Kenya trip photos

The Compeans were gracious hosts and taught us much about ministry and Kenya.

Pastor John K’ungu, a former street boy, shares a bible study with the street boys of Githurai. Nairobi has more than 100,000 street boys, most who constantly breath glue or solvent to stay high and curb their hunger pains. JTS is a weekly ministry of Calvary Chapel Githurai that gives them a meal, a place to nap, play and wash up. John founded and leads the ministry. He is also working toward planting a church in a neighboring town.

A street boy naps just before the Jesus to the Street ministry begins Saturday.

Ed teaches Shephard School for men in the church who desire to plant churches. From left, Godfrey Thuranira, Stephen Njoroge, and Jackson Keringot.

Christy shared scripture on having a teacher’s heart with some of the Children’s Ministry workers the first Sunday we were there.

Best Indian food I’ve had, all veg and all good.

Izzy buckled to peer pressure. She wanted to be able to tell her friends back home that she tried Pan. I hope tasting something akin to toilet bowl cleaner provided a lesson about peer pressure.

The girls at the breakfast table at Ed and Kelli’s.

The shade tree at the church has beautiful flowers.

Izzy and Alaina and some of the neighborhood kids playing. Whenever we were at the church, the kids were playing.

Playtime was never ending at the church.

This little dude is all boy. Moses is on the go. He’s blessed with a great Dad who has a heart for the Lord. If Christy is allowed to have favorites…

Baba Moses (the father of Moses) teaches CBS at an Eastleigh school. He has a real gifting. The kids were into it. When the girls and I did it the following week, we were a bit more ‘challenged.’ I met Baba Moses two years ago. It was a real blessing to see the Lord working through him.

Izzy comforts a baby at an Estleigh school/orphanage before Chronological Bible Storytelling. The girls helped teach the story of Esther. The night we left, several improvised explosive devise detonated in the primarily Muslim neighborhood, killing six and injuring dozens. The school was not affected.

Kids respond to Chronological Bible Storytelling in an Estleigh school/orphanage. The night we left, several improvised explosive devise detonated in the primarily Muslim neighborhood, killing six and injuring dozens. The school was not affected.

Jackson, a young Massai man, is attending Shepherd School at Calvary Chapel Githurai. Sent from Calvary Chapel Lakeside in Kisumu, Kenya, he wants to return home to Tanzania and plant a church among his people.

Ed works with Jackson Keringot, a Shepherd’s School student, on sermon preparation.

Ed and Pastor Stephen Njoroge up on the roof of the school building that is under construction. We were checking out a large crowd on the road that had gathered after a motorcycle-taxi driver was struck and killed.

Christy and the girls sitting under a shade tree at the church.

Murigi, in purple, and men from the church, peel potatoes before the Sunday meal. It was a blessing to see the official transition service where Ed officially handed the reigns of the church to Pastor Murigi.

The last Sunday we were there, Ed delivered a transition sermon, where he officially handed the reigns of the church to a Kenyan pastor, Murigi Kariuki.

Alaina and I were digging the hippos during a boat ride on Lake Naivasha on our last day in Kenya. Christy and Izzy were quietly hyperventilating. This one seems to have a tractor beam on a pint-sized Italian snack.

I don’t even think she knows who Gilligan is. “Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip that started from this tropic port aboard this tiny ship.”

Heavy rains upstream have flooded large areas surrounding Lake Naivasha, killing large groves of Acacia trees. The birds don’t seem to mind.

Heavy rains upstream have flooded large areas surrounding Lake Naivasha, killing large groves of Acacia trees. The birds don’t seem to mind.

Checking out the animals on Crescent Island at Lake Naivasha.

Checking out the animals on Crescent Island at Lake Naivasha on our last day.

The End.

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Inadvisable jet-lagged post-Kenya post

Our week in Kenya is over. We’re sitting in the Schipol Airport in Amsterdam on our way back home to Oklahoma. Since I’m trying to stay awake to beat the jet lag when we get home (fat chance). I wanted to take a waking moment to thank everyone who supported this trip prayerfully and financially. God truly worked through you. Most of all I want to thank Ed and Kelli Compean for opening their home and their ministry to us, freely and graciously. It was a blessing getting to know them better.

