West Nairobi School Community Development

Our school has Community Development project days.  I went with the 11th class as they visited a school in one of the Nairobi slums. We played with the kids, encouraged them to study hard in school, prayed for them and visited their homes in the slum.

Sept 2010

WORK LIFE:

Things are going well at work, although very busy. 

Last weekend the staff went on a two day retreat.  We had member care speakers from NICS (the Network of International Christian Schools– my sending mission agency) come.  It was nice to have them here to encourage us.  Our Chaplin lead most of the other sessions though and the focus was on working well together, conflict resolution, and forgiveness.  It was great.  I was pretty sick for most of the time with a bad cold, but it was still a blessing to be there nonetheless. 

Dearest friends,

Things have been super hectic  since I arrived in Nairobi, but I am doing fine and I wanted to make sure that I say thank you SO much for the prayers you have carried to the feet of the Father on my behalf.  I know that is the ONLY reason I have been able to accomplish anything.  So thank you ---and keep ‘um coming ;).

WORK LIFE:
We made it through the first week of school and my time has mostly been consumed with making sure high school students are in the right classes in order to get the right credits to graduate on time.  I’m still working on the middle school schedules, which I hope will be done on Monday. 

West Nairobi School is a BEAUTIFUL campus! The grass and bushes are so green and the dirt is so red.  The campus is hilly and the Ngong forest surrounds it.  Charming brick paths lead the way between classroom buildings.  But even more beautiful than the landscape are the precious faces of the students as they walk around campus and go to classes.

I have heard some wonderful things happening this week.  In high school, as I waited to enter a class to hand out some schedules I heard the teacher ask what mercy meant and what grace meant.  I stood and listened at the door for some time not wanting to knock and interrupt.  In the meantime I thought I would go to the next class and grab a couple students from there that I need to see.  At that door I heard the ongoing discussion about the Model United Nations and the book of Revelation.  This was DEEP, so I paused and listened for awhile.  In elementary school I heard that one of the first grade students was excited that the sun came out because she had prayed that it would! 

It’s wonderful that God’s presence is being recognized during class discussions and that His relationship with his children is REAL!

Some beautiful plants around our school

Friends here

Dawn Stamp, me, and Kelly Wright.  These are a couple of my good friends here.  They also teach at WNS.

A couple pictures of my room

Bearded Dreadlock----The mission starts on the way to the mission field!

Minneapolis to Amsterdam-As I sat on the plane waiting for others to board the aircraft, I allowed myself to become a little excited. I heard some other passengers saying that the flight was not full, and thought surely the boarding process was almost over, I was already staking out other pillows and blankets I would use to make a nice bed for myself----The seat next to me was still empty!


Then down the long aisle I saw a tall slender gentle man approaching. He was dressed like a hippie; green hippie shirt, purple hippie pants, orange hippie bag, ---with dreadlocks in his hair and in his beard. His dreadlocked beard hung down to his chin.

He passed several seats. Seats that were empty.

He was heading towards me…yes he was in my row…yes we would have to talk. I asked him where he was going. “To visit my lover,” he said smiling. “Oh, nice,” I said. He was headed to Norway. He had a nice smile. He smelled like incense,--- but it wasn’t too strong.

He asked where I was headed. I explained that I was going to do mission work in Kenya, to work at a school. “Oh, so are you a Christian?” he asked. “Yes,” I said. And so began a lengthy spiritual conversation. He explained that he met his girlfriend in Portland while she was visiting from Norway, and that they had really been able to cultivate and grow their long distance relationship through meditation! Huh, interesting!

He believed in every religion and in everything. He was “born again” at age 14. He said he and his mom were saved at the same time!?! I wondered when he began to walk away from the Lord, or the condition of the soil of his teenager soul when he was “born again”. We talked about Jesus being the only way to heaven. We discussed that one day we would all have to give an account for everything we have done on earth and that only Christ’s blood can cover the terrible things we have done. He didn’t believe in hell. We talked about real evil in the world and the awful things people do. He listened.

He showed me some of his tattoos. We admired the full moon out of the airplane portal, beautiful handy work of God Almighty we both agreed.

I knew out of all the people on the plane he had to sit with me. The Lord wanted it that way. His name was Jonathan.