I can't even begin to express the joy that I have felt this week. I am overwhelmed at God's faithfulness and goodness towards not just these girls we are ministering to, but Christine and I. One of our most frequent prayer requests has been that God would provide deeper relationships that are based on trust and allow the girls to feel free to be vulnerable with us. I am currently studying the book of Habakkuk and I truly believe the Lord has just been calling Christine and I to be patient and wait for Him to do His work in ours and their lives.
Habakkuk 1:5 says, "Look among the nations and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told." Immediately when I read this I HAD to commit it to memory because of the joy it filled me with knowing that God was being faithful to answer my prayers even when I could not see it.
In Kenya, the culture is very much communal in that people do not have a sense of individual identity. Their thinking is group-based and they have a hard time answering personal questions or talking about themselves as individuals. Their upbringing is so community-oriented that the children in one's village are seen as everyone's children and you are able to punish a child even if it is not yours. So, its been difficult getting the girls to talk about specific situations in their lives, where they struggle with patience, for example, because they will usually just give us a hypothetical situation as an answer. BUT, due to our prayers and those who are praying for our ministry here in Kenya, God has heard our request for vulnerability among the girls and trust to build our relationships with them on. SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED IN THIS LAST WEEK!!
Like in Habakkuk, the Lord totally proved to me that He is doing a work that I really would not have believed if He told me because I thought developing those kinds of relationships with these girls would take 6 months at least!! He has proven me wrong. DRAMATICALLY!
On Tuesday, when school started again since the elections, Teresia, the oldest girl at our school and possibly one of the most influential on the other girls approached Lydiah, our Kenyan discipleship coordinator and told her she has decided to commit her life to Christ and wanted Lydiah to pray with her! Teresia had told us before she left for break she had not been saved, but we were waiting on her to make the decision....AND SHE DID! Lydiah and Francis (our other Kenyan staff member) shared some scripture with her about what it really means to become a Christian and Teresia decided her life was worthless to her if she was not following Christ! She saw the value in Him and prayed to follow him AND WE COULD NOT BE MORE EXCITED FOR HER! But it doesn't stop there....
Teresia shared at our youth group event what God had done in her life with the other girls and basically, shared the gospel with them. Now, most of the girls either are Christians or think they are (kind of like in the Bible belt where biblical terminology is known but a relationship with Jesus is not necessarily present) and it was so amazing to see her new found joy for sharing the gospel just because she is following the Great Commission. This definitely had an impact on some of the younger girls once they saw the joy she had when she spoke about Jesus and her new life. So on Friday, after our Life Skills Club with the girls, two Form 1 (or freshman) girls came to me and wanted to talk.
Lucy and Josephine are two girls from different IDP camps that are on scholarship at our school as well and come from very strongly rooted community-oriented thinking. The first thing they said to me once we were alone was they wanted to be SAVED! They told me they had been so attracted to what Teresia was saying and realized they had always gone to church and believed in God but did not have a personal relationship with Him. Right then and there in Form 1 Homeroom I told them the gospel and what it means and looks like to follow Christ and the Lord used me to help them pray to receive Him!!!!! I could not believe it!! Christine and I went from praying desperately, assuming this process would take way longer than we had ever planned to break down their walls, to having girls coming up to us out of their own free will wanting to receive Christ and talk about their personal issues!! I am still astounded at how apparent it has been that God is moving in this school. So after they received Christ, they began asking all of these personal questions regarding actual things they struggle with and scenarios in their lives where they need counsel and not just hypothetical situations. OUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH THESE GIRLS LITERALLY CHANGED OVER NIGHT!!
