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Update from our Kenya Mission Team: Kenya, East Africa
January 28, 2011
A beautiful African sunset went almost unnoticed as the mission team held their nightly devotion. After two days of travel from Denver, the team settled into their home for the next 9 days. Word of Life Christian Camp is located west of Nairobi, near Kikuyu Town.
The travelling caravan unloaded 50+ bags from three vans and a car. The majority of the luggage is being headed to children in the Mathare slums of Nairobi, Tumaini Ministries and Dagoretti4kids.
One team member’s personal luggage was MIA at the Nairobi airport, along with five other bags containing ministry items. One of those was a large telescope being brought to Sherwin and Pat Crumley at Rift Valley Academy. Perhaps tomorrow they will all show up?!
Studying the book of James, the team prepared for a huge day tomorrow, Saturday, at Tumaini Ministries, where they will expect to feed hundreds of people, entertain local children with a Bible story told through puppets, and balloon animals.
January 29, 2011
Our team of 15 piled into vans for the short trip to Tumaini Ministries, which is an orphanage. Three years ago, we saw 50 acres of land, with no buildings except dilapidated little huts. Now stands the newly-christened Baby Rescue Center, acres and acres of thriving crops, and the new home of Tumaini. There is a barn with milking cows, pigs, sheep, goats and chickens. They have renovated the little huts into beautiful guest huts, housing four people each.
We were welcomed to Tumaini and given a grand tour of the ministry. Then the people began to arrive. We watched the women cooking the meal of rice, beans and goat over an open fire. After several speeches, and several choirs and music groups, our team helped to serve almost 200 people lunch. The grand finale was a puppet show performed by the “Bear Valley Puppeteers.” They performed a Bible story based on Noah’s Animals and the children laughed and giggled and really enjoyed the show. Our team also made tons of animal balloons for the children, which they loved.
That evening, the team worked to separate hundreds of tshirts donated y BVC people. These will be given out tomorrow at the Mathare slums.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
This morning we worshipped at the Anglican church near Tumaini. Pastor Howard brought a message from 1 John about Light. Their regular pastor did the rest of the service. A special treat was sisters Sharon Gipe and Shirley Brown doing two readings. We also shared communion with them, and after church we fellowshipped with the regular attenders. They are such gracious people.
Part of the team left the safe confines of our camp for a trip into the Mathare slums. Inspiration Centre is where Pastor Moses leads a congregation that includes over 100 children from the slums. His leadership team has grown since we were here three years ago. More than 500,000 people live in these slums. Here is where Pastor Moses serves to provide spiritual training, educational opportunities, and basic services like food and clothing. This last fall, he was able to take 65 children out of the slums to an art camp in Mombasa for a week.
Our team brought hundreds of tshirts to pass out to the kids. When we started, we lined up about 200 children. By the time the numbers had risen to about 400, and the lines had disappeared, we had to stop handing out the shirts because it was becoming a mob scene. We left the rest of the tshirts with Moses, and we will hand out more next Sunday when we come back.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Part of the team went to work at Tumaini, and part of the team went to Dagoretti 4 Kids (D4K), a boys’ home near Dagoretti slums. James Mwaura founded and directs this vital ministry to the homeless children in this area. He raises support to educate and feed these children. The vision of Dagoretti4Kids is “Harambee,” a Swahili word for partnership. Through sponsorship, they can provide H.O.P.E.: Housing, Opportunity, Partnership and Education. Through this they are investing in the future of AFRICA through her children. You can find more information on how you can help on their website: www.dagoretti4kids.org.
