Friends From The Other Side

So after we all said goodbye to each other and parted our own ways a couple of the girls and I have stayed in Kenya with the very generous Conway family. We have done so much stuff and could not be thankful enough for their hospitality and love that they have shown towards us. After getting back from Mombasa, we grouped up and made our way to Mt. Kenya to conquer it. Showing up to find the pouring rain, we knew it was going to be an interesting trip. All in all we climbed 17,510 ft, walked 36 miles, all in 48 hours. The last morning we woke up at 2 a.m and climbed to the summit just in time for the sunrise. One of the coolest scenes I have ever seen. The way the clouds just blanketed the sky is something that I will never forget ahh. We are young and everything, but I can tell you I have never been so sore in my life. Most def took a couple of days off before our next adventure.








After recovering from the crazy hiking adventure, we took a day to visit an Elephant and Giraffe orphanage. Pictures tell the excitement and aww we had as all 15 baby elephants ran into the feeding grounds. Although they were just babies, you could see the personalities coming out. I never thought that I would get a chance to kiss and animal, but the Giraffe took full advantage of me. A memorable moment to say the least






Made in the Streets
Made in the Streets is an organization that's whole purpose is to rescue and help kids that are living on the streets on Nairobi. This ministry was started in 1995 and has helped many children in the years of operations. The Conway's have been apart of this organization since the beginning and it is amazing to see Mr. Conway so passionate about these kids. The whole goal of Made in the streets in to take street kids and put them through a 4 years program promoting change through education, skills, responsibility, and finding the Lord. I have had the chance to visit both the streets and the "farm" as they call it. To hear these kids stories has been so heartbreaking, but so encouraging at the same time. When I went to the streets I had the chance to go to a certain part of town and talk with some of these kids. Although most of them were high on glue and fuel, it was amazing to get to share the gospel and tell them how my God is amazing. I know that God is working through this program and he reveals himself everyday through the amazing stories of how he has overcome. For more information visit www.madeinthestreets.org



Finishing up our time in Kenya, we decided to go to the Mara with some of our friends that have never been. Every second I am in the Mara I am just amazed with Gods creation. To see a sunset made up of so many colors is something that blows my minds. His power and glory is shown throughout the whole park and I truly thank Him for showing everyone how amazing he really is. The Mara is 25,000 Km on land, rivers, and mountains. In the whole park their are only 5 Rhinos in existence and very rare to see. On the last morning we spotted a momma and baby and followed them for 20 minutes. It was just breath taking to see such a rare animal in its natural setting. They are very shy animals and normally always hang out in the bushed. God has made it clear that photography is a new passion of mine. It has been such a fun summer capturing so many memories on my camera and I look forward to using this blessing to further His Kingdom.






2 places at one time.. Tanzania visited... check



I leave Sunday morning for the states and as much as I want to start reflecting on the whole process now, I am trying to enjoy every minute while it is here. This experience has been life changing and I am looking forward to getting back and showing everyone how God transformed so many things here. This shall be last African update. Until next time Goodnight Africa

Theme of the Week: Relaxation

This past week has been an emotional roller coaster for me and my gang. On Monday we had to say goodbye to 20 of our fellow counselors, and me being sick as usual couldn't make the trip to the airport with them. We didn't leave ourselves with much time to get sad though, because that next day we left for Mombasa. I woke up still with stomach problems so I let my 6 friends leave and I went to the doctor that afternoon. I got some meds and jumped on a plane that next morning to surprise everyone who had already made it. The weather was amazing and gave us a lot of time to just be lazy on the beach. One of the afternoons we jumped on a mitatu and headed over to a place called, "Mamma Village".This place was a croc farm and boy were we in for a smelly ride. We made it just in time for the feeding, and watched the crocs as they went crazy over the goat parts (smelly). We asked the guide if we could hold any baby crocs, not thinking it would work and sure enough they has a bin of them in the back. It was a little freaky to think that these little guys would be out in the big tanks one day consuming anything and everything, but it was neat to get to hold em. The day before we left we got the opportunity to go scuba diving right off the coast. We saw many huge colorful fish, sting rays, eels,puffer fish and some crazy cool corals. Overall the trip was amazing and this morning we got up and went to an orphanage in Nairobi. We got to play with all the little babies, and it was so encouraging to know that last month 5 of the babies got adopted. These children were so happy and such a delight to be around. Steven Powell and Jason Boone (a couple of our guy friends from ACU) are getting in tonight at 1 a.m from Egypt. We plan on doing some street work for the next couple of days with the Conway's, but starting Friday morning we are heading out to climb Mt. Kenya. It is suppose to be really cold and me being the cliche packer didn't really pack many heavy jackets ha. It should be a fun ride. Our time here in Africa is slowly winding down, but their still is work to be done in this city. May God bless our way.

Chris Tomlin- God of this City

Flying into Mombasa gave me a great view of Mt. Kilimanjaro off in the distance

Daley, Micah and I holding baby Crocs

Feeding time up and personal

No Comment

Watch out for the teeth, they are actually sharp


"Don't stand up to quickly, you are back heavy and will fall"

Going Down Down

The thing smelled like sin and prob did not like the fact I was all up in its face

Sunrise the last morning.. great quiet time

Last but not least..the cliche family white and denim family picture ha

Rift Valley Ridiculocity

Highlights from the Mara

Great Way to End Camp

Well it is Tuesday morning and I am sitting in the lobby of this missionary complex paying for internet ha. I never thought it would come to this, but I think it will be worth it. These past couple of weeks have been such a blessing to my team and I. I left the last message not feeling well, and it turned out to be Malaria. To add to my problems I was stung by a hornet in between session and woke up the Sunday the campers were coming with huge swollen lips. As you can imagine, I was the focal point to many jokes. All I can say is that I most def felt like “Hitch” just chugging Benadryl. After the swelling went down it was time to get a hold of some meds for Malaria. I would get chills and fever on and off all throughout the day as well as swelling every now and then. It was not a pleasant life, but after 8 meds and 1 IV I am back to 100% and ready to take on the world.

