Prayer

My heart is a mixture of emotions right now. First, my heart is still raw from The Good Samaritan Orphanage a few days ago. Second, today was our last day with our students from OBG. Third, I am beginning to realize that my time here in Kenya is quickly coming to a close. Fourth, I am getting excited about heading back and beginning school. I am very emotional right now and feel as if I could cry at the drop of a hat. The mourning stage is beginning, and I’m not ready for it. Please pray for my heart and emotions. Over the summer, I didn’t really think I was bonding that well with this place… But as I think about being back in less than 2 weeks my heart hurts over leaving the people and things that are now so familiar to me. I feel as if I am finally settling in to Nairobi and working on building relationships just in time to leave. I am also sad because God has been doing amazing things in my heart and life this summer, and I don’t want to see that change…life is always different when you return to your regular routine. So pray that God would continue to change and challenge me at home…pray for continued growth and fellowship with the Lord.

I would also appreciate your prayers regarding this upcoming weekend. The team, including Lois and Mesh, is flying to the coast on Saturday for a three day debriefing/retreat time as a team. This weekend means the trip is really coming to a close. Please pray that God would draw us closer as a team and give us refreshment to our weary bodies and minds. Pray that God would help us process all we have done, seen, and learned this summer. Pray for safety as well.

Big prayer request…3 years ago was the presidential election where things did not go well. Many lives were destroyed and many lives were lost. On August 4^th there is to be a Referendum. This is a major ordeal and is the first major vote that has taken place since the election 3 years ago. Kenyans will have the opportunity to vote on a new constitution come August 4^th. Please pray for peace before, during, and after this time. Already the streets are filled with police. Matatus are less abundant because the drivers want to stay off the roads due to the police and some are even fearful of violence. Pray that the voting would be fair and that no violence will take place…pray for hearts and mindsets…pray for wisdom. Pray that we as a team would be safe. Pray that come August 8^th we will be able to safely get into the city to board our plane. Pray for Kenya as they undergo changes.

The Good Samaritan

I do not even have words for what my heart is going through right now. Our team just arrived back to where we are living for the summer and I have the urge to vomit and weep. Maybe if I type my thoughts I will begin to process some of what I saw today. As we entered the gates of our home away from home my anger also begins to rise. We are staying in a home that is what I would consider the Ritz Carlton…it is nicer than my apartment in the US. We have just returned from the worst slum I have ever entered and the worst conditions of an orphanage I have ever seen. My mind couldn’t have even started to fathom what we encountered today. How is it these two places can be such different worlds yet only miles apart? Today we journeyed across town to The Good Samaritan. This is an orphanage in the middle of a slum, which was started by a Kenyan businesswoman who felt the call to help the children of this slum. Mother Mercy is probably in her 50’s and she is poor as ever when it comes to money, yet ever so rich in Christ. I have never met someone with her passion and courage. Mother Mercy now runs an orphanage with over 300 kids from infants to high school students. There are around 5 or 6 bedrooms…one for Mercy and the babies…she wants to stay with them because she doesn’t trust anyone else to get up and feed them properly in the middle of the night…thus, Mother Mercy runs on about 4 hours of sleep a day. She gave Jenny, Emily, and I a tour of the compound. The 1^st room she took us to consisted of a total of 20 beds all pushed together, which sleeps 60 girls…that is 3 girls per bed in beds that are smaller than a twin bed. There were also two other rooms similar to this for boys. Next we were shown the high school boys’ room. The beds were so close to the wall I had to walk sideways to make it through…70 boys stay in this one very small room…even now it is unfathomable. As we were taking the tour we passed by 2 school aged kids holding a very precious baby. Mother Mercy stopped, pointed to George, picked him up, and gave him to me…if you remember back to my post from Imoni Orphanage I named Haboti at first George…funny, now I really got to hold and cuddle with George. George is one of the reasons why my heart cries out today. Mother Mercy rescued him two days ago from somewhere in the slums. George is two years old, yet he looks like he is maybe 8 months old. Mother Mercy placed him in my arms and he wrapped his tiny arms around my shoulders and neck and gripped on like nothing I have ever experienced. He laid his precious head on my chest and just rested. I couldn’t help but feel the quiver of my bottom lip and tears begin to swell in my eyes. Life isn’t fair. Life is hard…my life is easy and right now I just want to cry, scream, or be sick. I will never forget the site of this place, let alone the smells and the flies. My heart is so thankful for this courageous woman who is trying to save lives…not just physically, but spiritually as well. But my heart also cries out for God to bring justice and to love these kids in a way that brings joy to their hearts when nothing else will because people and the world have failed them. I want to scream at the top of my lungs, “Why doesn’t somebody help them!?! Why God, Why God…It’s not fair God!” I have so much and these children literally are living in their own filth in shambles with rags on their precious bodies. I want to give all that I have, but what will that do? Wealth helps, not that I am wealthy, but wealth isn’t the answer. Love is…the love of Christ conquers this…Satan has not won…hearts are being transformed and I pray with all my heart that people like Mother Mercy would not give up the fight…that they along with many others would rise up and fight for the hearts and lives of the children of the world. So now I sit typing on my Mac sitting in a cozy room across town from these children…I’m in the same country, same city, but I might as well be another world away from them. My heart doesn’t understand, maybe it never will, but I will not loose hope. I will not allow Satan to cause me to doubt my God, for God is my God. I will put my faith and trust in Him even when life is not fair and when situations in life make my heart and mind scream out. Here in Africa my heart longs for Jesus. I long for heaven…for no more suffering and sickness…for redemption and for sin and evil to be no more. For today, I will weep and cry out to God for mercy and love. Forgive me Lord of living so complacently…teach me to live for you…teach me to pray for the nations and for your kingdom to come.

