Greetings from Kenya

I will not be able to fully explain all that God is/has been doing throughout the first week here.  The peace that I have cannot be explained in mere words.  God is certainly at work and I am thankful to be a part of what He is already doing.   I have been blessed with so many new experiences.  We started language school, met with the head master and teachers at the school where we will be working, fellowshipped with a young adult Bible study group, and experienced Sunday morning worship at Ridgeways Baptist Church, just to name a few.  There have been many lessons as well as challenges and I am thankful for both.

 

1 John 3:17 (NIV) states: “If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion- how can God’s love be in that person?”  What does it mean to ‘live well’?  My understanding of what it means to ‘live well’ is definitely changing with each experience that I have here.   My first lesson in determining the difference between need and want and developing a better understanding of what it means to ‘live well’ came immediately after getting off the plane in Nairobi.  After watching everyone else’s luggage come and go we realized that our luggage was not in Nairobi with us.   It would take a few days for our luggage to arrive and we had only what was in our carry-on.  It was here that we realized that we had more than enough.  We had a change of clothes, soap, and a toothbrush and toothpaste.  We learned to wash our clothes out in the sink and keep it moving.  If the truth is told, we had more in our carry-ons than many of the natives have as their life possessions. 

 

We also have had many cross-cultural experiences.  I would not have ever imagined how challenging a trip to the grocery store could be.  There were so many factors that played into this cross-cultural experience.   First of all, we did not know what foods we liked and which ones would not sit well with us, we had to try to convert shillings to dollars so we had an idea of how much we were spending, and we were unfamiliar with the lay-out of the store and what was ‘safe’ to eat and what was not.   In the midst of our shopping experience the electricity went out in the store. (This is common in Kenya.   Electricity is a want and not a need….. It has been out several times this week, both at home and in public places.)   A trip that would normally take us less than twenty minutes in the States took over three hours here. 

 

The fellowship with the ladies from Ridgeways was amazing.  It was interesting to watch Kenyan’s interact with each other and with us in such a natural manner.  Their testimonies, choices of conversation and their personal relationship and devotion to God blew me away.     They have over-come obstacles that many of us could not fathom and persevere with resilience and determination in a manner that would be uncommon at best in the States.  These ladies are wise beyond their years and it was apparent that God is working in their lives.

 

The collective experiences of the week have certainly stretched me in many ways and are working to reshape my worldview.   I am thankful to be able to see a glimpse of how God is working in this culture.   I am just starting to understand the importance of not putting God in a box.  God is so much bigger than our minds can begin to fathom. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kenya Bound!

The time has come....  I cannot believe that after over a year and a half of prayer, planning, and non-stop talking about Kenya, the time has come to actually go.  I want to thank all of you who have supported me in any way.  I cannot express how grateful I am for all of your prayers, love, support, hugs, and financial contributions.  All of you have made a tremendous impact and have contributed in meaningful ways throughout this process.  I cannot tell you how many times God used each of you to encourage me at just the right time.  Many of you will never truly know how God used you to bless me throughout this process.  A dear friend often says, “Everything counts and everything matters.”  It is so true.  Everything does count and everything does matter.  Thank you for being such an intricate part of my life and journey.

 

This process has been filled with many blessings, as well as challenges.  I am thankful for both as it all has worked together to strengthen my faith in God and has helped me to trust Him more. With only five days before departure, I am filled with many emotions.  The dominant emotion is that of excitement. I am excited to see, feel, and experience God's presence in ways that I have yet to experience.  I pray that God will truly use me as a vessel so others may come to know Him for themselves and they too will be able to see and experience His presence in new ways.  It is my prayer that God will remove my desires, my will, and my plans so that I will be sensitive to hear His will, His desires, and His plan.   I pray that I will go as a servant leader and remember that I have as much to learn from the people in Kenya as they can learn from me.  I pray that authentic relationships will be formed and true ministry will take place.  I pray that lives will be changed and transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Essentially, I pray that we will see God be God and do what only He can do.

 

I can honestly say that I have no idea what God has in store for the next two months, but I am confident that He will move in big ways and we will see miracles that we cannot even fathom right now.  I ask that you continue to pray for me, Nakisha (the missionary that I will be traveling with), Rev. Crawley and Rev Pass (our host missionaries) and all those that we will come in contact with throughout this journey.  I have listed below some prayer request, but I ask that you continually keep us covered and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you as I cannot predict all of our specific needs throughout the duration of the summer.  Thank you in advance for your prayers and continued love and support.  May God Bless you abundantly.  Love you!

 

Some prayer requests:

-Traveling mercies/ Safety/ Protection/ Favor

-Heightened discernment and sensitivity to the voice of God

-Wisdom and understanding

-Forming Authentic relationships with the people in Kenya (I pray we will see/understand Kenyan people and their culture through their eyes, not through the eyes of an American.)

-I pray that our eyes will be open to what God is doing and opportunities that we are presented with.

-Peace and comfort for family and friends in America (I pray they will experience the peace of God and be able to trust Him as we travel to a foreign land and will have limited contact with most of them.)

-Smooth transitions

-Protection from dangers seen and unseen (spiritual warfare)

-The Park Church youth mission team that will be coming in July

 

 

 

Support Kenya 2013 Mission

Greetings Family and Friends,

I am so excited to share with you how God has been working and moving in my life.  In September 2011, I was blessed to be able to go on a 15 day short-term mission trip to Kenya in East Africa. This trip blessed my heart and broke my heart all at the same time.  Looking children in the eyes who had not eaten for days was devastating.  How could I come and leave in just a few short days?  I knew my work in this country had just begun. 

