Napapenda Hapa (I Love it Here!)

Hi everyone!

So it is Friday afternoon and we are just heading into the weekend and boy what a weekend it will be! What a week it has been for that matter!

So something that God is really impressing on my heart this last week is my discipline and devotion to Him in prayer and the Word everyday. So I have made it a priority to get up very early to meet with Nick, and Scott (an American who is doing research here, and an awesome Christian) and we do devotions together and pray for the day and the ministry and our interactions with students. It is so refreshing and very encouraging. Every morning of the week is mainly spent at the YMCA reading and preparing for ministry for the day, which usually starts after lunch. I had been feeling a little stir crazy lately because we were spending so much time at the Y and not with the students. A couple mornings ago though the Lord brought up a story to me found in 2 Kings. Its the story of 4 lepers sitting outside of the gates of Samaria, which is being besieged by Syria, and there is a great famine in the city. The 4 lepers look at each other and say "why are we sitting here waiting to die, it is better for us to go to the camp of the Syrians and beg for our lives and maybe they will give us food, if not then we will die anyways." (paraphrase). So the lepers go to the camp of the Syrians and find out that they the LORD had caused them all to flee and the entire camp is there and filled with food and riches for all of Samaria. As I was sitting there reading this I saw a parallel with the students at UON and felt that God was calling me to go and spend my mornings at on campus and not at the Y. Not so much that there is risk of death or food, but just that I can't just sit around waiting for the students to act, I need to go and seek out opportunities outside of what we have scheduled and trust God to open up opportunities to share and love. So for the last two mornings I have gone on campus to read and prepare for the day and am hoping to strike up some conversations and friendships in the next few days. Please pray for opportunities for me to do this.

Last night I met with Arnold for the first time. Arnold is the student leader for Navs. We met for almost 3 hours!! It was so great and encouring! We just talked and shared our testimony and stories and talked about leadership and evangelism and shared verses. Arnold has such a strong heart for evangelism and is so gifted at sharing. I am exciting to continue to get to know him and go around campus with him.

This morning I met with Steve and Tony, two students that I didn't think were Christians, but after meeting with them I found out that they are both very young and very hungry Christians and excited to learn discipleship and how to walk with Christ. Tony was super excited and wanted to meet up everyday, haha! Which I think we might do till the 1st year students are down which is in two weeks. It was great to connect with them and share and start to build a relationship with each of them. I hope for many more opportunities to meet with them and want to teach them the bridge illustration of salvation so that we can go in the dorms and share with students.

It was awesome meeting with both of them, but after a long week of pouring into the team and the students I was a little drained so me and Naf spent most of the afternoon together walking around Nairobi and talking about manly things...Naf just got married a few months ago so he loves talking about relationships/girls/marriage, haha! It was so great to meet with him though and just get poured back into. We went to one of the city markets and checked out all sweet swag here in Kenya and haggle with all the shop keepers, who are kinda scary and will just grab you and shove items in your face and get you to buy them at very expensive prices. Its really fun and I am excited to go back!

Tonight we have the Journey which is a large campus worship service that is kind of for non-believers but lots of Navs students go to be a light and a witness and its supposed to be an awesome time. I am excited to hang out with the students again. Then tomorrow we have the futbol match and the sleep over, which is when Naf said we were going to get our Swahili names! Can't wait!

Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. Now that we have hit the ground running please pray for the strength and union of the team knowing that we are going to be tempted and face struggle. Please pray not that we won't struggle or be tempted, but that we can fall on Christ and love each other more and become more united.

More to come, Journey Time!

Lala Salama (Goodnight), even though its day there...its night here :)

Chris