As usual, mission trips always change. Our plan was to build a volleyball set, a horseshoe pit, and do some painting, along with a huge Community Day this coming Saturday. God had other plans. We arrived at D4K to see what work we could do. James gathered us and told us the main water line had just been run up the road to his place. It was now right outside his gate. He has never had running water at the ministry. He asked us if it was in our budget to help them purchase the supplies needed to run the water line up to the house. We didn’t have to think long. To see the people, especially the children, living without basic necessities such as running water breaks your heart. After we made a material list, some of us headed to “Home Depot,” in town. We ordered our supplies, doing our best to communicate. An hour or so later, we headed back to D4K, eager to begin our new water project. As soon as we started to use one of the garden forks to dig the 250 foot long trench, the tool broke! We all figured it out, and decided to begin on digging tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
The Tumaini team and Dagoretti team headed out for the day. One team member is working every day with a local pastor to do home visits. Their evangelizing is going well and many people have made decisions for Christ. The Tumaini team has been working very hard. They have worked in the kitchen (plucking and cooking chicken), washing windows, scraping windows and walls to prepare for painting, helping with the farming, helped in the barn, among other things. The team at D4K arrived at the ministry to find that the ditch was already started. Our group joined in and took turns at swinging the hoe and shoveling a two foot deep ditch from the road up to the water tank next to the house. Some finished making the volley ball net and horseshoe pit, while two more worked on a large sign for the ministry. The whole time, streams of children would wander in to see who we were and what we were doing. We had some small toys to give to them and their smiles lit up their faces. Most of the older children were in school. Here children can go to school for free up to 8th grade. Most of them are not able to get further education because they have no money to pay for school. It costs $70 per month for a child to get this education. We have met many who are waiting for sponsorships so they can go to school.
God has provided the most beautiful weather for us this week. It is hot during the day, and cools off at night. No rain so far this week.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Work continues at both Tumaini and D4K and with the local pastor. Our drivers, Simon and Geoffrey, are really great men who know the Lord and know how to get us around some interesting road conditions in our vans. They are so nice to us and very accommodating. James, the D4K founder, provides the transportation for us, and this is one of the ways he supports D4K.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
The “Walking Wounded” include one with a rash, one with a bad head cold, two with migraines, and some with bumps and bruises. Today the team went to visit Sherwin and Pat Crumley at Rift Valley Academy. They had a grand tour of the campus, including the hospital. As usual, our hosts outdid themselves with their hospitality at their home, and took the team into Kijabe for a look at market shopping in Africa. A small group went back to Mathare slums to set up our outreach on Sunday. It’s hard to think our time is so short here now. We have two big outreaches coming up: Saturday at D4K, and Sunday at Mathare slums. For the most part, we are all still geared up and going strong.
Friday, February 4, 2011
The entire team went to Mathare slums today, home to more than 500,000 people. Moses’ church sits on the hill at the top of the slums. From there, you can see corrugated metal and cardboard roofs forever, side by side. The closest “toilet” building serves 100,000 people, and they have to pay to use them. Moses led the group single file, down into this valley of heartbreak. At the lowest point in the slums, there is a cesspool of water and liquid human waste that runs the entire length of the slums. There also we found the illegal alcohol being made and distributed. This brew is highly toxic and addicting, and so many there cannot get away from it. In the guts of the valley, we heard the laughter of children. As we looked into a structure, maybe 8 X 10, we saw about 80 children packed in, sitting at “desks” made of 2 X 4’s, with one long board. At one end of the classroom was a chalkboard. The teacher came out to talk with us and told us she has taught in this school for eight years. She knows every child’s name. These are the lucky ones. The teacher said 20% of the children in the slums got this type of education. And of those, only 2% would go on to anything higher than 5th grade. Clearly, education is a major factor of rising above the slums. Right now, there are three young women who attend Moses’ church who are waiting for sponsorship so that they may continue their education. Please pray for them.
After we left Mathare, James took the team on an adventure – experiencing the traffic in downtown Nairobi, and a restaurant that serves traditional Kenyan food. On the way home, we stopped briefly to shop from some local artisans on the road. Tomorrow is our big outreach at Dagoretti4Kids. James tells us we should expect at least 200 kids from the area.
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