April 30 - Extra Prayer Nudge with Current News

Today's Prayer Nudge shares a bit of what happened yesterday in Nairobi, Kenya.

An East African missionary’s prayer when learning of yesterday’s grenade attack at a worship service in her country:  Prayers for families with kids in school – East African and missionary families, whose children are away at boarding school and those with young kids who will travel to school today.  For Believers, pray for a strong sense and assurance of being ‘cocooned’ within God’s care and love!  Pray that non-Believers will open their hearts to the peace and comfort that can only come from our Heavenly Father. Why did she pray these things?  She is a Mom who has experienced this before!
*** For more information on yesterday's attack, go to: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=2000057294&cid=4&

April 29, 2012 Prayer Nudge from East Africa

“THE REAL MISSIONARY KIDS OF EAST AFRICA” newest episode – 1st scene: Visiting a Ugandan radio station, a missionary family visit the sound booths.  Spotting them, the studio man says, “I need a child to read something on the radio.” A bit nervous, the oldest MK agrees to try.  Next scene: After practice and rewrites (Mom helped), she reads nine announcements for upcoming Easter shows for kids.  3rd scene: The family listens to the radio – the way everyone in their area gets news – for hours, to catch the announcements!  Last scene:  A friend arrives and tells the MK: “Someone on the radio sounded like you!”


*** To view daily "Prayer Nudges from East Africa", go to http://easternafrica2012prayernudges.blogspot.com/

April 25, 2012

Writing without electricity again, but thankfully after an all-night rain, the sun is shining and I can see to work!  I’m not complaining, the rains do bring constant electricity outages, but I did have it over the weekend when I needed it for a very special treat.  One of my most ‘homesick’ times of the year is around North Carolina WMU’s annual Missions Extravaganza at Ridgecrest when so many friends are together.  But, this year I visited for a few hours via SKYPE as I helped with a conference on using social media in missions! Even though it was raining, I had constant electricity and internet throughout both sessions!  Another great example of how modern technology is a joy and benefit of our and God’s work!

We also were thankful for internet this week as we viewed photos of our family as our granddaughter celebrated her third birthday!  Thanks to SKYPE, we even visited with her as she opened our gift – for those of you with Kenyan ties, one gift was a CD which included the song MALAIKA!  Thanks to Facebook, we got to see lots of photos of her first nursery school program and all her birthday festivities!  Things such as this are a true source of thanksgiving for missionaries.  When we arrived in ’78, it would take months to receive news and photos via post, rather than seconds or a few hours.

Although we are enjoying our first true rainy season in years, it does lead to worries about those living in the slums and other areas of poorly constructed housing, often in flood prone spots, but this is the only affordable/available housing for many in Kenya.  We also know that the many street kids/families are also suffering as they seek a dry spot.  We also pray for their health as the rains do lead to lots of illnesses due to the inadequate housing and the walking, an many must do, long distances to work and school.

Another result of the much needed rains is that I am still coughing!  I am on a new heavy-duty round of medicine which is working, but leaves me rather zapped!  I’m staying home to avoid any ‘triggers’ that lead to my allergies/asthma and after 7 days of being grounded, I’m ready to run-away and I really hate missing several special events with our ministries. Jack has also missed a few as he chose to stay home to be my ‘nurse’ as medicines don’t always work as expected on me!  But, I keep reminding myself of praises:  The IMB provides good medical care for us and we live where there is good doctors, which many missionaries with other groups and our co-workers living in other places lack.

The electricity is still off and Jack is rather frustrated as the screen on his laptop no longer works and with no electricity, he cannot rely on his external monitor and he is still catching up on reports, etc.  He ordered a new laptop, but as often happens, when he ordered it from Kenya to be delivered in the States, the order was canceled due to the fear of credit card misuse.  So another prayer item for us and other international missionaries:  Pray for patience with security problems which can be simple, though frustrating such as the canceled computer order, and more complex ones such as living in areas with ongoing security threats. 

The clouds are gathering again and I now have ONE of our trusty rechargeable flashlights illuminating my keyboard, so it’s time to quit.  Possibly due to the medicines, my ‘guard’ is down today and I have shared more personal items that usual – but we do depend upon your prayer support and these are the concerns of our heart!  BERT  

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Don’t forget to view recent Prayer Nudges from East Africa at http://easternafrica2012prayernudges.blogspot.com/ .