out her daughter was in Rwanda on a missions trip. Another woman has a daughter that is leaving for the Sudan in a few weeks, and who eventually wants to live in Africa. God totally intersected our paths so we could provide mutual encouragement to each other. At one point, me and two others were standing in the aisle just talking about the amazing things that God has done. I can only imagine what people thought of us, and I can only pray that God used us in ways we can't imagine. That group of adults gave me hope for the Church in America. It was wonderful to see a group of adults take time off from their everyday lives to go serve.
It is great to be home. I plan on working the rest of the summer. Here is another short God story. When i found out i was coming home early, I got in contact with my friend Liz to see if they needed help at Dicks so I could work. The day before I asked, one of their cashiers got a new job and said he could only work weekends, so his shift opened. Praise God!
I will probably update one more time by this weekend with overall reflections and stuff like that. So, check in one more time! Or you can give me a call or email and you can hear the full sha-bang!

Goodbyes and bus rides

Well, saying goodbye to the children was much harder than I was expecting. The last night I was asked to lead their time of devotion. I talked about heaven and the kingdom of God that is being established here on earth. When those children sing, they bring a bit of that kingdom here. When I told them that, I started crying so hard. I thanked them for all they had done for me and the ways they had served me. They also thanked me and we gave hugs and said goodnight. It was sad.
However! When I was laying in bed I heard someone singing a song that is so familiar to me. We sing it before every soccer game; it is called Sanctuary. I kept looking out my window to see who was singing, and finally I saw that it was a woman named Sarah, who stays at the orphanage to take care of the children and do the laundry and clean. I went outside to talk to her, and all the kids began coming out of their rooms. We all sat outside and joked around together and sang songs. The older kids sang a special goodbye song for me and Viola even wrote a song in English! It was such a wonderful ending to the last night.
I was up at 5AM the next morning to catch my bus to Nairobi. All the older girls got up too to walk me into town. They are so sweet! I boarded the bus around 7, and was gearing up for the 13 hour journey. The man who sat next to me bought me baked bananas for breakfast and he was really nice. When it came time to cross the border, I was really nervous! Thankfully everything worked out fine and I got across and bought a Kenyan visa for only $25. once I crossed, the men kept following me and hitting on me and asking for money. I was so overwhelmed! I nearly ran back to the bus to get away. Once back on the road, the drive was horrible. We faced extremely bumpy roads for over an hour. Then, I was hoping it would rain because the bus was really hot, and it did rain! Unfortunately, I just happened to be sitting by the window that leaked, and when I mean leaked, I mean poured. I tried to use my pillow to stop it from raining on me, but it soaked through my whole pillow. Then I got up and moved to the back of the bus where it was dry. I was feeling really sick so I hung in the aisle and tried to look out the front window. A man then got on the bus and was trying to sell us something, and he sstood right in front of me and yelled. Next thin g I know, we are off-roadng again and I really got sick. We were on those roads for nearly an hour and a half. At the soonest chance I got up and sat in the very front seat, and sat comfortably for the final 2 hours of the trip. The last two hours were beautiful! The mountains were wonderful and the sun was setting. I also saw hundred of zebra and thousands of falmengos. Now I am safely and happily in Kenya. I have been hanging out with my friends and with coach josh. It’s been fun!
There is a quote from Saint Augustine that I try to live by. He says, ‘always speak of God’s love, if necessary, use words.’ If you have been following this blog at all, I think you have been able to tell that I love words. I love writing, I love speaking, I love encouraging people. I believe that God has blessed me with that gift. However, sometimes my liking from words becomes more about me than about God. It is me who preached the gospel, or me who touched someone’s life, not the Lord. once I came here, he took it away and put me in a place where nobody understood the words that I used. Trying to share Gods love without speaking was a huge challenge for me! I reached a moment where I came to the end of myself. No longer was I able to stand on my own; rather, God needed to work because I didn’t know what to do. I still don’t fully understand how to speak of God’s love without using words, but I believe it has to do a lot with just trying to love people. A lot of times when I was in Uganda, I ignored people because I didn’t like the things they were yelling at me. That would be a bad example of loving people. I was watching a televangelist preach about being Jesus’ hands and feet, and he said that in our lifetimes, we come in contact with over 100,000 people. Wow! Each interaction we have with people in an opportunity to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth, or the kingdom of hell to earth. You can either value someone as a human, or you can ignore them and show that you believe you are better than them .you can build people up, or tear them down. I have been challenged by all of this. I don’t have a conclusion, but I have found that I, myself, don’t have the capacity to just love people as they are. It is only when I am aware of God’s love for me and am secure in who He says I am that I am able to love people.
The end for now. I am on a standby flight for Saturday. A little sooner than I was hoping, but it is either that or july, and I really feel that I am supposed to come home.

