Let the Worshippers Arise

This week is Spiritual Emphasis Week (SEW) at RVA. That means that from last night (Tuesday night) through Sunday night, we will be having extra chapels at night, less homework, quizzes, and tests, and more focus on the spiritual health of the staff and students here. We have flown in guest speakers and worship leaders who are here to bring an outside breath of air and hopefully pump up our students a bit, and challenge them towards God a lot.

I wasn't able to make the meeting last night, but today in school I was able to witness passion in prayer from my students. My 7th graders did a research project on a European country to open our Europe unit, and they were asked to do presentations today that 1) shared the information and 2) shared ways we could be praying for the country, and then they led the class in prayers. I'll be honest - some of them were praying because that was the assignment. But there were a select few who stood up and beseeched the God of Creation to intervene and help these countries through difficult time and, most commonly, asked God to help spread His Gospel and protect and bless the missionaries working there. My 8th graders are starting a unit on Africa, so I printed out a few current event articles from throughout Africa and had them read through them and pray for them. This was especially incredible as many of these stories personally touched their hearts - maybe it's about the struggling tribe their family works with in Northern Kenya; maybe it's about the instability in Somaliland; maybe it's about the people killed in a big accident in Nigeria. Whatever it was, these students were touched and burdened and prayed with passion and honesty and faith. It was beautiful to see them like this. It was beautiful to see God softening their hearts and to see them reaching out to intercede for their country and their world.

And then tonight at chapel, I watched as my students - these kids that have already won my heart - lifted their hands high in worship, bent down at the altar, cried out to our God, and praised their Savior.

I know sometimes - especially at youth camps, rallys, etc. - emotions and peer pressures can drive kids to make commitments and say things that they don't end up following through on. I know sometimes it's just cool to get up and go to the altar so you can look all holy and godly and whatnot. But I pray - and I ask you to pray as well - that this week lives will truly be changed and these students will truly see how beautiful and important it is to live a life glorifying to God. I pray that they will learn how to follow after Him every day - that it won't be just the religion their parents chose or the religion of the school they attend or the religion of their friends, but that they will choose a life that imitates Christ, a heart that serves the world, and a love that saves lives.

After visiting the slums this week, I've realized again how incredibly important each life is. It's overwhelming to think about the whole world, and disappointing to think about the "impossibility" of changing the world. But changing one life is enough. Changing one life does make a difference. Giving $6.50 to one woman can not only bring her out of darkness, but her family as well, who might then go bring others out of darkness, and so on. Each one of these students' lives are precious and cherished by our God. Each one of them has mighty potential, because they have a mighty Creator. Pray that their lives are changed, that they might go fight for the Kingdom of God. Pray that they might know God's love and therefore go love.

Remind yourself that we each matter. That what we do matters. That how we live matters. Praise God, that we matter.

Lives of Hope

My last post was about hope - how the hope of Christ is transforming the slums of Nairobi. Today we visited Pangoni, another section of slums here. Today I heard testimonies of this living Hope, as well as reminders of how God works in such intricate ways.

Mary and Wallis Kamau shared their story with me today. Mary, a Kenyan, grew up in central Kenya in a nice village where there was no real "rich" or "poor" - where everyone was well fed and attended school. She had never heard of Mathare Valley or knew anything like it existed. While she was in college, she attended a prayer meeting where a man led worship and played many different instruments. She assumed he had gone to college to learn music and asked him where he attended. He sort of laughed, the though of himself attending college apparently quite a good joke. He started explaining to her that he grew up in Mathare Valley, described what it was like, and what his childhood was like. He had ran away from home when he was young and became a street kid, sniffing lots and lots of glue. He became depressed and decided to commit suicide by throwing himself into the Nairobi River. On his way to the river, he heard a street evangelism ralley over the loud speakers and heard the pastor calling for "a man here who is depressed and wanting to die." He was shocked, stood there for a few minutes before turning around, and then decided that it was too incredible to pass up. He walked up to the ralley, was almost turned away because he smelled and looked so bad and was so obviously high on glue, and finally pulled on stage by the pastor. He gave his life to Christ, turned his ways around, and introduced a whole new world to Mary through this testimony. She asked to visit, and when he took her to Mathare Valley, her life was forever changed. She had seen how this man's life was changed by the Gospel and wanted to give that hope and opportunity to other kids in the slums. She visited regularly before meeting Wallace, who was to be her husband, and together God has used them to build an incredible ministry in the slums. They've partnered with CMF and opened schools, community centers, started a Child Sponsorship Program, given women sewing machines and classes so they could make a good living for themselves, and more. Because the pastor decided to evangelize (even in a way that many Americans would see as intrusive and unconventional) and preach the Word of God without apology; because the young man from the slums listened to the call of God and used his talents to glorify God and lead others in worship to Him; because Mary and Wallace also obeyed God's direction; because of these things and probably hundreds of other details that we'll never know, hundreds of slum kids have hope. They have food and clothes and an opportunity to go to school and make way for a future of light instead of a future of darkness. Praise the ways of our Creative, Intricate God.Cassie with Mary and Wallace

