// The Last Days//

 Hello Friends & Family!

 Baboon’s stealing lunches, hindu temples, serving crippled children, preaching in the slums, city market haggling, and mosque visits; wow its been a pretty full 8 days.

We have been back now in Nairobi since last Tuesday, and might I say its very nice to be with some familiar faces. The team has been reunited and our down time has been full of laughs and stories from assignment. We have still had very eventful days though, don’t get me wrong. So far we as a team had 2 days dedicated to visiting Hindu temples and Muslim mosques which was very challenging but also so good to learn more about different religions and actually have a chance to talk to Hindu priest and Muslim imams.

We also had a day dedicated to visiting the Mother Teresa orphanage in Huruma. It was very eye opening. As we walked through slums and passed by burning trash and tin houses and pig carcass outside of butcheries, we arrived to the sanctuary of the orphanage in the midst of chaos and brokenness. We were able to tour the facility and visit the ‘baby ward’ for babies who have been left at the gates or found abandoned. These babies were so joyful and so well taken care of, it was amazing to see how God has saved them literally from the depths and brought them to a sanctuary of meals, shelter, and loving ‘mamas’. We also got to visit the mentally disabled and physically handicapped children, and again as hard as it was to see them and know they were abandoned, it was so encouraging because they really are the sweetest most joyful bunch. We got to feed them and really just love on them. Lastly was the women, we didn’t spend much time in this ward, but there were women varying from 18-80, some mentally disabled and some physical. But we got to sing and dance with them and really just have fun. There was an old women who I just loved, she sat and held my hand and admired my toe-nail polish and hair. She asked me if I could make her an ‘mzungu wig’ basically a weave made out of my ‘white people hair,’ i laughed and told her maybe one day. All in all it was a very impactful day and I really enjoyed my time seeing the work God is doing in the middle of this poverty-stricken slum.

My time is running short so I will make this quick, but the other days we got spend time back in Mathare Valley slum and were able to go in teams of 5 just prayer walking the slum and stopping and talking topeople. We got to share the gospel with about 12 people and I had a really special moment with 2 women in a hair salon who ended up accepting Christ. It was really amazing, I learned so much and have never seen anything like that. Most people who we talked to were brewers of the illegal beer made of Jet Fuel and other toxins and didn’t think that God would accept them, so please be praying for hearts in Mathare, that God would really show up, and touch their hearts.

“healing physical poverty can only do so much, as westerners we walk into slums and immediately see the physical need, here in mathare the Christians of this place see the spiritual poverty, what would it look like for us as westerners to have eyes for spiritual poverty?”

this really touched me, and really changed my perspective going into mathare. That me alone can’t change anything, I have no power without Christ.

We also had a day at the city market which was interesting, but I have to go, anyways, we have 3 days left here, prison ministry, African Inland Mission panel, and today we toured the Intervarsity or Focus center here in Nairobi. We leave for Mombassa on Saturday for debriefing and then i shall be back in the states the 21st.

I can’t believe there are only 9 days for me left in Kenya, Im trying to soak them in and process all God has done.

Thank you all & I can’t wait to see you soon!

Bwana Asifiwe

// Nakuru Times//

Habari ya jamaa na marafiki. Salamu kutoka Afrika ! Mungu awabariki!

(Hello Friends & family, greetings from Africa! God Bless you)

I have definitely been learning my fair share of Swahili! Here at Nakuru 3:16 (the street mother & children home I am living at) most of the women and children speak primarily Swahili so I have been learning a lot!

But anyways, its so hard to gather my thoughts! It seems like an eternity since I have been here at 3:16. The house is crazy, first of all. There is about 12 kids under the age of 7 and like 7 kids between 10-16, and 10 moms. So its loud & crazy all the time but I really love it. The kids are amazing and so cute and so fun. We have made close relationships with them. The women are really awesome as well, its been hard communicating with a few of them but they are really welcoming and eager to learn from us. We are teaching at the school on the compound which has definitely been an expierence, I am teaching Top Class which is 5 & 6 year olds. Its hilarious. I have been teaching the English lessons, and we get to play with them a lot. We are also leading devotions in the morning at 6 am for the orphans who live in the dorms on campus, and even though it has been very hard to wake up that early and have long days, its been really worth it, there is about 170 of them. We are also leading staff devotions once a week, where we give 30 minute sermons. That was very powerful for me, it was the first time I have done anything like that, preaching to a group of teachers and staff of about 100. But I really got to see God move through that. And then at night we lead worship and prayer and study for the kids at 8 and then the moms and older girls at 9. The kids devotion is so much fun because they LOVE to sing & dance, and they are so good at it! The moms have been a bit harder but we are really starting to gain trust with them and minister and disciple more to them.

This weekend we are in the city of Nakuru where we are staying with Zabalon who is the director of all these projects. It has been so great to just get away and learn more about the program and gain insight from him. Yesterday we got to go into the slums and lead a bible study with a group of women who are potentials of getting rescued and brought to the home. This was really good for my heart to see where these women at 3:16 are coming from and the lives they are overcoming. Zabalon is an amazing man, he and his wife have been so gracious to us, and are really restoring us after such a busy and just hard week. On Monday we will go back to the Special School and work with the special needs children on bead making. They are starting vocational classes for the older students so that they can make money, so I am excited about that. And then tomorrow we are going to Nairobi to see Zabalon preach.

