Greetings from Kenya!

Hello!!
Thought I'd send an update out about our trip to Kenya!
I'm currently at Grace, Amelia and Shana's place. We're hanging out here until Pastor Susan's going away party this afternoon. Pastor Susan and her friend Pastor Geraldine were our hosts on our 2008 trip. I'm so excited to see her today!

The trip has been excellent so far. We've been memorizing Colossians 3:12-17 as a team-- Verse 17 says "and whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. We've been blessed with a team of students who want to represent Christ in every aspect of their lives. It has played out in how they treat the kids, the locals, our host family and each other on the team. I'm so proud of them for how they've been so intentional so far.

As usual, the kids at Gathiga are adorable. We've been playing lots of games with them, making bracelets for them thanks to Amanda's skills, and playing music together. We've all been struck on this trip by the fact that these children are orphaned. It has been pretty sobering to consider that there is no one in there lives to intentionally love them. It has been good and hard at the same time to try to love 100 kids when there are only 7 of us. We've been praying that they would know that God has adopted them!

The feeding program was good as well. Steve Gitau is doing a great job with the kids. His love for them is so evident. They recently changed the location of the program and the new place is so ideal. It's big enough for the kids to play soccer and for other games to be going as well. In short, awesome.

Tomorrow is our going away party at Gathiga. We'll go to church, then spend the afternoon with the kids, eating, singing, dancing and handing out the donations we have(there are so many!!!). Then, we'll leave on Monday for a 2 day safari, during which we'll begin debriefing the trip. Wednesday, we'll continue and finish debriefing, pack up, visit the kids one last time and then head to the airport where we'll be flying out at 11 p.m. Kenyan time.

A couple prayer requests:
- please pray that God would give us love to make the most of the time we have left with the kids. We want to try to communicate to them so badly that they are loved, not abandoned!
-Please pray for the team as we process through the trip. Debriefing is such a critical element to the success of mission trips so we want it to be done excellently. pray that God would help us understand how He is calling us to respond as a result of what He's shown us on this trip. Pray that he would help us communicate what we've seen and learned effectively when we return!
- for our travels. Please pray that our travel would be smooth, and filled with awareness of God's Spirit. We want to be representatives of Christ all the time(including on the plane!), not just in Kenya!

We're praising God for all the ways he has been working on this trip. Thanks so much for your prayers. He is using you!! We would not be able to do this trip without you.

love
-dave

A Story About What He Has Done For Me

In preparation for Ethan’s party on Sunday, I can’t help but take time to reflect on how God has brought us to this day.

On June 15, 1983, Maggie Kathryn Lasley, daughter of Kevin and Kathy, was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She was Emily, Scott and I’s big sister, the oldest of us Lasley kids. To briefly describe her, she was the pillar of the four of us – the one who, growing up, could always be counted on to show us how to follow Jesus. She definitely wasn’t perfect (as her brother, I feel it’s my duty to point this out… :) ), but growing up, I knew Who she loved and was living for.

Where to go from here? Years passed. We all were doing our own thing. She had gone to Argentina as an exchange student, returned for school at U of I Champaign/Urbana, and had then returned to Argentina to teach English. She had been doing this for a while.

Then, in November of 2006, Maggie was diagnosed with Lymphoma (a form of cancer).

I don’t want to try to sell the next part of the story short, nor do I want to be too exaggerated. Forgive me if I end up on one extreme or the other. Can I just say that the next year was horrible, hellish. Maggie kept trying treatments for the chemo. It seemed like the cancer would be responding and we would all get excited. Then, the next thing we knew, she would take a turn for the worse again. I can’t describe the constant emotional roller coaster this was. My sister was suffering right before our eyes and there was nothing to do about it except pray for her, make sure she was comfortable and hang out with her. Our prayers kept being answered for certain things (like provision for hospital costs…which was a ridiculously crazy miracle), but not the big one we obviously wanted.

I don’t know what else to say.

When I was student teaching in the fall, Maggie began to die. I had to leave Lanphier in a rush and head to Minnesota with my then fiancé Lindsey. We thankfully got to spend a few good days with her before she died on Monday, October 29, 2007.

We were obviously reeling from this. Unfortunately, Satan is such an awful being and I hate that this wasn’t the end. Following my sister’s death, others we loved died as well, and in relatively quick succession. The world seemed to be falling in around us. It was capped off by my grandmother’s illness, recovery, and then unexpected death, 3 months after Maggie died.

In the midst of this, God, for whatever reason, decided to bring Linds and I together and we ended up getting married smack dab in the middle of it all – December 29, 2007. This fact was a bright spot for our family in the midst of the junk. I have no idea why it would happen this way…but regardless, it was a welcome joy amidst the pain.

