I've found my place...I am finding His place in me
Every day the only thing I'm beginning to seek is that place...
What are you saying to me God? Daddy, what are you saying about me? I'm hanging onto every word that you whisper because that's all that seems to matter anymore. I sit in these intimate places "like the watchman waits for dawn" just waiting for You to come and when it happens it's the only time life makes sense, it's the only time I am completely fulfilled and satisfied to a place where words don't fit.
There is a holy rumbling inside of me...
How does my mouth express beauty that my heart can't fathom?
My heart breaks Lord, my heart is on the ground broken into all the pieces of the people around me who don't know You like I have been blessed to witness and pursue. I know that You wait for them in the secret place, in the quiet place...please use me to lead them there.
I don't care if they seek that place with their whole heart or if they stumble into it...my heart yearns for them to just have ONE beautiful, furious, ravishing, transforming, graceful head on collision with their true Father. A wreck that knocks off all of the rusty JUNK (to put it lightly) of this world and the most prevailing explosion of LOVE defines the encounter...
Wrecked by love, the places they've built sitting in pieces on the ground, completely discarded for the new foundation that for the first time makes sense, for the first time fulfills, for the first time seems right and worth leaving this world behind...
The foundation that's been there since the beginning, the foundation that has been draped with earthly, unauthentic, forced adornments and has been waiting for years to be unveiled and rebuilt to the building it was meant to be, the Holy structure it was destined for.
I'm starting to understand that I've been defiling that bed for so long...I've been telling God that I love that spot as my flesh keeps scouring the world looking for something here that will equally satisfy. As I try to understand Heaven with my right hand, my left tries frantically to keep a house on this earth, just in case. I'm trying to cheat...I want God but I want easy, I want answers, I want something that makes sense that I can control.
Finally He is breaking through and revealing the foundations and I finally get it...He's enough, He's enough, He's enough, He's enough. In my secret place I don't want ANYTHING else...just Him. I don't want Him and maybe money, I don't want Him and maybe a little life security, I don't want Him and a girlfriend, I don't want Him and maybe a little of ANYTHING...He's enough. He satisfies, He is more than enough. How can I look for things that ARE when He is the I AM??
Only You can quench the depths of the wellspring of my soul...I seek You and You alone
"It's amazing, it's amazing, it's amazing..." this was the phrase that was repeated time after time as we worked with an organization called Mission Possible in Bulgaria. This organization trains over 90% of the Sunday School teachers in the country and the Lord has spent the past few years directing them in many different directions to pursue His heart for this country. The building we were staying in is just a brief testament to the doors the Lord has started to open.
A few years ago one of the employees at Mission Possible had a friend who wanted him to look at a building about 3 hours away from their headquarters in Sofia, Bulgaria. When he went to visit the friend they had the opportunity to look at this building. It was an old government building but it is huge and it actually has land around it which is a rarity in the region. Upon looking at the property it was clear that there was no way they could afford it because of the size of the building, its condition and the fact that it was sitting on 5 acres of land.
As the question was posed whether or not they wanted to buy the land, as a shot in the dark they asked for the price. It was 160,000 Euros. This was way too expensive for what they had but the friend asked how much they would pay. They threw out around 35,000 Euros just to say they made an offer and went on not thinking anything of it. A few weeks later they received a call saying they would sell the property for the price.
Astonished and not expecting it to actually happen they had no idea what they would do, so as another measure to counter that and to reassure that they probably wouldn't get the building they asked for the land to be thrown in as well. To sell government owned land in this region and throughout most of Bulgaria is nothing short of impossible. The government likes to keep the land it has acquired even if it sells the property in and around it, and since this property was on nearly 4 acres of undeveloped land they thought there would be no way that it could happen, especially for the price.
A few months later...ACCEPTED
So as the Lord continued to open door after door they started to realize that maybe, just maybe, this was what the Lord was trying to pursue with them. After praying they came under the agreement that this new building would be a battered women's shelter and a place of refuge for girls involved in sex trafficking. They are also using it to have pastor's conventions, a youth camp in the summer, a few other Christian seminars and many other things that the Lord is beginning to reveal.
After purchasing the property a man called out of the blue one day and said... "Hey, could you use some beds??" WHAT??? (I can't get over how ridiculously good and faithful God has been throughout with this endeavor) YES we need beds. So the man, over a period of time donated over 60 beds. He asked if there was anything else they needed and they asked him if he would be able to build them cabinets.
The response?? Yeah just send me some blueprints of what you want and we'll get them to you as well. WHAT???
