Home Visits and Heaps of Trash

After 2 months, 5 countries, 11 bus rides, 20 different missionaries, 75 churches, hundreds of children, and even more memories... I'm home. Danny, Justin, Jacob, and I each arrived to our respective homes around 1 am on Saturday morning. And boy is it good to be with loved ones again. Not that Danny and the guys weren't great to be with, but nothing can replace family. Before I finish this blog for the summer, I want to give you a synopsis of our last 2 weeks in Kenya.

When I left you last, we were in the beautiful country of Uganda. After a lovely time with the Tylers, we made our way back across the border to Kenya. It was quite the experience since we took Matatus (12 passenger vans that have been turned into 24 passenger vans ; )) for four hours, but we made it back. Our last week in Kitale was filled with church, ministry, and home visits. We spent a few days visiting some different street kid/orphan ministries interviewing their leaders and spending time with the kids. God is doing some great things through some faithful people for the street kids challenge. We visited a church and spent some time at the Church of Christ orphanage with our friends there.

After our initial visit with that orphanage in June, Danny and the other missionaries discovered a hole in the ministry there. The orphanage did an excellent job at taking care of the kids through high school, but when they reached 18 they graduated out of the childrens home. The problem is, a person does not stop being an orphan at age 18. We all (whether we like to admit it or not) need our parents well into our young adult years. These kids, especially the girls, are left vulnerable in society without someone to help them and guide them along. We decided to spend our last few days in Kitale going to these girls homes and talking with them. We asked about their hopes, dreams, and passions. We wrote down their general information and started coming up with a profile for each the girls so we can figure out how best to help them - whether it be getting them into a trade school or giving them a micro loan to help start a business. One of the biggest things we did in our visits was to simply tell them that they are still loved and that they are not forgotten - a message some of these girls don't hear very often. I was so blessed to meet these young ladies and to get to ease some of their pain.

After our time in Kitale, we took a bus back down to Nairobi through the oh-so-beautiful Riff Valley. After arriving, we spent a day downtown in some of the markets doing a bit of gift shopping. We had the chance to meet back up with the CMF interns and went with Bethany Stoller to a church in the Mathare Valley slums where she was sharing from the Word that week. This church was only 9 weeks old and had already grown out of one building and had the second one full. I've said it before and I'm going to say it again, God is doing some great things in the slums of Mathare Valley!

A few times over the summer, Danny made the comment that the nature of our trip and travels this summer allowed for us three students to enter deeper into the East African culture than is usually possible. We even had comments in our last days in Kitale about how well we interacted in our greetings. One older man made a surprised remark that he had never seen young wazungu (white people) eat like they were Africans, which considering some of the subtle cultural nuances is not as easy as it sounds. My point is, that after going so deep into the culture, it was necessary for us to take some time to debrief and prepare to enter back into Western society. We went to one of the coffee shops in the UN district and started to unpack and get ready to come back to the States.

Ironically, after spending two days of debriefing and reentry prep, we still had one ministry to interact with... and this one proved to be the most difficult of all. The day before we left Africa, we spent the Morning and early afternoon in Eastleigh - the Somalian district of Nairobi. We met with Larry and Holly Conway who are leading "Made in the streets" ministry. They go into some of the worst places in the streets and rescue kids from them by taking them to a home/detox center outside of Nairobi. At that home, the kids are then given food, shelter, education, and a lot of love... something many of them have never experienced. Most kids that are in the street end up there because of abusive homes. Some of the kids are simply dropped off one day and never have their parents return. All of them are really hurt. Most of them turn to addictive substances. We spent the morning walking through a place of indescribable suffering to some of their "Base camps"... which were really piles of trash that the street boys live on. We went and simply greeted and talked with some of the guys. Danny told a story to them. One of the other workers prayed when we were finished. The truth is, the boys (which were really young men 16-22) were so stoned they didn't really follow too much.

I had a really hard time when we were visiting these young men. I had seen some awful things over the summer and I had seen some pretty hopeless situations, but this was the worst. These boys were sitting/sleeping/sniffing on these huge trash heaps. Occasionally, one of them would start looking through a trash bag to find a piece of moldy bread or rotten meat to eat. They were so high. They were so lost. And the hardest thing was - I couldn't help them. I could do nothing to get these young men out of the situation they were in. But I could be there with them. I could sit on that trash heap and shake their hands. I could tell them that even though the rest of society has deemed you unworthy to even look at, there is still love to be had. That's all I could do... but in that moment, I was connected to Jesus more so than any in my life. When the high, dirty, smelly young man ran across the street and gave me a big hug before we left... and I embraced him fully back... I saw something about how Jesus loves us. Despite our filth. Despite the fact that we are stoned out of our mind because of the traps of sin. Despite the fact that we have condemned ourselves to a hopeless life and are metaphorically sleeping on a trash heap until death comes, Christ loves us (Romans 5). What a powerful image.

I know this is already getting long, but I want to express my deep and sincere gratitude to all of you who have supported me with prayer, finances, or encouragement. There is no way I could have made it through this summer without it. I am so grateful. I wish there were some way to express it fully, but the best I can do is to live my life in continued devotion to the one who hugs us in the trash heaps. I am so excited to see how God uses this summer as a piece of making me the person who He's dreamed me to be. These experiences will definitely play a big a role. Thank you so much, and I pray that you are as eager as I to see what God does in and through me as the days, months, and years continue. May God bless you abundantly as you continue in faithful devotion as well. What a great God we serve!