Prayer of Confession

LORD JESUS CHRIST, I CONFESS TO YOU THAT I HAVE NOT LIVED MY LIFE AS JOHN THE BAPTIST LIVED HIS: TO GIVE WITNESS TO YOU. I HAVE SOUGHT TO BE THE ONE WHO SHINES. I HAVE WORRIED ABOUT WHAT OTHERS THOUGHT OF ME. I HAVE CAREFULLY SCULPTED MY PERSONA. I HAVE SET MY GOALS AND I HAVE MADE MY PLANS. I HAVE BUILT MY LIFE AS A CAREFULLY CONSTRUCTED HOUSE. I HAVE MANAGED MY RELATIONSHIPS AND I HAVE DRAWN PEOPLE AROUND ME WHO HAVE SEEN LIGHT IN ME AND AFFIRMED MY LIGHT.

LORD, I'M EXHAUSTED.

I'M TIRED OF TRYING TO SHINE. I'M TIRED OF BUILDING MY KINGDOM. I'M TIRED OF MAKING MY PLANS. I'M TIRED OF PRETENDING TO HAVE THE ANSWERS. I'M TIRED OF MAKING PEOPLE THINK WELL OF ME.

AS JOHN IN THE WILDERNESS, HELP ME TO TAKE UP THE EASY BURDEN OF WITNESSING TO YOUR LIGHT, THE TRUE LIGHT, THE LIGHT COMING IN TO THE WORLD. MAY MY LIFE BRING GLORY TO YOU. MAY OTHERS GLORIFY YOU BECAUSE I HAVE WITNESS TO YOUR GLORY.

AMEN.

The Effect of the 2013 Budget on Kenyan Real Estate

I wrote this for Dream Properties Ltd website, first published on 2 July 2013

A major downside to the highly anticipated budget unveiled last month is the new taxation mode that might put off any new real estate investors. Property developers have been raising concern over this issue since the unveiling of this year’s budget when National Treasury cabinet secretary Henry Rotich said the government will re-introduce the capital gains tax.

The resounding fear is that it will take a lot of time and resources to make a single transaction because of the new KRA procedures and legal fees which will come up with the new taxation mode. This will have a negative impact on the cost of housing and the consumers will have to bear the burden.

Most developers agree that real estate is still a growing industry and should be given support. Developers need to be encouraged and the taxation mode should not be seen as a move to oppress them. 

Capital gains tax was abolished in 1985 to encourage investments in properties and securities. But these sectors have grown significantly compared to 30 years ago. Kenya is ranked the 10th economy in Africa and first economy in east Africa and possesses a unique location and resources like the port of Mombasa that attract investors who are able to reach other countries easily. The reintroduction of this tax means that the taxman will take his share whenever land, houses, stocks, bonds and other marketable assets change hands. 

Henry Rotich explained, “This will allow wealthier members of our society to also make a token contribution toward our national development agenda.”

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday to my only nephew and favorite little man J.T!!!

What can I say? You are the cutest, funniest, sweetest, smartest person in the world and you've taught me so much in your little life.

You changed our world and made our extended family a little more interesting...

Know you are loved so much by your parents, your grandparents, your uncles and aunts (especially your favorite, me!)

 

Wish you a great year and a great life marked with God's blessings!

Auntie "Ambua" loves you!

Serviced Apartments in Nairobi

I wrote this for Dream Properties Ltd website, first published on 18 June 2013

One of our biggest requests here at Dream Properties comes from international travellers or resident families of international travellers looking for temporary housing for the length of their stay in Kenya. In our years offering these services, and getting feedback from different sources, we’ve learnt a couple of things that you may find helpful.

Do your research. Most people who stay in serviced apartments reside in rooms prepaid by their employers as part of a work trip but, it does you good to check the place out beforehand or arrange your own accommodation because you might be looking for a “home away from home”, only to find it’s quite the opposite. Ask your company to hire a professional real estate firm (such as this one) who will do the leg work for you, sometimes even taking pictures for your approval and looking for the best deal for you. Some things you might want to be pre-aware of are: Is the room on the ground floor? If so, is it a reasonable distance from the main gate &/or parking lot?

Safety & Security: These apartments are normally located on the outskirts of the CBD away from the hustle and bustle of the city centre. It’s good to get details such as the entrance and exit points, information on procedures in the event of an emergency, printed details of how to summon the assistance of emergency services, ask your realtor if there’s an adequate level of lighting for safety and comfort in all public areas, including sufficient light on stairways and landings.

Get value for your money. It’s tricky for visitors to find affordable mid-range price and quality accommodations especially because most of the apartments you would find doing your research online seem to be a little steeply priced, but don’t be disheartened, travelling to Nairobi affordably is very possible (Also remember, we are here to help you find the absolute gems just waiting to be discovered)

For Owners of Serviced Apartments, my piece of advice is to keep it simple.

