Mother/Daughter Team Share Christ’s Love with People of Kenya
By: Emily Huff
I took a copy of Journal With Me on a trip to Kenya this summer as our family served on staff with InterVarsity’s Global Project. The book was such a blessing as it opened a door for me and my 13 year old daughter, Anna, to talk about Scripture and dig into it on a deeper level. The passages came alive in a fresh way for us in Kenya and we both learned so much.
One of the quotes that Annie cites in the book is from Henri Nouwen: “You know you are living a grateful life when WHATEVER happens is received with an invitation to deepen your heart, to strengthen your love, and to broaden your hope.” This set the tone for our trip in which we had lots of challenges along the way and opportunities to trust God for strength and perspective.
The seven weeks we spent in Kenya flew by. From visiting schools and families, to team service in the slums of Nairobi, prison ministry, and other ministry exposure followed by debriefing and re-entry training, it was certainly our prayer that God would equip us to “share the gospel and our very lives” (1 Thessalonians 2:8). We asked the Lord to reveal His love through our family and asked Him to open our eyes and ears to what He had prepared for us in this time. I believe that the study that Anna and I did in Philippians 4 using the Journal With Me book was one way that God answered this prayer to open our eyes and ears to His truths.
On one particular day when we were visiting a refugee camp and some nearby schools in Northern Kenya, I saw how the study on Philippians was really making an impact on our hearts. Anna had been sick for a few days and was doing her best to rally for the four-hour drive to the refugee camp. At one of the schools we visited, we were asked to be in a picture with a large number of students before we left. Many of them were really curious about Anna’s hair and kept stroking her hair as it was so different than their own. She was feeling so fried from being sick, tired, dehydrated and out of her comfort zone that she spun around and shouted at them to stop. I put my arm around her and gently asked the girls to give her some space.
As we talked about the whole event, we talked about the verse “let your gentleness be evident to all.” Anna could have easily gotten defensive about the whole situation as she had so little energy to draw from since she was sick, but she was so receptive to God’s Word and allowed the conversations we had through Journal With Me to reshape her perspective. We had just done the study on gentleness so it was fresh on both of our hearts, and God brought it to mind in this situation.
My daughter was like a sponge this summer soaking up these lessons from Philippians 4, and there was such a rich harvest. Annie wisely points out in Journal With Me that “the Spirit teaches and reminds us of what the Bible says (John 14:26). When we have the Spirit, we have the ability to REJOICE despite difficulties. We also have the ability to respond with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, GENTLENESS and self-control. When we live by the Spirit, we are living PROOF of God’s love” (page 22).
Before we left Kenya, we were asked to come up with one word to describe our time as a part of the Kenya Global Project along with a corresponding sentence. Here are the words that Anna and I came up with:
Anna: “Dependence. God used challenging experiences to depend on Him way more than I ever have.”
Emily: “Gratitude. God cultivated deep gratitude in our hearts because of time invested here in Kenya.”
Emily: “Gratitude. God cultivated deep gratitude in our hearts because of time invested here in Kenya.”
I cannot recommend the Journal With Me study enough as a sweet mother/daughter connection (whether you are in Kenya or just sitting at your kitchen table!)
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