The Daraja Choir Blog

Daraja Sponsors Needed!!!

darajachoir — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:00:36 +0000

We have a great opportunity for you and your family to connect with a Daraja child! This year, we were hoping to find sponsors for the 2011 Daraja children as well as some of the Daraja Alumni who still have sponsorship needs. In light of our tour cancellations, we really need your help!

Please consider sponsoring a Daraja child for $39 a month through BrightPoint for Children. You will be able to write to your child as often as you’d like and will hear back from them 3 times a year when they come home on school breaks. In addition, we will try our best to let you know how they are doing in school and what their prayer requests are from month to month. In addition, should you ever travel to Kenya with The 410 Bridge, we will be sure you get a chance to connect with your sponsored child!

Different children are in need of different levels of sponsorship. Some need Primary Sponsors and some are in need of Leadership Sponsors. A short description is listed below.

Thank you so much for your support! Please click here to see who is available for sponsorship!

PRIMARY SCHOOL SPONSORSHIP= In this program, your child is a “star student” in their school. While you build a relationship with your child, the funds go to promote the level of education for ALL of the children in their school (including your child) by hiring more teachers, purchasing books and desks, providing feeding programs, etc. When your child moves from Primary School to Secondary School, you have the option of continuing on as a Secondary sponsor where your monthly gift will be used to go directly to the school fees of your child in the secondary school (which is normally a boarding school).

LEADERSHIP SPONSORSHIP = This sponsorship enables us to follow up on the Daraja Alumni and to provide leadership building opportunities for them throughout the year. With these collective funds, we have hired an amazing woman named Alice who visits each of them monthly (most of them attend boarding schools all over Kenya), encourages and mentors them in their personal growth, and plans 3 retreats a year for the alumni when they are out of school in April, August and December. In Decemeber, the retreat is a full out conference where we bring the Alumni to a conference center, encouraging them with worship, lessons and activities.

Daraja Christmas!!

darajachoir — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:09:03 +0000

Friends, as you know, the 2011 Daraja tours were cancelled when this year’s choir was denied Visas.

However, you still have a chance to worship with the 2011 choir and to see Daraja Alumni!

This Christmas (December 26-January 4), you and your family can travel to Kenya with Daraja staff to attend our second annual Daraja Alumni Retreat.

Our goal is to spend 3-4 days at a retreat center with former Daraja kids, investing truth, encouragement, and leadership skills in them during their school break. You will spend your trip loving on the kids, debriefing topics through small groups, encouraging them in their daily challenges through family groups, playing games, doing crafts, and perhaps even leading sessions on practical truth and biblical encouragement! We will also be together to celebrate New Years Eve together! What a better way to ring in the new year!

Once this retreat is over, our hope is to take the older Daraja alumni to Ngaamba to worship with the 2011 Daraja children who were not able to travel to see you. Not only will this be a great chance to encourage the 2011 choir, but also to invest important ministry skills into the Daraja alumni.

We truly hope you can join us! The trip will be December 26 – January 4,2012.

Due to the interest in this trip, we have delayed our normal deadlines. The trip will cost a maximum of $3500. If we can get 20 more people on the trip, we will be able to drop the price.

For now, applications are requested with a deposit as soon as possible. The deadline for applications is now November 14th.
50% of the funding is due on Monday, November 14.
100% of the funding is due by Monday, November 28.

Let us know if you have any questions! Otherwise, sign up here: http://www.410bridge.org/trips/2011-daraja-choir-kenya-holiday-open-trip/

Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 tours canceled

darajachoir — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:45:49 +0000

Thank you to all who have been praying for Daraja! We are disappointed to share that our request for visas has been unsuccessful and therefore, Daraja Children’s Choir will be canceling the remainder of its Fall tour dates as well as the 2012 Spring tour.

We still believe that God is up to something Bigger and Greater than we can understand. We thank Him for the strength to persevere this year, no matter the outcome. As our video shares, we choose to praise God for Who HE IS, not for what we have or for what God has done. This kind of focused joy in worship brings Freedom.

Thank you for your support and encouragement as we have been walking this difficult journey. We continue to ask your prayers for wisdom as we seek the way forward. Thank you with all our hearts!

Daraja Intro 2011 from Daraja Children's Choir on Vimeo.

Waiting on God… part 4

darajachoir — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:11:05 +0000

God continues to give us encouragement as we wait on HIM to do what He is planning with the Daraja choir. Each week, it seems God gives one of us an insight as we wait. This week, it is from Keri Whitehurst (a summer intern who was dismissed 2 weeks ago to go home when the Summer Tour was cancelled). We rejoice in all that God is showing us and pray that this encourages your heart.

