Africa Mission Trip Day 5

Friday, June 14, 2013

Well we have finished day 5 of our trip which was our last day of visiting Kibera. It was definitely a very emotional day. God has taught us all so much and broadened our perspective on life probably more than anyone expected. It was one of our shorter ministry days as far as time but we crammed quite a lot in a shorter amount of time. We were also able to see and do a few things that were firsts for us today.

The morning started a little earlier for a few of us. I met at 8:00 AM for breakfast with the teenagers from our group. I took them to a different slum in Nairobi called Kawangware and visited the Hope Center. I have a connection with this ministry from the church I served at while a youth pastor in Orlando, FL. This ministry is approximately 10 years old. The last time I visited Kenya I was serving at this site and I wanted to go back to see how it has grown over the past six years. I was blown away by the progress and to see what all God has accomplished here.

It truly has been a ministry that is changing the world around it. Our teenagers and myself had the privilege of sitting down with the church staff and “talk shop” about ministry and church life for a little while. I was challenged by their level of excellence in all they do.

I wanted to bring our teenagers along because this site is also the home to Vapor Ministries of Kenya. Our youth ministry has been a faithful financial sponsor of Vapor for the past several years since Micah McElven, their founder and president, visited North Park and spoke at a W-Now event. The teens were excited to be able to see the fruits of their financial support.

We were also able to meet Amboko who serves as the national director for Vapor Ministries.

He also plays on one of the Kenyan National Football teams (equivalent to a professional soccer team in America).

We left the Hope Center around 11:00 AM and met up with the rest of our team in Kibera. They had been serving at the New Hope Academy during the morning hours working on finishing up as many student assessments as possible. The assessments were cut short during another recess period. This time was once again used as a time to just love on these students.

Around noon we took a journey from the school that will forever be engrained into our memories. Up until this point our time in Kibera had been limited to visiting the church and the school. It is a pretty direct route between the two and it did not require much travel within Kibera. For the most part, all of Kibera we had seen other than these two locations were the tops of all the buildings as we were driving in or looking out at Kibera from the church. We all had in our mind what we thought we might see as we walked through Kibera, but I don’t know that any of us were truly prepared for what we would experience. In a sense I would compare our trip inside Kibera to my first adventure snorkeling in the Bahamas. The amazing part of snorkeling is seeing the “hidden” world that is going on beneath the surface. It is full of activity and beauty but unseen to the world above. There is truly a whole world going on beneath the surface of those tin roofs that we would see every day as we pulled in to Kibera.

Inside this one square mile live over one million people. The world was busy, but I would not describe it as beauty. I quickly was reminded how much I take for granted. I tried to take a few pictures without being offensive to those who live here.

I felt guilty enough walking through their neighborhood looking at these precious people and their environment almost as if I were walking through a zoo. We asked others to not bring their cameras and take pictures for this reason.

We were able to walk to and see the home where Samson was born and raised until his mid-twenties. (Samson works with New Hope Academy and the Penda Project and is also the youth leader for New Hope Baptist Church). Samson’s mom still lives in this 10’ by 10’ house.

After our walk through of Kibera we made our way back to the church where we had our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. For the record, I won’t be eating any more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for quite some time. Stephanie and Brooke like to keep all the vinegar potato chips from me and the “perfectly salted” chips just are perfect enough for me. At the church we also got to connect with Kristina that just arrived in Nairobi last night. She will be staying in Kenya for about three more weeks so please keep her in your prayers.

After our lunch we had the opportunity to shop for a little while. All the Biashara ladies set up a shop inside the church to allow all the mzungu (white people) to purchase products from them. I was able to buy a few things for my family, but I went cheap compared to some of our team. I am not going to ruin any surprises but some of you are getting spoiled with souvenir gifts. I was sought out by Mary Wayua.

She is a sweet lady working with Biashara that is HIV positive and hasn’t been doing well lately. She knew that I was a pastor and said she wanted God to bless her so she gave me a bracelet. I tried to pay her for it but she absolutely wouldn’t let me. I ended up buying something else from her so I don’t know if I just got worked over by a professional salesman or not. Nevertheless, I was blessed to get to spend a little bit of time with her. I will see her over on “the other side.”

