Celebrate!

Today was a day for celebration. We know you all at home are stocking up on your watermelons, hamburgers, hotdogs and sparklers, here we were singing a different tune. At the Nairobi International School of Theology we, as in LIA, hosted a going away and commemoration celebration. The Mi2ers and other LIA staff also went to a unique pre-marital gathering as well.

First up, the former LIA Kenya director of two and a half years, Dr. Steve Muhindia was congratulated for moving on in his ministry, we as a team are looking forward to meeting up with him again when he joins the medical camp in Makueni.

Secondly, we were sending Joseph and Alice Mulaa off from their work in Thika, Kenya to work with the Bethal Church organization in Jamaica. Let’s start off by saying they are in good hands. Pastor Dean has been staying with us. He leads the team there in Jamaica and was coming to start the transition process for the Mulaas. These native Kenyans are not strangers to foreign missions. Previously they stayed in Cairo, Egypt for two and a half years, shortly in Uganda, a stint in Rwanda, and then to Thika where they were serving with LIA and praying for the call to go once again. They insisted to God that they go before they hit their “prime” time to settle down during the middle of their life. “Settling means you are done, let us never settle, even if we are in the same place for 50 years or more”, Joseph said. The call came, when the opportunity to spread the holistic gospel message was begged for by the Jamaican Church. This small island has the highest amount of per capita churches and homicides. Something is going wrong. 70% unemployment wreaks havoc on the land. They need the church to come back to life and give life that only Jesus can give, as well as an abundant life on this earth.

Sad statement of the day, was referring to this church gone cold scenario. A pastor prayed, “Let our Kenyan Church not grow tired and dead like the Churches in Europe and America”. The “God Bless America” was playing several notches softer in my head thereafter, very sad realization.

Talk about hearing the call. Alice had a story that I wish I could replicate. She wrote in her journal of a dream over four years ago while in Egypt that her mind had forgotten. After struggling through their decision between Finland and Jamaica and the end result was the island nation, but her heart was still weary. For some clarity she was going back and searching her notes. Four days into the year 2005 she found a dream that she was going to a Caribbean country to minister to couples punctuated with a question mark. Talk about affirmation. What I have noticed is that when you are spending that much time close to God, it isn’t hard to hear his voice.

Lastly, but surely not least, Gus and Rose(LIA staff) are getting married on Aug 8th. Since we will be flying back that day and unable to make the ceremony, we wanted to be as much a part of the preparations as possible. Tonight they had a special committee meeting. Once a week the planners meet up in the back room of a fast food restaurant. This week, family, friends, co-workers and guests were invited to join. It was much cooler than a bridal shower, but I’ll start there to get a picture going in your mind. We all crammed in a room, they had an MC, he introduced a particular group, and then they gave. Pretty simple actually, but of course this gets more interesting. Everyone was dressed up. The person who gave the most got to be the guest of honor. And the conclusion was the auction of some root vegetables. Just to let you know, Holly couldn’t resist, and won the largest arrow root.

It has been such a pleasure to get to experience so many cool things. These events don’t just happen every day at LIA, but are rewarding to witness when they do occur. We had fun, inspiring, and laughter-filled time with our international family today.

Nathaniel (Thats what Gus likes to call me now)