Great Teams! -- Posted by Laura

Hi All! This blog-entry is from Laura... and it's a long one... sorry!

First off... I just have to share with you how dearly I love our Teams--our Team coming from America and our Team here in Kisumu. WOW! I am blessed by these two great Teams.
Okay… let me get right to it and share with you some of what’s been happening...

Mud Hut
Monday I met in a home (small mud hut, very small, with a short opening for a door). We went there with two men who smelled very strong like they had been drinking. They brought us to meet with three women, Elizabeth, Mary, Pamela and a guy named David. They didn’t know the Lord. They all seemed to be HIV positive, but all needed to be tested before CHI (Christ’s Hope International) can come along side them.

After we had talked with them about CHI, I went over to them and sat on the dirt floor at their feet. They were all sitting, lined up on a broken-down bed. I shared with them that God loves them and knows them… and that he has a plan for their life…. that the hurting place inside of them that they were trying to fill with alcohol, could be filled with something that would last forever: the Lord Jesus Christ.

The three women asked Jesus into their hearts. I stood up and did a little dance, shaking my skirt from side to side and told them that right now there was a party going on in heaven. (I don't know how culturally appropriate this was, but I couldn’t hold my joy inside!)

David had a harder time. He had accepted the Lord into his life ten years earlier but had fallen back into a life filled with sex and drinking. He said that the people in his life made it difficult to live with the Lord. I told him that God loves him and forgives him, and wants him to come home again. I told him I wanted to give him something very valuable to me. The most precious material thing to me in this world. I gave him my Bible and told him that I believed in him.

That Bible I gave David is, for sure, precious to me. Along with being God’s Word, it has all my notes from Africa from when I was here last year and those I’ve entered from this year. But, I wanted him to understand that even though this Bible was precious to me… it was important to me that he would use it to find his way back home to God…. and that God was waiting for him with open arms.

I believe this is true for all of us…. God is waiting… expectantly… patiently.

I shared John 3:16 with them: “For God so loved the world that he gave His only son. That who ever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.” … and Revelation 3:20: “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any one hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and dine with him and he with me.”

As you can imagine, it was a very rich morning, filled with blessing...

Morris' Home
We went from there to the home of another woman, also named Pamela. I remembered the home from last year… Morris was a young man (early 20’s) that we were ministering to who has since passed away from AIDS. Pamela is his sister. When we got there we could see that she was in a lot of pain, so much that we needed to get her more help than we could provide… we needed to get her to a hospital. Morris' mother was also there, and also in a great deal of pain.

We ended up having both of them laying down in the back of our van… both of them holding onto my arms and legs… crying out in excruciating pain.

On the way to the hospital we picked up a young man who had broken his elbow. He had a cast on his arm, but they didn’t “set it” before they put it in a cast. Now he has to have surgery. (Flashback: This is the same hospital that I struggled with so much last year because of their poor conditions and lack of care and compassion for the patients)... After a one hour, very bumpy, tear-filled van ride, we finally got everyone to the hospital.

We had two patients that we were caring for already at the hospital, Rosemary and Robert. Robert is a young man dying of AIDS. Rosemary is also very ill. (I believe Pamela (from our Team) wrote about them earlier today on our BLOG).

School
On Tuesday, Tanea (from our Team) and I went to a school to teach “Choose to Wait.” Choose to Wait is about biblically-based, sexual purity. We were told ahead of time that the kids were "tuff"… They were distant and not connecting at all with their regular teachers.

Tanea and I were asked to share about our lives and about our relationship with God. The students (ages 14-25 or so) were, at first, just like we’d been told: tuff and distant... But, our time with them ended very differently… love… hugs… kisses… holding hands… even tears.

I learned that most of these "tuff" girls had no mother, no father, and had been raising their siblings by themselves for many years. Some had been raped… others enduring unwanted pregnancies. One thing they all had in common was that they were all poor and have suffered deeply in some way and were now struggling in a way far more difficult than any of us could ever begin to understand.

Tanea and I had started sharing the story of our lives with them outside, but a heavy rain came that sent us inside under a tin roof. This only filled me with more joy and a greater passion to continue to connect with these young men and women. I was shouting as loudly as I could because the chicken/rooster was very busy in the back of the room making tons of noise.

This school…with its rocky, dirt floors… and rain pounding on the tin roof… was suddenly filled with faces… and it became an amazing place! Tanea and I shared the gospel and explained to them how to receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

We broke up into groups and I told the girls in my group how proud I was of each of them… how much I respect them for their courage and strength, not only to survive, but to care for their other siblings…. I told them that each one of them was deeply loved, valuable and known by God. Now… all the “tuff” walls had been broken down… culture, age, everything. And there was a connection made that I can’t explain any other way but… only God.

To see all those (40) “tuff” little faces turn so tender and soft was truly a “moment.” They just wanted to be loved… to feel safe… to be heard.

Thank You
I find myself again saying “Thank you, God.” Thank you that you are good! Thank you that you are faithful, not because of what you do or do not do for us, or because of our circumstances, but because you are God and you are good and you are faithful.

I realize that this is a long blog, but it’s so difficult for me to get to the computer this year. With ministry and leading a team I find myself struggling to get here. So, I will probably write less often this year, but longer. We’ll see how it goes.

As we were leaving the school yesterday, one of the girls came and told us that she had accepted Christ into her heart. We asked her “when?” She said, “today, as we were hearing the Word of God!
And, once again I did my "Happy Dance"... JOY!

Thank you to all of you who are praying for our team! Thank you to all of you who were so generous financially to make this trip a reality! Thanks to all of you! Know that your gifts of love, prayer, and support have touched the lives of many here, and it is only day 5!!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Much love, Laura :)