During the summer of 2013, I will have the opportunity to go and “feed the children” of Kenya.   Living in Kenya for the summer would allow me the opportunity to build relationships and make a greater impact on the lives of those who live there.  I will be staying with Rev. Sonia Crawley and Rev. Sonji Pass during those months.  For those of you who do not know, these two women are members of my church (The Park Church) and they have accepted the call as full time missionaries.  They have moved to Kenya indefinitely.  This experience will allow me the opportunity to serve in Kenya as well as be mentored under the leadership of experienced missionaries in order to learn how to be most effective in reaching the people.

Matthew 9:37-38 states, “…The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”  I am willing to be one of those workers to be sent into the harvest field in Kenya.  Send me; I will go.

So what can you do to join God in what He is already doing?  Well the most important thing that you can do is PRAY, PRAY, AND KEEP PRAYING.  Prayer is essential and is greatly needed.  Secondly, you can partner with me financially.  Through your financial gifts, we will be able to touch the lives of many children and families in Kenya.  The total cost of this mission trip is $8000.  This cost includes travel expenses, cost of living, and ministry work and materials. All donations are tax deductible and can be made as either a monthly or a single donation.  You can do so by mailing your donation to The Mission Society or by visiting http://themissionsociety.org/give.  If you write checks, please make your checks payable to The Mission Society and put my name and my account # 3046 on the memo line.  All checks can be mailed to: The Mission Society, 6234 Crooked Creek Road, Norcross, GA  30092.   If you contribute online, please visit the site listed above. On the right side of the page you will see “related links”.  Under “related links” you can choose to donate via credit card or checking account. Click on the section of your choice.  When donating online, please place my name in the space designated for the “specific missionary” and include my account number- #3046.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

I thank God for your continued support.  I pray that God blesses you one hundred fold for all that you do for His Kingdom.

                                               

                                                Sincerely,

                                                Onnica Gildersleeve

 

Kenya Mission Trip - September 2011

Dear Friends and Family,

            I first want to sincerely thank all of you for your prayers and support throughout this part of the journey.  I know that many of you are excited to hear about my trip to Kenya.  I feel so blessed to have had this experience. It has been an amazing experience that words just simply cannot describe.  It will take time for me to be able to fully process all that has occurred.  I would like to share with you three important lessons from my trip.

            LOVE:   The love, joy, and compassion that the people in Kenya demonstrated was absolutely beautiful.  Their smiles stretched from ear to ear and were very contagious.  When you looked at the children, you did not see the realities of their life weighing them down.  They did not look like the “poor, pitiful children” that you see on TV.  They were happy, smiling, singing, and just being kids.  They demonstrated love even though they had not eaten in three days and were without clean water to drink.  They simply have been denied the “luxuries” that Americans take for granted each day.   Love is not hindered by language or culture.  It transcends to all people, all generations, and all tongues.  Love is beautiful and the people of Kenya understand what it means to love one another. 

            WORSHIP:   The people in Kenya truly know what it means to have genuine, authentic worship.  They truly do focus on who God is and live to experience Him.  They are not worried about form or fashion and do not focus on what God can do or will provide for them.  They simply desire to experience His presence.  They take very seriously their worship and strive to understand and experience God more and more. 

            We went thinking we were going to teach the children some of the basic Bible stories, but it was the children who taught us.   They have to memorize the Bible since most of them do not have access to it in written form.  They knew and described the very stories we were going to teach with more detail and accuracy than any of us were prepared to teach.   It was not just the children who taught us about worship; the adults also had much to offer.  During Sunday service in Isiolo, the Pastor announced that they would not have service next Sunday.  Instead of Sunday service, they would all meet at the church and would go out two by two to the people who may never enter into the sanctuary.  It was announced that they would be doing this once a month to ensure that all of the people in the community and surrounding areas would hear about Christ because the “end times are near.” 

            STEWARDSHIP:  The people in Kenya understand how to take the resources that they have and maximize them.  They seemingly have so little (in terms of resources only), but they do so much with what they have.  Many of the children are educated in tin huts, without books, paper, or pencils.  Their teachers do not have any resources. Even though these children are hungry, they are two to three grade levels ahead of most American students. 

            The people in Kenya also understand what it means to give sacrificially.  We were ministering at a “Day Care” for the poor.  There is no way any American family would send their children to a place with such dismal conditions, but these parents did not have any choice.   As we were leaving the Day Care, the adult workers went and got a live chicken for us.  They handed us the chicken to express their appreciation and said that we could use it for a meal on our way home.  They clearly could have used this chicken to provide a meal for themselves, yet they thought more about us than they did of themselves.  This one act demonstrated so much love and compassion.  I was blown away at their selflessness.  How many of us would give something that we need to someone else, especially when they do not need it as much as we do?

            We all truly do need each other.  The people of Kenya need many of the resources that Americans have, but Americans need many of the values that Kenyans have.  We all have something to give and we all have something we need to learn.   Serving God, loving each other, and being good stewards are things that we are all admonished to do.  God is truly amazing and I am so thankful that He allowed me to experience and see Him work in the nation of Kenya. 

                                                                                    Love you and God Bless,

                                                                                    Onnica