• Make sure the room smells nice, keep the windows open before their arrival, get some air freshener or light a candle. This is one of the 1^st things that will decide of the guest will be a one-off or loyal customer.
• Make sure the room is painted in bright, homey colours. This affects the mood and general appeal of the guest.
• Leave the cheap motel décor to cheap motels. One example; no mirror on the ceiling over the bed!
• Regardless of the size of the bathroom, make sure it’s clean, the shower curtain is clean and effective (i.e. No water spilling all over the floor) and bright. A mirror is also great.
• Tell the guest about any amenities you offer as soon as they check in. If there’s a pool, sell that, if there’s a welcome basket, either hand it to them as they arrive or leave it in their rooms, don’t deliver it the next day.
• Organize the services. It’s not a good experience to have the maid banging on a guest’s door to see if the room was occupied at 6 a.m.
• Develop feedback mechanisms: a guest book, a dedicated customer service representative etc. All these tools would give a guest an adequate sense of security especially since they’ll know where and to whom they can address any issues.

Check back here for more great tips and tricks, and to start booking your trip reservations, please contact us or send us an email and we’ll get back to you.

Happy Travels.

How to Know God's Will

The cry of our hearts is, “I just want to do God’s will.”

It's such a privilege to know God and to have this desire and I bet God is proud of us when He hears us say this and surrender ourselves to His plan for our lives. The point where I think He might get frustrated is when we act as if God’s will is some sort of vague, hazy, 'way out there' thing. A vapor that can’t be grasped.

It’s almost as if we want God’s Will, but don’t think we’ll have a shot at actually knowing what it is. Or when we act like surrendering is the biggest sacrifice in the world  we could ever make. We treat surrender as our burden to bear and expect God's calling to be a huge downgrade to our current lives. For instance a successful doctor saying, "Oh God, I know I have to surrender, so here I am giving all my worldly goods away and only remaining with the shirt on my back and I guess you also want me to go live in a 3rd world country because that's just what people do when they've surrendered, right? So......here......I......go. (sob sob)"

Source:

Allow me to put something out there that might challenge our thinking, bear with me here, but what if;

God has a real actual plan for us and has pre-ordained our steps?
"Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you: A prophet to the nations— that's what I had in mind for you." Jeremiah 1:5 (The Message)

God wants our lives to matter more than we do and He sees more in us than we see in ourselves?
God told me, "Don't say, 'I'm only a boy.' I'll tell you where to go and you'll go there. I'll tell you what to say and you'll say it. Don't be afraid of a soul. I'll be right there, looking after you." God's Decree. Jeremiah 1:7-8 (The Message)

God wants to enable us and use us to change the world?
God reached out, touched my mouth, and said, "Look! I've just put my words in your mouth—hand-delivered! See what I've done? I've given you a job to do among nations and governments—a red-letter day! Your job is to pull up and tear down, take apart and demolish, And then start over, building and planting." Jeremiah 1:9-10 (The Message)

God's will doesn't always require you to be in a specific career or work in Church, what if you can serve God from right where you are?
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for human beings. Colossians 3:23 (Good News Bible)

So, knowing those truths, how do we wrap our minds around that seemingly mysterious thing called, “God’s will?” I was watching the sermon series "God's Will is Whatever" by Steven Furtick and I got some helpful points:

• The works of God are the things He's going to do no matter what. 
• The ways of God are His moral laws and how He wants His children to live. 
• The bulls eye of the Christian life isn't to necessarily get a personal text message from God telling us to do this or that for every decision but rather to see the center of God's will as walking in His ways because if we're walking in His ways, we're always in His will. If we will be who God has called us to be, we'll know what He's calling us to do in any situation.

So, how does God show us His concealed will?

Word of God

Influence of others

Life situation

Leading of the Spirit 

When through the leading of the Spirit, you exalt God's word, you're able to see the influence of others through it and you see your life situation through it and the will of God is revealed."

I loved this message and it totally made sense to me. I'm realizing more and more that God's will was ingrained in each of us. We are all passionate about different things. I've always been the girl that can watch TBN all day and feel thoroughly entertained and my friends think that's weird. I have a friend who's obsessed with a type of music I find weird. I have friends in career paths that I'd have never imagined being in. God's already made us passionate about different things. It may be I.T, Business, Medicine, Law, Journalism, Teaching, Nursing, Opera music, Rock music, whatever it is that sets your heart on fire.

Bill Johnson said once how someone came and asked him to pray for them to know God's will because they had to pick between 2 choices. Bill said, "That's easy, pick one, then heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons and cleanse lepers" At the end of the day, whatever we do should have the effect of bringing heaven to earth.

Monday Devotional :: Dealing With Tempatation

Now the snake was the most cunning animal that the Lord God had made. The snake asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?” Genesis 3:1 (Good News Bible)

For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, "If you are God's Son, jump. It's written, isn't it, that 'he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they will catch you; you won't so much as stub your toe on a stone'?" "Yes," said Jesus, "and it's also written, 'Don't you dare tempt the Lord your God.'" Luke 4:9-12 (The Message)

Why exactly is the devil so hell-bent (Hehe, see what I did there? Hell-bent!) on tempting us? The obvious question is to seperate us from God. The devil knows that he can't have a bunch of people walking around free and loving God and being loved by God because that love leads them to a realization of how blessed and powerful they are. The enemy is aiming to keep people blind to the truth and deaf to God's call to come up higher.

