I am so Ready!

I am about to embark on a journey back home. Mombasa, has become a home that lives in my heart year round and every time I get prepared to go back, the butterflies come back. I am excited to see familiar faces, to hold the kids and just be able to bring my love that the Lord has given me to give back to these people.

This trip looks a little different because I am not just a team member, and I am not just going alone, but I am leading 11 wonderful individuals to my Home. Through training and preparation for this trip, they have all gotten to witness my excitement for the trip, but I do not believe they know how close Mombasa is to my heart. I am ready to smell the Kenya air, I am ready to see the sunset and sunrise, I am ready to eat fresh mangos, I am ready to graze my hand in the Kenyan dirt, I am ready to whisper in a childs ear mimi nakupenda rafiki(I Love you, my friend), I am ready to walk the trails and share Christ love and unending joy, and in the words of David and Kim Hayes and Chris and Lisa Moore, I am ready to portray that "I AM REAL!" (real = reaching east african lives)

The Lord has given me a peace about traveling far, a peace about leading and a peace about the unknown. He has complete control and I am blessed to know He knows my plans and I do not have to worry.

I ask that you pray for our team and each one individually. I have listed the team names below.

I thank you for all of you support and everything you all have done for me. God Bless each one of you!

We leave in 8 days!

Mission Mombasa July 2011 Team:

Jenny Jenkins
Rachel Driskell
Jaylyn Gramer
Allison Stroud
Elyse DeBuck
Stephanie Box
Cayla Newkirk
Kaylene Ullom
Whitney Cloud
Austin Lewis
Tyler Hayes
Matthew Schilling

In Him,
Jenny Jenkins

2 weeks til I go home to Mombasa!

Hey Everyone!

I wanted to let you know that it is exactly two weeks and I will be back in Mombasa, Kenya with my team! I am super excited about what all the Lord is doing in my life and it makes me excited that I get to share it with you!

First, please follow the team at missionmombasa2011.blogspot.com and see all the amazing things we are doing in Kenya!

Second, if you haven't checked out the newly founded non-profit Imani Tumaini Upendo, please visit the website and read about what we are doing and our story of how we got started at www.imani-africa.com. You can also visit our facebook at www.facebook.com/imaniafrica.

Also, in the midst of training my team and encouraging them to get donations and get money raised, I seemed to overlook myself a little. As of now, we have received many donations to fill our ministry bags to go to Kenya. What I am lacking is a few financial needs. For instance, I need to still pay for my malaria meds, few extra expenses for the team and also Real4Christ. If you have been wanting to donate, here is your chance! I love all of you and again can not thank you enough for all the support you have given me over the years.

If you want to donate, you can donate through person and contacting me at (210)421-4416, or you can donate through paypal, just follow the link to my blog and click the donate button:

http://myloveformombasa.blogspot.com/

Thanks again for everything!

Imani Tumaini Upendo: A new adventure has begun!

Today, I was flipping through my bible. Yes, that is exactly what I was doing flipping through it like a magazine trying to find some bright picture to feast my eyes on.

Obviously, I was not going to find a picture, but the Lord is pretty funny because He knows everything. He knows that I have a lot on my mind and there is a lot going on with the semester wrapping up and other exciting things occurring (I will go into detail later in the email). So as I was flipping through my bible, He brought me to the first page. This was not the first page of Genesis, but literally the first page in my bible before the table of contents and on that page I had written two phrases.

“Earning the right to be heard” and “are you a crowd follower or a disciple?”

I have no idea why I wrote these, but the Lord knew that I would find them today and it would hit hard.

I then flipped a couple pages over to Genesis 1:27 and it simply says: “So God created human beings in His own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

How glorious is that! I have to be reminded everyday that we are made in the image of God. So I ask you, Do you reflect the character of God?

Actions speak louder than words, so have you earned the right to be heard?

I pray for each one of you that you do not give up on the Lord, for He is our Almighty Father who is worthy of all our praise!

