An Interns View

This past June we had 6 US College students live with us in Nairobi. They were joined by 7 Kenyan students that ACO has been working with on their campuses across the country. The group spent the mornings in training and the afternoons doing hands on ministry. God moved, students on campuses who encountered the team were changed for eternity,and each of the interns left a little of themselves in Kenya and a sliver of their hearts always wanting to return. The article below is from one of those US students recalling when she first shared her faith. My first time sharing the gospel in Kenya was quite the experience.. I have shared the gospel to students before with an illustration called The Bridge which focus’ on the verse Romans 6:23 but getting thrown into a 3rd world country sharing with a new nation is a little intimidating. Let’s just say I was a bottle of nerves with so many expectations yet at the same time not at all knowing what to expect. We were thrown in the middle of Kenyatta University and told just to find our own ministry to focus on because this was called Discovery Ministry. As my heart is literally about to beat out of my chest I get paired up with two of the Kenyan interns apart of the ACO internship which made me feel more comfortable and we were on our way. To be honest though I had no idea what was in store for these next two hours I just knew we were going to see like 45 students accept Christ… (I mean afterall I came all the way to Africa, right?) We walk up to our first guy who actually turns out to be a professor at the University. We tried to bring up spiritual conversation just to see how he would react or if he was interested at all but really the only thing he could focus on was that there was a white person who has a really weird accent and talks fast trying to speak to him. I would bet big money (not really) that he probably didn’t hear one word that we said. A few minutes later as frustration is starting to build we see another girl just sitting on a bench alone. “Yay, a girl” I thought! So I go up to her and start talking and explain why I’m in Kenya and that I am apart of African Christian Outreach and she is quick to say … “Oh….. so you are born again?” and so out of excitement I tell her that yes I am thinking awesome she’s interested maybe I can go into my testimony…. Wrong. Funny how God has his own plan that’s completely different when I try to interpret it on my own. Thankfully the Lord’s will is powerful and he is mighty and didn’t let little, over eager Cambry force something that wasn’t meant to happen. Humility is a huge thing I learned in my month interning with Tom and Kerry and the other interns. It’s a quality I really admire and the Lord showed me I was lacking ☺. At this point time was running out and it is now time to head back to meet the rest of the team. Honestly I was really bummed because I had all of these high hopes about awesome spiritual conversations that were going to occur and they were all just squished in a matter of minutes.. Thankfully I serve a God of compassion so with this frustration I was experiencing the Lord brought these 5 little children of the ages of 5-7 to come play with us. Our God never fails to amaze me and I never fail to underestimate his ability to have power over every single instance of life. Still feeling a little down in the dumps and a little irritated the Lord literally smacked me in the face with Philippians 4:6-7. “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything. By prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” So if you can imagine at this point I feel about the size of an ant. Not only has the Lord told me not to be anxious, he has commanded it. So by me being anxious I realized that I did not trust the Lord’s plan and that he has control yet I was trying to be the driver and wanting God to be in the passengers seat. How twisted is that? I’m trying to drive with absolutely no idea where I’m going. So with a little help from the big man I realized I needed to hand over the steering wheel because obviously without trust there is no faith and without faith there is nothing. So right then and there I gave the Lord complete control and I know now that I am nothing but a vessel and should be obedient.. Also I kept thinking I need to share with these students because I want them to know Jesus and I want to do this and I want to do that… Again, how silly. Nothing I say is going to change someone; nothing I say will cause someone to accept Christ. Only by the power of the gospel and the Lord speaking through me and being obedient can someone see the gospel! Yay! After God teaching me a much needed lesson and learning some incredible wisdom from Tom and Kerry daily I ended up getting to share with two different girls who ultimately made the decision to accept Jesus as their savior. Not to mention my team saw 5 girls total accept Christ just the short month we were there. 5 Kenyan students who get to spend eternity with God because of the gospel. Now if that’s not the epitome of joy I don’t know what is. It’s hard to express in one post what I learned in Kenya and from ACO but it was nothing short of incredible. Kenya is a beautiful country with even more beautiful people who are just hungry for truth but it’s no exaggeration to say the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. I will be back to Kenya hopefully sooner rather than later and I can’t express how blessed I have been to get the opportunity to go and realize that’s where my heart belongs! Happy happy joy joy! I can honestly say I have never learned more about myself, my faith and the characteristics of God than I have in the 4 weeks I was in Kenya with ACO. Being on this internship pushed me, challenged me, and even made me cry (tears of joy, of course) but it was nothing short of incredible. Blessed beyond belief is an understatement.

