Amazing grace

I could've never anticipated all that happened today. It was a wonderful Sunday. Started out really early (5:30) with a phone call from someone who accidentally called my number. I was wide awake, thinking I should just get up and go spend time with God, but alas, I decided I'll have plenty of time still, so I ignored God's invitation to an early-morning commune. When I did get up 2 hours later, the power was out. I had a great time studying/worshiping nevertheless. Then went into my greenhouse, and while I was listening to a great sermon on my iPod, I got my hands dirty planting some new seeds. Cleaned up for church and was blessed by worship without the keyboard that is like nails on a blackboard to my ears most Sundays. (Yeah, I know. God's still working on me...)

The sermon was on dreams and visions, and the speaker basically just said that God can speak to us through dreams and visions, and not to be afraid of the night and of nightmares, to pray when you have bad dreams in order to cancel them.

The sermon concluded and then Pastor Philip got up, saying he knows there are some people who are taunted by bad dreams. Before he could even invite anyone up for prayer, one of our staff was up there! (She told me later that her dead mother talks to her in her sleep, telling her current things about their family.) Others followed. We prayed for them to be delivered from the constant nightmares. As we sang during the offering, we noticed one of our 8-year-olds crying really hard. He told Philip that "I see really bad things..." so we went and prayed for him. After praying for the boy, I shared briefly from Ephesians 4, encouraging the church not only to put off the former things (or cut off dreams), but to clothe ourselves with Christ, to invite God to take control. I also encouraged others who might still want prayer to come and talk with Philip, myself, or any of the staff.

After church, Nicole (intern) and I went to the room of the boy who had been crying. We found him still crying hard, this time perhaps out of embarrassment for having cried in front of everyone. He told me that he has bad dreams every single night. I was able to pray with him some more and encouraged him. And simply offered him a shoulder to cry on. He's a really great kid, and I believe God will use him to help others find freedom, too!

As we headed out, a group of kids came to talk with us. One of the older girls shared about visions that she sees during the day, of the skeleton of her dead mother coming at her... As I prayed for her, she broke down and drenched my other shoulder in tears. Again, I left amazed at what God is doing in the midst of these children.

I had some time out in the afternoon (went to town to get some ice cream, yummy!) and when I came back, I had a visitor. Joyce came to visit, just because. She told me all about school and enquired about the kids she had taken care of before. Little Kipkurui showed up, too, and while Joyce and I visited, I gave the 5-year-old a much needed manicure and some TLC.

Next, two of the young guys from church showed up, saying, "You had said we could come for prayer... We have very bad dreams every night..." I called Pastor Philip to come and assist, and another amazing time of ministry followed! Yeah GOD!

Before Joyce left, I was able to pray with her, and what blessed me even more is that she had the courage to say, "Wait, I'd also like to pray for you..." She's usually very quiet, so I especially appreciated her boldness!

Then, the power came back (it was off from 8 am till 7 pm) and I was able to get onto my computer for a bit.

What could've been a challenging Sunday (no power, challenging time at church) ended up as a day where I saw God bring healing and courage! I smiled when I remembered how God woke me up earlier, probably to prepare my heart for what was lying ahead. And though I am not trying to justify my disobedience in getting up right away, I love that we serve a God who is not limited by us. He ministered to people's hearts despite me, not because of me.

As the kids are in bed now and falling asleep for the night, please join me in praying that God will continue to fill their dreams, that he would transform them through the renewing of their minds (Rom 12:1-2) and bring deep, deep healing in each and every life so they in turn, can be used by God to bring healing in others' lives. Please pray, too, for those in the community who received prayer today, that God will continue to protect and fill them.

What an amazing God we serve.

What amazing grace he bestows on us.

Up a Limb

I should've taken pictures yesterday... It was a beautiful spring day, so Danette convinced me to join her in the yard to do some spring cleaning. (It didn't take much convincing, mind you.) After the expected raking and pruning, Danette thought it would be a good thing to trim back her huge apple tree. It might sound wonderful to have an apple tree in your back yard. This tree wasn't pruned well as a young tree, however, so the branches are wild and the fruit inedible. (I'm sure we can all think of some great spiritual analogy to that!)

Anyway, since the tree drops apples all summer that just make a mess in the yard and the neighbors' driveway, we decided to do some pruning. Armed with a saw and a great pair of pruning shears, Danette scaled the tree first. She got rid of a few branches, and then we switched places and I crawled higher into the tree... While hanging onto one branch and sawing off another, I decided to quit before an accident occurs.

Just as I got out the tree, the neighbor's little boys came over to help. It seemed like a lot of fun to them! They helped us fill both Danette's "yardie" (garden waste bin) and theirs! (We wouldn't let them play with the saws.)

Completing the task warrented a trip to Dairy Queen. And since it was such a gorgeous day, many others made their way to DQ. I think we looked the scruffiest of everyone in line...

I spent some time outside this morning, appreciating the wonderful weather as well as the results from yesterday's yard work. I love being able to physically see results of hard work!

On a different note: I just got an e-mail from Alex, our travel agent in Kenya. Last week, while I was trying to finalize flight arrangements, Alex informed me that if I flew home on Easter Sunday, I'd have to have a layover in London. He suggested I take the Monday night flight from LA instead, saying that there were still many seats available on this flight. This worked great for me, since it would give me the chance to celebrate Easter with friends at church rather than be on a plane. I went ahead and booked my domestic ticket to Los Angeles (since Alex said there were many seats left on the international flight) and asked Alex to make the connecting reservations.

The next day, however, he got back to me saying, "Sorry, a group must've made a reservation. You don't have a seat on that flight. You have to take an earlier flight." Umm, that's bad news, since my ticket on Travelocity was not changeable. If I'd change to the next flight out of LA, I would have to spend a night in LA and a night in London, stretching my 50-hour commute to almost 4 days!

I did the most logical thing: prayed for God to open up a seat, and asked others to pray for the same. This morning, I got a message from Alex saying that I have a seat on the original flight! God's a great travel agent, among many, many other things!

A little good news

My support level is officially at 83% today. Yeah God! And yeah to each and every one of my supporters. You are my team. It's my honor to represent you in Africa. It's an even greater honor to represent our Father in my corner of Kenya.

But it's more than just about financial support, and you know that. I received an e-mail from a mom this week at church. I was moved to read her message, "My boys are 6 and 4, and after you spoke to them about your serving in Africa during children's church a few weeks ago, they were very excited about you and what you'd shared. They keep reminding me that we need to pray for you. We sponsor a boy through Compassion International, but they haven't really connected with that very well. They see his picture, and I read his letters to them, but they don't ask about him or think to pray for him without being prompted. I wanted to capitalize on their connection with you as I know God wants them to have hearts for missions . . ."

I also received news from another family who have been involved for the past few years in sending me to Mozambique and Kenya. After I sent the parents a thank-you for the check, the mom told me, "Actually, the kids [teenagers] all prayed about how to support you and they each gave money from their own savings . . ."

Honestly, doing support raising is no fun. It really is much easier to simply get a check from your employer every month. At the same time, I am humbled by the thought of representing an army of individuals and families. I equally appreciate everyone who prays for me, and each and every family who get to endure their young'uns' reminders to "pray for Miss Adele in Africa." I am looking forward to getting back to Africa so they can get news from that side of the world.

But until I'm at 100% of my support, and until I get the OK from my counselor, I'll be around in Cedar Rapids, having the chance of sharing at Sunday school classes, and doing my work via my computer.