Thursday, 27 November 2008
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Cream Crackered
This week has been knackering, I spent most of the mornings in Kibera with some of the older girls. Spending time in Kibera in general is great because most of the time is just about spending time with people, joking around; playing with the kids or greeting the people involved in the microfinance scheme who are usually very happy because things are going so well for them. However some of the time is spent dealing with more difficult situations, trying to figure out what is the right thing to do, trying to explain things to people in a different language who don’t see things the way you do because of their crazily different life experience. That side of the job is what I find tiring and it all happens under a blazing hot Kenyan sun.
On Friday, a group of 10 people linked in various ways to Wycliffe came to visit the project so I took them down and around Kibera. Some of them had never seen such a place and were quite impacted by the experience. Their reactions reminded me that Kibera isn’t normal, it’s an outrage, it’s unjust and it’s disgraceful that the rest of us allow it to exist.
Lillian and her brother joined us afterwards as we went up to the food court of a shopping centre just up the road from Kibera. It’s literally a 5 minute walk from Kibera but they had never been there before. We went to wash our hands in the toilets before we ate and Lillian had no idea how to use the soap dispensers or the hand dryer. Peter said ‘this place is wow’ he says everything is ‘wow’! Lillian said she couldn’t go there on her own because people would ask questions. She is from the slum and she’s not welcome. That ticks me off so much.
So after work on Friday I was upset and angry with a million questions in my head and no idea what to do, I was exhausted. One thing God said to calm me down was to remind me of all the stuff I wanted to do when I was making choices about uni and stuff. I had so many options open to me, options many of these kids may never have. Think of all the stuff I could have done but for now I have ended up in a slum! I may not have been very good at the stuff I tried to do but chances are I wouldn’t have ended up in a slum. But what I chose to do was follow Jesus wherever He would take me and although some days are absolutely gutting I flippin love being here and I flippin love being with God wherever He wants me to be. So basically, I had all sorts of opportunities and these kids don’t but the one thing that really matters to me is knowing God and being with Him and that opportunity is open to everyone whether you have everything or nothing.
I’m not sure I’ve explained that very well! I had a bit of an Ecclesiastes moment, everything in the world is worthless except knowing God and enjoying life with Him and that thought chilled me out a bit.
On Friday, a group of 10 people linked in various ways to Wycliffe came to visit the project so I took them down and around Kibera. Some of them had never seen such a place and were quite impacted by the experience. Their reactions reminded me that Kibera isn’t normal, it’s an outrage, it’s unjust and it’s disgraceful that the rest of us allow it to exist.
Lillian and her brother joined us afterwards as we went up to the food court of a shopping centre just up the road from Kibera. It’s literally a 5 minute walk from Kibera but they had never been there before. We went to wash our hands in the toilets before we ate and Lillian had no idea how to use the soap dispensers or the hand dryer. Peter said ‘this place is wow’ he says everything is ‘wow’! Lillian said she couldn’t go there on her own because people would ask questions. She is from the slum and she’s not welcome. That ticks me off so much.
So after work on Friday I was upset and angry with a million questions in my head and no idea what to do, I was exhausted. One thing God said to calm me down was to remind me of all the stuff I wanted to do when I was making choices about uni and stuff. I had so many options open to me, options many of these kids may never have. Think of all the stuff I could have done but for now I have ended up in a slum! I may not have been very good at the stuff I tried to do but chances are I wouldn’t have ended up in a slum. But what I chose to do was follow Jesus wherever He would take me and although some days are absolutely gutting I flippin love being here and I flippin love being with God wherever He wants me to be. So basically, I had all sorts of opportunities and these kids don’t but the one thing that really matters to me is knowing God and being with Him and that opportunity is open to everyone whether you have everything or nothing.
I’m not sure I’ve explained that very well! I had a bit of an Ecclesiastes moment, everything in the world is worthless except knowing God and enjoying life with Him and that thought chilled me out a bit.
