A look back at my missions school
For the past 6 months I have been in a school at Youth With a Mission Honolulu base. While there, I completed the Discipleship Training school that is broken down into an intensive 12 week lecture phase before leaving to Kenya for the second phase. During the Honolulu phase I learned so much during each week’s lecture topic like how to hear God’s voice, the character and nature of God, identity in Christ, Evangelism, and Kingdom Cultures. Through this time I was able to grow into a more personal relationship with God. I established my own foundation of faith, values, and fully surrendered trust in Him. I also began to rely on God’s voice for guidance and truth, and found a new joy in learning from His Word.
Outreach started on December 12th when I, along with 10 teammates and 2 leaders, flew 10,700 miles to Nairobi, Kenya. After 5 days of flights, layovers, and buses, we made it to the country God had called us to and were able to meet our wonderful contacts and translators. The culture shock I experienced was based on the horrendous road conditions, the abundance of children everywhere, and the modest lives that Kenyans are so joyful to have.
Pictured: Hours after landing in Kenya. We had the luxury of showers before our next bus ride
Throughout our 2.5 months in Kenya, we traveled almost every week between 7 locations from bushland, to city, to coast. In the Bush, also known as the village, we were able to distribute donations to widows, preach and testify in church services, share the gospel in open-air markets, and sing and dance for Jesus with orphans. I saw the hope of Jesus transform lives when we got to go door to door evangelizing and praying with families.
Pictured: Praying over students that just gave their lives to Jesus
We had the chance to even minister to students in primary and secondary schools and a medical college and pray over patients in a hospital ward.
In the cities of Nairobi and Kisumu my team and I were able to have prayer walks through neighborhoods. One day I had the opportunity to pray healing over one lady we saw on the street named Veronica who was completely doubled over from back problems. I had the chance to witness to an 18 year old South Sudanese refugee who lost his entire family from the ongoing civil war there. Although I did get sick with Malaria during our time in Kisumu, I was able to come to a crusade we were a part of in the local church, and hear testimonies of God’s incredible faithfulness in several youth meetings. In Nairobi we ministered to children in a school in the Kiambio Slums, and prayed over each class. This school required the children to squeeze into the small tin huts and narrow passageways of the slum buildings to see and hear our program. During Christmas our team visited an orphanage with babies and young children who had AIDS and gave them each a gift.
Pictured: Dancing in the alleyway of the school in Kiambio Slums
The last two weeks we stayed in the coastal region of Mombasa. This area has heavy muslim influence and God protected our team so faithfully as we witnessed to muslims on the street and spoke the identity of being a child of God over girls in a muslim orphanage.
Pictured: Passing out stickers to the children at Little Angels Orphanage
We were part of a crusade at a local church almost every evening and evangelized in slum communities. One of these times I found myself in a makeshift bar sharing the Hope of Jesus with a group of drunks and addicts who wanted a way out of their sin. We had the opportunity to visit a home for young women (14-18 years old) with babies of their own out of traumatic circumstances. Here, we listened to their stories, encouraged them, and supported them with the love of Jesus.
There are so many more testimonies than I could share about my DTS and time in Kenya! It was an incredible time of being filled with the God’s power and using that strength for His kingdom. I hope this gave you a glimpse into those 6 months and the impact God made in my life during that time.