Lots of Praise!!!

Hello, friend! My squad arrived to Kenya on August 10th from Ethiopia!

We spent our first four days there doing orientation with a world race alumni, Megan, and her husband, Eric. Megan and Eric had such incredible wisdom and shared numerous teachings with my squad. Those four days were so sweet and such a time of refreshment and reminding ourselves of the commitment we made.

In Kenya, we split into three new teams. On the team I was with, Golden Girls, was Sarah, Amanda, Mandy, and Ava. On team Radiant, was Alex, Abby, Ella, and Lillie. And last but not least, our men’s team, Brothers United to Triumph, which was Michael, John, Brice, Coby, and Aaron.

(Ava, Amanda, me, Mandy, and Sarah)

One of the activations that we did on our last day of orientation was called a treasure hunt. Each team took some time and prayed into the day and asked God to show us what He wanted us to find.

Sarah saw stars on a shirt. Ava saw the color blueish purple and was reminded of her aunt who would talk to strangers at stores just to make them smile. And I saw the image of a little boy’s face smiling at me.

After we finished praying, our team set off into Nairobi to try to find what we saw. Golden Girls decided to start off at a nearby mall.

One of the first stores we walked into had a cashier who was wearing a blue sweater and purplish leggings! Ava and Amanda started talking to her and we were able to talk to her about our faith, answer some of the questions she had, and share our testimonies with her! She even decided to share some of her story with us as well!! It was such a sweet conversation and lasted for about 2 hours!!

After talking to her, we ended up outside. As we were walking by on the sidewalk, a group of young adults grabbed us and brought us to their bracelet stand! As we started talking to them, we learned that they were Christians and born again!! Praise God!!

One of the guys asked us to preach a message and then to pray for them and that’s when we realized that he was wearing a shirt with stars on it!! Sarah preached a short message and then I prayed over the group!!

We didn’t end up seeing the little boy that the Lord showed me that day but just wait!!

~

Golden Girls served with an organization called Eden’s Hope which was located in Nairobi and created by a woman named Haley, who was also an American!

Eden’s Hope runs a holiday program for children where they provide 2 meals and teach them about the Bible, a discipleship and education program for teen mothers, a discipleship program for parents of the children who come to the holiday program, and a school program where they provide food once a week and teach the students about the Bible.

For the four weeks we were doing ministry in Kenya, my team was fortunate enough to help with all of them!

When we first arrived to Eden’s Hope from orientation, we were thrown into ministry right away. Our host, Haley, asked each of us to go into a classroom. There were seven available. Each of the other four girls on my team had a preference on where to go but I didn’t, so I said I would go wherever. The only two classrooms left were the 7th and 8th grade class and the 3rd and 4th grade.

I decided that I would go into the 3rd and 4th grade room. Once I got in, the two teachers, Ian and Miriam, had me introduce myself and then had me sit down. There were probably about 70 children sitting on the floor, packed into a tiny classroom. Once the kids settled down and got back to their lesson, I began to survey the room, starting on the opposite side of the class and ending at the kids right next to me.

Do you remember that little boy that I had mentioned, that the Lord had shown me a picture of the day before, when we were praying into my team’s treasure hunt??

Well, he was sitting right next to me, smiling at me, exactly as the Lord had shown me!!!

There was such a joy, wonder, and peace that filled my heart as the Lord brought that picture back to mind, the exact image of the little boy in front of me!

Isn’t that so cool?!

God is so good!

My team helped with the holiday program for 2 weeks! During that time we would help teach, serve food, and wash dishes! Each day, Eden’s Hope had about 300 kids attend the program!

During those two weeks, I was able to talk to that little boy and find out his name! He was so precious and sweet! I’m not sure why the Lord showed me that boy during the treasure hunt, but I have been keeping him and his family in my prayers!

~

In Kenya, I discovered how much I enjoyed teaching and discussing scripture!

Every Saturday, Eden’s Hope runs their discipleship program for the parents and teen mom’s which we were able to help run.

Amanda and Ava helped run the group for teen mom’s and Mandy and Sarah helped run the group for the older moms. I would float between.

