Worship Night!

Our church had its monthly worship night this past Friday, I tell you, it was amazing! I got there at around 6:30, people were still grabbing coffee and refreshments, then we started with some prayer...we did the whole "pray for your neighbor" thing and I always, always get paired up with someone who prays better than me...you know the type of prayers that you just want to keep quiet and listen to because they sound so powerful? I should have told that guy he needed to join the intercessors team, he was really good. Anyway, yes I prayed too!

After that, we got into the worship part of the night. The band was AMAZING! The sound was really good. Most importantly though, you guys know I love worshiping and its always a different experience, this time was great because it just got to a point where I realized, it's not about me, it's all about Him. Whether I like the song currently playing or not or whether or not I like the person leading or not, whether or not people around me are sitting down and I want to kneel or jump up and down is irrelevant, at that moment, I just have to make Him my focus, praising Him, crying out for Him, dancing my butt off for Him, lol.

We learnt a couple of new songs, I'm gonna have to figure out a way I can upload sound to my blog, so that I can put up new songs I've learnt/am working on. That would be kinda fun for future generations.

Anyway, it was such an amazing night, I can't even tell you. Being with other people who are as passionate, or even more passionate as you are about God, is an amazing thing. There are some amazing people living in this world of ours, Church was full, arms were raised, tears were shed, there was an in-door competition of who could jump the highest, dance the hardest and sing the loudest. People were just lost in worship. LOVE!

You know the Kim Walker Smith song, "Open Up Heavens" where she goes, "open up heaven, we will party with the angels..." I'll put it up...



I've just been picturing that all weekend. Like, the Bible says, there's a party in heaven every time someone comes back to the Father. I can picture the angels being like "Bam! In our face!" or "Whoop! There he is!" every single time someone gets baptized or turns their life around. In revelations, it says, the heavenly beings spend eternity singing praises to God.

We're kinda lucky to have a taste of that here on earth. A chance to remind yourself, you are not alone, you're not the one in control and you can't carry the world on your shoulders.

That said, worship night was amazing, and I'm happy I finally got our car back and I got the chance to go. I am not alone, I am not in control and I don't have to carry the world on my shoulders.

xx
Jo

Morning Madness and Psycho Neighbors

So, you all know how I love my new apartment. Yesterday, I even tweeted how I'm starting to like my noisy neighbor, because she seemed like a nice person, you know, from all the conversations that I hear because of her extreme loudness. However, I spoke too soon.

Last night, her and her friends stayed up till midnight talking, listening to music, watching t.v. Fine. This morning, I guess they went out and came back at around 5 a.m, talking loudly in front of my house. Fine. 7 a.m, there they go again with their loud traditional, weird music. Not Fine. I mean, come on! I slept at midnight, woke up at 5, and woke up again at 7? How is that fair? I mean, I get it, sometimes you're in a good mood and you want to wake up with music blasting, but surely, BE CONSIDERATE OF OTHER PEOPLE, RIGHT? Plus, it was the same weird, traditional song on repeat, over 3 times.

So, I woke up angry and told my Caretaker to handle that. The caretaker, decided to use me a his scape goat, and added a lot more stories to my 9 words, "please turn it down for the next few minutes" you know at least until when people are awake! The caretaker, goes and calls the wrong person, and tells her how I complained that they came in drunk last night, etc, and how she's making my life hell. Which is all true, but, I didn't say all that. My request was simple, "turn it down for a few more minutes", you know at least wait until the sun comes up on a SATURDAY MORNING!

So, the woman, who today I discovered is a total psycho, went, well, PSYCHO. She was up and down the hall screaming, "Why are you telling me to reduce my volume? Why are you telling me to reduce my volume? I'm paying money, not stones!" Now, if you're Kenyan, I'd like you to please imagine with me, a big woman, straight from, "the lakeside", still in her nightgown, screaming very dirty Kiswahili, with a broom in her hand.

The rampage continued to the caretakers house, where she was banging the door calling him, or rather screaming, "You idiot, you cow, all you're good for is eating grass!" Then she went back to the house, turned up the volume to max, and started screaming, "All you stupid neighbors, wake up!" Of course, by this point, I'm totally freaked out, I mean, I'd never seen anything like that. So I walked out, and asked her friend what was going on, and she told me how the caretaker told her, the neighbors were complaining that they came home late. I calmly explained that the music was too loud for 7 a.m and the SANE friend told me she's sorry and that she'd turn it down. At the same time, psycho woman was still continuing with her rampage.

