Robert and Nadia (Benefit Concert Details)

Wow! This has already been such a journey, and I haven't even left the country yet. I can't even express how excited I am, I think about Kenya every day and the Lord has been putting it on my heart to pray for the Luhya tribe and the team I will be serving with. He is definitely preparing me for what lies ahead.

The Lord has been faithful so far and is definitely causing me to trust in Him. Thank you for everyone's encouragement and support so far, it means more than you can imagine.

I have a quick testimony, then I will go on with explaining my upcoming benefit concert.

A few weeks ago, I was coming to the end of an 11 hour shift at P.F. Chang's. I had only had a 15 minute break all day and I was incredibly exhausted. Before this long day began, I prayed to the Lord to give me the strength to not complain and to honor Him throughout my work day. As the night was coming to a close, I had one table left. It was a married couple who was from South Africa and they were celebrating the husband's birthday. After their meal concluded and they had already paid, they continued to talk and enjoy their evening out. So while they were doing so, I was finishing up my side work and continuing to give them refills even though the meal was over. Well as they were talking, I went to the basement to grab some items to stock and I broke down in tears with a prayer before the Lord. It went something like this, "Lord, I am so tired and my knee really hurts. I am trying to honor You and stay positive, but I cannot take this much longer. Please give me the strength to make it through this last hour of work".

Well, only a few minutes after I had prayed this I went back to the table to refill their waters. As I was walking away, the gentlemen stopped me and handed me some more cash and said, "Even though we already tipped you, we wanted to give you more for continuing to serve us after the meal has concluded. We have never had a server continue to take care of us after we have paid and we really appreciate it. And just so you know, Jesus Christ loves you very much". Well if anyone knows me, I cry at the drop of a hat, so I began crying and expressed my gratitude to them and told them about the prayer I had just said in the basement. This was the Lord confirming my prayer and I immediately felt strengthened within my heart and was truly overjoyed. Long story short, I told them about my upcoming trip to Kenya and that I would be ministering to the Luhya tribe. They told me that they were from South Africa and they knew exactly which tribe I was speaking of. They then prayed for me there, right in the middle of my shift. It was truly incredible, having the opportunity to fellowship with complete strangers, but feeling so connected because of our common love for Jesus Christ. Amen!

Robert and Nadia, if you are reading this (I gave them the link to my blog), you blessed me more than you know. Thank you for encouraging me and having the boldness to speak about Jesus. What a testimony you two were to me.

On a very different note, I am having a benefit concert on March 16 at 6:30pm (this is a Friday evening) I would love it if you all came! Here are some details--

New City Church 8711 Wornall Road Kansas City Missouri.

Time: 6:30-8:30pm

-There will be live music by multiple performers! -A barista making delicious coffee! -Raffle tickets to win gift cards to P.F. Chang's -Babysitting packages for sale -Baked goods for sale -Weight loss packages for sale -More to come!! All money received that evening will go straight to my trip to Kenya. I hope you can all make it! It is going to be lots of fun!

Luhya, who?

As the title of my blog suggests, I am going to Kenya for approximately a month this upcoming summer. Shocking? It most definitely is for me. Never would I have guessed that the Lord would be calling me to leave my comfortable Kansas City home, friends, and family. I have always had the desire to do oversea missions, but I always assumed that this would be something I did once I got married. Therefore, the thought of ever doing so always took a back seat and has continually been placed in my "one of these days" files. Much to my surprise, over the past few months the Lord has been showing me (over and over again, actually) that overseas missions was something He was desiring of me much sooner than I had expected. He began tugging at my heart back in August of 2011, but instead of considering it, I simply shelved it and disregarded the call that I was feeling within my heart. Well, to put it simply, the Lord eventually got my attention (it took a few months...yes, I was being reluctant). I eventually started looking into mission opportunities and the Lord opened doors and closed doors. So, after a lot of prayer and consideration, I felt a peace about a specific trip that I had looked into at the beginning of my search. You guessed it, I'm going to Kenya!

I will be leaving May 22 and returning June 19, just in time to be in my dear friend's wedding! The Lord has given me so much confirmation and was faithful to lead me to the correct group. I am going through an organization called Commit Ministries. I will be going as a "missionary intern",  to serve along side missionaries that have been serving the community on a long-term basis. I will be in Western Kenya, north of Lake Victoria, near Kakamega Rainforest, in the mountains witnessing to the people of the Luhya tribe. I will be able to freely speak about Christ and share the gospel with them. I was doing some research on the Luhya tribe, and the majority are proclaimed Christians, however, there is still a lot on confusion amongst the people in regards to who Christ is and what a life of following Him looks like. It is very common for Luhyas to mix Christianity with aspects of African traditional religion, which is called syncretism. Many Luhyas say that they believe in Christ, but still practice traditional witchcraft and worship the god "Were" , the god of Mt. Elgon, as well.

Clearly, they are still in need of Jesus Christ, even though "statistically speaking" the region I am going to is 90% Christian. So I am hoping and praying that the Lord will use me while I am there to bring the clarity of the gospel to these people. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will lead them into complete truth and that they will realize that Christ "...died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf...Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Corinthians 5:15, 17).

As a missionary intern, my main responsibilities will be to help organize and lead two short-term mission teams, conduct two community-wide medical camps, and teach some classes at a new school that we will be building this summer. In addition to this, they have asked me to bring my guitar and lead worship, and also provide music lessons to some of the students in the school. Most importantly, I will be building relationships with the people of the tribe and sharing with them the life-changing, love of Christ.

I have a full confidence that the Lord is going to use this trip to dramatically change me and bring me into a full surrender of areas in my life that I have not given to Him. I have a strong feeling, that this year, 2012, Christ is going to truly mold me into the woman that He created me to be. I am an unfinished work, and I am ready to step further forward in my walk with Christ and in my calling. Please do not misunderstand me, I am not saying that KENYA is going to change me. Only the Almighty God can do this, but I believe that He is going to honor my stepping out in faith by going to Kenya. As He promises, He WILL draw near to me as I draw near to Him.

How can you help me?

1. Please pray for me as I prepare my heart for this upcoming summer. I want/need to seek the Lord daily in preparation and allow the Lord to equip me spiritually and emotionally for my upcoming trip. I will only be gone for a month, but I know that this will be a month filled with a lot of learning and that I am going to be stretched during this time. Also pray that I will be able to raise the necessary funds in order to make it to Kenya; I know that the Lord will provide for me if this is His will, but I must learn to trust Him in the meantime.

2. As previously said, I need help financially. If you are interested in donating to my trip (any amount helps!) I would truly appreciate this. There are two ways you can go about this:
   - Mail a tax-deductible gift made payable to COMMIT Ministries International, 33272 Camelot Dr, Yucaipa CA 92399 and specify STMT Kenya Intern 512- Cooper
   - Or donate right here on my website with an account I set up through PayPal by clicking on the donate button, on the right side of my blog.

This blog is so that you all can be aware of what the Lord is calling me to and so that you can share with me in this upcoming journey. My prayer is that what I write will be a testimony to others and serve as an encouragement to the body of Christ.

Blessings and peace to all of you who are reading this. May God continue to complete His good work in us, until the day of Jesus Christ.

Kayla Cooper