"My Power Is Made Perfect In Weakness"

First let me just say, I am pretty tired, I stepped into a river of sewage, and I want a hug from my mom...so sorry for anything in this blog that doesn't make much sense...it's late...

I'm pretty speechless right now. A lot of things happened today and my mind is racing. Let's start with this morning when we entered today's slum.

Mathari was described to us as one of the more poverty-stricken slums; it is the second largest in Kenya. Known for its illegal brewery and other dark aspects, we approached today's ministry with a bit more caution. (I literally just stared at the screen for a minute...I'm really tired.) We took a tour of the slum. I noticed right away that it was indeed worse than the slum we visited yesterday. The sewage river ran through all of the walkways. At one unfortunate point, my foot slipped into the grayish river and a native responded with a simple, "ooo...good." I was not exactly the happiest person at that time. Oh how the Lord humbles...

The task of the day was to clean and paint a room and give a presentation of sharing, message, and worship. I successfully painted without getting paint on my non-painting clothes. Oh how the Lord shows mercy. After, I went into a classroom filled with 80 kids. They began to clap for me, which, I have to admit, was pretty awesome--especially since most people don't clap for me when I enter a room. (Weird, right? just kidding...okay, not funny...let's move on.) Trish Hyodo had me yell, "God is good!" (I had no idea of what I was doing.) They responded with an, "all the time!" That was quite possibly one of the coolest things I've ever experienced! These children were shouting the praise of God.

The worship time consisted of about 200 kids packed into a small room with like 2 small windows. It was hot. By the end of the first song, I was sweating like...a lot. My guitar was going out of tune in seconds and we had no electricity and therefore no sound equipment to amplify. We went totally acoustic with two guitars and two djembes. I was definitely nervous; it was my first time leading a worship set in Kenya and I wasn't in the comfortable setting of nice sound equipment and coffee waiting for me when we were done. But in my weakness, God's power was made perfect. He revealed himself to me in ways I couldn't possibly imagine. The kids were singing the songs and dancing with passion. I could feel the Spirit of the Lord present. I praise God for how he delivered me today.

After we returned from the slum, we washed up, went to dinner, and returned to have a debriefing meeting. It lasted a while, but it was fantastic. We all got to share our feelings while knowing that we were in a safe and non-threatening enviornment. I remember thinking while I was in one of the houses in the slum today, "what would it be like to wake up every morning to this same place filled with garbage, sewage, filth, and fowl smell? And these same people, how is it possible for these people to hear the message of Jesus? Who will bring this Gospel to them? Who will love them?"

I went back to my room, grabbed by notebook, and sat outside. I began to write, and then I started to sob. Today was a very emotional day for me. I have so many different mixed feelings fighting for attention in my heart. Really, the only thing I have to lean on is my precious Jesus.

"Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."