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

Greater things are still to be done in this City

So today is the last official day of camp. It has been such an amazing session and I am going to be really sad to see these kids leave. 6 out of the 8 guys I have in my cabin are from Indian practicing families. Sharing the amazing words of Jesus Christ has been such an eye opening experience for them. God has used me in ways I would of never expected. To see their eyes light up to a simple story like David and Goliath has been so encouraging to me. I was a bit confused on how to go about sharing the word to a group of kids that have grown up practicing such a loyal religion. I prayed and asked for guidance and God has spoken through me this week. The stories and backgrounds of these kids are remarkable and I can't wait to share the good news with you all. I do not have much time this morning to write and explain everything, but tomorrow I am going to get back on and explain the crazy roller coaster these past 3 weeks have been. I love you all and miss you incredibly. God Bless

Jonathan

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take"

From the robbers den into the rive of Life

Well we are finally back at camp after a very bumpy 12 hour drive from the Nile. These past couple of weeks have been so rewarding in so many ways. I have seen Gods hand touching people, speaking through people, and healing people like I have never seen before. My last update was a lot of pictures from the Massai and after that came back to Nairobi for the night before we headed off the Western Kenya. Our group was split up into 2 different houses in a gated community. We tried and split it up with guys at the top and girls at the bottom of the hill, but a few of the guys ended up having to stay down in the bottom because of space. Around 12 a.m 4 men tried to break into the bottom house and us guys in the top house were met by a girls screaming voice. Their was a battle to get through the door and a lot of glass broken. Us guys in the top house grabbed whatever we could and sprinted down the long driveway missing the men by only about 5 ft as they jumped back through the gaping hole in the concrete. It was a very scary situation and I can only thank God for keeping us safe. All the men and I were very upset to see how shaken up the girls were. A lot of us wanted to get a piece of the guys, but I know that if we would have bad things could of happened. It was most def a blessing in disguise. We got them all up to the top house and kept patrolling the area to make sure that nothing else was going to happen. One of the guys who was down in the house suffered a rock to the ear and busted it open pretty bad, but was OK with a little first aid. We were planning on going to Western the next day but decided because of the emotional state of most of the people, it was a good idea to wait and regroup. We packed up the next morning after a sleepless night all sprawled out on the floor and headed to Brackenhurst (the original site of Camp Blue Sky). It was great to take the next couple of days really grow with my fellow counselors and staff. All the brackenhurst staff and missionary parents were so loving to us. They gave us an opportunity to talk to a counselor, but overall it was a blessing to see how God worked through the worst situation. The next night all of us got to pile into a room and watch the U.S win. A lot of us guys got World Cup jerseys and painted out faces in support. The Africans just laughed and pointed.




After getting over that speed pump we headed out for Western (7 hour drive on African roads). The different culture and experiences we encountered was so eye opening. I got to stay with a family by the name of Prutus. We ate a lot of ugali, chipote, and rice. I learned to love it, but after 4 days of nothing but that it was hard forcing it down. While at Western we got to do many things like put up rain gutters to collect the rain water, play soccer, play with the kids, and actually get to play a true African high school soccer team. At the church we put on many fun games trying to get the message of God out to these kids. In the afternoon, we got a big game of soccer with these little kids, but realized that they had not goals to play with. Being the men we are we decided to build one. We cut a couple of the trees down and used the bark to tie em all together. I have always liked to build things, but I must admit that this is by far my proudest piece of work ha.


The cool thing about being a mzungu is that when you want to do something crazy or not, they try and make it happen. I asked Mr. Prutus if a couple of my buds and I could take a trip down to the waterfall by the house. I was always met with a "let me see if I can organize". Sure enough he made it happen and as we bathed in the water, we laughed and said, "ahh these are the memories we are never going to forget".


Another dream of ours was to try sugar cane, which is a big crop in Western. He actually took us into a field and let us chop some down to take home. The way you eat it is pealing off the bark and chewing on the grainy, yellow, root. It taste so good and by the end of the night my buds could take no more. We brushed out teeth and called it a night. The next day was game day and everyone knew it. Some of the main preachers in the area hold their own weekly radio show and made an announcement that Americans would be playing Africans in the afternoon. We woke up the next morning to what I though was a computer typing. You know you are an American when you hear a chicken walking on the tin roof and you think it is someone typing. I laughed a while, but made sure not to admit that to many.











The game was crazy. As we walked onto the field the kids stopped everything and ran over to us. By the start of the game the sidelines were covered with people and the atmosphere was set for a great game. We went into half 0-0 and was kind of worried that all this attention for U.S soccer was about to go down the drain. The Second half was a different story though. I had 2 goals and an assist in a 3-0 win. The picture of me shooting is actually one of the goals. Although we had won that day it was hard to watch the U.S lose to Ghana that night.


After the game I was asked to say a little something the next morning at church. It could of not gone better. With my translator by my side I talked about how the Lord takes us through trials to mature us and grow. I wanted to use the GPS as a example of how when we get off course sometimes God recalculates our lives. The more and more I though about it, the more I realized that these people probably had never heard of a GPS. So I switched it to Cows and how the master lets them learn through no guidance. It is funny how I went from GPS to Cows, but it worked. After church we ate a good ole ugali meal and hit the road for the Nile.







Uganda police are not very nice people. We got into Uganda with no problem, but was stopped about 15 minutes down the road because of a broken tail light on the van we were on. An hour went by as we sat on the hot bus trying to figure out what the bus driver and police were talking about. They wanted a bribe and we stood strong. We made some pretty entertaining videos waiting but it was good to finally get back onto the road. We finally got to the Nile, and the view was amazing. My buddy Zach and I stayed in a nice tent overlooking the Nile. That next morning we started our epic journey of 12 rapids. By the end of the day we flipped on 10 of them. The video really shows how crazy we were and how we should of died ha. Watching the sunset hit the African water was a scene I will never forget, and that night we slept amazing. The next experience we longed for was a little bike called the botabota (a taxi on bike). That next morning we woke up early and hit up a botabota to take us into Jinja. We shopped all day and became friends with the 2 coolest guys ever. The ran their own paint studio and made some of the coolest art I had ever seen. We hung out for hours with them as they painted a couple of us shirts. I got the website of the place and look forward to working with them in the states. They loved to do charity work and hope to make it to the states in the next couple of years.






We start camp tomorrow and it is going to be good to love on these kids once again. Lately I have been really thinking about my future and what God really has for me. I pray and ask for your prayers in what he is showing me this summer. God Bless you all and I can't wait to expand on all of these stories. Bye for now



Well the past 24 hours have been a bit of a roller coaster for me. It is Sunday night here and I have been in bed since 8 p.m last night. I am currently drugged up on all types of meds, but have felt better today. If things don't get better I might be going to the clinic tomorrow. I have chills one hour then hot flashes the next. I have kept myself drinking plenty of water and just plan on resting for the next couple of days. Gotta love being sick in Africa