I was driving back from Nakuru with a staff member of mine. At that point it hadn't rained for several months in Kenya and the rift valley floor was dry and dusty. When the rains cease it pushes the animals closer to the highway to graze, so we saw impala, gazelle, and zebras along the road side. It always amazes me how two different worlds can collide so easily in Africa. I guess it should be the same when I'm driving up I-30 through Arkansas in the early evening and see deer on the side of the road, but for some reason its different in Kenya. As we drove south back to Nairobi we talked about raising children, marriage, dating, the original sin of Adam and Eve, frustration with God, and other faith topics. I love getting time alone with our staff in moments like these. It reminds me the people that God has placed around us that are so deep in their faith. It makes me thank HIM for how he continues to bless ACO and reminds me that the bar might be set a little low sometimes. Maybe we need to trust Him with some bigger things in Kenya and East Africa. One thing stood out from the conversation that just floored me when I heard it and made me think....Are we thinking GOD sized? I was sharing about a couple Kerry and I had been helping wade through some issues and I gave him my uneducated concultion that all relationships hinge on communication. In fact 99% of all issues in marriages, dating relationships, shoot relationships of all kinds break because people won’t communicate. What followed my babble was one of the most thought provoking statements that I’ve ever heard on relationships, mind you from a guy that’s never been married and is not currently dating (or at least isn't owning up to it). “You started by being irresponsible and now you’re responsible”, he said. When you began dating your now wife/husband or soon to be whatever, you laid all responsibility to the side. Think about it, you blew money you didn’t have or time you should have been spending doing something else to be with that person. You might of stayed up all night on the phone because you didn’t want to say goodbye, talking about the silliest things, the following day suffering in misery from lack of sleep. You threw caution to the wind when it came to doing everything in your power to spend every second with the person you were in-love with. You were just plain irresponsible. Now that you’ve landed the love of you life, what do you do? All the sudden you’ve turned into a logical thinking adult. Sleep now proceeds the need for small talk before you go to sleep. Your finances and time now follow a structured plan that you’re sticking to as a couple. Seeing your mate is a priority mixed in with all the other priotities of your now complicated life. When he wasn’t yours, when you couldn’t get her off your mind you’d drop anything to spend a second or just a minute with them. But now, you are responsible. Its the very nature of the world around you that says you're in a very mature relationship based on a deep love that can only be described as BORING! Are our lives in Christ the same? I'm wondering if playing it the same and being responsible is God's way or resembles anything todo with the word Faith. Isn't Faith, believing in something that isn't seen, isn't heard, isn't really known? My old friend used to say, "faith isn't faith until its all you're holding onto". Am I a RESPONSIBLE CHRISTIAN? Yikes, thats not exciting, that's not life changing. Peter. Was Peter responsible? Saul, sorry Paul. Was he responsible? Jesus. Was Jesus responsible? I'm really asking, I really do need your input here. Were the those mentioned in Hebrews 11 irresponsible and thus men of Faith? I think I want to be an irresponsible Follower of Christ. I think I want to throw caution to the wind, step out of the boat and try and walk on water, feed 5,000 with a package of crackers and cheese whiz. Irreverent....NO. Irresponsible.....????

