Letter To My Teenage Kids Part 2

Part 2 of the letter….

Anyway, so yeah, I’m happy I formed my own identity and even though it made me sort of an outcast, I wouldn’t change anything. Imagine, now when I’m almost 5 years out of High School, and in those 5 years I’ve done so many things wrong, and ended up just confused and broken hearted, I’m finding myself going back to remember the person I was in High School and trying to live out the way I had planned to live when I was 16. I think I was wiser then than I am now.

What I’m trying to say is. This is the time when you build your life. I know that’s such a cliché parent’s use, but God; if you believe anything from me, believe that. If you decide today, I’m going to do well enough to sell 2^nd hand clothes clothes in an exhibition stall, you will. If you say I’m going to do well enough to go to Kenya Polytechnic and spend the rest of my life fixing computers, and earning 15k a month, you will. If you say, I’m going to give up on my own life, find a man (who’s building his own life at this very moment) and marry him, that will probably not happen, but you will die trying. No one can build your life but you. The minute your dreaming your mediocre dreams, someone else in high school just like yours is dreaming huge dreams of a successful happy life and it’s her computer you’ll be fixing, her clothes you’ll be selling, her husband you’ll be eyeing.

Do you know how lucky you are? Your parents love you! A million kids are dying for that life. My dad was awesome, and I miss him, but the relationship I had with him growing up is nothing like your dad is trying to build with you!. My dad died of cancer and if I had gotten a second chance with him, I would be doing everything in my power not to stress him and make him happy and proud. God, I pray that you recognize what a gift you have in your parents. That they’re here, that they love you and that they’re working for you. Recognize the effort they’re making and help them. Money is so hard to come by.

I’ve been in that place of being rude and not feeling connected to my parents but I’ve never been so far gone that I didn’t feel compassion for them when they’re struggling. That’s why I’m worried about you, and that’s why I’m writing this letter for almost 2 hours when it’s midnight and I’m supposed to be sleeping because I have a class tomorrow morning at 9.

***Part 3 Tomorrow***

Video Of The Week - Jesus Culture

Letter To My Teenage Kids Part 1

So, I recently wrote a letter to my niece just to sort of give her advice about teenage hood, and I thought it’d be cool if I blogged parts of it, so that hopefully if blogger is still here in like 20 years, my own teenage daughter can read this…

Hi. How are you? Hope you are doing fine. I just wanted to write you a letter so we could talk. I know it doesn’t seem like I care much about you, because we’ve never sat down and had those one on one conversations sisters have. I have to admit, I sort of distanced myself for you and I shouldn’t have done that. I truly apologize for that, and I hope we can start afresh.

I’m extremely close to my sister and I have to say, that’s helped me through my life and I hope I can do the same for you. I just want us to be able to talk freely and openly especially now during this time when in every teen’s life, you like, don’t feel like you can connect with your parents or family. So, I’ve put a self-addressed envelope in here and its solely for if you want to reply and talk, if you don’t its ok.

Let’s start by saying; you are an extremely smart girl. When you passed your KCPE everyone was so proud of you and I was telling my friends about it, and I know your parents were happy too. I remember my mum telling you, if anyone can change your family it’s you. Then you went to school, and saw all these girls who were from different backgrounds as you. I remember for myself, I didn’t know where to fit in. I’ve always been part of the popular crowd, since nursery even, but in High School, especially before I joined First Aid, I didn’t know if I was supposed to be in the popular-pretty crowd, or the popular-smart crowd, or the Christian crowd or what. One thing that I thank God I realized was that I was all those things, pretty, smart, Christian and I didn’t have to fit into anyone’s group to prove it. Honestly rolling with the Christian crowd in my school wasn’t all that, because I feel like I’m more into laid-back, rock-loving Christian and my school was speaking-in-tongues, holy-laughter Christians. The pretty girls were mean and the smart girls were too smart.

***Part 2 Tomorrow***

On A Mission

Today at Church, we learnt how, we usually jump through jobs, and relationships and even churches because we don't know who we are or what we stand for. Pastor Linda actually said, "we meander through life and end up with regrets because we don't know what we really are about."

If anyone rides the regret roller-coaster, its definitely ME! It's a bad habit that I'm trying to kick, but I'm also not blind to the fact that I have made choices that I regret about not taking advantage of some opportunities, not hunting other opportunities down and just all those other mistakes I made because I was focused on the wrong things.