If we look at scripture we see 2 ways the devil uses to get us off track:

1. He questions our view of God. Is God's word really true? Did God really say? 

We need to firmly establish in our hearts who God is to us. The more we study the Bible the more His character is revealed to us. We know from scripture God is good, sovereign, and His word is true. From different passages and stories we also get to know God is love, passionate and full of wonder. The more we read, the more we know. 

One thing we can hold on to though is that every word He says is true. He is the supreme authority in our lives. His word is unquestionable and that's just the way it is. We're faced with aspects of this question the devil posed more and more in our culture: Did God really tell you that this is wrong? I know I face this when it comes to the kind of TV shows I watch. My sister asked me once why if I was so excited about a certain type of show and whether it's something I would be comfortable watching with my pastor's knowledge. I laughed it off, but the question stuck with me.  

Did God really say I shouldn't watch this and that? Did God really say I can only go this far with my boyfriend? Did God really say I have to honour ALL authority? It's hard to make the better choice. I know. I've been there. I'm there right now! The devil tempted Jesus to presume upon the promises of God. We presume upon the promises of God when we purposely sin while clinging to a promise of God. If Jesus had purposely sinned by throwing Himself down from the temple, He would have been testing God’s promise to not let Him fall. If I purposely sin while claiming God's promise to forgive sin, I am testing God. It's the same as praying, "God, please forgive me for this sin I am about to commit,"—it presumes upon God's grace.

We need to look at everything through the lens of the word of God. Repeat after me, "God said it. I believe it. That settles it."

Check out "How to know the will of God" tomorrow.

2. He questions our identity. We need to ask God who we are. Beyond being a child of God made in His image to love and be loved by Him, I've been asking God, "Why did you create me the way you did? Why do I feel like this when this happens?" "What does this trait of mine teach me and teach others about who You are?" 

The enemy wants us to doubt our relationship with God, and to focus on meeting our own needs without Him. Jesus' 1st temptation was to turn a stone into bread. See how he didn't say 'pray to God and ask Him to turn it into bread.' The devil wants us to doubt our identity in God and then place our reliance on ourselves which ultimately leads us straight into chains. When we're disconnected from our creator and disconnected from His purpose for us, we search for other ways to fill the gap and 'be complete'. 

The truth is that we were created by God, for God. Of love and for love. You and I have a desire to have a full life and God has promised  us that we'll live and live to the fullest. We desire for fullness and satisfaction, and God has promised to fill us with Himself. Will you believe Him and find your fullness in Him? Or will you believe the lies of the devil, who tells you that stuffing yourself full of the world will meet your desire for fullness?

We learn 2 ways to resist and overcome temptation, from someone who fell (Eve) and someone who conquered (Jesus).

1. Jesus refused to agree/comply with the enemy. Again, repeat after me, "God said it. I believe it. That settles it."


2. He was ready to reply to it. He quoted from Scripture, "It is written". We have to be stubborn about making time for the Bible. Squeeze in the word of God at every opportunity. If it means listening to a sermon on the way to work instead of (often times pervasive talk radio) do it. If it means blasting worship music and singing in the shower, do it. Surround yourself, cover yourself in the word of God.

So Lord, I pray that you'd forgive us for all the times we've doubted who You are. I pray that you would reveal the subtle ways we allow sin into our lives knowingly or unknowingly. I pray that you may show each of us who you made us to be. Amen.

Memory Verses

Not everyone is called to share their deepest darkest secrets with the world; but I have been, so a part of my blogging is out of my awe of God and how He’s healed me.

Genesis 50:20 says, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

Sometimes we go through stuff that other people have gone through but their untold stories remain in the dark. A huge benefit of being a lastborn is that my mom and sister tell me how they dealt with the things I'm dealing with now. I get to learn from amazing women who've gone before me. 

As humans, and speaking for myself, I've gone through struggles and  pain that I don't want anyone I know to go through. It's hard to talk about all of it, because a lot of things would break my pride and this cool and "unfazed in the face of anything" reputation that I cling to. Satan takes hold of that fear of sharing and binds me up. It seems that when I, and people in general, start talking that Satan loses his grip. I pray that many people will find the confidence to speak up about their secret sin/fear/shame… and in the process, find healing through Christ.

Currently an area that I'm pursuing is making and sticking to firm boundaries. One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is self-control and that's an area I want to grow in. I have to keep reminding myself, I have these boundaries in place not for restriction but rather to defne the parameters of my freedom. I'll write more on that later on.

For today, I want to remind myself and you guys of a couple of things:

Deuteronomy 2:3, “You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north.”

1 Corinthians 6:19, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, 
who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 
you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

1 Corinthians 10:13-14, “...God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond 
what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will provide a way out 
so that you can stand up under it. Therefore, my dear friends, flee...”

2 Corinthians 12:9-11, “But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, 
for My power is made perfect in weakness...' therefore, when I am weak, 
then I am strong.”

Romans 6:19-20, “I put this in human terms because you are weak 
in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body 
in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now 
offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.”