Returned to the farm last thursday for our weekly visit, we did a prayer walk and supervised a new playground being put in so the kids now have swings, a see-saw and a very steep looking slide, I haven’t tried them yet. We took blankets up for the mamas which they were extremely pleased with, they were a gift from someone in the UK.
We have been continuing to talk about how to build community at the farm, I learnt last week that in Kibera if you have beef with your neighbour you just move house, you don’t deal with it, you run away and carry all your resentment and bad feeling with you. A lot of things make much more sense now I know this. We said last week that although that’s how it is in Kibera and that may be how they have always functioned that’s not how it works everywhere and they can choose to do things differently.
This week we pressed the pause button, and lakukarachad the sessions for a bit to evaluate, thought I had better check that the mamas were actually up for it and didn’t just see it as a waste of time. They were very up for continuing, I guess it’s a nice change from digging!
I asked if they had noticed any change since we started talking about this stuff, Grace said they have started to forget about the past and look to the future, Rose said they have started choosing to forgive each other, Wahu said they no longer let small issues become big problems but choose to forget them instead, and Zipporah said the other day she needed some sugar and asked another mama for help and the other mama shared with her, they never used to do that apparently.
So that is flippin encouraging! Slowly slowly they are starting to change.
Since they are getting on so well now I had to make them play snap as a way to cause a fight this week so we could talk about conflict resolution in a not too heated way. They loved it, next week they really want to play football so we shall, there will be no ref so they will have to resolve any conflicts amongst themselves, hopefully employing some of the stuff we talked about this week.
In other news… Jo and Jon have abandoned me and gone to the UK for the summer, please pray for them as they tour about telling people about Turning Point.
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Welcome
Just so you know, the name of this blog is from a speech that Bono made at a prayer meeting in Washington, he said ‘God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.’ I’ve found this to be true, God is present in the slums bringing a living hope to people living hard and unnoticed lives so that’s where I also want to be. I’m currently working with The Turning Point Trust who run projects in the Kibera slum for kids and their families. I’ll keep you updated from here!
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3 comments:
Just love picturing the mamas playing snap and football - bring on the joy! Sounds like really significant progress on the farm; be blessed sister.
"flipping encouraging", indeed! way to go!
Fantastic Em - we still need that here too, it's still often easier to walk away than face sorting out problems.
I remember seeing the photos of the kids playing snap and the story of the broken chair!!!! Hope you don't damage too much at the farm playing snap (or football). How long would a football match last here if there was no ref and they had to have a discussion to sort out every foul - years!!!! Mat would love it!!!!!!
love you, Mum xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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