Kibera Clean-Up

The slum of Kibera is the largest slum in the whole continent of Africa with a reported one million people living in just over one square mile. Kibera is the slum most ministries and celebrities seem to go to when they are taping video to help raise awareness and support. Shauna and I have been working with and helping people in this slum for right at a year now.

Last weekend, we were involved with a cleaning project that cleaned up about 1/8 of a mile stretch of dirt road that the inhabitants use as their trash pile. In Kenya, there is no such thing as garbage companies coming and picking up the trash. They have to burn it or it ends up like this and the end result is airborne diseases and alot of sickness. There was such a turnout, even from the community, as we were filling up a truck with trash. At the end of the cleaning, we filled a large 17-ton dump truck to the top with waste. The sights and smells were beyond description, but we were happy to play a part in helping them.

Celebration Service

Every six to eight weeks, we have a celebration service at Berith Life Church in Kasarani. The pastor, Vitalis Nasongo, is who I have been working with doing our evangelism and discipleship since February. We have a service where we celebrate all of the people who have given their life to Christ through our evangelism.

When they receive Christ, we give them a book that further outlines the plan of salvation and the decision they just made. If they return this back to us, they are then invited to come to our service where we provide them with a free bible in Swahili, a certificate, and another book that promotes further growth.

In addition to this, I had the privilege of being able to dedicate a baby to the Lord. The father of this child was someone who had recently given his life to Christ through our evangelism. It was truly rewarding to see this take place.

We ended up giving 25 people bibles, books, and certificates yesterday. We also prepared them chai (favorite Kenyan drink) and mendazis (Kenyan pastry). We then had a delicious lunch which Vitalis' wife prepared for us. It is such an honor for us to play a part in affecting the eternal destiny of people's souls.

Heshima

We had the opportunity to be able to take our kindergarten, and pre-kindergarten, to Heshima Children's Center today. Heshima means "dignity" in Swahili and this center was established by an American lady who wanted to provide a place for severely handicapped children to feel loved, cared for, and to also receive physical rehabilitation.

Our kindergarten engaged the children in finger painting, building blocks, and also in making Christmas decorations. All children involved enjoyed themselves.

11th Grade at Huruma

As the community resource developer at our school, I have the privilege of being able to take our schoool, a grade at a time, into the community to build relationships with those less fortunate. Being a Christian school, not only do we want to provide excellent education, but we want them to know what its like to actually walk out biblical principles and not just intellectually know them.

We want the children to experience the fulfillment that comes when one lays aside their own agenda to help someone in need. Huruma Children's Home is an orphange that has roughly 150 children right now that Shauna lived and taught at from July to December 2008. The home is run by a truly amazing woman named Mama Zipporah. She takes all children brought to her and doesn't turn them away even if they're HIV positive. She said they currently have 18 HIV positive children.

I took the 11th grade today and starting in January, I will be taking one to two grades a month through May to further love on these children and just spend time focusing on them making them feel important. I was really proud of our students, they exemplified true leadership, humility, and love. Afterward, they all remarked on how blessed they felt engaging the children at Huruma. I love seeing our children truly begin to experientially know the principle, "It is more blessed to give than receive!" I always feel as if I am more blessed giving than the one who is the recipient of the giving. We had a great day.