Prayer letter 4

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The second half of my journey here in Kenyan has been as great as the first.  I

have had the opportunity to see many of God's blessings.  Working along with Christians who come from a different background has also been an amazing growing experience.  I know I will cherish each of the friends I have made here for ever and will hold onto many fond memories.   

            This month we have been busy planning and gathering supplies for our youth camp which takes place April 10th - 14^th.  This five day event will include worship, prayer time, learning about a practical subjects and what the Bible has to say about them, small groups, and service projects in the community of Kibera.  One of the main goals of this youth camp is to motivate and show the youth how they can serve God right in their own community.  We would like to teach them skills that they can put into action.  The subjects I will be covering are jobs and career.  I want to cover many different areas on these two subjects.  I first want the youth to learn some skills for going into an interview.  It is my goal to have them walk away knowing it doesn't matter how far they have gotten in their education God still wants to use them.  Another point I want to teach about is not putting so much importance on how much money they make, but serving God in any job they have.  At the end of the camp I want all the youth to know their real career is serving God.

            Thank you for all who have been in prayer for the new building we are trying to fix up in order to expand our ministry.  Many of the rooms have had the floor fixed in them.  A water tank was purchased and set up in order for clean water to be on site.  We are still praying that the rest of the residents will quickly find new and adequate homes.  As soon all the houses are vacated the roof will be torn off and a new roof which will provide more protection from the weather will be put on.

            This is the first month in which I have begun leading the HIV/AIDS support group.  The skills that I learned when I was in college have been a wonderful help to me in leading this group.  Being able to use the skills I have learned makes me feel like I am really contributing to the work that is going on with Chonesus.

            I again want to thank each one of you who has been supporting me through prayer and donations.  Please continue to keep me and the work Chonesus is doing in your prayers.  I would appreciate prayer for:

1. The final planning of the youth camp to come together. 

2. The youth who come to the camp would leave knowing how to better serve their community.

3. God would continue to give me guidance on how to give encouragement to those with HIV/AIDS.

God Bless,

DeAnna Terry

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Prayer letter 3

         It is already the end of my third month in Kenya.  I am now at my halfway point and I can't believe time has gone by so fast.  At this point I feel extremely comfortable in my ministry.  I have been inspired by the lives of many people I have encountered.  I have also been heartbroken by many cases.  The very end of January and beginning of February was a difficult time because it was the start of a new school year here.  You might think that this would be a wonderful time, but for many it brings hardships.  Schooling is not free here in Kenya.  The parents have to pay school fees in order to send their children to school.  In America it is your right to attend school.  In Kenya it is a privilege.  Many of the families in Kibera do not have enough money to send their children to school.  As a result of this children and parents were coming by the dozens to our project asking for school fees and uniforms.  Our project did have enough money to help many children, but there were still several who we were not able to support.  It breaks my heart every time I go into a home and a parent tells me there child is no longer is school because he or she was not able to pay the fees.  This is not something uncommon.  Most of the youth in our youth group are not in school.  This is why two of the guys I work with who themselves live in Kibera have started a club program.  They have clubs for singing, dancing, drama, and football (American soccer).  The program lasts for 3 hours Monday through Friday.  This is a great chance for the youth to feel productive and learn how to work together.  Each Saturday we get to see what they have put together for the week.

            We have just began gearing up and planning our next youth camp which will take place in April.  I came in at the very end of the last camp where 130 youth were present.  We are praying and expecting at least the same amount this time.  This camp will also be exciting because we have a couple of Kenyans who work with abstance groups to come in and help put on the camp.  In the girls ministry that we have started many of the teachings have been on God's love for us and marriage.  I pray that the camp will be a time where the youth can learn more about these subjects.

            The spiritual life conference was a great time of fellowship.  Each missionary had a time to share his or her testimony of what God has been doing in their life for the last year.  It was very inspiring to hear how amazing God has been.  I was even told by many of the long term missionaries that they were inspired by what the SIMPacters (short-term) missionaries had been doing. 

            There are many things I would appreciate you joining together with me in prayer for this month. 

1. Please pray that the planning for the youth camp will go well and that God will reach out to many youth. 
2. Please pray that God will give us the wisdom of how to serve those in need especially those without school fees. 
3. I would also appreciate it if you pray that I would continue to grow in my relationship with God and learn how to better serve Him while I am here.

I would like to thank everyone who is supporting me through prayer and donations while I am in Kenya.

