A "Good Friday" Indeed!

To celebrate Good Friday we got to experience a day in the life of an African woman. We three girls plus Jamie and Natasha treated the women that we disciple to lunch for an Easter celebration.

On the menu: Koko (chicken), ugali (maize flour), sukuma wiki (collard greens), rice, and sodas. We bought three chickens from Karen, a lady from Bible study and had a meal at the ladies home in the slums behind the church.  

We got the full African experience from picking out the chicken,

carrying it to the cooking sight,

                                                                     killing it,                                                         

 plucking out the feathers, 

cutting it up,

cooking it,



Evelyn showing me how to grill

 and finally eating it!

Traditional Kenyan dishes-ugali, chicken, rice, and sukuma wiki

It was a sweet day of fellowship and remembering what Christ did for us on the cross. Most of the day I just sat back talking with the ladies and observing them interact with each other. I enjoyed listening to them talk to each other in Swahili & their mother tongue, giving each other advice on the best way to cook the food, and laughing with each other.

 

Eunice, myself, Christina, Jane

 

Jamie, Milicent, Evelyn, and myself cooking lunch



After hours of cooking we gathered together to read the Easter story, eat together, and play with the children. 





Giving Mercy a head band like mine.



Painting toe nails!

It was a full day of enjoying the African culture. Of course killing your own lunch isn’t the norm in the American culture but it speaks volumes to the ladies that we Mzungus (Westerners) would be willing to get our hands dirty and live like them for a day.

The Big 3-0!!!

For my 21^st birthday I was in Las Vegas indulging in sin. I thought I was having the time of my life. I thought I was so lucky to be able to celebrate my 21^st in Vegas where I’m sure so many 21 yr olds dream of spending that milestone birthday. Today as I turned 30, another milestone birthday, I was in a hair salon in Kibera (one of the world’s largest slums) teaching the Bible to a group of hair dressers. Not exactly an ideal place to spend a 30^th birthday. But for me being in Africa is dream come true.

As I woke up this morning I laid in bed praying and thanking God for saving me and pouring out His love on me. I can’t believe I spent 27 yrs of my life in darkness deceived by the things of the world. I thanked Him for the great gift of being able to celebrate my 30^th birthday in my favorite place in the world…Africa. Since I have become a born again Christian my one desire has been to be a missionary in Africa. I marvel at the fact that before I was born God knew that I wouldn’t be spending my birthday in a bar with friends but that I would be in Africa sharing the Gospel with ladies who are stuck in sin like I once was.

A funny thing happened this morning. We were driving to the Bible study and traffic was exceptionally bad. My study was to start at 9:30 and we had a children’s ministry meeting starting at 11:15am that we could not be late for. I looked at the clock as we were sitting in traffic and the time read 10:15; I was told that we had to be leaving the salon at 11am. As I looked over my study I started to cut things out and thought maybe I should just share the Gospel.

When teaching in Africa you always have to figure in time for translation. If your teaching is to be an hour long you prepare your content for a ½ hr because with translation it will take up 1 hours worth of time. So for today it meant I had 15 minutes to teach including greeting the ladies and prayer requests at the end. I sat in the car and prayed, “God you know what these ladies need to hear from You today. You know what is going on in their lives, what they are struggling with. Fill my mouth with Your words and lead me into what You want them to hear, I am simply Your mouth piece.” I taught the main points of 1 John 3: 1-10 and then preached the Gospel.

 I felt the power of the Holy Spirit speaking through me. I felt passionate about what I was sharing and knew it was only the Lord. At the end as I was saying my goodbyes a lady stopped me and told me that she liked what I shared and felt that she was the only one in the salon and I was talking directly to her. I myself know that feeling very well; that feeling of conviction that only comes from the Holy Spirit. I asked her if she was born again. She said no. I asked her if she wanted to receive Christ right now and she said she wasn’t ready and wanted to think about it a little more. I told her that she should think about it and when she was truly ready she could just pray to receive Christ and God would hear her prayer and she will have salvation. She proceeded to tell me that she goes to church every Sunday but isn’t born again and said that while I was teaching that she kept thinking, “This girl knows me, she is talking directly to me, but I don’t know her how does she know what I’m feeling?” I told her that was God speaking to her and God knew what she needed to hear today. She asked me to keep her in prayer. The neat thing about this lady is that she isn’t one of the hair dressers that regularly attends the Bible study; she was a client that just happened to be having her hair done today. I left there on a high and with the confidence that this lady Rose will pray to receive Christ.



Kibera hair salon

We ended up being late to our meeting, but it didn’t matter because I knew that that moment was perfectly orchestrated by God. I knew that our being late was His doing. Had I had the full hour to teach, my study would have been totally different. I might not have taught with such passion or shared the Gospel. I might have relied more on myself and not on God. Rose might not have been impacted by my original teaching. God totally blessed me today and I saw how He worked everything out for good. I know that I shall remember this birthday forever because as I look back on my life and remember all the terrible things I was once involved in I see the power God’s redemption as He now uses me to proclaim the goodness of His son Jesus Christ. 

Myself & Mildred my translator



Please pray that Rose would take the step of faith to pray to receive Christ as her Lord and Savior.

Videos from Sudan

I wanted to share with you some videos taken in Sudan to give you somewhat of a feel of what it's like there. I hope they make your heart smile as much as they make me mine.

This is video of Sunday school on the compound. This is Lino & Joseph (Senior chaplains) leading the kids in worship at the start of Sunday school. I spent every Sunday getting to enjoy these kids sing their cute songs to the Lord.

This video was taken at an outreach in a village called Longo. We were at some Army barracks sharing the Gospel and the women were sharing their testimonies and a Bible teaching. As we arrived at the barracks we all started dancing & singing Sudanese style!

These videos were taken as we were riding in the back of the lorrie leaving the outreach in Longo. There were about 75-100 people piled in the back. It was one bumby ride but so much fun as we held on tight & sang songs the entire way.

This is video was taken at the compound during our International Women's Day event. We had more children show up than we expected so we had to keep them entertained for 6 hrs. I had this little one get up & lead the other kids in worship. This is my favorite Sudanese song. The translation from Arabic to English is "Who is our provider? Je-sus, Je-sus, Je-sus, Jesus the Messiah (Ye-su, Ye-su, Ye-su, Yesu al Masia). Who is our Healer? Jesus, Jesus the Messiah. Who is our comforter? Jesus, Jesus the Messiah