Summer Plans!

As always in this crazy adventure, God is up to much in my heart and life, and I am excited to share it with you. I’ll take you through a quick journey of my summer plans (really exciting stuff), and then through a quick journey of where my heart and mind have been lately. So here we go:

As I look at my calendar for the coming months, I am completely blown away by God’s goodness, love, provision, and gifts. Here’s the schedule:
May 15th – 18th: Trip to Colorado Springs for a conference on Community Development and Discipleship among unreached people groups! I am so excited to spend four days learning and discussing holistic ways to bring the hope of God into communities who have never heard about Him before. I can’t wait to learn from some of the staff of Mission: Moving Mountains who have been working for 10 - 20 years among tribes in West Africa to introduce them to a God who cares about their hearts, souls, emotions, health, crops, and kids! (www.navigators.org/us/ministries/movingmountains).
June 6th – 9th: Home in Sacramento for a birthday celebration and family reunion as my sister returns from her year in Indonesia! The Higgins foursome will be back in action and I can’t wait! I'll also be preaching at Sun Hills Community Church Sunday the 8th and all are welcome! The services are at 9:00am and 10:45am and it is located at 1001 Suncast Lane, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762. I'm also excited to stop in Fresno on my drive back to do some training for one of our teams going to Kenya this summer!
July 8th – 13th: Serving at the Women of the Harvest Retreat in Irvine, CA. This one is super exciting!!!! I’ll be volunteering as staff on a retreat for women who have been serving cross-culturally around the globe and are home on furlough in the States right now. Once the women arrive at the retreat location, they are welcomed into a time of refreshment where they can relax in their hotel rooms, fellowship with other women, worship in English, receive excellent teaching from the Word, and be treated to a variety of pampering options, such as a massage, haircut, pedicure and color analysis! There will also be professional counselors and prayer partners to meet individually with women throughout the retreat. (You can read more at www.womenoftheharvest.com).
So guess what I’m volunteering to do all week? That’s right - MASSAGE!!!! I’m so excited to spend a week massaging and ministering to women who have dedicated years of service to bring God’s hope to every tribe, tongue, and nation around the globe. I’m excited to love and bless them, but also to hear their stories and learn from them (I know that many have lived in foreign cultures for 20 years!). And YOU have a chance to partner with me in this! First of all, I’m going to need some major prayers. I’ll probably be giving five 60-min massages per day, so these hands and arms are going to need some serious divine strength infused into them! I gave four massages in a row on yesterday for the first time and my muscles are feeling it big time! It was a good wake-up call to realize that I’ve got some muscle pumping to do to get ready for this retreat. I’d love your prayers for divine strength and for the healing, restoring touch of God to flow through my hands into his precious daughters. Second, there’s an opportunity for you to partner with me financially in this. I need to raise $850 to cover the costs of the week, so if you’re interested in contributing to help me bless these women, you can send a check to ELI PO Box 67 Upland, CA 91785 (just write #315 in the memo section with a comment saying WOTH retreat). Or, if you’d like to schedule a massage with me, just let me know. I’m putting all my earnings from massage towards this retreat right now, so you can get a massage and contribute at the same time!
July 22nd – 31st: Hawaii!!! Here’s the crazy story: ELI has been partnering with an organization called SuDance that is seeking to impact Sudan through the DJ/music industry (www.sudanceglobal.org). Together we’re working to find sponsors for the 200 kids at the ELI school in Southern Sudan. With the theme, “Re-mix the life of a child,” we’re excited to watch the music industry rise to the occasion to make a difference in this war-torn country. My friend Diana Hom (ELI’s new sponsorship coordinator) and I helped at a few SuDance events last month and were blown away when they invited us to fly to Hawaii with them to do some more events out there, connect with a key church, and vacation! Needless to say, we didn’t need much persuading – so on July 22nd, we’re off for an all-expense paid work/vacation trip to Hawaii. We can’t wait to see what God has in store for the connections we’ll make out there, the lives He’s going to touch in Sudan, and the fun of enjoying his breathtaking creation together! He truly is a God who continues to do immeasurably more than all I can ask or imagine! Here's a picture of Me, Diana, and DJ AJ Mora!
Aug 2nd – Sept 10th: Kenya and D.R. Congo!!! That’s right – I’m going back and I can’t wait! I’ll be in Kenya for the month of August reconnecting with our staff and kids, helping to host a team from Fresno and our annual Youth Camp, and experiencing first-hand the state of the country and people after the post-election violence and unrest. I know that there is still much pain and exhaustion in many lives from the months of unrest and I hope to be able to provide a listening ear, shoulder to cry on, healing massage, breath of fresh air, and prayers of faith for my friends and family there. I pray that God uses me to bring His refreshment, joy, healing, and hope in any way He can. Many of you have asked what the state of Kenya is like right now, so I’ll give you a brief update with what I know. For the most part, the violence has ceased and a relative calm is resting on the country. But the tragic affects of the past months will linger for years to come. There are still close to 300,000 displaced people living in camps with no homes to return to. Prices have skyrocketed and many families are struggling greatly to purchase food and basic necessities. Trust was broken as long-time friends suddenly turned on each other in the heat of the violence and the wounds of betrayal are still raw and deep. There were also hundreds of women and children treated for cases rape and sodomy in the Kenyan hospitals and I know that those physical and emotional wounds are still felt daily by the victims. So while the violence has died down, the country is still in need of much prayer, healing, and reconciliation.
During my time in Africa, I also hope to travel to the ELI school and ministry in D.R. Congo with a couple of our staff members. I can’t wait to see the 500 kids and staff at our school again and to get updated stories and info to share with supporters and churches back here. One event I’ll be gathering info for is a walk-a-thon called Hope Walks that we’ll be holding on Nov 1st in Brea, CA. Hope Walks is an opportunity for kids (and friends and families) in America to walk on behalf of orphans and vulnerable children in Africa affected by the AIDS crisis. Much of the proceeds from this walk will go to ELI’s kids in D.R. Congo. I’ll send more info about this event in the coming months because I’d love for you to participate, but for now you can read more at www.hopewalks.org.

