This is the first time I have update the blog since being in Kenya and I just want to say our experiences have been soooo valuable and character building. This statement can mean alot of different things...which it most certainly does.
I'd say this past week has been the hardest by far. We are fully into our weekly program which basically means that our schedule has been really full (of good things to be sure) but tiring and we definitely need to rely on HIS strength instead of our own. We would be sooo done by now if it was up to those mid-afternoon sugar bursts from the Coke and Fantas to sustain us.
Personally, I felt really attacked, being unsure of my identity in the Lord and what I could even be used for in ministry here. I has no confidence in identifying with alot of the children we were playing with- even if it was just playing with Mikey and Lavenda in our house after supper. I felt really attacked in that I had nothing to offer the people that we would come into contact with in Kisumu or on the matatu's or the families that we would visit on our walks around the villages.
I also was just overwhelmed by the amount of despair and death that seems so close to many of these families. One mama has buried 5 of her 7 children in her life-time. Another mama who lives next door has buried all four of her sons and 2 out of 4 daughters. Only one of her kids helps to sustain this mama who cannot move further than her back cement pad because of poor legs. Her husband who must be midway into his seventies cannot go much further from the house. There are many days that this great grand-mother cannot provide any food for her family which includes her husband as well as 4 children under the age of 15. I asked a local man how much it would cost per day for her to buy food for the family and he responded with this: Food prices are very high in Kenya these days. (Because of the government raising food prices almost double in the last few months) It would cost 500 Kenyan Shillings to provide a healthy meal for the 6 people living in that home. So what is that in Canadian dollars?? 5! Five dollars a day to take care of all of these people and instead I choose to spend $5 on anything that would gratify my appetite for a pop and some chips on any given day. I was convicted...I was reminded that God has a special special place for people who live in such conditions allll over the world. Blessed are those who are poor in spirit.... blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. We know that this applies to all who are poor and who hunger in the spirit---but I know that God has a special place in His heart and His kingdom for those who have NO-WHERE else to turn but to Him for His providence. And they are soooo quick to acknowledge that He is their help; that He is their provider; and He will will not forget them. And they are so thankful for any little thing that He does bless them with. I get comfort from that....but I am bothered that as the Church, as His hands and feet....that WE forget this special place that people such as this hold in His heart. As we continue to discover the greatness and splendor of our God-we ought to have this drilled so deeply in OUR hearts and our minds that we are responsible and accountable with what what He has entrusted us with.
This week I was so strongly reminded with how fragile life is and how we are all in a state of decay. It sounds morbid, but came to me in a beautiful way. It is supposed to be approaching the hottest time of the year right now but yet, we are experiencing heavy rains every day. In a 24 hour period it is easy to observe how the streams and rivers carve their way through the red soil. Everything is being eroded and moved in this world.... BUT "Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade" 1 Peter 1:3-5.
2 Cor 5:17 tells us that "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" What a wonderful word in the face of death. We have nothing to be afraid of when we see all of these things around us.
We have HOPE in Jesus. We have satisfaction in Jesus. We have Confidence and anticipation in Jesus. Not just for the future....but for TODAY! His Spirit lives in us; in ME! AND that gives me every reason to be thankful, joyful and hopeful for today and tomorrow. It doesn't matter what last week looked like or felt like, I receive new mercies every morning and I am continually being restored and renewed every day- although I am getting older in the flesh. Thank you for your prayers...thank you for sharing in this with us. May this bring encouragement and a challenge to you today. Baraka on you and your family. ('Blessings' in Swahili)
Dano
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