BWANA Yesu Kristo ni Jiwe Langu (Jesus is my rock)

Last night Nick (one of the teammates) and I were talking with Virginia and Cedric and learning Swahili from them, which I am hoping to pick up as much as possible while I am here. Virginia and Cedric are our chaperones while we are here and they are with us for most of the day and go around with us we walk to town or go anywhere. They are both students right now, Cedric goes to Kenyatta University, which is currently closed due to student riots several weeks ago. Don't worry Univ of Nairobi does not have the same problem. But anyways, they were teaching us Swahili as we were going through the Swahili Bible and this phrase came to mind and I thought it would be really great to translate. But over these past five days I have really learned that Christ is my Rock and my comfort and that in Him I need nothing else.

Last night we also had our first Navs large group meeting, which we were told was supposed to be around 15 students, there were 26!! It was help in a couple of the students dorm room, which is a little larger than an East Halls dorm room at Penn State. It was so overwhelming and exciting to see so many students pack into that little room. We played a couple ice breaker games and sang worship for a while. After that we broke up into our small groups, which I am leading with Brett, another member of the team, and we have 6 guys in the study. We had each planned to divide up the students and schedule 1 on 1 meetings with them, which we did last night. I am going to be meeting with Arnold, who is the student leader of Navs here and is on such fire for Christ, and the reason most of the other students have come to Navs. Arnold loves to play soccer and really wants to fly when he graduates! Arnold is also really excited about teaching me Swahili Sheng (Slang), soo excited! I am also meeting with Steve who is a 1st year student and we are not sure whether or not he is a Christian. I am also meeting with Arnold's friend Tony, who is not a Christian. Please pray for these two students that God would open up their hearts and allow me to show them the love of Christ. I have seen their interest and enthusiam in wanting to know more about the Bible and am excited to start meeting with them. I will be meeting with each student every week on Thursdays and Fridays. As a part of the small group we will also being learning and sharing the Bridge Illustration of Salvation with each other and then going around in the dorms and sharing it with students. Please pray for these opportunities as well.

This morning we walked over to the Nairobi Arboretum and prayed for a few hours. The Arboretum is this gigantic park that has many foreign trees and jungle throughout as well as dozens of monkeys that will come up to you and eat out of your hand. It was so beautiful and was an amazing opportunity to come as a soldier, drop my sword and armor, and come unburdoned before Christ. After the hustle and bustle of the last several days it was nice to be quiet and sit still in the presence of the Lord. Exodus 14:14 "The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent." God is showing me how much noise and interruptions I let into my life daily and how I can lay those down before him and just be silent. That I can let the frustrations and problems melt away and find rest in him. Being here has also showed how much I rely on comfort and being comfortable. Although I am in love with Kenya and its people, it is still uncomfortable to be in a different culture, as a minority, apart from anything I have ever been familiar with. Part of me sometimes wishes I could just go run and hide and not step out of my comfort zone. But Christ has shown me his promise that there is nothing I can do to be out of his favor or to be separated from his love, which is all the comfort I need.
I have really been praying for that understanding lately and he showed me it this morning through a couple verses. 2 Corinthians 1:20-22 "For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee."

This weekend we will get to chance to play soccer with all the students at the Haribu Futbol Club, which they are really excited about because they want to see the American's skills. Pray for us that we can develop skillz in the next few days, haha. After futbol we are going to Diann's house, who is volunteer staff and are going to sleep over. Kenyans are very family and friend oriented and really value spending time together, so it is a really big deal to have sleep overs together. They say they only call them sleep overs because you sleep when its over...so please pray for strength and energy to keep up with them all night long, haha.

The Kenyan food is amazing and I have been trying some really interesting stuff that even most Kenyans don't really like, but Naf(tali) eats them so I do to...I just had omena for lunch today which more or else is Kenyan sardines, they weren't too bad, kinda salty though.

I am so excited to be here and seem to be falling in love with this place and the people more and more everyday. Thank you all so much for your prayers and your support. I will write more soon.

Baadayes (Later)