A People Who Prayed For Peace

Well, as most of you would have heard, Kenya recently just had it's first presidential election since the horrors that took place in this country in 2007 over the last election. And much to the international media's disappointment, they had nothing to report on but peace.

Peace doesn't sell papers. You don't get high ratings from stories of peace. But the church in this nation prayed, diligently, for over a year in preparation for the 2013 election and God heard their prayers. And he answered with a resounding, "Amen." And so it was... and so it is.

For the first time in the history of this country's independence, the only thing the people wanted more than a winner was for their neighborhoods and relationships to lack any kind of tension.

God fought for us and with us in this cause and He has transformed this country's story from a fiery, murderous blemish to a promise of hope and unity among Kenyans. They also have a new constitution and had their first ever presidential debates this year. God did all that in less than 5 years.

The day after the winner was chosen, the celebration was not for the prospective new President*, but it was a celebration of what God has done. There are no riots, no looters, no machete wielding idlers, no hate speech, no posters... nothing but peace.

I joined in that celebration and I'm not surprised in the least that there is peace. God is really working on this nation. I can see the future here and it is a bright one.

(Nairobi Chapel - The morning after the votes were tallied)

*The announced winner of the election has not yet taken his place as President. There were some abnormalities in the tallying process that are being challenged in court. Until there is a verdict, President Kibaki remains in power.

Stand Firm and Let God Fight

I had an unpleasant encounter with a neighbor a few days ago.
After a day long meeting and an hour in traffic, I enter the gate to my street and out of the darkness, a man I've never met, says harshly, "Where's the 500 you owe for security?"
My response should have had much more patience but it didn't. The short 'conversation' ended with, "This gate is illegal, I should call city council!" He yelled as I stormed off, "If you don't pay, you don't pass through the gate. There! I've told the guards, you can't pass here now."

If He Said It...

It was a Wednesday night and watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was a bad idea because I was already feeling a bit emotional.

I was trying to get my mind off of this huge mountain in front of me but just looking away doesn't make anything disappear. Two hours of avoidance had gone by and I knew I had to face it. There was a deadline in my near future and there was absolutely nothing that I could do to meet it.

I needed to hear from God so I approached Him in the laziest way I could: I opened up a Bible Study that I had been doing with a group of ladies, ironically titled, "He speaks to me." I re-read sentence after sentence and it was only after two pages of not really reading that I finally gave up and timidly opened my mouth.

It wasn't long before I became a puffy-faced mess on my bedroom floor.

I realized there were things I hadn't talked to God about, simply because I didn't want to say them out loud. and then I got to the heart of it: "I can't do this God. I have no resources, no money, There's nothing I can do to make this happen. You HAVE to do this."

Expired Follow Up

In my last post I mentioned that things were getting a little down to the wire in terms of immigration and my forced departure date.

Well, I spent 4 hours at immigration on Friday and walked out of a very strange morning with a one month extension on my tourist visa and a free lunch!

I can't really explain it any other way than God does interesting things just for the fun of it I'm sure.
Who asked for lunch? not me. But it was delicious.

So now I have 30 more days for my resident missionary permit to come through.
And the thing I'm most thankful about is not having to leave this coming Saturday because it was really bad timing.

I will keep checking weekly on my permit. Please pray with me that it comes through accepted, otherwise, pray for travel money. Either way, God's plans are strange, fun and always better than mine. So here we go... one more month.

I Only Asked For Bread

...and somehow ended up with a bakery.

In my last post I mentioned that one of my weaknesses is trusting that I am worthy of all of God's goodness through answered prayer. To re-cap, it says in Matthew 5:9-11, "You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him."

My lack of trust has nothing to do with God answering my prayers or not, cause the more I look at my history of relationship with Him, it's clear to see that I am insane for believing this lie. One thing that is for sure though is that my previous lack of vulnerability in bringing things to Him limited my ability to see clearly all the answers to the prayers that I dared not utter. It's a little sad to think of all the time that I wasted, never realizing that I was compartmentalizing my relationship with God when all He wants is to spend time with us; for us to know Him.

So I've been praying about everything.

For three months I prayed about moving. The only answer that I got from God was, "Wait."

The School Boy

My New Apartment

If anyone would like to throw me a housewarming, I would gladly accept.

Here's what happened...

Reagan, Michelle and I headed into Jamhuri late Friday afternoon. Reagan had called me about this place an agent wanted to show me, but true to all agents, he wanted money for me to look at it. I decided against it, and instead, we headed over to our old apartment, and our favourite duka (shop). We parked in our same old spot. On top of the burnt trash pile and next to the random brick.

Excuse Me, That's Not Your Bag

That's what I would have said, had I seen the person leaving the airport with my luggage.