We all learned much about Kenya – and ourselves. The girls were great travelers and they seemed completely unfazed, blending in as much as “m’zungu” can in Githurai (not at all). They learned a few new games I’m sure they’re ready to teach their friends. They helped to teach the story of Esther at a school and orphanage in Estliegh, a primarily Muslim neighborhood in Nairobi. Christy and I were blessed to meet and fellowship with the church in Githurai. We were there for the service where Murigi Kariuki officially became the pastor of Calvary Chapel Githurai, or as he said “foremost slave.” The church is training up leaders to raise up more leaders.

I know everyone is anxious to know if we are moving forward. I am too. Both Christy and I feel like it would be unwise to speak without much prayer and processing first. This is something she is much better at than I am. Please pray with us that as we digest this week, mentally and emotionally, that the Lord would continue to speak to our hearts that we may know His will for our steps.

Kenya bound

We are just over a week away from boarding our flight to Kenya and we would love to have you all praying for our travel and our time there. We’ll be in Kenya for 10 days with Ed and Kelli Compean who have helped us craft an itinerary that will give us a better idea of ministry opportunities, budget requirements and lifestyle options. The girls are very excited. Isabelle wants to meet as many little children as she can and Alaina has been lobbying for a pet camel or monkey. One request is more doable than the other.

Christy and I (and many of you) have been praying about this trip for more than a year and our main desire is to hear clearly from the Lord, that this is the place and this is the time and we are a family that He would use.

Please pray with us:

Praise – Compeans opening home and willingness to assist (protect them from our girls)

Praise – We get to see and visit with CC Githurai

Praise – Through you, the Lord provided for shots, passports, girls’ airline tickets

We desire to see Kenya with eyes of faith – please pray that if we see “giants in the land,” we would view them with the Lord’s eyes and hear the Lord’s voice.

Please pray for ministry vision that fits with spiritual gifting and the Lord’s will. There are exciting possibilities.

Please pray that if this is not the time and Kenya is not the place we would be willing to hear that (and courageous enough to admit it). Those of you who have been praying with us and for us know that would be difficult.

Please pray for strength and patience for the girls during the travel, although I’m surely underestimating them. When they were 5 and 3, we moved from California to Georgia in a 2001 Ford Focus packed with a month’s worth of living supplies – tough cookies. A 30 hour trip is probably child’s play.

Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Those resolutions? He’s got them ‘covered.’

Many of us look at New Years Day as a mile marker, or the first page in a new book. We say it’s a day to renew our purposes and make resolutions. It can be all of those things. But, so can every day. Mostly it’s artificial. Just another eddy in a river that will flow on whether we want it to or not (see Ecclesiastes).

Most of the time, it makes me think about… time. Things I’ve done or haven’t done. Misplaced priorities. Things I want to do more or less of in the time God has left for me.

“The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act into judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.” – Ecclesiastes 12:14.

That kind of crystalline perspective should probably lead to New Year’s resolutions. But for some reason I can’t do it. Not because I’m too punk rock or think that resolutions are knee-jerk or artificial or cliche or stale or misguided. They’re cool. I just don’t need one more thing at which to fail. I let myself down enough, and nothing good comes from me. But there is One who makes new people, new days and new years.

“And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” – Revelation 21:5-8

If you have not accepted Christ, that long list of very bad things (which, apart from Christ, each one of us are in some way) can disappear when you take them to the cross and turn your life over to Him. One year, one day, time itself will end and there will be judgment. We must know who we are ‘dealing with.’ But if we are Christians, we can also know and rest in the One who is dealing with us. He said. “It is finished.” His resolution is always for us to come to Him and we will no longer need to white-knuckle our way resolutely through life.

Renewing dedication and duty to the Lord is always a good thing for us, no matter when the need is realized and if we have believed into Him we can be “confident of this, that he who began a good work in (us) will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 1:6.