in Kenya...

I am in Nirobe, Kenya right now. My visa expired in Tanzania...so that was a good excuse for a road-trip to Kenya so I can stay one more month in Tanzania. I am in a little bit of culture shock being here. In many ways, I feel like I am back in an American city. There are coffee shops (I had my first cup of coffe in 3 months two days ago...it was wonderful!), malls, book stores, lots of trafic, and almost everyone speaks English. Life here is very different from the life I have been living back in Moshi. I found myself yesterday just looking around the city and seeing all the business taking place and thinking, "this is such a wealthy city."

But that is far from the reality. One of the largest slums in the world is right in my backyard here in Nirobe...over one million people live in this slum. There are thousands of street children, orphans, and aids victums here...but, because of everything else I am looking at, it is easy to not think about it. Thinking about all of this made me realize how I can do this so easily in the spitirual realm. How often do I walk through life distracted by the initial impression of wealth and suceess, failing to see the pain and death right behind me? It is a choice humanity makes. We choose to ignore the pain and suffering and focus on what looks good and pretty.

Matthew 24 comes to mind, where Jesus tells his disciples to "Stay Awake"...because they wouldn't know the day or hour he was coming. I can almost hear the urgency in Jesus voice as he passionately compels the disciples not to waste time sleeping...there is a dying world out there that needs the truth.

Zanzibar

I can scratch something off my "to-do" list...last week I had the amazing blessing of sticking my feet in the Indian ocean. We took a trip to Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania. In case any of you didn't know...I absolutely love my life. This year has just been filled with so many blessings from God.

Zanzibar was incredible. The water was so blue, the beaches were beautiful, and the time of fellowship with everyone was wonderful. But my first day in Zanzibar really just broke my heart once again for the Muslim world. The island is 97 percent Muslim, 1 percent Hindu, and 2 percent Christian. In Stonetown (the place we stayed the first day) there are 2500 buildings, 45 of them are Mosques and only 2 of those buildings are churches...one Anglican, and one Catholic church. There are 1 million people on this island...that means that 980,000 of them believe that Allah is the way to salvation and who knows what sort of understanding the rest of the people have about relationship with God.

It just makes me sad to see with my eyes how many people have no idea that they cannot earn their way to heaven. They live under such oppression and hatred, not understanding the freedom and love that comes in surrendering your life to Christ.

We spent our first day in Stonetown going through different places that were involved in the slave trades. I stood in a place where human beings were beaten, auctioned, sold, and torn from their families. I cannot even imagine the sounds that must have come from that square and the complete terror and pain that was experienced by so many.

The saddest thing to me, was that these "colonialist" were from Europe and America...both "Christian" places. I heard a story about a woman who remembered looking from the top of a hill down at her village, seeing it burn before her eyes in flames, and her mother saying to her, "look at that white man with the cross around his neck...whenever you see him, run, because he will take you away from us."

I know that those "colonialist" really were not followers of Christ. It just shows me once again how many people go through the religious motions of Christianity without ever understanding and knowing the heartbeat of Christ.

Men and women who had full access to the gospel at their hands came and went from that island, leaving devastation behind them...and now all this time has gone by, and Zanzibar is still a Godless place. I am praying for the Lord to really move on that island and just captivate the people's hearts with his light and truth.

Mt. Kilimanjaro

I just spent the past week hiking to the top of Mt. Kili. It was one of the most amazing weeks of my life. Every day I had hours and hours to just look and wonder at God's incredible creation. I wish I could put into words how beautiful it was...

When I was in Phoenix, my pastor gave a message about sacrifice. One of the illustrations he gave was about climbing a mountain and he challenged everyone to, "live where it is hard to breath." He went on to explain how when you are at the top of that mountain, it can be so difficult to breath because of the altitude. Even though it can be so difficult to breath, that is the place that God wants to bring us, but it doesn't come without sacrifice. I had that analogy in mind the entire way up the mountain and the Lord really spoke to me throughout the week about climbing spiritual mountains.

