YOU are the heartbeat of Imani!

Imani is simple, Imani is faith. In everything we do, we put faith in Jesus Christ that all in all He will provide. He is our Father and our daddy and we put our full trust in Him.

With the event, M.O.V.E quickly approaching, we have a lot to think about and ALOT to do! and guess what, we need YOU! M.O.V.E stands for MOTIVATE others, seek OPPORTUNITY to change, use your VOICE for the Lord and EXPERIENCE God’s grace.

It is your time, It is people like YOU that are the heartbeat of Imani and keep us going! So, if you have not heard we are doing the ONE DOLLAR CHALLENGE. This is a challenge to set down that soda, sacrifice eating out for one night, and start to MOVE. Think of your everyday, what do you spend a dollar on? Can you give it up for one day and instead of using that dollar for the norm, give it up by faith and donate to Imani.

It is so true when I tell you that ONE dollar creates change, it creates a movement that will never be stopped.

Be a PART of this now. The time is now for YOU to move… Will you take that challenge?

In Him,
The Imani Team

“For we our God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” -Ephesians 2:10

ONE DOLLAR CHALLENGE!

Today I woke up excited! I know that is not rare in my life, I typically am very excited about many different things, but yesterday was a rough day and I thought that maybe it would continue into my Wednesday, but the Lord refreshed me with a wonderful sleep and woke me up this morning full of energy!!

Imani is well on its way to planning the M.O.V.E event, we have 16 days until the event and things are coming down to the nitty gritty planning, but WE NEED YOU!

Seriously, I can not express this enough! The Lord has blessed us with many doors opening, but He has blessed us with wonderful friends and family! So, I am giving you a dollar challenge!

All I ask is one dollar... give up a soda or candy bar for Imani (Faith!)

Let the work of the Lord shine through this challenge. ONE DOLLAR CHALLENGE! Spread the word to everyone!

You can donate here: http://imani-africa.com/?page_id=138

Just one dollar, how bad will that hurt??

Let's see how many one dollars we can raise in 16 days! We can do this!!

I love each one of you!

"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

Isaiah 41:10

It is TIME to be WEIRD!

Happy Sunday!

Can you believe that we are already in the second week of August? Time is flying!

I wanted to share with all of you about this book I am reading. I am reading the book "Weird" by Craig Groeschel and in this book it talks about how Jesus calls us to be Weird, not normal. One thing that really spoke to me, was he talks about putting a "don't" list together and becoming more intentional. I laughed considering the one BIG thing I learned from Kenya was to be more intentional with others, but then I asked myself; "Have I already slacked in these past couple of weeks on not only being intentional with others, but also with my creator, my Lord!" The obvious answer is that I am human and yes I have already been slacking, but then when he talked about putting the "don't" list together, this made me think. I have plenty of to DO list, but do I have a don't list? Well obviously I have never made a DONT list, that is just not in our nature to sit down and cut things out of our life. If anything, we just keep adding more and more activities (trust me, I would know! I am the QUEEN of adding activities)

So, is this healthy or is this just NORMAL to what society expects of us? Today, in this world, the busier we are, the more successful we supposedly are, but this is not true. We need to sit, breathe and relax. We need to actually sit without having a running to do list in our heads. I had a conversation with my pastor today about being intentional by being "all there" when sharing time with someone. I was making the point that it is easy to repeat something back that someone has said in a conversation without really being "all-there", so how can you become ALL-THERE for your family and most importantly how can you be ALL-THERE for the Lord, without being distracted by this world?

As challenging as this might be, I challenge you to make a DON'T list. I have started mine and it is not easy. Sacrifices are being made, but to sacrifice your time for the Lord is such a better reward then to focus your time into more activities of this world. Trust the Lord that HE knows your plan. Cutting things out of your schedule is not going to mean that your missing out on life because God has a greater plan for all of us.

Trust and live out your Faith.

One more thing for all of you. Imani Tumaini Upendo has their first event fast approaching and are still in need of funds. The event is on August 26 in College Station, TX. If you have not been to our website and read our story, I want to challenge you to do so. The Lord is doing amazing things in this ministry and I would love for all of you to be a part of it, whether that is individually or corporately. You can contact me about becoming a sponsor or also donate on the website. The Lord calls us to go among the nations and share His good news and Imani is doing just that.

I hope you are touched by our story. http://www.imani-africa.com/

Mungu Akubariki!

(God Bless you!)

Also, as you know I am still in the process of my 24 day challenge. Today is day 11, but I have decided that I will not be blogging everyday. I am picking 3 days of the week to get on facebook and my blog. I will let you know when those days are soon. I have personally chosen to do this so that I have more time for me and the Lord. I have become distracted by technology around me and want to make sure that I am staying intentional with my Savior! I love you all!

Jenny :)

24 Day Challenge: Day 7

Alright, so I said I had BIG news! Here we go!!!

Imani Tumaini Upendo is having there first BIG event on August 26 at Wolf Penn Ampitheater in College Station, TX.

The event is called M.O.V.E, which stands for MOTIVATE others, seek OPPORTUNITY for change, use your VOICE for the Lord, and EXPERIENCE God's grace. This is going to BIG and awesome! The point of this event is for outreach and awareness, so people know exactly what is going on in Africa. So, we will along with local bands, food and fun, we will also be presenting our two wonderful projects Real4Christ and Healing Faith who will be speaking at the event!

