Hakuna Kama Wewe

 

“Lord my God, You have done many things – Your wonderful works and your plans for us; none can compare with you. If I were to report and speak of them, they are more than can be told.”  Psalm 40:5

Joy in the Fullness

We’ve been soaking up our final days of outreach and our time has been so rich!

In the beautiful lush green mountains  of Kapenguria in West Kenya, God has been revealing new depths of His love as He continues to draw us closer to each other – our forever family – and move in power through us.

We’ve felt so at home at Kapenguria Bible Center, a base started in 1978 by Icelandic and Norwegian missionaries. This place is nestled in a valley and bursting with life! We’ve been lavished with God’s goodness by our new Icelander missionary friends, Fanney and Fjolnir as they’ve welcomed us into their home for coffee, dinner, and finally – watching the Lion King together!

Its been incredible to see their family do missions together, and to see the fruit of our Norwegian missionary friends, Eldbjorg and Kjell after decades of ministry to the unreached Pokot tribes in the area. Thousands of tribe people have been giving their lives to Jesus, even turning from traditions like FGM (female circumcision) after coming to Christ!

Each day here has been FILLED from start to finish – and God is giving us His heart for others in each place we go.

We’ve ventured into schools, where our joy-filled teachings on Honesty, and the Armor of God, have planted seeds of Truth in young children and resulted in massive gatherings of singing songs and laughing together.

At the Kapenguria prison, we spoke on the Hope that never fades – the hope we have in Jesus. God filled us with such compassion for these women that we saw them not as murderers, rapists and criminals, but through God’s eyes – as those Jesus loves, the poor in spirit who will inherit the Kingdom!

As we prayed for the prisoners, God poured His love out, reminding us all of His closeness and also releasing healing! We prayed for a blind man who began receiving sight, a deaf man who began receiving hearing, and a crippled man  who received strength in his legs to begin walking without his crutches! Lord complete the work you started this day!

In the city hospital, God broke through pain and suffering and released His JOY! We visited patients with burns, diseases, victims of violent attacks and prayed and worshiped together.  In the maternity ward, we got to pray for every newborn baby during the first 24 hours of their lives!

God has been so faithful to continue leading us to the lost, the suffering, and those in darkness. We’ve seen His love’s pursuit break light into darkness time and time again. His heart truly is to find, heal and redeem, to place crowns of royalty on the least of these!

This weekend we joined the Icelanders and Eldbjorg, along with local evangelists and pastors in training from KBC, on a 3 jeep caravan into the bush of West Pokot. After 8 hours driving over bumpy roads, a sea of brilliantly dressed Pokot women, all singing worship songs and waving tree branches, surrounded our jeeps to welcome us to their village! A National Geographic moment for sure!

Hundreds of shepherds, sandy children, and women in beads gathered to watch the Jesus film the Icelanders brought. We showed the film under the stars, on a sheet with a projector, small PA and generator. As the people watched and listened to the Gospel in their own language, many heard about Jesus for the first time!

We wrapped up our stay by teaching on Joy in the Fullness (our school’s theme for this DTS!) to the staff at KBC. God filled everyone with His joy and love and it was so incredible to look back and see how FULL this outreach has been – an anthem and celebration of His GOODNESS!

This coming week we will be heading east to Mombasa for debriefing. Indian Ocean here we come!

Ebel’s Passing

Late last week as we received a phone call from JJ & Esther with the horrible news that Ebel and Laura, our friends who we first worked with upon our arrival in Kenya, were robbed at their home at the YWAM Athi River Base. When Ebel tried to escort the 3 armed robbers out of their house, they shot and killed him in front of Laura and their two small children.

We broke under the weight of hearing this and fell to our knees in desperate prayers, crying out to God, and covering Laura and their children, loved ones and everyone at the base.

In our confusion and disbelief, God shared His heart as we pressed into Him – that His heart is also broken, that this was NOT His will.

“A thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy – but I have come that they might have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

This was an attempt to steal from, kill Ebel and destroy Levi, Ezra and Laura;  a tragedy that resulted in Ebel being swept up into Heaven (the enemy cannot take His eternal Life away!)

“When I tried to understand all this, it seemed hopeless until I entered God’s sanctuary.” (Psalm 73:16)

Saturday we had a memorial for Ebel around a bonfire and shared prayers and stories late into the night. Ebel truly LIVED His calling, and getting to share in the vision God set into motion through his family’s obedience was an honor for us all.

We know that the Lord has a beautiful plan of redemption and healing – and that Ebel’s already seen into that plan through God’s eyes!

Please continue praying with us for Ebel’s family, loved ones, and all those impacted by his life.

Here’s the story from YWAM’s website:

http://www.ywam.com/en/News-Stories/news/YWAM-Athi-River-Mourns-Loss-of-Missionary

Rivers in the Desert

God has rerouted our itenerary and led us into the desert!

