I need to start this post with a prayer request. There was a fire early this morning local time at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, the only international airport in Nairobi, which gutted the international arrivals hall and temporarily shut down the airport. It has since been re-opened for domestic and cargo flights, and may start to accept international flights tomorrow morning. Please pray for the team from my church, which is supposed to arrive at JKIA on Friday night, and for those of us who are scheduled to leave for Uganda via JKIA on Sunday afternoon. Pray that the airport would be reopened to international arrivals by Friday night, and international departures by Sunday, so that we can continue the work God has called us to here in East Africa.
And now, my blog post as I intended to post it before today’s excitement:
I’ve been called many things for coming to Kenya and volunteering here on my own this summer. I’ve been called brave, but I can assure you I am the biggest coward I know. I go out of my way to avoid awkward situations, meeting new people makes me nervous every time, and I take the Metro whenever I go into DC because I’m scared to drive there. I nearly threw up on the plane ride here, but not because of turbulence. I was scared witless of coming to a place in Kenya I’d never been, all alone. But I have a courageous God who reminded me that he was already at the Tania Centre, preparing a place for me there. I have a courageous God who puts incredible new people in my life here who are so easy to be comfortable around. I have a God who is courageous even when I am not.
I’ve been called amazing and inspirational, but all I’ve been doing is the one thing I wanted to do most this summer. Who thinks they’re amazing just for doing exactly what they want to do for an entire summer? I think I’m truly being spoiled! But I have a God who molds my heart to be more like his, and then delights in giving me the desires of my heart. I just have the privilege of following these desires the whole way to Kenya. And I have a God who came to earth to give an example of how to live with each other—He is the true inspiration. I am just making a feeble attempt to imitate the life Jesus lived in the places He calls me to.
I’ve been called loving and caring, and these I may agree with. I have had a life filled with so much love from my family and friends that I can’t help but let it spill over into the lives of those around me. But, most of all, I have a God who loved me first and showed me how to truly love others. I have a God who’s cared for me in every rough patch in my life so that I know how to care for others in their tough times. I have a God who touched lepers and had dinner with prostitutes, and he helps me to fall in love with these children even when they smell like feces or spit at me when I sit near them. It’s something I can’t help doing.
Somehow, my five weeks at the Tania Centre have flown by. I leave in less than two days to meet the team from my church in Nairobi, where we will split into two groups. One group will remain in Nairobi to give a children’s ministry training to a group of church leaders from around Kenya, and my group will leave for Uganda to give a sports ministry training to church leaders there. I’m terribly sad to be leaving these children whom I love so much, but I can’t wait to see friends from back home, and I can’t wait to see how God uses their time here to touch even more lives.
Once the rest of my team arrives, I’ll be posting less, but you can also find our team blog at 2013missions.wordpress.com. Please come follow the rest of the journey there!
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