I can't believe it's already been over a month on tour...time is FLYING by. The kids are growing in so many ways that it's almost hard to believe. Since I've last updated, we've been to Crestview, Pensacola, and Port St. Joe, Florida, and Savannah, Georgia. Now we are in Atlanta, and we'll head to St. Simons, GA after this.
In Crestview, I got to chaperone boys for two nights! I stayed with Nelson, Julius, and Edwin. It is funny how different they are from the girls. They're a lot faster, they get up earlier, and conversation definitely isn't their style! They were so much fun, though. The Friday we were there, we did two sets at Big Stuf, and drove back to do two night concerts. It was a lot, but God showed up in HUGE ways. The worship that night was incredible. It was our first time being at Emmanuel, the church, and they were so gracious and we loved getting to hang out with them. In Pensacola, we worshiped with Ensley Church of the Nazarene. While we were there, we got to hang out with a cool couple with an awesome story. They had seen Daraja at Catalyst last year and God definitely worked through Daraja by changing something in their hearts. They are a military family and because of a torn ACL, the husband had to miss deployment for the first time. They were in Pensacola living in a hotel for 3 months so the Husband can try to get back into the military life, to make a long story short. They saw Daraja on a magazine cover and found out they would be performing at Ensley the next morning and decided to come. God definitely worked in their hearts through the kids that morning and they were excited to hear about the prospect of the Daraja Academy in the future. It is INSANE the way God works through these kids. I can't even believe sometimes that he chose me to be a part of this crazy life changing ministry for the summer...he has truly blessed me beyond belief.
From Pensacola, we went to Port St Joe. We had an awesome night of worship with the church and loved hanging out with them. I had a few days off and it was so nice to relax and be able to refill with the word on my day off.
After Port St. Joe, we headed to Savannah. We hung out with our hosts from Bible Baptist a lot! We had an off day with them, and my group spent the morning sleeping in. We got together with some other Daraja girls and walked River Street, which was so much fun. Sunday morning, we had an awesome time of worship with the church. God has huge things in store for Bible Baptist and our hosts were all filled with love, compassion, and servant hearts. It was definitely a great weekend with them.
While we were in Savannah, I kept Betty and Emma. The first two weeks, Betty and I practically spent all our time together because I was always her chaperone. I haven't gotten to stay with her a lot lately, so it was awesome to catch up. One night, we started talking about her life at home. She is an only child and lives with her mom. Her parents were never married. Her Dad left her mom for another woman and he lives in the same city as them, but Betty never sees him. She told me that sometimes, he says he will call and he doesn't or he doesn't answer when she tries to call. She told me that she misses him sometimes and it can be hard not to have a Dad. She reassured me though by saying that she knew that she had a Dad that loved her no matter what and she couldn't ask for a better Father than Jesus. She also told me that her Mom told her that she should always love her Dad, no matter what. Even though he wasn't around, he still gave her life and he isn't a bad person, so she shouldn't feel bitter towards him. WOAH. A twelve year old teaching me about love and about what it looks like to live our your faith. Betty is incredible. I am so proud of the person she is. At 12 years old, she is one of the most incredible people I have ever met in my life. It also says a lot about her mom. I would love to meet her mom one day, because I can tell by the way she raised Betty and the things she says about Betty's Dad that she is nothing short of incredible. The way she can love Betty's Dad after what he did and teach Betty to do the same is such a quality of Jesus that I think a lot of people, including myself, forget or find hard to live out. We continued our night talking about guarding our hearts and listening to the Lord in every moment of our lives. If you haven't met Betty, I hope you get to one day. She will rock your world in the way she loves Jesus and runs hard after the throne at every second :)
Spending the fourth with Daraja really made me realize something that I hadn't necessarily noticed before. As Americans, we tend to put a lot of pride and identity in our home and our nationality. One thing that the kids have shown me, though, is that our identity should ALWAYS be in Jesus and in our salvation, not the place we live or come from. As Americans, we tend to have this pride that we are an amazing country filled with freedom, but the freedom in these 23 Kenyan kids is way more than most Americans have. They are free from the chains of sin that held them captive before. They are free in their salvation, knowing one day they will get to spend eternity in the most amazing place with their awesome creator. And the joy that they show in every second is a direct reflection of that. If Americans could figure that out, I think our country would look like a completely different place.
Being back in Atlanta has been fun! I am staying with Violet and Naomi. We went to fourth of July fireworks last night which was a lot of fun. Today, they got to go to a waterpark and they really enjoyed that too. We love being back at our "base" and the time we spend here is always awesome :)
Over the past day, I've noticed a lot about Naomi. She is 14 and is our oldest kid in the choir. Though she's the oldest, her English is really basic. She struggles to communicate a lot of times. We have a four year old boy in our host home, though, and I have watched the way she cares for him and communicates with him. You can see her good heart and her compassion and it has been a joy to see her in that setting. She would be an incredible teacher. The way she plays with kids and teaches them even the smallest things is so cool. I know that is one gift that God put in her and I can't wait to see how she uses it.
I will update when I can! Tour life is crazy, so it takes a while for me to find time when I can sit down to update you guys.
Here's how you can pray:
-Pray that the interns can be of one heart and one mind, like it says in Acts. Pray that we can be relational and take time to encourage each other spiritually and challenge each other to go deeper in that. Pray that we can seek out the Kenyan adults and hear their stories and learn from their wisdom. Pray for wisdom in discipline and parenting the kids, so we can do the job that God called us to do in the exact way he wants us to do it.
-Pray for safe travel and for the bus to work! All big buses seem to have a lot of problems, so pray that God can keep it together so we can get from place to place.
-Pray for the kids. Pray that they can continue to grow in Christ and that they can know him and love him in a way that they haven't before. Pray that they rest in his grace and are obedient in the way that God wants them to be. Pray that they can minister to each and every person that they meet and that they can use their tools to do so.
Thanks! Love you guys :)