Zeph. 3:17

"The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17

I love this verse. We recently read this verse in bible study and since then, I can’t stop reading it.

HOW BEAUTIFUL IS THIS?!

“The Lord your God is with you”
                “I will not leave you nor forsake you.” Joshua 1:5
                How beautifully comforting it is to serve THE God who never leaves us, no matter what!
“the Mighty Warrior who saves.”
              Warrior means a person engaged or experienced in warfare; soldier.
              He has and will always fight for you and be on your side! 
              He has looked favorably upon YOU and found you worthy of saving                
“He will take great delight in you”
             Delight means something that gives great pleasure or joy
Jesus is beautiful, gracious, wonderful, and perfect. His view of you is not what you do (wrong or right) but who He has made you to be. And YOU are FEARFULLY and WONDERFULLY made (Psalm 139:14)
“in His love He will no longer rebuke you”
              Rebuke means to express sharp, stern disapproval 
            Jesus is a gracious Father whose disapproval is seen in sadness but there is always rejoicing when you come back! 
               He responds to your actions (good or bad) like no one else you will ever know would respond. He is both gracious and stern.
                some translations say "He will quiet you by His love" (HOW BEAUTIFUL IS THAT?!)
“but will rejoice over you with singing"
               Jesus smiles upon you while He sings a beautiful melody over you
               THE KING OF KINGS SINGS OVER YOU!!! 

short, sweet and to the point. Jesus LOVES YOU, He SINGS OVER YOU, He is WITH YOU, and He has SAVED YOU! 

Patience...

Patience is a virtue….

What’s a virtue? According to dictionary.com it means moral excellence

But what is patience, really?

Is it simply about waiting for a late bus, in a long line at the grocery story, in traffic, or the next event we are excited for?

I have a hard time with patience; I am always looking forward to the next thing or the next time I can talk to someone I really miss. While being here, it still happens, maybe even a little worse. Last week, I was SO excited to see Faith that I allowed the whole week to go by with that being the only thing that occupied my thoughts. It’s just a view weeks until everyone from the team gets here, and sometimes I find myself being so excited for them to get here, that I am trying to plan or prepare is some other way.  I think that as much as I am trying not to honor the team as they prepare to come, that instead I am not honoring the people here.

I think that patience is that attitude we have that we have while we wait. I think that it’s ok to be excited for whatever is happening next, I think that part of being a Christian is being excited for Jesus’ return. But what if we only ever talked only about Jesus’ return and never all of the most amazing perfect attributes of Him or even just reading about His return and not any other parts of the bible THAT would sure be interesting and maybe eventually get boring!

What if instead of waiting for something, we were joyous in the present. I can easily admit that I am HORRIBLE at this but it’s something that has been on my heart for a while. I waited for so long to come back to Masii, and recently I found out some incredible news about school and next fall and now I am all excited about that. But am I honoring God by always looking for the NEXT place he is going to send me? That would be a big fat NO!

I think the best way to HONOR God and the people here, is to truly be HERE. To jump in at every turn, to preach where and when I am asked, to go where I am invited, and to sing when asked (that’s an iffy one) and not always be anxiously waiting for the next thing or the next time that I may “want” to do that thing that I am being asked.

“Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are.”(HN)

Faith

As we sped along a road, that was more bumpy than the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, and was so dusty that it blanketed all of the used to be green bushes along the road and made them into brown bushes. It felt like we were going SO fast! We drove along this road for 2 hours, when finally we arrived at our destination! I was so excited to see my dear friend, I could barely stand it.

Finally, I saw her! She ran over to me and buried her face in my chest, I couldn’t believe it, she was even more perfect than I remember! Faith Makenzie, my dear friend whom I hadn’t seen in almost a year, was now standing with me and hugging me as tight as possible!

I went there with Mama Faith, Baba Faith, Mary (little sister), and Robert (big brother). It was so great! We left school after getting her and went somewhere quiet to eat and enjoy each others company! It was wonderful!

I have loved Faith from the moment I met her in 2009. She has taught me so much about love, joy, Jesus, children, and myself! My relationship with Faith, has been THE MOST constant thing in my life for the past 4 years, as I look back I can’t believe how much I have fallen in love with her. She is the person who is always excited to see me, always has a kind thing to say, and always wants to laugh and play as much as I do.

Today was incredible. I got to see Faith’s school, her classroom, her performance sheet (she is improving and so brilliant!) and I got to meet all of her teachers! It was such an honor to be invited to her schools visiting day, and be able to walk alongside her as she works so hard in school! At the beginning of this year, Faith moved to boarding school which can be a scary and something that requires a kid to grow up very fast! Faith is doing wonderful and is as beautiful and brilliant as ever.

I am unsure if I will get to see Faith again before  I leave, but I am so grateful for this day and for being able to see my best friend.

at her desk! 

outside her class

Faith with her older brother and her little sister!

gave her a bible, proud that this is what she was most excited about!