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
God will lift up your head
Yesterday we went up to the farm to pray for the mamas. A little while ago we had a looong meeting about how to move forward with the farm and felt that there was stuff in the mamas mindset that holds them back from ‘rising up and taking the land’ to use a bit of promised land imagery. It’s a bit like when the spies went to check out the promised land and 10 of them brought back a negative report and that negativity spread throughout the whole camp, only Joshua and Caleb stood up and believed God’s promises despite the scary tall men in the way and the negative group mentality.
These mamas have lived in Kibera in deep poverty for a long time and they aren’t exactly used to success. They have not had people telling them that they are awesome and capable so they don’t think they are. Many of these mamas aren’t too confident that they can really do what we believe they can and as they chat together that negativity spreads and deepens.
As these mamas have been told so many lies by the enemy to bring them down it was about time we started speaking the truth to them about how God sees them. This truth is all over the bible but we thought it would be good to ask God for some personal messages for each of the mums. Listening to God in this way is something the Kenyan staff aren’t so used to so we explained it a bit to them first.
Psalm 139:17 says ‘How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!’ and in John 16 Jesus explains how He will send the Holy Spirit to tell us this stuff that God is thinking. So we spent just five minutes listening to God for His thoughts about each mama one by one, we shared what we heard then we prayed those things over the mums. It was epic! It took five hours!
It was so amazing how God spoke so clearly, there was seven of us listening and writing down what we heard and every time there were a few of us who got the same picture or words that backed up the others, in fact the similarities got clearer and clearer the more we listened. I guess we were learning to recognise God’s voice as we went. God spoke loads to the Kenyan staff doing it for the first time, Pastor and Eunice got loads of bible verses that were bang on and Kariuki got some jokes pictures!
The mamas seemed really encouraged, it’s hard to tell what they thought of it as my Swahili isn’t brilliant and they probably haven’t ever experienced anything like that before. God had some very challenging words for one lady, Jesus basically said you keep running away from me every time I get close but I’m not going to stop chasing you, in fact I want to tie your arm to mine so you can’t get away because I never want to leave you. She agreed those words were true and decided she wanted to stop running away and decided to become a Christian! Please pray for in her first few days and weeks with Jesus, pray that God will bless her massively, even her land.
It was such an exciting and encouraging day, we have been doing this bible study course and the notes today said ‘the lowest specimens of any society receive special dignity because [Jesus] identified especially with them.’ God flippin loves the poor, people who no one notices or loves, people who are never told they are amazing. We had the privilege of listening in to God’s thoughts about these women and they were so awesome. God thinks of them so highly, it has changed the way I see them and I hope it has changed the way they think of themselves. God is good.
These mamas have lived in Kibera in deep poverty for a long time and they aren’t exactly used to success. They have not had people telling them that they are awesome and capable so they don’t think they are. Many of these mamas aren’t too confident that they can really do what we believe they can and as they chat together that negativity spreads and deepens.
As these mamas have been told so many lies by the enemy to bring them down it was about time we started speaking the truth to them about how God sees them. This truth is all over the bible but we thought it would be good to ask God for some personal messages for each of the mums. Listening to God in this way is something the Kenyan staff aren’t so used to so we explained it a bit to them first.
Psalm 139:17 says ‘How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!’ and in John 16 Jesus explains how He will send the Holy Spirit to tell us this stuff that God is thinking. So we spent just five minutes listening to God for His thoughts about each mama one by one, we shared what we heard then we prayed those things over the mums. It was epic! It took five hours!
It was so amazing how God spoke so clearly, there was seven of us listening and writing down what we heard and every time there were a few of us who got the same picture or words that backed up the others, in fact the similarities got clearer and clearer the more we listened. I guess we were learning to recognise God’s voice as we went. God spoke loads to the Kenyan staff doing it for the first time, Pastor and Eunice got loads of bible verses that were bang on and Kariuki got some jokes pictures!
