Just like faith without works is dead, so is love without expression.

I apologize for falling behind on my blogging duties! This blog will be about the week of the 10-16.

Every morning at 5:15 am we wake up and get ready for the day. You heard me right. 5:15 AM!! We make our way on foot in the dark to the church for morning glory prayer from 6 to about 7:30 or 8. It is just like the IHOP-KC prayer room back home. They have some African worship music blaring while people from the community (and the mzungus (Swahili word for a white person)) sit, stand, and pace while they pray. The Lords presence is really evident in the mornings. I love it!

After morning glory prayer we have minisrty that consists of either construction or teaching. We are constructing a new stage for the big crusades that we will have in July. The church we work with also has a school for kids ages 3 to 6 and they ask that the Mzungus teach everyday for 30-60 minutes. When I taught, we learned about the fruits of the spirit. We sang the song that went along with it as well. I also taught the children the song "My God is so big, so strong, and so mighty" which they LOVE because of the motions. We play alot of futbal with them. Obviously. I have never been more insecure about my soccer skills then playing with these little kids. They are sooooo good. Its kind of ridiculous.

Every Sunday, two mzungus are to preach a message to the congregation at Deliverance church. Our leaders asked who wanted to preach and no one said a word. Typical. We decided that we all were gonna pray and ask the Lord who He wanted to preach. After a couple minutes we said Amen and one of our leaders said that the Lord told her I was suppoed to preach. Oh goodness. Me? Preach? I have only ever talked to middle school classes or at campfires or in my public speaking class. There is no way that I can preach in front of a whole African church congregation!! I started praying right away and asked the Lord what i was supposed to preach on. I worked on it all week whenever I had free time. How intimidating? Now on to ministry.

During this particular week, we did the hospital ministry, where we go to the hospital and pray for healing for the patients. We also share the gospel with them. I was not prepared enough for this the first time we went. The first day, we visited the childrens ward, which was the hardest one. Right when we walked in there were 6 kids sharing 3 different beds. All of the kids had broken legs from falling out of mango trees. We kept walking in order to get to the back of the ward to a Mama holding a crying baby and patting a crying babys back. The baby was laying on her stomach on the same bed. A doctor came up and asked the Mama what was wrong with the baby laying on the bed. The Mama replied that she did not know because it was not her baby. She was just trying to comfort it because the mama was no where to be found. The baby was just laying there crying and crying. No one was there to hold it and love it. It was completely heart breaking.

Another day we went to the womens ward. This was hard too. A particularly hard story was that of Margaret. Margaret was in the hospital for pnemonia and unexplained throwing up. Margaret was a young widow with a number of small babies at home. While at the hospital, Margaret had no one who could take care of her babies for her. She did not know whether they were being fed or not. On top of that, she had no money for her hospital bill and couldnt leave until she had paid it. She was very weak because she could not keep food down. We immediately laid hands on her and prayed for her. I began to weep uncontrollably and beg and plead with the Lord to heal her. Why her? Why all of these things at once? After all, she is a christian. Why couldnt You give me her sickness intead? I can be sick for her while she goes home to work and provide for her babies. All of these thoughts were swirling around in my head for the rest of the day. It was so hard.

We came back a couple of days later to find happy boys in the childrens ward, hopping around with casted legs and giving us knucks (fist pounds) as soon as they saw us. Full of life once again. I anxiously went into the womens ward to pray for Margaret again and her bed was empty. What could this mean? Had she died? Had they kicked her out because she couldnt pay her bill? Since there is no such thing as HIPPA in Kenya, I went and asked a nurse about her. The nurse said that she had miraculously recovered from her illness and somehow produced the money for her bills. She had gone home to be with her babies. PRAISE THE LORD!! He answered my prayers!! HE IS SO GOOD!!! I began to cry with joy. He is our healer and provider.

Sunday rolled around and it was time for my sermon. Before I had been chosen to preach, the Lord had woken me up one morning to show me this verse where Moses is talking: Exodus 33:13 "Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight, and consider that this nation is Your people. And the Lord said, 'My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.'" I preached about the Lords faithfulness to keep His promises like the one above with a translator repeating everything I said in Swahili. It really was the Lord speaking through me because there is no way that I couldve done that by myself and still kept a level head. I was not nervous at all while I was preaching. HE IS SO GOOD TO ME.

Im sorry about the length of this blog and I hope all is well back in the states.
May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you!
Emma