I want to update you on the wonderful vision the Lord presented to me a little over a month ago. It was the vision of helping small ministries in Africa and providing them financial backing. I woke up in the middle of the night with the word boutique in my head! The lord had presented the answer with so much clarity. I presented the idea to my friend Rachel about creating an online boutique where we could sell things from Africa (Kenya, Uganda, etc.) to help financially back different ministries in Africa. She was excited and joined the team! I then met a new precious friend, Kaylene on my Haiti trip in March. I shared the vision and she explained to me the Lord had been leading her to non-profit work. The Lord brought affirmation after affirmation to this ministry. So, we decided that us three girls would pull together and with the Lord’s strength and wisdom create a non-profit organization.

On April 8, 2011, Imani Tumaini Upendo (Faith-Hope-Love in Swahili) became an official corporation of the state! As of now we are in the process of filing our 501(c) 3 with IRS and are moving quickly.

I am still in the process of building our website, but would love for you to visit it!

The website is: imani-africa.com

You can also find us on facebook under Imani Tumaini Upendo.

Or twitter @imaniministries

Our mission is to support ministries who are living with, loving on, and caring for the children of Africa. In support of those wholeheartedly serving, our primary goal is to ignite a passion in individuals to join us in our vision.

If you would like to donate or become a monthly donor, all donations are tax deductible through Imani. You can donate on our webpage: imani-africa.com.

So again, as I was flipping through my bible the Lord reminded me that I am a disciple of the Lord and should live a life glorifying to Him!

Reflect God’s character and remember you are forgiven because HE IS RISEN!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and God Bless!

In Him,

Jenny

“When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “it is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

- John 19:30

Prayer is like taking a breath of fresh air

It has been three weeks since I went to Carrfour, Haiti and life has been moving at record speed.
I have four weeks left of school, test, projects and everything you can imagine is needing to be turned in. Can you beat the Heat 5k that Run4Change is hosting is on May 1st, so I am in the process of getting all those details together. On top of that, I have got 91 days to finalize the details for the mission team in July and I am in the process of beginning a non-profit! Everything that is happening is such a blessing in my life and coming together flawlessly, but sometimes I feel as if I do not breathe!
So, this week I have been reflecting on my trip and trying not to get caught up in this fast moving American life. I was remember flying into Port-au-Prince Haiti and seeing the sea of tarps and tents. We were surrounded by destruction, but at the same time surrounded by individuals filled with joy. The Haitians have so much love and happiness even with the worst circumstances. Me and you can leave a place of destruction and come back to this life of comfort, but they are stuck in it everyday and they still have a smile on their face. I was amazed by their great faith.

One of the days, we went for a walk to get to know our neighbors, hear their stories and learn exactly how we could pray for them. One of the houses we came to was a home of this elderly woman. Her name was Ms. Lavell and she spoke so many words of wisdom. One thing that she said that I will never forget is she spoke so highly of the importance of prayer. She said, "Prayer is like the air we breath. You can not live without Prayer."
I was in awe of these words because as Christians I believe we all struggle in this area and this is the easiest thing to overlook. I left her house and was in such peace.

I encourage you all to spend more time in prayer and to be bold in your faith. Go to your friends, family, co-workers, strangers and just ask the simple question: "How can I pray for you today?"
They might look at you and just ignore you, or they might share with you concerns on their heart. Take the chance and be strong for the Lord. Jesus died for us, so why can't we kill our pride and live everyday for Him.

God Bless
In Him,

Jenny

"My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ"
- Colossians 2:2

Where does the time go?

Today, I woke up. Struggled getting out of bed. Went to school. Then threw on the sunglasses and went off to work.

When driving, I was amazed of how beautiful the day was and then realized I had not even said hi to my father today. This life is so fast paced and lately I have been running without taking one breath.

Today the Lord has taught me once again to take a breath and enjoy His creation.

The other day, one of my coworkers asked me if I kept an ongoing prayer list. I explained how I have an ongoing mental prayer list, but he challenged me to begin to write down prayer request and to begin to become intentional with prayer.

So I challenge all of you to do that! Become more disciplined with prayer and start strengthening your prayer life with the Lord and watch how it will strengthen not only your relationship with the Lord, but with everyone around you as well.

