Banana Bread

I made banana bread (not from a box but from the bananas on my counter that were going bad) for the first time yesterday.

Verdict: My small group leaders thought it was good...I think I might be getting the hang of this cooking thing.

Consumed

I think sometimes...wait often times I fall into the whirlwind of worry and stress. I worry if I am doing enough in my life, in the ministry where God has placed me or too much. I stress out about meeting new students, what I should say in meetings, where am I going to find pictures for this week's powerpoints, if I am being kind and loving to my husband or just impatient and on and on. I let a lot of the little details of my life keep me down. I read this in Francis Chan's book Crazy Love last week:

Worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives.

Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control.

Ouch.

1 Meal Every 2 Days...

Hey there!

Though we've been back from Kenya for over a month now, we can't get the kids off of our minds.  We met so many beautiful people in Kenya and we don't ever want to forget them.  

Part of that remembering them, for us, has been extremely challenging.  One of our friends, named Steve,  is a youth minister in a slum called Kiberia.  On weekends he goes to the slum and feeds the kids, plays games with them and just spends time with them.  We found out that in order to do this, Steve has to take the money that he earns during the week to pay for the meal for these kids (60-80 kids I think showed up when we visited).  Sometimes the money isn't there.  Sometimes these kids don't get to eat with Steve.

Then, we found out why that was such a big deal.  These kids get a meal maybe once every two days.

Once. Every two days.   Unbelievable.  The kid who's sitting right behind me and to my left is named John.  He was displaced by the violence in Nairobi.  John doesn't get food nearly as much as I do.

As a follower of Jesus to hear about this and to do nothing seems contrary to what Jesus teaches, so we're trying to figure out what that looks like. 

Here's what we know now:

-$60 will pay for Steve to provide food and materials for these kids for one weekend.

-With wiring fees, we need to come up with $300 to pay for September.

-Jump For Joel is awesome and is going to head this up.  jumpforjoel.org 

-We don't know where or how or when this is going to happen, so these kids are in need of lots of prayer that this can happen.

Questions?  Post a comment!

-dave