I have several things to ask you guys, since you are my wonderful supporters! One, I ask that you keep us in prayer because that is much needed! Two, if you would like to volunteer for the event (we need over 60 volunteers!!!) please go to our website and click on the volunteer page for more information!

AND third, we need sponsors to make this event happen! There is a few different cost that we need to cover and we have less than 24 days until the event! If you would like to sponsor, please click on the donate button on this page or contact me directly. You can email me at jenny@imani-africa.com or give me a call!

I hope you all our excited because God is going to shine through this event and it is going to be glorious!

In Him,

Jenny

M.O.V.E

When: August 26, 2011 (Friday)

Where: Wolf Penn Ampitheater, College Station TX

Time: 5-11 PM

What to Expect?: FUN! Local bands, food, ministry booths, guest speakers, art for the kids and so much more! Hope to see you all come out and support Imani!

24 Day Challenge: Day 5

So I woke up this morning and seemed very restless. I am still getting back into the swing of things from being in Kenya to back home. I am a very determined and motivated young woman, but this past week has been a little hard to get out of bed. I decided to take a nap, since I had the time to (which is rare in my busy schedule) and boy oh boy I LOVE NAPS!

As for day 5 of the challenge, I am doing great! I have been eating my normal healthy food again and exercising regularly, plus I have been keeping up with the journaling!

I have some BIG news to announce, but that will come tomorrow.

I hope you all had a wonderful Monday and have a good night sleep tonight!

Until Tomorrow,
Jenny

24 Day Challenge: Day 4

Hey Everyone!

So, the challenge has been going great... I have been going through the herbal cleanse with advocare right now, started the book of John and now am on chapter 3 and have been in my journal every minute I can be, but where have a epically failed and struggled with??! THE BLOG! I know everyone does not like excuses, but here is mine. I have been in the process of moving, I started moving on Friday and well I will not have internet until Tuesday. BUT, I am going to get better at this.

Anyways, I wanted to share this with you all on Saturday..

In John 1:16-17 it says

"Out of fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given... grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

We have received grace through Christ and what is better than that. You will hear me say this a lot but I am going to say it again, Let us Rejoice in this day, for this is the day the Lord has made!

Also, this morning I read John chapter 2 and the last verse in the chapter says,

John 2:25

"He did not need human testimony about them, for He knew what was in them."

Our testimony is used to glorify the Lord in this world. We can use our struggles and sins that we have been forgiven for to show to the world that we are redeemed through Christ. What we have to remember though is that Christ already knows what is and is to come, so we can not hide from Christ. He knows our hearts and what is IN us. I believe testimony is used to help plant a seed in this world to bring others closer to HIM. We plant, the Lord grows that seed and the Lord SAVES.

God is good, all the time, all the time, God is good.

Until tomorrow,

Jenny

24 DAY CHALLENGE. Day 1

So today starts my 24 day challenge.
At first, I was just simply doing a physical challenge by doing the 24 day challenge with advocare, but then I decided to add a little twist and challenge myself even more. (I tend to push myself to the limit at times) So, I decided that in the next 24 days I am going to embark on a journey of not only physical growth, but emotionally and spiritually as well.

Along with the 24 day advocare challenge (which if you are interested, you can check online at advocare.com), I am also going to be walking through Jesus' life in the perspective of the book of John. In 24 days, I will complete the book of John and hopefully fall even more in love with Christ and grow my faith stronger. Then on challenging myself emotionally, I have decided to dig into my journal at every moment. Every time I have a thought, passion, complaint, to do list, anything I will write and document in my journal. I believe I overlook the little things of everyday and want to not take for granted these little thoughts in my head or little to do's because in the end, they make a BIG impact in my life or other lives as well. On top of journaling, I want to refocus my blog. For 24 days, I will blog everyday and maybe sometimes you will get lucky and hear from me twice a day!
So, for my blog there is a NEW voice. I started this blog in 2009, before I left for my first mission trip to Mombasa, Kenya. I was focused on raising support and keeping people connected while I was gone.
I have now changed my blog title to My love for Missions. This blog is not only going to focus on missions, but is going to focus on the newly founded non-profit Imani Tumaini Upendo. Myself, Rachel Driskell and Kaylene Ullom started Imani on April 8, 2011 and have been completely in love with what the Lord is doing with our organization. Together we are a wonderful team. Rachel is the business manager, Kaylene is the social media director and I am the missions coordinator. Together we are the founders of Imani and together we are awesome!

As missions coordinator, I want my personal blog to reflect the insight of Imani from the missions perspective. You will get to know the ends and outs of Imani Tumaini Upendo and my prayer is that you will fall in love with who we are and what we are trying to do. We want you to be a part of this family and join us in our vision!
On the side of my page their is a link to the Imani website and also the Imani Facebook, I hope you get plugged in with this ministry. Any donation that you now make through paypal on my personal site, will go directly to Imani. If at anytime you want to become a sponsor, whether for a one-time purpose, monthly, or an in-kind sponsor. Please let me know!

So, back to my challenge. In the next 24 days, I will physically, emotionally and spiritually be challenging myself. My hopes for this challenge is to reach my goals I have set and to have learned way more than I could have expected. I pray that not only my relationship with Christ grows stronger, but also my relationships with my friends and family!

Here we go!
Wish me luck!

Jenny