A change of pace...

Well, since my last post, a lot has happened! I had my first bout of illness Friday night/early Saturday morning. I celebrated Independence Day with my own version of fireworks if you catch my drift. I won't go into gruesome details, but I don't think I've ever been that sick. I actually tore of the toilet seat in the Savelburg bathroom when I passed out. I'm not sure which part of my body actually broke it off, but I have several bruises on my head from passing out then and about 3 minutes later in the hallway! So, please pray, that I don't get sick anymore and that the food I eat cooperates with my stomach! Anyway, the rest of the weekend was much better. Saturday afternoon I went to the Maadili women's meeting with Joy, a Kenyan girl who volunteers at New Life. I was under the false impression that there would be free food, but I was sadly mistaken. It was still really fun, though! It was pretty much a worship service type gathering of all the local women's Bible studies in the area. The service was really upbeat and the message was on Proverbs 31:10, which talks about being a virtuous woman. The whole thing lasted about 3 hours, so it was definitely the longest service I've ever been to! The most interesting part was at the end, though. They split everyone into groups of about 8 people with 2-3 leaders. Then, they took everyone aside individually and (I'm not sure about my word choice here) did a kind of "prophecy" for them. It wasn't like "you will find your true love next week" or anything, but they would tell you a verse and a key word that they think applies to you know or will apply to you in the future. Since I'm really awesome, I never heard my key word, but I do remember that my key verse was Joshua 1:7-8. I really like it because I think it holds true for every believer. It talks about staying courageous, remaining in God's law, and meditating on His Word. Anyway, whether or not they were speaking from God or just themselves, I'll never know, but I think they were genuine, if that makes any sense. After the Maadili service, I spent the night at Kate and Kaitlyn's apartment. Her parents started the Amani Foundation, which funds about half of NLH. It's based in Winston, but to be completely honest, I had only heard of it a few months ago! Anyway, it was really great to have some company, a really comfortable bed, and a hot shower! Sunday morning, the three of us went to church with the Beckenhams, the founders of NLH. We went to Mamlaka Hill Chapel, which was very upbeat, much like the Maadili women's meeting. Since I was a first-time visitor, I got to stand of in front of the congregation (about 100ish people maybe?) and introduce myself. I felt soooooo awkward, but they all clapped for me and someone shouted "alleluia!" when I sat down, so I guess it was worth it! The preacher talked about the responsibility aspect of service. He used a passage from Leviticus, which was interesting because I feel like that book gets left out a lot, you know? You don't really hear much about Leviticus. Anyway, it was definitely the notoriously harsh God of the Old Testament, which nobody really likes to hear about. The way I see it, there's no humanly way for me to make God happy, but He loves me just the same, even though I do a million things every day that probably disappoint Him. That's not to say that we shouldn't fear God or anything. His wrath is something that's definitely real, but (forgive me if this is theologically incorrect, I'm just rambling) I don't think it's always the source of our "punishment." We punish ourselves with sin because it separates us from God. I think that when we mess up, God uses the pain and consequences brought about by our sin to teach us and bring us closer to Him. I'm not sure if that makes any sense or if it's Biblically correct, but it works in my mind!  After church, Kate, Kaitlyn, and I went to the Masai market outside of the Yaya center. It was basically just a bunch of vendors selling really neat African/Kenyan scarves, jewelry, art, clothing, and other oddball things. I bought several souvenirs, but mainly tried to help Kate and Kaitlyn buy scarves for the Amani Foundation. I'll be going back next weekend, so I can get all the other really cool stuff I saw then! My favorite purchase of the day, though? Besides a hippo-shaped bottle opener, I really love my African continent-shaped jewelry box. It has all the different countries painted on it and it won't open unless you take out Kenya. Hence, "Kenya is the key."  Currently, I am in Ruiru, which is about an hour drive northeast of Nairobi. It's nice to be out of the city for a while since it's so busy. I feel like I'm truly in the middle of nowhere, though. It's very rural here, but amazingly I have wireless in my room! It's painfully slow, but definitely an upgrade! Anyway, I'm staying at the Ruiru Bible Translation and Literary Conference Center. Interesting fact: the building names are the names of unreached tribes in Kenya that they are working with. I am in Ilchamus 21. Anyway, Kate, Kaitlyn and I spent a few hours at the New Life School that I'll be working at this week. The people there are by far the most welcoming people I've met since I got to Kenya! When we first arrived, Ann greeted us with kisses on the cheek, tea, and mandisa (sp), which are like little Kenyan doughnuts. If you put powdered sugar on them, I'm almost positive they would be beignets from Café du Monde in New Orleans. So, as you can imagine, I was a fan. After giving us a tour of the school, which has about 100 students from ages 4-8 or so, telling some background of the school and letting us play with the kids for a bit, Ann invited back in for lunch. I am completely stuffed! We had ungali (sp again), which is a really plain kind of cakey bread and is a staple in African diets. It's incredibly tasteless, but it's actually really good when paired with some kind of stew. We had it with a cabbage and beef stew, and I rally liked it! Peter, a local pastor who is very involved at the school, warned me though that if I said I love it, then they'll feed it to me so much that I'd get sick of it. I figure that since I'll only be here for about 4 days, it's a risk I'm willing to take- it's probably safer than the crocodile he offered!  Anyway, please continue to pray for my time here. I really am truly alone here. I haven't seen any Americans here at the BTL, and Kate and Kaitlyn are back in Nairobi. I'm scared of slipping back into the intense loneliness from earlier in my trip. I'm really excited to be here, though! It'll be fun to work in a different environment with new people! Thanks fro all your prayers! love, emily  PS Since I have wireless in my room now, Skype me!