Ecclesia Kenya 2009

Our camp has consisted of some seventy-five children (and a handful of widows) from the Kibera slum. They arrive each morning in green buses coughing smoke and covered in advertisements for stew. We hear them as they dash frantic down the driveway and across a lawn. They pass huts with tin roofs where widows prep rice with meat and bone in large tin pots.

When they reach us they plead for balls and begin to run. They call us “teacha” and grab our arms, rub our hair, and climb our backs.

I haven’t visited Kibera yet; we will tomorrow, but I’m told that they don’t get to run much where they live. I’m told they live in homes separated by paths just wide enough for a man to walk through. Supposedly when we visit we need to watch for plastic bags of fecal matter and urine that act as disposable toilets.

Much of our time is spent laughing and singing. The children can shake and move; they can pop a hip and electric slide their way through hymns with ease. They move with their shoes on; they move with their shoes off.

Tomorrow will be our last day with them. We may see some when we visit their slum, but we won’t see many. We’ve done what we can to fill their unattended sores with peroxide and Neosporin. We’ve tried our best to connect and to understand their muffled requests… a dead parent; a missing father; those orphaned twice…

I had one girl cling to my arm for most of the day. She asked me to pray for someone at home who wasn’t letting her eat. I gave her extra biscuits with her tea; she gave them to a friend. Her father is dead. Her mother is gone during most of the day. She isn’t sure where she goes. She told me her mother was very sick and then she cried.

We’ve also had a chance to study the Lord’s Prayer. We’ve talked with them about “Our (collective) Father” and we’ve talked with them about the assurance that we have in Him. We all know this is good. We all know that Jesus has told us to pray for deliverance from evil, but it’s hard to reconcile with some of them.

We petitioned that God might “Nourish orphans who are forsaken of all help.”

“Have mercy on all, You who are the Creator of all. To You be the praise and glory for all eternity.”

Their lives are hard, but they are not.