love love love

all you need is love - the all so familiar beatles song.  it's so true, yet so hard.  i thought i had love down.  i thought i could love people, regardless of who they are.  working with the street boys has helped to show me that love is more than just a one time thing, more than helping someone cross the street, more than something i choose to do.  it's definitely something that comes from the Lord - definitely something that i cannot do on my own.


when i arrived back to Mombasa with the three Canadians (Jesse and Curtis surprised me with another Kurtis), i was so ready to get back to the house, and hit the ground running.  i was definitely sleep deprived from the overnight bus ride.  with so much going on everyday, it's sometimes hard to keep up even on a full night's sleep.  but i think with a combination of lack of sleep and not enough time spent with the Lord, and my heart not being in it as fully as i thought, i was completely out of the loop for a few days.  during meals i had nothing to share.  during the evenings, our most one-on-one time w/ the boys, i had no desire to engage in any type of conversation.  any little thing they would do, not even to me, i would harbor a bit of bitterness towards them.  when they would talk to me, i would snap back at them a quick response thus ending the conversation.  i had absolutely no desire to be around them, despite my whole reason for being here.


i quickly realized that the love that i have for these boys is definitely not something that i can do on my own.  i cannot love them with my own strength like i thought.  i thought that maybe i would need a little boost from God to give me that extra love since i've never worked with such a people group.  but definitely not.  i to be completely filled with His love day in and day out.  and i can sense when i have no more love to hand out to these boys.

more recently, as i wanted to post this sometime last week, we've had even more visitors.  Valerie's dentist - Dr. Harty - and two other ladies, visited for a total of 30 hours.  we were a little bummed that their visit was so short, but the Lord proved to be in charge of the time they spent here.  from 5:30 with our breakfast devos, they were on the go, making the most of their time spent here.  during the day, they were involved with our prayer meetings, and also helped Whitney out with her outreach to young street boys.  during dinner, Dr. Harty and Kurtis shared some power testimonies that got the boys thinking quite a bit.  the Lord definitely had His presence in this house that whole day, and i know that the boys felt something different.  after testimonies, several of them joined us for prayer, and said they felt a sense of peace within the room.  i mean, come on, if you walk into a room, and are hit with a wall of peace, you know that somethings going on.

allan update -
allan has been doing well.  he doesn't seem to have the same eagerness about the Lord that he had a week ago.  but he hasn't slipped back into his old habits again.  i think that the Lord is still working in his heart.

also, samuel and mohamed.  both have shown extreme interest in changing their lives, but still haven't made a commitment.  so if you could keep these three boys in your prayers, we all would appreciate it.

ps - you should check out http://raphahouseofprayer.blogspot.com