God bless,

DeAnna Terry

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prayer letter 2

 January 2007

        My second month in Nairobi had come and gone even faster than the first.  Summer has come into full season here.  The weather is becoming increasingly hotter and hotter each week I have been here.  It is amazing to me to think that I am actually skipping the winter season this year.   

            This month I have become a great deal more involved with my ministry.  My heart goes out to each person as I get to know him or her more and more.  I have heard some stories of how people came to find out that they were HIV positive which seem to be unreal.  The people I visit are in all different stages of HIV.  Some have just recently discovered their status within the last year while others have known for 5 years or longer.  Though a person knowing his or her status for the past five years may not seem like a long time, but this is because he or she may have actually been infected years earlier.  One of the women I visit is so weak she can hardly walk 100 or 200 yards on her own.  Last week we took her for a walk with a person at each side supporting her in order that she could get some much needed exercise. 

            We have just begun a girl's ministry inside of youth group in order for the girls to be more open and comfortable with us.  Teaching them can be a bit intimidating at times.  While you are talking they don't really look at you and will hardly ever answer questions.  In the end we will hand out paper and pencil, so that the girls can write down their questions and then we answer them all at once.  This is where we find out they were actually paying attention the whole time.  This is because they ask so many really great questions. 

            Teaching the women's Bible study can also be a little intimidating.  The times I have taught I have asked questions throughout my lesson.  The only thing is that no one will answer the questions.  I have been told this is because the topics we usually cover are not things they used to talking with others about.  As a result of them not answering my questions I allow them to tell the answer to the person next to them.  I have found that after this one person will usually give an answer to the whole group. 

            There are many things which you can still continue praying for.  Please continue to pray that God will keep me healthy for the remainder of my time here.  Please pray that the ministry I am involved in, Chonesus, will continue to come up with new and better ways to reach people affected by HIV/AIDS.  February 8^th through 11^th is a spiritual life conference for all SIM Kenya missionaries.  Please pray that everything goes smoothly and that each of us will learn something new which we will us to strengthen our relationship with God.

God bless,

DeAnna Terry

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Prayer letter .1

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            It is difficult to believe a month has already passed since I have been in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Nairobi.  My first week here I had training, got to meet some of the people in the SIM Kenya office, was able to see where my ministry was to take place in Kibera, and given a tour of Nairobi.  Here are a few of the things that I learned in my first week.  First of all I am living in a house with 5 other girls who are in Nairobi on a short term basis.  Only one of these girls is from North America, one from New Zealand, and three from Germany.  The range of stay of the girls in my house is from two months to ten months. 

Secondly I leaned that Kibera is much larger than I had imagined.  It is said that anywhere from 700,000 to 1.3 million people live in Kibera.  To believe that such a large amount of people can be in such a small area is quite unimaginable.  I try to compare the area of Kibera and the amount of people living there to Fullerton.  There must be at least five to six times the amount of people living in a much smaller area than the city of Fullerton.  The living conditions are much what I had imagined them to be in Kibera.  The homes and shops are the size of one room in a house is America or even smaller.  People may think that houses are crowed together in Southern California, but you haven't seen crowed until you come to Kibera.  The houses and shops are literally up against one another.  Most of the houses have wood frames while the siding and roofs are made from tin sheets with either wood or dirt floors.  The houses are divided inside by sheets hung from the ceiling to separate the living quarters from the kitchen and sitting area.  Other houses are made of mud with some sort of cement painted onto them.  There is no sort of trash system and many areas do not have adequate toilets near by.  People are considered very lucky if they live near large containers holding clean water and some sort of toilets close by.  I was surprised to learn that there is even some electricity in a few areas. 

The third area that I learned about was in my city tour.  I knew there was going to be a large gap between social classes, but I didn't realize those gaps would be so near one another in location.  For instance you can be quite near a slum or slum-like area and then drive what would be a couple of city blocks and find a much wealthier neighborhood.  The city center also surprised me.  I didn't know that there would be so many large business building.  Looking at the city center from a distance Nairobi looks like any other large city.              

            I came at an unusual time because two weeks after I got here the ministry I am involved with, Chonesus, shut down for two weeks during the holidays.  We just started up our ministry again on Wednesday Jan 3^rd.  The parts of the ministry I am involved with right now are home visitations to people affected by HIV/AIDS, women's Bible study, group therapy for people affected by HIV/AIDS, youth Bible study, and visitations to those who come to the youth group.  It is possible that I might start being involved with more areas of our ministry.  I really enjoy visiting those who come to our ministries because it gives us a chance to get to know what is really going on in their lives. 