One Saturday in particular, I joined Sarah and Mandy to help lead a Bible study on the story of Leah and Rachel in Genesis 29. Originally, I was very nervous and felt like I didn’t have anything of value to add. BUT I ended up loving it!!

The Holy Spirit really spoke through me and impressed specific things upon my heart to share with the women from Leah’s story. When they had questions, He gave me the answers for them! Praise God!!

The staff and volunteers at Eden’s Hope were really open to discussing and debating theology which provided a lot of awesome opportunities for my team and I to really dig into and defend what we believe and why we believe it.

Each conversation was always so fruitful, edifying, and honestly tons of fun!!

Another opportunity that I had to teach was at one of the local schools! We were able to go once a week for our last two weeks and each of us were assigned a classroom. I was given the 3rd and 4th grade classroom! 

The first week I taught on the second coming of Jesus from the book of Matthew, and the second week, I taught on the Good Samaritan.

The kids in that class were absolute sweethearts! They were all so eager to learn more of the Bible and to ask questions!! It was so awesome and precious!

The kids loved our time together so much that they would shout “make this your classroom” over and over again, haha!

 

And the last opportunity I had to teach was during our debrief! I had the opportunity to share a teaching with my squad! I shared on choosing hunger over complacency!

In all of these instances, I was so nervous beforehand but each time, the Lord showed up faithfully without fail and taught me to lean increasingly more into boldness!!

~

While in Kenya, we also had the opportunity to do house visits in one of the largest slums in the world and the largest slum in Africa, Kibera.

While we were there, we visited two families. The first family we visited was the mother of one of the high school students who was involved at Eden’s Hope, who was sick with terminal cancer and given one month left to live. The second family was of one of the volunteers at Eden’s Hope. We were able to share a word of encouragement with both families and to pray for them.

Being invited into their homes and hearing their stories was so impactful and something that I will never forget.

It was such an honor to be able to cover them in prayer and speak life over them and their circumstances.

~

At the end of our time in Kenya, my squad had our last on-the-field debrief which was located in Diani!

We were so blessed to have a debrief location that was right on the Indian Ocean!! It was absolutely gorgeous there and so peaceful!! I’ve never seen water so blue and sand so white!

Even though my squad was “off the clock” for debrief, there was so much ministry that happened on that beach! Every single person shared the gospel at least once with people we encountered on the beach, prayed with them, and even gave away food!! It was so awesome to think back to our very first debrief in Thailand and compare, and see how much the Lord had grown each of us since then and softened our hearts for His Kingdom!

Everyone has truly learned how to walk out a missional lifestyle!!

On our last day of debrief, my squad decided to do baptisms at sunrise in the ocean! It was such a special and beautiful moment!!

There were five of us who decided to get baptized, Ava, Lillie, Coby, Sarah, and…me!!!!

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Video of my baptism!

At the beginning of Kenya, Lillie had a picture of Brice being healed after he baptized someone. After 10 weeks of being unexplainably sick, two countries, and 7 or 8 hospital visits, Brice was miraculously healed after he baptized Sarah and I! That morning, he walked into the ocean sick and walked out completely healed!! Praise God!!

His health has been completely restored and he has been testifying of this healing everywhere that we go in Uganda!

~

If you would like to pray, here are some prayer points:

– For God to provide the funds needed for Eden’s Hope’s budget for the upcoming year;

– For Haley, the staff, and volunteers at Eden’s Hope, that they would receive fresh revelation and encouragement from the Lord and that their ministry would continue to be fruitful and that God would continue to use them to be a light to their community and draw hearts nearer to Him;

– For supernatural and miraculous healing for the mother with terminal cancer and for provision, comfort, and peace for her family; and

– My squad is currently battling a lot of sickness since being in Uganda, specifically my team, Fresh Wind. There are several people who are sick from serious bacteria and viral infections, myself included. Prayers for healing and good health for the remainder of the time we have on the field would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you for reading!!

Stay tuned for some testimonies from the last few weeks in Uganda!!

Joyfully His,
Areonah