The property apparently was unable to grow grass, just weeds and dirt filled the open areas because the region also doesn't receive much rain. Wellllllll it started raining, and now they have some of the greenest grass around, it looks straight out of a magazine.
As I was there the guys and I were able to clean up around the property and tear down some of the old to build some of the new. To rip apart an identity that was trying to be built by man and restore it with the identity that the Lord has for this place. I can't wait to see more of God's plans for this place unfold and watch the Kingdom of Heaven continue to crash down and invade this broken country.
The other day we were travelling from Sofia, Bulgaria to another small town to meet with one of the teams. When we spoke they told me that we get on a bus and tell them to stop at Palmite even though the bus is designated to go to a place 30 minutes away called Taranova. So we are under the assumption that maybe the bus will stop in Palmite or we can just ask for it to stop in the town to let us off. We ask the bus driver if he knows where it is before we enter the bus...of course not, that'd be too easy.
We start the travelling and begin to realize that we should be getting close to Palmite so we call the team and now receive instruction that this much hyped and eagerly anticipated "Palmite" is actually just an intersection in the middle of nowhere. Sweet...
As we begin to look out of the windows, sure enough, we see Logan and his contact at this intersection trying to flag down a bus travelling at 80-100 kph. It was somewhat comical, but also disturbing because we knew that this contact wanted us to get off there. Logan proceeds to call us multiple times as his contact is saying, "Tell them to stop the bus, they are used to it...tell them to stop the bus"
As Lauren goes to the front to ask one of the bus employees she says, "Yes we will stop in ten minutes" Keep in mind this is the equivalent of a charter bus in the United States, not just some city bus. Based on previous trips and many bus rides we understand that they typically only stop once they reach a destination or for a pre-determined stop. With all of this in mind we were more than okay with another short 10 minute ride...one problem, our contact was NOT. After we relayed this information that it would stop in ten minutes he continued to tell us to just tell them to stop right there, "they HAD to do it"...well obviously they didn't, until James Bond took matters into his own hands. (I should offer the fact that this contact is a really a great guy and a man of God who continued to amaze me day after day as we worked alongside one another in his pursuit of the Lord and what the Lord is doing.)
The next thing we know, we see a car flying up beside the bus honking the horn and motioning the bus to pull over. When that proved ineffective, the car pulled in front of the bus and hit the brakes forcing the bus to pull over. A man got out of the car and was in an argument with the bus driver claiming he had "two people on the bus that he was there to pick up"
On the other side of the coin, Lauren and I were mortified...everyone on the bus knew this was for the two Americans and all eyes shifted to the back of the bus as we avoided eye contact with everyone, nervously laughed and gathered all of our things in a panic to get off the bus...I will add that I left my lovely new cell phone on this bus during all the hoopla...ehhh you win some you lose some right??
We eventually get off the bus, get all of our things from under the bus and spent the next 15 minutes recreating the event from everyone's perspectives and laughing the entire ride home. Yet another adventure on the World Race...I love this stuff.
So here I am out in the world again...loving it and getting confirmation after confirmation that this is where the Lord has me. This squad that we've been entrusted with is full of amazing men and women of God and I feel so flipping blessed for every day that I'm getting to spend with them. God is doing so much in each of them and that much more through them for His kingdom out here. The second night in Moldova something pretty crazy happened (which, oddly enough is what's becoming "normal" in my life) but I feel like it summarizes perfectly how our first two weeks have been in ministry.
So to set this thing up...the Greek Orthodox church is the predominant church throughout the country of Moldova. From everything we've been told they are very much into tradition and the priest holds all of the power in the church. The people are able to communicate to God through the priest and we've also been told that in many of the churches there are also idols such as figurines of Mary and other saints that are also worshipped. So with all of this in mind the Greek Orthodox church in the town we were in did not like the evangelical church...at all. Some even went so far as to say that we were a cult. Understandable considering we were going in with a message that threatened the position of one of the most powerful men in town...we were finally telling the people the truth that THEY could talk to God because of what Jesus did for them. That God was looking for a relationship with THEM...not just their priest.
