A Day at Village Two and Maria & Sophia's Stories

Day 4...our first full day in the field.

It will be a bit more difficult as the week progresses to update all that is going on as we are now splitting into different groups.

This morning the teachers arose early leaving Grace House at 630am to be at the Area 2 School before they started the day.  It was well worth the early morning as the kids (grades k-2 at this school) were just precious.  They start in their classrooms and were very eager to meet us.  It is odd walking into these classrooms with these little ones and seeing that the teacher is in COMPLETE and TOTAL control of the classroom.  Whatever teacher says, these kids do.

They all assembled outside, sang the Kenyan national song (in both Swahili and in English), sang songs about Jesus, and then listened to a Bible lesson.  The teacher read from the Bible and then explained what she had just read to make sure the kids fully understood (speaking in both English and Swahili as not all the kids know how to speak English fluently).  Then it was back to their classrooms to start the day.

Our team felt a little bad for the kindergarteners as they were combined with another class to free up a room where the Crossway team was hosted throughout the day.  What that meant is that 56 little bodies were crammed into 1 little room....and Rachel Scott gets to teach that room tomorrow how to read.  LOL!   She is a music teacher by trade but if anyone can pull it off, we are sure Rachel can!  She said tonight that Ron had asked us to be open to God's calling but she wasn't quite expecting this.  Please pray for her ;)

As the teachers started working with their classes in the morning, many other team members were trained in using 'cubes' to teach community members about AIDS, Malaria, and Jesus.  We also learned how to purify water using a Recyclable PETE #1 bottle.  We then went out in the community with CHE trainers and social workers and most visited 3-4 homes.

The list of stories and experiences are too numerous to list here, but here are a few discussed tonight:

1.  God challenging us to present his message using the evangicube.  The more we did it, the more comfortable we became.

2.  The utter respect the social workers and CHE trainers have in the community.  People WANT them to come into their homes and speak with them.

3.  Witnessing the love of Christ poured out in one on one interactions with community members (see first blog post about Mary Kamau's vision of focusing on relationships, not numbers).  We saw that in real time today and it is so powerful what is going on.  It is also so powerful how we end each meeting praying for specific things the host or hostess has asked us to pray for.

4.  One man asking very direct and sincere questions about AIDS

5.  2 businessmen who make shoes in their home to make money and send it 'up country' asking the social worker to write down all the team members names so THEY could pray for US.  So touching...

6.  A Muslim woman who just lost her baby a few weeks ago telling us that she will go to church.  The social worker said he has worked with this woman many, many times and today was the first time she has ever said 'yes' to attending church

7.  A woman accepting Christ today for the first time when a team member went through the Evangicube with her....and then wanting the team to present Christ to her brother.

8  And a story about the disabled that touched the entire team:

After the morning ceremony, Shawna (myself), Lois, Sunny, Steven and Kym went into village two and Bondeni to make a few home visits with Isabella, a CHE social worker. The families we were visiting all had a child with a disability. As we trudged through garbage, walked wobbly, plank bridges spanning a flowing, green watered, garbage river, squeezed between tin shanties and ducked under drying clothes we found the home of Maria. 

Maria is currently 13 years old and has severe disabilities. Her joints are stiff with her hands turned in and her ankles point straight. She can not talk nor feed herself. She must be lifted and carried and force fed. Often when feeding her, her caretakers use three fingers under her chin to force it down her throat. This often chokes her. While we were there, Maria had multiple minor seizures.  She responded to her cheek being stroked and her name, but that response was just an eye movement.

If this doesn't sound bad enough, remember how we got to her "house". I write house in quotations because this was a tin shanty consisting of space equivalent to 4 adult bodies standing by 2 adult bodies standing with room for a tiny 2 foot square table in the middle. In addition to Maria two smaller children lived there. 

Continuing her story, Maria's parents died when she was 2 from HIV. Her grandma was taking care of her but at age 5, Maria had malaria. She was misdiagnosed and treated with a strong medication administered by her uncle into her spine. A large scar and all these disabilities were the result. After a few years caring for her grand daughter, Maria's grandmother decided that she didn't want to deal with her any more and consulted Maria's aunt to "burry this body". Thank the Lord Maria's aunt wouldn't let this happen. I could not imagine suffering the way Maria has and then being buried alive. 

