Kibera Slums and Week 4

So it is Sunday afternoon and fathers day, even though somebody told us in Kenya that it was last weekend..maybe its a south of the equator thing...So I know its been a while since updating, i think the whole week, so I owe everybody a big update, and today is the day for it. Since coming back from the Safari things have been jammed packed and a lot has happened over the past week.

On Monday we were able to finally make it to Kibera and to the school and orphanage that we have been talking to. What a day that was! Kibera is the 2nd largest slum in Africa and one of several in Kenya and Nairobi alone (the largest is in Johanesburg, coincidently my next stop in a few weeks). But the Kibera slum is home to 1.5+ million people and about 3/4ths the size of Central Park in NYC. The school we went to is called Jamii Preschool. It is a free preschool for children in the slums and several of them are orphaned and pulled off the streets. There were about 40 kids in school when we arrived. It was in a very small and rusty dirt floor school house with three small rooms off of a larger meeting room. The kids were very excited that we came to visit them and we got to spend three hours just playing around with them and singing and dancing songs that they know from school. It was so amazing just to see their smiling faces and to be able to spend that time playing with them. I can't imagine the hard life that they live, but I know that it isn't often that somebody is there to pick them up and laugh with them and play with them. It brought us so much joy and broke my heart just to see them smile and laugh and run around. It doesn't seem often that these little ones are allowed to act like children. So often they are required to grow up at a very early age to begin working or worse are used by others for criminal activity or for the sex industry. 70% of the population of Kibera is HIV positive and sex trafficking among children is very common. It breaks my heart to think about how exploited these children are and that they cannot have a childhood.
We spent the day swinging the kids around and giving them piggy bag rides and chasing them around and kicking around a couple soccer balls that we brought. I wish there was so much more that we could have done for them, but what a blessing it was just to see them smile, I am reminded of what Jesus said about children in Matthew 18.
After the school we went to visit an orphanage in Kibera called Tunza. This is one of the few orphanages in the slums and is packed with almost 100 kids from about 12-17. One of the social workers that works there said that they will not turn away an children and because of that they are overcrowded and in desperate need for more space. The orphanage is two small two story buildings that serve to house the kids and as their school. The rooms are around 12'x12' and house about 8 or so sets of bunkbeds. The teachers that work there work for about 40 dollars a month and usually go months without pay because the orphanage has no money at all. They recently just came off of an 8 month period without pay. Each child only had one pair of clothes and shoes which were all either too big or too small and on the verge of calling apart. I wish there was so much more that we could have done for them and we are trying to go back to visit and bring more clothes and school supplies. But that will still only be a temporary fix to a seriously permanent problem. This is one of the issues that so many people over here do not understand needs to be fixed by the government. Leaders continue to be elected into office just to serve their own needs and to further their own gains while the people get nothing. Its easy to forget even here in downtown Nairobi that this is a third world country and there are so many people that living off of nothing and dying from the simplest things. I will definitely not forget what we saw at the slums, but if I only return home with that memory, I think I will not be doing those children any justice, "whoever receives one such child in my name receives me" verse 5. I want to help people see what is happening.

A few times this week I was able to go out into the campus for some outreach and evangelism. I have really been praying alot about being able to share and to have the courage to do it. I don't think there is much that scares me more than sharing my faith, for many reasons but fear of rejection being one of the biggest. But through these past four weeks God has really shown me how to trust in him and rely on him and that I can only pray and take a step out in faith and open up. I got to meet up with Arnold and we went into the first year dorms to share Christ with them through the Bridge illustration. We ended up going and talking to two rooms, the first of which wasn't too receptive, but the second which was very. The second room had four guys in it who were very interested in what we had to say and on hearing about Christ. Even though most students are familiar with the Bible, few seem to understand about Christ and the gift of his redemption of us through the Cross. Through talking with them two of them decided to accept Christ and we were able to pray with them. The next day I went out with Brett to the student center and were able to share and lead another student to Christ as well! After that we met up with David, a dentistry student in NJ, who is over for with an NGO. He is a believer and we got into a very interesting conversation with him and another guy about the problems of Kenya (a common convo here). The other man we talked to had very traditional tribal religious views and felt that missionaries only came to Kenya to steal from its people. He thought Christians were hypocrits, so why would he want to join him. I think people have this view all over the world. And why shouldn't they, Christians haven't done a very good job at all of being loving and helpful and putting others first. But what we tried to get across was that we don't follow the teachings of Christians, we follow the teachings of Christ, who is perfect, and came here not to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45). It definitely served as a reminder of why I am here and who I am serving.
At the beginning of the trip I remember being so overwhelmed with sharing my faith and thinking 'who am I to share to anybody,' but something I have realized is that when Christ called Peter and Andrew to follow him, he told them that we would make them fishers of men. Not that they might be, but that they will be (Matthew 4:19). That is true for all of us still. Not that I needed to come here to figure it out, but I know that God has shown me my desire and joy in sharing with others and I pray I can use the last two weeks to do that.

The students finished all their exams this last week so we have been able to hang out with them a lot more lately, which has been awesome. We were able to go to a Kenyan National Football game yesterday against Mozambique, which was so ridiculous! FIFA regulations don't allow the Kenyan stadium to fill up due to safety reasons, apparently somebody died there not too long ago...but it was a really fun experience and it was good to spend time with Naf and some of the other staff members. Kenya won too! which hasn't happened in a while.

This past week I was able to spend a lot of time with Naftali and I am so thankful for that man. He has such a heart and a desire to lead the students at UON and for the ministry and Gospel in Kenya. I gotten to love him like a brother and I think out of anything here in Kenya, I will miss him the most. It seems like only yesterday that we walked out of the airport and saw his smiling face holding a big Penn State sign and welcoming us to Africa.

This next week we will prep for the training program which is this weekend and kind of signifies the end of the mission for us. I can't believe it is so quickly coming to a close. Please pray for us as we prepare our talks for it and that we can continue to partner with the students in knowing Christ and making him known. Also, the short term mission team from Rwanda has a long layover on Tuesday so we will get to see some really great friends from Penn State! The team is really excited about that.

Thank you all for your prayers, they are working in so many ways!

More to come!

In Christ,

Chris