In Case You Were Wondering...

I realized that it may be important or at least beneficial to give you all a rough outline/description of what Bethany and I do most days. So for starters we are working with an organization called First Love Kenya. They have two main places of ministries, a home in Karen for orphaned girls from the slums, and an outreach at a pre-k through 12th grade school in the slums of Kibera.
There are 22 girls at the Karen property at this time. On the property there is also a guest house for visitors/missionaries, a wood shop which will be used to teach a trade to boys who don’t move onto high school, a large dining hall is almost fully constructed, and a three story dormitory is in the making to make more room for the many orphaned boys and girls at the school. The difference between where these children were living before and their home now, is really unfathomable. There are mango trees, a swing set, and peace and quiet, they live in safety, in love, the word that consistently comes to mind each time I visit is “sanctuary.” We spent about 4 consecutive days with the girls last week, working on their homework, singing songs, watching movies, baking cookies, simply loving on girls who for much of their life didn’t know what love meant. You can read some of their stories at www.firstlovekenya.org We continue to visit on the weekends or periodicially throughout the week.
We spend most of our time at the school (Raila Educational Center.) Here First Love has a feeding program that provides porridge in the morning and lunch to the 900 students and staff, for many of the students this is their only source of food. In addition to meeting their physical needs they provide counseling and weekly bible studies. They have also started a ministry called Compassion with which they help students with school fees, school supplies, food and in special cases, rent. The student’s are interviewed, their homes are visited and their stories are recorded, then First Love seeks out sponsors to cover the needs for each individual student. During our days at the school we spend much of our morning serving porridge and washing dishes, for the rest of the day when the students are on break we spend time getting to know them, building relationships and sharing the love of Christ. When the students are in class we may help with office work, aid the teachers in grading exams, or make home visits.
Apart from the literal description of what we do each day I also want to point out that a large part of the trip has been characterized by learning. Learning how to adapt to another culture, learning flexibility and submission, learning what life stripped of American society feels and looks like. Bethany and I both felt called to this trip for numerous reasons. Acting out on our heart for missions in a more tangible way and thus seeking clarity on whether or not we may want to pursue that direction after college was one of the main goals we had for the trip. Though we both agree there have been no “ah ha!”moments of great epiphany, for the first time we are at least getting a taste for something we have only dreamed about until now. And so we are trying to live in a spirit of service, and also learn in the spirit of a student.