After lots of prayer and some clear direction from the Lord, I've decided that I will be going to Kenya from February 5th to March 12th! I will be going with one of my closest friends, Jay Quick, and one of Jay's friends, Chris, who is from Colorado. We will be going to serve and support our brother and friend Martin Wangila. It sounds like we will be running a sports camp for teenagers, building a water filter system for his village, and going around to his house churches in Uganda to strengthen and encourage them. At first, to be completely honest, I wasn't thrilled about the idea of going back to Africa, but I have gradually grown more excited as the Lord continues to confirm that this is where He wants me to go for now. I'm a little worried about what the daily living conditions will be like, but as I learned in Zambia, God definitely does give the grace needed to get through everyday.
One thing the Lord has really brought to my attention recently is my selfishness. On Christmas day I was reading through 1 Corinthians 10, and when I came across verse 24 which says, "No one should seek their own good, but the good of others," I felt deeply convicted. Since that day I've been praying that the Lord will show me my selfishness, and boy has He ever. Even though I might not always act selfishly, I've realized that I am super selfish when it comes to my thought life. I'm sure that nearly 90% of my thoughts are about seeking my own good, while only 10% of them are about seeking for the good of others. Since God has revealed this to me I've been trying to be more intentional about thinking of myself less often, and as I've tried to do this I've realized just how deeply this selfish thinking is ingrained in me as it is extremely difficult for me not to think about myself. This will definitely be a long process, but I can take hope that He who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).
Lastly, I just started reading Forgotten God by Francis Chan last week and I absolutely love it! Francis is my favorite author and speaker. He does such a great job of seeking out biblical truths and speaking them out of a heart of love, honesty, and humility. Even though he can be very convicting at times, I never seem to feel discouraged but always come away feeling inspired. My favorite part of the book so far is when Francis talks about John 16:7 which says, "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for
if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I
will send Him to you." Francis talks about just how crazy this verse is because Jesus is pretty much saying that it is better for us to have the Holy Spirit than to have Jesus out walking around with us. This blows my mind. If it was up to me, I would probably choose to kick it with Jesus everyday rather than to have the Holy Spirit. I guess this shows that I still have a lot to learn about the power of the Holy Spirit.
I'll be writing another update after the Kenya trip to let you all know how it goes. Thanks to all of you for the support and prayer!
