God is GOOD!

I would always rather hear the bad news first and then the good news. So I'll talk about the bad parts of the past two weeks then the good ones. Last week, as well as this week, have been trying. I had an hour and a half meeting with some parents last week where the director and I let the parents know that their child's last day would be March 15th, the last day of the 3rd 9-weeks. Then my internet was cut off because I didn't pay the bill because I couldn't get a hold of Zuku, my internet company. The bank where I have to pay the bill closes at 3:00 p.m. so with my work schedule there's no way I could pay the bill without taking off work to do so. Then the power cord for my computer had stripped and the electrical wires were cut causing it to not work at all. So that means that I couldn't charge my computer without the help of other people who let me use their cords when they weren't using them. I have a washing machine that has not worked for a while. A friend came over and fixed it on Saturday. Then on Monday when I went to do a load of laundry the machine wasn't working right. On Tuesday morning a parent took a comment that I said the wrong way and no matter how much I apologized for how I came across she gave me quite the tongue lashing. That evening I received a hateful e-mail from a different parent. Then the next day I got my water bill and according to the bill the last day I could pay the bill before them turning off my water was February 23rd. I received the bill on March 3rd. Now mind you I had tried to do laundry and apparently almost completely emptied my water tank doing so. With that I had to boil water in a kettle and put it in basins to bathe for the past few mornings because there wasn't sufficient water coming from the faucet. Then March 4th when I went to pay the bill the system was down and I could not pay the bill. On top of that I found out my rent is going from 30,000 shillings ($400) to 40,000 shillings ($535) per month.

You can imagine that after all this is was overwhelmed. A year ago my reaction would have been to sit down and cry. What I did instead was get together with a friend and pray. I knew that any of the above things that stressed me so much would not have done so on their own. It was the culmination of it all that was difficult.

Music has been a huge comfort to me these past months. I've sung the following hymn almost every day for a week now:

I need Thee every hour,
Most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine
Can peace afford.

Chorus:
I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.

I need Thee every hour,
Stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their pow’r
When Thou art night.

I need Thee every hour,
In joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide,
Or life is vain.

I need Thee every hour,
Most Holy One;
O make me Thine indeed,
Thou blessed Son

You might be wondering if anything has been resolved. Now to the good parts of this week. Well a friend took off work to pay his internet bill and was able to pay mine as well. The IT guy at school was able to fix my broken computer power cord, saving me $100 which is the price of a new one. Our go-to guy at school was able to pay my water bill for me. My friend told me what to do to fix my washing machine situation and I hope it will work now. I talked to my director about the first parent who gave me a tongue lashing, and he assured me not to worry about her. Then someone helped me to kindly write back the other parent (my original e-mail back was not kind). I am hoping to get a roommmate next year and that should help with rent.

All in all I'm ready for Easter vacation. I'm not sure what I'm doing yet, but I'm sure I need to go out of town.

Kibera and then some...

So much has happened since I last posted.

I started a new ministry in Kibera this last Saturday. Kibera is the largest slum in east Africa. It is an AWANA program that we are trying to do with some children in the slum. Please pray for us because we have many kinks to work out. I'm not running the program, which I'm thankful for, but I am going to be a helper. It will run for 5-6 weeks. It will end because soccer will begin and that's a whole different ministry that many of the AWANA leaders are involved in.

I have also starting attending a Sunday evening Bible study with a few ladies I know and some that I don't know. We're studying through the book of Esther. I'm enjoying it so far, and I'm sure I will continue to enjoy it.

Please continue to uphold West Nairobi School in your prayers. On January 27th our Athletic Director/Community Development Coordinator passed away. His wife was our kindergarten teacher. She is now back in America. Please pray for her.

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week. My students showered me with gifts and good behavior.

As you can gather it's been a busy time. In all of this God has been near and dear to me. I see over and over His sovereignty in all things. Even when I don't understand the details or can't see behind the scenes I know He is at work. There are circumstances that I can't write about that I am continually taking to the Lord in prayer. While I can't control these circumstances or even have a say in them I have to trust that God is in control. He's proven time and again in my life that He's able to do exceedingly and abundantly above what I could ask or think. I've seen Him change me in ways that I never thought possible and I'm confident that He'll do the same in these circumstances. He's so good!