jenessaorcherton - it takes a steady hand to navigate adulterous waters

I am a visitor here and therefore have limited perspective on the struggles of our host community. However lately I have been debating whether I could handle that understanding. I've come to see, I've come to be a witness and somehow encourage hope. Perhaps it is for the best that i seem to observe through a whole in the fence.

We've arrived in the beautiful region of Suba Kenya. The lakeside town of Mbita smells of drying fish and the exhaust of busy pikapikas. People are unconventionally hospitable and the words I hear from all we meet are "O you are most welcome, feel at home you are most welcome." In efforts to familiarize with the people and their community we do a lot of walking and visiting. I've taken to a school half an hour from our house named Mbita Primary School with grades 1-8. I like spending time with the girls. They have a lot of questions and a lot of challenges. I've never been one for "girl talks" but it is a different world here and if you don't people die......basically. They get sick with STIs, HIV/AIDS, miscarraiges and are disconnented from their families.

It's continually confirmed to me the truths of Ephesians 6:12. If you are looking to see I'm finding it does not take long to discover burdens people carry- especially here. Mbita is a port city, a large peninsula really, and Lake Victoria sustains livelihood for the Luo people. We walk along the shore and pray for the fishermen and our up coming beach ministries and every so often help them pull their lines onto the sand. There is heaviness among them that I am struggling to carry. I was in Mexico with my sister just over a month ago and we took a boat to a near by island for a day of fun. They do a pretty good job ensuring everyone has a lot of fun so "drinks included!" There were many jokes made that day for anyone ordering a "sex on the beach." My heart wells up when I remember the laughter on the boat and now I walk along the beach here where these men wrestle with the vile spirit of adultery, sexual immorality and passions for impurity. The fishermen catch sight of the girls on their way home from school in hopes for a bit of fun, women sell themselves for fish- it is not funny, it is not a joke. I see the men look me over like a dog in heat and we pray for them with compassion because it is not these men that we fight but the spirits and the principalities in which they suffer.

I think about home and how we deal with these same things-everyday it is important to be suited wit the armor of God (Ephesians 6). Satan would love for us to make light of and laugh about impure things but I know this only empowers that spirit. He's love for it to continue to be a game.. I am not playing.

for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death (rom 8:2)

for freedom Christ has set us free stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (gal 5:1)

for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit set thier minds on things of the spirit. to set the mind on the flesh is death but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. you however are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deads of the body you will live forever. (romans 8:5,6,9,13)

The eye is the lamp of the body so if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in your is darkness, how great is the darkness! (matt 6:22-23)

Galatians 5:16-25

-jenessa lynn