After hearing this story, we took a tour of the slums. We walked down the streets to the sounds of "How are you" from children, "habari" from the adults, and shook any hand that we passed. We wound our way through little alleys between small tin houses, hopped from rock to rock over the little streams of dirty water, and ducked below clotheslines spread across the walkways and anywhere there was room. We walked until we arrived at Elizabeth's house. We walked in to a house about 7'x7' and all 6 of us squished on the couch and watched her make chipatis as she told us her story, translated by Isaac, our guide.

I had planned on typing her story out, and then found that she was on the front page of CMF's website, so I'm copying and pasting from here.
Because of false promises and broken relationships Elizabeth has two daughters but no husband. As she was about to give birth to her second daughter she was advised to throw away the child after it was born so that she would not have another mouth to feed. When Cecelia was born Elizabeth looked at her and decided that there was no way that she could throw this child away. When the girls were older, and life was still no easier, another friend advised Elizabeth to travel somewhere with the girls and abandon them. Elizabeth was seriously considering this option. When the Missions of Hope school initially opened they asked the community leaders to identify the neediest people in the community, and the students were enrolled from this list of children. Cecelia was picked to go to the school. Elizabeth saw this as a miracle; her daughter was able to go to school for free, be fed at school. Plans changed. Elizabeth saw her daughters as her beautiful children rather than just more mouths to feed.

However, there was a greater problem. Elizabeth drank and was always drunk. Her job was collecting firewood from the forest. She and a few other women would go to the forest, but there were always men guarding the forest. To enter and collect their wood, they would have to bribe the guards. Since they didn’t have money, the women became the bribe.

During an open air preaching meeting in Mathare, Elizabeth came forward and committed her life to Christ. It was difficult to come forward, not just because of the lifestyle change that this decision required, but because she was literally too drunk to walk. Mary, the director of the Missions of Hope, saw Elizabeth make this decision and knew that follow-up visits would be vital. Before Elizabeth left for the forest the next morning, Mary and another lady went to her house. Elizabeth argued that she didn’t remember making any commitments the night before. Besides she couldn’t be born again because of what she did for a job. Mary reminded her that even if she didn’t remember the commitment she made last night, God did. During that time they encouraged her, counseled her, and prayed for her. She said that she would do something different for a job but she didn’t have any money. Elizabeth knew how to make chapatis (flatbread), and she said that she could sell those for a business. By the time Mary and her friend left Elizabeth that day, the other ladies had already left for the forest. Mary left a micro loan of 500 shillings for Elizabeth to buy some supplies to begin making chapatis. That very day Elizabeth began making and selling chapatis; she now lives on that income and supports her two daughters.

Elizabeth knows God as a provider and a healer. He provided a way for her to completely change the direction of her life by providing people who met her needs both spiritually and physically. She has joined a church, become a baptized believer, and is actively involved in the choir ministry of the church.

God moved in her life. I was blessed with the opportunity to meet her and hear her story firsthand, and to watch her at the job that has transformed her life and brought freedom. By the way, 500 shilings - the microloan she recieved - is about $6.50. For $6.50, God gave her a life where she is able to sleep better at night and not dread the coming day. The cost of lunch in America. The cost of 2 gallons of milk. The cost of 2 coffees.

Michelle - I wanted to take her home. She held on to my hand for a long time..

View of Pangoni from the top of the Center. The housing really starts at the top of the picture

The river where men make the local brewed alcohol

God is moving in the slums. God is moving in Nairobi. God is moving in Kenya, in Africa, in the world. God is moving, and He is calling us to be a part of it. Every day, and in every way that we can be.

