Redeeming Love. I am Second.

I first just want to say that I praise God for having such redeeming love. He has blessed me in so many ways and has brought so many opportunities in my life. 

Tonight, I went to the launch for I am Second. If you do not know what I am Second is then I encourage all of you to visit their website. It is basically the power of impacting people through testimony and outreach. What I experienced tonight was so amazing. The Lord was so present and I feel like I need to be honest with all of you. I have been struggling throughout this whole year of where my faith is and my walk in faith and just overall being an example of Christ. And there have been times when I just have not been an example of Christ.

Recently, which opened my eyes to these struggles, my Best friend and I were talking about our passions. We have had countless conversations about anything and everything but this conversation was different. We were talking about deep down in our hearts what we absolutely love and what basically makes us wake up in the morning. So before I even said anything to him, I smiled real big and simply said mission. In the moment he looked confused so I began to explain that I am most happy when I am serving the Lord wholeheartedly and sharing his love with the world and his people. He looked back at me and said "you see thats where we differ." I was a little confused and then he proceeded to say, "I wasn't really raised that way and I have gone to church a couple of times but it has just been an awkward thing." and at that moment all I could say was "oh, I understand."

REALLY! thats all I could say.

The next day, I was overwhelmed. For as much faith as I "thought" I had, the Lord had thrown something at me and made me realize something very important. 

When I struggle, I run away from what makes me happy. I run away to be apart of the easy life. I run to sin. Why are we so easily persuaded to just take the easy way out?

The past two weeks I have been deep in prayer and worship and self devotion with the Lord. The lord taught me this: He has given me these friends to be apart of their life but most importantly He has given me these friends to be an example through Christ for them, not to take the easy way and just conform to them. I was letting sin come into my life by conforming to their ways and when I had that conversation with my BEST friend and we had never talked about our passions and our faith, the Lord stopped me in my footsteps and turned me the other way. He threw it in my face that I am there to share with them my testimony, to share with them my happiness and be a light for them.

So tonight when I was listening to these speakers with I am second, it made me realize how much of life I had been putting before the Lord. He put us all here for a purpose and that was to be a radical disciple for him and to share his love with others and most importantly to put him first. 

So I am following my passion, I am going to Africa because that is what the Lord has put me here for and that is to be a missionary for him. I have never been so sure of my purpose. No matter where I am, if I am home with family, out with friend, or with the children in Mombasa, I know the Lord wants me to live to serve him.

I am Jenny. and I am second.

With Love,

Jenny

a beautiful friday.

Today I would love to share with you my favorite verse.

Psalm 18:19

"He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me."

It reminds me everyday that no matter how far I may stray from the Lord that he will always be there ready to pick me up and hold me and embrace me.

And even after all my doubt or all my shame that I put on myself, he still delights in me because I am his daughter.

This verse is so strong and when I feel weak or wake up and just do not feel positive about the day, I open my bible to this verse because it just reminds me of how much the Lord loves me.

On Monday, something pretty awesome happened. We had one of the officers mothers come talk to us in our Phi Lamb meeting and she came and spoke to us about her story and different temptations in this world. In her talk she would quote verses but she never told where she found it in the bible, she would jut state the verse and one of the last verses she quoted was this. And it wasjust so cool because as I was soaking in everything she was telling me, she began to say: "He brought me out into a spacious...." and right then I quickly turned to where it was marked in my bible. It was as if she was speaking to me. She helped me start my week off on a great note :)

UPDATES:

I am now limping around instead of using crutches and slowly building the muscle back into my ankle, although I still have tons of bruising.

With donations, I will get the official list next week.

and because I am moving May 7, I am moving my departure date to May 15-June 11. I will fly in just in time for my cousins wedding so that should be super awesome!

If you have any questions about where you can send donations or just about my trip in general then you know how to contact me.

Thanks for everyones support.

I hope everyone has a blessed Friday!

With Love,

Jenny

grace.

Today was the first day of spring, the last day of spring break and a beautiful sunday. I spent the last half of my spring break spending time with family and enjoying the love of everyone around me. Over spring break I sprained my ankle, in the moment I thought I had fractured it because I was in so much pain but after xrays and doctor visits, they gave me the good news that it was just a grade 3 sprain and in a couple of weeks I should be perfectly fine. So as of now I am on crutches :( it is going to be a blast getting around campus, but on another note I want to talk about church. Today the sermon was about grace. Sometimes I forget about grace, I look over it and I just dont even realize how much grace God gives to us. He just gives it to us and just like me, most of us take it for granted. I get so caught up in this world that at times, I lose my way and try to conquer everything alone and again, as I wrote in my letter to all of you. That is how I become lost and unaware.

