Behold, I am making all things new!

Last week I was in Kenya with the task of getting all of the new and returning students into high school. The time was great and productive and I want to expand more on the trip as a whole in another post but I haven't been able to stop thinking about a conversation that I had with Christine.

I've known Christine for 3 years as a great soccer player, very aggressive on the field, a leader, outspoken, and someone who will talk to anyone. I see her as strong, bold and full of joy.

Last week Christine wanted to talk to me. So we sat down, and she was actually approaching me to share with me some family difficulties that one of her friends was going through. Christine and her friend had both just finished (and passed!) 8th grade. Christine was concerned because her friend was supposed to go to a day high school through Penda Project but Christine didn't think it was safe for her friend to stay at home and was urging me to take her to a boarding school. The selflessness and care is amazing. These girls are teenagers.

Then as she's talking tears start streaming down her face. And it was the silent cry that's not dramatic. It seemed like she just couldn't control those tears from coming. You could tell there was a lot of sadness behind them. And I was shocked, first, Kenyans dont really show emotion much. Second, see above how I described Christine. I would not have expected to ever see her cry. So I asked her what was making her so sad. She said she was hurting for her friend and she missed her sister. So I started asking questions.

Christine's parents had both passed away and she was living with her older sister. I had known this before. Now, Christine's sister has left for Uganda to try to find work. Christine's older brother was addicted to drugs and had basically disappeared on them. Christine had a twin brother, who I didn't know, and went to a different school, who was trying to figure out what to do after primary school. Christine's 2 younger siblings had been taken by some neighbors to a children's home. Christine hadnt talked to her sister since she had left a couple days before we were talking. Her sister had told her that she wasn't sure if she was going to return to Kibera or not.

Christine didnt understand why God had put her in this situation. She didn't understand what Gods plan was for her or for her friend. It seemed like everything just kept getting harder. She felt so alone. I told her the answers that you know that you are supposed to say but it just felt almost dumb at the time. Then Christine looked at me and said "Do you really think there is going to be a day when all the tears are wiped away?". And I said yes, I don't think there will be tears in heaven. And she looked at me and said "I can't believe that right now".

And it felt like my world got turned upside down. Like everything I've thought and felt about my faith and Christ dying for us. I REALLY don't understand or appreciate that sacrifice that Jesus was. My earth is almost like a heaven. I have so many people who love me and are there for me. I have a great husband who is always with me so I'm never alone. I have too much food, too many clothes, too nice a house, and I'm perfectly healthy. Why would I need to truly understand how great heaven is when I honestly would feel sad about leaving what I have here. But Christine has no parents, no place to call home, a handful of things, siblings in an orphanage, and older siblings who have left her. But at that moment and all the time since then, I have been in AWE of the gift you gave us. I am so thankful for heaven. I want this to be but a second of Christine's eternal life. Bc there is brokenness here but there is no brokenness in heaven. How great is that! How much greater is that!

"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying not pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
Rev 21:4

Thanks for your help!

Over the course of the past year, we have sold t-shirts, necklaces, sock creatures, paintings, and other crafts to raise money for Kibera Penda Project. Since we get sponsors for all of our high school students, we usually use the money raised towards needs at New Hope Primary school which is the school we work with in Kibera.

About a week ago I met with the deputy principal at New Hope and asked about the needs. We don't like to cover primary student's school fees ahead of time because parents would begin to not try to pay school fees because they would just expect us to cover them. However, Francesca, the principal gave me a list of student who had not fully covered their fees from January to June. The school has a huge heart for these kids and doesn't want to kick them out of school. They also know the family situations of many students and their are many orphans living with older siblings. however, what this causes is teacher salaries not being paid in full and other supplies the school needs are unable to be met.

Before coming, Ava had calculated how much we had raised on selling merchandise and crafts and the total was really close to 3,000 dollars. Francesca handed me the list of missing fees In Kenya shillings. That night I converted the total to dollars and Guess what it converted to ...$3013! Wow! Ridiculously cool!

Soooooooo... If you have bought a t-shirt, sock creature, painting, magazine bead necklace, even a magnet from us in the past year THANK YOU for helping partially sponsor 144 primary school students!!!!

A New Meaning for the word POVERTY

"...until we embrace our mutual brokenness our work with low-income people is likely to do far more harm than good."

                                             - Steve Corbett

I feel like each time I am in Kenya something I read/listen to completely blows my mind about bringing God's kingdom to earth now and serving the poor. I remember my first summer it was Irresistible Revolution and last summer it was the Radical Series by David Platt. This year it is the book I'm reading now- When Helping Hurts. I've read in words a lot of things that I've seen and felt but couldn't fully explain or comprehend. 

The book talks about God's call to serve the poor and free the oppressed but specifically how a lot of what we (mainly North American Christians) do that actually hurts the poor more than helps and hurts ourselves in the process. A World Bank study showed that people who are economically rich define poverty as a lack of material resources. But the economically poor define poverty as a lack of worthiness, feelings of inferiority, shame, powerlessness, and hopelessness. 

"For a poor person everything is terrible - illness, humiliation, shame. We are cripples; we are afraid of everything; we depend on everyone. No one needs us. We are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of." 

