Teaching again...

When I moved to Karen and started working with Chris and Lindy, I did not have things to do everyday. I started to pray that God would open a door for me to start serving. After I prayed for this, I met a couple at church and it turned out that the man is the principal of a Christian school on Ngong road. After talking to him, it turned out that his 6th grade teacher was diagnosed with breast cancer and she needs to be treated in the US. He had been looking and praying for someone with teaching experience to come and take over until she is able to come back. I told him that I would pray about it and get back to him as soon as possible. I talked to Rich, Chris, and Lindy and we all thought that it would be great to do part time. When I spoke with the principal I told him that I would be willing to teach a couple days a week. Another lady at church said that she could teach the rest of the days. I started teaching last week and I really like it. It is so different teaching 6th grade. I am use to the small kids that you have to take more of the mother role. God is so great, He is always faithful! I am learning more and more to put my trust and faith in God and He will not disappoint me.

Ngong Hills

Ngong Hills is located in Ngong town. This is close to where Huruma Children's Home is. The hills are very beautiful and they make a great hike. On Wednesday Rich and I were able to go up there and hike up one of the big hills and then have a picnic lunch. It was really great to go out together and be able to appreciate what God has created. It was really windy up there but we still were able to enjoy ourselves. When you get up to the hills you can look to the right and the left. On the right it was very dry and flat, it looked a lot like Arizona. When you look to the left it is very green, with a lot of trees and smaller hills, which looked like Tennessee. Rich and I both commented on the contrast between the two places.

Rich...
Just to give you guys an idea of how high the elevation is, I am told that we are just over 6,000 ft. in elevation in the valley of Ngong/Karen. We had to go up at least another 1000 to 2000 ft. to the top of the hills, so we were looking at somewhere close to 8,000 ft. in elevation. Most of you know that I am a long distance runner and have done three marathons, but we were so high up that I was getting out of breath just walking! We were incredibly isolated up there and yet while we were up there, we saw two seperate runners running the hills. No wonder they smoke us Americans in our marathons in the U.S.!! I was doing good just to catch my breath walking and they're long-distance running up there!

Dinner Time..

Over the past week Rich and I were able to go out and have guests over to eat a few times. It has been a blessing for both Rich and I to be able to go and fellowship with other believers and to have other believers over for dinner. It talks a lot in the bible about sharing food with each other and to fellowship over food. We have really been able to experience this in just the first few weeks Rich has been here.

One evening Frank, Dottie, Chris, Lindy, Rich and I went out to the Rusty Nail. This was a special treat for us. The food and the company was wonderful. It was a pleasure to meet Frank and Dottie and to be able to spend time with them. They are an amazing couple who truly love the Lord.

From the left-Rich, Chris, Frank, Dottie, Lindy and Shauna

Another day Rich and I were able to join Keren for lunch at Fogo Gauchos. Keren was one of my roommates at Huruma. She is from Israel and has been working as a volunteer at Huruma for a couple months. Keren is Jewish and believes and follows the Jewish customs. It was really nice getting to know her and learning more about Judaism. It was, and still is, my prayer that God will continue to work on her heart and lead her into a relationship with our Saviour.

At Fogo Gauchos they bring you out all the meat you can eat. They have different types of meat to choose from. You can have beef, chicken, pork, fish, shrimp and you can even get crocodile. All the meat is really good. Rich's favorite was the pork. Keren and I really like the beef. Keren could not eat some of the meat according to the Jewish law. At Fogo Gaucho's they also have a salad bar where you can get different types of salads. They also have hot dishes, this time it was shrimp in a coconut sauce that was really delicious. At the end of the meal they bring the "house special" which is fresh pineapple that has Cinnamon and sugar on it and they grill it. It is so good you can't stop eating it.

Rich and I with our server Sammy getting some of the yummy pineapple.

We were also invited to go over to Kamal's house for dinner the other night. Kamal is a great man, whose has an incredible story of how he became a Christian. He and his family live close to the Livingstone Guest House. He has been working with Only Servants Ministry since they got here and he is a friend to all of us. He and his wife wanted us to come to dinner with Chris, Lindy, Frank and Dottie. We had a great Armenian dinner, which Kamal cooked himself. After dinner it was nice to sit around and talk, I was able to play with his kids, which was a lot of fun.

Even with all this going out to eat we still were at the house a lot eating and having people over for dinner. One very special night we were able to have Nathan and Candace Roberts with their kids and Candace's parents over for dinner. It was nice to see them and for Rich to meet more missionaries in Kenya. The Roberts are also from North Carolina and are serving here in Africa. Nathan works for Samaritans Purse.

Kawangware

Rich...

This is Kawangware, which is the other slum in Nairobi that we go to every week. We typically go here on Tuesdays and meet with three Kenyan pastors, whom Only Servants Ministry, serves in overseeing their school, bible college, and discipling new believers. We meet with them and then go out into the slums evangelizing. I sound like a broken record, but it is amazing how receptive the people are when we speak to them about the gospel. It was Frank's last day before they went back to North Carolina, so we actually went out in three different teams, i.e. Frank, Chris, and I along with three Kenyan pastors; and by the time we met back at the bible school, there were 72 people who prayed with us and gave their life to Christ. This is such an amazing experience to be able to partner with other people and God by imparting hope to the hopeless.

A Day in Kibera...

According to Rich...

Kibera is one of the two slums that our group goes to and evangelizes on a weekly basis. Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi with a reported one million people living in one square mile. The way the evangelism works is that one Kenyan pastor will accompany each one of us and the two, or sometimes three, of us will go out in groups and the Kenyan pastors will translate what we are saying into Swahili to those who cannot understand English. Over half the people I personally witnessed to today could understand English. I am not wanting to brag or promote ourselves, but just to give you an indication of how ripe the harvest is here, we went out for two and half hours evangelizing and between our three groups of Chris, Frank, and I there were 62 people today who prayed the prayer of salvation and gave their lives to Christ.

