From: Ryan
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 2:22 AM
To: sherrie
Subject: From your son in Kenya!!
From: Sherrie :-)
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 7:07 AM
To: 'Ryan'
Cc: 'dave'
Subject: RE: From your son in Kenya!!
.
Dear Ryan ~
.
The tears just swarm down my face as I read your precious words. Before the Lord in the shower this morning I shared my agony with Him of feeling so unconnected from you and your adventure for Him in Kenya... not only how far away you are, not only the difficult worldly circumstances you are in, not only the evil of ineffective leaders that allow such a place to exist, beyond all of that to how my heart just aches in my loss of you, talking to you, hearing from you, and knowing how your heart is and knowing that Kelli must be feeling the same things perhaps even more deeply as she sees you so much more often now that you're in college together. And as I bawled to Him my deepest desire, He had already met it... and here indeed is your precious, precious e.mail. Thank you Ryan for finding a way to connect with me and thank you Lord for knowing and answering my heart's greatest longing just as I had hit the wall of "being okay"! Isn't that how God is? He does know our hearts and needs for love, forgiveness, and acceptance and has provided the solution through Jesus Christ before we recognized our need and cry out to Him in repentance and reconciliation.
.
All is well here. (for this post, I have removed the details of who and what and when and where ... Drew, Trey, Sean, Dave, Robyn & Darold, Cris & Charlie, Keri & Tom, Ashleigh & Haley)
.
Now back to Kenya ... I've often read that the biggest enemy of God in America is that we don't "need" Him and we can pursue lives of comfort and pleasure day-to-day depending on ourselves and our work. You've come face-to-face (or nose-to-nose) with the complete opposite end of the worldly life spectrum with people who have no hope of decent living conditions in this world. The things we share however are the big ones ... our need for eternal life with Him and our need for connection and the love of others. It is so precious that you are there providing both to these people. I am so blessed to know that you are part of and witnessing a great work of the Lord Jesus Christ in their lives. It is unfortunate that we don't have the opportunity much in McMansion world to see God doing a great work of salvation.
.
We cherish you, we love you, and we are proud of you. May God honor your service to Him in Kenya and your sensitivity to His voice to sneak away to find a way to meet a great need of your own mother's heart. Our prayers continue for you, your team, and His impact!
.
With big awesome love for you, Mom (& Dad)
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 2:22 AM
To: sherrie
Subject: From your son in Kenya!!
Hey Mom!!
.
I snuck away from the compound we are staying in and found this hole in the wall internet cafe to send you a line!
.
Everything in Kibera (pronounced Key-bear-a) is amazing but heartbreaking at the same time. As you walk through the slum of one point something million you can see every sign of poverty. None of the streets are paved or have gutters, gutters are just trenches dug in the ground that try to funnel all of the human waste out of the slum but are very ineffective at doing so. The houses are made of mud clinging to sticks and are placed rediculously close together with 5 foot wide paths, each of these paths has their respective river of feces. But as you walk through these streets all of the kids, who have rarely, if not never, scream the only english they know at you: "How are you!?" in their fast swaheli accent.
.
There is no hope for the physical condition that these people have found themselves in. This caused our team much pain and anger for the first week. But this helped us realize the importance of Jesus in this community and it emboldened the mindset of this earth being our temporary home. Jesus is the only hope for these people and we have been doing evangelism nonstop and dozens have been coming to Christ. God is growing and moving in supernatural ways here and it is incredible to be on the front lines and able to see him work.
.
I miss you so much mom along with everyone else of course. I cannot wait to return to you but at the same time I don't want to leave. My prayers are with you and I thank you for all the ones I am receiving.
.
Bwana Asifiwe
(Praise the Lord)
.
Ryan.
..
I snuck away from the compound we are staying in and found this hole in the wall internet cafe to send you a line!
.
Everything in Kibera (pronounced Key-bear-a) is amazing but heartbreaking at the same time. As you walk through the slum of one point something million you can see every sign of poverty. None of the streets are paved or have gutters, gutters are just trenches dug in the ground that try to funnel all of the human waste out of the slum but are very ineffective at doing so. The houses are made of mud clinging to sticks and are placed rediculously close together with 5 foot wide paths, each of these paths has their respective river of feces. But as you walk through these streets all of the kids, who have rarely, if not never, scream the only english they know at you: "How are you!?" in their fast swaheli accent.
.