Today I ask you, as my brothers and sisters in Christ, to cry out to God on behalf of His children. Don’t forget to pray for justice, compassion, mercy, and love…for Christians to rise up and give their lives (wherever they may be) for Christ to advance the kingdom of God. I beg you to not become so wrapped up in your own lives that you forget to cry out to God on behalf of the nations. Never forget the power of prayer…for we serve a powerful and merciful God…let our hearts not forget God’s goodness, love, and mercy.

Slumber Party

It literally has been years since I have been a part of a slumber party, let alone a slumber party weekend. This weekend our team has invited Ann, a sweet friend from church, over to hang out…along with 3 energy filled young girls. Justine is a tall 11 year old that lives with her mother Mary not far from our house. Mary is a good friend with Lois and we met this sweet family early in our arrival to Kenya. Mary makes beautiful beaded jewelry along with delicious peanut butter to support her family. I could tell you a lot about Mary and her life, but for now I want to focus on Justine and the other girls. The other day, Heather, Lois, and I went to visit Mary and asked if Justine would be willing to come for a sleep over at our house. Justine was so excited, as was her brother who wished he could come too. J There is also a young girl who is staying with the pastor and his wife from New City Fellowship that is coming over to our house for the sleep over. Anishima is a 13 year old Asian girl who is only able to come to the sleep over on Saturday night. Last, but not least, is Christine. Christine is a precious 12 year old who Lois and Robert Carr have somewhat taken in. Lois found Christine and her brother James while out on one of the ministry sites many years ago. Although they do not live with Lois and Robert, Christine and James would consider the Carr’s their family.

On Friday night Ann, Justine, Christine, and the rest of us girls all curled up in the living room to watch a movie. Here movies are very much a luxury so the girls were very excited about watching one. I don’t know if I have mentioned this, but the house we are staying in literally has hundreds of movies in it. I am not exaggerating. They have two cabinets full of movies. One cabinet has movies more for adult audiences while the other cabinet plus binders and binders full of movies are hundreds of kid’s movies. Again, I am not exaggerating when I say hundreds. Before our new friends came, myself and 2 other girls from the team went into what we call the “movie room” to pick out pre approved movies for our girls to choose from. O the delighted laughter and quick chatting in Swahili as they looked through their pile of movies. The girls chose to watch The Pacifier and during the movie Justine said, “Let’s jump in and go help them”. It was one of those priceless moments. She was so into the movie, especially since it was a very suspenseful part to her and me for that matter…let’s face it we all know I get scared very easily…and she truly wished she could jump in to help the characters out…I wish I had that on video.

