June 16, 2024 Father's Day, Worship, Outreach Event

On the way to church this morning, we spoke about "Sweetnenss'.  Each day we received some tangible item that was representative of our color, today since we spoke about sweetness, we received watermelon candy.  Our verses for this day were Psalms 119:103, 19:9-11, 55:14.

Today we attended the FEM Family Church, this church has an attendance around 3,000 members with an overflow tent for more people.  What an amazing service,  very international feel, it was heaven like.  The guest pastor that day was Hans Moller from the Netherlands, he is an architech by trade and designed the buildings for this church, there is a long standing relationship here.  It was wonderful having multiple nationalities together worshiping one God under one roof.  The service was in both English and Kswahili and one takeaway from the service is that "Kenya is the springboard for revival".  The scriptures referenced were Nehemiah 1:3 and we spoke about the rebuilding process.  what people could not do in 72 years, Nehamiah was able to accomplish in 52 years.   Hans spoke about how God is rebuilding you as referenced in Isaiah 60:1, 18.

The Lord is building walls in your life and those walls ar praise of Salvation.

Rebuilding to Host the presence of God.

John 14:20

This season is to work on self and character.  God is rebuilding wells to dwell amongst us.

God is good

With God nothing is impossible

The root structure of a tree is similar to the fruit structure of the tree.  Be planted - roots have to go into the dark, resistence work and it is dirty.  They keep pushing the roots - NO MATTER WHAT ADVERSITY.  They do not give up.  YOU should not give up.

Everyone is significant.  Everyone matters

After this service we had a quick snack, provided by the church - completely unexpected.  We had packed lunches to eat on the bus on the way to the next outreach event, but honestly, it wasn't even eaten.  

This outreach I think was one of my favorites, if that is even possible.  They are all different and yet the same.  Just like the lessons that are given to the children at the outreach events.

When the children are invited to an outreach event, they have NO idea there is a shoebox, they think they are coming for The Greatest Gift presentation of the gospel.    The shoebox gift is simply a tool for the local pastors to bring children and families in to hear about the Greatest Gift. After this presentation they find out about the shoebox gift.  

This outreach event was on the outskirts of the Massai borders.  A beautiful young lady came and recited for about ten minutes about Africa, I'm waiting on the video from a team member.  She was beautiful.

This group of children were the most filled with gratitude and love from any of the other groups.  The children could not tell us thank you enough for the gifts they received.

Day 4 (June 15, 2024) Outreach 2 and The Greatest Journey

Once again this morning we started with worship and devotions.  Today we continued the theme around hope and that the symbol for hope is typically an anchor.  We learned that the anchor is not let down right next to the boat, but out a little further where it is stable ground.  Have you thought about how Jesus is our anchor?  He is not right next to us, but he is the calm, he is the safety, he is the ever presence in our life.  

Isaiah 49:13 talks about doing a new thing.  Are we allowing Christ to do a new thing in our lives?  Or, are we clinching on to everything we can expecting that to be our anchor.  There is freedom in releasing ourselves to the Lord and allowing Him to be our anchor.

I sat with Caroline at breakfast this morning and we spoke about how we both feel like we are living in the days of Sodom and Gamorrah.  I saw on the tv last night about transgenderism and I asked if that was prevelent here and it is growing.  As more and more are becoming bold more and more are coming out.  The kids are trying to emulate what goes on in the west, and it is not healthy.  Social media is a big concern, although I did find that Tik Tok is not allowed in Kenya.  We spoke about school and the children have to attend school and are given a twelve grade education.  The children have to do their homework before they can get on their phones or watch tv.  That is a priority.  

While driving to our second outreach event, I tried to really notice what we were driving by and I saw that we passed the Bible Society for Kenya.  Lots of street venders, motorcycles and such.  While enroute to the destination we heard from Travis about the logistics of the boxes and he shared with us a story of why soap is being phased out of the shoeboxes.  Because soap is made with chemicals that are not prevelent in other countries it can cause issues on the skin.  One person washed her face with soap and had a chemical burn  on her face, due to the unknown chemicals.

Kenya is the hub for the East Africa ministry teams.  Kenya received five containers this year.  Each containers contains 7320 shoeboxes which has to pass through customs.  Jacenta, the prayer team coordinator has a ministry that is the consignee for the conatainers, so the shoeboxes, once they have been exhonorated are released to her ministry.  

