Grasshoppers can go home

I really dislike grasshoppers. They are flippin everywhere. In my room scraping their noisy little knees all night right by my ear, in the the tank when I reach in for some water, all over the shower room just waiting to jump on me. The staff were so enjoying my fear of grasshoppers at the project today, putting them on my shirt. Apparently, they are delicacy where Godwill comes from. I'm all for eating them, anything that involves killing them is fine by me.


On the other hand I have developed a new found appreciation for flushing toilets. Imagine, you just pull a little lever, or press a button or even just wave your hand in its general direction like a wizard and everything is flushed away as if nothing ever happened. So simple. So wonderful. I love them. And I love shopping centres that provide this service free of charge.

I have been in a bit of a whingy mood the last couple of days but it has actually been a really good weekend. I have been watching some DVDs with various people called More Than Conquerers, made by Simon Guillebaud whose books I recommend. We used them for our youth group meeting on sunday and had an epic chat about what following Jesus is about and how it is different from following a religion. Also on friday we had another devotion at home about seeking God's presence and what stuff happens in God's presence.

Fort Jesus

It has been nearly two weeks since I moved to the edge of Kibera, nearly halfway through the month and its going too fast! I'm learning so much about everyday life in Kibera that until this point I had not realised. Things like how much more time and effort everyday chores take; if you want a warm shower you have to heat the water first, same for washing dishes. Without a fridge to keep food and milk cold you have to go to the market daily. I've realised that you must share your house with rats and mice whether you like it or not and that most people are up and getting on with their day (noisily) by 5:30am.


I'm also experiencing the way people share their things. Phone chargers, water heaters, buckets and brooms, food, sweets, toys, stuff is always circulating round. I say 'experiencing' because half my stuff is now also in circulation and I've borrowed things from I think all of my neighbours now!

I'm really enjoying thinking about what I have in a more communal way, I've not bought food for one the whole time I've been there, even if I just want a banana, I get a few and share them with the kids. And likewise when the kids come home from school with some popcorn, I get a share.

I should say that where I'm staying is not in Kibera proper, I'm in an estate called Fort Jesus which runs next to Kibera but most outsiders would consider it part of the slum. So my house is not mud and iron sheeting, its concrete with windows. And my neighbours are doing well compared to people from deep in the slum. The kids around my house are much better off than those who come to Turning Point.

Tiny mighty infants

Just had to share the fun I had last night. I went back home after work and was trying to write in my journal. The kids who live around decided to come and practice roly polys on top of me though so I had to give up. They were playing for a while then they decided to start singing and thus began a spontaneous worship session. Wireless (9) and Whitney (8), led the rest of us: Me, Tracey (4) and Jasmine (really small?!) in singing and dancing and jumping around.

Jasmine was so excited she peed on my carpet!

I've learnt from Jo and Jon about Psalm 8:2 which says 'With praises from children and from tiny infants, you have built a fortress. It makes your enemies silent, and all who turn against you are left speechless.' The songs that kids sing to praise God are powerful! I'm only just getting it.

God is in my house

Just a quick update on the first couple of nights in Kibera. Ashley and I moved over on wednesday and spent the first night cooking Pilau for our new neighbours. The kids particularly were excited to have us around and explore our room, but the parents also are happy that we are coming to stay, although they would like it to be more than a month apparently! It is important to note that I have a 9 year old neighbour called Wireless. Yes actually.

So the first night was all about Pilau and speed scrabble with the neighbours and then not a lot of sleep as we slept in strange beds surrounded by new noises. Before bed we prayed over the room, asked God what specifics we should pray about and what things we needed to repent of on behalf of previous residents. Though we didn't sleep much, I felt quite at peace and not scared which is fairly huge!

Last night Ashley led some devotions for us on why we work with kids and what we can learn from them and we spent some time worshipping and praying together with Godwill and Dishon (my next door neighbours) and Moses, which was a really God soaked time.

I'm blown away by God's perfect timing having Ashley around at this time to share the first couple of days with me. She left of a jet plane this morning but she has been a huge blessing to loads of us and will be so missed!  I'm also pretty excited about some of the pictures God has given those praying for us like of whole armies of angels on guard around our house and compound - not just one or two - whole flippin armies! And light exploding out of the room as we were worshiping and praying last night. Light that was unstoppable and exposed the darkness around. Oisky its pretty exciting! Please keep praying especially for my first couple of nights on my own.

Moving house

I have not blogged for a while as I spent some time at home and on holiday in India but now I'm back in Kenya and ready to take the next step on the road of whatever the heck God is up to with me.


Before I first moved to Kenya, as I prayed, read the bible and books by people who have been obedient to Jesus' sometimes crazy leading, I was pretty challenged by the idea of living actually in Kibera rather than just visiting each day for work. But at the time it was decided, quite rightly, that it wasn't a very wise idea as I had no clue about Kenyan culture and language etc.

The challenge has not gone away and I keep finding more and more reasons why it would be awesome to live amongst the community that God has made me to love. Over christmas paricularly I spent some time seeking God and got really excited about the idea of staying in Kibera, I had dreams of playing worship music really loud and jumping around praising God together with my friends in Kibera.

So I started to explore the idea with Jo and Jon, I had to get permission from the Trustees and they asked for the Kenyan staff's thoughts on it. Also over christmas a friend in Kibera said I should come and stay for a while, pretty sure he was joking, but now I'm moving in to the room next door to him this afternoon.

I'm not totally sure why I am going, its a bit of an experiment just to see what its like and where it could lead. A verse that communicates a bit of why is I Thessaloneans 2:8 it says 'we loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.'

I want to share more of my life with people in Kibera, to have more opportunities to build friendships, to chat and pray and worship together. I want to try to step out of my mzungu status and understand more of what life is like. I want to be vulnerable and to need people's help rather than always the person whose opinion is listened to because they are seen to have all the money!

I have plenty of reasons that I want to go but I'm still praying about what God wants this time to look like, what is significant and such. A song I keep listening to says 'Our God saves, there is hope in His name, mourning turns to songs of praise, our God saves.' I have a sense that worshipping God during this time will be important and significant. But I don't really know, I'm just fumbling my way along, so please pray! And pray for joy because the joy of the Lord is my strength (and my favourite fruit of spirit). This is a fairly big challenge and I'm really scared but I know that God is so faithful and I've already seen Him going before me.

Thank you so much for praying, its so so good to know I'm not on my own but there are other people standing with me in prayer. I cannot wait to share with you the stories of what God does!