Kenya - Crying is Free

“Crying is free”

When you walk through the outdoor market in Nairobi (like we did on Saturday afternoon), all the vendors work really hard to sell you their merchandise. What’s interesting is that if you can get it from one vendor, chances are you can get nearly the same thing from 5 other vendors too. So, somehow, they have to get you to stop to look at their goods, hoping you’ll want something from them, before finding it somewhere else. One of the methods commonly used is them telling you, “Looking is free. Touching is free.” I find the whole thing pretty amusing.

As we, Maurice, myself, and our leadership teams, prepared our teams for the big goodbye, we understand that the day will always go longer than planned, because, well, when they have to say goodbye, they are all crying and hugging. Rightfully sad to be leaving each other and seeing each other for the last time. And we joke, “Crying is free. Hugging is free.”

As I sit in my room tonight, the lone awake person in the place (I keep saying the Christmas poem in my head like this: Twas the night before London and all through the hotel, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Except, both the mice and I are awake.) I’m reflecting a bit on that phrase, “crying is free.”

Sure, crying is free. But the process it took to get to the place of shedding tears, that had a cost. A big one.

It cost you, supporters, and the participants actual money to get here. It cost the ministry to provide leadership and administration to put the team together. It cost Maurice to take off of work to be a part of the mission all month (he does online jobs to fund DICE Ministry). It cost Charles (our amazing bus driver / security / leader) time from his family to be with us… all.the.time. It cost the leadership of both teams the energy and time to organize, care for, confront, and love the teams well. It cost the teams, time, energy, effort, dignity, pride, humility, sleep, hunger, vulnerability, and most of all, love, to build the relationships they did and share the Gospel everywhere they went in any way they were instructed to. Both teams walked through different levels of rejection, embarrassment, confusion, and at the same time abundant joy, realized faith, and friendships.

Although I could tell you about our last day of ministry (I’ll include links to the videos), our time at the Giraffe Centre, church, or our last day together today (I‘ll share some pictures), but I think I’ll let your students fill you in on some of that. What I will leave you with is this.

In 2 Samuel 24, towards the end of the chapter, David is trying to purchase the threshing floor from Araunah. Aruanah tries to give it to King David, along with oxen, axes, and wood. But David replies, “…I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” That has always struck a chord in me. There should be a cost to serving God.

I think that all of the Kenya team would agree, whatever price we’ve paid to serve our Lord this summer, was well worth the cost.

Blessings,

Margaret

P.S. We leave for the airport in a few hours. I’m not sure when we’ll be able to email home, but we’ll do our very, very best. Also, here are the last few notes from some of the team on their experience this summer.

“When we went to the orphanage I was able to play and hold a cute little girl. She ended up falling asleep in my arms. While she was sleeping I was able to pray over her, which was an incredible experience for me. Her name was Blessings.” Jorie

“At one of the high schools we went to, after I was finished going through Connecting With God, and went through how to accept Christ, 3 people accepted Christ. After the prayer, when we raised our heads, the pure joy, and peace on their faces was incredible and I knew that their decision was genuine and forever.” Issac

“I’ve loved how our teachings have so perfectly prepared us for ministry. We were assigned Romans 8:1 to memorize, and a few days later a student expressed that she was condemning herself for her past sins. After a study in prayer, students were asking about prayer and [both times] we were equipped to answer. I’m amazed and awed by the things God is teaching me and I’m seeing how perfect His timing really is.” Anna

“This whole experience has been really amazing. I’ve grown spiritually in so many little ways, it’s almost hard to count in what ways I’ve changed. One of the ways is probably knowing that I’m half way across the world, with my brothers and sisters in Christ. We always say there are many people worshipping the same God across the world. But it's so amazing to actually be the person across the world and to realize the truth in that.” Hannah