Kenya, oh Kenya!

Habari friends and family!!

I am alive and well and in KENYA! Firstly Bwana asefiwa!! Jesus is Lord, asefiwe amen! Right now I am in Nairobi, the capital doing a day in the city with the Global Project 2009 team. It feels like I have been here for weeks, yet time is flying by....WEIRD, it is the Africa time warp!

I guess I should tell you where we have been staying! It is a beautiful worship retreat in the highland hills out side of Nairobi called Watakatifu Wote Senta. There are flowers and greenery everywhere. There are small simple dorms which we share with one other person, with beds and mosquito nets...let me tell you, those things take a little practice to get right. I spent about half an hour sewing up rips in it and trying to tuck it in well around my bed, haha...mambo sawa sawa (everything is ok!) I have become an expert at "bucket showering" haha! Kenya is experiencing a drought right now, so we are doing all we can to conserve water. We get up at 7:15 for Morning Glory, we hear a word from one of the students (I was the first to volunteer to go...I have no idea what got into me :) I read 1 John 3:16-18, which Mo had given to me in a letter...perfect timing by the way for that verse...read on.) We then have breakfast and head out for the day's activities around 9am, return home for dinner around 6pm, talk together about the day in small groups, and then have acoustic worship lead by Americans and Kenyans together with much dancing! I love it here, it is so different, but it makes me feel alive! Africa!

The Global Project team, headed by Brian and Debbie Lee of Missoula, MT (i LOVE them!!) is amazing. Students from all over the US, and 5 Kenyan students as well. I have found a kindred spirit in my room mate for the first part of the trip...Darnell. She is from Tennessee, and has the sass to prove it! She is HILARIOUS and has an amazing heart for Jesus. She encourages me, laughs with me and prays with me. How she and the others are blessing my time here, without a doubt!

God is teaching me so many things and it is so easy to learn because I am in a new place with nothing familiar but the love of Jesus. The food is new, but delicious! Lots of carbs...but it is ok, because we walk A LOT. All the water has to be boiled, and I haven't felt the slightest bit sick yet, thank Jesus!

We have done so many things it is hard to describe them all in detail. Our time yesterday was the most indescribable so far...but I will do my best.

We visited one of the largest slums in Kenya yesterday Mathare Valley, it is hard not to cry again when I think about it. We bused into the slums, about an hour from WW in the hills. It was hot, and jam packed with people! We met up with Pastor and Mama (all older women are called Mama here) Karow at their church in Mathare. We took a prayer walk for about an hour through it, greeting all the people and high-fiving all the filthy/adorable kids. We visited the tiny, dark, reeking home of Mama John, a woman living with HIV. She warmly invited us in to her pitch black house, made out of tin sheets and plastic sacks...lit with one kerosene lamp. She told us of her love for the Lord and her joy in his promise of eternal heaven.

Mathare is home to over 600,000 people in a few square miles, open sewage flowing down the trash filled roads. Brian Lee talked to us afterward when we were feeling overwhelmed and dejected by the immensity of injustice. He reminded us that every person matters, we shouldn't try to fix the whole thing, it is impossible...but our culture is so "fix it" driven. We need to step back and look at God's heart for the people. Meeting each persons needs, first with Jesus, then with the basics. Little by little, inch by inch, hope and love will spread. Only through the love of Jesus is this possible! Pray for Mathare Valley! Do not forget the least of these, do not turn your back away from injustice, meet it head-on with the hope of God, and a compassionate heart!

We then went to the children's home, Sanctuary of Hope, that Debbie Lee helped to start and visited with Pastor and Mama Karow. The Karow's lead a church/school/day care/and clinic in Mathare Valley Slum, and head Sanctuary of Hope (one and two). We met the kids and they sang some really great songs for us and played with us. All of these children were orphans taken out of Mathare Valley as toddlers. What a great work the Karows are doing! Keep them in your prayers!


We have about a week left at WW...then off to 3 week assignments! I have no idea where I could be sent! It could be anywhere from the city to the country...I like the excitement of the unknown...which is basically every day out here :)

This may be my only update for a few weeks...we learned we may not have access to internet or phones, depending on where we are sent! But you never know! So I wanted to make it a long one, so you can savor it! We have had literally no access to any technology...which I like...we are such slaves to it in the US! Try turning off your cell phone today and take a walk out side or hand write a letter...it will free you!

Know that Jesus is blessing me and keeping me safe, healthy and teaching me SO many things. He is doing a good work in all of us, thank you Jesus! I am well fed, well rested (under mosquito nets...hehe, they are fun!) and well loved by a mighty Father.

Continue to pray for the team and I, the power of pray is HUGE and so essential to our relationship with God. Look for his blessings in all aspects of your life...maybe just the fact that you don't have to boil your water before you drink it, or that you have shoes on your feet! I am thinking of all of you, and miss you all dearly!

Many blessings and love from Kenya,

Bess