Loving Jesus MORE

Today I feel so grateful to friends who support us. To those who don't know us well, my mom used to come and spend 6 months each year with us, teaching and loving street kids. She was with us in the beginning and set up our English curriculum; she loved teaching them to read and was equally "at home" sitting in a street base or living in a nearby apartment to ours in the slum. Now, she's in a home, with two loving caregivers, and she sleeps most of the time. Seven years ago she forgot my name; this was when I returned from Kenya after not being with her for 6 months. When I got there, she had "moved"; she didn't know where she was. And I didn't know where she was either; she was lost in her mind. Now, she sleeps most of the time, and I think she recognizes my voice. This has been hard on me. I leave her and go to Africa. It's not easy.

What makes it possible is friends who love God and thus love her. Let me just tell you about one friend, Michelle. She's had two wonderful ideas I'd like to share; the ideas might help some of you with a parent like mine. Last time I was there, Michelle said, "Let's run by the mall. I need to do some shopping." Well, OK.... She took me to Build A Bear, and together we picked out the softest animal and do you know, they have a "voice" you can put inside. So I stepped into the restroom, and tearfully sang a song to Mom, and we put it in the bunny. Michelle bought it and I took it to Mom. If you press a bunny foot, she can hear my voice. Mom's two caregivers think it's great and fun too, so they press it a lot. And so do other visitors that come to be with Mom.

Michelle's other idea is that she's made Mom her "MITS prayer partner". Every time Michelle comes, she prays with Mom about MITS. How appropriate. I do know that if Mom could talk, she would tell me to be in Africa, for she loves those street kids too. My other friends come to read Scripture, sing, pray, and (I hope) press the bunny foot, ha. I really, really, appreciate them!

So today, as you live for Jesus in so many ways, just know that as you impact others, we really appreciate it and feel God's arms around us and around those we must leave in our choice of service to Jesus.

Have a busy day! Darlene

SUCH A GOOD TIME

I have been having such a good time that I haven't had time to write.

Reminds me of a story from the early church. The apostle John had survived longer than the other apostles, and he was elderly near the end of the first century. There was much turmoil in the Roman Empire, charges of sedition and disloyalty were being brought against various people, and the new emperor wanted to be called god as well as honored.

So some of the Christians tried to convince John to write his memories -- "you were with Jesus," "you were there at the beginning," "you saw the church at its origin," "you witnessed the resurrection of Jesus," and so on. But John resisted, saying that he wanted to keep on teaching, that he was having the best of times, that the Word received in a heart is the most joyful of events, that the "word of mouth" is the most believeable means of communication.

Perhaps it is the Lord himself who arranged John's exile from Ephesus, so that John would have opportunity to be led by the Spirit to write a story of Jesus and to "see" the apocalyptic or hidden truth underlying life in this age.

Anyway, I have been having a good time -- with the church, with family, with little girls who are learning basketball, with friends. But today begins a period of discipline, in which I will write regularly, and get more work done.

May you get done what you desire.

HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?

How does it happen that we plan a visit to Campbell for 12 March because we need to be in Thousand Oaks on 13 March, and then we find out that 12 March is the day the Christian School finishes a fundraiser for Made in the Streets, and they would like very much for us to be there for the closing event?

How does it happen that my doctor tells me it would be good to read Three Cups of Tea, since it is a little like our own work, and we arrive at the Jacks' house, where we are staying that night, to find that Michelle has that book sitting on her stairway to give to us?

How does it happen that the MITS' Team works out the holiday events for the street kids, sets up a budget so I can send out a newsletter requesting help, and the money we get in the next two weeks dedicated to that purpose is in fact that amount?

What is the nature and power of faith that events like this should occur? Does faith in fact bend the course of events to fit the need and the plan? Or is faith a faithful guide to put us in the right place at the right time? Jesus said that our trust in Him would shake geography, putting mountains in unplanned locations. So faith has this power to bend and shape. And it is not the power we put into our faith, but the mere presence of faith that brings such joyous shape to our lives. For this is the nature of the mustard seed.

We are not ashamed to accept these gifts, not ashamed to admit that it is not our intelligence and planning that makes life so very good, but the goodness of the one in whom we trust.

So...take a look at a coin today...and let good things happen.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR HEAVEN?

Here at Made in the Streets in Nairobi we have had everyone painting Christmas stockings - all the students at Kamulu, the single moms at Eastleigh, the Team members, the other staff of MITS, the little kids in our family -- we have 89 stockings hanging up in the courtyard of the Learning Center and a few more to finish. I told them that Father Christmas only puts stuff in the stockings he finds. Darlene had fabric paint, so they have all been creative.

We watched the movie Polar Express, and we then gave the DVD to the girls. The boys have seen it. The big question is, What do you want for Christmas? Somebody asked me, and I didn't have an immediate answer, but I've been thinking about it. All I can think of that I really really want is a quiet, or noisy, afternoon with my granddaughters. I think that's "dayenu" as we say at Passover time about each of God's gracious gifts that are "plenty."

Then I started thinking about the gift of heaven and what other gifts go with it. And I was sitting in church at Kamulu on Friend Sunday yesterday (we had 186 before the kids went out for Sunday school, and I had 34 in my adult class - quite a few visitors at church), and two of our street girls sang a song for the church, and Titus led one of his wonderful prayers, and I looked around at all these kids, some in literacy, some in skills training, some in internships, some having jobs and with us on Sunday. And we set up all our tables and had chapati and bread and Blue Band and jelly and cookies and tea and coffee and juice and cake (did I mention it was Jeremy Mbuvi's first birthday yesterday and Laurent and Eliza's anniversary?), and everyone sat around

and talked and ate and the kids had so much fun.

