Friday (Feeding Station)
In one of the classrooms, the kids were very excited to show
me every little thing in the room, and when I say everything, I mean
literally. Every. Thing.
Then a little girl handed me a piece of chalk and pointed to the
chalkboard, and said “write.” In the
best way I could in my dumb English, no Swahili comprehending way, I asked what
she wanted me to write. She answered,
“Love.” Yes, love. I was taken aback and did not know what to
say or think. It kind of hit me
then. All you need is love. Cue corny Beatles reference. But seriously, that is all they are longing
for. Not food or water or good teaching. Love.
These kids come from a background of neglect, abuse, and
separation. They are desperate for any
type of attention. Sure, food is great,
but food only satisfies for so long until you need more. Same with water. You are constantly needing more. But with love, Christ is enough. He is all we could ever want or need, and we
are totally satisfied in Him. So where do
I fit in with all of this? I am just a
messenger. I am a physical
representation of God’s love. So I spend
myself completely so at the end of the day, I may be exhausted, but knowing
that I gave it all away. See they may
see a crazy mzungu (white guy), and just want to pull his arms off or try to
take his weird white skin for their own or feel his crazy leg hair, but in the
end, they are looking for some kind of love because they WILL NOT get it
anywhere else. So we bring them to give
food and schooling, but in the end, we provide God’s love, and hope and know
that it will, in time, change lives forever.
All I am is a messenger, and I am completely honored by this.
Saturday (Mt. Elgon Pastor Training Center)
Then we entered a time of prayer. I cannot even begin to describe what this was
like. Whether it be in Swahili or
English, the ferventness (if that’s even a word-sorry English majors) of their
prayers was extremely humbling. They
believed every word as if it was their own living breath. This continued for probably an hour. I just soaked it all in. I also found myself being somewhat
uncomfortable as I was not used to praying for this long. This was a good time for a teaching
moment. Don’t ya just love those? Here I am acting like a dumb American
again. I have not even close to the
struggles that these men and women have.
Heck, some were praying that their very own lives would be safe from
people threatening them. I don’t have
near this trouble, and I trust God for way less than they do. And that’s sad. We can say all day long that we trust God for
this and that, or even better -> “I’m praying for you” <shudders>, but
do we really mean it? Most of the time,
the answer is no. In our American
superficiality, we release the power of God for the appearance of being
“religious.” We, as Christians, must end
this! We CANNOT exchange the presence of
“God with us” to God’s some where around as “my medicine cabinet,” where I can
get Him when I want Him. Instead, we
exchange our superficiality for a deeper relationship. With a deeper relationship comes better
conversation and more powerful prayers.
So you can bet that once again I was left speechless and processing what
I had just seen and heard
Sunday (Tent Church)
As we drove away from the church, I couldn’t help but stare
at the city dump that the church is right next to, like I always do. People sniffing glue to curb their hunger
pains, children younger than three searching through the trash for scraps of
food, the all too familiar smell of burning trash. It’s an extremely sobering sight. It sticks in your head so that you can never
forget it. The hardest part is that just
a few feet away is a body of people who want nothing more than to help them,
but they choose to stay in their stubborn ways.
It’s so extremely hard to see them living like that, but there is no way
you can help someone who is not willing to accept the help. This is one of the things that I have never
really come to grips with. The sight
always haunts me. I don’t really have an
answer to this, but what I do know is that no one is too far from grace. As has been said over and over again, you
can’t fix Kenya. But you can maybe help
one person. And if that is possible, it
is worth spending all your energy into that one facet. So I keep chugging along, having an awesome
time, but everyday, learning the hard lessons God has in store for me.
Hope you enjoyed this! More to come hopefully (if the internet actually starts working)!
Your prayers keep me going,
Sam
