Fresh Air and a Renewed Vision..

Yesterday we got to get out of the city for awhile!!! It was so nice…we hadn’t realized how tired we were of noise, traffic, pollution, and busyness until we got away. AIM has/had a division called AIM Tech that was based out of the city, on the outskirts of Nairobi. The reason I say had is because last year the main building burned down, and now they’re trying to figure out where God is leading, and what changes they should be making. James goes out there about once a month or so, to make sure that the property is being looked after properly and to visit and pay the men that take care of the property. He asked if Trevor and I wanted to come along…and of course we did!! They left work at about 3:00, came and picked me up, and off we went! Along the way, we stopped at a few different places…James would point out different areas that are Kikuyu country or Luo country…and how these places were affected during the election violence earlier this year. So many sad stories…so many lives that were ruined or completely up-rooted…so many hard feelings. Driving through just gave me this funny feeling…all the things we heard about on the news…it happened right here. This is where reconciliation needs to happen…this is where people need the Lord…this is where families lost everything…It’s given us a lot of food for thought.
The area where AIM Tech is based is so beautiful…lots of trees, rolling hills, not so city-like, but more village-style living…it felt so peaceful and calm. We got to meet a few men who work there, and gave them snacks of bread and coke. Walking around the property…seeing the burned-out building…it was so sad! Just last year it was full of people and activity, lots of things were happening, families were living there…and now the main building is just a shell of what it once was…you could almost feel all the memories that the property holds…and now it’s like a ghost town…deserted. It was a really neat time of discussion with James, talking about the vision AIM has, talking about where God is leading his life, and where God may be leading us. He is really encouraging us to go up-country, to go see people up north, to take a week here and there to help out where needed (and believe me…Trevor is needed in any and all of these places! So many of them are desperate for good mechanics.), and to just really get the experience and see the bigger picture of AIM outside of the city of Nairobi. We are so excited…we will be taking a few trips up to Hurri Hills, which is in Kenya, but right up by the Ethiopian border…a desert place, tribal, semi-unreached people group, hot…very different from where we are right now. James has also really encouraged us to take advantage of the invitations we get to go to southern Sudan, go to all of these places if at all possible…he said that even helping out for a week would be such an encouragement to the missionaries who work in these remote places. The future goal of the Tam shop is to possibly put a mechanic up in these places, maybe even a “travel mechanic” who goes wherever needed…to give the much needed support to the missionaries. It’s exciting to get in on the ground floor of the brainstorming and planning, to see the vision, to catch the fire…Trevor has been really encouraged, knowing that the skills God has given him are useful, and are very needed out here in the mission field, and that he can be a part of building the Kingdom of God in this way. God is so good!!
On our way home, we decided to have supper together. We went to Village Market…it’s a mall, but definitely not your average cookie cutter building…it’s all open, you can see the sky, little buildings everywhere that connect, waterfalls…it’s so neat!! It’s a nice place to go visit if you need to get away for a bit! Everything is too expensive for us to buy, but it’s fun to just walk around and enjoy it! It’s also about a half-hour drive from where we live, so not a place that we’ll be frequenting on a regular basis.
So…that’s a bit of a taste of where we’re at right now in our hearts…being excited that God is doing great things, seeing possible future opportunities, and just wanting to join God in the work that He is already doing..it’s scary..but wonderful at the same time! We really want to make the most of this year..and though we are missing home..we really don’t want to wish our year away..to wish we were at home with family..but to really just see this for the amazing opportunity that it is…we get to be in Kenya!! We get to experience new things!! We get to meet all these amazing people!! We get to be a part of what God is doing here!! Wow!
We do also have a few prayer requests as well:
-please keep praying for ministry opportunities for me…I am trying to not get anxious, but I do really want to get involved in kids ministry soon…please pray for direction and divine appointments..
-pray for Trevor…he is trying to be very deliberate about building relationships with the people he comes into contact with at work…just pray for lasting relationships..
-continue to pray for safety
-and I think most important…pray that we would have sensitive hearts, and that we would always be open to the Lord’s leading, and that we would be people that He can use to further His Kingdom..
Much Love..
~A