This Island Is Shrinking

Yesterday as I was driving Sydney and Raegan to school it was raining. It had been raining for a few days and some of the roads were flooding. Raegan (7 yrs. old), who is always thinking, said “Dad, I thought God promised not to flood the earth again? You know the rainbow tells us so.” I responded by telling him that God promised not to destroy the whole earth by flood again, but it still happens in places where there is too much rain or a bad storm. His response was priceless, “Well, he’s shrinking the Island today!”
I guess the United States is just a really big island. Raegan’s comments always make us laugh, but along with him funny statements he has a lot of deep thoughts that keep me thinking long after he’s moved on. I’ve been chewing on what he decided to give up for Lent. Kerry and I never really knew about the Lent season until we moved to Coppell, Texas. Our church, along with some dear Catholic friends, introduced us to the forty day time period leading up to Easter. Since then we’ve tried to practice the art of giving up to remember. This year we decided to tell the kids about it and ask if they wanted to participate. When we told them what Mom and Dad were setting aside for the 40 days, Raegan jumped in with no Star Wars on TV. Now if you’ve been around the kid lately, you know that he lives, breaths, plays and watches Star Wars more than he eats. In fact giving up food would rival his sacrifice of no Yoda, Anikan Skywalker and The Force. Seconds after his proclamation he jumped down from the counter and headed off to ride his bike around the neighborhood looking for his friends. Just like that, he made a decision to walk away from his ever present Star Wars world and continue on with life. Needless to say my motivation to stick to my commitment is a little stronger because of him.
Simple Faith really de-clutters our walk with Christ. My children continually remind me in their approach to a life with Christ that I really do complicate a simple response. My response to Him should take seconds, not days, months, years or a lifetime. I should be willing to give up the most important things, jump of the seat and head out into the world to find my friends. But that “something” keeps me stuck in my response. I can explain those “somethings” away with greater and deeper adult issues and a deeper, richer, more dominoes will fall with this decision excuses. But in the end they are excuses. I can’t find in scripture where it tells me to have a childlike faith, in fact during my searching, acting like a child is whole lot more negative when scripture describes it; but Jesus teachings weren’t complicated. Matthew 4:19 starts, “Come, follow me”; 28:19 says pretty simply, “Therefore go”. In Mark chapter 1, the next page over in my Bible, he is driving out an evil spirit and tells it, “Be quiet!”(25) As I spend time in the red letter portions of scripture, things are pretty simple.
Pray with me that our lives in Christ are simple steps of obedience, as simple as walking away from whatever it is and going onto the next adventure in life. And pray that this shirking island thing takes awhile to get to Arkansas.

A canopy of Stars

When Kerry and I first moved to Kenya we couldn't understand why the stars weren't visible at night from our porch in Nakuru. We thought being in "Africa Dark" (its not like US Dark believe me) would bring out a canopy of lights we'd never seen before. What memorized us even more was when we picked up and moved to a city of 6 million people that the stars then came out in force.
Last night I was playing washers with a couple of friends here in Nairobi and the stars were out in force. Orion's Belt was so clear I felt like I could reach up and touch it. I almost got hit in the head a few times as I lost track of the game because my eyes were focused on what was above me.
It made me realize.... God knows the desires of my heart, but I think sometimes I have to get into His plan for me to realize some of desires. Stars is tiny thing, a silly thing really. I think Kerry and I both could of gone without seeing the stars, but isn't our God big enough to give us the silliest of things? I don't think this falls into the health and wealth gospel that is preached around the world. I think its that I've realized that God has a plan for my life and when I'm in it He reminds me in the subtlest of ways. I know that most of you could tell me why I couldn't see stars in Nakuru and why they were visible in Nairobi. There's a good scientific/geographical explanation. Its still God; he created that explanation when he formed the earth.
Have you ever really seen God give you, grant you, confirm you in the smallest of ways? I pray you have or you begin to look a little harder. Don't we all just want to be in His will, walking in His plan for our lives?
Here's a can of worms that I'd not want to open in the discussion of how God speaks to us or not. Some might say He'd just tell you, instead of show you. Or the stars are just your way of comforting yourself in a makeshift gospel that you've created. That "someone" who's worried about deep theology can go on about explaining faith and I commend you. You know me (or if you don't), I stick to Jesus died on the cross, He's the only way to eternal life, TOSHA (swahilli=enough). Everything after that is a discussion that we will all be right and wrong on when we get to heaven. Allow me to have a simple faith please, I promise I will allow you to continue to dig and explain.
My hope is that you've seen little signs that you're in the right place in your relationship/mission with our Savior.
What I'm excited about is that when I get home to Little Rock in a few days and walk out into my back yard a canopy of Stars will stretch from horizon to horizon....
As my father used to say, "trust God and do the next thing".... a canopy of stars might be waiting for you.