We read Exodus 3:16-22 and it tells us how we're called to "travel the world and worship" (OK, that was my interpretation! LOL) But she said, we exist to do two things

1. To enter into a relationship with God (Worship)
2. To tell the world about Him through our lives (Witness)

For the Israelites (and for me) a couple of things stand in the way of that:

1. A defeated Spirit - Slavery felt like their portion in life
2. Convenience - Better the devil you know than the angel you don't...
3. External Resistance - Pharaoh wanted them to stay right where they were and continue serving him

But, what would have happened if the Israelites let these obstacles get to them? If we choose to stick with the status quo of the familiar, we too stand to miss out on the big things that God has in store for us!


So, to quote Pastor L:

"Life is not about a good existence, it’s about being what God is calling us to be. If we fail to see a mission beyond serving our own needs, we fail – we don’t understand what God called the church to do. Church is a mission organization. Compared with the natural body and what the different body parts do, the body of Christ also has parts that serve different missions. Are you part of this mission or not? We are a mission organization. If you are complaining and griping, the problem is you. Other churches all exist to accomplish a specific mission


This Is Not A Club, We’re On A Mission!


Mavuno is not here to make you comfortable. The mission of Mavuno is – "Turning Ordinary People Into Fearless Influencers Of Society!" Here at Mavuno we will push you to get so uncomfortable that you do something about your world’s situation. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to be the fearless influencer that God intended for you to be!


Ok, so given this information...how does this apply to my life. First off, I don't know if I've ever told anyone this, but my first C.R.E class in High School was pretty emotional, I don't remember but I think the teacher asked us to share stories and one girl's story was so sad that when it was my turn to speak, I talked and talked and said "I want to be a Pastor" and it was such a crazy experience I don't even know how I ended up saying that and I was SOOOO embarrassed and had to carry that label for a few months...

Years later, I'm in college and I ended up changing my major to Marketing because after my internship I discovered I'm good, great at Customer Relations and I have a passion for it.That's my career choice, because every Kenyan knows, your parents didn't pay 12 years of school so you end up without a career.

Photo: acquirethefire.com

But I'm finding myself drawn or and more to Ministry. I want to give people hope and encouragement.I want to teach relevant messages the way I was taught. I want to help a kid avoid the same mistakes I made. My dream is to host HUGE youth conferences like Greg Laurie or Ron Luce and tour around the city bringing relevant speakers, showcase great dramatic talent and great worship music not just entertainment music. Does that mean I should take up youth ministry?

Photo: greglaurie.com

I also write songs and I think I'm a pretty decent singer. I want to lead worship like Kim Walker-Smith and Chris Quilala from Jesus Culture. I want my conferences to have a huge band devoted to making great worship music, high quality global worship music. Let the world add our songs to their worship play-lists. Does that mean I should take up Worship?

Photo: jesusculture.com 

                                                                                           Photo: jesusculture.com 

I blog. I tweet. I try my best to form Social Network Connections...so what is that?

I love kids. I want a family. I want to be an awesome, encouraging wife and a great mom. And I see myself as a "leave and cleave-doing anything for my hubby" kind of person. Like, is his work in a different city? "Yeah, hun, let's go." I mean, that's my family! So, how does that work, being a wife and mom and being this person living her life?

I'm definitely one of those confused people not in the sense of not knowing what to do, but not knowing what to choose and how this thing works. Hope I get some clarity on that as the series progresses.


xo Jo

New Eye-wear

This is a pretty fluff post, but I bought 2 new pairs of shades!!! Hehehe

Trust In A Wonderful Maker

On Raha and Life I always talk about how committing to God made such a huge difference in my life and how it’s a daily commitment, mostly because I have such a fear of losing my freedom that he gave me. I can’t lose Christ. That’s just where I’m at right now. I’ve done a great job at trying, like I gave up praying and reading the Bible for the past couple of weeks, so in terms of a daily active relationship, I’ve totally failed. Despite all that, He kept me strong in situations that I wouldn’t have survived in otherwise. But today, I want to stand and say, I’m recommitting, making God my top focus. I know this is totally corny and I don’t even know if I mean it like from the bottom of my heart or whatever, but, that’s just what I’m feeling, and the best I can do is start from where I am.

