This girl's got radical faith!

So this is about a girl from Hays, Texas who went on one of the trips with us this summer to Kibera.

Her name is Kayla Jones. Some words that come to mind when I think of Kayla is faithful, bold, loving, intentional, adventurous, encouraging. Those are some pretty big characteristics that I wish people would say described me.

Today, Kayla spoke at her church service. She is 18, just graduated high school, and took over the entire main service to share about how God is working through her and people she met in Kibera and Zambia. That's pretty baller. I'm continually impressed with this girl. She is seriously seeking the Lord. I was daily encouraged by her faith, this girl is not just calling herself a Christian, she is living out a radical faith.

I think what I am even the most impressed with is that she went to Africa, saw need, and now wants to do something about it. She didn't go just go so God could teach her something and then ignore the oppression she saw. She is obeying God's command to serve the poor.

Here's a story from Kayla about her trip...

"I feel like God has been tying to teach me to rest in him through out the trip. I seems like all of my quiet times came back to that one central theme. That there is nothing that I can do without his presences in my life and him working through me. Not me trying to take on a worthy cause with his help, but being where he wants me and following his lead. I know that God has been showing me a lot of things that I feel are significant, but I don't necessarily know the meaning of them yet. I am hoping that God will reveal these things to me when I'm ready. One of the most memorable things about the children in Kibera is their joy and simple faith. My prayer is that I could have that kind of joy and faith in my everyday life, regardless of situations. To see where and how these children eat, sleep, go to school and live and then listen to their stories brings hope to my heart for them through Christ."

Last night in Kenya

I am leaving Kenya tomorrow night. Even typing it, my heart is heavy.

This is probably be my last post from Africa, but I still want to share lots of stories as I go home. So often I think our "mission" trips are all about what we learn while we are here. I keep trying to figure that out- what have I learned here? We sit down and groups and say "So, what has God taught you during your trip?" But I'm starting to think- maybe it's not really about what we learn... because it's not really about us.

We didn't come here for ourselves. We shouldn't travel to Africa to change OUR lives. Yes, while we are here that can definitely happen (I know it did for me), be we so often focus on ourselves when were coming here...
the lessons I learn,
    the experience I am going to have,
        the cute pictures I'm going to take,
             how it's going to change my life,
                  the good works that I am going to do.

And that's the other tendency- we tend to think we are doing something good/right/extraordinary/extra-Christian. But I am not here for me. I have done nothing good. I am no one extraordinary. I am simply obeying God's commands. To proclaim good news to the poor. The have the good news preached to the poor. To distribute to the poor. To go and make disciples of all nations. To give liberty to those who are oppressed. To care for the poor.

I think the biggest thing I've learned, more like REALIZED is that I don't want to learn things about God or learn more about my relationship with Him while I am here. I want to really SEEK HIM and KNOW HIM. Not just learn about Him. I want to daily be closer to the Lord than I was the day before. I want to daily surrender more of my life and my flesh and have His Spirit reign in me. I want to have more faith in the Spirit that is alive in me. It's a process, not a lesson to be learned. I want to live and serve and love in a way that people see GOD not me.

Because it's not about me....

Pray for Mercy Naliaka

Mercy Naliaka is a sophomore in the Kibera Penda Project scholarship program. She is awesome, hilarious, beautiful, laughs all the time and other people laugh at her jokes all the time.

Over the course of the past week she has been sharing with me about her family and home life. She lives in Kibera. When Mercy was young, her father died in a car accident. She was left with her younger sister and mother. A few years later, her mother got remarried and had two more children. However, her step-dad left them and took his two children with him a few years later. Just a year ago, Mercy's mother married again. This man is not a believer and is an alcoholic. Mercy says that her mother is always stressed out, always drunk, and her step-dad hits her mom. She described her home as unhappy, no laughing, no love. Her mother at times will lock her and her younger sister out of the house and throw their clothes out. Mercy even said that she doesn't think that her mother loves her.

I think that her mother has kind of given up. After a husband passing, a husband leaving, a long life in the largest slum in Africa, she has quit. She has given her life to alcohol, is probably depressed, and is staying with a man who abuses her.

Pray that Mercy will ultimately know that the Lord is her Father and her Mother who will always love her unconditionally.

Pray that she feels love and not unworthiness.

Pray that she, the only believer in the family, can be a light.

Pray that she can show undeserving love to her mother and step-father, like Christ loves us despite our sin.

Pray that Mercy step-father and mother don't put Mercy and her sister in an unsafe position, beat, or abuse them in their drunkenness.

Mercy is desiring another place to live, pray for the Lord's plan, to stay where she is or to move in with someone else.

Pray that the Lord changes Mercy's mother and step-father's hearts. It seems so far from happening right now, but the Spirit can work, pray for Him to.

"The Holy Spirit is as essential to a believer's existence as air is to staying alive"

Since the beginning of the beginning of the year, I've had a revelation... conviction... awakening... why don't we live as if the Spirit that IS Jesus lives inside us?

I have been praying and begging for my life to be FULL of the Spirit that brought my Savior back from the dead. It's just amazing. If we really believe that the Holy Spirit is Jesus, and lives in us, then we can do anything that Jesus can do. With FAITH in that. That's where I have been struggling. Do I believe I can heal? Do I believe I can cast out demons? Do I believe I can sacrificially LOVE like Christ?

Then, I stumbled across the book Forgotten God by Francis Chan, which is about the Holy Spirit. I didn't even know that when I bought it... coincidence... probably not? And I read this illustration that I think is great...