I ask that you pray for my coworkers friend, his name is Taylor Pratt. He has never smoked in his life, and is a very healthy man, but just recently got diagnosed with lung cancer. He is married and has three kids. Where the cancer is located is inoperable. It is with the strength of prayers and God's power that Taylor will be healed. I believe in miracles and I believe the Lord can do anything, so please pray for Him.

So, I ask you, where does the time go?

"Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
- Psalm 90:12

So, today as I rushed through my morning, I stepped back to realize that I am alive today, so I can glorify His name. The Lord is our creator, our rock, our savior, our father, so why don't we start giving Him more time.

"...let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another- and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
- Hebrews 10: 24-25

It is time to build one another up in prayer and fellowship and to most importantly start truly giving everything to the Lord.

God Bless,

In Him,

Jenny

I am so blessed!

I am so blessed. I just wanted to express that today.
Haiti Trip is getting paid for slowly but surely. The Lord provides and He provides in the coolest ways!

If yall do not know yet, I will be leading a team this summer to Mombasa, Kenya. We will be going over there from July 7- July 22. Our team has a blog, if you visit missionmombasa2011.blogspot.com it will take you to the site.

Through that blog, you will be able to hear from all the team members and their experiences. There is also a donate button on that blog, and you can donate to the team!

It has been such a blessing to lead this team so far and I can not wait for what the Lord has in store later down the road.

God Bless!

Jenny

I heard Him with clarity.

This morning I woke up as if someone was standing over me tapping my shoulder. Surprisingly I was not tired (considering I did not get to bed until 3am because of school work).

So, exactly at 7am, one hour before my alarm clock should have gone off, I felt a tap and literally a voice say, "Jenny, go dig into the word and come visit me this morning."

I did not hesistate, I got up and went straight to His word. I opened my TNIV and ESV bible and my journal and began to read.

I first read my devotion for the day which was about a woman of the Lord and the verse that called out to me in the passage that I read was Proverbs 31:30;

"Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." ESV

I should not find my worth in my beauty or clothing or appearance, but should find my value in my Lord Jesus Christ. He is my focus and my path and not anything of this world.

I was excited where the Lord was going with this mornings readings. So then I turned to Jeremiah and continued reading there. Today I read Jeremiah 2 and 3. Can you say blunt? The Lord is just throwing in our face what we have done wrong in this world and we still turn away and think we have done nothing of disgrace to the Lord. These scriptures in Jeremiah are full of such truth of how we find idols and worship this world and then come back to God and deny to Him that we have sinned.

"you say, 'I am innocent, surely his anger has turned from me.' Behold, I will bring to you judgement for saying, 'I have not sinned.'

-Jeremiah 2:35

"Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed." ESV

"I have planted you a choice vine of sound and reliable stock." TNIV

- Jeremiah 2:21

"Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For we have sinned against the Lord, our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God." ESV

- Jeremiah 3:25

I was in awe at all the Lord had to say and the fact that it was so in your face and blunt, but that is what society needs is hard TRUTH. Now the question is, how can we, as disciples of Christ, spread the truth to everyone around us?

Take the time to think of how you can start living your life around this one objective and purpose. To spread the Lord's truth. Try not to think of this as another thing to "implement" into your life because that is not what this is at all. This should BE your life. Our one purpose is to live for the Lord. We would not be here if it was not for our Lord Jesus Christ, so stop being oblivious to the Truth in your own life. Take your worth out of this world and put it all into God, our Savior.

I ended this morning, by looking back into my journal of devotions I had when in Africa or pre or post the trip and I got to this one page that brought tears to my eyes.

I have been praying lately to hear the Lord and not to be distracted of this world...

My journal read:

"Jenny, Listen. Do not fall back to the world, but lay your life for the Lord, lay your life down and be a disciple. A STRONG and humble disciple of Christ."

Then my journal said:

- "If you are reading this journal entry, take the time and read every word carefully in this verse." and it left me with the verse John 12:23-26

"And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoevee hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will be my servant also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him."

- John 12: 23-26

This morning, I heard the Lord my God with clarity and God is so good, all the time.

I hope you are encouraged this morning to go out and be a light for the Lord, even if you, yourself, cannot see. Do not walk by sight but by faith alone.

With Love,

Jenny