Lucky People

Have you ever been told that you will never really understand how lucky you are to live in America until you go to another country? I have been told this hundreds of times in my life; throughout high school, college, and seminary! I never really understood what the difference was until today. I liken it to another experience in my life when I didn't really understand the phrase, "You know when you know." Of course I am referring to when my friends would tell me they just knew that their wife was the one they were supposed to marry. I didn't get that statement until I had met the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and I just knew she was the one! Today was the day that I really understood what people meant by saying that we are lucky to live where we do.

Last night, I think all of us fell asleep as soon as our head hit our pillows. I was awake a little bit but then my Melatonin kicked in and I was in a sleep coma. We woke up to roosters crowing and all kinds of other birds calling in the distance. This place we are staying is absolutely gorgeous. We woke up and got showers and came in for breakfast when they rang the breakfast bell. We had eggs, bacon, granola, biscuits, and oatmeal that looked like gravy. This was a common misconception among the first of us through the line this morning. But then we enjoyed our biscuits and oatmeal just like they were biscuits and gravy!!

After breakfast, we had a short devotion time with Scott and then he prepared us for the rest of the day. Today would be the day we would walk through the slums of Kibera. After our devotion time and meeting, we loaded the bus and traveled to Feed The Children. This is an organization that feeds around 195,000 children and orphans every single day. Their ads are seen on TV a lot as well. We arrived at their compound and took a tour. They showed us the cottages where newborns through 10 year olds stay. As we walked through the newborn cottage and the preschool cottage, the kids would walk up to you and want you to play with them. We only had about 5 minutes in each cottage so it was very hard to just get down and play with them and then leave. This is one of the nicest and safest places for these children, but it still wrenches your gut when you see them. This is also the place that Scott and Alisa adopted Lucas! It was really cool for them to go back there and talk with many of the workers that were there when Lucas was adopted!

After we took the tour, we traveled with FTC (Feed The Children) to Kibera. This is one of the worst slums in Kenya, if not the worst. We went with FTC because the people of the slums recognize their organization and know that they are there to help them. This deters them from harassing or harming the teams they take into this area. On arrival, we entered the complex where the school is housed and immediately saw about 120 kids running around playing games much like we would at recess. When we walked through the gates they immediately recognized us and ran up to many of us. We were there to feed the kids so we took turns doing that and when we weren't feeding them, we played with them or talked to them. Most of them were joyful and had smiles on their faces.

As we began to wrap this time up, we were taken on a tour of the slums in several small groups. We went through and got to see, hear, smell, and simply experience what the slums are like. They are like NOTHING in America!! The Kibera slums are about 5 square miles and there are, at best guess, 1 million people living there. Most of them live in a shack that's made out of materials that they can find like scrap metal. They are only about 5 ft by 5ft and have 5 people living in them each. It is something that you look at and ask yourself, "What can I do to help this? What can I do to change this? What can I do?" So many times today I caught myself asking, "Why?" But, as Scott said this morning, it's not about why it's about what...what can I do? God has created us all to be different and He has a plan for Kibera, but the plan He has for us in seeing this is to do something about it! Not to just walk through and sympathize with their situation, but to walk through and DESIRE to know what we can do to help!

When we got back from the tour, the kids returned to school and we left to get lunch at a local restaurant called Java House. We ate there, all safe food, and then headed over to FOCUS. This is the organization that partners with Project Lucas to help feed, clothe, and treat about 40 orphans. When we arrived, we all piled off the bus and were, again, immediately tackled by children. These are the kids that we are working with for the rest of the week and will be with all day tomorrow! These children desire attention from anyone so they were very excited to see us coming. They want to be played with and picked up and held. They are precious little girls and boys! I will be the first one to admit that I am not a kids person. I love middle school and high school students, but kids just aren't my thing; however, you can't look at these kids and not love them and not fall in love with them. Even I was playing with them and picking them up and holding them. When we were introduced, we all sat on benches and I had two of them in my lap. This is a place where you truly fall in love with these children!

They are so beautiful and each one has been created by God! God has called us to do two things in our lives as Christians and those are to love Him and then love our neighbors. That's what this trip is all about, loving God and then loving others. Our love this week will be poured out on these children. Our love, I pray, will be exhausted on these kids. My hope and prayer is that we get on that plane July 11th with NOTHING left and NO love ungiven!!

We came back to get dinner tonight at Heart and then prepared for tomorrow with a short meeting. Now we are all tired and ready for bed yet again! I never understood the statement, "You will never know how lucky you are until you experience life in another country." But today I did! I experienced what life is like in the worst of Kenya. It is very eye opening to see how people are so happy with so little yet we live in LUXURY every single day and are desiring so much more! Even the worst of our situations is the normal for others. You won't really understand it until you see it and experience it. We are VERY lucky people!!

I love you all and will send your love to the team!

I love you Mal!!

- Jameson