Oct 27

Now I am writing you this blog from the balcony of our home! We finally have a place to lay our heads at night! We are staying in one of the rooms in the home we bought for the street kids. I want you a better idea of our vision for the next couple of months and then beyond for the home and the ministry.
Something God has been showing me is that everything does happen for a reason. And as of right now we still don’t have our missionary permits for Kenya. In the past I have been upset about this because it means that we cannot start doing any thing more with the boys than have them over to the house, we are not legal to let them stay the night. The permit should not take this long to process, so God has been using this time to teach me patience and to show me His plan is actually different and way better than mine.
Instead He wanted us to move into this home to get it ready. So for the last week, Val and I have been living in here and realizing how not ready this place really is! Things here take significantly longer than they do in America, and it took 3 months for the owner to get the water hooked up! And now that the water has been working for the last week, it is giving off an electrical current. So every time Valerie and I use any tap we are being electrocuted, haha yes, it hurts. But a water man came yesterday and reassured me that it is not too high of a voltage so it’s ok. I was comforted of course.
This is one of many many problems we have to work through which take time here. And on top of that we are slowly filling the house with furniture now! The place is starting to look like a beauty, and I am excited about the work we still have to do.
Not only is it good for us to live here to get the physical aspect of the house ready, but the spiritual. This place is not just going to be a rescue place for needy kids, its going to be a place where they receive healing. After the time we have been spending with the boys on the streets, reading books about this and the Bible, praying, and talking to other people who deal with the same situations, we have been realizing more and more the thing they need most is Jesus. So we want this place to be a place where Jesus is. We want to cultivate this home into a house of prayer.
A place where they can come and find the only water that doesn’t dry up. Where they meet this guy who is more fun than glue, who cares more about them then they do, where they can play and laugh like the kids they are, where they can have privacy to pray, where they can read about God, and feel how amazing it is to be in His presence. When they come here we want them to love it more than they love glue, more than they love the false freedom of the streets, and we want them to be made alive again and the only way for them to wake up is if the Holy Spirit does it! We cannot do it and neither can they. So it is vital that they enter into His presence.
We have been reading about this lady Jackie Pullenger, who did the same ministry in Hong Kong with drug addicts, and these boys were being miraculously healed from their lifestyles and addictions when the presence of the Spirit came on them. And since I really love these boys I want them to have the best thing I have and the only real cure for their sickness. They deserve it. [actually none of us do].
Our plan of action is to start a weekly schedule of some days going out to the streets and some days having the boys come into the house. We will have different activities for each day at the house. And the best part is Pastor Salito’s family will also be joining us to live in the house for this vital period. We will become the church! Living together, becoming united in constant prayer, sharing everything, and giving it all away to the needy. Nothing could make me happier! His plans are always so much greater than ours!
This strategy is fantastic. God cares more about our foundations being strong more than we do. This is evident in the way He is timing everything and changing our plans because He has the best ideas planned already. He is really showing us that our plans are just human but His plans are perfect.
The boys are going to become so in love with this place because of the presence a loving Mozambican family brings, and the presence of God, and the fact that two white girls are inviting street boys into their house is such a culture shock here. And when the day comes that we move out and they move in.. whoa, that is just going to make it all the much more worth the wait.
God has shown us that we need to be ready, the house needs to be ready, and the boys need to be ready and that is going to be this next period. Getting this in place, getting things ready, becoming prayer centered, and not just giving away our better things (bikes, basketball, smoothies, movies, books which they will love!) but giving away our best thing, Him.
Our schedule will start this next week, and we are still meeting with our 4 leaders for Bible study on the End Times (their choice). This last meeting was awesome, and after our Bible study we hung out and Val and I made them dinner. It was rice and beans, and for your information Mario said I made the beans poorly… what does he know.
For the next month we will be bringing the boys into the house and then on Dec. 1 we will be taking a group of them to Nairobi. We will be staying there for a week because The Call is coming to Nairobi Dec. 6! For those of you who haven’t heard of the Call http://www.thecall.com, it is a mandate to pray and fast for something, and this Call is focusing on praying and fasting for all of Africa and Kenya in specific! The Call is usually taking place in America, and this is the first official Call in Africa! http://www.thecall.co.ke/We met with the coordinator for this Call and he thinks 50,000 people should be coming from not only Kenya but all over Africa. They are doing a 24/7 prayer room for 2 weeks leading up to Dec. 6, and we are taking our boys for one week. It will be something like IHOP constant prayer room, but African style.
I truly believe this is God’s timing, especially showing our boys other Kenyans and Africans who are passionate about God and praying and fasting to change their country. This is the key to us emptying Maboxini (the dump street the boys live on).. we have to pray that every boy will leave! [Mk 9:29]
And even better, God is raising up a group of rough, tough street disciples to change their own friends and the future of so many who might end up in the streets unless we close down the streets of Maboxini! That’s God’s plan..
November will be cultivating the presence of God in the house and setting the standards and foundation for our house of prayer. December is the Call and then Christmas! Then we are praying God will show what comes after that.. cause we don’t know!
So if you think of us, please pray for us in these 2 months. I believe that first week in December the Lord is going to do some amazing things for Kenya and especially for us and our boys. Pray into this please.
That’s the vision. Other than that, Val and I are having a lot of fun getting back to normal after those 3 weeks of living with our Kenyan Grandma! We are definitely loving getting this house ready for our friends and getting back into a schedule and in rest. Thanks for praying for us, your prayers are what hold us up.
Carly