Day 2...yes day 2 the Orthodox priest comes over to the church after dinner. Our pastor came in trembling because the priest was drunk and threatening to hit him with a brick because we were "stirring the waters" and he didn't like it. So after some chatting and the Lord being the peacemaker He is, the priest calmed down and even invited us to his church. By the way when I walked out and looked at this man he resembled a bear... a very large bear. Our pastor was still sweating bullets because he didn't know the purpose of the priest inviting us over. His first question to me as we got in the van, "Garrett is it okay to get persecuted tonight?" and the response... "Heck yeah let's do this thing"
The pastor proceeded to tell us he didn't know what the priest would do and he was very concerned but throughout it all the Lord gave me a tremendous peace with the situation, and what an experience for these men day 2 of the race right??? Okay that really didn't cross my mind but in hindsight..YESSSS this was awesome for them.
So we go down a creepy road and back into this broken down church. As we get out of the car I hear the comment from one of our guys, "There are people surrounding the car" to which the pastor responds "Oh my goodness start praying"
We follow the pastor into his church and it's really dark and he's still pretty drunk just showing us around. He then tells us that he's been upset because his church has many members but no one will help in rebuilding the church so he has been doing it all himself. We start praying over the church and praying for him and then he starts singing. The pastor later told us that he was singing about butterflies and trees and clouds but hey singing is singing right?? So we then just start belting out sounds as it echoes through this church and our voices all just started harmonizing and it was one of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard.
Then the pastor asks me to give this priest, Gregori, my testimony. It was amazing to be able to tell him everything the Lord has walked me through and shown me through our relationship. I was able to explain to him we were in Moldova to tell the people about that same beautiful, merciful, graceful, loving, ferocious God who desires to be in relationship with them and all the freedom that comes from that relationship. I asked about his family and he called them and invited them up to the church and we met his two sons and wife. Slowly the atmosphere in the room changed from one of chaos and fear to one of love and friendship. Gregori asked us if we could help him with some things the following week to which the pastor agreed. We even invited him to our church and I just heard that one week later he CAME to our church!!
There is so much more to this story but in the attempt to make it brief and readable I'll stop here. Please continue praying for our church and pastor (Vitali), for Gregori and his church and for restoration and redemption in Moldova.
We saw God turn something really bad into the beginnings of a beautiful relationship centered on bringing His Kingdom to Cornesti, Moldova. I love it...I love Him.
PS...this was just one event in a ridiculous first week of ministry so if you wanna hear more about it check out what happened in day 3 with my co-leader Lauren's blog... www.laurenwilliamson.theworldrace.org
Outside of this we just continued to clean up and help out around the factory today. They are letting Tyler and I use power tools, so that regularly leads to fun/near death experiences. We also had to stack boxes up in the warehouse and a misstep on a ladder nearly took out Tom and I and about 20 boxes. Lesson for the day "Don't put heavy boxes over your head on an unsteady ladder and if you do, never grab onto unsteady things in an attempt to catch yourself while falling"
The girls, outside of an intense game of wheelchair basketball...
were able to sort clothes today. I thought that they weren't being as efficient as possible and that someone needed to really put their foot down. So obviously I took on this responsibility to supervise them at one point this afternoon and the results were...
Okay so maybe all I ever do is decrease productivity at the factory so it's a good thing I have wonderful teammates to pick up the slack...and take pictures.
After we got back from the factory Tyler and I went to a local bar to watch some of the basketball games and to watch the first few rounds of the draft and God provided some awesome people for us to chat it up with while we were there. (Including the man who was asking us why the Mayans let the Spanish conquistadors "chop their heads off" when they invaded which was interesting, but entertaining nonetheless.) But yes we were able to talk to the bartender for a while and he was actually trying to find Hope Haven, our ministry, when he first arrived in Guatemala but could never find it. So he was very interested in what we were doing and tomorrow morning we are meeting him and he's coming to work with us at the factory! All in all, another excellent day...
The last days of the Race...it's so hard to believe that this journey is almost over. I haven't done quite the job I wanted to writing blogs so I'll go ahead and apologize for that but it looks like there can even be redemption in that...surprises to come!
So with all of this in mind I am going to make a conscious effort over the remaining days until I get home to write short blogs since I should have internet over the next few weeks and I am going to chronicle the daily adventures and what the Lord does is continuing to do here. It is such a beautiful thing to start coming to new places of dependency and intimacy with Him. I need Him...
Well no better time to start than the present right?
We are in beautiful Antigua, Guatemala and we have the opportunity to work with an organization called Hope Haven. The organization provides wheelchairs to children around the world and one of their main distribution centers is in Antigua. It has been such a blessing to be able to fit these children in their first wheelchairs and not only that but wheelchairs that are suited to their disabilities. Extremely rewarding to say the least. Another great thing about Hope Haven is that they are employing people at the factory who have disabilities which is such a blessing in their lives from the stories we hear because otherwise it's difficult for them to find work.