The mamas seemed really encouraged, it’s hard to tell what they thought of it as my Swahili isn’t brilliant and they probably haven’t ever experienced anything like that before. God had some very challenging words for one lady, Jesus basically said you keep running away from me every time I get close but I’m not going to stop chasing you, in fact I want to tie your arm to mine so you can’t get away because I never want to leave you. She agreed those words were true and decided she wanted to stop running away and decided to become a Christian! Please pray for in her first few days and weeks with Jesus, pray that God will bless her massively, even her land.
It was such an exciting and encouraging day, we have been doing this bible study course and the notes today said ‘the lowest specimens of any society receive special dignity because [Jesus] identified especially with them.’ God flippin loves the poor, people who no one notices or loves, people who are never told they are amazing. We had the privilege of listening in to God’s thoughts about these women and they were so awesome. God thinks of them so highly, it has changed the way I see them and I hope it has changed the way they think of themselves. God is good.
Yes we kanga!
Kangas are patterned sheets worn by kenyan ladies. Often they have a bit of writing on which may be a saying, proverb or political message. These new kanga designs have just started appearing since the U S elections. Jokes!
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Cool waters
Moses and I went to the British council the other week for an event called Wapi. We got chatting to this girl who happens to be a pro singer, here is the video to her song about the post-election violence earlier this year.
Monday, 3 November 2008
Wiki njema
It’s been a while since my last blog and all sorts has been occurring. Firstly, I asked for prayer about spending a month on my own in the flat, turns out my new housemate is moving in tomorrow so no time on my own, God has hooked me up on that one! Thanks for praying!
Had an awesome week, I’m becoming more and more convinced that I have the best job ever, I’ll probably change my mind next time I get homesick but I think the rewards far outweigh the struggles.
On Saturday I went down to Kibera to hang out with some of the older girls from the project, they are doing their final exams this week for primary school and as long they don’t get pregnant between now and January they will be starting high school in the new year. We have an awesome opportunity to send some girls to a new secondary boarding school that some friends of Turning Point are setting up, pretty sure its free, the first ever free secondary school in Kenya. The group of kids these girls hang out with in the slum is not a good influence on them at all so we’re praying that they can stay on the tracks to get high school.
My job is to get alongside these girls and encourage them; I had no idea what to do with them so I was praying on my way down. Turned out there was some music event going on by the D.O.s office so we walked back up for that and hung out for a bit, drank soda and had a chat. Then I went back down to church with them for their dance group practice, I’m thinking of becoming the token mzungu member because it was so fun! A good workout too as each song goes on for like 10 minutes each!! Next week when the girls have finished exams they can come to the project during the week to hang out so I’m hoping to take some DVDs down to watch and stuff.
Please pray for these girls and the time we spend hanging out, pray protection for them that they can stand firm in what they know is right when they are hanging out with their friends, it would be awesome if their faith was so strong they could even be a positive influence on their friends.
Had an awesome week, I’m becoming more and more convinced that I have the best job ever, I’ll probably change my mind next time I get homesick but I think the rewards far outweigh the struggles.
On Saturday I went down to Kibera to hang out with some of the older girls from the project, they are doing their final exams this week for primary school and as long they don’t get pregnant between now and January they will be starting high school in the new year. We have an awesome opportunity to send some girls to a new secondary boarding school that some friends of Turning Point are setting up, pretty sure its free, the first ever free secondary school in Kenya. The group of kids these girls hang out with in the slum is not a good influence on them at all so we’re praying that they can stay on the tracks to get high school.
My job is to get alongside these girls and encourage them; I had no idea what to do with them so I was praying on my way down. Turned out there was some music event going on by the D.O.s office so we walked back up for that and hung out for a bit, drank soda and had a chat. Then I went back down to church with them for their dance group practice, I’m thinking of becoming the token mzungu member because it was so fun! A good workout too as each song goes on for like 10 minutes each!! Next week when the girls have finished exams they can come to the project during the week to hang out so I’m hoping to take some DVDs down to watch and stuff.
Please pray for these girls and the time we spend hanging out, pray protection for them that they can stand firm in what they know is right when they are hanging out with their friends, it would be awesome if their faith was so strong they could even be a positive influence on their friends.
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