I realized as I was hiking up that there have been many times in life when we use the word "valley" to describe where we are spiritually, when in reality...just because we are struggling, does not always mean we are in a valley at all. The last day that we went to the peak, each and every step became so difficult. It took us about 7 hours to go less then 3 miles, but because we were so high and had so little oxygen, we had to hike so slow. I realized while I was hiking that I always say I want to run this race that God has called me to with all that I have and in my head, running that race means constantly going at sprinting speed. For me, anything less then a sprint has always meant failure. But I realized yesterday that there will be many times in my life that I cannot run with a sprint...There will be times where I feel like I am going so slow, barely moving, unable to see any progress with my minds eye, but that very well may be because God is calling me to a new peak, a new place where he can reveal himself in an entirely new way and expose me to an entirely new place to share His love. There will be times where God will ask us to sacrifice our plans and dreams and just follow him up to the top and trust Him completely that He knows where and why He is leading us there.

There were times throughout the week that the peak...our destination was covered by storm clouds. I know that there are seasons of life where every step is so difficult, every step makes us loose our breath, and we look up to see the final destination, but it is just too cloudy to see...and some times, it is too cloudy to see even ten steps in front of you. But because God has revealed that peak to us long before the clouds ever came, we have to continue to step forward in faith. The storm clouds will eventually clear, maybe only momentarily, but they will clear long enough for you to see that peak again and know in your heart where He is bringing you.

The last few days of hiking, because of the elevation, we had no appetite or desire to drink water. In those same seasons that are so difficult and painful, sometimes we loose all appetite for spiritual things. It can become difficult to seek God, to pray, and to hear His voice...but in order to make it to that point, we could not wait until our bodies began to crave food and water, it would have been too late...we just had to drink and eat. The same thing goes for us spiritually. I know that in some of those places you may feel so distant and so far from where you once were in your relationship with God, but don't give up...continue to seek him, you are on your way to an incredible place.

At some point on the hike to the summit, the guide turned around and saw that I was falling behind. He just told me to stay with him, to just follow closely behind him and follow his steps completely. When I forced myself to focus on the steps the guide was taking and not on how exaughted I was--it imeadiately became so much easier. As I listened to him tell me that I just thought of 1 Peter 2:21, "to this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, that you should follow in His steps."

Okay...one more analogy. :) In the last few hours of hiking, it was practically impossible to speak. You literally had to plan out each and every word you were going to say. My friend that hiked it with me kept making a point to encourage me...little phrases every few minutes to let me know that I was doing good and that he was confident that I could make it. He made his hike so much more difficult and risked possibly not even making it just to encourage me and make my steps a little bit easier. That is so how the community of Christ should be and the type of friend I want to be. We were not meant to make that climb alone, God has placed people in our life to encourage and help us along the way. And there are people all around us that we need to be willing to risk everything and sacrifice our own comforts in order to help them make that next step.

I just wanted to share that with everyone. I know it doesn't really flow so well together, but thanks for taking the time to read it. I will post pictures soon!

some safari pictures

here are some pictures from our Safari. Unfortunately, I haven't had time yet to download my favorite pictures to the computer yet. But these are some good ones too... here is the lodge we stayed at...our rooms over looked the crator, it was breathtaking.


I love this picture...this camera isn't on zoom (i don't think it is anyway)...we were SO close we could have reached out and pet the lions. :)

Our team has been going into elementary schools and teaching bible lessons. The public schools here are very open to us coming and speaking to their students.
Louis with the kids...
"David" kills Goliath... :)

My Valentine's Day dates (its funny...V-day was a much bigger holiday here then in the States, so for all you cynics who thought Halmark invented it, it seems to be a world-wide day of love!))

here are some pictures... :)

Gaudenzia and Emmanuel...
Kelvin and Emmanuel E...
Noella and Enoch...
This is my team for most of the time that I am here. It has been such a blessing to have them here...we are having a great time together. :)

here is a picture from my backyard... :) The picture doesn't do it justice.