Mungu Ni Mwema

 About a week into my trip with the CCV team we were able to prepare food bags to take out into the community. We got to the community center in the morning and filled about 200 bags with common food and necessities. We created an assembly line to add beans, corn maze, cooking fat, and soap to each one. The money we had raised as a church made this event possible, and it was more than rewarding.

            We were able to return to some of the homes we visited on the prayer walk the very first day. It was an incredible feeling to know how valuable these bags were to the people of the community. We knew that these bags full of small amounts of basic foods would mean the difference between eating and going hungry for some. I love my perspective here. If we were home and received a bag of beans and soap it wouldn’t be much of value at all, in fact we probably pour that amount of food into the trash after a meal, but in Kawangware, that bag is GOLD, and we felt it!

            We gathered the youth with us and went out in the slum with the bags. The first house we went to was a single mom with 3 kids. We had stopped by her home to pray the week before and she was glowing with appreciation, so I was stoked to return with this surprise bag of food. She alone has to provide for the family of 4 and her husband left her with only 2,000 shillings in February (a little less than $20 for six months), before he left upcountry. She talked about how she has trouble finding work with small children, and how she often can’t provide meals for them. It killed me when she said she locks her kids in the house with her around meal times so they don’t see the neighbors eating. You can imagine the glow on her face when she looked inside that bag. She was speechless for a moment, but her face lit up in a smile I will never forget. “Asanti, Asanti, Asanti” she kept saying (Thank you, thank you, thank you) I can’t put into words the feeling I had as I watched her show the food to her children. This moment captured the beauty of life, giving joyfully and being grateful for the simple things in life. It’s hard to escape it here in Kenya, that’s why I can’t get enough.

     As we talked with this woman and returned to other homes near by I noticed another momma following us around. She was on the verge of tears and she was holding a young child who was glazed over with sickness. We walked over to her but we had already given out the bags we brought. However, she wasn’t interested in the bags. She heard we were praying for people, and she needed prayer. She invited us into her home and let us take the 2 seats, while she sat on a water basin. She told us that her baby had been sick for 3 months, and doctors aren’t able to find out why. He couldn’t be more than 9 months old and he clung to his mom. He was in so much pain to the extent that if you even moved him a certain way he screamed in pain. He wasn’t eating, and she was scared. She recently became a single mother when her husband went missing, and has no family nearby to help her. Her baby is her life, and tears streamed down her face as she told us how hard it is. We encouraged her to keep praying and to remember the comfort of God’s promise as my heart literally broke in half for her. We prayed together and she told us that she praises God for what she has, and what we did for her. She believes no less in the Lord given the rough time, and she taught me more than she knows. We were able to go back and grab an extra bag of food for her. She cried again as she glanced inside and she proceeded to say, "Mungu ni Mwema" multiple times which in Swahili means “God is Good”. She has a very ill baby with no idea how to treat him, no husband or family to turn to, and no money because she sacrifices work to take care of her baby. All she could say was God is good! I know I constantly talk about the faith of these people, but I’m still in AWE.

            Here’s the thing though… God IS good. He IS perfect, all-knowing, and all loving. What I’m learning most from these amazing people is that that truth can’t ever change. No matter what you have or don’t have doesn’t change who God is. He is GOOD and he has a plan for our lives and it is a GOOD plan filled with hope. He doesn’t give us things we can’t handle and He has a place set aside for us after this flawed earthly life ends, and it is GOOD too. He doesn’t change with circumstances, emotions, or struggles. He is God, and MUNGU NI MWEMA!

       

Faith

   The first day in the Slums we went on a prayer walk. We walked in teams through the community and prayed for the people, churches and businesses as we passed. The 5-mile walk I thought would be thigh-burning long turned out to fly by. It was the most intense, incredible, and impacting walk I’ve ever taken. We were submerged into the culture. With every step we had a purpose, with every wave and smile we were part of a plan, and with each prayer prayed God was before us. No glance, touch or word spoke was a coincidence. That’s the way I saw it. It was no meaningless walk, and it wasn’t just a way to our destination with a few prayers thrown in. I soon realized this when our first stop was at a church we passed by in the slum.

The wife of the church pastor greeted us. In broken English and some Swahili, she told us the unfortunate story of two boys who they just heard had past away in a drowning accident. The families of the children were just arriving at the church for more news. Without hesitation or any time for the few of us to really process it, the CCP staff member we were with gathered the church leaders and the families and said, “Gaby, pray for the boys.”  So I did. Holding the hands of two of my team members and a group of mourning Kenyans. We never knew these boys, we had just met these people, and here we were embracing them with prayers and condolences. . It was intense, but a powerful way to start this walk with so much purpose. God placed us at the perfect time to be there for those people just as they were needing prayer.

We continued walking, and heard about sick children, starving families, and emotional scaring. With each story was a beautiful person living in it, so as we walked…we prayed. Soon, we made it to a home up some loose wooden stairs. We ducked under laundry and stepped over trash until we reached to top.

