July 16

Today was our first day going to Massai Corner.  Massai Corner is REAL 4 Christ's new project.  At Mbewau they have 2 acres, at Massai they have 5!  Massai is on the South Coast of Kenya, so it is a coastal region.  It is beautiful area!  Very lush, and from some views you can see the ocean.  As we drove up we saw the Pastor's house, a mud hut, and a canopy covered seating area.  The Pastor's house was a recent edition.  Pastor Eric came highly recommended to the Moore's and for good reason!  He is well educated, an amazing speaker, and the thing I remember the most, he has an amazingly friendly smile!  He loves the Lord and it shows!

The mud hut is "Momma's".  She is the elderly woman who owned the land and sold it to REAL 4 Christ ministries.  Part of the deal they made with her is that she gets to continue to live on the land in her house until she goes on to be with her Heavenly Father, and at that point the house would become their's as well.  She is the sweetest little lady!  All smiles and "JAMBO! JAMBO!!" (HELLO! HELLO!! In Swahili).  

They have started to build a well.  We went to look at it, they had only dug 30ft, but it looks so deep!!  Chris said they do about 30, then put bricks around and wall it, and then do another 30, this well will be 140 ft deep!! Only two guys do it, with a bucket and shovels!  Amazing!  Chris said the men told him when they are working in it it literally feels like Hell!  I cannot imagine such hard labor!  But so incredibly excited that the well is being built for the community! Oh and its hard to tell by this picture, but a chicken had fallen in! They had to lower a guy in to get it out, it was funny:)

The canopy and seating is where they have church.  I'll talk more about that in my next post.

Today we walked the trails.  I was in a group with Pastor Eric, James & Agnes (members of the church), Stephanie, and Tyler.  

The first house we came to the man told us from the beginning, "I don't want to hear what you have to say, I am muslim" He was very very nice, he was just kindly declining.  I decided to just have a simple conversation with him about his family and life, sometimes its the little things that show Christ, and I wanted to make sure I did my job in sharing Christ, whether through the gospel or my actions.  He told me he actually lived in Mombasa, and this was his mother's house and land.  His mother was at a private hospital in Mombasa because she had malaria.  I told him I was very sorry to hear that but that I would pray for her.  I continued to tell him who we were and what we were doing.  Pastor Eric also spoke to him, but in Swahili so I am not sure of everything he said.  The man spoke very good english though, so towards the end of the conversation I told him "I know you are muslim but we would love to see you tomorrow, we are having church, but we are also have clinic and lunch, so please come join us if you would like to!"

At that point we told him thank you for his time and kept on walking the trail.

The next few places we stopped we met some awesome people.  For the most part they were already saved, but were attending churches very far away and were unable to always make it because of the distance, and were very pleased to hear about a church so close by!  It was so exciting and encouraging to see people like that, especially when I have heard so many times, "what about the people who live in Africa away from the main areas, how can they hear about Christ and why should they be condemned if they don't know"  This journey was proof to me that the Lord makes His name known, even to those we suppose don't hear, they do, some haven't yet but so many we met knew His name, the problem most faced was having a place to fellowship and worship with community!  

Then we arrived at Alfred's house.  We went in and began speaking to him, I asked him if he knew Christ.  He said he knew who He was.  His english wasn't really good, but good enough that we could somewhat communicate without a translator.  I asked what he had heard about Jesus.  He told me he was raised in a Christian home, his parent taught him who Christ was, but he had to many temptations to live the life of a Christian.  Well if anyone knows me, this is my area of expertise!!! My life is living testimony of hearing Christ, even knowing who He is and saying "I'm just not ready yet, I really want to do my own thing" and then time and time again falling flat on my face!

Pastor Eric spoke to him for a minute, and then I said "Pastor, would you mind if I give my testimony?"

The Lord in this moment overcame me and I poured my heart out to this man.  His expressions were what kept me going, you could see in his mind he was thinking…"Could this mzungu (white person) be saying what I think she is?  Could she have gone thru all that?  Could this be the same person she is talking about?"

When I got done telling my story and how Christ has worked in my life and completely changed me from who I used to be to who I am now, I told him, if you want to change you can!  Then he told us YES! That he wanted to change!  I was so excited to see the Lord working in this man's life!  Then James told him his testimony, in Swahili so I didn't understand, but the way he was going, I could tell it was powerful!  Please keep Alfred and his family in your prayers, I know and some of you may know as well, how hard it can be to turn your life over to Christ.  To change your habits, sometimes even friends so that you won't make the same mistakes again.  Pray also that he finds friends like James, accountability partners to see how he is doing and to help him make good choices.  That last part is what has made the biggest difference in my walk.  I am NOT always perfect, but I know I have friends who aren't perfect either, but who want to be like Christ as much as I do, and so we lift each other up and help keep each other accountable in all areas of life!  

We went to a few more houses and met a few more really awesome people!  Then we headed back to the road so we could be picked up by the bus.  

Once we returned half of us helped paint Pastor Eric's house and the other half got to play play play with the kiddos!! It was so fun!! We taught the kids the chicken dance, we jump roped with them and through a football around with them.  BTW they are really confused as to why we called it football, trying to explain it I got a lot of weird looks!  Lol!  They don't understand why we call soccer, soccer and not football, and when I was explaining that ball was America Football, they said how does that work? They still thought we kicked it around like a soccer ball, then I said no we they throw it, and they said "Hand ball??" I said nope!  Football, I know its confusing!! In the end they just said ok whatever we don't care, lets throw it!  The girls can throw hard!!!

The boys played an awesome game of soccer, and Matt was on the "skins" team! It was hilarious!! We didn't even know there was a skins team till we look over and are almost blinded by the whitey running around shirtless! It was awesome!  

We also blew bubbles for the kiddos and they LOVED that!  The kids were going nuts!! The day was great and we were all exhausted and ready to go to bed when we got back! 

Psalm 100:1-2

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.  Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.