First of all, it’s been a little while since I’ve written anything, for two reasons: one, I spent our spring break in Denver, Colorado with Imago Dei our outreach team working with homeless and low-income ministries and projects around the city (that was two weeks ago); and two, I spent a lot of time last week working on a short video for our upcoming youth retreat which was somewhat time consuming but altogether worth it.  That video will be available on YouTube after this weekend so you can check it out if you want, it’s about going through the motions of Christianity, something that I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about lately and have been challenged to leave behind.  So, God willing, I will have a couple new posts here in the near future with regards to going through the motions and some of the thoughts that i had while working in Denver a couple weeks ago, I’m still trying to take time to process through all that we did and all that we experienced.  But for now, I wanted to give you a heads up about what is going on with Pastor David and our brothers and sisters in Kenya.

The hardest part about the work that I’m doing is the fact that I’m here in Montana and the work is going on thousands of miles away in Kenya, and I can’t always see what is going on, but I know that God is doing work and I simply trust and follow His leading.  However, thanks tot he modern miracle (or curse) of technology, I can email quickly and get an update about the progress of the work.  The last time that I emailed Pastor David he let me know that the work on the children’s home is progressing rather rapidly.  The windows and doors have been put in and they are in the process of doing all the finishing which includes plastering the walls inside and out, and putting in the concrete floor.  After those things are complete, we’ll be able to furnish the building with bunk beds, tables, chairs and the like.  The teachers are doing well, we have three of them, two standard one (first grade) and one nursery school teacher.  Along with the teachers, we also have a man who is our security person, keeping watch at night and such.  God has truly blessed this work abundantly.  Pastor David has been using the food money that we collect here in the states sparingly in order to pay the teachers’ and security’s monthly salary ($100 for the first grade teachers, $50 for the nursery teacher and security).  So we have been praying that God continues to provide their salary, but not at the expense of the children’s nutrition.  Additionally, it is important that we begin to pay off the debt of our farming land which at the moment stands at $8000.  But I know that God is doing this work, it is not by my efforts or the efforts of Pastor David in any way.

So, things are going well back home in Kenya.  Here in the states I am gearing up for the summer, it will be my first summer as the camp director so I’m getting into my feet wet soon.  I love working here at the school, but I also long to be able to be in Kenya as well.  However, I know that God is at work here just as much as He is at work there, in fact He’s been laying a passage of Scripture on my heart that I’ve been dwelling on for the past week or so, it’s 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 it says, "For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf."  The questions that I’ve been asking myself lately are "What does it mean to let the love of Christ control you?" and "Am I living for myself or for Him who died and rose again for me?"  I feel that it is important for me to wrestle with these questions because their answers have a great impact on the work that I am doing, both here in Montana and in Kenya.  As I continue to meditate on the implications of this verse, I pray that you will also and that you will let God’s Word richly dwell within you so that it might change your hearts and challenge you to grow as it has me.  Be blessed.

P.S.  As soon as I get some picture sent to me from Kenya, I’ll post some of the orphanage progress.