Last Session of the Summer:
I could not have asked for a better session to end on. I was the counselor of 8 little 10 year old Indian boys. As much as I was looking forward to connecting with them, the first of the week I struggled a lot at trying to find the right way to tell them about my God, while not offending them. I prayed and looked to scripture for guidance, but I just felt like we had so much that we disagreed on. See the practice Indian which is kind of like Islam. They have 26 Gods and worship them on a weekly basis.
The turning point really came when I got to talk to my grandfather one night for a couple of minutes. If you can picture this, I was on Skype trying to talk to about 10 of my family members all huddled around a tiny computer in East, Texas. I explained my situation and told them how I wanted to connect with these kids, but I did not want to throw God onto them and bombard them with Christ. If I learned anything this week, it is that Gods timing is so right. My grandfather explain how when proclaiming the name, you can never be wrong. He sent me to Acts to look up a couple of scriptures and as easy as that was, it made all of the difference. That night I looked up the verses and prayed for these boys. That next morning I just felt a difference in the cabin and a wanting to share. Every morning we had a devotional and learned the basis Bible stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, David and Goliath, Joseph, and Jesus. To see the zest and wanting on their faces to learn encouraged me to really throw my heart and sole into making sure these boys knew Jesus Christ. We talked that afternoon about what a personal relationship with Jesus Christ looked like. I told them my story and how God overcame a lot of obstacles in own life. We had question time and somehow ended up talking about how dinosaurs fit on Noah’s Ark. That day went by and I knew the seed was planted. The week went by and every night I pulled a couple of campers out of the cabin at a time and talked to them about their personal situations back home, and within the culture they practiced. I knew that God was stirring the pot for something amazing but I never knew he would give me such an amazing opportunity to get through to these kids. That Friday night after hours of standing on our feet and yelling all night at our “Summit Fires” we went back to the cabin to get ready for bed. Remember that these boys are 8-9 and not the most energetic when they get tired. As we sat down for our nightly 20 minute devotional about the day, I soon realized that all these kids wanted to know about everything. For the next 2 hours I sat on my bed and answered every question they had. We talked about Adam and Eve, the Crucifixion, scripture, how to read scripture, what Jesus Christ really means, Bibles, you name it we talked about it. The passion I saw in these little boys eyes was something that I had never run into before, and it truly showed me that when we lean not on our own understanding, but on the understanding of God anything, and I mean anything is possible. I went to bed tickled to death that God had just done that. That next morning I awoke early and knew something had to be done. I could not let these boys leave without tying up any lose ends. I went to the Camp office and asked if we had any Bibles left over to give out. Sure enough we had enough for all of these boys to have not only their very own Bible, but their first Bible ever. I spent the next good bit writing an encouraging note in each one, and after breakfast called them outside the cabin one by one to pray very them with the Bible. You would of thought it was Christmas morning as the their tired faces just lit up with joy. As I walked in to the cabin after the last boy, I just sat back and watched as the boys huddled around one bed all reading the same page. We sat on our beds after that and took turns reading the amazing story of David and Goliath (the boys really liked that one). I talked about how God really overcame that situation, and although Goliath was so big with Gods power a little David overcame him. It was the best way to end camp and as we left, we exchanged emails to keep in touch over the next year. I charged them to ask me all the questions they wanted to too, but not only me to ask God as well.
Although I might of seen the seed start to bloom just a little bit, I know that God has so many more plans for these kids.








Today we are leaving for a place called hells gate, which is a rock climbing park that we will be at for a good couple of days. After that we are leaving for the Mara (Safari). My buddy Andrew just got back from the place that we will be going yesterday and in the day that they were there got to see about 20 lions, zebras galore, elephants everywhere, and a group of about 1,200 wildebeest migrating across a river. The Mara is most def in full migration swing and I am so pumped to get some cool pictures.
Our group leaves next Monday morning at 4:30 a.m to fly back to the states and although I do not know if I am ready for that yet, I am going to get to do some amazing things with all my ACU friends. Two of the girls that I have worked with all summer long, along with my roommate Andrew and a couple of our friends are all going to the Kenyan coast for a week after we drop them off at the airport. When we get back we have a couple days to rest then we are climbing Mt. Kenya with a couple more of our ACU buddies that have been in South Africa and Egypt working on missions. If that isn’t enough, when we get back from that we are working with my roommates parents ministry called “Made in the Streets”. I am super pumped to have some fun and relax for a little bit, but I know there are still things to be done in this city and continent.

Camp Fun:







Rafting the Nile:




Entertainment Section:
So at camp we have this thing called “Camps Got Talent”. Every cabin makes up either a skit or a song and performs them for the whole camp to watch. I have gotten to host this event 3 times this summer as Barbie and Ken twice, and as Danny and Sandy from Grease. Words can describe a little of the fun, but I will let the pictures tell all. Lets just say, “summer loving I was having a blast”





If you would like to see the entertainment on video, I want to say you can go to the Bracken Ministries blog and they have a youtube of it.

Welp off to get packed for the week. I miss all of you very much and can’t wait to tell you more stories when I get back. God Bless John 16:33

Jonathan