We were told a bit about the area where our outreach event would take place.  It is a very heavily traveled area for trucks and therefore is a huge transient area with prostitution.  Drugs are all over the place, this is an area that is rich with single parents. 

We hear of stories of the widow's mite, but the pastor of the church has experienced this first hand.  When he was four years old his mother took him to church and was so convicted about giving an offering and the only thing she had was her son.  She gave her son, while he didn't remain at the church (at that time), that made a lasting impression on him.  

His prayer for his community is for the witchcraft to be gone, the children would feel safe in a five story building being built specifically for them, the messages in his church are done in English and Kiswahili due to the high transient rate.  His goal is to offer business training skills so the children can one day get out of poverty and that the people would turn away from idols.

 Across the street from the church was a muslim masque which broadcasts throughout the day.  The church has come up with a ministry where they too will broadcast christian music, a message and prayers to the community.  

We went into the church and listened to the gospel presentation.  I love the consistency of the message.  The children were all learning the same way that was observed yesterday.  The training that the teachers go thru to present the gospel in a consistent way brings glory to God the Father.  

There were approximately 120 children in attendance, we passed out the greatest gift booklet and then the boxes.  I was spending time with one little boy who honestly, was a little dissapointed in his box.  He received a monkey stuffed animal and he definetly did not want it.  The teacher exchanged a box for him and he received a soccer ball and was much happier.  This was the first I had experienced this and I was shocked.  Another one received a flashlight in his box and the batteries were dead.  Honestly, I was a bit discouraged and walked over to the other side of the room.  It was then that I saw a little one playing outside with a ball that was in his box.  He was having so much fun kicking the ball around and playing with one of the adults outside.  Then, I looked down.  OH MY WORD.  There was the most beautiful little girl, Gracelynn.  She stole my heart.  After being alone with her for about five to ten minutes, another little girl came over to ask what we were doing.  I explained that I was sharing with her how beautiful she was and how much Jesus loved her.  

From there we left to go to a park and eat our sack lunches.  The park had swings, slides, blow up slides and such, it was like a mini amusement park.  This park was huge and beautiful.  After finishing our lunch we went to our next event, which was to observe a teaching session from The Greatest Journey, we observed lesson two.  We learned that this community, like the one earlier in the day is a community filled with witchcraft.  

At one point in this churches history there was a person who was a muslim practicing witchcraft who wanted ALL the children to die.  How sad, but through the power of Gods love, this young man was shared the gospel message and he gave his heart to the Lord and is now ministering at the church.  

One thing that has been reiterated over and over again is the simplisty of a shoebox gift.  It is the opportunity to be able to share the gospel message, but what I didn't know is that for the past four years, shoeboxes have not been able to come into the country, but The Greatest Gift booklet and The Greatest Journey discipleship progam has been happening.  The body is being built up - without the shoebox gift.  This ministry is so focused on the evangelism, discipleship and multiplication that it is showing througth the faith of the children.  

The children have such a rich foundation of biblical truths, there is definetly see the hunger for the word in their faces.  

Today has been hard to process because of the darkness around us today on our journey.  At all times I have felt safe, but the heaviness of the darkness was palpable.

Join me in prayer for the people of Kenya that they will feel the love of Jesus, come to a saving knowledge of Him and that they would turn around and continue to share with family, friends and neighbors that Yesu Anakupenda (Jesus loves them).

Blessings.

On the ground Day 1

The day started off with some fabulous worship and a time of orientation to  our hearts into the spirit of awe and wonder at what we will be experienceing over the next couple days.  

We start with a theme for this week "Get your hopes up" lead by Angela Lear.  In Romans 15:13 it says "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope".  That is what we are doing this week, bring hope to the children and any others we encounter, but also to ourselves.  We have this hope.  In the greek this word hope means a confident certainity, and expectation.  My hope this week is a word from the Lord.  

We learned today that this is the very first ever vision trip to Kenya.  Kenya started receiving shoeboxes in 1996.  