Saturday morning dawned bright and early. I awoke to lots of giggles from girls who were trying to laugh quietly but hadn’t quite gotten the hang of it. I actually enjoyed waking up to that noise. After breakfast, another movie, a little bit of water coloring, and then we headed out to the trampoline…Yes, I said trampoline! I have not jumped on a trampoline in years. I also have not laughed so hard in years! Emily, Jenny, and I bounced and jumped with Justine and Christine until I thought my legs would fall off. Christine had never jumped on a trampoline before so it was fun to see her with her “sea legs”. After our laughter filled trampoline experience the girls wanted to watch another movie while in their bed. So we popped in Winn Dixie and I lay in there with them during the end of the movie. Since it is so cold here our house is very very cold. I had bundled the girls up with blankets and was now lying next to Christine without any covers. Christine was in the middle and Justine had her arm thrown over Christine so she could hold my hand and we cuddled and watched the end of the movie. I wish I could have paused that moment and grabbed my camera so precious were they. While we were all snuggled up I made the comment that they sure did feel warm and toasty. Justine sat up and looked at me and said, “Kate, Christine is burning up with a high fever.” I pulled down the covers and she was burning up. I forgot to mention that Christine is HIV positive and I can’t remember exactly, but some level was either high or low so for her to feel so hot to my touch scared me. I quickly jumped off the bed, called Lois, found my thermometer, grabbed Emily, the nurse, and as soon as I popped the thermometer in Christine’s mouth the temperature began to skyrocket. The thermometer wasn’t even all the way under her tongue and her temp read 104.6. Now I’m no nurse, but that is high…even for me that is high. Lois said she would be over in a few minutes to take Christine to the doctor.

While Christine and Lois headed to the doctor the rest of us girls made more crafts, painted toenails, and did a little bit more jumping on the trampoline. That afternoon Lois brought Christine back from the doctor. She has pneumonia so we had to give her lots of medications over the weekend. My favorite part of the day was when I returned from a meeting with Lois and Robert to discover Emily and the 3 girls on the trampoline again. The girls didn’t so much enjoy jumping around, but being bounced…I could hear your thoughts…you let a you girl with pneumonia jump on the trampoline…no, she just really sat on the edge with a huge smile on her face. Alfred was also around so we asked him if he ever jumped. He said yes, so we asked him to join us. Apparently Anishima had already asked Alfred to jump earlier that day and she testified that he could jump really high. He climbed on up and started to jump. I joined in and began to fly. Let me just say, I grew up jumping on a neighbor’s trampoline and I have never in my life gone this high. We would always try and launch people to see how high they could go. Well, let’s just say Alfred must have had practice as a child launching people. While jumping and launching on the trampoline with Alfred and Emily I have screamed like a school girl and belly laughed more than I have in years. It really was one of the best times…and I think we have finally won Alfred over. J As you can tell our weekend with the girls holds precious memories for both them and us.

Overcomers By Grace

Over the last several weeks, we have been going as a team to OBG (Overcomers By Grace). Here we are placed with a student who is physically or mentally (or both) disabled. The students range from 5 or 6 to a lady who is probably in her 60’s. Each day there are around 10 students who arrive at Sabia and Shafkat’s home. These precious people are members of the church New City Fellowship here in Nairobi. They have opened their home to disabled people within the community. Here at their school they have employed around 6 teachers to help these students learn eye hand coordination, their colors and numbers, different motor skills, as well as social skills and many other things. These women are absolutely amazing. First of all, these women love the Lord with all their heart. It is evident that they have a deep relationship with the Lord and desire to serve Him. Second, they love their students. Each teacher knows what will make their student laugh, what they enjoy doing, what will challenge them, and how to encourage them. These students get hugs and high fives all throughout the day. Every morning, they start with praise and worship time where the students are given drum sticks to make music. They all sing along and some of them even dance with the music. Next, a student is asked to recite the Bible verse they have been learning, which leads to a student closing the time of worship with prayer. It really is a fun time for all!

Yesterday, three of us plus Mesh went to OBG to help out for the day. The students arrived by bus and we all chose a student to work with for the day. My student was a little boy around the age of 7 or 8 named Yasif. He has a mental disability along with very poor eye site. I think one of Yasif’s best qualities is that he is full of life. He loves to sing and dance and tell people with a sing song voice, “Your beautiful.” He is beautiful. Yasif is such a happy child with such an easygoing spirit. I really enjoyed getting to work with him yesterday.

I am so encouraged by the things I have seen at OBG. God’s hand is truly at work in this place. Please pray for the teachers that God would give them wisdom in how to educate their students. Pray that God would fill these teachers with continued patience and love for their students. Please also pray that God would continue to protect and provide for each student. I know that God is faithful and will continue to work in the hearts and lives of his children.

