God Is Bigger!

Greetings oh flavoured sponors :)

Welcome to the start of May, heading into my 4th month already!! How crazy is that. Rhetorical question me thinks. God has definitely pulled and guided me through so much in the short time I have been here. This has been quite the experience up til now, going from sleeping on the floor, black outs (yes we have them too!), eating basic meals of R10, getting gas and learning how to cook, breaking my bed and then getting it fixed. Getting sick for near 3 weeks. And the awesomeness (I claim the word) of my relationship with Millicent, it is growing strong and heading towards the future. More to come :)

The big news here is that Kenya is still being randomly attacked by unorganised fringe dissidents. There have been attacks in Mombasa and Nairobi over the past week. The news is that there have been 7 attacks in a week, which is quite a bit more than the norm. Sadly, yes I have to say the norm. The scarier one was when a bomb went off on a bus near the city centre. Thankfully it was empty at that stage, so the death toll was very small. Why I call it dissidents is because the bus attacks in Nigeria showed a serious force to reckon with. Now the attention of the world is focused on Nigeria because of the 250 schoolgirls abducted. I will never understand how humans can do these kind of things, and I never will. All I hold onto is the truth that God Always Wins - Love Always Wins. So if you are looking for a prayer request or two, please pray for peace in Nigeria, and safety in Kenya. We prayed for these things in home group on Tuesday, and it was an amazing time. Once a month we have a prayer evening and I love it.

Speaking of home group, I am really enjoying it and growing. I am also the "resident" worship leader, which really excites me. It is so awesome being able to get back into helping with worship and being able to bring in free worship times as we do at MJ. I am also going to a new church, which is a church plant from the Vineyard church I was going to last year. I feel very comfortable there, it is small, I think about 50 people with half being children. Worship is a keyboard, guitar, and a jembe, and at this point no sound system. Yay! Funny enough I have only been once for Easter but I feel at peace that this is where I should be going to and serving in. It is called LVC (they are trying to be like MJ) which stands for Lavington Vineyard Church. Millicent and I were discussing churches and how we would be going to two different churches and how that would affect us. Without me asking, Millicent said she and her children want to come to LVC now, and this really means a lot to me. I feel this is another step towards our future, which between us all, is going really really well.I used the marriage word and where I think me and Millicent are heading towards when talking with Rachel, and she told me if it looks like a horse, neighs like a horse, and smells like a horse it is a horse. So what I took from is that I have to buy a horse in exchange for Millicent to marry me. And to buy her perfume.But I do have a feeling I missed out on the real meaning. Watch this pasture.

April has been a month of being sick, following up on my permit that is still being worked on but I managed to get a 3 month extension, and planning for what I can do to make money here when I stay longer in Kenya. The sickness was from one of my medications running out 2 weeks before it should have. Somehow from Dischem to here it disappeared. I will just say that a bearded dragon came one night and stole the pills, and leave it at that. As you guys will know, I am on meds for an old case of epilepsy (that God healed about 10 years ago) and also for some mood control, mixed in with other happy drugs :) The one that ran out was a mood stabilizer and I have never been cold turkey on it.Let's just say that if this is how cold turkey feels, I would rather have a cold chicken if possible. I could not sleep, struggled to speak Chinese and I could not play the banjo. Yes, that bad. I have to say thank you to Brendan and Claire hugely for running around for me sorting out my meds and sending them off at great speed. I think they are sponsoring me to ensure I stay in Kenya, but that's just my guess :)

Schools are back and I am meeting with the headmaster on Monday to see what my next term is looking like. I want to be doing more at the school, so we will be planning over a lunch where I can be used. I am loving my Class 4 and Class 5's, I just need a bit more to do. I do have options to work on going on what timing I have left over from the school. There is a Film School in Kibera that teaches youth in need of guidance and a career, in essence taking them off the streets away from a life of potential crime. As you will know, I have a lot of experience in filming, editing, script writing etc. so I will be able to help in that if I have enough time spare. God has been telling me two things - 1. To continue doing what He has called me to do (i.e. St Catherines school teaching) and 2. He has big plans for me this year and will bring these out when as I continue being faithful in what I am called to now. So it's all exciting at this point. My Merrell shoes have been fixed (they lasted me 2 years without needing a fix up) and my ankle is back to normal, so its up up and away (or is that down down the Kiberan dirt and rock covered roads to Soweto) and it's all good, time to bring more of God and His love to the beautiful kids at the school and around!!

I end this with a prayer request - that the Rand sorts itself out and gets back to being healthy and stronger than the Kenyan shilling. Yup, the Kenyan shilling is stronger than the rand and due to this I am getting charged around R250 per R1000 I withdraw. In basic terms, I am losing R3000 per month off my sponsorship. Scary yes! There are bank charges but I have checked up on the exchange rate and it is correct. So please can you pray that the rand sorts itself out, and a secondary prayer is that I can get a few more sponsors to counter this loss of much needed sponsorship. If you are aware of anyone who is interested in sponsoring me for the rest of this year, please let me know. You can always pass them onto these blogs or onto my website - http://beanycc.wix.com/the-intrepid-umzungu or my email address beanycc@gmail.com

Thank you for your sponsorship that has allowed me to buy gas, a cooker and a 19litre refillable water bottle this month (April). And to pay my rent ;) I am learning how to make Ugali, a harder version of pap. I need to get my head around it and enjoy it. I will keep you posted :) I even bought a small metal kettle to boil up a cuppa tea or hot chocolate now that Winter is coming. I may have to start wearing jeans soon...even a beanie.

One last thing I want to let you all know is that I am working on a business plan to start a film and media company for when I get to stay in Kenya. I have already got 2 interested parties and if this is right and gets off the ground, then I will be able to become financially stable. This is a goal for the future for when I become Mr Millicent, and I can then be the other half of the financial giving to the family. I am also wanting to create a secondary section of the company which would be able to impact organisations that work with children. All of this is still in my head, but I believe this is the way to go due to my past experience of filming and media work.

I love you all hugely, miss you all hugely and I look forward hearing how you guys are doing! I know have home landline so I am now available cell phone, landline, skype an whattsap :) And a visit is always allowed too!

Love Always Wins

My Milli :)

At Nyawira's Wedding with the Maphala's

The intrepid Umzungu missioning to bring Heaven to Kibera and beyond
Skype: africabeany
Cell: +254700377052
Home Landline: +254205205784