At 2:00 PM the church had to be transformed from a shop back to a church for a chapel service for the entire student body of the school. Yes, that means over 500 students crammed into this church building.

We first got to enjoy the school choir perform a couple songs for us and then a new “band” performed with their new rhythm sticks. The plan was for our drama team to present their drama immediately after this, but all learned real quickly that you have to be flexible on mission trips. We were working with the church’s sound system which was … well let me just say not up to what we were used to. We did a very quick sound check as the students were coming in but for whatever reason the cd player would not play our cd for the drama. We made a spur of the moment decision for me to preach first and the drama would be performed afterward. I spoke briefly, with Samson translating, on the love that God has for each of us. I shared several examples from the Bible on how to know that God loves each of us.

While I was preaching our team continued to work on the cd player and the sound system. They let me know that it was working so here was attempt two at the drama. I switched “hats” from preacher to sound man. The drama team took their places and I pressed play on the cd player … but no music came out. The cd was skipping and the cut and twisted wiring connecting the cd player to the sound system was failing. I whispered over to the drama team to just keep on going. The sound never worked right so after a few minutes I just turned the entire sound system off. The drama team continued to present their drama without missing a beat (no pun intended). I don’t want to sound like I am overdoing it but I was very proud of the drama team. The message of “The Redeemer” was clearly communicated.

After it was completed I concluded the message by reemphasizing how much God loves each of them, even when we turn our backs on Him.

After chapel we had to say our goodbyes to the students that so many have fallen in love with. There were many tears and many hugs. The farewell couldn’t last long because the students had to return to class. After we loaded up on the bus to leave we paused for a few minutes with Kibera in sight and prayed over this ministry. I was reminded of Jesus’ words in Matthew 9:36 … “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”  And with that we pulled out and left behind a place that has forever changed each one of us. I am not sure what God has in store for us as we leave for Tanzania tomorrow, but God answered the prayers of our church as we prayed for changed lives. I am quite certain that none of us will ever be the same again.

We made it back to our Guest House a little after 4:00 PM today and were given a few hours of rest before we left for dinner. During this rest time we had our first rain since being here. I took full advantage of this rest time and did just as I was told … I rested. I will be honest, I slept like a baby for about thirty minutes while listening to rain pour down right outside my window. The problem with the rain was the added backups to the already horrible Friday afternoon traffic. We made it to dinner around 7:00 PM and ate at one of Sandy and Karen’s favorite restaurant here in town.

I must say they have pretty good taste. Tonight we all had Italian food and it was delicious.

It is so odd the drastic differences found within this town. After spending the day in Kibera it just doesn’t make sense to be spending the evening in such an incredible atmosphere.

This will be one of the last times we eat out on our trip. Once we arrive in Tanzania most of our meals will be in homes rather than in restaurants. Knowing this many of us took advantage of visiting Planet Yogurt after dinner.

This is a place where you self serve your own yogurt with whatever toppings you desire. Can I say, “Yum?”

After dinner we headed back to the Guest House and were given our instructions for tomorrow morning. We leave early. We have to be packed and all of our bags loaded up on the bus by 7:30 in the morning. It is supposed to take us about 5 hours to drive to Arusha, Tanzania and usually around an hour to cross the boarder.

Please keep this travel day in your prayers. We will all be on a fairly crowded bus as 19 of us are traveling together. Pray that it is smooth as we transition into Tanzania. After arrival we are helping with a youth activity at the church tomorrow night.

Thank you for taking the time this week to be a part of our mission trip to Africa. This is not a trip for the few that traveled here, it is a trip for all of those that choose to engage in this experience and commit to praying daily and fasting for a day. I have shared with our group that we have average between 500-600 views of this blog daily. Feel free to share it with anyone you know that has been a part of this journey. I look forward to our return to the States to allow you the opportunity to hear the stories of those that have experienced this life-changing trip. Until then, enjoy reading this blog and seeing our pictures.

Until tomorrow …

PS – Sorry for the delay in you receiving this blog. Last night we had quite a lot of rain which knocked out all of the internet access from our Guest House. The joys of being in a 3^rd World Country.