August 31, 2013

Today’s update is written by our youngest daughter, Jessie, as she shares a bit about the mission trip she and others from her church, Cary First Baptist (NC), made to Ahero, in western Kenya last week.  In less than a week, they helped build two homes, one for a widow and her children and another for a widower; visited five schools sharing a True Love Waits presentation; and ministered at two orphanages, before taking a break at the end to visit Maasai Mara, a local game park.  BERT

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God doesn’t call us to a life of comfort.  I feel that this is a lesson that is always challenging me or a close friend in our everyday lives.  But you step out into that mission field and inevitably, you are not only out of your comfort zone, but you must rely on God as your only true source of comfort and joy.

 

Building the frame for one
the houses. Mud will be
added between two rows
of the poles to form walls.

I watched each night as the team shared their ‘highs and lows’ of the day and was carried along not only by my own roller-coaster of physical and emotional ‘ups and downs’, but by theirs as well.  And I’ll admit it – at times the level of poverty and need that we witnessed threw me into depths of discomfort that I have never felt outside of the mission field. AND then it was inevitable that I would come back to the hotel at night and face an Immense amount of shame when I complained about having to take a bucket bath and eat rice AGAIN!

One part of True Love Waits presentation

But I also witnessed how God was our comfort.  When we had all hit the highest barrier of emotions one night and still went hurdling up and over it – I prayed a single prayer for the team – that God would let us see joy in the midst of our discomfort. 

Kid enjoys his new book
and his sucker.

The next day involved a dispassionate True Love Waits presentation with the team fighting for the students to say or do anything AND then we drove to a local orphanage to participate in a once-every-other-day feeding program where at least 10% of the nursery students showed advanced stages of ring worm due to a polluted community water source.  Discomfort and emotional heartbreak spread all over the course of that day. 

And yet that night, we could not stop talking about the highs.  Individual students had opened up to each of us and we all had a chance to cross the cultural divide and laugh with pure joy.  Several of us had come together and brainstormed not only for a temporary fix for the ringworm, but several permanent fixes as well. And we had all watched the intense and absolute joy each of the nursery students had when they unwrapped their pieces of candy and tasted it for the first time and when they shared their ABC’s with us.  

The 'team shirts' were featured in today's
Nudge to Action for Sub-Saharan African Peoples

It was a good day.  NO , it was the best day, because it was 100% in God’s hands and He is the master, creator and giver of joy.  As Kenyan children still like to sing, “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy,  deep down in my heart.” A lack of physical and emotional comfort hold no sway when God’s joy is present – 2 Corinthians 1:3-4!   JESSIE

***A slideshow of a few of the photos captured by Jessie and Amy during their trip can be viewed at Cary First Baptist on Mission in Kenya at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152062891920130.1073741831.685050129&type=1&l=46009c00c6 - Non Facebook members can easily view the photos.)

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Bert's new FB cover photo - taken by
Jessie in Maasai Mara after the team
worked in Ahero.

For daily Nudges to Action - Praying, Serving and Giving for Sub-Saharan African Peoples

visit http://easternafrica2012prayernudges.blogspot.com/ or
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sub-Saharan-African-Peoples/100173880060607?ref=hl
(non-Facebook users can view this page.

Photo of the two Wake Forest University graduates (2009)
on the team, Jessie (right) and her room-mate, Amy,
who has worked twice before in Kenya with Jessie - drinking
their favourite Kenyan sodas, Orange Fanta and a Stoney!