Six hours northeast of Nairobi, beyond Garissa, and 30 km straight into the desert.. in jeeps over dry riverbeds, through thorn trees, past camels and donkeys and castles termites have built in the sand.. is SOMBO Mission, nestled away between tiny grass hut villages.

Strategically located, the born-again Kenyans in this small community have been bringing the Gospel to people of the 14 unreached people groups nearby, who have never heard about Jesus before!

It became evident very quickly that we’ve landed right in the middle of a plan and vision much bigger than us, and that during our stay, we get to be a part of that.

We hosted  48 hours of prayer to sow into what God has already been doing here and are believing for many dreams and visions and seeds of Truth being planted in the Muslims here.

Here’s the Tana River, the largest river in Kenya, where we have enjoyed spending the heat of the day in the shade.

 

Here in the relentless heat, He has been mnistering to our team in mighty ways – revealing His RIVER OF LIFE, the Spirit dwelling deep within us.

Deeper revelation of the River of the Spirit that dwells in each of us has been releasing our team members into new confidence as we teach, preach and pray with people in their villages. This Living Water flows deep within us – our very source of Life!

I’ve got a River of Life flowing out of me, makes the lame to walk and the blind to see, opens prison’s doors, sets the captives free, I’ve got a River of Life flowing out of me.  Spring up oh well within my soul, spring up oh well and make me whole, spring up oh well and bring to me that Life Abundantly!

Life in the Spirit

God continues to reveal Life Abundant here in Kenya as He is pouring His Spirit through us as a team and into the hearts of the people He’s put in our path here.

Some of our most rich and fruitful times here we’ve spent Treasure Hunting (or going on “faith adventures” as we like to call them). We pray as a team, writing down words, pictures, people, places, words of encouragement, etc. then break up into teams and hit the streets. God literally FILLS our time with connecting all of the pieces as we follow the Holy Spirit’s navigating! We have countless testimonies and stories of divine encounters and healings (but too many to list here).

Peter is 10 years old and lives on the street here in Nairobi. He’s stolen our hearts and wants to grow up to be an apostle. One day, during one of our faith adventures, he led us up a stairwell onto a roof where he introduced us to “the tall mzungu” who feeds him and his friends on Fridays. Because of the Lord’s leading through Peter, a beautiful friendship with JJ and Esther (a Dutch couple living and serving street women and children here) has blossomed!

For the past few weeks, we’ve had the incredible honor of partnering with JJ & Esther, along with our friend Bernard, a native Kenyan pastor who is also filled with the Spirit and has an incredible heart for discipleship.

We’ve treasured our days spent on the roof with the street women and street boys. We’ve celebrated being the Body of Christ as we sing, do dramas, teach from Scripture pray and share meals together. Everyone who comes is so hungry for prayer and its been amazing to hear their testimonies and encounters with God. Many share testimonies within minutes of our prayers. Its so amazing to see God pursuing His sons and daughters!

The day we taught on the Holy Spirit, we prayed for the street boys to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. They had already learned about the Gospel and mystery of Jesus, so it was incredible to pray with them for more! We prayed and the Holy Spirit came and made His dwelling in their hearts. Right away a few of the boys began speaking in tongues and saw visions of God’s plan for their lives.

Since then, we’ve soaked up every moment of hanging out with our street friends each time we cross paths. We often sit down and pray with Peter, Simon, Abol, Geoffrey, Brian, Charles, Robert and John Jenga, Kennedy Nicholaus, Wassa and KahKah too, Susan, Shika, Louise, and Little John, and its hard not to say goodbye without singing at least 3 songs together!

Just the other night, Little John was complaining of a headache and we encouraged his friends to lay hands on him. Right away, he shouted “I’m all better!” and we shared that God healed him because He’s so in love with him. The boys are quickly learning their authority in Christ to pray for each other and its such an honor to see them grow!

Our time on the streets sometimes draw onlookers and God’s moved in their hearts as well, some including Muslim women and wealthy businessman, simply as they see us stopping for those who are invisible to most. They’ve seen God’s love through us, and He gets all the glory!

Into the Slums

We ventured into the slums for the first time with week. We walked through trash, over filthy streams and through narrow alleyways lined with one room tin wall houses, and saw stern glares turn into bright smiles as we greeted each person in our path. Countless groups of young children ran up to us, laughing and shouting “How-are-you? How-are-you?” in unison (we learned later that the little ones call white people “Howareyou’s”). It was such a joy to play games and hang out with these beautiful children!

In kneeling down to meet each child, we saw the kingdom of Heaven in their eyes – and recognized the very people Jesus is bringing to the wedding feast – the ones He makes His dwelling with.

