Day 32

This past week at New Adventure was all about exams.  I spent my days administering tests and grading papers, and I made the discovery that some students are stuck far behind their classmates in terms of literacy.  There are just a few in each class, but the teachers have neither the time nor resources to dedicate to helping them catch up with their peers.  The common style of teaching here in Kenya, which involves a whole lot of rote repetition and copying of notes from the board, only enables students to hide behind classmates and continue struggling through progressively harder material.

Because of this realization, I will no longer be teaching the math, science, English, and Bible classes I was before, but instead will be working with students individually to teach them how to read.  My hope for the weeks to come is that I can at least get these students in a better position to catch up to where they should be, if not totally able to read the Rainbow Fish book I've been working with by the time I have to leave!

I am also still praying, along with many others at the school, for a permanent home for New Adventure, which will allow the feeding program they used to receive to be reinstated.  Luckily for us, God always provides!

Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.  Of how much more value are you than the birds!

Luke 12:24

Day 22

Hi all, sorry that it's taken me so long to post lately!  Things have been busy with starting my teaching position at New Adventure School in Kibera last week and being under the weather again.  I didn't expect it to be so cold here and so failed to pack sufficiently warm clothes... it IS winter here so I should have known!

Now that I've been at New Adventure for a week now, I've had some time to get to know the kiddos a little better, and so far they have just awed me with their positive attitudes, their trust in the Lord, and their resilience to adversity so early in their young lives.  These kids have have a zest for life that I hope to learn from them, because I see it as way of living with gratitude for each day that is given to me as a gift.  Though they fight hunger daily, they don't allow it to affect their joyful spirits or their love for God.  I pray that as we prepare for the upcoming struggle of losing funding for their meals after this week, we also learn to trust in His provision for our needs.  Please pray that He stirs hearts to provide lunch for children who are far from strangers to wondering when they will get to have their next meal.

Do not worry about anything, but in all your prayers, ask God for what you need, always asking with a thankful heart.
Philippians 4:6

(This was the memory verse I taught my second graders last week, and I think it is very appropriate today.)

Day 13

Earlier this week, a couple of fellow new missionaries to Nairobi and I went on a tour of the city, which included my first real life glimpse of Kibera, the slum in which I will be spending the next month and a half teaching underprivileged children.  By underprivileged, I mean in a way that is much deeper than I could have imagined before stepping off the plane that brought me to Kenya almost two weeks ago.

The families that live in Kibera do so in tight quarters, often with entire families sharing one small room, without any indoor plumbing or running water, and wouldn't even dare to dream of owning something almost every person over the age of 16 in Texas thinks of as a necessity: a car.  Compound the high inflation rate here with the high level of unemployment, and it is easy to imagine that there are countless people living daily in these conditions.  (I really do mean countless. There are various statistics that attempt to give a census of the population in Kibera, but it is virtually impossible to get an accurate count.)  This journey through one of the largest slums in Africa was deeply saddening, but also inspiring as we were introduced to several ministries being used by the Lord to make a positive impact on the families here, despite the cyclical pattern of poverty and crime in effect throughout the city.

I find my heart breaking as I recall the sight of children in tattered clothing milling about the muddy, unpaved streets lined with endless rows of tiny shops as they play with toys fashioned from old milk cartons and water bottles; this is something I hope to never forget as I pray about my future with my fiance and how we will need God's help to raise up our future children in the land of milk and honey to be grateful for and generous with their blessings.

Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6

Day 8

Nimejifunza kiswahili kidogo.  (I have learned a little Swahili.)

Today was my third lesson in Swahili, and I feel somewhat in over my head.  There are only two lessons left in store for me to learn as much of the language as possible, and I'm afraid it won't be enough to put me even at the level of a 2 year old here!  Each day is an opportunity to learn and practice, as well as a reminder what a long way I have to go before I will be able to witness to a Kenyan in his own language.  I must periodically remind myself that I am not learning the language to improve myself, but to help me reach out to and love on Kenyan children that would not understand me otherwise.  It is very common for young children here to have no knowledge of English, especially when growing up in the Kibera slum.  Even with English as one of the national languages and its being taught in schools, many children never even have the opportunity to attend these schools.

My hope and prayer is that in putting forward my best effort to learn Swahili, God will bless my endeavor and use it to bring joy to the children with which I will work.  Each lesson is a strain on my mind, as I've been out of practice for language learning, but with the Lord, everything is possible!  And who knows... maybe if I continue to learn, He will bring me back here to use my hard earned skill.

Please pray for my perseverance as I struggle with learning a completely foreign language, and that God will open the hearts in my ministry to understand my effort to learn their native tongue as an effort to love them.

"The language of friendship is not words but meanings." -Henry David Thoreau

Day 5 - My Birthday :)

Ninapenda jamaa yangu.  I love my family.

Today is my 24th birthday, and I got to spend it shopping in Kenya. How awesome is that?? It's so cool just to be able to say it.  And though I don't want to admit that I'm homesick already, I did realize that I'm starting to really miss my family back in Texas.  We've been apart for no more than a week, which is nothing in comparison to when I was in college, but I was only an hour and a half, or just a phone call, away.  Separation by an 8 hour time change has made contacting them by phone or video chat really hard, but email just doesn't have the same human aspect.  I know, however, that they are thinking of me as I am thinking of them, and I pray that they let this be a time for God to comfort and minister to them as they make the sacrifice of a daughter and sister they have worked hard to raise into a courageous and loving woman.

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." -Desmond Tutu