Post-Summer Goings On.

So the summer staff left, the week of recuperation from summer camp was over, we moved into the house, and regular life began.

I live in a house that is in one of the nicer parts of town and very conveniently placed near one of the schools that participates the most in our ministry. The school is the Rosslyn Academy, and is a Christian school that has a student body made up of MK's, Diplomat kids, some Kenyans, and generally kids whose parents are the international type. It's about 5 minutes walking distance away from my house and it's also where my new church meets. Rosslyn is the school that BlueSky has been working with the longest when it comes to student ministry, so we have an easy time going to the school and hanging out with kids whenever we want.
The other schools we focus on aren't as easy to get into. We have to have reasons to be there so we don't creep out the staff or make kids think we are proselytizing, which would be something they would tell the staff, who would in turn be creeped out. The International School of Kenya (ISK) is the school I want to focus on the most. It is not a Christian school, but has a similar demographic as Rosslyn. I know a lot of the Middle School kids that go there because a fairly large group came to camp, but I haven't found a good reason to visit consistently yet. I tried to find a job as an assistant coach, but the guy I talked with kinda gave me the "I'll call you," and never actually did. Oh well...

(This just in! I wrote that last part a few days ago. The athletic director at ISK just emailed me and offered me a job working with the middle school kids who tried out for the soccer teams but weren't good enough to play for the A or B teams. They need someone to practice with the kids once a week. This is an awesome opportunity 'cause now I'll get to show up on campus with a purpose at least once a week! This is a Huge answer to prayer!)

Tyler and Daley (two of the people who joined BlueSky at the same time as me) are feeling like their focus should be on one of the Hindu schools in the area and decided to look into opening up the doors to Premier Academy. I'll help out with that school too, but I'm feeling a little more drawn to ISK.
So far, we are kind of limited to visiting the people we already know from camp, but that will change as the year goes on and the weekly programs pick up. We're especially looking forward to the Rock Gym opening up as a hangout option and a place for our youth group to meet. Three guys, Stephen, Andrew, and Jason, are heading up the designing and construction of the Rock Gym. They've been here since the beginning of this year trying to get that gym up and running and the funds recently came through to start the whole process. It will be the only climbing gym in Kenya and even East Africa. God has really been guiding their steps as they put this thing together from Scratch:
1) They found a very central location for it in Nairobi, in an up and coming shopping center called Diamond Plaza.
2) The Rent got lowered to way beyond what they were originally told because the people who own Diamond Plaza really want them to build the gym there.
3) We've received enough donations specifically for the rock gym in order to start building.
This place is going to be awesome. Students will be able to come climbing with us, hangout, and move beyond that awkward stage when they're still wondering why we chose to live here. And parents will be able to drop their kids off, go shop, grab a coffee, hit up the spa, etc. and then come pick their kids up. We think it will be a more welcoming location than meeting in different people's homes every week since it won't be in a particular school or in somebody's house that the kids don't even know.

The Lord is really moving in powerful ways!