Warfare

Today is the 4^th of July, Independence Day, but for some reason they don’t seem to celebrate America’s Independence Day in Kenya. Spending tonight jamming to some Party in the USA, God Bless America, American Woman, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Fireworks, some swimming, barbeque, ice cold drinks, and some watermelon sound pretty good right now. America has been blessed. I want to thank all of you who supported me on my internship this summer, which has been a huge blessing.

In Kenya things are a little different. Food and water are scarce in many places. The food the people do have isn’t very nutritious. There is drought, famine, and low standards of living. Turkana is filled with dried up riverbeds, dead trees, and plants. Green once upon a time has now become a desert wasteland. However, despite all of that, God is living and active here.

In preparation for teaching spiritual warfare, it has been a Spiritual battle. 

We have heard numerous stories from the missionaries here. Satan is constantly and continuously trying to keep the people of Turkana oppressed and in fear. One of his oppression tactics is the poverty and malnutrition.

God has blessed me with the opportunity to be a part of countering this through teaching and working here. I have been faced some spiritual warfare of my own. I have been stung by a scorpion, gotten sick immediately on arrival in Lodwar, battled to keep good spirits in the bush when I was only getting one meal a day, and tonight sickness struck again on the verge of the first spiritual warfare lesson tomorrow. God has been with me even when Satan is attempting to discourage. The war has already been won, but here are some of the battles that are being won in Turkana…

Wells

We have dug one well 45 feet deep with 27 feet of water. Wells bring water, which bring life. The CLEAN water is usually 20 to 30 feet underground. Clean water and safe drinking water instantly improves health. Water is also used for cooking, cleaning, and bathing. Carrying relief cans full of water is a constant job for young girls and women. By digging wells closer to grouped homes it saved 2 and 3 hour walks for water and usually dirty water.

Farms

Yes farms in the middle of a Desert, which is not possible without the well. These farms allow for a more balanced diet, which many of the Turkana do not have and I have experience. The well provides constant water due to the solar powered pump. Some of the crops that are being grown are Sorghum, Cow Peas, Spinach, Amaranth, and white watermelon. One crop in particular can instantly help balance the nutritional diet of the Turkana, but it relies on water--water that comes from wells. Amaranth has 18% protein, which is higher than meat. It has more vitamins and more calcium than milk. It will replace corn in the diet, which has little to no nutritional value. Amaranth will provide more carbohydrates than corn.

Life Improvement the people who live by and work the farms. Farming is a way to provide the Turkana with jobs.They also instantly feel better once there is a better diet. You see less bloated stomachs:

Another advantage to amaranth is that it is worth more and it being sold for more money in the market because off its nutritional value. 

It starts by digging a well and providing food, but the long-term goal is to give them the Living Water and the Bread of Life, The Gospel.

John 4

 ⁷There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”  ⁸(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)  ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)  ¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”  ¹¹The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?  ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”  ¹³Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,  ¹⁴but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  ¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

John 6

²⁷Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”  ²⁸Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”  ²⁹Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”  ³⁰So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?  ³¹Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”  ³²Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  ³³For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  ³⁴They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

 ³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Prayer Requests:

That the Holy Spirit will work in the lives of the Turkana in the class this week

For the Spiritual Battles that Todd and I face everyday

Rain in Turkana