Sunday, September 29, 2013

September Happenings

This month has been an amazing month altogether.

First, our Kid's Festival was a huge success. We were all worried on Monday when only a handful of people showed up and lingered around during the day. Tuesday was the exact opposite: over 100 guests were on our premises. It was far more than any of us anticipated and was a bit of a scramble for us to find the resources for food, silverware, and entertainment for the overwhelming amount of kids. Wednesday and Thursday kept pace with dozens more people than our expectations. Overall, it was a wonderful outreach to the community and excellent advertising for our school. We sent out newsletters earlier this month chronicling the Festival events, email us if you would like to be part of those updates. :)

Westgate was also a big situation this month. For those that haven't heard, about a dozen people entered the mall and shot bystanders. About 70 were killed. The mall is a very prestigious business in our city and attracts many upscale tourists and residents. Jeff was there four days before the incident, he was meeting with our boss at Urban Burger. Praise God he was protected that day!

We finished our language study on Friday. We were sad to wrap up our classes with our wonderful teacher. He invited us to his house the weekend before (which happened to be the same weekend the Westgate incident happened). We visited, looked at old photographs, and talked about life with him and his wife. We were served a large pizza dish full of spaghetti, Ethiopian injera, goat meat, hard boiled eggs, and whole bananas. Our teacher laughed and applauded me for sucking the marrow out of the goat bone. It was a wonderful time.

We were able to pray for the Westgate victims with our teacher during our final week. He was impressed that we prayed for the shooters as well as the families. But of course! How could we ignore those who are living in favor of those passed on?

For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. ~ Romans 14:9

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ~ Romans 5:8

Please continue to pray for those families and friends who are mourning, the shooters and their salvation, as well as the indirect victims of this aftermath. Because Al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for this event there innocent people have been arrested in Eastleigh. They are taken to jail for no crime or cause. They are often victims of extortion.

We have begun teaching ESL classes in the afternoons for 9-week another term. Jeff has more advanced students while I work with the beginning level. It's a challenge trying to explain words such as "to like" and "to do" without words! I thoroughly enjoy my students... I am teaching the only available "mixed class" (both men and women). One student wants to be president of Somalia one day! I think he is coaxing me into correcting his campaign speech sentence by sentence. :) 

Nairobi life has been good. Rain fell heavy for about a week straight and the muddy sidewalks were slippery like ice. Our apartment complex has been peaceful since school has started for most kids. We miss our family, friends, and spiritual brothers and sisters on the other side of the ocean. Still, every day we count to be a blessing here. Praise HIM!