Today I woke up to a
birthday celebration for me. That's
right I turned twenty-seven today. I
came down stairs to find a wide variety of muffins, eggs, various fruit juices,
coffee (always), and decorations. Let me
just tell you about these decorations; they went all out. Newspaper streamers that spelled out Happy
Birthday Jason, paper cutouts of various hand tools, a card, and a scrabble board
that that spelled out as many words of thanks and fun that it possibly could. So far, this is shaping up to be the best
birthday I have had in a long time and maybe that is just because I'm in Kenya, but regardless
of why; I'll still take it.

    I really need today and
am very thankful for it. Yesterday, I
experienced Hell on Earth, maybe not quite that bad, but I did begin to wander.
The transmission that I put in the van
was bad, which meant that I had to take it back out and exchange it for another
one. Needless to say, I was frustrated. This was no easy job, as I was working with
about a quarter of the tools and supplies that I would have in the states. I spent the morning in prayer, just letting
the Lord have all of my frustration and then some. I kept saying time and time again, "Lord
why? I did everything right. I sacrificed time, energy, and even safety, I
even prayed your blessing over it, and yet you reward my efforts with failure."
Then I prayed through all of my
frustration about my expectations for this trip. This was supposed to be a vision casting trip,
and yet I have found myself going through the vans and the apartments fixing
everything. Finally, after getting all
of that out of my system I said, "Lord, I have two days left; help me to get
everything done today so that I can spend these last two days seeking you." The Lord showed me that I am part of something
much bigger than myself and that he has used this time to teach me.

I should
also mention that two of my Kenyan Mechanic friends came over and we yanked out
the tranny and swapped in another one and the van has run better than it ever
did. I also learned that you can pick up
and install a transmission with a fan belt, but that it takes three attempts,
one of which requires that the transmission falls and pins my arm underneath
it. I'm okay though, scars make for
great stories.

The Lord has given me today and tomorrow to
seek his vision for Kibera slums, Kenya, and for me. I am very grateful for that and I can't wait
to see what happens. Please be in prayer
for me as I walk out this journey and try to wring out every last drop of what
the Lord has for me. Also, we fly back
to Georgia
Wednesday night, so please pray for our travels. Thank you again for all of your love, support,
and encouragement.