Wednesday camp and Kibera visit

We awoke to the sound of raindrops this morning. It’s been very cool here, and the moisture of the rain makes it seem even cooler (thinking of all of you sweating in Houston!). As refreshing as it was, we had to rethink game time and prepare for a more difficult tour of Kibera, where the dirt pathways can become treacherous when wet.

We’ve seen amazing theatrical talent in our team, and today was no exception. Each day a group has acted out the Bible lesson in engaging ways, and several of the team have pulled together impromptu skits and puppet shows for the closing sessions. Today Max played a patient found with a severe “heart condition,” hate, jealousy, anger, which needed immediate attention from the doctor. The treatment was a huge injection of the Holy Spirit, removal of “infected” internal organs, and ultimately a heart “transplant.” It definitely captured the kids’ attention!

Worship continues to be joyful and spirited! We are so grateful to Pastor Ben for his enthusiastic leading of worship, as well as the local helpers, Chris and David. We’ve especially enjoyed learning the Swahili praise songs.

Today was our first time to visit Kibera, the 600 acre slum where our campers live with one million people. Words can’t adequately describe the conditions there! As half of our team broke up into two groups to visit homes, we carefully followed those who are working in the community down dirt roads filled with everything from stacks of charcoal for cooking, small fires used to roast corn or cook small meals and snacks for sale, chickens, dogs, throngs of children, women washing clothes in a tub, and every activity of life going on simultaneously along the pathways. Homes are tiny huts made of mud and sticks with tin roofs. What is just as striking as the refuse found everywhere and visible evidence of no sanitation is the darkness inside these homes. With no electricity or windows and narrow passageways leading to the houses, even at midday you can barely see inside. When we entered, we couldn’t even see the women we came to visit. One mother had to move toward the door for us to be able to see her and her infant. What appeared to me to be about a two month old child was in fact an 18 month old girl who appeared desperately ill. Her eyes were glazed, mouth coated with some sort of film, and her cough was deep and severely congested. Our hearts broke for this baby and her mother, left with four children since her husband went to prison. As we prayed for them, we were thankful that Homecare Fellowship is ministering to her as well as to the other widows, single mothers and their children.

We visited with one woman who told us that she was diagnosed as HIV positive last year. She was extremely ill and in dire condition when Homecare began working with her. Today she said she praises God that she is alive, because she once was dead, and now lives because of Christ! She struggles with meeting basic needs like rent and food, and needs adequate food to be able to tolerate the antiretroviral drugs that she has to take. This is an all too common situation in Kibera; women are infected with HIV/AIDS, left with a number of children with no means to support them. They die without the drugs, and they often die from the drugs without proper nourishment. What an incredible ministry Homecare has to these women! They literally give them life, spiritually and physically by providing food, helping with rent and school fees for their children, and most importantly, offering them true hope and encouragement in Jesus. These women truly have an eternal perspective; they live in squalor, but this is not their home. They know they have an eternal home where they will no longer suffer hunger, pain, ostracism, fear and shame. They have been “accepted in the Beloved,” and they rest in that truth. Certainly causes us to reexamine our faith and worldview.

To visit Kibera is always sobering; the conditions are deplorable, the future dim. Extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS, alcoholism, drugs, violence, sexual abuse….all these combined present a pretty hopeless picture. BUT….God is in the midst of it! One by one, lives are being redeemed and restored. It is especially encouraging to see the impact of the Homecare Ministry on this community, and we join in their prayer that one day, these people will not be in bondage to poverty and pain, but will be able to offer a better life to their children and grandchildren, in this world and the world to come.