There is no hope for the physical condition that these people have found themselves in. This caused our team much pain and anger for the first week. But this helped us realize the importance of Jesus in this community and it emboldened the mindset of this earth being our temporary home. Jesus is the only hope for these people and we have been doing evangelism nonstop and dozens have been coming to Christ. God is growing and moving in supernatural ways here and it is incredible to be on the front lines and able to see him work.
.
I miss you so much mom along with everyone else of course. I cannot wait to return to you but at the same time I don't want to leave. My prayers are with you and I thank you for all the ones I am receiving.
.
Bwana Asifiwe
(Praise the Lord)
.
Ryan.
From: Sherrie :-)
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 7:07 AM
To: 'Ryan'
Cc: 'dave'
Subject: RE: From your son in Kenya!!
.
Dear Ryan ~
.
The tears just swarm down my face as I read your precious words. Before the Lord in the shower this morning I shared my agony with Him of feeling so unconnected from you and your adventure for Him in Kenya... not only how far away you are, not only the difficult worldly circumstances you are in, not only the evil of ineffective leaders that allow such a place to exist, beyond all of that to how my heart just aches in my loss of you, talking to you, hearing from you, and knowing how your heart is and knowing that Kelli must be feeling the same things perhaps even more deeply as she sees you so much more often now that you're in college together. And as I bawled to Him my deepest desire, He had already met it... and here indeed is your precious, precious e.mail. Thank you Ryan for finding a way to connect with me and thank you Lord for knowing and answering my heart's greatest longing just as I had hit the wall of "being okay"! Isn't that how God is? He does know our hearts and needs for love, forgiveness, and acceptance and has provided the solution through Jesus Christ before we recognized our need and cry out to Him in repentance and reconciliation.
.
All is well here. (for this post, I have removed the details of who and what and when and where ... Drew, Trey, Sean, Dave, Robyn & Darold, Cris & Charlie, Keri & Tom, Ashleigh & Haley)
.
Now back to Kenya ... I've often read that the biggest enemy of God in America is that we don't "need" Him and we can pursue lives of comfort and pleasure day-to-day depending on ourselves and our work. You've come face-to-face (or nose-to-nose) with the complete opposite end of the worldly life spectrum with people who have no hope of decent living conditions in this world. The things we share however are the big ones ... our need for eternal life with Him and our need for connection and the love of others. It is so precious that you are there providing both to these people. I am so blessed to know that you are part of and witnessing a great work of the Lord Jesus Christ in their lives. It is unfortunate that we don't have the opportunity much in McMansion world to see God doing a great work of salvation.
.
We cherish you, we love you, and we are proud of you. May God honor your service to Him in Kenya and your sensitivity to His voice to sneak away to find a way to meet a great need of your own mother's heart. Our prayers continue for you, your team, and His impact!
.
With big awesome love for you, Mom (& Dad)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some pictures from backyard bocce in May ...
Some pictures from backyard bocce in May ...
5 comments:
Goodmorning, Sounds like Ryan is really into something. Good to hear all is well with all tho. 108 here. Tell all Hi for me. Love ya, Moms
Sherrie,
This is FABULOUS to be able to read this amazing, encouraging, growing, challenging, “Ryan Epistle”! WOW! I was touched with how much he said about how this whole experience is impacting him in so many facets – emotionally (like WOW! – both about Kenya, and his love for you), mentally (I could just imagine what an engineering mind would be working through in this way), spiritually (the realization that he has the thing of greatest value that he can possible share and it is impassioning him). Praise the Lord that he can see clearly! These trips have a way of sharpening our vision, don’t they? Thanks for sharing Ryan’s adventure – and yes! I will be praying and I send you all just a whole ton of love!
Ah, Lord God, continue to do your work in Ryan’s heart and in the rest of our hearts, I pray…
Love you lots, Beck
Sherrie: Thank you for sharing Ryan’s e-mail. He is in my prayers. Julie
OK that even brought tears to my eyes. Very touching : - ) I miss you and cannot wait until I can get away on a Tuesday. Pray if you would that we have safe journeys and that God will let us shine for Him that people may want to know why are we sooo joyous!!!! Miss you lots, I will be thinking of Ryan. Angie
Thank you so much for sharing that email!!! I didn't get very far before I started bawling too but since I haven't heard from Ryan it is very encouraging to know that he is doing really well! I am so happy to know that his experiences there have been impactful so far and I know that he is just going to keep growing and growing spiritually while he is there! He is constantly in my prayers as I know he is in yours. Thank you again for sharing the email!
Lots of love,
Kelli
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