Flying for the first time & missing Daddy

When I promised myself I'd write more often, I forgot that 4 weeks in Kenya with spotty world wide web service was before me. I have however manage to post in the same month.
Kenya is hot right now, I mean hot hot. Much like Kerry describes Arkansas. I told her this morning (her night) that a cold front would probably hit about the time I landed since I hate cold weather.
This trip has been great though. The first week here Vic Small (Victor Otieno, National Director) and I took a trip down to the coast. It didn't hit me until the day we were leaving that this would be Vic's first real airplane ride. Later in the day a friend in Mombasa explained it well, "its so fast, you feel like you don't get your monies worth." If I had to pick a first plane ride it might be this one. 45 mins. and Mount Kilimanjaro out the window for 20 mins. of the flight. We were able to visit the 2 campuses on the coast that God laid our hearts to begin ministry on. BOTH ACCEPTED US WITH OPEN ARMS!! We're praying that we will be able to have permanent staff in place by May.
This past weekend all of our staff made it to Nairobi for our staff retreat. A great weekend of planning, praying & playing together. ACO has a great 2012 planned and with God's blessings we pray that we will be able to disciple young men and women across Kenya! More Later.... when internet allows.

New Year = New Things

Kerry and I decided a few years ago that we wouldn't make new years resolutions, I guess its the "rebel" in us. Maybe its that my resolutions didn't take after the first 15 days of that year. Anyways, now we try to make changes with some accountability. I know, same song different verse. So over the past month I've been really trying to pay attention to life and see where I can correct some habits that have taken hold in my own life, or my husbanding, or my parenting, or my ministering. The first.... blog more. I have a good friend that should of been a writer or a publisher, heck he reads in a morning than I do all year and always has great streaming thoughts. Anyways, he always encourages me to write, so I'm going to write more on this here blog.
Second, I'd like to memorize scripture with my kids each week. A family verse that we can work on together. RaeRae helped me realize this as we drove down the Interstate heading to Texas a few weeks ago listening to his AWANA CD.
Third, I want Kindness to flow from me. In my quite time I'm reading a great book that another wise man gave me. In it the writer says that "as grace is absorbed in my life, kindness begins to flow naturally and freely."
Fourth, you guessed it, show more grace.
Lastly, realize that God is in control of everything, good and bad. We have some lofty goals for 2012 as a ministry, advances into places that are scary and honestly not the safest of places to be. I've felt God leading us in these directions and yet I still have a fear of them. Funny, He leads yet I still wonder, I really give missionaries a bad name.
So I'm a day into 2012 and its started off pretty well. I've got our verse picked out, I felt like I responded well so far with grace and kindness, and I'm blogging. God in control? So far today, an early morning text informed me that a former student of mine is battling for her life after a car accident. I learning this morning as I sat down to work that a ferry and a ship collided overnight on the coast of Kenya and my first thought was, "oh, no. We have a team of students on the coast doing a mission trip." Just a few minutes ago the airline called and told me that undercharged me on my ticket later this month and need to tack on a few hundred dollars. God is in control of everything????
Yes he actually is Tom. He reminded me that life on earth is precious and not to be wasted, our students are home from the coast, and a church picked up the cost on the ticket change.

New Life

Tonight we got a phone call from one of our campuses where Freshman have just arrived. A group of our upper classmen and staff have gathered to spend the week together, using the mornings to study and grow in their faith and the afternoon and evenings to knock on doors and share the gospel with the freshman. When I answered a giddy staff member with everyone else gathered around him told me that 5 had accepted Christ during the evening. With laughing and shouting in the background from the our crew we couldn’t talk for long before I just yelled, “AWESOME” into the phone and we hung up. Tomorrow and the rest of the week and weekend our group will go back out, knocking and sharing the good news with everyone that will listen. Keep them in your prayers