“He said, ‘Build it up, build it up, prepare the way, remove every obstacle from My people’s way.’ For the High and Exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy says this: ‘I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed.'” -Isaiah 57:14-15

The slums are filled with orphans and families affected by AIDS. TEARS Children and Youth Aid introduced us to dozens of widows who lost everything when their husbands died. We heard story after story of women whose homes were seized by their inlaws – they’ve literally been beaten onto the street with a number of children to feed, and nowhere to go. TEARS has helped these women set up small businesses selling fresh vegetables and chapatis in the slums so their children can go to school.

Mary, one of the widows we spent time with, was miraculously healed after we prayed with her. Her hospital visit showed that the typhoid and pneumonia she was suffering from were completely gone!

Sunday we visited and preached the Gospel at a church in the Medari slums. We arrived early and for the hour before the 6 hour service began, joy literally erupted in the alleyway outside the church doors as we danced and jumped up and down with the slum kids! More and more children seemingly came out of nowhere to join in on the fun.

In the Heart of Nairobi

Nairobi is a huge city – bustling with people from the wealthiest of class to the poorest of poor. the streets are packed with crowded mutatu taxi buses, and pedestrians dodging through the bumper to bumper traffic.

Right away we met street kids, who have been beaten by police to the outskirts of the city center, 6, 7, 10 years old, addicted to glue and hungry for food. Our first night in the city we were bombarded with people asking for money – targeted as the new “mzungus” (white people) in town. Some of us saw extreme poverty for the first time here and we prayed through our feelings of helplessness, seeking God for strategic direction as a team while we’re here. Over and over, God has been revealing His heart and encouraging us to lean on Him.

The LORD will always lead you, satisfy you in a parched land, and strengthen your bones. You will be like a watered garden and like a spring whose waters never run dry.  -Isaiah 58:11

Thanks be to God whose promises are completely reliable! He is filling us with hope and expectancy more each day and we are realizing as a team that His power is made perfect in our weakness.

Jambo Kenya!

We’ve arrived! For 2 1/2 months, the YWAM Iceland team – an international team of 9 from Holland, Germany, and America – will be here in Africa for the outreach phase of our pioneering Discipleship Training School.

Upon taking our first steps in the African soil, we were greeted by the shining summer sun – so bright that we were all squinting after 3 months in the Icelandic winter!

God’s hand is SO evident here – in the wild beauty of His creation and in the people we’ve met so far. The YWAM Base at Athi River quickly became a safe haven, an incredible welcome to this amazing continent and a place filled with peace as each of us found rest and times of healing from winter sicknesses carried over from the cold in Iceland. The Base Staff and Volunteers lavished us with incredible hospitality and we enjoyed community dinners with the YWAM Germay team also staying at the same time.

Chasing giraffes on our bush walk!

We’ve been delighting in the simplicity of life here – rising with the sun, team devotions each day, washing clothes by hand, using dirt toilets, walking everywhere and sleeping in mosquito nets. Here we’ve discovered Life Abundant and the Body of Christ, simply with Him and each other.

On our prayer walk through Makutano, the poverty-stricken community just outside the Athi River Base,  a few members from our team prayed for a woman with Malaria and she was healed!

Here we’ve done a lot of practical work. We helped our friend Ebel with his project, a village where Kenyan married couples will move into houses being built for each family to take in 8-10 orphans. Here the orphans will be fed and raised in a loving home. We shoveled and spread manure for fertilizer, worked in the shamba (garden), tended to baby mango trees and laid cement for a huge water tank.

We also came alongside a woman Angela, who’s dream to start an orphanage is becoming a reality. God provided a well of fresh water on the 2 acres of land she bought in faith – a miracle because all the surrounding ground water is salty. We dug holes in the hard dirt for trees around the entire property to provide shade for the children to play outside.

At “Springs of Hope” orphanage in Muchakos, a nearby town, we helped paint their chapel, play with the young orphans, cleaned windows and did yard work. Many of these orphans didn’t receive the love they needed after they were born and as we held them, they came into such a place of peace that many of them fell asleep in our arms.

During the week we also took turns teaching preschool, a ministry of the base where poor children can come for Christ-centered education free of charge. We shared about God’s love through Bible stories, songs and crafts and the kids were filled with joy!

Saturday we partnered with our friends on the YWAM Germany team to host a sports and games day for a girls academy in Makutano. Such an outpouring of joy was released into these teenage girls as we spent all day with them! At different stations, we led the girls in races, the human knot, trust falls, and also had a station where we shared testimonies. Their principle said this was “a day to go down in history” and they invited us back again and again.

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Monday we venture into Nairobi where we’ll be for 4 weeks, spending time in the slums, street kids, widows and orphans.

We love you all the way from Africa! Many blessings to our friends, family and supporters around the world! We wouldn’t be here without you!

Below is our prayer card – we feel every one of your prayers! God continues to lead us each day as we are seeking His heart here in Kenya!