So there you have it – the exciting travels of my summer! In between these I’ll be continuing my work in the ELI office and speaking to various groups and churches. I’m also still plugging along with my book. Though I had no idea what a long process this would be, I am still thoroughly enjoying writing it. I’m hoping to complete the entire first draft by the end of this summer and then we’ll see how God leads from there.

Oh, and while I’m talking about books, can I recommend one to you? It’s called “The Shack” by William Young and all I can say is that it rocked it my world and in many ways transformed by view of God and my relationship with Him. If you’re looking for a summer read – I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this one! And I’d love to hear your thoughts after you read it. Even for you friends who aren’t too sure about the whole God thing or are angry with him or feel like He’s abandoned you – I really recommend that you read this. It’s not a churchy book. It’s a raw, honest story of one man’s real questions to God in the midst of overwhelming pain and God’s response and dialogue. Read it and then give me a call so we can talk about it!

“Being” verbs
I’ll end this update with a little of what God’s been teaching me lately (much of this is from “The Shack.”). One of God’s names in the Bible is “I AM.” His name is a verb – a being verb. He is all about being verbs – verbs like loving, living, growing, sharing, laughing, learning, enjoying, and abiding. He’s about relationship – about being with us. I want to be about the verbs that God is about. So often, I am about “doing” verbs – things like working, accomplishing, producing, finishing, etc. I usually fall into bed at night thinking about all that I’m going to “do” the next day. But I want to start falling into bed thinking about who I’m going to “be” the next day. For this is at the center of God’s heart. He’s more concerned about who I am and about our relationship than what I’m doing throughout the day. So I’m learning to focus on being with him, being with others, and being present to each moment – and on being a woman of His love, grace, joy, and peace no matter what I’m “doing.”

Thanks for continuing to walk this journey with me. I love you all and love living this adventure with you.
In His Grip,
Kierra