AIDs Clinic

Today part of our team traveled to the slum of Kibera to work with Robbin at an Aids Clinic. We were not going to be a part of the medical team, but to play with the kids that were being assessed. There were around 20 kids anywhere from age 20 to 6 or 7. Before leaving for the states, a sweet coworker, Tammy, made about 60 packages of a weaving craft. She thankfully left plenty of yarn…therefore we made them into necklaces. These kids were very excited about making a craft and then getting to wear it. Not only did we make crafts, but we also painted fingernails and toenails. The girls’ faces lit up when we pulled out all the bright colors and started to paint their nails. After lots of brightly colored nails were dried, we pulled out the crayons and fish coloring sheets. After the morning was over, most kids left with a beautiful necklace, fun picture, painted nails, and stickers all over their faces and hands. These kids were adorable…as you can see from the pictures.

Shopping and Matatu Rides

On Monday we had Bible Study at our house as a team…with Mesh…who is, as far as we are concerned, a part of the team. After Bible study, Mesh took us to Toi (Toy) Market. This market is mainly for Kenyans where poeple can by discount clothing from the US and other countries. In order to get there we had to hop on one of the crazy Matatus (van system…without a system…more like chaos!). On our ride to the market a man got on with a large brown envelope which usually signals a thief. They try and use the big envelopes to cover up the area while they pick pocket you under the envelope. Needless to say we were on high alert and very aware of our purses and bags. One of the girls, Heather, who truly is fearless, kept turning around to look him in the eye like we know the system and I’m watching you…priceless. In the matatu there is the driver and a conductor. A conductor sits at the seat nearest the door to let people on and off the matatu. When someone wants to get off, he hits the window, door, or roof to signal to the driver. I honestly don’t know how the drivers hear the tap because the music is so loud. I can really feel the vibration of the music in my chest every time I get on a matatu. Once a matatu pulls off to the side of the road, you check to see if it is the one you want and then hop on to the nearest most empty seat you can find…you better do it quickly because they will start going while you are trying to get on. I managed to get a seat right next to the conductor and one other Kenyan. The conductor has a seat to himself by the door, then there is a small gap and then two more seats to the row. The Kenyan next to me, and closest to the window needed to get off the matatu. Therefore I filed out to let him off and then had to quickly hop back on. Now there was an empty seat so I slid all the way over to get away from the weird conductor with pink toenail polish…strange I know. Then he started to lean into the empty seat with his body. The next thing I know his head was just about in my lap! Talk about inappropriate! Ha…Mesh and the rest of my team died laughing as soon as we get off the matatu. Once at the market, we began to wander through shack after shack looking for discount clothing. It really was a fun experience and I did find a really cute shirt. While walking through the maze of shacks we stopped to get oriented and this child around 1 or 2 ran up to me, threw his little arms around both my legs, and looked up to my face and just smiled a precious smile. It really was one of the most precious things I have ever seen…I looked at the rest of my team and said, “Can I get that? I would like to take that cutie back with me.” Onward we went though, and after a fun afternoon of shopping we hopped back on a matatu. This time a different conductor told my teammate, Stephanie, she was beautiful…matatu rides are never dull.

Today, we went with Mesh to visit her sister in Westlands. On our way there, I had the most fun I have ever had on a matatu! This time I chose the front bench of the van and sat on the seat closest to the door. Now on matutus just because every seat is taken does not mean the matatu is full. Often times the conductor will pack 5 people each on the front and 2^nd bench with him standing with his butt out the window…wouldn’t that make a fun picture. There are also a 3^rd and 4^th row of benches plus the 2 people that sit up front with the driver. So I climbed on and off as we made stops to let people off the matatu, and even had to jump on quickly at one stop because the matatu was starting to leave without me. It actually made me happy because conductors only seem to do that when they have faith the person can jump on…1 point for me. At the next stop, a man with a cooler and ice cream cones squeezed in next to me. He immediately started talking to me in English…asking me what kind of ice cream was my favorite favor, telling me he really was an intelligent man but that there just isn’t a lot of work to be found so he sells ice cream. He told me his name and more about his life…he even asked me a few questions which I think I managed to answer correctly…you never really know 100% what someone says on a matatu because of their broken English and the deafening blare of the music. The entire time we were talking, mostly him I might add, the conductor, driver and every Kenyan other than Mesh was laughing. My “friend” said they were laughing at him…I corrected him and said they were laughing at me…this brought even more laughter…from them and me. Next, he asked me to hold his ice cream cones because the conductor wanted one. Because this guy, the conductor, and the driver were all such good sports and seemed to know each other well, I ended up being “in conversation” with all of them most of the trip. Every time I looked back at the laughing conductor he would point to my “friend” raise his eye brows…like what do you think of him…then give a hearty laugh, which in turn made me bust out laughing. After the conductor got his ice cream, my “friend” asked me if I wanted one. My immediate response was no…his response was raise eyebrows…the conductor wants to buy one for you…my response… crack up laughing, say no again, continue to laugh with my “friend” and all the other Kenyans on the matatu! Once we got off the matatu I was told some of my team was taking bets on whether or not I would take the free ice cream…I didn’t…It would be just my luck (excuse the phrase) to take the ice cream and be sick for a week.

