Awaken

“Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, 

and Christ will shine on you.”

Ephesians 5:14

 The month of May has been a season of remembering. I’m getting ready to move back to the States in August. Goodness, it is definitely a bittersweet feeling to wrap up time in Kenya and with BlueSky, but I’m trusting God as I know He holds my future and the season that is ahead! As I remember and look back on the past two years, I’m reminded of all the powerful and mighty works that God has done. I remember all the ways that the Gospel has gone forth, and is continuing to permeate the international community in Nairobi! I’m so thankful.

 I would love to share every story with you, but here are a few highlights from this past semester:

•  By God’s grace, my Covenant Groups have continued to grow! This semester I have had the joy to invest in about 35 girls through small group bible studies on a weekly basis. What’s even more amazing is that a few of these High School girls are now going to be Covenant Group leaders for Middle School girls next year! It has been so fun to watch these girls grow in their relationship with Jesus. In turn, they now want to share their faith with others to multiply the Kingdom and make more disciples.

• Inara, a Muslim girl who I’ve become friends with, has started coming to Covenant Group each week. It’s definitely been a highlight of the semester to share the Gospel with her each week, and be able to connect her with other girls who are following Jesus. I’m thankful that I’ve been able to walk with her through difficult situations with family and friends this year. We have had some meaningful conversations about life and what it means to follow Jesus. She is still searching and trying to figure out what she believes for herself. Recently, she told me that she wants to know more about Jesus—I can’t wait for her to know him personally and intimately in the Lord’s perfect timing. 

• God has allowed me to continue coaching basketball at Premier Academy and be a part of the Indian community in Nairobi. Fridays have always been my favorite day of the week because I get to be a light in the darkness of the Hindu/Muslim community at this school. Each week I’ve been able to invite kids to BlueSky and share the love of Christ with them.

• One week at basketball club, I was given the chance to invite my high school friend, Rhea, to join us on a Youth retreat. Rhea and I met at Camp and have become close friends since she joined basketball club. She came on the retreat with us, and had a blast white water rafting and meeting new friends from different schools. Now, Rhea and her 2 younger brothers, who come from a Hindu family, come to BlueSky Youth every Sunday night. They are connecting with the Gospel each week and are making new friends who are following Jesus. They are also excited to come to Camp BlueSky this summer!

• Many new relationships have been formed through Climb BlueSky— BlueSky’s rock climbing gym that opened this year. Tons of the students who come to the gym to rock climb are now getting plugged into our Youth program and hearing the Gospel weekly.

God is so good, and we have so much to be thankful for!!!

Camp is quickly approaching and I’m SO excited to serve the multinational kids in Kenya and East Africa this summer! Our first session begins TOMORROW! I’m so thankful for this incredible opportunity to share the Gospel with so many children from so many different countries. I’m especially excited about the students from Premier who I’ve been praying for over the past couple of years who will come to Camp BlueSky.

The camp theme this year is “Awaken.” Our theme verse is Ephesians 5:14, “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” I cannot wait to see what the Lord is going to do through Camp as students are awakened to the Gospel!

Please pray for Camp:

• Pray that these students would be AWAKENED to love and beauty of Jesus Christ, and that lives would be changed for eternity. Please pray that the Spirit would open up numerous doors for our team to have conversations with campers. Pray for courage and boldness to proclaim Christ in words and actions.

• Please pray with us that God would awaken the hearts of these campers so they can know Jesus and finished work of the cross. Pray that His will would be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Pray that God would receive all the glory, that these children would walk in the light, and that God would breath life into their souls.

Thank you for all the ways you have invested in me the past two years as I’ve been a part of the BlueSky team in Nairobi!! Thank you, thank you!! Thank you so much for investing in students like Rhea, Inara, and so many others by supporting my work in Kenya through prayer and financial support.  

 The first week of Camp BlueSky is in full motion! 

We are having so much fun playing games, singing songs, 

making new friends, and learning about the LOVE of Jesus!! 

GREAT ESCAPE!!

Arriving at Great Escape!!

YL and BlueSky Leaders

 

 

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Thank you so much for your prayers for the Great Escape a couple weeks ago!  I’m excited to share with you some of the things God did in the hearts of students that week!   It was so much fun to work with the Young Life East Africa team—and fun for our students to get to meet theirs! We had a blast together! I had 5 girls in my cabin and saw that God met each girl right where she was. One of the girls named Tapkili, who is about to go to college, was FULL of questions. She asked questions all over the spectrum from questions about my own life, to questions about Jesus and what it means to follow him. Needless to say, she is searching for truth, and it was awesome to see God working on her heart! It was beautiful to see how God spoke truth over her, and I watched as he pursued his beloved daughter—Please continue to pray for Tapkili as she is continuing to seek the Lord and ask questions.

Pool Olympics!

  

 

Another girl named Mimi is in my covenant group (small group Bible study) and I watched as God worked on her heart as well! Earlier this semester she went on a trip to Denmark and brought me back a journal as a gift. She asked if we could write to each other each week, so she could ask questionsabout what we were learning in covenant group. Ever since then, we have been journaling back and forth about her faith and questions that she has. I’ve been blessed to get to walk alongside her this semester. But this week at the Great Escape she had the opportunity to stand up and tell everyone that she had made a decision to have a relationship with Christ! I was overjoyed!! I’m excited to continue going deeper with her this semester in our Bible study!

Santa came to camp. haha!

Crud wars!

YOLO SPELF

(You Only Live Once, South Pole Elves Live Forever)

awesome skits for the week!

After the ‘Cross Talk’ we had 20 minutes of silence under the stars for the kids to be alone and talk to God. There was one student from Tanzania from a Muslim background who had an incredible experience with God. The whole week he was quiet during their cabin times and did not want to talk. But that night after the 20 minutes he said that in his time alone he saw Jesus’ face in the moon as he looked up into the sky. As he finished talking, his younger brother, who was also in their cabin, was encouraged to share as well. He also opened up and realized that even though they were from a Muslim background,they could talk about Jesus!! Huge breakthrough!   On the last day of camp, the speaker was talking about the scripture in John 10 where Jesus says that he is the ‘gate’ or door…and that “all who come in and go out will find pasture”… The speaker had a door on stage that day and invited all the students who had made a commitment to follow Jesus thisweek to come up on stage and walk through the door. 20 out of the 38 students who were at camp stood up and made a public confession of their faith! The two brothers stood up and walked through, as well as Mimi and so many others! I was seriously awestruck at what Jesus did that week!!!! I’m so thankful and rejoicing in what God did, and am looking forward to the ways he will continue to work in the lives of these high school student.  I am blessed that I got to be a part of it all.

The prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective! James 5:15

Thank you for praying- it sustains us in ways that we cannot know. Thank you so much for your prayers and for being such a big part of what God is doing here in Kenya!