Field of Service: Kenya
Mission Organization: MSC Canada
Ministry: I (Julia) have been living and ministering in Nairobi, Kenya since 2006. I began my missions journey with International Teams, and served on a small team that ministered primarily to urban refugees for about seven years. I am currently sent out under MSC Canada, and serving at 'Amani Ya Juu' (Swahili for 'Peace From Above') which is a Christian, social economic enterprise committed to peace and reconciliation for marginalized women from many African nations and cultures.
Although I wear many hats at Amani, one of my main roles is 'Ministry Coordinator' where I help to organize and oversee all of Amani's spiritual and social programs which include: daily times of prayer, Bible study & worship, monthly medical clinics, kids & teen camps during school breaks, home visits (i.e. to visit moms with newborn babies, to comfort our sisters during times of bereavement or illness, etc.), and annual retreats / days of prayer & fasting.
I've been married to an amazing Kenyan man named Kenny Nyaga since 2016 and we love music, coffee, worship, ministry, our local church / the global church, and our calico cat named Lola!
More about Amani Ya Juu: Amani uses beautiful African materials to create high-quality fair-trade home goods and accessories. We sell our one-of-a-kind products both online, in our centre in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and in our onsite shop here in Nairobi. We also have a lovely garden café where we serve some of the best mochas and salads in the country! I help to make sure we've got new and delicious recipes in the café, and that our quilts and clothing are only made with the very best colour combinations! The aforementioned are the income-generating streams of Amani.
More than anything, our hope and prayer is that the ladies in our care find peace; peace with God, peace within, and peace with others. Everything we do points to and is motivated by that one powerful theme.
Ministry website: www.amaniafrica.org
E-mail: clark.julia@gmail.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Prayer Requests
March 2025
Hello dear friends & family!
I believe I need to start this letter with an apology to my Canadian crew! I had mentioned in another update of mine that, because we’d fervently prayed for Christmas snow with Imara when we were last in Canada, he got it in his head that whenever we pray for Canada, we should always pray for snow - even when it’s July. So, it seems that the prayers of this righteous little boy are indeed strong & effective, and we are truly sorry for the mountains of white stuff that you are currently buried under! Sending sunshine for the melting, and Robaxacet for the aftermath of all that shovelling!
And since Kenyans say ‘Happy New Year’ until at least April (if it’s the first time they’re seeing you) let me adopt that particular cultural norm and wish the same to you all! If you happen to follow Amani on Facebook, then you might’ve seen some posts at the beginning of the year that featured a few of our precious ladies and their hopes & prayers for 2025.
A few of the common threads were:
- Safety & peace within Kenya’s borders
- Growth at work that leads to economic increase
- A home, or piece of land to build on, that better meets the needs of their families
- Better physical health
- Knowing God & His Word on a deeper level
And the church said ‘Amen!’ If you’d like to join us in these prayers, I know that Delphine, Ingrid, Yvonne, Dorcas, and the rest of the Amani family would be so very grateful!
Again, in a previous update, I’d asked you all for prayers regarding Imara (unbelievably) starting school: the where, the when, the provision for tuition fees, etc. We are very happy to report that the Lord answered those prayers with incredible kindness and clarity! Last September, Imara started preschool at a lovely, Montessori kindergarten. It’s one of those old, colonial, stone houses that’s found a new life as a place of learning for the smallest and cutests of students. The classes are quite small, the principal is a friend of Ken’s from back when they were teenagers, and the teachers are all wonderful and love the kids to bits, so it’s been a very soft landing for Imara (and his parents) to start his educational journey. He was absolutely ready for this season to begin, and immediately grabbed the hand of his new ‘fwend’ and headed off to play, with no tears or drama! Well - no tears on his part. Plenty of them were brimming - ok, streaming down my face, which is surprising to no one who knows me. The morning drop-offs have gotten significantly easier for me since then (as I was assured of by many that they would), especially since he’s absolutely thriving in this new environment! He’s such a gregarious people person that having this built-in crew of those-of-similar-height to hang out with every day is just the bee’s knees as far as he’s concerned! The principal told us recently that he’s become a bit of a local celebrity, and everyone knows when he’s arrived at school - from his signature clomping up the stairs, to his boisterous morning greetings to each classroom as he passes. AND the icing on this Montessori cake is that his music teacher is my old teammate from the International Teams RefMin team - Jack Mutua! After being desk neighbours for 7 years and serving in the trenches together through sun & storms, Jack is 100% family, and it’s both a joy and a full circle moment to hear Imara singing some of the same children’s songs that we used to teach our Somali kidlets back in the day!
Imara is always asking, “Do you know this one, Mama?”
“Yes, sweet boy, I absolutely do. But just remind me how that second line goes again, please and thank you!”
In an endeavour to communicate more often with all of you lovely folk, I’m going to keep my letters a little shorter but more frequent. So, keep an eye out in the next month or two for another bite-sized snippet of what’s going on over here! As someone who loves words, and minored in English in university, there is the temptation to feel that I need to write an O. Henry novella with each email. May the spirit of succinctness rest upon me, in Jesus’ name : )
As always, thank you for reading. For caring. For praying. For giving. For cheering us on.
Literally couldn’t do it without you, and we are so very grateful!
How are you doing?
We absolutely love hearing your stories!
Let us know what life looks like and how we can pray for you!
With tonnes of love & gratitude,
Julia, Ken & Imara
