Jambo everyone! This week was an interesting week as we dealt with some sickness, a drunk man, and some rain. To start with I will tell you all about how my sermon went last Sunday, the 20th. When I first got asked to give the word I was thinking about doing something on pride, but as I prayed about it I felt the Lord telling me to preach on fear. When he told me this I was uncertain why fear other than that is some of what the Lord has been working on me with but that answer didn’t feel right. I went on ahead and wrote a sermon on fear and used Peter’s denial of Jesus, and his redemption by Jesus as the main part of the sermon. Come Sunday morning I found out I was going to a different church than Pastor John’s church. This was Mama Mary’s church that Ashley and I went to. This would be the first service they were having in this area so that was a prayer answered as I had wanted to be apart of a church plant. The service took place in the school classroom that we prayed over the last week. Once I figured that out I realized why the Lord placed fear on my heart to preach on. Fear is one of the main tools the enemy uses when planting a new church so I was able to add that into my sermon. After the sermon I had many people come up and tell me how much the sermon meant to them because they all had some fear in planting a new church. One of the verses I used Mama Mary was trying to make a song out of she liked it so much. The verse was 2 Timothy 1:7, which states that God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control. After service we had lunch then went back home and rested for the rest of the day.

Monday was an unintentional sabbath as what we were supposed to do got pushed to the next week due to an emergency. Ashley and I ran into town to go to the ATM and get groceries for dinner as we made dinner that night. We made burgers and mashed potato’s for dinner. Ana gave Mama J some of her burger and she liked it so much she bought us the supplies to make more Thursday night. On Tuesday I went to plug in our devices so they could charge for the day. While there I was left alone for about 20 minutes, and the instant I was guys started coming over to ask for money and trying to guilt trip me into giving them money, Kenyans often do this as they associate white people with wealth. It wasn’t bad at first but one guy started to get more pushy and I began to feel uncomfortable, but I couldn’t just leave as I was waiting for my ride. I did tell him I would pray for him so I did but he just continued to pester me until my ride got there to take me back home. As soon as I got back home that stress and unease boiled over and I talk my team that we are not going to go anywhere without a buddy from now on as that was extremely uncomfortable for me and I don’t even want to know how a lady would have felt in that situation. Later that day we had house church so we went to that. While there Ana and Kira got overheated and had to step out for a bit to cool off and rest. They came back in to eat lunch and then we took some photos. On the way back Kira was still a little weak so her and I got onto the first Boda Boda (this is the actual way to spell it, not bota bota like I did last week). When we got to a junction we stopped as it had begun to rain and we went and sat inside a Barbour shop for a while until it let up a bit. Kira and I then walked the rest of the way back home with some people that had been at the same house church as us. The others had to walk the whole way back as it was too wet for a Boda Boda so it took them about another 30 minutes for them to get back after Kira and I did. Kira pretty much got back and went to bed to try and sleep as she was still under the weather.  We did not do much the rest of the night so it was pretty uneventful.

On Wednesday we did house visits and something really cool happened between the Lord and I, but I am not yet ready to talk about that yet. After a few hours of house evangelism we went to one of the Pastor’s homes and we had food there. While there it began to rain so we sat in her house for a couple hours as it rained for a while. Once it let up some we walked back home and made it back around 6pm, Ana and I then did our one on one. During this day Kira and Ashley stayed back as Kira was sick and Ashley needed a sabbath as she didn’t really get one on Monday. On Thursday we got an unexpected rest day, though we were supposed to help around the village for the day. Kira felt better today so she helped with a couple chores but by the evening she was feeling sick again. We also made burgers again as Mama J got us supplies to do so. On Friday Kira woke up and had a high fever so we decided collectively that it was time to take her to the Hospital. Judah and Ana went with Kira so Ashley, Emily and I stayed back to do some house chores. This did not take very long so we ended up doing some work for AIM, I was working on receipts and Emily was working on Visa’s. When Kira, Ana and Judah got back we learned that Kira had a blood infection. Thankfully though all she needs is to take some meds for a week or so and she should be good to go. Friday night we did some house visits but Kira and Ana stayed back. Those went well as we just encouraged fellow believers. Come Saturday Kira was feeling much better as she had started taking her meds so she did join us when we went to church for a kids event at 2pm. This lasted for about 2 hours and we just made it back home before the rain hit. Other than that 2 hour time frame we had a Sabbath and I managed to finish all the receipts I needed to do for AIM. That night a drunk guy came into the house, we thought at first to get out of the rain, but when we asked he said he lived here. As this wasn’t our house we were unsure what to do but we also never felt unsafe, at least I didn’t, so we let him stay for a while and just tried to talk to him. After a bit one of the guys from the village came and got him and took him off the property. We then had a good talk about the buddy system as we had just talked that morning about allowing someone to stay back at the house alone if they were comfortable with it. After this incident happened, and what happened to me as soon as I was left alone for a bit, we decided that even at home we need to have the buddy system in place. The Lord really said, nope buddy system for you all the same day we decided we didn’t need it at home. I also worked on the testimony that I would give at two churches on Sunday. Just like last week if you want to read about what I talked about and how it went you will have to wait until next Sunday when I post my next blog. The girls also got their dresses and Judah and I got our shirts today so expect some pictures on Instagram and Facebook soon!

I do also have some prayer requests from this last week. To start off with I would ask for prayers for continuing healing for Kira. As of today, Sunday the 27th, she is feeling much better but still isn’t technically out of the woods yet. There has been some spiritual warfare for the all girls team that we have in Kenya so be praying for them. Some people on the squad have been coming down with a sickness that I guess is going around Kenya so prayers for healing and for protection from the sickness. I also learned something interesting today in church that will need praying over but I need to gather some more information on it before I can share about it so be ready to pray for it next I post a blog as it could impact a lot of people in Kenya if what is feared will happen happens.

Thank you everyone for reading this and I hope you all are getting to grow through the little bit that you get to experiance through my blogs and instagram and facebook posts. I love you all!

Trenton Hilty