I mean, come on, we all have radios, I mean, I have a pretty rocking sound system too, we all do, but, 7 a.m? Come on? Grow Up! Also, what's up with going psycho over such a small issue?

Anyway, this means two things for me.

1. I'm never spending another weekend at my flat. I'd rather go to my mom's quiet house, comfortable bed. Oh, plus, yeah, maybe my mom misses me :-) Bonus, cuts on my electric bill and groceries, right?
2. As soon as my bills come in this month, I'm moving to the other side of the building. I fear for my life. That's no exaggeration. Just this week, the psycho's boyfriend was fighting with some guy in front of my window, yes at 7 a.m. Today, I honestly thought that she'd attack me. I'm pretty tiny compared to her. I'm barely 5"4!!!

So, I guess the Christian me, should be, you know, praying for her or whatever. I am. Right now though, the prayers are mostly, "Oh God, punish this woman with hell fire and brimstone. Kick her out of my building" I know that's not right, but I can't help it :-)

On a serious note though, God, totally answers prayer, and I know nothing is far from his view, and everything on earth belongs to him, me, that woman, our music, our building. So, I should try to look at it from God's perspective. Not lose it so easily. Maybe God is trying to tell me I should wake up early. Or, trying to teach me tolerance. Ah, it has to be something! I just can't let myself believe that God is just putting me in this situation to get some entertainment out of my exasperation.

Oh, to add on to my "amazing" day, today, I went to town to pick up the car "William Pro" from my brother. This entailed a long, LONG walk from Bus Station to Alliance Francaise on Loita Street carrying my overnight bag and this heavy Dell. William's fuel gauge quit working a while ago, so, I asked my brother before I left, "Is the car fueled?" and he said, "Yeah, I just put 500 bob in the morning" I bet you can guess what happened next...

Before I get to that, in the interest of full disclosure, I should probably confess that I stopped at Capital Center used my weeks savings for coffee and Strawberry Black forest cake. Hey, I had a stressful morning, I needed Chocolate!!!! (By the way, I haven't drank coffee in almost 8 years. It's disgusting! Has coffee always been that bad? No matter how many sugar sachets I put in, it was still bitter. Plus, Dorman's are just a little bit ridiculous with their tiny palm-size coffee cups for 160 bob (biggest purchase regret ever!) The cake however, is still my favorite in the world. Anyway, this is totally irrelevant to the story.

....so, I'm driving back home, and, the car stalls, in the middle of traffic. It just died. Here's the kicker, I was like 2 seconds away from the Petrol Station. Surely William, why do you always stall 2 seconds away from Parking Spots or Petrol Stations. However, since I've become quite an expert with stalling cars, I was able to handle it pretty calmly, despite all the leering men, passing by, saying, "Aww, madam, sorry"

Please tell me this is the worst this week can get.

Shaggz Visit.....Part 2...Landscapes and a Sneak Peek at Mt. Kenya

       So, here are some photos from shaggz also known as up-country also known as the oldies homeland, also known as that place far away with the red soil, also known as where the grandparents live, also known as the farm, also known as where T-Dubz will be introduced and "bring dowry" one day......hey, he might read this one day, to be forewarned is to be forearmed! :-D

Here's my mom planting pineapples or something....

Some steep rolling hills.....

Huge mango tree for some yummy mangoes coming in around February/March

Some more rolling hills.......we live in a hilly place, so now you understand why I was so worried about William Pro being driven around in those winding roads....

What I like to call my little hiking trail, for real if you go up and down this trail, you'll lose about 5 k.g.....

The rolling hills.......

The clouds are covering up where the Mountain is, but you get the idea......

Lastly, what's a good farm post without a pregnant cow :-)

Of Miracle Tyres and Safe Trips

So, thank God, my mom, brother, and I made it back home safe.

I wish I could say the same for William Pro, he was so abused today. My brother kept scratching the underside, some man at the petrol station added water (the source of which I know not, it could have been full of particles) to the radiator instead of coolant! I mean, I bought coolant and it's in the car, but because to the man I'm "just a girl" and to my brother I'm a baby sister, no one listened to what I was saying. So now tomorrow I'm the one stuck taking William to my mechanic to get a check-up and see what we can do about that water thing. I know maybe it's no big deal, but you know a girl's car...everything has to be done by the book and yes I literally have a book where I write down all the car stuff and what was added here and what was changed there. I don't want to be those women stuck by the roadside and when AA comes, I'm like, "ai, sijui shida ni nini" as in "I don't know what the problem is" or not know how to change a fuse or anything like that.