The curtain door separated us from one of the most beautiful women I have ever met. She welcomed us in her home and insisted we “Sit, sit, sit”.  So we did. We sat on her mattress that lay on the floor, taking up nearly 90% of her home. Then, this beautiful dark skinned woman started to talk and share her story. She is a refugee in Kenya and she proceeded to tell us how her dark skin saved her life.

She came from a mixed race family. Her mother was African from Sudan, and her father an Arab. Her mother had already passed, but the rest of her family was light colored, and God gave her BLACK skin. During a war that broke out in Sudan there was a sort of  “Racial cleansing”. This young girl at the time was forced to watch as enemy soldiers killed her entire family leaving her alone and orphaned. From there she talked about being taken to barracks in Uganda where she was rapped and abused. She was nearly killed in another attack in Uganda where she painted the picture of the experience she had being totally buried under people who had fallen on top of her after being killed. She was found buried alive under the dead people covered in blood, and she then escaped with soldiers to Kenya where she stays alone in that small house in Kawangware.

She has a mattress, a small coal burning stove and her Bible, which was in pieces because of how worn it was. She told us about how memories of what she had been through haunt her dreams and thoughts every day. She was the ONLY one that had survived, and she believes through it all that there is a purpose she is still alive. She spoke profound and wise words about scripture and God's love and purpose.

We asked how old she was, and my stomach turned when I heard her say, “Sixteen”. All of that in the short life of a sixteen year old? Orphaned, abused, abandoned, and alone… You’re only SIXTEEN?! I was in shock, you sit here and believe there is hope in the end, and that there was a reason God allowed you to live as everyone around you died… and you are only sixteen?! My thoughts and emotions went so many places as I tried to process this poor girls life.

Did I mention that this strong, hopeful, beautiful girl was named FAITH? And that is exactly what she had. She is still healing and very scared, but her faith is what keeps her going, and what has through her brutal life. We encouraged this beautiful Faith and prayed before we had to continue on. She smiled for some pictures and thanked us with so much gratitude for visiting and praying with her.

After we left we wanted to curl up and cry for this poor young woman, yet at the same time we were so uplifted by the way she lives her precious and beautiful life. Saying we were left broken is an understatement. Feeling the ache with each word she said is indescribable, but walking away completely inspired by Faith’s faith was totally LIFE CHANGING!

She changed my perspective on everything. No circumstance, suffering, or fight for her life was more powerful than her faith. She knows God has a plan, and she is living her life as each day is a gift, waiting to see what He has for her next...

I want the faith of Faith!

       

Soon after this first visit we were able to return to her home with some food and more prayers. She informed us that she was accepted into a refugee camp in the States, and hopes to be on her way as soon as September. We are unsure where yet, but pray that Faith can attain this dream and continue to change lives in America. 

Slum Sweet Home

Well, it's here. I am currently sitting in the guest house in Nairobi, Kenya at the start of my incredible journey. For most of you who know me, you know about the impact Kenya had on my life last summer and you've probably been forced to sit down and look at the thousands of pictures I took. I could not put into words the experience I had, it was simply indescribable. God transformed my life and I feel my faith has been growing ever since I met Him so evidently in Africa. I was challenged, pushed out of my comfort zone and unsure about what to expect each day. But, through it I learned so much about myself and Christ. About how much I am capable of doing with Him, and how to put my trust fully in Him. I experienced true peace for the first time. I witnessed true joy like never before. I felt, heard, and saw God clearer than any other moment of my life... It was INCREDIBLE!

   And now I'm back! I get to experience God back in that slum. I get to spend time with the children who's joy and faith transformed my life, and I get the opportunity to grow even more as God works through me this time. I am here, I took that familiar walk up the big hill covered in trash and debri to the big blue gate where children wait to greet us. I drove in the familiar van that seems to be a magnet to the children as you drive by and they follow screaming, "how are you?" "how are you?" I exchanged hugs galore with the staff who's heart of service changed my perspective. I heard my name as I was recognized by the children... I'M BACK!!! 

  In three days we've done so many things already. We have walked miles through the slum and prayed with the communities. We've played new kenyan games and learned new swahili phrases. I have hugged new faces and exchanged dance moves and jokes with others. I have embraced familiar, sweet faces and reminisced on fun memories. We've heard tragic stories and heartbreaking situations. We've seen lives change and salvation declarations... Did i mention I'M BACK!?

  I feel right at home. I don't fear, or hesitate... I love this place! 

For the next 4 weeks this IS home. My team will be leaving the 26th and until Mid-September Nairobi, Kenya is home, these people are my family, this culture is mine.I'm ready! 

  I will work on sharing specific stories and posting a few pictures in the next few days, but we aren't getting long periods on the internet connection. 

Stay tuned :)

Africa 2011

Lord I want to feel your heart
and see the world through your eyes
I want to be your hands and feet
I want to live a life that leads

Ready yourselves
Ready yourselves
Let us shine the light of Jesus in the darkest night

Ready yourselves
Ready yourselves
May the powers of darkness tremble as our praises rise

Until the whole world hears Lord we are calling out
Lifting up Your name for all to hear the sound
Like voices in the wilderness we're crying out
as the day draws near
we'll sing until the whole world hears


 - Casting Crowns