What are we fighting for?
Hello from KENYA!
As I sit down to write this I can't help but smile, God is just so good. I am presently sitting at a cafe near our home. It's currently 7pm and a dark, calm, cool evening (Cool for Africa at least). I am listening to a conversation in Swahili and drinking masala tea {My new all time fav tea}. My heart is overflowing with thankfulness for all the Lord is choosing to do in life right now. When I have someone from home ask my how it's going, I find it really hard to put into words. How is it possible to describe the difficulty, joys, obstacles, spiritual battle and deep gratitude that fills every day? I'm going to share just a tidbit of what the Lord's been teaching me, some prayer requests, a bit more about my day to day, and then give a bit of a description of some of the beauty's and challenges of my class.
On my drive to work
What the Lord has been teaching me
Within this season of serving at West Nairobi School, I've been feeling the weight of spiritual attacks. Whether it's through disunity, selfishness, miscommunication or serious hurt, there have been so many little darts coming from enemy lines. I've been more and more contemplating the question - What does fighting for something mean?
When someone prepares for battle, they first put on their armour
For a child of God this means
The helmet of salvation
The breastplate of righteousness
The sword of the Spirit
The belt of truth
The shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace
The shield of Faith (Confidence that what we hope for will actually happen).
So our armour is on
Is having our armour on enough?
Fighting also takes continued action
In putting on our armour. Daily. This means a few things
It means sitting before the throne of Christ
Being humbled by his presence
Re-routed in his love
Enamoured by his glory
Having the Holy Spirit fill us anew with his vision
Vision for what love looks like
What service looks like
What kingdom advancement looks like
Like the battle plans, we begin to see the fight
We see where we need to go
And what grand amount of sin stands in our way
Like gideon, itâs a little scary.
Yet sitting in the throne room of Christ. We know itâs worth it.
As we go out, I think fighting means a few practical things.
It takes knowing what weâre fighting against
And what weâre fighting for
Weâre fighting against Satan
Lies of self-sufficiency, self-love and self absorption
Lies of apathy, seclusion and immediate gratification
The darts of disunity, pride, hurt, and miscommunication
these threaten the body of Christ.
Yet to fight these things it takes humility
It takes putting others before yourself
Being fervent in prayer
Listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit
Actively recalling that throne room you sat in earlier that day
Asking the Holy Spirit to guide, move and work
Seeking to do the will of the father
And putting aside other agendas
It means fighting for peace
Fighting for unity
Fighting to keep our body, the army of God strong
Unified so that this little battle will not deter us from our greater one
It means vision and imagination
Remembering our battle plans
Knowing who gives us our strength
And looking to him for all we need
And knowing this is not the end battle
Knowing that the fight is not against flesh and blood
But against rulers and principalities
And the stakes are enormous
Weâre fighting for souls
Weâre fighting to bring sons and daughters home
Weâre fighting for what Christ has died for
The bride of Christ
The Church
Â
Fighting takes action not passive living
It takes knowing itâs worth it
And reminding ourselves of that daily
It means filling ourselves with the strength and love of God
So weâre ready to continue the fight until Christ returns.
Meandering the tea farms outside Nairobi
Prayer requests:
- Unity in the school and in my class (There has been a bunch of drama amongst the kids). That God would work in their hearts to be receptive to learning what it means to be a good friend to each other.
- ENERGY and endurance. Life is busy and learning to balance it all can be a challenge. Prayer that the Lord would continue to rejuvenate my heart and mind for the the furthering of his kingdom.
- Continued renewed wisdom and vision for the ministry the Lord's placed me in.
- For the students in my class who don't know Christ- that his love, Holy Spirit and the news of his gospel would change their hearts toward him.
Also, there have been a few people asking about a mailing address to send a parcel or letter. I SO welcome all letters! Here is my information...
Breanna Thompson
18 Miotoni lane
1333 - 00502
Nairobi Kenya, Karen
Â
Gnong rd. Nairobi. {from my film camera}
Â
My day to day
My day to day routine is an adventure. I wake up is 5:15 because it's my best time of day to be filled with Christ {And coffee} before I go about pouring into little ones all day. I leave my house with half an hour to get to work. Really its a 10 minute drive with normal North American traffic, however with 13 speed bumps, busses that stop wherever, constant traffic and COWS EVERYWHERE, it takes much longer. I definitely lock my doors and say a prayer whenever I drive. As a staff we always start the day at 7:45 with devotions, worship, corporate prayer or group prayer. It is such a beautiful blessing to have a staff that is devoted to covering their day in prayer, coming before the throne room of Christ, before they enter their daily ministry. At 8:20 we pick up our kids from the playground and then the day begins! Between bible, English, science, socials, math and some just dance - our days are very full! The Kenyan staff at the school are so friendly and the sense of community in general on campus is mind blowing. I am continually encouraged and humbled by the example of Christ that is displayed. In the evening I'll stay for a couple hours at the school, lesson planning and exercising before I head home. If I go grocery shopping that's another adventure in itself. With the insane lines, security checks to enter the mall parking lot and the store, the amount of looks I get as a white person trying to maneuver myself around, and the new "no plastic bag" ban on, it's a great opportunity to practice patience and meet new people. At the end of the day I return to our little compound, say hello to our gate guard, greet the little dogs that live on our property and head to bed at 8:30. Oh! AND this week I bought a bunny. His name is Lionel and so we cuddle before bed.
landscape from a friends yard {from my film camera}
My class.
This is where I don't even really know where to begin. Haha there is so much I could explain. I have 23 students (11 girls and 12 boys) that are all ranging from 9-11 years old. They are sassy, creative, loving, challenging and SUCH a great joy to teach. I think one of my favourite times of the day is right at the beginning. They all come in and either give me a handshake or a hug good morning (this way we're starting the day off anew.. leaving whatever yesterday held behind). They all come in and we sit on the carpet together and read Jesus calling. Having that time to connect with them on a different level- being able to share what God is doing and pray with them is so special.
One of my favourite memories of these past 7 weeks would be with this student who first day of school came up to me and exclaims "I'm an atheist and don't believe in God". Through a few conversations I discovered that his main hurtle was that God and science didn't seem to align. With him being one of my strongest students, I gave him the extra assignment of reading "Case for Christ". I told him that each chapter he had to write a pretend letter to a friend doubting in God. He was to share with this friend how the evidence in the chapter actually pointed to a creator and God.
One day in class I was going over how the students would get class cash for doing their "early finishers" folder. This student came up to me and said "Well because I am reading this book instead of doing the early finisher folder... what do I get?" Before I could say anything in response, he thoughtfully adds,
"Well actually, I guess I may just get the reward of possibly becoming a christian"
The ability to share the love and heart of God daily with these students is so beautiful. I am grateful for the life we get to live alongside each other this year. With it's many challenges that accompany first year teaching, I am very aware of my insufficiency but yet the sufficiency of Christ in me. They are a crazy bunch of kids with a TON of personality and leadership. They come from different backgrounds with different families and definitely varying amounts of love in their life. Having the opportunity to love on them each day is such a great privilege.
At the tea farm, tasting tea and homemade goodies while learning about the production of tea.
School ground view from my classroom {from my film camera}
First attempt at a class selfie {they all started fighting after this}
Dress up on cultural day <3
Ready for the pep rally!
Doing work on dress up day!
Twinning on twin day <3