Speaking of being stuck by the roadside, that same mechanic who added water to the radiator, also managed to mess up the battery. He must have loosened a connection or something, and we ended up stalling 5 minutes after we left the station. We called AA, but my brother managed to tighten it before they got there.

I promise you, a miracle happened today. The back left tyre had really low pressure, and it looked low, you know what I mean; and I was worried we wouldn't be able to make it back those hundreds of kilometers before it blew so I was like, "Oh God, I'm sorry for being so angry with my bro's driving please let this tyre be o.k" and I promise you, when I came back to check, the pressure had gone up. Now, many things could explain what happened, but I choose to believe it was my own little miracle :-)

Ihad an awesome day though, I got to spend time with my brother, we got to talk and it was a great day. The views were amazing, rolling hills, and the greenest trees in the country, and almost, but not quite catching a glimpse of Mt. Kenya although I'm probably wrong and that could also have been a hill.

Anyway, more about the road trip later, maybe even some pictures so you see the face of this person whose words you're reading. For now, I'm exhausted and I got school in the morning!


For my beloved Italian visitors,

Bueno notte, dormi bene, sogni d'oro.

Grazie per essere venuti! Si prega di venire di nuovo!! :-) :-) :-)

Saturday News and an Introduction to William

Today I read:

• Genesis 31:17-32:12
• Matthew 10:24-11:6
• Psalm 13:1-6
• Proverbs 3:16-18

I loved all the drama in Genesis with Jacob and Rachel and Laban, but mostly I loved these two parts;



Proverbs 3:16  Wisdom offers you long life, as well as wealth and honor. 
Proverbs 3:17  Wisdom can make your life pleasant and lead you safely through it. 

and

Psalm 13:5  I rely on your constant love; I will be glad, because you will rescue me. 

Pretty applicable considering all my School issues this week.

On a not-so-great note, I won't be going to Church tomorrow. My mom traveled and my brother and I have to go pick her up. My brother's coming in the morning, leaving his car so we can take ours. I don't really have to go, here's the deal though, the only person who drives the car at home is me. I know every detail about it, I know that sometimes you have to double click the alarm because one door is slower than the rest, I know just the right pressure to apply on the gas pedal to make it pick up seamlessly, I just know the car. I just love this car. It might look old, it might not be worth much, it might have ropes sticking out any and which way, it might be the Nokia 5200 of cars, it might not be the BMW X5 I was parked next to last Sunday, but I love it. It even has a name William Pro. Named of course after William Levy, the hottest man alive a.k.a Juan Miguel San Roman.

(Side Note; if you've read my past posts in which I mentioned William, yeah, I call him William because him and I are tight like that ;-)  after looking at this photo can you now understand my grown-up crush on this man?!)

My brother on the other hand doesn't appreciate William Pro at all. He drives it like men drive cars, pushing it and pushing it until now sometimes it sounds squeaky like an old pick up carrying 100 kilos of something. He promised me he would help me buy William Pro a new sound system, and when the day came, (and to this day I'm still upset with him for it) he reneged and put me in a bad and stressful situation when he told me to borrow from a friend he would pay me back, so after a lot of waiting he started dodging  my calls, and telling me he was sending me money and he never did, and I ended up getting money from my mom. And it wasn't even a large amount that I needed from him I'd already paid like 97% all he needed to give me was around Ksh. 600. I hate debt more than anything and I couldn't imagine going to bed owing someone money. And that's been a brief intro to my not-so-reliable brother. He ended up apologizing a few days later, so, there's that...

Anyway, angry story aside, I put in a new radio and sound system into William Pro and it sounds amazing. And I'm following my brother on this long distance trip because I don't want him to mess around with it. You know how big brothers are with small sisters, he'll think he knows better and mess up my perfect settings or not double click the alarm leaving William Pro vulnerable to thieves or he'll do some other damage like scratch the underside or crack the exhaust and bring the car back without fixing it. Maybe I'm overreacting, but since we've already established that I'm the one who'll end up paying for any theft or damage, I'd rather overreact and protect my investment.

So, for Church, I know this won't go down as a valid reason for missing it, but it's been ages since I've gone on a road trip and I love traveling, so there's that. But, I'll try my best to go, since big bro will probably be late anyway, but in case he's not, then I'll have to wait for the sermon notes to be posted on the website, and I'll be following the haps on twitter. 

Right now, can you believe, I actually have plans on a Saturday! Is it a date? Is it study group? Is it babysitting? Is it a family function? Is it a date? Is it a date? Did I already ask if it was a date yet? Anyhoo, I'm not spilling :-)

William Pro and I are off!!! 

Image free from butterfunk