2 years passed and we all worked as best we could at grieving well.

Linds and I began talking about kids. We didn’t have any serious expectation of children entering our family soon. Lindsey’s family history was such that childbearing would probably be challenging so we figured we should start trying soon, but kept praying and waiting for the go-ahead.

Summer of 2009, we were on a mission trip to Kenya, Africa. Everything had been packed, including the essentials for baby-prevention (pills, to be exact). When we arrived in Kenya, the pills were nowhere to be found. It’s important to point out that this a rather normal circumstance to experience in Africa. Stuff is often stolen out of travelers’ luggage. What was odd was that nothing else, including the many more expensive and accessible items in the bag, was taken. We were weirded out by this enough that we took it as a sign from God and started trying to start a family.

2 months later, to our surprise, Lindsey was pregnant. I started asking God through lots of tears and in fear of all the death and suffering we had seen, to keep Lindsey and the baby healthy, protected from all of those terrible things.

The pregnancy was smooth. There was one pretty big scare midway through, but everything turned out to be fine. The delivery was quick, natural, and awesome(ok maybe it was a little disturbing to watch…but everything was definitely smooth). We left our house at 12:00 a.m. and Ethan was born, healthy as can be at 3:24 a.m. on June 15, Maggie’s birthday. This was one week earlier than we expected him to arrive.

We don’t claim to understand why or how all this happened, but there is a reason Lindsey and I always refer to our son as a gift and why we want Sunday, and the following Wednesday on his actual birthday, to be a celebration of epic proportions.

Ethan’s currently standing next to me, staring at the laptop and saying “dadadadada”. His story and his presence has been a much needed reminder that even though there is a bunch of garbage going on in the world, there is certainly a power at work, bringing healing and restoration to hellish, broken situations. We’re convinced it’s Jesus behind all of this.

I'm Goin To Kenya!

Bwana Asifiwe! ("Praise the Lord!" in Swahili)
Lindsey and I have been saying this over and over again for the things God has been doing in our lives this year. We had our first child, Ethan, in June and it has been a blast! As staff with Christian Student Fellowship, we’ve been praising God for how He continues to raise up more students to follow Him at UIS and Lincoln Land. Finally, as a current board member of Jump for Joel, I’ve been so blessed to be able to witness up close the ways God continues to provide for his children who are in need.

This year I have the opportunity to serve my family, and these excellent organizations in a really tangible, exciting way. This summer, I’ll be leading a group of students from Christian Student Fellowship to Kenya where we will be teaming up with Jump for Joel to love and serve the children of Gathiga Hope Children’s Home and Kibiria Slum. While in Gathiga we will continue to strengthen our relationships with the children and workers and will do a building project to meet some of the children’s practical needs. In Kibiria slum, we will be serving meals to the children who otherwise would go without food (some, up to 2 days at a time!). With the rest of our time, we’ll do some traveling, encourage members of the local church, and visit old friends.

As I said, this trip has implications in many areas for me. As a husband and father, my hope is that our family will always be about the work of loving and following Jesus. This trip is a way that I get to model that vision and share my experiences with them in a time when we all can’t go together. As a campus minister, I cannot understate the implications of this trip for our students. God has a way of shaping students in incredible ways while on mission trips. The CSF community is drawn closer together in love and purpose, and we as a staff have to say “bwana asifiwe!” For Jump for Joel, the stories of the children will always be its lifeblood. Whenever more people are introduced to the Kenyan children, more become invested in the ministry. Finally, this trip is a way that I get to encounter and serve God in a unique way. The last two trips I’ve taken to Kenya have been literally life changing for me. Hopefully, you get the picture as to why I’m so excited about this trip!

I believe strongly God is directing me to lead this trip. I’ve got to be honest though – I can’t make it there on my own. I need you. Before anything else, would you be willing to pray for this trip and for me? Your prayers are vital to the effectiveness of this trip. Please pray for the orphanage in Gathiga, the children in
Kibiria slum, our team, and for God to be glorified through our me on this trip. The trip cost is $3300, the majority of which is due by March 1 so that we can buy our plane tickets at the most affordable price.

This cost also includes our food, living, and vaccination expenses.

Though it is never comfortable for me to ask for financial support, I recognize that not everyone has been blessed with the flexibility to leave the country for two weeks. I also know that God has given other great gifts to you that He can use. Because of this, would you consider financially supporting my trip as well? It would be a privilege to have you as an equal partner in this ministry.

Thank you so much for taking the time to hear about what God is currently doing in my life. If you are interested in supporting my trip financially please make checks payable to “Jump for Joel” with my name in the memo line. Please contact me at the email listed below and I'll provide you with the address to send it to. Also, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact me at the contact information listed below.

Thanks so much!
-David
david@uiscsf.org