Greater Things are Yet to Come

10/11/09

"You’re the God of this city
You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation
You are

You’re the light in this darkness
You’re the hope to the hopeless
You’re the peace to the restless
You are

For there is no-one like our God
There is no-one like our God

Greater things have yet to come Greater things are still to be done In this city
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things have still to be done here" - Chris Tomlin

This song has been stuck in my head since hearing it on Friday, and it's completely fitting here.

We went to church in Methare Valley - a huge slum in Nairobi. As we drove up, I noticed kids playing futbol on a large field, triangular shaped tin houses, and mounds of trash lining the roads. When we got out of the car, the first thing I noticed was the noise - it was loud. There were hymns and preacher's voices bellowing out over loud speakers throughout the slums, sounds of animals, children laughing and playing and crying, and radios and other white noise. But it was loud.

Cassie and I went to the roof of the school that CMF (Christian Missionary Fellowship - the missions organization of the couple we're staying with) and Mission of Hope have started right next to their little church. We stood on the roof for a few minutes taking pictures and taking in all of the sights and sounds. It was overwhelming, and I was full of awe.

Pictures of the Classrooms..

We headed down to church, prepared for a 3 hour service or so - true to African custom. The inside of the church was small - probably the size of the northex of my home church. The walls were stone, and the front wall had large red blankets hung as decoration, along with some pink and yellow streamers that were probably brought by some Americans years ago and put to use more than they'd ever imagine. We walked in during worship, sang a few songs, listened to the greetings, and then enjoyed a sermon preached by a visiting American pastor about the importance of the entire church body using their gifts and talents for the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom.

Before the sermon, a woman who was a first time visitor went to the front of the church and decided to give her life to Christ. She was a mother of two sons, lived without a fixed income and therefore had a rough home life, causing her sons to run away multiple times. She talked about asking a friend for help and that the lady recommended she try this church - "They will help you." She shared her desire for wanting to make things right, put together a life that is good for her boys, and be a part of the church.

The church is started by Mission of Hope and CMA and has been a light in a place of darkness. During my first few days here, it was clear that God is moving in this country, and while people know of Him, they live without a hope to carry them through their poverty and dark lives. But hope has come to Mathare Valley. The love and hope of Christ Jesus, the Savior of the World, has come to the darkness and is making its way through the lives of some of the poorest and hopeless people in the world. Our God is moving, and He is moving mightily. His workers are glorifying Him and spreading His Gospel in places where Jesus is but a name as opposed to reason for great hope. He's the God of this City, and there are greater things still to come.

It's the Sound of the Redeemed...

10/10/09

"It's the sound of the Redeemed, rising from the African plains... It's all God's children singing 'Glory, Glory, Hallelujah He reigns, He reigns..."

I witnessed the truth and beauty of that song today, praise God. Doug took Cassie and I out to Joska, a boarding school for kids from Mathare Valley, the huge slum in Nairobi where people usually live and die with no real hope or future or "success." Joska is about an hour from the house, so it was a long, bumpy ride, and it didn't help that I drank a bottle of water before we left...

We drove up to the school, which is entirely made of tin and wood beams to hold up the cieling. The school is somewhat large and in the middle of nowhere on the beautiful African plains with the craziest clouds above. There are large fields between the dorms and school to play soccer and, surprisingly, they even had an old basketball goal. It was hot and dry, and therefore incredibly dusty, so we were in for a dirty day.

Cassie and I on the dorm roof with the school in the background

We arrived in the middle of a "presentation" by the students. It was Talent Day, and it happened to fall on a weekend that a mission team from America was visiting, so they made a big presentation out of it. We watched the students dance, rap, sing, and play little relay games, and then we worshipped there together, raising up praises to God on the dusty plains of Africa. Hallelujah :)




After the presentation was lunch. We ate with the mission team in a little tin room with old teacher desks as the table, and had deeeelicious traditional Kenyan food. For the rest of the afternoon, we just walked around and played with kids and visited classrooms and whatnot. The first classroom we visited was one that Cassie had taught some Spanish to the last time she was there, so as we walked in, we were greeted with "Hola! Como estas?" and "Hola amigas!" It was incredibly hilarious hearing Kenyan students speaking Spanish to Americans... Then they begged us to sing our National Anthem, so Cassie and I embarassed ourselves greatly by singing for them (and possibly forgetting some of the words.. oops!) and then we listened to them sing theirs, which we partially knew from the flag ceremonies at school!