Abundant Life

I know that many of you are asking, “What’s next Kierra? When are you heading back to Africa?” Sorry, but I’m asking those exact same questions to the Lord myself! The future is still a bit of a mystery to me. As much as I love speaking in the States and providing ways for others to be involved in bringing God’s hope to a hurting world, my heart still longs to live in Africa full-time. But as I look into opportunities to do that, specifically working among unreached people groups, I continue to sense that it’s not quite God’s timing for me to move into that season. I know it’s coming, but for now He’s still calling me to serve Him and the people of Africa stateside. There is a book He wants me to finish, ways He wants to prepare me, and lives He still wants to touch through me here.
So while my heart longs to be overseas, I am learning to be faithful to serve in the place God has called me to now. I’ll be honest: some days it’s a struggle. But I find hope and strength in Colossians 3:4 as God reminds me of the lessons learned during my sickness. In this verse, Paul promises, “When Christ who is your life appears, you also will appear with him in glory.” During my eight months of extreme sickness, The Lord taught me the secret of abundant life through this verse. You see, Paul says, “When Christ who is your life appears,” not “Christ who is a part of your life.” Christ must become our entire life, and when He does, we will experience abundant life in any and every situation. Because in Him is life and He will never leave us or forsake us. If He is my life, I will always have abundant life - whether sicker than a dog in bed for eight months, working in the States, or living in Africa.
If I make “ministry in Africa” my life, then this season in the U.S. may feel void of abundance. But if Christ is my life, then I have just as much abundant life here in the States as I will when He relocates me to Africa one day. It’s so tempting to make other things our life: our ministry, our family, our friends, our jobs. But those things will never fully satisfy and they can be taken at any moment. I invite you to join me in this journey of making Christ our lives and finding life to the full in any and every situation.
Does this summer hold a trip to Africa? I hope so! Though it won’t be as long as my typical trips, I’m hoping to spend about a month there re-connecting with staff and friends, collecting stories to bring back to the States, and helping out with our few interns and teams. I don’t know the details or dates right now, but I’ll keep you updated. What I do know is that this summer and the coming year will be filled with abundant life in Jesus Christ my Lord!

Oh Say Can You Sing?

The funniest moment of our trip was definitely at the welcome assembly Kristen’s school put on for us. Everything started out well with teachers and students giving speeches about what a great teacher Kristen is and how much they appreciate her. But things deteriorated quickly when the headmaster announced that the next item on the program was to be a Higgins Family rendition of the U.S. National Anthem. Now if you know anything about our family, you know that we have absolutely NO musical talent whatsoever. None, nada, zilch. But despite our protests, we soon found ourselves standing in front of the crowd, two lines into that monstrous anthem completely off key and unable to contain our laughter any longer. We lost it. I mean LOST IT! I don’t know the last time I've laughed that hard. We had tears streaming down our faces and I couldn’t even stand because I was laughing so hard. After finally composing ourselves, our next attempt at the song resulted in a similar breakdown of laughter two lines into it. It wasn’t until our fourth attempt that we actually made it through the entire song (voices horribly cracking at “the land of the FREE”) and received a standing ovation in response. Our laughing faces beautifully graced the front page of two newspapers the next day and we are expecting a call from American Idol any day now.

The Higgins Family in Indonesia!

That’s right! In the month of January the mighty Higgins foursome reunited in Indonesia, laughing and loving in true Higgins form. Though not all went as planned (I truly believe they could make a box office hit movie “Higgins Family Vacation” from the adventure!), we had a blast being together again and seeing Kristen in what has been her “home” for the past eight months.
I must admit that this was a deeply humbling trip for me and I definitely left the islands with a new hero - my sister! I embarked on the journey priding myself in being a hard-core traveler and expert in cross-cultural ministry. Well, on arriving to a humid land of foods that didn’t agree with my stomach and heat that stole all my focus and energy, I found that I’m not as hard-core as I once liked to think - in fact, I can be quite the wimp. But I was amazed time and time again as I watched Kristen lay down her life for the people of her city, joyfully embracing discomforts to love others with the selfless love of Christ. Let me share just one example that I pray challenges you as it did me:
The fan in Kristen’s room quickly became my favorite attraction, and I was dumbfounded to learn that this treasure was a new addition to her possessions. She had lived in unbearable heat and humidity for six months with no fan! “Why?” I asked. Her reply was heartfelt and genuine: “The family I live with can’t afford a fan (a $3 purchase) so I didn’t want one either. I want to live life with these people on their level. I don’t want to be the rich American who can come over and buy whatever luxury I want. I want to break down the barriers that separate me from them - not create walls. So I bought them a fan for Christmas and bought myself one as well. Now we all have a fan in this house!”
Kristen, thank you for your example of selfless love. Thank you for the reminder of the kind of love we are called to. Thank you for laying your life down for others. You’re my hero, girl!