                                           -part of the World Bank survey from a person in Moldova 

Poverty in one from is a lack of material resources but poverty also includes spiritual poverty, mental poverty, and emotional poverty. He

Poverty in one from is a lack of material resources but poverty also includes spiritual poverty, mental poverty, and emotional poverty. The author uses an example of going to the doctor and the doctor either misdiagnosing you and giving you the wrong medicine or giving you medicine to relieve your symptoms but not actually fixing the underlying problem that is causing those symptoms. Kyle and I have been talking a lot about "When Helping Hurts". We are glad that we have relationships with the kids that we work with and have gotten to speak some into their lives about the material, emotional, spiritual and mental poverty. But we really have been wrestling through how this affects our scholarship ministry. We have seen issues of entitlement of students seeing sponsors as their "god", parents feeling they don't need to be responsible for their children anymore. It's difficult at times  because God is showing us our own poverty. And so good because He is also showing us He is the healer of emotional, spiritual and mental poverty.

Penda rewards students with good attendance!

A few days ago we took 8 of the high school scholarship kids with the best study hall attendance to pizza, ice cream and the Giraffe Center! It was a great day of new foods and kissing giraffes!

Collins A, Collins O, and Gladys eating ice cream. It took them about an hour to finish the cone, TOO cold!

I have about 20 pictures of Dennis feeding the giraffes. He was obsessed with the giraffes and with the pictures of him with the giraffes.

Frankline 

 

 

 

 

Medical Assistance: Brian's Heart Issue

Kyle's mom and I were just talking a couple nights ago about how many serious medical needs that we have come across in our friends and students in Kibera this summer. Way more than in years past. In the past week, we have had a student in a car accident, with an unknown heart problem, potentially diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, very sick from AIDS. A mother in the hospital for a prolonged time after having a baby. A mother in Biashara's child with TB and unable to begin walking. We are feeling like we need to help but don't have much of a medical budget. I don't have any pictures or beautifully written story, but I decided there's no harm in asking for help...

First Grader Brian

Brian has been having heart problems for awhile now. His mother has taken him to a clinic several times and they have said there are issues going on but haven't been able to do more detailed tests. CAT scans and X-rays and other tests that will be able to give more clear answers are way more expensive. The cost for Brian to go get tests done on his heart are $200. Please consider donating to help Brian receive needed medical assistance. Donations can be made at www.kiberapendaproject.com. Also, please pray. Pray for Brian to be pain free and comforted. Pray for his family to have peace in God's purpose and plan. Pray for doctors to have wisdom in discovering the problem and knowledge of good treatment.

NEW Hope.

I was messaging my friend Whitney about how much New Hope Primary School in Kibera has changed since just last year. And then I started thinking about 4 years ago, the first time I visited Kibera and how much the school has changed. I think it is fitting that the school is called "New" Hope. Pastor Simon always tells the story of when they changed the name after they spent days praying for food and Kyle's parents came to visit the school and helped start the feeding program. But every year it feels like an even New-er Hope. I keep thinking about the Robbie Seay band song...

"All things bright and beautiful You are

All things wise and wonderful You are

In my darkest night You brighten up the skies

A song will rise...

I will sing a song of hope, sing along

God of heaven come down. heaven come down

Just to know that You are near is enough

God of heaven come down, heaven come down"

New Hope School 4 years ago

One of the new blocks of 4 new classrooms just finished in early 2011

From 300 students to 540 students.

From 8 classrooms to 12 classrooms. 

Grades split into two separate classrooms so there is not 60 kids in one class!

Two new school buildings with LIGHT in the classrooms.

A playground in the process of being built! 

From 10ish students passing 8th grade to 30 students.

Students with discipline and a work ethic in the classroom.

From zero students in high school to 60 students in high school.

A school nurse!

Heaven has come down. This is a NEW school. There is a NEW hope. I will sing a song of HOPE. 

Sing along...

High School Trip Home Safe

It was good to sit with the high school team their last night in Kenya and just reflect on the trip and talk about stories that impacted them. I think it is amazing to see hearts change in the lives of youth and also for me to remember that God is still working in my heart. I think after seeing poverty a lot, it doesn't impact you as much. But really, God calls us to continuously be broken hearted for the poor.

Somethings our students learned...
thankfulness...for the ways that God had blessed them, for their families and the love they receive from their parents
God loves the poor...God says that it is harder for a rich man to go to heaven. The students saw this in the faith of the people of Kibera. Many of them said it was a faith that they had never seen before because we can rely on all the things we have but the people they met had nothing. Therefore, they only had God to believe in and rely on for everything.
 the blessing of education...The students at New Hope Primary School and the students in the Kibera Penda Project scholarship program see their education as their way out of poverty. It is their hope. The 8th graders spend all of their time studying for their big primary school exam. The high schoolers are soooooo thankful to be in secondary school. Many students DREAM is to go to boarding school. Many of our students realized they take learning for granted.
strength and perseverance... Many of the relationships that students built with the students in Kibera grew strong for only 2 weeks together. Many stories were shared and our students got to know the lives of the kids in Kibera. Many of these kids have been through so much and are so strong and so joyful. Our kids would talk about their new friends and were so amazed when they found out this friends parents had both died, or they took care of all their siblings because their mom was sick with AIDS. They felt like they complained about such small things when such huge difficulties were facing their friends.