Africa Mission Trip Day 3

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Our second full day of ministry here in Kenya is in the books. An amazing day! Some of the schedule was a repeat from yesterday so I won’t go into as much detail. What separates the two primarily is that connections are starting to be made and relationships built. This is truly where the life-change happens.

We were warned that the second full night of sleep would likely be the worst as far as jet lag is concerned. I think most people did all right with it however. There were a few, including myself, up around 6:00 AM when we didn’t have anywhere to be until 8:30 but this allows for more reading and praying time before the day gets crazy. I have enjoyed reading through some of my suggested “Summer Reading” books both on the flight here and early mornings.

Everyone made it to breakfast on time and once again had our choice of fruit and cereal to go along with eggs however we liked them. This morning we also were able to try a few Kenyan items which I don’t ever remember hearing the name for. One was basically a rolled up, super thin pancake. The other was kind of like an egg roll with chicken inside and a little spice. Both were very good. We established a rule that the first ones done with breakfast have the joy of preparing the peanut butter and jellies for lunch. So we basically eat as slow as possible.

After a devotion by Karen Baird on Hebrew 4:12 and talking about Massai double-edged spears we were ready to take on the world. We made our way back to Kibera where our team served in two different ways. One group of three went from classroom to classroom and taught a short lesson and led the class in a few songs. Every class you walked into you were greeted by the students with much respect. They listened attentively to the story, especially after Tammy pulled out a jar full of candy she used for illustration.

Waverly was quickly drowned out leading the children in singing “Jesus Loves Me This I Know” from all the children singing loudly along with motions. It truly was a beautiful sight and sound.

The other group served by doing assessments of the students. The goal is to get through as many students as possible but today we didn’t even finish one grade level. (This is an all summer project, not just a North Park project.) The assessments consist of three different areas. First was a basic medical assessment. We would check temperature, heart rate, oxygen level, weight, measure height and around the upper arm.

The second part was more of a physical assessment. This consisted of checking arms and legs for rashes, their heads for fungus (well over half have a fungus growing on their head), asking the students if they had their own toothbrush and if they ate when they went home (many of them only eat two meals per day and those are the two provided to them while at school).

The third part was more spiritual in nature. They asked each student if they had a Bible, what church they went to, if they had accepted Christ as Savior and then a couple personal questions like, “What are your hopes and dreams?” and “What are your fears?” It wasn’t uncommon to hear their fears were beatings by a parent or someone else.

We were also able to pray with each student.

This was a very emotional time for our team as we got to see a sneak peak of what these student’s lives actually look like.

We had to break from these assessments around 11:30. We met up at the edge of Kibera and our team split into two groups. One group stayed behind at the church and served with Biashara while the other group went to the sports camp.

Biashara (www.projectbiashara.com) is one of the ministries of New Hope Initiative (www.newhopeinitiative.org) that focuses on helping the women of Kibera learn how to have a sustainable income and improve their lives. Biashara is the Swahili for word for business. In a nutshell it is a microloan project that helps women with a better paying job then they could probably get anywhere else. The ladies all make different types of jewelry that is later sold here in the United States.

I would highly encourage you to take a look at the website and their web store. Maybe you could even consider hosting a “house party” to sell the merchandise. All proceeds go back to helping these ladies make a difference with their life. A few of our ladies were able to “help” them today. From what I was told Tammy’s bracelet will be going directly to the clearance section if anyone is interested in a good deal.

The rest of the group ate their daily peanut butter and jellies on the bus ride over to the school allowing New Hope Academy to use for the sports camp.

We met up with another group from Austin (including Sandy and Karen’s son and daughter-in-law) and had a blast hanging out with the students and getting to know them better. Today was much warmer than yesterday. It is amazing how hot 77 degrees is when you are much closer to the equator and at around 5,000 feet elevation (yes that is as high as Denver, CO). I love how our group has jumped right in and gotten involved with these students.

I was personally able to have lunch with the local pastor of Kibera New Hope Baptist Church. Pastor Simon is a great guy that has served here in Kibera for almost 30 years. His heart and passion for this community is obvious. I was challenged and encouraged after my time with him.

After my lunch we made our way back to the church to pick up the ladies working with Biashara and headed to pick up the rest of the team at the sports camp. From there we went to a local public high school where there are several students from Kibera attending on scholarship with the Penda Project (www.kiberapendaproject.com). Penda is the Swahili word for love. In a nutshell, it costs money to attend school in Kenya. Even at New Hope Academy there is a fee. The fees increase as the students go to high school. Many of the students from Kibera can’t afford to go to high school. The Penda Project helps finds sponsors (mostly in the USA) to pay for students to attend high school. On average the cost is $400 per year (or $33 per month). (For those curious North Park supports 4 students to attend high school.) Many have said our time with the high schoolers today was their favorite. We had an hour to “tutor” these students.

Everyone just sort of paired up with someone and spent an hour mostly talking about life and doing everything except tutoring. Me on the other hand, found a couple guys that needed help with their math homework. Are you serious? I would have much rather talked about life, hopes and dreams. But nope, they wanted help with their math homework. I haven’t done these kinds of word problems with mixed integers and fractions and ratios in … well a long time. It truly was a miracle of God that it all just kind of came flooding back to me. (All those years in engineering finally came to some good use). While I didn’t understand why everyone else got to talk about “life” and I got to talk about “math” at first I soon realized that by me actually being able to help these guys understand how to do their homework allowed me to build some credibility with them as I eventually did get to talk about life and hopes and dreams. What else I realized is that these guys are actually pretty smart and have some amazing goals for their lives.

It was definitely sad to leave the “study hall” but most were feeling pretty hungry by this time and were looking forward to dinner. Sandy had let us know that tonight was going to be a little more “exotic” for dinner as we were planning on going to an Ethiopian restaurant. There were a few very excited about the idea and many others were willing to try anything. Karen doesn’t really like this style of food and we actually had another missionary couple join us today that are serving in Ethiopia so a few were given the option to bypass the Ethiopian food and go down the street to an Italian restaurant. I didn’t want Karen to feel awkward because she didn’t know the new missionary couple well and I have known them for a long time so I sacrificed the Ethiopian food and chose to dine at the Italian restaurant. While I am proud of the group for trying something new, I had a lot of fun taunting many of them afterward because they did not like the food at all.

At least they had snacks when they got back to the Guest House. (By the way, my Ricotta Cheese and Spinach Raviolis in Tomato Sauce was amazing).

After dinner we made our way back to the Guest House where we met for a few minutes to reflect on the day. This is probably my personal favorite part of the day. I love to hear the stories of how God is working in each of our lives. Your prayers for changed lives are happening. Now we sit just hanging out. This group really has bonded well together.

Today we were allowed to serve all three aspects of New Hope Academy. In the morning with the grade school level children with the assessments. In the afternoon with the middle school children at the sports camp. And in the evening with the high school students in the study hall. We were also able to serve with the ladies of Biashara and I was able to invest in a local pastor. It definitely was a good day!!!

Tomorrow is going to be another busy day. It will look similar to today as far as our ministry is concerned. Please continue to pray for us. Pray for us each by name and pray specifically for the time we will be spending with these students.

Until Tomorrow …

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