            Christmas in Kenya was a different experience than I am used to.  This was my first Christmas away from my family.  For a Christmas Day celebration all of the short termers who were still on the compound went over to the man and woman's house who oversee all of the short termers in Kenya for dinner.  We had a traditional American dinner and played games afterwards.  On Dec 27^th I left with two of the other girls to go on a safari to Tanzania.  It rained for most of our trip, but we still were able to see many animals and much of the country side.

            I have a few items that I would appreciate your prayer in.  Please pray that the ministry I am involved in, Chonesus will be reaching out to people for Christ and helping to develop with relationships with God.  Chonesus is about to move into a different building, please pray we would have a smooth transition and that the new building would be dedicated for doing God's work.  I ask that you pray for me to use my time here effectively for God and that He would use me to draw others closer to him.  Also please pray for my continued health as I am in Kenya.

God Bless,

DeAnna Terry

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Huge Decision
Current mood: a peaceful heart from God
Category: a peaceful heart from God School, College, Greek

So during church today I made a huge decision for my life.  I have been praying so hard about where I should live after I come back from Africa.  I have been waiting patiently to know with overwhelming cofindence what decision to make.  I am moving back to Washington to get my master in social work.  Through the sermon I realized I have been in a way running from what God can have for me. My masters will open up a whole new set of doors for how God can use me.  I have realized after graduation I am going to use the rest of my life in a occupation to serve God, but not really sure what form of occupation that is going to take.  I never really thought of myself as being in a ministry position, but now I feel what ever job I have needs to be one that glorifies and expands God's kingdom.  Needless to say my parents were overjoyed to hear the news tonight, and my father is already planning how he is going to come down and pick up my stuff. I am ready to take this step but it is going to leave a huge hole in my heart.  I will miss all of the friends I have down here who have over the four last years become my family.  I hope each and everyone of you know how much you mean to me.  I will be going home to a place where I really have no extablished friendships so please pray that I meet at least a few great women of God when I come back from Africa.  By refusing to get my master I realzed I could be bocking off a very important door God has for me. Please pray that God continues to give me confidence in my decision. Don't worry I may be back in two years.

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Swing dancing at Memories/Birthday party

Next Friday the 22nd we are going to Memories for Swing dancing. Lessons are $3 and $10 to get in the club.  Let me know if you are interested.  For my Birthday we are going out for dinner on the 17th at 7ish. All are invited, let me know if you are coming.

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Address

Please send me your address.

3:56 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Just Barely Survived

So today I had to go to the Red Cross to donate my blood because I am required to find out my blood type for my Africa trip.  This was also my first time ever donating my blood.  After my little finger prick I came out of the room I was in to see this girl who is amost done giving blood amost pass out. Three nurses rushed over to her and were elevating her feet and puting a wet rag on her forehead and rubbing her arms all telling her she is going to be okay.  I  was like I don't want to do this anymore, but I pressed on.  I was able to fill up my whole bag of blood. I was shaking the whole time and just waiting for the moment I would pass out.  I kept making eye contact with all the nurses to make sure they were keeping an eye on me.  And they kept telling me how I was doing such a good job on my first time. I guess I did survive I was just a little weak afterwards.  But now I am going to the going ot the Jars of clay concert.

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rain drops keep falling on my head
Current mood: Playful

What is up with the rain today?  It rain drops are so tiny they don't even make you wet.  It is just like tiny little things falling from the sky that hit you in the eyes and make it so you can't see where you are walking.  Such strange rain, it is tricky.

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Trapped
Current mood: full

Trapped

Loneliness hides in the shadows,

as you walk down a winding path alone.

Trying to find the sunlight,

darkness is only to be found.

Wishing someone would just notice you,

but no one is there when you look around.

Yelling at the top of your lungs,

but no one seems to hear you.

Letting go of everything,

with your fist still tightly wrapped around it.

The need to stand firm,

but no where is there solid ground.

Just wanting someone to talk to,

but keeping everything inside yourself.

What you end up giving away,

comes back to crush your heart.

There is nothing to fix your problems,

everything remains in disrepair.

Trying to start over,

but nothing remains the same.

Looking to the future,

and seeing only pain.

One day you finally find God our savior,

and all is washed away.

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