A letter from Amy, a student from the USA who visited
Kisii as a volunteer and guest of Mercy Gate Children's Home.
Praise God
After being back in America for over a month, I look
back to Kenya and the amazing things God taught me about himself and
this world through my experiences there. Every day, I pray for those
in Kenya, and it is wonderful to know that they also are praying for
me. I pray for Vincent and Abigael, for
Benta
and
Josephat
… dozens of names flit through my mind as I picture the face or
each person I met in Kenya.
“To him who is able to do immeasurably more
than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work
within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout
all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20
A prayer for those in Kenya:
Father God, I praise you that you gave me the opportunity
to go all the way to Kisii, Kenya, to meet the people that I met there.
I thank you for their generosity and hospitality to me while I was
there.
I pray that you would bless them with good health and everything that
they need.
I pray that those who are blessed materially would find room in their
heart to give to this ministry so that both giver and receiver would
be blessed.
I pray that you would keep the hearts of all those in Kenya entirely
devoted to you, and bring to yourself those who do not know you or
have turned away from you.
May you bless them materially so that they would be able to bring
into their loving fold any orphans who come looking for shelter. Fill
each of the children there with your comfort, wisdom, and joy.
May the children, as orphans brought into loving homes, serve as a
witness of the love God shows in adopting us and bringing us into
his family.
Keep them all from all evil and forgive all their sins, showering
them with your abundant grace.
May your church in Kenya prosper and may its people always be faithful
to you.
Keep teaching me through my experience in Kenya and my contact with
the people there,
O Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ, who is worthy of all praise,
Amen.
Kenya: the most beautiful, friendly country in the world
“Kenya is the most beautiful and friendly country
in the world,” my host confidently informed me as I stepped into
a cab during my first few minutes in Africa.
The first statement was confirmed during the 7 hour
bus ride to the small town of Kisii, where I spent my two weeks volunteering
at Mercy Gate Champion Children’s home.
When I envisioned Kenya, I imagined the dry tundra
depicted in “The Lion King.” Certainly, there was grassland
with huge cacti, person-sized vultures and grazing zebras, but there
were also flourishing forested regions, distant blue mountains, and
rolling green hills. The towns are flickers of color, sound, and movement.
Kenyans love wearing and painting things bright, primary
colors, gorgeous on their dark skin. Goats are tied everywhere, as varied
in color and patterns of fur as the African clothes. Donkeys pull carts
past women carrying bags of carrots on their heads and children on their
backs, motor bikes vroom by; a man pushes a bag of peanuts against the
window of the beeping bus saying something in Swahili; teenage girls
sit cross-legged on bright blankets covered with cabbages, cloth, fish,
cell phones, or bananas for sale; corn crackles as it is roasted over
charcoal fires on the corner.
The friendliness was also soon evident, as everyone
I passed greeted me with “Jambo, Salama, Hello, or Bwakire/Bwairire
Buya,” and a handshake. I found my few words of Swahili and Ekegusii
(the tribal language), though insufficient, invaluable. Everyone is
friendly, and eager to talk to me with whatever English they know.
I may not have the authority to say this, because I
have never been anywhere except the US and Kenya, yet the person who
told me had never left Kenya either: “Kenya is the most beautiful
and friendly country in the world.”
Kids
Kids are kids, wherever they are in the world, however
many toys they have, whatever language they speak. The fist day I walked
into the small dark room where about 20 kids aged 3 to 15 were sitting,
they were shy and didn’t understand my English greetings.
But they loved the balloons and candy I gave them the
first day, and loved playing elbow tag, a new game I taught them. By
the second day, they were all shaking my hand goodbye, giving me high
fives, and wishing me a good night at the end of the day.
There were many tears along with the laughter and good-bye
songs on my last day with the children. I miss them all very much.
What rhymes with Zed?
I had many different expectations before going to Kenya.
Some were fulfilled, others were not. The house I stayed at had no running
water, electricity, ovens or toilets. Yet, they had cell phones, which
rung often and never lost reception. The mixture of primitive life style
and 21st century technology was sometimes disconcerting.
During their free time, the people sing, or listen
to preaching and song on the radio. Gathering at church services, revival
meetings, or just at the house, the people, adults and kids, sing praises
to God with all their hearts and bodies. While American kids like singing
as quickly as possible, Kenyans tend to sing slower, clapping and dancing
to their deep, melodious sounds.
Here’s “Our God is Good” in Swahili:
Mungu U mwema
Mungu U mwema
Mungu U mwema
U mwema Kwangu
They also know many English praise songs. In teaching
them a Christian ABC song, I learned yet another difference between
Americans and Kenyans. The last few lines go: “V and W: God has
promised you, X Y Z: a home eternally.” But the Kenyan children
all enthusiastically ended: ex, why, ZED!” Even their English
alphabet is different! I have yet to find a line that ends with –ed
to end the song.
The color of plucked kuku
The kids I met in Kisii, Kenya this summer rarely see
white people. Passing by on the walk to the Mercy Gate Champion Children’s
home, children, goats, and mothers, at the side of the road stare wide-eyed.
“Hello, how are you?” They yell, practicing their English.
“Very good, thank you” I answer, waving, “How are
you?”
“We’re fine!” And then burst into giggles.
Benta is a
five-year-old AIDS orphan in the care of my hosts, Vincent and Abigael.
Like most children, she speaks primarily Swahili and their tribal language
Ekegusii. One day, I decided to teach her colors in English.
“Sky, blue; flower, red; wall, white…”
She pressed her dirty brown forefinger into my pale arm.
“What color?”
“White,” I say, hesitatingly.
“Aa (no),” She shakes her head disapprovingly, “not
white.”
That night, I carried a live kuku (laying hen) home
for dinner, my hands pressed clasped around its bony wings, the hot
avian blood coursing through the veins under my fingers. A few hours
later, we all sat around the small coffee table in the cottage, pulling
feathers out of the partially boiled animal. “Amy!” Benta
jumped up, her shadow bouncing in the light of the kerosene lamp, “your
color.” I held my hand against the skin of the chicken. Yes, I
am the color of plucked kuku.
God’s Plan
One great thing about God is you can trust he know
what he’s doing. When the election threw Kenya into a short period
of political turmoil right before my intended journey to Nairobi last
January, and I had to cancel the trip, I was confused. What could God
be doing? Didn’t he want me to go to Kenya. Yes, but not in January,
and not to Nairobi. God wanted me in Kisii this summer, in the hospitable
hands of Vincent and Abigael and their children, biological and fostered.
Praise God for their wonderful work with the orphans in Kisii, in the
service of Jesus Christ.
James 1:27: “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.”
These people and their ministry clearly demonstrate
this. In Kisii, a society primitive by American standards, I saw how
polluted by the world I, as a privileged American student, have become.
Oh Lord, keep me from becoming polluted by the world, and help me to
look after the orphans just as Vincent and Abigael do.