I am realizing so much of my selfishness and so many dark parts of my flesh and I am really just seeing God heal me in ways that I never knew I was broken. I have been studying a lot about pain for the devotions for the women and just really have learned how we aren’t entitled to anything. God has saved us from the depths of our sin and we deserve death, but by his grace he continously saves us. So everytime I am frustrated or annoyed or confused about the cultural I am reminded that God’s salvation and we he has already done is far more powerful, and I am not worthy. I am not entitled to anything, he has already given me the greatest gift of all.

Thank you all again for making this possible for me to be here and see more of God’s kingdom, it is such a powerful expierence and I already feel at home!

Bwana Asifiwe!

// The Kenyan Way//

Hello Friends & Family! I hope all is well. I wanted to inform you on the past few days & also let you know what the next 3 weeks looks like for me! Well, Kenya has been great, I am really, really loving my team, we are already bonding & becoming family, so its been so nice to get past that awkward stage. I am very fortunate to have amazing staff & trip leaders, Brian & Debbie. They have been leading the trip since the 90s and have really showed me what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus. They are parents, and have taken their children to Kenya, started an orphanage, and a jewelry making business for Kenyan women. It is amazing. And they live in Montana, who would have thought! But Brian has been leading many seminars and sessions teaching us more and more about the Kenyan culture & how to deal with things we will experience. We found out our ministry assignments yesterday and I am so happy to say I will be going to……..NAKURU for the next 3 weeks ! I am unbelievably overjoyed, seriously Im so excited. I will be working with street moms and their kids and living on a compound with them. On the compound they have a women & children shelter, a children’s home for orphans, and a school. This ministry is doing big things, they just built and medical center and have many more projects under-way. These women come from broken homes of being sexually abused, abandoned, neglected, mal-nourished, all sorts of things. I am being very prayerful because i know that I will grow much empathy for them and it will be very hard. But we will be leading devotionals for the women, teaching in the school, and preaching in the owner of the organizations church on the weekends, im a little scared about this! We met Regina who is the over-seer at the center for the women today and she said that the church has a 300 person congregation so PLEASE be praying. Im really nervous but I know God will provide the words I need. We also will be visiting the “special center” which is a government run home for disabled kids and I have heard this is one of the hardest tasks because they are treated very poorly, sometimes 2 workers to 50 kids. I am very anxious about this experience but I know the Lord is my rock & my redeemer & he conquers all. Just please be praying for these kids and that justice would be brought. Anyways, we leave tomorrow & I am so excited! My parter, Tiffany is so awesome, I feel so fortunate I got her! She is 25 and recently married, and hilarious! We have the same personality type so we will be able to cry together and encourage eachother when times are tough.

Anyways, please be praying God would continue to change my heart and break my flesh and build up my spirit so I look more and more like who he has created me to be. Please be praying that I would loose my expectations and take things as they come and would be focused on bringing glory only to him. Please pray for me and Tiffany that we would work well together, build each other up, and be honest when things are tough. I know that these three weeks will bring up the ugliest parts of me, and the most beautiful parts of me, pray that I would remember that dealing with the ugly brings me the the beautiful spirit and heart God has made me to be.And please pray for the women, that they would be open to our discipleship and friendship and that God could speak through us to them.

I again, thank you so so much for you all. Without your support, this literally wouldn’t be possible, I have learned so much already about Christ, and my identity in him, and his heart for the world. I am so fortunate to be here, and I am just so so thankful for all of you!

these two verses have been on my heart:

Psalms 18:2 The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. -1 Corinthians 10:31

thank you all again! you are amazing!

LOVE YOU!

// IM ALIVE!//

Hello friends & fam ! I am alive! Bwana Asifiwe! Wow, I can’t believe Ive only been in Kenya for 4 days! I am in a cyber cafe now so I have to keep it short. But things are well! We are staying in a place called Watakatifu Wote Centa, its about 30 min outside of Nairobi in Ngong pronounced “Gong”. It is beautiful. Green grass, very lush, foggy in the mornings, lots of trees & flowers, I love it. We have been eating ALOT, we have a huge breakfast, lunch & dinner, and 2 tea times or “chai times” which we have a snack at as well. It has been hard, ive never been so full in my life! London was great, we were very jet lagged but got to explore a lot, then took a red eye to Nairobi which was torture, but finally arrived, and tried to stay awake all day, we spent the day at Watakatifu, it was very hard, I found myself falling asleep standing up! But then on Tuesday we took a scavenger hunt into Ngong, to try and find things in Swahili, it was hilarious, most people laughed at me because I am horrible at a Kenyan accent. Then wednesday we went into Mathari Valley, wow that was very hard. I was definitely culture shocked, Mathare is one of the biggest slums in the world. We walked around and were stared at, I felt very intrusive. There were kids playing in sewage water, walking around naked. The sewage runs through the streets so it was hard not to gag. The “houses” are made out of tin, and a lot of children are abused, abandoned, or sexually abused. This was very hard to see and comprehend, I am still having a very hard time processing it. We saw piles and piles of trash, and goats & chickens grazing in it. So different than America. I have been feeling very rich, and when children see us they point & yell “mzungu, mzungu” which means white person. You should watch a documentary called 58 if you havent, Mathare is featured. After we got to go to Santuary of Hope which is an orphanage developed by the leader of my trip, Debbie & a Kenyan woman. It was so inspiring, most of these children are from Mathare, and dont have a picture from their childhood, were abandoned, or left at a hospital. It was very inspiring to see what God is doing in this Valley. Today we are in Nairobi, its so busy!

But all in all, things are well, im learning, learning, learning and God is breaking me down & really changing my heart. I am so thankful to be here, thank you all who have supported me & are praying for me !

Mom & Dad: I love you soooooo much !!!!