Psalm 33: 1-11 “Let the godly sing with joy to the Lord, for it is fitting to praise him. Praise the Lord with melodies on the lyre; make music for Him on the ten-stringed harp. Sing new songs of praise to Him; play skillfully on the harp and sing with joy. For the word of the Lord holds true, and EVERYTHING HE DOES IT WORTHY OF OUR TRUST. He loves whatever is just and good, and His unfailing love fills the earth. The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. He gave the sea its boundaries and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs. Let everyone in the world fear the Lord, and let everyone stand in awe of Him. For when he spoke, the world began! It appeared at His command. The Lord shatters the plans of the nations and thwarts all their schemes. But the Lord’s plans stand firm forever; His intentions can never be shaken”

I love everything about this passage of scripture. from the beginning, it instructs us to worship and praise God intentionally because He is worthy of our praise. Not only is He worthy of our praise, everything He does is worthy of our trust. Summer tour being cancelled is worthy of our trust, whatever happens for fall and spring tour is worthy of our trust, whatever is happening with the kids is worthy of our trust.

I think this verse really hit home to me. I’ve not been trusting what’s going on with Daraja, I’ve been questioning God and trying to figure out what He’s trying to do. but HE IS WORTHY OF OUR TRUST.

I love what the verse says next, He merely spoke and created the heavens, He breathed the word and all the stars were born. Astronomers estimate there are about 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way alone. Outside that, there are millions upon millions of other galaxies…and God breathed the word and the stars were there. Our God is a great God! How could we ever doubt the God who breathed life into millions and billions of stars and gave the seas their boundaries?

God has plans for Daraja and His plans are firm and won’t be shaken. everything He does with Daraja is worthy of our praise, our trust, and our awe, even if we don’t understand it. The God who placed billions of stars in the sky with His words has plans for Daraja that our human minds can’t comprehend…this is something to be excited about!

love y’all! – Keri

Waiting on God… Part 3

darajachoir — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:13:56 +0000

This time, our waiting on God moment comes from our director, Christi Baker.

This past week has been a challenge. The interns went home and we are all trying to figure out how to keep moving when there seems to be no movement. Yet, we know that God has not said “its over, give up on Daraja”… and we have to keep pressing on.

Every morning for the past week, I’ve had Jeremiah 29:11 stuck in my head when I woke up “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a HOPE and a FUTURE.” I would claim those verses each day just to keep moving.

Insert July 4th weekend.

My mom is an Independence day baby, so I went to visit her over the weekend, celebrate her birthday, and go to church with her.

What do you think the message was on? Jeremiah 29. Coincidence? I think not.

Never before had I realized that Jeremiah 29:11 was a promise delivered to the Israelites who where in exile in Babylon. (please don’t judge me if you’re one of my Bible College buddies. I just forgot, ok?)…

He delivered this promise to a people who were having a really hard time in a place of waiting. They were waiting on God’s deliverance, on His favor, on His justice to bring them out of a place they didn’t want to be.

What did he spend the first TEN verses of Jeremiah 29 telling them?

1) Bloom where you’re planted (LITERALLY!!: vs 5 says: Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce!). What did He mean? “Make the most of where you are. Don’t just stand around waiting on Me. I have a plan for this waiting place too.. do life. glorify Me in your every day life. plant gardens.

2) Pray for the Place where you’re planted: vs.7 says: “Also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper”… What I got out of this was… don’t resent the waiting place.. instead invest your heart and prayers into it.. the people around you, the tasks (however menial) you are filling your time with, the job you are doing.. all of it… pray for them/it and give GOD GLORY from it!

3)Increase, do not Decrease: vs.6 says: “Increase in number there, do not decrease”. While God was talking about the Israelites having babies and making families, I think this applies to us too. We should increase in Faith and Joy and Productivity… not decrease, as we are waiting on Him. We should INCREASE in Love and Hope and time with Him, not Decrease. Always, our goal should be to INCREASE OUR FRUIT (of the spirit), not decrease.

Well, needless to say, this message struck home with me. May we carry the message through each day… God is a God of truth and love. This season is His VERY VERY BEST for Daraja. No one will ever love Daraja more or better than Jesus. He has a special plan for Daraja in the midst of this waiting place. May He, and all who come after us, find us Faithful.

Waiting on God… part 2

darajachoir — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:13:03 +0000

This entry is another encouragement note sent to our Daraja family by our Fall Tour leader, Jeremy Gardner. God is teaching us so much about waiting on Him… and we wanted to share with you all that He is showing us!

It hadn’t rained in Savannah in a while…until about 4:30 PM today.
Then it poured.

I had just picked up Colten from his babysitter’s house and we had to stop by Target (we had to see if they had any new colors of V-necks). On the way there, we could barely see and there were puddles all over…deep puddles.
The ones you drive through to see how many pedestrians you can drench.

I realized something.
The roads were not ready for the downpour.

In the mini-drought we are in, we had gotten used to no rain.
So, we stopped preparing for it.
And, so, traffic moved slowly.

In this time of “drought”, as we wait on God…
May we not get used to the “lack of rain.”
May our roads not get flooded when God sends the downpour, but may we be ready for it, so as to not slow the traffic.

Daraja Tees Now AVAILABLE!

darajachoir — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:59:29 +0000

Hi All! Even though the Daraja Choir is not traveling this summer, you can still show your support and freshen your summer wardrobe with our hip new Daraja TSHIRTS! Check out our Online Store!