(At the factory during one of the wheelchair distributions)
This morning we headed out on our 5 minute walk to the factory and when we got there we just helped them check in some of the new inventory and arrange some of the new equipment that came with a shipment from the States last week. The very first thing I did was move a box which happened to have a coffee mug in front of it and it would have broken on the ground had it not been for my foot. Lesson for the day = "Don't wear sandals to the factory".
I'm starting to make friends at the factory and I am now dubbed "Gerrardo" because, as it is in every country, Garrett is too hard to pronounce. The people there are some of the happiest people I've met on the race and they absolutely love their jobs. One of the perks to working and even volunteering at Hope Haven is the post-lunch wheelchair basketball games.
After rearranging the shop they wanted us to "roughly" count all the nuts, hex bolts, carriage bolts, barbed t-nuts, washers...you get the picture. 13,208 nuts, 6345 hex bolts, 4994 carriage bolts, 8044 barbed t-nuts and 24,586 washers later we finished that little project up, and though these numbers look precise it can still be assumed that they were "roughly" counted. (We implemented some deductive reasoning, statistical methodology, and informed guessing) After all this was finished we came back home and they let me drive the van which is the first time I've driven since...Kenya, good thing expired licenses mean nothing here! (Mom I know you're reading this and I'm just kidding, I have 8 whole days of legal driving left)
That's about it for today. One of our teammates, Kris Tippett went home yesterday and we found out her boyfriend proposed to her at the airport so we've been stalking online to see the pictures. (Hint Hint Ms. Tippett) and we convinced the girls to let us watch a baseball game and they learned what the term extra innings means...don't think we'll be able to watch another one.
As soon as the kids we teach see us coming down the stairs in the mornings they immediately just run up and want to give you a hug or hang on your legs and arms. The look in their eyes is something that I wish everyone had the opportunity to experience. It's like the girls from the orphanage last month and the only way I know to describe it is...pure love. It seriously makes my heart melt every time they just look up and want to be spun around or they want to steal a glance from you to make sure you see what they're doing.
Hmmm...someone who just craves our attention and the look in their eyes is...pure love.
Sounds familiar...
I've gotten the chance to wake up quite a few mornings while we are here and watch the sunrise and pray and worship. It's been such an amazing time with God...it's not always about getting as much sleep in as possible, I got to the point where I realized that God was well worth me getting up for in the morning to spend time with. Sometimes in life it's not about making ourselves as comfortable as possible, it's about sacrificing because our God is absolutely worth it and He blesses us like crazy when we start serving Him more from a heart of sacrifice than a heart of abundance.
I realized that when I give my time to God...I do it out of a place of abundance. If I have extra time and I'm not doing something else then sure I'll give THAT time to God. When I tithe in church...I do it out of a place of abundance. If I have extra money after I pay for everything else...sure I'll give God a little of it. I'm tired of talking about God and it being such an empty thing. God this...God that..I love God and it having NO passion or no emotion behind it. People who get annoyed with praying because it's EMPTY. If people truly understood who God was then you wouldn't be able to stop us from talking about Him, His love would just pour off of our tongues, we would constantly seek out time to be able to talk to Him in prayer, true love would drive us to crazy extremes to show the world about our God. I think about how people act whenever they first get into a relationship and that person is the first person you think about when you wake up and the last person you think about before you go to bed. You are constantly bringing them up in conversation and would do absolutely anything to spend more time with them.
This is the type of love that God has started to draw me into over the last few months and it has been so blessed and rewarding. When I use God's name it's not just words coming out of my mouth as much anymore. When I hear prayer it's not just empty words that hit the ground. The words are now invoking emotions because there is a LOVE there. Not just loving God but being IN LOVE with God. I can sit before God and pray and experience His presence. I can see His hand in every aspect of my life, I can hear the words He is whispering to my heart, my soul is completely content when I'm on my face just listening to what my Father has to say to me. I feel the eyes of pure love just beaming down on me, I feel someone who craves my attention. And it's not always about the feelings because sometimes they aren't there but that's when true love kicks in. Even if the "feelings" aren't there...you just know. Even though I haven't seen my parents in months and there have been weeks on end where internet was so sparse I couldn't talk to them and have the "feelings" of their love...I KNEW they loved me...you just know.
