Ebrahim's Story & A Day at Joska

My name is Ebrahim.  I am 27 years old and grew up in the slums of the Mathare Valley.  This is my story...

I spent my childhood in Village 1 right next to the river.  My 'house' is no longer there as each year it would get washed away with the floods and we would rebuild it.  Since we no longer live there, it is
no longer there.

I come from a family of 7.  We lived in a 1 room tin shanty.  No privacy.  No bathroom....we went in the backyard and the river.  We lived in community and it is all we knew.  I didn't know how poor I was.  I didn't know I lived in a slum.  I had a happy and joyous childhood until the age of 9.

My parents died of AIDS that year and my family scattered. My older brothers fell into drugs and crime to get by as do many kids in slum. We had no role models at the time.  I knew of no one who had made it out of the slum.  When you are a child and you see people with nice clothes and television sets and nice women....you want to be like them.  The pressure is intense to be like them.  They are the
criminals.  They are the drug dealers.

I wanted respect.  I acted tough even though I didn't like fighting. You had to to survive.  I was succumbing to the pressue and started down the path my brothers had followed.

But God saved me.  He saved me through Compassion International who sponsored me through grade school and into the 8th grade.  I worked in a hotel during these years to earn some money and would eat at the hotel and then study.  I took the 8th grade national exam to get into high school and passed!  But I didn't have enough money to go to high school, so I repeated 8th grade again....passed the exam again....and still didn't have enough money.

To keep my Compassion sponsorship, I went back to the 7th grade just to stay in school and give myself time to work and save money for high school and finally I achieved my goal.  I graduated high school and got a Leadership Development Program scholarship from Compassion to
attend college.

I graduated with my degree, have worked with Compassion International in the United States and in Kenya and now mentor young people from the slums in Kenya.  They know me in Village 1.  They know it can be done...that there is another way out that doesn't involve a life of crime.

And now through Missions of Hope, the schools are right there in the community.  The middle school is available for 6-8 grades and as long as they pass the high school exam, these kids can go to high school and on to college.  By the grace of God this is all happening right here and right now......

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Ebrahim spoke to our group tonight after we spent the day at the boarding school (grade 6-8) in Joska.  There are over 600 students in Joska and after experiencing their world and hearing Ebrahim's story I
realized the tsunami that is building from the Missions of Hope program.  The oldest child from the Missions of Hope schools is in the 2nd year of high school.  It will be 6 more years before the first
college graduates enter the work force....

But then the tsunami will continue to build and pour out across this country.  Young men and women who are on fire for Christ, who know their lives have been changed by his love, who have experienced his grace in a way we Americans for the most part cannot imagine.

These college graduates 10 and 20 years from now will the leaders of Kenya, the doctors, the businessmen and women, politicians, social workers, pastors.

That future, that vision is being built right now with the seeds being planted for God's growing in the years to come.

We attended church today with all these students at Joska.  Their chuch is about as wide as 1 section of seats in our church and about 50 yards long.  Including our group and some staff in attendance there
were nearly 700 people crammed into this little structure.   Think high energy, dancing and moving even though there was no space to do so!  The student leaders were fantastic and we even got to hear Pastor Ron's Immeasurably More sermon again!

To be fair, he adapted it to Kenya and did a fantastic job.  I think he might like preaching at Joska more often because (and I'm being serious here), he would say a Bible verse from Ephesians....and you would hear 600+ Bibles opening and shuffling to the correct page.  He would ask rhetorical questions and they would answer!  And as Ron pointed out they were taking notes while we were sleeping. ;) But all joking aside, it was a great experience and we felt so welcomed.

After the service we toured the Joska facilities and it is really amazing how the facilities have grown since our first visit here 3 years ago.  They are close to finishing a large mult-purpose space which will hold all students for meals (they currently eat in their classrooms) and will be used for worship services.  They have added green houses to grow their own vegetables, have large chicken huts both for meat and for eggs, and will soon have 3 large pools full of fish.

They have built their first permanent dorm structure.  The first floor is complete and houses many students but the way they built it will allow for expansion up to 5 floors.  There are still temporary dormitories as well.  While these 'dorms' with triple bunk beds lined up wall to wall would seem like a tough place to live, for these kids it is like the Taj Mahal.  For most, it is the first bed they have
ever slept in.

The best way to describe these kids is happy, engaged, and hopeful. Read carefully through this schedule as you think about that last sentence:

5:00  WAKE UP
5:30  Clean up duty in the dorms for some students while others are in class
6:00  All kids in classroom for individual study.
7:00  Breakfast
7:30  Devotional time (kids memorize 1 Bible verse each day in
addition to their Bible reading.  They are then tested on those
memorized verses for weeks to come, not just during the week they
memorize a set of verses)
8:00-4:00  CLASS TIME (includes 2 small breaks, 2 longer breaks and lunch)
4:00-6:00  Free time (mostly playing sports / games)
6:00-8:00  Individual Study in classroom.  Dinner is served to 6th
grade a bit after 7pm and they are in bed a little after 8pm.  The
older kids have dinner at 8pm in their classrooms and then have lights
out at 10pm.

This is their schedule most days.  Even today, Sunday, they completed worship service and went back to their classrooms for individual study and lunch before spending their time with us.

I can imagine kids in America reading this schedule and thinking 'how can they possibly be happy'   But they are.  They know the alternative is the slum, alcohol, drugs, crime, violence,.death, and destruction. They are happy.  And they are fully committed to Christ.  It is an inspiring place to be and our favorite time was the hour we just got to break into smaller groups, talk to the children, ask them
questions, and answer their questions.

One final comment...as I stood in front of the church looking out over these 600+ children the thought crossed my mind 'Wow, look at this inspiring worship...these are the children of the slum!' and God quickly changed that thought to 'No, these are not children of the slum, these are My Children....these are Children of an Almighty God who saves and will do immeasurably more than we could ever imagine.'

Amen.

The Kenya 2011 Team