Family Worship Centre

As I write this to you, I am laying in my bed listening to the rain pelting down on the tin roof. The birdies are beginning to sing their good morning songs to me.  The power has been out over 16 hours now so everything is pitch black. The only light we have is from the stars. I just had an amazing sleep (and a chance to sleep in till 6:30!) after a wonderful night. On Friday nights we have a prayer and worship session. We have an amazing worship leader who is incredibly gifted. He literally walks around with the guitar playing it every chance he gets. So last night he led us in a few songs and we prayed for one another. After that most of us dispersed but 4 remained behind: me, the worship leader, and 2 other students. As the night got darker and flashes of lightening lit up the sky, we sang all night long. Our voices echoed in the hall. We got lost in the music and by the time we decided to go to bed, it had been 2 hours. It’s nights like these that I crave, that feed me, that push me to keep going. Its moments and people like these that make me fall in love with this place even more. I know that these things are possible back in Canada too, but God has given me a love for this place that I can’t explain. These moments remind me of my purpose here and His peace fills me heart. As I am writing this now, the rain has picked up and is bruising the roof.

This past week we have been learning about various cults and world religions. I have a lot of information, questions, and mumble jumble rolling around in my head because of it. One of my favourite topics we learned about this week was African Traditional Religion. It’s amazing to be in Africa learning about their traditional practices and hearing their personal experiences. Some of it is pretty scary. For instance, in Tanzania albinos are high on demand. Local witchdoctors require certain body parts of albinos for some of their practices. Murdering albinos for their body parts is still happening today in Tanzania. It’s amazing to believe the lengths that humans will go for their own personal gain. Through everything we have learned, I have realized that we are the same. We all have fears and doubts. We all go through tough times and want quick answers. We all want to know the truth and find hope for this world. We all desire purpose for our lives. That’s what all these religions offer. It has made me so thankful for the Father I have and the God I serve.

My favourite word of the week is Obongo Nyakalaga. It is a word used by the luo tribe to describe God. Our word for God is one single syllable as oppose to the 7 syllables in Obongo Nyakalga. Try saying it out loud. Its fun. I have been learning a lot of language this week. Our singing team has starting singing songs in various languages including Swahili, Hebrew, Kikuyu, Luo, Congolese, and others. No English songs though. I also love listening to the Nairobi version of Swahili called Cheng. The young people have started combining English with Swahili to make a slang language. For example, our teacher the other day said “I chekad.” The verb “kucheka” means to laugh so he took the stem of the verb and made it past tense by adding ‘d’ and then used ‘I’. What he was saying was that he laughed. “Amecome” means it has come. “Utado” means you will do. It’s kind of funny yet kind of sad to think that pure Swahili may be lost in the future.

We had a fun Valentines banquet where we got a chance to dress up and eat amazing food. Some hearts are slowly falling and love and some hearts got broken. It was a fun night though.

And our boys played their first football match against a team from a slum in town. It was a lot of fun. Our boys claimed victory 2-1. I will put some pictures of the game up on my blog soon.

Today marks the half waypoint of school. I have memorized 30 verses that I can say word perfect in less than 5 minutes! Only 5 more weeks of classes and then we start getting out and working in schools, slums, churches, etc. Yay!

I am so thankful this week for my classmates. I am really growing to love each and everyone of them. We make quite a dynamic class. Please pray for them as well. We have been having some issues over the past week with some of the staff that has led to a lot of hurt and anger. There are some that are quite sick and injured that need healing. Many of us are overwhelmed in our studies. Some of us are moody and heartbroken (Yes, my girls are breaking the hearts of these boys left right and centre- not me though;)) So just pray for us and pray that I may be able to love on them and encourage them in their everydays walks with God.

Listening to the rain pour down,

Nikole