Ejoka,
That’s a typical greeting in Turkana.
This is Josh. J
First allow me to say hello and I love
you to my beautiful wife and kids back at home! I miss you!
Okay. Well, we haven’t had internet
for a few days now since Saturday so here is our update from Sunday.
-------------
Praise God I’m feeling better! This
morning we went to a church that our host and leader Thomas planted about 3
years ago in an “Internally Displaced Persons” camp. They call it the IDP
Church. The camp is full of Turkana people that fled their homes in the
interior of the country during violent elections in 2007. Many people were
killed during that time so families in the camp are missing husbands, fathers,
brothers, children. There are lots of children that don’t have any parents.
They fend for themselves or if they are lucky someone in the camp might help
take care of them. But they are not getting any education.
The orphanage that we have been
visiting for the past 3 days called House of Hope has 7 kids that have come out
of that camp so far. They live at the orphanage and are getting education.
Thomas shared with us that there are still so many kids left that they would
like to get out of the camp and send to school. Pray that money will be donated
so House of Hope can “adopt” these kids and provide a future for them.
We arrived at church and they were
already singing praise songs. There were all the kids from House of Hope, a few
of the staff ladies and then about 40 people from the IDP camp. They sat us in
the front and then had the children’s choir sing some special music. They also
had a teen/adult choir that sang special music for us too. We enjoyed ever
second of that beautiful music!
 |
| Church at the IDP Camp |
Pastor Jacob, who has been there since
Thomas planted the church 3 years ago, spoke. There was a 15 year old boy who did
some preaching too! Pastor Jacob explained how joyful and thankful they were to
have us in their church. He stated that we were all one family in Jesus. They
people shouted, “Amen” and cheered. Every believer in Christ we have met here
has welcomed us with such joy and celebration. They have incredible energy and
faith.
 |
| Pastor Jacob and his wife, Miriam |
Then, they invited us to introduce
ourselves. A few of the team shared how much they loved being here and how
thankful we are to be with our Kenyan brothers and sisters in Christ. They
invited me to preach and God gave me the energy to share a word. I spoke for
about 15 minutes while Thomas translated. At the end I told them that we would
take their pictures and their names back to our home and will not stop praying
for them. When I was done speaking everyone wanted their picture taken! Haha I
think they were excited that we would want to remember them and pray for them.
After the service we were going to go
back to the Lodge where we are staying but the Land Rover broke down again. We
at least made it to the orphanage, which is close to the church, where we could
trade for an old pickup truck. About 2 miles down the road the pickup truck
broke down too! So we called a taxi and waited for about 30 minutes on the side
of the road in the shade till he came and took us back to the lodge. What a
crazy day!
We rested until Thomas arrived with
the pickup truck newly repaired, and returned to House of Hope to play with the
children. We started by teaching them a few English bible songs with motions
and then I asked them to teach us some of their songs. They had a good time
laughing at us as we mispronounced most of their Turkana lyrics. Then I asked
them to teach us some of the games they play. The first game was just like
duck-duck-goose and then a few games they taught us involved singing and
clapping. Once again they giggled while we gave it our best effort. I love
those experiences in another country!
 |
| Singing with the kids at House of Hope |
It’s days like today that remind me
why I lead short-term mission teams. I must confess that while I was laying in
bed sick all day on Friday I wondered if I just wasn’t cut out for missions
anymore. I seem to get sick a lot lately when I travel. But after a few hours
of prayer and silence I heard one thing; if you are going to do something in
life that matters it will always come with sacrifice. It’s as though God
encouraged me that this trip matters even more then I know. It made a mark on
eternity for the lives of not only the people we came to minister too but to
the students on our team as well. If I have to get sick then it is still worth
it to be able to lead a group of young guys and girls into such a life as this.
A life that doesn’t sit on the couch of self-focused faith, but into a life
that goes and does the will of God wherever, whenever, and at whatever cost.
This is the call of God to all our hearts. If you aren’t sacrificing something
then you aren’t living for what is eternal.
I’d do it all over again even knowing
that I would get sick.
God has done incredible things in and
through each student on our team. I have seen each of them using their heart
and their gifts to bless the people here. I have also seen God changing their
hearts. The ministry part of our trip is done. We will travel to our place of
debrief and rest tomorrow. But the ministry that God has done in our hearts is
not over yet. There are still many chapters in our book yet to be written by
the hand of God.... It’s just starting to get good.
Prayer:
Pray for us as we travel back to the
US on Wednesday/Thursday.
Pray that we will not stop listening
to the word of God in our hearts.
Pray that God will give us clarity
about what is our next step and where to go from here individually.
Looking forward to seeing you all soon
and sharing our incredible journey!
Josh Harris