The classroom was tin and wood, and had 4 posters up - two of which you see here.

Gig 'Em :)

They decorate with baloons on the outsides of the classroom, and I happened to know how to make little baloon animals (thanks Daddy!), so I made an mbwa, or dog! I made a twiga (giraffe) too, but it didn't turn out so great...

This kid was HILARIOUS...

She was 12, but half the size of the other kids her age

Doug and Cassie with Baracka, who was born deaf. Joska usually doesn't take special needs kids, but for some reason they chose not to turn him away. Through a long series of events (which is documented in a movie), Baracka was blessed with a cochea implant and can now hear and is learning to speak as well. His life has been completely turned around, and he is in the process of being fostered by an upstanding Kenyan family as well.

Beauty Shop at Joska

The kids were incredible, obviously, and the school that they're attending is beyond amazing. The school has been growing drastically in the past three years and now offers hope and more of a future for about 640 kids who otherwise would have grown up and found it hard to get out of the slums. They go through an interview process, and only the most "at risk" students are accepted. That means most - if not all - come from either a single-parent home or a home where neither parent has a job. For the most part, boarding schools are for the "rich kids" in Africa, so the fact that they're able to board is more of a blessing than any of us will probably ever understand, and they know this and take full advantage of the opportunity they've been given. They work hard, study hard, and do all they can to overcome the harsh conditions they've known for so long.

In about a month, the 8th graders will take a test (sort of like the SAT) that will determine whether or not they go to high school. This is a huge deal, especially for kids from the slum, so please be praying with us for these kids as they prepare to take the biggest tests of their lives. The tests are November 9-13.

God is working mightily in this school - He is changing, healing, and restoring lives in this place, and it's so evident by the joy and excitement these students have. I talked to a couple of girls about what they want to be when they grow up. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses - huge dreams that defy the country's expectations, but that can be reached with the help of our Great God above. Pray for their dreams and their tests, but also that God shows them where He wants them to be and how He wants them to serve Him and His Kingdom.

We sadly left the kids, went home and showered/napped, and then headed out for Ethiopian food with the American mission team. This was quite the adventure to top off the day with. The Ethiopian food was definitely not my favorite, so I don't think I'll be visiting that country anytime soon. It comes out family style on a tray lined with a weird, spongy "bread" type thing.. but it really doesn't taste like bread at all, just sponge. They also give you some sponge rolled up like paper towels. It's really interesting, and a great experience, but I'm still not a fan of the food. It's a lot like Indian food I think. I don't really know - all I really ate was goat meat, which was suuuuper good.

Praise God for all He's doing here - for bringing the African children to Him and raising up leaders for tomorrow :)

In other random news...
1) We saw the funniest matatu in all of Kenya, I'm sure. Well, the strangest at least... It also had Avril Lavigne on the side. Nice.
2) Friday night when we came home from dinner and it was raining, all of the flying termites were coming up out of the ground so they were everywhere. Like the lovebugs that come out in the fall (or spring?) in Texas and plaster the cars with dead bug guts... Anyways, we got home and they were all over the porch, along with a bunch of little geckos. We caught one enjoying dinner of its own...

Maasai Madness

So this weekend is midterm break - it's half of Friday through Tuesday, so it's a nice long weekend. It's Sunday morning right now, and I already have about a billion pages to blog about, so I'm going to try to do it in installments, beginning with day one right now, and hopefully finish off day two sometime today... but we'll see :) So, to begin... (and this is the least exciting one, so bear with me for the next few)

