I've made it to Kenya, and it's already been such a wonderful, difficult, growing experience. The past few days have seemed like a week, and it's not just the 21 hour plane ride or jet lag. We've done so much in the past few days, and I can't believe how much I've learned and how much I've gotten to know my American and Kenyan teammates.
We are spending this first week doing some orientation at a Catholic retreat center called Watakatifu Wote Senta, where we will stay until next Wednesday when we head out for our ministry assignments in different parts of Kenya (still to be determined). The first day was spent at a nearby town called Ngong Town, a small place where we got to experience some small-town Kenyan life firsthand. We went into the town for an afternoon to try to purchase some items, except we were only given the Swahili names and had to figure out what they were and where to buy them. The shop owners sure had a good time seeing us stumble through asking them for these things. :)
The second day was very intense. We spent the morning in Mathare Valley in Nairobi - a slum of hundreds of thousands of impoverished people living in only about 3.5 square miles. It was truly heartbreaking to walk through the slum. We saw children walking barefoot in sewage drains, goats and pigs roaming free and pooping in the middle of the street, people living in row after row of slum housing with only a few square feet to call their own for them and their family, children with bottles of glue taped to their faces so they could live in a permanent high to not have to feel the pain of their hunger. 90% of the families have no father, either because the father died trying to earn money or simply left to fend for himself.
And yet, we were struck also by the joy these people have in the face of such poverty. We went into the home of one woman, and she said that she is not angry at those with prosperity, but that she is able to trust God to provide a better future for her and her children. The local church is helping them by providing schooling and child care, helping the families with some medical help, teaching parents the skills they need start better lives for themselves, and sharing the Gospel so that they can have the love of God to truly set them free. What a priviledge to see these things happening!
The afternoon was spent at Sanctuary of Hope, a refuge home for orphaned children that is run by the pastor and his wife of the church we visited. It was a wonderful place, and it definitely showed us what it can mean for these children of the slums to find a better life through the love and provision of God. What heartbreaking lessons these things have taught me, and yet I thank God that He has shown me how he loves those in need and rescues them from the lives they are living.
Today we are going on a scavenger hunt through Nairobi, and so I'm writing to you from a Cyber Cafe. The internet here is a little slow, so I won't be able to upload any of the pictures I have taken so far, but I hope to be able to get those to you some day soon. Thank you all again so much for your prayers! I'll try to give you another update as soon as I can.
Please pray:
- That the team would be able to understand more fully what God has shown us in the past few days.
- That we would be filled by God's power as we prepare for the ministry assignments next week.
- That we would stay healthy, and that those who are feeling sick (a few people have thrown up) would be healed.
And praise:
- That God has already shown us so much of Himself here and continually gives us a heart for Kenya.
- That the team is getting along really well as we get to know each other better.
- That we are almost over the massive jet lag.
"Many, O LORD my God,
are the wonders you have done.
The things you have planned for us
no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of all of them,
they would be too many to declare."
- Psalm 40:5
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