Today I want to look at two songs, one is called Trust in You by Jeremy Camp, and the other is Wonderful Maker also by Jeremy Camp, from the album, “Carried Me: The Worship Project” First of all I love this album, it’s like total 100% worship, and 100% rock. Nothing better…at least not to me! This is the type of music I love…I mean yeah I also love the songs that aren’t in your face and that make you think, like Switchfoot, but there’s something about just raw worship, it’s a different type of passion in the vocals and instruments. Another thing I love is the deliberate attempts at bringing all the elements together. This is my album of the week, especially now with what I’m going through and the changes I want to effect. What I also love about the album, it’s about our relationship with an unseen God, and walking by faith. It acknowledges the pain that we go through as Christians and how hard it gets at times when things don’t go how we’d expect them to. It’s not all, like some happy yuppie, Christian life is perfect, it’s honest music from an open heart and surrendered spirit, and that’s what I love most about Jeremy Camp, he’s gone through a lot personally in his life and because he’s still standing, you know God heard him, same way He’ll hear us. This is one album, you all have to get. It’s a perfect play-in-the-car-driving-to-church album. Here’s a bit of the lyrics…

Trust In You

When I can't see You I know You're there, when I can't feel You I will not fear, I will trust in You and I will not be afraid.

When the battle is close at hand, You're with me and help me stand, I will trust in You and I will not be afraid.

When the darkness is close at hand and I'm running against the wind, I will trust in you and I will not be afraid.

When I'm standing upon that shore, all the battles I've gone before, I will trust in you, and I will not be afraid.

Wonderful Maker is just an all-out worship song,

What a wonderful maker

What a wonderful Savior

How majestic are your whispers

And how humble your love

With a strength like no other

And the heart of a father

How majestic are your whispers

What a wonderful God

Chocolate Cake Recipe

I discovered a new talent...I can make a mean chocolate cake. I made this cake this past Monday and my mom and I ate the last 3 slices last night. 

I had to use my phone camera because I haven't gotten around to replacing my camera's batteries...

Mm-Mm-Mm Chocolate Cake with Chocolate-Strawberry Frosting

CHOCOLATE CAKE

½ Cup Sugar

1 Cup Drinking Chocolate

1 ¾ Cup All-Purpose Flour

1 ½ Teaspoon Baking Powder

1 ½ Teaspoon Baking Soda

1 Teaspoon Salt

1 Cup Milk

½ Cup Vegetable Oil

2 Eggs

1 Cup Boiling Water

2 Teaspoons vanilla essence

1.       Preheat Oven

2.       Mix the dry ingredients. I went with sugar then flour then drinking chocolate then baking powder, baking soda and salt. It’s SO important to add the salt, it gives it an extra oomph and makes the flavor come out. Then stir them all together till everything looks light brown, i.e. the flour and drinking chocolate totally mixed up.

3.       Mix the wet ingredients except for the boiling water. I did, milk, and then eggs, then vegetable oil and the vanilla essence. I just beat it with a fork till the eggs mixed in.

4.       Pour in the wet ingredients over the top of the dry. I used my hand mixer on the highest power (my mixer’s broken, and the only power that works is the highest, but it served its purpose) On a normal mixer, I’d do about Power Medium. Mix it for about 3 minutes, then add your boiling water and mix it for about a minute. It should be pretty runny, don’t freak out, if it’s the consistency of just a little thicker than hot cocoa, you’re fine.

5.       Grease and flour your baking pan. I used margarine and corn flour. Probably a little too much margarine because I didn’t want it to stick, but this is to your judgment. The flour didn’t really help much, but it’s what bakers do, so I did it.

6.       Bake it for 30-35 minutes or until a butter knife through the middle of it comes out clean.

7.       Don’t freak out and open your oven if you peek in and see it sort of bubbling over, that’s how it goes because of the consistency. It will settle back down.

8.       Don’t freak out if its soft to the touch/spongy, that’s good. It means you have a moist cake. But again, this is to your discretion, if it’s TOO soft, it might not be done so do the knife test.

9.       Once done, take it out and let it cool for about 20 minutes.

10.   Turn it over onto a rack and let it cool for another hour.

11.   Cut in half horizontally, and carefully, because it’s so soft, you might break it, turn the top half over onto a plate

12.   Generously pour the icing over the bottom half of the cake and smooth over. If you have strawberries, you’d add thin slices here too.

13.   Replace the top half and frost all over with the strawberry chocolate filling. Again, you can decorate with sliced strawberries and make it look pretty and save this from being totally unhealthy with that little burst of vitamin C. ( JTihihi)

14.   Put in the fridge to set for about an hour, or again, to your discretion, until it sets.

15.   Serve with love. Garnished with strawberries.

NB. You might want to trace knife lines of about 12 slices just to give people an idea of what each serving size should be. The new, healthy me, recommends 1 thin slice per person.

STRAWBERRY CHOCOLATE FILLING

Drinking Chocolate

2 Teaspoons Strawberry Essence

Water

1.       Put the drinking chocolate (as much as you think you’ll need) I used about ¾ cup into a small mixing bowl.

2.       Add the 2 teaspoons vanilla essence and mix until incorporated

3.       Add water until consistency is thick, but smooth enough to be spread.