We are to be encouraged, educated and equipped in our callings to be able to go home and share what we have experienced.  I am writing this after my first outreach event and words cannot describe the joy on the children's faces.  We are to remember the deeds of the Lord, reject any anxieties we may have, wipe away any preconceived ideas that we may have about outreach events.  Don't just search out the "story", live in the moment.  Get down on the ground, play with the kids, help them understand what is inside their boxes.  

We are to be curious.

We are to be relentless in journaling, write down everything, because the memory will fade and events will run together.  

We are to be that eye witness to the goodness of God and what he is doing here in Kenya.

We are to gather everything together and present in a beautifully God ordained message to those at home.  

Did you know?  BASBO boxes are featured here in Kenya.  Kenya has a very strict customs imigration laws and they are strict as to what can and cannot come into the country.  Kenya is know to be a hard to reach area for shoebox gifts getting in.  We are literally being the hands and feet of Jesus this week by handing out the shoebox gifts.  

So.

Outreach event number  one took place at a school of 800 children.  However, there were  300 chosen to receive the gifts this year.  Why only 300?  I'll tell you in a bit, but first, I want to share with you about the children that attend this school.  When the school began it started with eight students, two of which were the founders children.  This schools aim is to provide spiritual, academic and business training.  The children face many challenges in life, many come from homes where parents are alcoholics or drug addicts and the entire family will live in a ONE room home.  The children range from three to fourteen and have their spiritual, mental and physical needs meet.  The school day typically will go from 7:00 am until 5:00 pm.  The school began in 2006 and in 2018 tragedy struck when part of the school collapsed and 8 children died.  

As we were driving to the school, we drove down areas of desolution, markets on the street, a huge caravan of people walking to a soccer game and had an aroma that was that of burining oil.  Reminded me of growing up and going to my aunt and uncles home and being on the farm where he would work on old trackers restoring them to take them to the Fly wheelers events. 

While driving to the event, Mike shared three scriptures with us: Collossians 3:23, John 6:27  and Psalms 90:17.  We were reminded that many times ministry is gritty and sweaty.  We recieved green sweat bands to remind us that we are doing the gritty work of the Lord.  

The road was smooth until it was time to turn the corner to the event, then it was extremely bumpy.  We were asked ahead of time for our safety to not be taking photos when we were in route to the school, it took about twenty five minutes from the hotel to get to the event, where we were greeted with a pink, white and red balloon arch.  

Once we entered the ballloon arch we were to stay in the back of the room while the gospel presentation was given.  The children were so focused, attentive and respectful during this time.  The gospel is presented in a way that they can fully understand, hand motions are used in many of the stories.  When we put motions and words together, I think it tends to stick a little more.

When it was time for our group to particpate we each had jobs, today I was the box cutter opener.  It was my turn to open the cartons and slit one side of the tape on the boxes.  Some handed out the greatest gift booklet.  Some handed out the shoebox itself.  Once we were sure that all children had received a gift we counted down 3, 2, 1 and the mayhem insued.  The squeels of joy.  The sound of laughter was everywhere.  Some were even crying out of pure gratitude for her shoebox gifts.  We were constantly told THANK YOU.  

Upon leaving we met with Moses and Fresha, the founders of the school.  He reminded us that while we may never make it to Kenya again we will one day see each other in heaven.  We met in the room which was the cornerstone for the school where in the beginning days the children would sleep in that room.  We were the first ever group to visit the school and to say it was overwhelming would not even begin to describe how we felt.  The overflow of gratitude of Moses and Fresha was palpable.  

We returned to the bus to debrief as we returned to the hotel.  Some shared that one little girl when she opened her box, there was a letter with a photo.  The little girl just started and intently read the words BEFORE looking at any of the gifts within her box.  

One had a soccer ball that she was saving to give to her brother.

One was disapointed that he got a yo-yo, when others around him received harmonics.  The boys switched gifts and the elation on their sweet faces said it all.  They were so happy.  One little boy showed me his toothbrush.  We saw many giraffe stuffed animals, harmonics, yo-yos and soccer balls.  Just about every box had a soccer ball and all the kids were so excited, they began pumping air into them immediately. 

As I was walking thru I saw one little girl with tears running down her cheeks, I asked what was wrong and the other said that she was so happy, she was overwhelmed by the love and generosity for those that packed shoeboxes.