10/9/09
We had just a half day of school, so after the flag lowering ceremony (we do this each week - lower the Kenyan flag and sing the Kenyan national anthem) at 11:30, I headed home to finish packing up. I'm spending the weekend with Cassie and a couple she knows who are missionaries in Nairobi, so we catch a ride with another couple from RVA going in to town. Jenny decided to come with us for a day, so she hopped in beside us and off we went! When we got into town, we went to the Maasai Market to do a little shopping. The Maasai Market is quite an adventure in itself. There are hundreds of Kenyan vendors - some being Maasai women dressed in their Maasai blanket robes and colorful beads - who set up their "goods" and try to rip off tourists. If you don't know what you're doing, you'll end up paying at least 90-1000% more than you're supposed to. You may laugh, but it's true. They start out by giving you a price, and if you don't know what you're doing, you buy it for that price, thinking "that seems a little expensive, but it's real African, so it must be great!" You're wrong. Bargain. Bargain like you've never bargained before. My Daddy would be in heaven here, as he's a salesman and is better than anyone else in the world at bargaining. Anyways, I used my great bargaining skills and got a few Christmas and birthday presents, and found a lot of things that I'd love to buy eventually before I go home. The best thing is I get them for dirt cheap - a beautiful Maasai painting for under $10, necklaces and bracelets for about 10 cents each, purse and baby dolls for under $3... incredible, homemade real African goods for wonderful non-touristy prices :)

Anyways, after the Maasai market, Cassie's "family" - the missionary couple - came and picked us up and took us to their lovely home. They live in the nicer part of Nariobi, with guards and whatnot, and a beautiful house, with - get this - FAST wireless internet!!! We could hardly believe it as we watched webpages load in less than a second - much as they did in the U.S.!!! Wow... talk about shocking! :)

We decided on dinner at Diamond Plaza - yet another crazy experience. It's a little strip center of food places - sort of like the center court of a mall but outside - and you walk up, sit down at a table, and prepared to be overwhelmed. A representative from each food place runs up to you and shoves their menu in your face, and you just pick what you want and that person runs off and gets your food - a little too quickly for comfort! I asked for a salad, found out it wasn't the wisest decision since it's unwashed, and was lucky when they came back to tell me they were out of lettuce. However, they wanted me to still have the veggies that would've gone on it... strange? yes. So I stole someone else's food and ate that instead - pretty good.

We came back home, watched a movie, and went to bed, hardly able to sleep for excitement of the next day....

*Like I said, not too eventful, but stay tuned, because yesterday was quite possibly one of the most amazing days here as I hung out with slum kids all day...*

You've Got Mail

Five weeks ago, my Mommy sent out a box that would make a long, adventurous trip halfway around the world. The Naive Postman said "it should take 6-10 days," and though I had heard the stories and seen proof of how the "normal" amount of time for a package to arrive here is at least 5 weeks, I foolishly got my hopes up anyways. About a week after she sent it, I began ceremoniously walking down to the mailroom each day, usually with Cassie or Jenny behind me hoping it'd be there so we could stop all of this silly waiting. And each day, it was to no avail. I would walk back up the hill emptyhanded, without the box that my Mommy sent.

And then, Lo and behold! Yesterday while I was administering a retake quiz for some of my students, Jenny appeared in my doorway holding a box that seemed to glow with a light from Heaven! "It's here!" I would've ripped it open right there if we hadn't agreed long ago that this special box deserved some special opening, so we needed to wait for a) Cassie and b) a camera. I finished the after-school session, brought my package home, drudged through dining hall dinner duty, then came home with Cassie and Jenny to finally "ooh" and "aah" over the goodies I've been waiting for. Jenny was a fantastic photographer - however, the lighting's a big weird, making some things sort of orangy... oh well. Anyways, here it is :)

The Box...

The Excitement...

The Opening...

Opened!! Gooooodies!!!

Crystal Light!! When all you have to drink is funky milk and water, kool-aid is... indescribable...

Chili Powder! (Don't worry, my hair isn't really orange...)

My homey, worn-in brown flip flops :)

An envelope with a blank cd and 2 flash drives in it!! Life savers!!!!

!!!!!!SCOTCH TAPE!!!!!! The tape here is funky, and I missed this stuff...

Two new LOVELY sweatshirts. Perfect, because it's still cold here...

And not pictured above, but still really exciting:
Scented Candles for my sometimes-funky-smelling-house
CHOCOLATE CHIPS!!! These are like GOLD here - you can't get them in Africa...
Icebreakers Mints and Mints from Maryland... can't get them here either, and they're fantastic...
Black flip flops... why not?
Picture frames, since the ones here are ridiculously expensive and not so cute...
Thank You cards that I left at home.. oops..
PLASTIC BAGS!! These actually contained items, but over here they're expensive and we reuse them... impressive, eh?

Anyways, I just thought I'd share my incredibly exciting news with the world :)