I challenge everyone to get to that place because even though it can be uncomfortable, exhausting and at a constant place of "sacrifice" if you even want to call it that, it is the most fulfilled I've ever been in my life. If God is just a word for you and you throw it out without understanding Him then I challenge you to find Him. He's looking...I can guarantee you that. Christianity isn't a religion where you just have a reverence for God and keep Him on a pedestal and occasionally pray AT Him. Christianity is meant for relationship, He's meant to be with you. When I talk about my parents and my friends I KNOW who I'm talking about and it invokes an emotion when I mention their names...does God?? I'm tired of the emptiness, it's not how it was meant to be.
Hated the first 5 hours in the country and was ready to head back to Thailand. People tried to rip us off at the border and then held our bus captive for a few hours unless we or our bus company paid them...we made it...God is good!
Comical side of it...we had to load up the entire squad in a fleet of 15 tuk-tuk's to get across the city at the border to our bus. Tuk Tuks are a moped pulling a chariot-ish device that is covered and has seats in it...pics coming.
As we drove through Cambodia it was like Africa all over again...completely different than Thailand and completely third world.
We are staying in the capital city of Phnom Penh which is actually really nice and we are staying at a really nice place where there is a church and a school where we teach English. The kids here are BEAUTIFUL...some of the most precious faces I've seen on the race. The country is coming off of some turmoil and still in a rebuilding phase.
Less than 40 years ago there was a genocide that happened here and nearly 30% of the population was killed. Nearly 3.5 million people in a matter of 4 years from the communist Khmer Rouge regime headed up by a guy named Pol Pot. We were able to go to the genocide museum and the "killing fields" where over 20,000 people were buried in mass graves. Super heavy place to say the least.
We were able to watch the fireworks for the New Year at the King's Palace along the riverfront which goes down as another one of those ridiculous things that I'll never forget. God has just blessed me like crazy with all of these opportunities to see His people and His creation this year...love it.
The last two blogs have been what's going on physically but there has been so much more going on in my heart and that's what gets hard to write about but we'll see what happens...
Okay so I don't even know where to begin...apologies probably would be best.
I haven't been able to/been too lazy too/any other excuse you can think of to write out my life via blogs so everyone back home can be a part of this craziness. I've updated my facebook stuff but have yet to really sit down and blog about it. There have seriously been at least 20 times that I've sat down to write something and I immediately become overwhelmed with what to write and how to articulate what's going on. So here's a brief rundown of the last few months of my life and my New Year's resolution is to blog at least 2 times a week...IMAGINE THAT, we'll pretend like I haven't supposed to have been doing this for the last 7 months right??
First off, I'm a squad leader now...surprise!!! haha if you are asking yourself "what does this mean"...it means I need a lot more prayer. I was a team leader but God has given me the opportunity to lead the squad with two other flipping amazing people who need the prayers too (Aly and Nathan Salley)
Okay so I finally made it out of Africa and into the beautiful country of Thailand! It was absolutely gorgeous and our ministry was amazing for the month. We were able to work and do manual labor during the day outside of an orphanage and at nights we would hang out with the girls from the orphanage.
These girls were at high risk for being sold into the sex trade so the orphanage was set up as place for them to go, grow in a Christian environment, and be able to attend school. The girls were anywhere from 4 to 18 years old and they absolutely stole my heart. It was so hard to leave them and I would go back in a heartbeat to see these girls again. If you want to see what Christ looks like on this earth go to Chiang Mai, Thailand and hang out with these girls for a month. I love them...
If you want to know more or are interested in sponsoring one of the girls go to www.remembernhu.org I can vouch for the organization because I've seen the orphanages and what a difference it makes in these girls lives. I've often joked that I never wanted to have girls as a father but these girls changed my mind big time. Beautiful...
So we were also able to go out into downtown Chiang Mai and prayer walk around the bars and even go in and talk to some of the women that are already caught up in the sex trade. It is one of the most awful things I've seen face to face and was really hard to deal with. These women in one way or another are forced to work in these bars at night and "service" customers to support their families and they seemingly have no way out. We were able to go and just encourage them and really just try to give hope to a hopeless situation. I found myself many times getting really angry at the men who were there...some travelling from all across the world just to participate in the sex trade but God really showed me that they were just as lost as these women. It's an awful awful situation and I encourage everyone to really do your due diligence and educate yourself about human trafficking because before seeing it firsthand I had NO CLUE...rough stuff for sure.
