Nairobi – Day 4 (Taking it to the Streets)

This day would be one of the most challenging for our eyes to see.   Yesterday, we spent the day around Great Commission Fellowship and got to spend plenty of time with the kids that are part of the school.   We knew however, in order to gain a better perspective of the crisis in Kayole (the village that GCF serves), we would need to go beyond the gates of the church and school into the streets.  Kayole houses ½ a million people in a 1 mile radius.  For comparison, there are 190,000 people living in the most crowded part of Cincinnati in a one mile radius.

WE WEREN’T PREPARED TO SEE THE THINGS WE SAW AND EXPERIENCED…

The day started with an impromtu dance with the baby class at GCF.  This was unadulterated childhood at its best as they came out and did several African school children classics.  We began the day with giant smiles on our faces and it’s a good thing because the rest of the day brought us the reality of daily life in Kayole.

We set out on foot from the school and soon found ourselves in buildings and houses that would be considered the worst slums in America.  Children were everywhere because the public school teacher in Nairobi are on strike.  All I can say is “there were children EVERYWHERE!” 

The housing can be anywhere from 1 to 4 stories tall where a mom and 3 kids might live in a room that is literally the size of a walk in closet in a house in America.  It was about 8X8.  Each floor of the complex had about 20 housing units and all of them shared a 2 toilet bathroom that was appalling and again the smell can’t be explained…the closest I can get is when your drains get clogged up and you have to use a snake (magnify that smell by 20 and that is everyday life in Kayole).

The contrast between the refuge of Great Commission Fellowship and the rest of Kayole’ is night and day.  The kids inside are happy, excited about learning, and their future.  The children in the streets of Kayole are fighting hunger everyday, going to the bathroom in the streets and letting it run through the open air, uncovered sewage system toward the Nairobi River.  This sewage ditch is usually rendered ineffective because it is littered with trash from the lack of sanitation in the city.  As a result, you have, basically, a dump being constructed as people survive.   The work set before Great Commission is HUGE.  The leadership and the people here are saints and they truly love what the world would call the unlovable. 

For the first time in my life, I see true AGAPE Love in the hearts of the leadership and teachers at GCF for a community that looks impossible to help because of the sheer number of poor people in the area.

They don’t see it that way though…they have dreams of being a lighthouse, a refuge, an oasis to this community.  Never do I see them doubt whether or not they could change this community from the inside out.  The level of respect that the community has for Pastor Peter, Joel, Justin, and of course Pastor Denis is something to be witnessed.  Because of their efforts, they have won over this community.   If you take this kind of proven leadership to the next level and resource it, you will truly see a “City on a Hill” in the midst of the worst poverty in the world.  They are helping me see their vision of True Religion.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.   James 1:27

I could go on writing about this, but I am truly shaken from this day.  THIS IS NOT OK!!!  NOONE SHOULD LIVE LIKE THIS!

I love all of you… thank you for your prayers and support while we are here.  Please know that when I get back, we have some work to do.