"I then proceeded to tell her about he confusion I imagined a caterpillar must experience. For all its caterpillar life, it crawls around a small patch of dirt and up and down a few plants. Then one day it takes a nap. And then, what in the world must go through its head when it wakes up to discover it can fly? What happened to its dirty, plump, little worm body? What does it think when it sees its tiny new body and gorgeous wings?

As believers, we ought to experience this same kind of astonishment when the Holy Spirit enters our bodies. We should be stunned in disbelief over becoming a "new creation" with the Spirit living in us. As the caterpillar finds its new ability to fly, we should be thrilled over out Spirit-empowered ability to live differently and faithfully. Isn't this what the Scriptures speak of? Isn't this what we've all been longing for?

...Christ said it is better for us that the Spirit came, and I want to live like I know that is true. I don't want to keep crawling when I have the ability to fly."

-The Forgotten God

The other day I believed. We had 35 students sponsored in a mere 8 hours, and actually looking back, I posted that we needed these student's sponsored at 2:30 AM Texas time. So really, only about 4 hours of time that people were awake in America. How could I NOT believe the Spirit did that?

Joan needs a primary school sponsor!

My names are Joan Adhiambo. I am 16 years old. I live in Kibera Slum with both my older sister, whose name is Dorothy, and her children. I have three brothers and three sisters. Some are jobless. I love them so much because they are all God fearing. I am so happy because God gave me a great talent, which is singing and playing football.
The only difficult situation my family and I are passing through is lack of love and lack of money. Sometimes we see ourselves as not being very important. Since our mummy and daddy passed away, things have been difficult for me compared to the way our mummy used to take care of us. But, the only thing I know is that God had a purpose for why He took away my parents.
Sometimes, I become angry and want to kill myself. I get very stressed when I find my friends gathering together telling stories about me or talking about how they have parents who are so nice to them and encourage them.
One day I went to church and found my pastor preaching that God knows you before you were born and he knows the plan for your life. That made me understand that I am an important person and one day I will be somebody. I will have a bright life.
For my career, I would like to be an engineer and help my brothers and sisters who are jobless. My prayer will come true.
Jesus is the pillar of my salvation. The love of God is the more important than anything. We should always keep on moving to our destiny. Although I don’t have both parents, I know that God is my Father and He has a good plan for me, a plan not to harm me.

Visit www.mannaworldwide.com and donate $40 to Kibera Penda Project to sponsor Joan!

We need help!

We raised almost $2,000 through Krafts for Kibera in the past year... and are so thankful for those of you that helped make that happen!

However, when I just got the list of students at our primary school who haven't paid school fees or are orphans and can't pay any at all the total is a little over $3,000. If student's don't pay school fees, not only do they get sent home from school for days, but it affects the entire school; teachers don't get paid their full salaries, better resources can't be bought, and school improvements can't be made. With our heart being to break the poverty cycle through education, this is a huge deal! And 11 of the student's who need sponsors are 8th graders!

Please help!
Go to www.mannaworldwide.com and make a donation of $40 and that will cover an entire student's school fees for a year, just put Kibera Penda Project in the donation box and the money will go to these primary school sponsorships!

Radically following Christ

This is not really an update about what's been going on in Kibera. But during my time in Kenya, I've been listening to David Platt's Radical Series. This has been a source of fuel for me but also wrecked me. David Platt speaks hard truth from God's word. It's changed my life.

Please listen to it.
RADICAL SERIES

UPDATE

Arusha, Tanzania

Last week, I was in Arusha, Tanzania visiting Mary and Vernon Smith (missionaries and close family friends of the Baird’s) and their ministry. Also, we went on a wonderful safari at the Ngoragora Crater and saw everything from lions to elephants to cheetahs to hippos. I was so encouraged and inspired by the ministry in Arusha. There is an amazing, quality primary school, church, sports ministry and beautiful medical clinic with a very smart doctor. The trip gave us encouragement for the future of the ministry with Kibera Penda Project and lots of ideas. It also confirmed to me that God has definitely called me to Kibera.

Exxon Team

Today, we said goodbye to a team of Exxon Mobil employees. They spent six days in Arusha with us and then spent Saturday in Kibera. I was sad that they only got to spend a day in Kibera, and sad they had to leave. I am so thankful for them and their hearts for the ministry. We spent a couple hours Saturday afternoon at the guesthouse just talking about what they saw, what the needs were, brainstorming ideas, sharing the culture, asking questions. It was amazing to see people not come here to grow and to have a fun time with the kids  (which is important and powerful) but who truly desire to partner with the work that God is doing here. I was also encouraged by people who are missionally serving with their co-workers. It’s easy to serve with friends, family, fellow church members, classmates, but that is a comfort box you have to step out of to travel with your co-workers. I am excited to hear about the impact they will make when they get back to work.

Baby Brenda

A woman in the church walked up to the school today holding a tiny baby. We came to find out that the baby had been dropped right outside her house and the woman, Faith, found her and had no idea who’s baby she was. This was last Sunday. Since then, she has been passionately caring for this child. I was blown away. Faith is already a grandmother, has three of her own children, and is living in Kibera. There’s not really extra money lying around to just start caring for a random baby. But Faith has named the baby Brenda and is treating her like a daughter. Please pray for God’s provision in what we should do with the baby and for Brenda’s health. She seems very malnourished and Faith does not have the money to take her to the doctor. We want to step in and help but we don’t want to act like we know more than them or take the wrong approach culturally.