On a lighter note I ate some of the best chicken curry on the planet, had fish eat the dead skin off of my feet and rented a scooter for a few days andddd almost died a few times...sorry mom and glad I'm in the palm of His hands for sure. Also never realized how popular 7-11's were in Thailand...there was one on every corner and I've been to it more in Thailand than my 23 years in America combined. Also celebrated Christmas with the girls from the orphanage...one I'll never forget!! That's pretty much the whole kit and caboodle for Thailand...
Well I don't know how to really recap the last week or so of my life but I'll try. It all started with some pretty significant team changes and leadership changes before we left for Asia which will get covered in another blog when I introduce my new team. So as we are getting our things together and on the verge of boarding a bus bound for the airport someone came to me and said... "Do you know what we're going to do?" followed by "We should probably call the states and Aly is on the phone with the embassy" I was just coming back from accompanying two people to the doctor and had NO idea what was going on so I kinda freaked out for about 1.3 seconds until it was clarified that Carrie, one of my new teammates, couldn't find her passport. At that point it was just scramble mode to try to get something figured out before the bus left for the airport. As airlines and embassies and wonderful staff from Georgia are getting awoken in the early hours (thanks Andi!) Carrie says her friend that works at the US Embassy said that she needed to file a police report and the earliest she could have an appointment was Monday morning...it was Friday. So the decision was made that it would be best if I stayed back with her and the rest of the squad should travel to Thailand for simplicity and practicality.
I mean I don't mind Africa for a few more days...right? I started asking Carrie, "Wow that's super convenient that you know someone at the embassy..." And that's where the real story begins. So a few days prior to all of this a few girls on our squad went out in Nairobi in search of internet. As they made it into town and started asking for help finding internet they met an American woman who overheard them talking and pointed them in the direction of internet. By the way this is all second hand but I'm pretty sure this is how it went down. So one of the girls gives her information about what we are doing and the link to her blog. Apparently this lady went home and started reading blogs and emailed the girls back and said she would love to have them over one evening for dinner, hot showers and internet. So the girls take her up on the offer and over the course of the night and conversation come to find out that this amazing woman, Naoma, has a husband who works for the U.S. Embassy. Fast forward a few days and the panic that is ensuing due to a lost passport and God's divine appointment starts to fall into place. So after talking to Naoma and telling her of our situation and getting an appointment set up at the embassy we are offered the opportunity to stay with their family for a few days until it gets straightened out. I've never met this family and I know it's Africa so I was interested to see exactly what we were getting ourselves into but Carrie reassured me that all was okay so after waving our goodbyes to the squad as they left for Thailand and filing a police report we were off to meet Naoma and go back to their house.
God is really good at surprised and blessings and this was no different. I've been in Africa for 3 months now so I'm pretty used to squatty potties, "new" food, "unique" living spaces, and preaching. So I meet Naoma for the first time and immediately recognize that she is extremely sincere, personable, and American. God had His hand in the situation from the beginning and it was even more evident when after talking to Naoma for 5 minutes I felt like I knew her and the family for years. We called her driver, Frederick, and he picked us up to take us back to the house. (I knew it wasn't Kansas anymore from the get-go because we had a chauffeur so things were definitely looking up...thanks God). We drive up to this enormous gate with guards and start driving down a street with homes that reminded me of home. We walk into a beautiful house with a real Christmas tree, real food, a fire place, real furniture, a real shower, a movie room, and a Wii...WHAT???!!! (God when you bless you BLESS...thanks again). Listing the amenities is the easy part with this blog, what's hard is trying to articulate exactly how loving and giving and just amazing this family was. It was definitely heaven sent to be able to spend time in a place like this but more than that it was soooo good to just spend time with this family. To see how they interacted with one another and how they loved and how they just took us under their wings and bent over backwards for what most would consider strangers. The next few days were spent watching movies, going to a country club and the driving range and pool for the day, telling stories with the family and some friends over a delicious meal one night, me getting to call up to the front to tell the guards to let our cab inside the compound to take us to the mall which allowed me to feel extremely important and dignitary-ish, playing Wii and other games with Eric and Conner (their two awesome boys), and just being able to relax before heading to Asia. What could have turned into disaster and stress ended up being a mini vacation! I will never ever forget this family and the blessings that they poured out over Carrie and myself for the time we were with their family. It's just another way that God has blown me away this year, seeing how He blessed us and seeing more of who He is through this family and their generosity. I love it...
PS: Write your local Congressmen, the Supreme Court, and even the President to tell them all that there is a US Embassy family in Nairobi that should be commended and honored for their hospitality and they make all Americans and all Christians proud. Incredible people, even more incredible God...