On the move again

I asked the founder of the orphanage to type up all the children’s stories so that I could begin to put together sponsorship packages. I nearly cried as I read them. These children that I have grown so close to have such heartbreaking stories. You would never know it though, because they are constantly filled with joy. Major world problems now have skin on them. They have come in the form of children that I hold each day. AIDS has taken many of the children’s parents, while others fled their homes because they were raped and beaten. I have the biggest lump in my throat right now…
This week has been very low key, so I wasn’t going to update until next week, but my Mom said I had to. As I mentioned before, I started a girl’s soccer team. I think more than the 40 who signed up actually showed, so it was incredibly difficult. On Thursday they didn’t bring their ball (if you could call it that), so we just had one. There wasn’t much actual training that we could do, so we just played. The girls ran around barefoot and in skirts and had so much fun. Most of the time I just sat back and watched them laugh. Girls here aren’t supposed to play, so it was so empowering for them to get an opportunity to do so. I feel blessed to be in this spot, and it has brought so much joy to my life.
Alright. I am heading back to Kenya on June 6th because I have been sick. I’m not dying, and I have been getting better, but staying here would prolong that, so it would be a wise decision to leave. I feel good about it though. I know that God calls us certain places for certain amounts of time, and I know that I have done what he asked me to here.
Habakkuk 3:17-19 says, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength.” That verse spoke a lot to me, and I’ll change it a little to help you understand where I’m coming from. Here’s my version, “Though I’ve eaten the same meal twice a day for two weeks, my jaw has grown strong from maize, and there are dead flies in my drinking water, though I haven’t showered in a month and a hole is my toilet, though I walk miles to go anywhere and people mock me along the way, though I am alone and no one speaks my language, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior, my Protector, and my Sustainer. The sovereign Lord is my strength and my rest.” I am learning that God’s goodness follows me wherever I am. I can be joyful no matter what situations I find myself in. I can face each day with a smile and choke down my morning maize, because I have a wonderful life and the Lord has blessed me. And this too:
Lamentations 3:22-24 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
Last night God broke my heart again and gave me a glimpse of the world through his eyes. I was laying in bed trying to sleep when all the children began to sing. They always start softly and get so loud as they sing praises to God. All I could do was cry. My mind was flooded with their stories, yet God kept showing me hope. He put skin on Scripture and showed me that he did indeed choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith, that he answers all those wo call to him, and that he came to bring full life. I couldn’t help but think of my own life and the lives of so many other American Christians and how we always seem to linger in the past and hold onto the pain in our lives. Why? God has poured out his love so that we could be freed from all of that, so that we can sing to him and allow him to care for us, just as these children have done. They have been given a second chance at life. They have been freed from their past afflictions, and so they sing. Last night I finally understood where the apostle Paul was coming from when he said all his hardships were light and monetary compared to the greatness of knowing Christ and serving him. Everything I have gone through this past month is nothing in comparison to seeing these young children be changed by the love of God.
I decided to take the day bus back to Kenya so I don’t have another scary, middle of the night, seemingly illegal border crossing experience.
I am encouraged. Very encouraged. He has done great things.