We don't just leave them after they have given their life to Christ, we provide them with a small book in Swahili that more fully outlines the decision they just made and their new life in Christ. There are a few questions for them to answer and if they return the book to one of the Kenyan pastors that live there in the slums, they can come to the "celebration service" we have once a month where they will receive a bible in Swahili and be invited to get involved in a church.

I have provided a couple of pictures that still only paint a small picture of Kibera. The one picture I have included of myself is with pastor Indiazi. He was involved with a church and bible college for a number of years in Singapore. He has also pastored a very large church for many years in Nairobi, and he now serves as president of Berith Bible College as well as still pastoring his own church. He is an amazing man of God and I admire him greatly.

A New Baby..

We have been working hard on the guest house. Frank, Dottie, Chris, Lindy, Rich and I are getting the house ready for the guests that are coming tomorrow. The guys painted while we girls cleaned, organized, and prepared the rooms. We all worked hard until the afternoon when Rich and I had to go to Huruma in order to give Issac his glasses that I had fixed for him. While we were gone the team continued to work really hard and they got a lot accomplished.

When Rich and I arrived at Huruma we talked with Keren and she told us that there is a new baby. He is called Baby Joesph and he is only 3 months. Joseph also has an older brother called Karaoke that is in baby class. The mother has some mental problems and she is unable to take care of her children. Mama Zipporah agreed to allow the children to come and live there and to go to school. Joseph is a very good and sweet baby. I was able to hold him for awhile and he didn't fuss at all. Rich and I were happy to see that he wasn't too thin. You could tell that he had been sick but seemed to be getting better. I told Rich that if I was still living there I would spend all my time with him. I fell in love with him instantly.
Rich had a great time with the kids at Huruma. He really enjoys going there and hanging out with the children. He played with some of the smaller boys and is looking at getting a soccer game started with the bigger boys. The kids love having Rich to play with. I think after the older boys get to know him, he will be a good role model for them.

Rich Says...

I wanted to just take one second to maybe give a little background information concerning what Huruma Children's Home is for those of you who don't know. Huruma Children's Home is an orphanage in Ngong run by Mama Zipporah who has been caring for orphans since 1995. This is a christian based home that provides the children with food, shelter, spiritual growth, as well as education. There are about 150 children who live at the home and about 200 that attend the school. You can learn more about Huruma by going to the website which is hchngong.org.

In the beginning...

Last Christmas God brought Rich and I together. We started dating with caution since I was getting ready to leave for a substantial period of time. As we spent more time together we really felt that our relationship was of God. We didn't understand God's timing, but since we both are Christians we put our trust and faith in God. We knew that the ultimate plan was bigger and better than anything we could come up with. I was worried about leaving and what that would mean to our relationship. Rich was willing to stick by me and try a long distance relationship.
While I was in Kenya, we talked on skype and over emails. It was hard to have a relationship and communicate with the resources that we had. We both spent a lot of time in prayer about how we should walk this out. We stayed close even though we were on the other side of the world. I believe that God gave us the grace to be able to stay connected to one another.
Now we are here together and experience the fruit of us working and believing in our relationship. I now know that God's plan was for us to be in Kenya together. I know that God's plan will unfold and we will know what the next steps are going to be. I truly believe that God's timing was perfect and we are in His will.

In October of 2007 I felt the calling to go into the mission field. I was currently teaching first grade but I felt that God had something else for me. I seeked Godly counsel and each person I talked to directed me towards the mission field. I made my final decision after a lot of prayer and advice to leave my home and come to Kenya in January of 2008. I took 7 months and prepared for my upcoming adventure. Finally, on July 4th 2008 I left for Kenya. I was so excited to come and God gave me a peace that what I was doing was the exact thing that He had planned for me. I got to Huruma and started working with the kids. After a few months God brought Keira, Taylor and I in contact with Chris and Lindy Thompson . After spending time with them I felt that God was calling me to stay longer and join their ministry, Only Servants Ministries. I am now working with them and having a great time. I am so thankful that God brought me here and brought such amazing people in my life.

Rich Says...

After having a radical encounter with the Lord in 2001 which resulted in me being given life from death, I knew God had set me a part in a specific way to give my life to him in ministry. Soon after this, I enrolled at Forerunner School of Ministry in Kansas City, as well as joined the International House of Prayer, which has been going 24/7 in worship and intercession since 1999. I served on staff in various functions, but mainly as a prayer leader for some of the worship teams while going to school. Through several circumstances, I left Kansas City after a couple of years to take care of other matters. Since then, I have taught and served, among other things, in various churches.
I always knew there was more that God had in store. After meeting Shauna and learning of her heart for missions and Africa, I was extremely happy for her, but didn't think for a moment that Africa was for me. After she arrived in Africa, I found my heart slowly being stirred with each email she sent telling me what all she was doing. Once she told me how she had met Chris and Lindy with Only Servants Ministries, and how they ran a guest house and did evangelism and discipleship in the slums of Nairobi, I knew that this was for me. Somewhere around the beginning of October, I finally decided to embrace what I believe God had been speaking to me over the last few months and made preparations to go to Africa. In just the week I have been here, I have already done alot including evangelism three times in two slums. It is amazing how ripe the fields are for harvest here! All three times we have gone out, there were over ten people praying for salvation and accepting Jesus as Lord. Oh "that He would see the labor of His soul and be satisfied." Is. 53:11