And I thought -- this is what I want for heaven. This is the gift of heaven I want -- to be with these people eternally, along with some of my family and some old friends -- and Jesus, of course. I think that will do it for me.

BLESSINGS FOR JANE

Jane Njeri was a church member at Kamulu for about a year before she began to volunteer in street ministry at Eastleigh. She would go in on Mondays with Maureen and Team members who worked with the street mothers' program (more than 40 young moms from the streets with their babies) or to go out on the streets with Kennedy, Anthony and Larry Conway. She proved to be a great teacher and inspiration to the young moms. Her background in alcoholism and a broken family and subsequent decision to be faithful to Jesus gave her a good background for working with the girls, plus the fact that she came out of poverty also.

Jane had a problem, though. She had a growth on the side of her face at her lip that had been growing for about 15 years. Last summer she became a Team member at MITS after Ann Mwangi, our Eastleigh supervisor, left us to go to university. Then John Bailey, who was in Kenya on a medical mission program, had a doctor look at her, and we took pictures for the doctors to analyze. Last month doctors came again with Dr. Bailey, and Jane flew "fly540," one of our local airlines, to Malindi on the coast for surgery. It was her first airplane ride.

She was there for almost a week and returned with a swollen jaw. But she said she could tell the difference and was confident the swelling would go down.

Here are before and after pictures to help you see the benefit to Jane. And having her happy is good for MITS! We are all happy for her and grateful to the doctors who came with John and performed the surgery. MITS is blessed to have such friends.

Garden Delights

Yesterday I had opportunity to make a chapel talk. We rotate chapel talks through the kids and the Team members. I decided to talk a little about our garden, because we have been so delighted in how well it does. It makes me know that at Kamulu we are able to grow more food than our kids can eat. It's a matter of doing the farming right, and we will learn.

We have a young woman with a small boy whose husband left when trouble came who works as a gardener for us. Her little boy was born without a full urinary tract, so he has needed surgeries and therapy. A doctor whom Larry Conway knew has been wonderful to take care of him. Anyway, Nancy has done wonders with our garden. Only 6 tomato plants are making all the tomatoes we can eat, and about 200 plants will soon produce. We have 7 short rows of pole beans, and every other day we get about 15 pounds of green beans. So we have been feeding green beans to the girls and the boys and the Team members and for lunch at our cafeteria.

Back to the chapel talk. We sometimes have kids who have reasons to give up - school is hard, another student yells, they make mistakes, they have to keep to the schedule. So I talked about "burnout" in business and professions. Then I talked about how beans can give and give and give (we've picked our beans 12 times already) and still, at the end, they produce as many dry beans as they would have if we never picked them. God made the bean, and it turned out really good. I told them that when they produce for God, He will pick and pick from them and use it for good, and they never have to give up. And at the end God will take what they have left and it will be good.

Then we had a short Team meeting. Francis had been to a leadership conference, and one of the things he wants to talk to the team about is the ability to keep on going with joy and dedication without losing desire and quality work. The ability to renew self in spirit so that you can go.

So, here is to a life without burnout, a life that keeps on giving, a life propped up by God's own energy!

There cannot be much better in life than seeing good things happen to those you love. So let me list a few --

1 -- Paulyne Adhiambo, one of our street moms who came into the Eastleigh program last month, went to the hospital on a rainy night to have her baby. Can you imagine how hard it must be when a street girl has her baby on the street in the rain?

2 -- Jane Njeri, our supervisor at the Eastleigh center, has been invited to fly to Malindi tomorrow to have a long-term growth taken off her lip and cheek. We doubt that we will recognize her when she returns at the end of the week.

3 -- we have good friends in Iowa, and you can imagine how they feel after the locals came from behind to defeat an arch-enemy in the second half.

4 -- Francis Cugia, one of our older boys who is in an internship in carpentry now, was honored in church today for his service to the church.

5 -- Kehl Omondi, Jackton and Millie's baby, came through hernia surgery on Friday just fine, thank you, and came home yesterday. Jackton shared the story of his birth in the communion talk this morning.

6 -- Susan Wambui, our student with diabetes, looks great lately. I talked with her today, and she is keeping her sugar level down, giving herself injections regularly, exercising and eating the diet she has been given, and she is enjoying her beauty school. She has taken mock exams, will take final exam in a couple of weeks, and has talked to some salons about an internship. She will be 18 in December and is looking forward to her life "out there." She also told me that she has already checked into a school downtown where she can go in the evenings and get her high school equivalency, which she will pay for herself after she starts work (unless we decide to give her a gift just because we are so proud of her!)

7 -- Joseph Mburu, our student who got a job in a computer shop, talked to me today about going to programming school. Looks like we'll have to get some money together to send him; it is nice to see such ambition in our kids. He has checked into a school, gotten a brochure, and will now get our IT man to write a proposal for him to present to the Team.

8 -- And there is Titus Kioko, a young man who has come out of a drugged-up life to become a fine young man -- we presented one of his prayers last week. Today he told me that his grandmother found him when the kids went on their last shopping trip and told him her house in the slum had falled down, obviously hoping he could get someone to help her. So he wants to find some way to help her build it back up (she is still sleeping in the fallen remains). We talked about how we could get our Team at Eastleigh to take a few of the older street guys down there with some posts and sheet metal and shore it up. What is important in this story is that this is the grandmother who did not want him. When our Team members first helped Titus get off the streets, they found his grandmother to talk about where he would live and see if she would sign off on him. But she said, "Titus is worthless..he will just run away," and she refused to sign. But there was another grandson, and she signed off on him. He came to Kamulu but soon ran away. But Titus is still with us, and now he wants to help his grandmother. I would say that good things have happened to that young man.

So...I'm happy today, in Jesus Christ I'm happy today....because my friends are blessed.

Have a blessed day