I landed in Nairobi Last night at 8:30pm (EAT) and proceeded through customs to baggage claim. 2 of my bags were on the belt right away so I hobbled over as quickly as I could, with a giant ankle, and grabbed them. I then stood there for 20 minutes eyeballing the belt and checking the bags that were on the floor (I still don't know why the Jomo Kenyatta airport staff will take random bags off of the belt).

It wasn't there. So I went to the baggage help desk and they informed me that the bag had been on the plane but naturally their scanners weren't working that day so they hadn't scanned any bags that had arrived. So we knew it was on the plane. I filed the report and they said they would contact me if it showed up.

Thankfully, that same night someone had returned it.

They took it by accident thinking that it was theirs... which is surprising considering it had an Air Canada tag on it with my name and address.

And then I got to thinking... they don't check bags on the way out of the airport. People could just grab like 5 bags and take off.

I'm not trying to give you any ideas but it would have been a good thing for me to clearly mark my bag. I normally do but I got lazy.

And even better... If I had neon green bags, no one would get away.

So long story short.. I have all my luggage now.

The flights were as good as two 7+ hour flights could be without being in first class.

And this week hopefully I'll have a plan regarding house hunting.

Thanks for all the prayers for my travels.

We Did It!

Just a short update to tell you that FINALLY, my monthly support goal has been met.

I've written before about part of the reason that it took so long 

(you can read about that here "You're Not Going Anywhere With That Attitude")

but it's an amazing feeling to know that,

1. God really does have a job for me in Kenya because He's arranged my way

2. I don't have to look like a wandering fool anymore, just a regular fool

3. My patience, the little that I had, is being rewarded with so many answers to long prayed prayers.

My departure date is SOON... very soon.

The date is in my head and I think I will purchase my plane ticket tomorrow.

When I have that ticket, then I will tell you the date.

Thank you a billion times, those that have been praying, giving, encouraging and all that good stuff.

And for those that weren't so sure I was right in the head... it's alright, I forgive you cause,

I'M GOING TO NAIROBI

"You're Not Going Anywhere With That Attitude!"

"Fine then, I'll just sit here and mope for a year about life and about how you won't let me go."

I don't think it's a coincidence that now that my heart is back in one piece that my financial goals are almost met when they were sitting stagnant for so long.

And this is where I leave my dirty laundry all over the floor for you to have a look at.

Like Car Accidents and Taco Bell

Has your life ever spontaneously 'derailed' (I use that word in the most dramatic way possible) from the direction it was headed and taken you somewhere else against your will?

Regardless of your plans somehow you ended up in a ditch and once you get your caboose back on the track in this new direction you look back to realize that you are so thankful you got slammed off the track in the first place?

Yeah, me neither.

It will be a Happy New Year

Yes, it's been a while.
No, I don't have a good excuse.

I have excuses but they aren't amazing and they aren't really important anyways.
What IS important is what this post is about.

I'm delaying my departure 3 months.
Here's why.

My primary prayer for a long time has been about timing.
When will I return to Kenya? How long will I be at home?
What do I have time to accomplish while I am here?

It's been a year since I returned to Canada and a lot has happened that I was not prepared for.
Hard things, challenging things, turn me upside down things.
And I know without a doubt that during this time I was meant to be home, surrounded by friends and family who know me, and who supported me through the worst of it.

It's also been a time to focus on my identity. I know who I am but I think there was a brief period of questioning that. And one of the most important things in life is to know who you are and be confident in your identity. To know your strengths and your weaknesses well. In my case, that meant truly focusing on Christ's role in my life and how His presence is/should be in the forefront of everything I do.

That's just the past year. It didn't really answer my, "When am I going back?" question.

My initial goal was October.
I was planning to get back in time to apartment hunt with my former room mate who was also going to be settling in Nairobi in October.
Not long ago we talked and that plan has changed. We won't be living together and so apartment hunting together won't be necessary.

I then thought November would be a good return.
Simply because a fundraiser that I am having in November is hopefully going to raise the money I need for a plane ticket.

Well, those were my plans. And simply because I wanted to put a goal on paper when I started to seek out supporters. But last week My prayer of timing was answered.

I've been offered a job from early November to December 24.
Since being laid off this summer, I have had a few contract jobs that have kept me afloat but nothing full time.
Applications returned nothing and while I still sought out employment, the flexibility of time around my contract work really gave me the ability to accomplish things that would have been very difficult had I been in a 9-5 job. I wouldn't choose losing my job again, but I'm thankful for the time that has been made available.

The job I've been offered will only delay my return to Kenya by 3 months, and though I would love to be back in Nairobi even today, I know that there is a reason I'm not there right now. Maybe even a few reasons.
So January is my new departure. With this job, I will be able to put a lot more money into my ministry there and it will also allow me to spend one more Christmas with family before I head out for at least another 3 years.

This really is an answer to prayer.
Not an answer I could have ever called, but a great and comforting answer, none-the-less.