Home Again

We have arrived safely in Kenya. We had our first day at the center and in the slums today. Although it has been almost a year since our time in Kenya when we got there today it felt like we never left. It feels like being home again! It is awesome to feel like you have two incredible places you can call home.

Last summer when we came here we really thought the internship was a formality and as soon as it was over we would come back, raise support, and head back to Kenya to work. God thought differently. He wanted us to bring people back with us and that we did. It is awesome to say we have 17 other people on this trip with us and we are very happy that 2 of them are Tim's parents. We have a great team that God has equipped with some special gifts, talents and abilities. We have people who are in high school all the way up to retired folks. We have some who are well travelled and some who have never left the country. One thing we all have in common is that we love God and we love people.

Today we walked through the slums for the second first time. I felt more comfortable and at ease this time but the intial reaction is still the same. It is just hard to see people living the way they are and knowing God did not intend for life to look like this. No matter how many pictures we share or stories we tell you just cant understand the impact of this place until you set foot into Mathare Valley and get all you senses involved.

Today some of us met a girl named Mary who was 19 and had crawled until she finally learned to walk at the age of 12. She could not speak but would communicate through sounds and hand signs. Her mother was the only one who could understand her. Her mother, Margaret, would pray nightly that she would not die before Mary did as she was the only one who could understand her. I sat next to Mary and she had the biggest smile and she kept looking at me with this huge grin. I was fortunate enough to get to hold her hand and to hug her and to tell her she was beautiful. I have missed this place. The people here are just amazing. This is a young woman who by all earthly standards has nothing-she is severely disabled and extremely poor, yet she was beaming. She has the love of a mother who could have easiy abandoned her like many other do, she has the love of the workers at the Center who are trying to find a way to get her into school to help her learn new ways to comminicate, she now has the love of strangers from America, and she is loved by the Creator.

I have missed seeing God like this. Somehow I don't look for him or see him in these ways when I am in America and it bothers me. I am in a place where people have nothing and yet they see God in everything. Their faith is so strong and God continually blesses the work of their hands. As I sit here and type this I am humbled by the fact that God has considered us worthy to come on this trip. That he allows us to travel to places far and near and spead his Great name is nothing short of incredible. I am glad to be a part of the kingdom God has given to us. Thanks for your prayers and please continue to pray for us.

Kwaheri (Good Bye)!