I can not count the number of times we were choked up by hearing these stories. What tops it all off though, is the faith of Maria's aunt and Isabella. Isabella is incredible and dedicates her life to the Mathare Valley and families of children with disabilities. She believes that children with disabilities do not have disabled souls. Isabella feels that Maria has a special relationship with the Lord. Isabella thinks every time someone shows Maria love, Maria reports back to God because the Bible says what you do for the least of them you do for me. What powerful and hopeful thinking! I cannot imagine a more challenging life. 

From there we we went to another home in Bondeni. The epicenter of illegal alcohol brewing in the city. The shift as we walked from one slum area into the next was huge. Drunk bodies passed out in various uncomfortable positions dotted the ground. The stench of alcohol mixed with the garbage was overpowering, yet the children were still smiling running and eagerly greeting us with a chorus of, "Hi, how are you?" Amazing. 

When we reached Sophia's house it was comparably larger than Maria's but we had to jump over a one foot garbage stream to get to it. Sophia was playing outside in the garbage. She is 6 years old and appears to have Autism. Sophia is incredibly loved by her grandmother who calls her, her last born. Sophia has been able to get special services which help but are becoming too costly for her grandma. While this story is somewhat more positive the most amazing thing was how happy Sophia's grandmother was to meet us. She wanted to hear about us and tell us how much God will bless us. The happiness the team had to be able to tell this incredible, God fearing woman, how awesome she was, really pulled on our heart strings. The smile she had showed how much she meant it! What amazing things God can do! We are all looking forward to helping Isabella advocate for these special children. Hopefully with time we can help illuminate the stigma that is bestowed upon these families and show that God does love them and didn't make a mistake in creating them! He made them perfect!

God is so powerfully at work through this organization and in this community.  Something VERY interesting that we talked about tonight.  When we walked through AREA 1 on Saturday, I think many of us were surprised at how 'normal' it seemed.  You couldn't feel the desperation as many of us expected.

That changed today.  AREA 2 is VERY different.  It has a totally different feel to it particularly one area around the 3rd-5th grade school where alcohol brewing dominates and witchcraft is practiced.  But even in other parts of Area 2, there was defintely an uncomfortable, harsh feeling boiling under the surface.

We had dinner tonight at Mary and Wallace Kamau's home (founders of Missions of Hope) and Wallace talked about when they opened Joska there were some kids who had spiritual moments where they would shake uncontrollably.  They would have to pray over the kids and cast out demons that were tormenting them.  When he researched where these kids lived, almost all of them came from this area where witchcraft is practice.

Someone pointed out as well that Missions of Hope has been in AREA 1 for ELEVEN YEARS while they have only been in AREA 2 for 2 1/2 years.  The kids in Area 1 know that there is a way out.  The community as a whole knows there is hope and all I can say is the contrast between the two areas is significant.  Wallace and Mary said, "We are confident that God will do the same thing in Area 2."

Those who had been to the Area 2 school before were shocked at how it has grown.  They have added 3 classrooms since last year as well as a kitchen since the first mission trip in 2009.  Missions of Hope has purchased what looks like a large block of land and will be building a 5 story permanent structure just below where the Area 2 school now stands.

Tomorrow we bid farewell to the junior high teachers who will be leaving us and working out at Joska from Tuesday until Friday.  The elementary school teachers are heading back to Area 2 to teach classes and show different techniques for teaching (the school teachers here are hungry for new ideas and open to learning new things).  In addition, a team will be spending the day with the microfinance part of the organization.

Please continue to pray for our team and for Missions of Hope as well as for Mary and Wallace.  This note is long and it is getting late....but know that we had a really amazing dinner at their home, heard about how they came to Christ, how they came together, and how they have built this organization.  It is a story with God stamped all over it, they give him all the credit, and I hope someday millions will be impacted for Christ due to their work.

The Kenya 2011 Team