It is by Gods grace that we wake up in the morning to smell the fresh air, feel the sun shine down upon us, or see a beautiful butterfly flutter before our eyes.

During church today, the Uganda choir came and performed and sang to the whole congregation. These kids were being the voice not only for Uganda but for Africa. I could not stop smiling as they sang and talked about "in the beginning". I would just close my eyes and listen to them clap and sing and it just reminded me exactly why I am going back to Mombasa. I know the Lord wanted me at that service. He wanted to remind me of my passion for Africa and those children. Everytime I tell someone I am going back, I catch myself saying over and over again, "I can't wait to see the children, I just want to hug them and hold them and show them I love them. And I want to share with them the glory of God again. I want to impact them once more like they have impacted me. I can't wait to see those kids." and then I always just smile.

They make me so happy. When I am having a bad day, I pray for them. My worst day is one of their best and I have nothing to complain about here.

I just want to leave you all with this.

God has grace for all of us.

Remember when you are late for work or someone cuts you off when you are driving or even when your university loses that basketball game :(

In the end, God has a plan.

and in the end, God will never leave our side.

With love,

mimi nakupenda

Jenny

1 Timothy 6:11

Last night was such a blessing! It was a little after 11p.m. and for some reason I decided to get on skype which I am barely on these days. (I only really used skype when I was over in Mombasa) So I decided to get on and Chris and Lisa had just signed online! So instead of going back and forth through email messages, I actually got to talk to them face to face in a video chat and it was so amazing. It is crazy to think it was like 6 in the morning the next day for them and they were about to start their day and I was ending mine. That boggles my mind everytime I think about it. Anyways, they updated me on how everyone is in Mombasa and then gave me updates about what I would be doing when I arrived. This is so cool! So Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays I will mainly be at the village of Mtepani and I will be assisting the teachers in things they need. They said I might even teach a few english classes to the kids and also share devotionals. On Tuesdays, I will either be traveling with Chris to other villages to help out or staying with Lisa for the womens bible study she leads and then each Sunday we will be going to a different church. We will mainly be going to the churches in the villages which I absolutely love :)

I am very excited. I couldnt stop smiling last night. It has been such a blessing to be apart of their lives and I absolutely love Mombasa, their culture, and just the generosity of the people.

The donations that Chris and Lisa will be needing, They will be giving me a list soon and I will keep everyone posted.

One Main Goal I have for this trip is that I want to see if I can get a guitar donated or raise enough money to buy a cheap one for one of the villages in Mombasa, Kenya. I talked to Chris and Lisa about writing a few worship songs in Swahili and bringing my guitar to play them for the family and kids but it would be even better if in the end, I could just leave the guitar with them so they could have a musical instrument for worship. :) 

so I will keep you updated on my progress.

BUT, today I would like to share with you about what I read this morning.

As I was sitting outside of my Political Science class (for once I was early!) but it is a beautiful, let me rephrase that, GORGEOUS day outside so I brought my bible to have a little time with the Lord. This morning I read the book of 1 Timothy.

There were so many verses that called out to me

First, 1 Timothy 1:12 

"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service."

I have struggled throughout high school and college with staying steady with my walk of faith and being strong. As I get older, the Lord is just making it more clear to me where I need to walk and I thank him everyday that he has given me strength to take the steps towards the right direction and has always held me up when I have fallen.

In the end, the verse that really touched me and called out to me was:

1 Timothy 6:11

"But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness."

The verse explains itself. Every word is so beautiful and I just have to say once again, God Bless Everyone and Enjoy this beautiful day.

Keep Chris and Lisa in your prayers and all the kenyan children :)

With Love,

Jenny

Sending the letters.

So I have finally finished all the letters that you, my BIG support team, will be receiving. I pray for each and everyone of you and I hope that within the past year the Lord has blessed ya'lls lives tremendously. Each one of you has impacted my life in a different way and I hope to impact yours by showing you what your support will be doing for Mombasa, Kenya.

Throughout this blog site, I will share with all of you how I am preparing for this trip and then of course, I will keep you updated daily of what I am doing in Africa when I get there. I will also blog after my trip, to keep you all updated on how the trip has affected me and where I see the Lord sending me next.

So for the first official blog post, I would love to share a verse with you.

This verse is short but I feel as if it summarizes the reason for me returning to Mombasa.

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

1 John 3:18

Thanks again for all of your support and with actions and in truth and by faith, I will travel to Mombasa and hope to touch the Kenyan people through thr Lord's guidance.

With Love,

Jenny