My favorite part of the day was when a Kenyan man walked up to Mesh as we were changing matatus and offered her a deal. He said he gave safari tours and that if she would help him rip us off with the prices he would split the earnings with her. Of course our sweet Mesh did not take him up on it! As you can see, traveling in Kenya is always interesting. I really will miss these rides when the summer is over!

Panic Alarms and Electric Fences

As many of you may remember from a previous email, we set off our panic alarm in the house the 1^st week we were here. The alarm for our house was very loud and our dogs went absolutely crazy with ferocious barking and growling. Well, last night we had a new experience with an alarm. It was around 4:30 am when our whole house was awakened by an alarm…granted once we were all awake and oriented we realized it was not our own alarm, but it was loud enough that it woke us all up from a deep sleep. Here in Kenya, neighbor’s houses are not close together so you know this was a loud alarm. Once we were all awake enough to realize it was not our alarm, we noticed another unusual noise…a loud clicking somewhere right outside my bedroom window. Now mind you the alarm is still blaring, our dogs are quiet as can be, and there is a strange loud clicking noise happening right outside the window in Africa at 4:30 in the morning. First of all, for those of you who don’t know, I am not a brave person…more of a scaredy cat to be honest! So when a panic alarm goes off at 4:30 in the morning at our neighbor’s house, let’s just say my blood is pumping. First of all, who is up at 4:30 in the morning?!? Second of all, who accidentally trips a panic button at 4:30 in the morning…Therefore, my only logical thought at 4:30 in the morning is that something made our neighbors panic and push that panic button…not a very comforting thought at 4:30 in the morning when you are a house full of young American girls. Now back to the clicking noise. We finally get up the nerve to look out my curtains only to see that our electric fence is going a little nutty. Why in the world is it sparking and making a loud noise? Our electric fence is within 15-20 feet of our house so for it to be “going off” at 4:30 in the morning while the neighbor’s alarm is screeching gave us no warm and fuzzy feelings. J Right past the fence is where our guard, Alfred, lives and we notice his light is on so Stephanie tries to call him…several times…no answer. We all know what this means…good ole Alfred is searching our property. So we stand at the window for a few more minutes (I know not the smartest decision ever, but by this time the alarm is off which meant the neighbors had to physically turn it off with a code) and wouldn’t you know we see Alfred return to his house. Poor guys looks at the house to see all us girls standing at the window looking at him. Now I don’t mean this in a rude way, but it is still dark outside and well, Alfred is African…therefore, his skin is really black and the next thing we know all we can see is those pearly white teeth. Alfred could not stop smiling/laughing at us…I’m sure we were quite the sight. One of the girls hollered to see if everything was okay and he responded with, “It is okay…everything is okay… okay…everything is okay.” He really is precious and he is quickly becoming one of my favorite people here in Kenya.

This morning I woke up and went to open the back door so our house girl, Ruth, could get in. Wouldn’t you know there was Alfred turning off the electric fence…he asked me if we were all okay and if it scared us last night. I said yes, and he said one of the dogs touched the electric fence. Thus the overly active fence…poor dog…they all seemed okay this morning though. He also apologized for not answering his phone last night, but in his haste to look around our property to make sure we were secure he left it in his house…still this morning he had laughter in his voice and a HUGE smile on his face...we must have made one funny sight last night!

Fun times in Africa…fun times indeed!

CORRECTION: Later today while talking to Alfred, we asked him if everything was okay at the neighbor’s house. He looked so confused…we said you know the alarm that went off last night at the neighbor’s house. No, he said…the alarm went off at our house!! What?!? Remember that dogfight I wrote about on the 4^th of July? Well, because the head dog, Elo (the meanest and most fierce of the bunch) is so mean to our sweet German Shepard, Jedi, Alfred has been having to keep Jedi outside the electric fence with him at night. Apparently, the electric fence wasn’t going to stop Elo from getting at Jedi and Elo tried to attack Jedi through the fence!! Crazy I know…that dog is vicious! So we are safe, but it was our fence alarm…at least know we know what it sounds like!