Kenya #10 Pastor Brad

Greetings everyone!It is almost midnight here and we just finished playing an all important game...ultimate uno, haha. It was nice to have some down time with the team and relax together after a pretty intense day, and week. Sometimes the best things we can do is to just have fun together. Right before the game we had an amazing Bible study, centered in Ecclesisates 12. We were reminded that suffering weakens our grip on this life and turns our hearts toward heaven. For those who have a relationship with Christ, we know that this life is not the end but only the beginning of great things. We were reminded by Paul's words in Philippians that we should long to be home with the Lord Jesus in heaven, but be useful to Him here on earth. The suffering and pains we have seen here are only a catalyst for us to fully recogninze the urgency and immediacy of the Gospel message for all we know and meet. Today we got a very heavy report...many of you may remember a few days ago I wrote about a young lady, Eunice age 24, who has AIDS. Dave Bell, our missionary, told me he believed she had less then 2 weeks left based on her symptoms. Just as he said, today she passed away. It was hard for me to believe that just 4 days ago I stood in her house with her and now she is gone. I know the enemy wanted us to beat ourselves up for not doing more, but we trust the Holy Spirit led the meeting with her. We are unsure of Eunice's spiritual decisions, but we trust that God's Word does not "return void." I know that Dave shared the Gospel with her and I was able to pray for her (she did not accept Christ at that time) and then we entrusted her to God's hands. It was hard reality for us to accept, but the Bell's and the Community Transformers deal with this on a weekly if not daily basis. It would be good for us to remember them in our prayers, that God would give them strength of heart to continue on in this good work.Today we got to work with the CTs by teaching the children at the CT centre. It was great to have 95 children 11 and under for one session and 45 children 12 and up. The lessons went well and the Gospel was preached. I can tell you that there is nothing more exciting then hearing 95 children shouting out Bible verses with excitement as we taught the memory verses. They are so hungry for the truth and we were able to partake in a great work. I don't have time to tell you about Happiness (yes that is his real name! and it fits him too), Bryan, Lillian, Jimmy and the list goes on. But I will tell you about Melissa. Well honestly I don't have much to say about her other than her name and her beautiful face. She must be about 6yrs old and she captured my heart in just a moment. After the lesson time I was walking to the back of the room to play with the kids and this sweet little angel just grabbed my hand with both of hers and pretty much hugged my leg. I sat down and put my arm around her and she just laid her head on my shoulder for the longest time. She didn't speak much English and so all i got out of her was her name. But she didn't have to say much. I could tell that she was starved for attention and genuine love. I know it doesn't seem like much to us, i know that i get to cuddle with my nieces and nephews all the time and they get so much love and affection from their parents and grandparents. But these kids get very little if any. It was the hardest thing to do to say good bye, knowing I may never see her again in this life time, and I know I won't see her again this trip. But I picked her up, gave her a big hug and told her I love her, that she is special in God's eyes and she has Value! It was all i could do not to cry as I left those children today. But as the old saying goes, "If i don't see you here, i will see you in the air!"Well I must head off to bed to get ready for church tomorrow. After church we are heading out on safari for relaxation and debriefing. It is a fun time, but also a time to reflect and let the lessons we have learned and the people we met sink in. We are praying that God will allow this time to let us examine our hearts and see how the Holy Spirit will change our lives. We are all in agreement that we have changed and that we cannot come home and just return to the norm. Please be in prayer that God will give us specific understandings of His will for our lives as we know He has plans for us...Ephesians 2:10 "for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them!" It isn't by accident or coincidence that we are here. God has a plan and purpose for us all. Let me close by encouraging you with this, if God has spoken to you or challenged your heart in anyway from the emails about this trip, ask Him to reveal to you what you need to do about it. Write it down and pray about it. I would love to hear in what ways God has challenged you b/c we are the body of Christ and we are all part of each other. I know God is going to do great and mighty things, both on this trip and in our teams lives as well as in yours. May God bless you greatly!

p.s. check out http://www.vesperlakemissions.blogspot.org/ for all the previous emails and other team members posts

In His Service, Pastor Brad