Fw: Ryan Morris Arrives in Kenya

Read Ryan's first letter from Kenya. You will smile, laugh and feel his passion for the God he serves and you will see his desire to help Partners for Care in their mission work in Kenya.
Very blessed that God sent us Ryan,

Mission Kenya

I arrived in Nairobi on Tuesday evening (sept. 15) after a flight of almost 17 hours in the air. It is great to be back in the country of Kenya and we started work immediately. I am still getting adjusted to life here; four days into my trip and I have yet to have the privilege of a shower! As I write, Kenya is beginning to experience an increasingly bad drought. So that makes water, food, and electricity valuable commodities. Here, anything with value means most go without it. So we go without running water and have limited food and electricity. Because of this, I think there is a feeling of urgency that is growing with the people.
Like the weather here, tempers are becoming warmer. Even yesterday, as I was walking through the streets near the Mathare Slum in Nairobi, I witnessed Police shooting tear gas into crowds that were becoming unruly in the marketplace.
This "sense of urgency" to life that I feel here brings me to a Christian rule that I want to change for myself. Read the Bible. I began to think about this rule, as I was forever confined in the plane. With 17 hours to just sit there, doing some contemplating on life becomes the choice entertainment.
One of my major weaknesses is reading the Bible. Every Christian knows this is a staple rule to having a relationship with Jesus. Four year old's across the Sunday school world can probably even recite a verse or too. More than likely, "Jesus wept." But for me, reading the bible has always seemed boring. It feels too much like homework, and if you don't know me, I will never impress anyone with my study skills. I am more of an "I can just wing it" type of guy.
Luckily for me, growing up in my parent's house, I have picked up its message by hearing the bible verbally. And I can hold my own in Bible trivia, I know who killed who with a tent peg and that if you're not careful a she-bear can eat you or a donkey can talk to you, and sometimes a man just might run faster than chariots in a race down a mountain. But knowing these things and living in it are two very different things.
Which brings me back to Kenya; I have met people here that I have to admire. No food, no water, no electricity but their sense of urgency lies with the spiritual welfare of themselves and others. I was sitting next to a man with his bible open and every page of that thing was filled with notes. The margins, the space in between lines, everywhere were notes. Every page! Imagine the hours spent studying to achieve that. That's when I realized he is just not reading it but he is living with it. He had an urgency about him that made me think that he could not live one day without his relationship with Jesus. That's what I want to be. That's how we all need to be.
So my new rule? Don't just read the Bible, become addicted to your relationship with God! I like the word addicted because it means that you could not live without! It's a word the means dependant upon. It's a word that some people think of as a disorder, that's all you think about day and night.
The man with page after page of notes in his bible? Addicted. Like any addiction, it comes with side affects. People notice. Which isn't that how it's supposed to be? We are supposed to be different. So that's my new rule! I want to be so addicted that I cannot go without reading the Bible. I could not live without it. If you think reading the Bible is boring and a chore, maybe this new way of thinking might help you. At the very least, remember don't make fun of old people.....

...a she-bear will eat you.

Serving God in Kenya,

Ryan Morris.