Prayed for Rain, and it Came

Tonight I told my wife, "when we pray for rain, we must expect it." God has brought a big rain storm in tonight here in Kisumu and the winds with it in the beginning brought about 2 inches of water into our upstairs balcony (which apparently wasn't draining properly... glad to know now)... so we had quite the adventure of keeping our house from flooding...and acted like we were on a sinking ship and started bailing water from our balcony (I'm sure our night guard was having quite the show, with my wife singing praise songs, and me singing 'yo-ho yo-ho a Kenyan life for me'. We laughed through the whole thing and had to fetch buckets of all shapes and sizes to put under new found leaks in several of our rooms (including one that developed just over our bed *sigh*). Moving our queen size bed with attached mosquito net frame wasn't the easiest task. But we thank the Lord for the heat in the day time so that things will dry off sometime tomorrow. We'd planned to call for some repair people tomorrow but remembered that it is a holiday here tomorrow and so not sure if they'll be working or not. Hopefully we can get the leaks in the roof fixed and figure out a better drainage system for our balcony. Any way, just a little story to share (and an informal prayer request as well).

We are finally here in Kisumu and it feels like we are offically home! We are in our home that the Lord has given us and it is amazing. We are settling in and have already begun ministry as we share the Gospel with a young man the Lord has brought into our lives. We have also begun to develop relationships with the fellow missionaries here and are finding a very sweet family in Kisumu. There have been a few challanges including sickness, adjusting to the heat and learning to live with new critters but as we have been encouraged by a brother in the Lord we are working on not letting any of these things distract us from the calling of the Lord here. I had to include an excerpt from his e-mail about critters because I was so ministered to by it and thought you all would be too!

Excerpt from e-mail:
You are a Christian. You follow Christ and have in you the mind of Christ Jesus, "who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross..."

His mind was to serve, in an extreme way, and you are following that example.

You are a Christian, and a missionary...one who is following a call of extreme service. You've named your child for the country you serve. You are learning the language of the people you serve. You live with the bugs of the people you serve.

God made the bugs (and the bats, and the mice). They are all amazing creations in their own way. It is okay to take precautions, but it is not okay to allow them to distract you from your service. For you, it means you ignore them, and don't let them upset your balance as you love and serve the people around you. For me, if I was called as a missionary in your place, it would mean that I would have to ignore them (in the totally opposite way), so they would not distract me from my service. It is all about service, not bugs. "I can do all things through...(finish the verse)"

I continue to think of Jesus as the ultimate missionary who coming from heaven and taking on the form of man must have had so many opportunities to be distracted by things of the earth, yet He didn't let anything distract from His calling and purpose here. We praise God for this kind of encouragement as we face many things that could easily distract us. Thank you for your continual prayers as we minister in this new land. Please pray for open, tender hearts as many are involved and following false teachings.

God bless you all!

Peg for The P3