I never wanted to let go!

I think she likes her new backpack :)

David and Keziah

Not much to SAY about today, but definitely alot of pictures and alot to be thankful for. Tonight I got to have dinner with Elder Henry and his wonderful family. I went WAY too early but I knew that every second would be great, no matter what! I love that they finally are used to be me being here! I love them so much. Thankful for my time with them. (PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO AT THE END, it's Keziah and David saying "God is good all the time")

The New Girl

Her name is Purity, she is in class 3, and she is so gorgeous.

In the middle of second grade and seventh grade, we moved, and thus I was the “new girl” for the rest of the year. I have wanted to be a teacher my whole life, but my experiences during these two times in my life, only fueled that passion more. In second grade, I had one of the kindest teachers I have ever had, her name was Mrs. Rogers and I immediately made so many good friends (that I still keep in contact with on FB today!). My experience in seventh grade was quite different; my teacher(s) were rude, and inconsiderate that I just moved to this new town and new school in the middle of the oddest years in anyone’s life. I didn’t make friends that year, in fact from day one some random girl wanted to beat me up (we graduated HS together and I still don’t know why she wanted to)!! During these two times in my life, I saw both what a teacher should and shouldn’t behave like when a new students enters the class far into the semester (here it’s trimesters).  It has always been something I have looked forward to facing because it’s a situation so close to my heart.

Immediately upon arrival this morning, I saw this new little girl sitting in the back on my class 3. At first she looked like she was in the wrong class just because she looked a bit older than the others kids, then I realized that she simply had her first day yesterday and now she has a crazy “mzungu” teacher on her second day! At first, she was put off by the idea that I was about to teacher her class some math for the first 40 minutes of the morning. I asked her actual teacher, Mrs. Kilonzi, if she would mind telling Purity that I teach this class for just two periods a day. Purity was soon excited by this idea and I saw that the other students were both kind and inviting to her as she learned the quirks that make this class so special. She also learned quickly that I am definitely not like any teacher she has ever had before. She probably thinks I am a bit crazy, since they students hardly raise their hands like they should, they hardly ever stay in their seats, and I let them come up and write on the board when they know an answer (easier with math than anything else).

Today will always be close to my heart because I (hopefully did a good job &) lived a real dream of being a KIND teacher to the NEW student.  Sounds silly but it’s true.

She is precious, gorgeous and smart and I am blessed to be her teacher!

Pray for Purity as she goes through each day at a new school, with new teachers, and new friends!

(no picture because, silly me forgot my camera)

"I love you"

"I love you with all my divine heart. I embrace you with all that I have. I send you my inmost self. I want you to breathe my breath. I want you to live in the endless embrace of my love. Here you can find your home. I have made my home in you. You can make your home in me."

I am so grateful, when God reminds me (AGAIN) that He is perfectly in love with me. He created me to love Him, to serve Him, and to die for Him. Each day I should wake up and remember that I GET to be loved by and I GET to love back, the Savior of the world.

As if creating the world wasn't enough, He made us in His image, then He send His only son to DIE for us, and then He wrote all down in a really big book so that we can read it whenever we want.... INCREDIBLE. Gods' love story is too beautiful for words, but thankfully we don't have to SAY anything, it should be more or less why the WAY we live our lives in which we express God's love.

I don't ever want to live a day without forgetting that my love for Jesus is a choice, and its one that I will never regret.

Thank you Jesus, for this extraordinary life. Thank you for making me apart of something bigger than myself. I love you, and I will live every day FOR you.

Wamunyu

Today, I visited Wamunyu Special School for the mentally handicapped. It was so great to see all of these wonderful kids again! It is such an odd feeling to come to a place that reminds us of what we take for granted like constant running water, washing machines, and even electricity. But one of the most incredible things is to be reminded of your health. At this school there are about 60 kids, each with their own mental or physical disability. There are kids who are paralyzed and need wheelchairs (and they currently don’t have enough), there are kids who have Down Syndrome, there is one little girl who has hydrocephalus, there are kids who are almost 20 and are still in primary school. There are also 3 boys, two of whom are twins and all three of them need to go to this school. Through all of this, these teachers are incredibly selfless and wake up every morning to serve these students. These students are truly loved and scared for at this school.

As you will see in some of the pictures below, the students do not have mosquito nets over their beds, which is very dangerous and frustrating way to sleep. I found out that it is 300 shillings per net, and there are 60 students, therefore it will be 18,000 shillings for all of them to have a net. My weekly "allowance" (for lack of a better word) is 16,000 shillings a week, I DO NOT think that is a  coincidence at all! So, I am THRILLED that the next time that we go to Wamunyu we will be giving these wonderful students mosquito nets to keep them safe! 

 

Thank you Pastor William, Pastor James, and Gabriel for letting me tag along with you all today! 

not much to say BUT lots of pictures! 

sometimes the most beautiful things leave you almost speechless!