two of two extremely tardy kenyan blog posts
“-and somewhere in the silence, [He] replied, ‘I think it’s time to move on’. ”
//
Intricately
adverb // in a very complicated or detailed manner
Simple
adjective // easily understood or done; presenting no difficulty
// plain, basic, or uncomplicated in form, nature, or design
Before stepping into the calling of full-time ministry [and significantly before the World Race], the Holy Spirit dropped these two words combined on my heart and mind. This was towards the beginning of my long journey on this side of Heaven learning more about the heart of the Father for His children.
“If the enemy can’t make you a bad person, he will make you a busy one.”
The closer I grow to the Lord the more this statement gifted to me a long time ago has become true. There is a never-ending chaos that tempts us towards believing that we ‘have to’ live an unrested, multi-tasking, jam-packed, horns honking, whistles blowing life. This lie is one of many that makes life and anything that happens in it feel anything but simple.
But, contrary to this, because we are children of the Most High King, our Father calls, commissions, and equips us to live a full and abundant life within the upside-down Kingdom. He partners with us through the Great Helper, the Holy Spirit, who lives inside of us to guide and lead us to share His love with the world through the power of the simple gospel.
We were only about one month into the Race, and [I thought] my life could not have felt more complex! Old habits, temptations, unmet expectations that I didn’t know that I had set, assumptions that I had built up, and my unfortunate ability to beat myself up- were all giving it their utmost and greatest effort to lead my eyes astray from the ONE reason, the ONE thing, the ONE person that could get me to even go on such an adventure like this in the first place, JESUS!
Him being EVERYTHING = A beautifully, intricately simple life on this side of Heaven
Honestly, I believe that as much as I was fed up with the ongoing war between my head and heart, I was equally as exhausted dealing with it.
[At this point in the race, I had very little recognition of just how much control I had taken back from the Lord.]
This truly was the beginning of what felt like a LONG spiral of events that had me deep in my thoughts and had me questioning down to the smallest detail of a motive within my heart.
“If this life is supposed to be simple and You’re supposed to handle the intricate, why does everything feel about sixteen times more complicated than ‘what it should be’?”
“If You’re simple and Your love is simple and Your freedom is simple, then why am I not free from the things tormenting my dreams?”
Well- [again typing this from retrospect] at this point, I felt like I had walked myself right into the middle of the war zone and out of the restful hands of our Perfect Father.
[Which would end up affecting my journey through the race up until this moment where I am sitting now!]
“Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth,
do you not perceive it?” – ISAIAH 43: 18-19
The Lord had met me in an intense moment of confirmation about venturing towards “taking the lap” [aka The World Race] with this verse when Christine Caine spoke during the last session of Passion Conference 2024. In a very similar sense, this verse was repeated over me and my teammates almost daily by Mama Nancy, our Kenyan host. And neither of these women were in the slightest bit wrong about the new things heading my way…
The Holy Spirit began stirring and revealing revelation after revelation about generational curses over my family, spiritual gifts that I had been neglecting out of fear, spiritual oppression that had seeped its way into my roots, etc.
Passivity, avoidance, self-defensiveness, self-protection, and self-preservation were some of the few bigger lies that had been [what felt like] falsely woven into my DNA that were now made known. Other lies that I had come into agreement with at some point in my life such as insecurity, pride, ego, and impurity began to rise to the surface as the Lord began breaking chains and inviting me deeper into the discipline of renewing my mind EVERY SINGLE MORNING! And not renewing my mind with the ‘simple truths’ of this world- but instead, renewing my mind WITH the strength and power of the Holy Spirit as He sings and breathes the simple gospel over me.
The simple gospel, the sharpest, fiery double-edged sword that can and does cut through any and every single lie that I ever believed about myself as long as I let it do its job!
In a nutshell, Kenya was easily one of the harder countries that I got to live on this adventure. From acclimating to full-time missionary life, learning how to hand wash all my laundry, and trusting the Lord to deal with the little things, such as, bed bugs all the way to the bigger things like using my fellow team and squad mates to help heal and redeem past relationships that caused a lot more trauma and damage than I would still care to admit- the Lord very graciously brought me through and taught me a whole lot about myself and revealed His love to me on an even more intimate level!
All of that to say, I LOVED Kenya and all of its ups, downs, mishaps, and miracles. Getting to live life with the sweet girls and Mama Nancy of New Dawn Ministry, pressing in with the strength and grace of the Lord as one of the Logistics Coordinators for Kenyan debrief with Jackson Carter [shout out! logistics yuh- logistics yuh!], visiting and worshipping with the Isiolo House of Prayer, riding countless hours on the back of our friend, Newton’s boda boda, discovering the BEST passion fruit iced tea in all of Africa at Iman’s Cafe, casting out and pushing back the darkness by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and laughing until our stomachs would cramp and our eyes were filled with tears with Team Barefoot Children- those are memories I wouldn’t change for the world and will spend the rest of my life grateful for!
PRAISE GOD!
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