Waiting on God…part 1

darajachoir — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:29:35 +0000

This is an email we received from one of our Fall Interns, Meg. She is one of the interns who is patiently waiting on the Lord to bring the children… in His perfect timing… to the U.S. This was so encouraging that we just had to share it.

So, in Exodus, God tells Noah to build an ark. “Hey, dude. can you build a humungo boat… in the middle of the dry land?” And then Noah did everything exactly as God asked him to. Obedience. and I love that we serve a God who brings that obedience to the fulfillment of His plan. But the one thing that stuck out to me when I read it was in Gen 7:10… “and the rain came AFTER 7 DAYS.”

Noah listened to everything God said, despite the craziness of it all, the huge-ness of the boat, and all the people who told him to just stop. But he continued to listen and then God brought the enormous rain!… after 7 days. “Noah went into the ark.” I am fairly certain that He expected it to start sprinkling as they closed the ark door. but God didn’t bring the rains for 7 days. Can you imagine? Waiting in a gigantic boat that you built yourself in the middle of dry land after telling people it is going to flood and then you go into it and it doesn’t rain?

I cannot help but feel that it’s going to rain soon. I don’t know how long the 7 days is, but I know that to Noah and his family it must have seemed like forever.

OH my good gracious… I pray for you everyday (especially you, summer warriors). Praying that we will persist. and wait for the rain. and continue to prepare for the rain. I mean, it has to be coming. Even if there is no 2011 tour at all, it is coming.

MEG

Summer Tour 2011

darajachoir — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:39:44 +0000

We would love to thank everyone who has been praying for Daraja Choir and supporting us through the sending of letters to the Kenyan government. Literally hundreds of letters poured in expressing your support of our ministry and our travels. We were overwhelmed with your response and the way that Daraja has impacted your lives.

Unfortunately, our meetings in Kenya have not proven successful and, like you, we are very disappointed.

As a result, we have had no choice but to cancel the remainder of Daraja’s summer tour with the hopes that we can focus our efforts on getting the children here for fall tours in September. Please do not stop sending letters and praying that we will be successful.

We have no doubt that God is doing something BIGGER and GREATER than anything He has done before. Our hopes are that you will continue to pray for us, for the Kenyan adults, the U.S. tour leaders, the interns and the children as we follow God on this adventure. We could not have made it this far in the journey without your support and encouragement. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Walking Around Jericho

darajachoir — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 18:01:15 +0000

this piece is taken from our Director, Christi Baker’s personal blog;

I’m reviving the old blog… for good reason.. because I just gotta share what God is doing… or rather, the faith-walk We are on because I still have NO idea what he’s up to.

Here are the basics:

1) The Ministry of Education for Kenya has not granted permission (for the first time in 4 years) for the Daraja Choir to travel to the US.

2)We are currently 3 weeks past our projected tour start date

3) I believe that God is up to something HUGE and we need to pray.

Ever since the decision came down denying travel to the kids for 2011, the picture of Jericho has been in my mind.

1) God told Joshua to lead the Israelites around the city. It was “tightly shut up” due to the Israelites… No one came in or out. This is SO true of communication regarding this ordeal. Everyone who has become connected has suddenly fallen off of the communication-internet-cell phone planet and we don’t hear from them again.

2) Every day for 6 days, the 7 priests and the army would march around the city and blew trumpets. The armed guard would go before the priests, but no one would say a sound or make a war cry. They just blew trumpets and then went home. I feel like this has been our team, our 7 interns and our Kenyan adults/tour leaders for weeks now. Not making much noise except to praise God with “trumpets” and to obediently continue to walk around the city. This has meant continuing to get ready for tour, continuing to prepare our hearts, continuing to serve — even though it looks to everyone around like what we are doing makes no sense and that there’s no way that the ‘wall is going to come down’. For all practical purposes, it looks as if there will be no tour.

3) BUT on the 7th day, everyone walked around the city 7 times and then Joshua declared “SHOUT! For the LORD has given you the City! The city and all that is in it is to be devoted to the Lord!”

We truly want you all to join us on this walk. I am praying with all my heart that as we pray and praise God will be the moment that God brings down the walls… but even if not, even if there are more trips around the city, we would love for you to join us. This is not just a time of prayer and petition. This is a SHOUT OF PRAISE that God is worthy of… no matter what He chooses to do in that moment.

One of the things we have been clinging to is the truth that Worship is not about What we Have or WHat God Has DONE, but WHO HE IS.. Our God is greater and stronger and more powerful than the world. And He will be the same tomorrow night even if nothing changes in our circumstances.

God is doing something HUGE. I’m not sure what, but, I believe that God’s message of freedom is ready to get out and we truly want you to be a part of this adventure.

LIFT OUT A LOUD SHOUT! IF OUR GOD IS FOR US, THEN WHO COULD EVER STOP US AND IF OUR GOD WITH US, THEN WHAT CAN STAND AGAINST?