And then this Saturday morning we had Bible Study like we do every Saturday morning with the girls. Normally, they are quiet and do not participate very much and sometimes are just not serious about it at all. But today, they were quoting scripture to one another, sharing the gospel in their answers to questions, and most of all, totally paying attention and excited about what we were learning WHICH WAS IRONICALLY ABOUT GOD'S GOODNESS! We are going through the different fruits of the spirit right now and goodness, coincidentally happened to be the next fruit (obviously all in God's plan so we would give Him the glory for it). I was just so excited that they were participating and excited and that English was not becoming a barrier this morning even for the girls who are not as fluent! Everyone wanted to read the word and explain what it meant to them and even share verses they must have been focusing on the night before to share with the group. IT WAS SO ENCOURAGING TO SEE THEM HUNGRY FOR THE WORD! And not just hungry but wanting to share it like we are called to do! Reading your Bible and talking about God is no longer something they think they are supposed to do but something they want to do and share with others!! They are falling in love with Jesus!! BUT IT DOESNT STOP THERE EITHER....
After Bible study, another girl, Nicole, came to Christine to talk to her about some personal things she was struggling with. Nicole was bullied at her old school which is one of the reasons why she transferred to Uhuru Academy but so many more things came out of her mouth during her and Christine's conversation that Christine could not believe what she was hearing. NICOLE WAS OPENING HER LIFE UP TO CHRISTINE RIGHT BEFORE HER EYES! They talked the whole free time until it was time for Nicole to go to study hall and I could just see the amazement on Christine's face when she came to tell me. THESE GIRLS DO NOT SHARE THEIR PERSONAL LIVES NATURALLY, THIS IS A PHENOMENON OF GOD WORKING IN THEIR HEARTS. Praise God!!! And just when I thought we were about to leave Christine had to go talk to one more girl, Lynette before we left because LYNETTE CAME TO HER wanting to talk. When Christine approached Lynette and told her she was ready to talk, Lynette immediately broke down about her uncle who had died in January that she was still upset over. I mean really I couldn't believe it when I saw them embracing because Lynette was crying, SHE WAS CRYING! IN PUBLIC! WILLINGLY! I was just beside myself, trying to understand what was going on. We literally went from 0 to 60 in 24 hrs! Christine got to talk and pray with Lynette and provide her comfort through sharing truth with her and we left the school this morning just still in shock at everything we had seen.
GOD MEANT IT WHEN HE SAID WE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO COMPREHEND EVEN IF HE TOLD US BECAUSE THE WORKS HE IS DOING ARE SO GREAT! It's amazing!!!!!
I just had to get to my computer as soon as I could because this ministry is just bringing me so much joy I have to share it! And I am so thankful that God made us wait for this moment because the reward is so much sweeter! We came here expecting these girls to want to open up and it turned out to be the opposite, but by GOD"S GRACE, He made us wait patiently and build trust in His plan so that when it reveals itself we receive so much more joy and He is so much more glorified.
God truly is blessing this ministry at Uhuru Academy and Jesus is on the move in the hearts of these girls! And our hearts! We are learning so much about faith from them its incredible! And we are still hoping to be able to get a car soon so we can expand this program into other girls' secondary schools! We are seeing the benefits of this type of life-on-life discipleship and the effect it can have in a culture where the idea is so foreign but God is so much greater than human ways. IT IS PROVEN! Please if you can help us expand this ministry that is changing the lives of these girls please donate to our car fund! I can't think of a better way to tithe your money in hopes of making a difference in someone else's life like our girls. It is clear God wants to use Uhuru Child for His purposes and we are praying that lack of funds would not stand in the way of that! Let the Great Commission continue to be carried out across this nation and into more girls's secondary schools because there are so many more girls we have the opportunity to reach if we could just get there! The link to donate is: http://www.youcaring.com/help-a-neighbor/Help-Christine-and-Jordan-buy-a-car-for-ministry-in-Kenya-/41234 and we are so appreciative of the all of the donations we have received so far! We are at 1500 dollars and only 2500 left to go!
We know that God is capable of way more than we could have ever imagined and we will continue to pray and trust that He will provide the funds needed to reach more of His daughters in this country.
"Delight yourselves in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." -Psalm 37:4
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