child at heart

7/5/08 – Day 11

Today started off great – I was feeling so much better. My head was still feeling a bit dizzy but I was determined to work through it. I did not want to miss another day. After breakfast we headed off to the gas station to pick up Catherine and Murithi and then we were headed off to Antuomuo, which is up the hill past Maua. I was still doing well until about 1 hour into the ride when we started going up crazy hills, then my headache was back, the dizziness was back and I thought I was going to barf everywhere. 

We had a couple people from Maua help us get to our village. First 2 women and then a man. Along the way we picked up some kids to take with us to the CBS. To get to our place we had to go over 2 bridges and through several intense rainforest (although they were not virgin ones because they had been cut).  In the forests we saw Eucalyptus trees, flowers and some vegetation that can only grow at that high of an altitude. There were ferns and grasses and even a bunch of parasite trees. What that is, is a vine that slowly grows in strips up the trunk of a tree. Eventually the whole trunk is covered in the parasite and over a couple decade the vin kills the trunk of the tree underneath until the parasite becomes its own life force. When I see these kinds of trees I think of the movie Jumangee – its very similar in my mind. 

Once we went through the forests we came to an opening of a valley. For miles as far as you could see were tea plants. We had come across as major tea plantation for that area. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much of anything all together like that – and the green was the brightest, healthiest most vibrant color I’ve ever seen. There were sectioned off places that had little paths to get from one to another. Each section had to have been about an acre in size. This plantation took up so many hills and mountains, each section growing up just as healthy and rich as the section before it. I can’t even guess how many miles it even covered. We drove by the tea for about 10 minutes or so it seemed, and we would pass by woman carrying tealeaves in these huge baskets on their backs. They would fill up their baskets and then walk to the nearest tea factory to unload and start over again.

 After we passed the tea fields we drove for about 20 more minutes through curvy, bumpy roads until we came to a clearing about a half a mile from another forest (which we thought we were about to go into until someone yelled at us to stop!). We honestly did not expect many children, pretty much just the local ones because of where this place was located.

When we pulled up we came to a little wooden church, or room really no bigger than our hotel bathroom. It had about 8 wooden benches in it and a broken blackboard with numbers and the alphabet written on it. There was probably only 30 children or less there and they were all singing together with an adult. We expected that to be all our children so we set up (we put the benches outside and set some rocks down for a make shift chair) and we sang a couple songs with the children. We had just started our lesson and was only about 5 minutes into it when we got word that some kids from a mountain WAY far away had paid for a taxi and would be there in about 30 minutes so we decided to wait on them.

Some more local children came up, a minister brought some children from his church, the taxi kids did show up and then some teens stopped on their way home from school. All in all we had somewhere in between 180 and 200. That really was not a problem except the fact that the teens were distracting and had no desire to hear the things we had to say. And you know what? That is incredibly fine with me – but do not take  that option away from the little ones who are so visibly hungry for the word and walked 3 miles to be here with us.

Eventually Catherine got the teens to sit down and shut up and they became less than a problem at that point. Some of the girls even helped the smaller ones during craft time.

During our drama we got alot of laughs, and the kids seemed to enjoy our “Acting” and they even believed our emotions (which by the way we were pathetic at portraying). We went through our stories, skits and activities, and with roughly 200 people I do believe alot got done. There were seeds being planted. After the CBS everyone got some food and then we packed up and came home.  

Today was by far the hardest day emotionally for me. These adults and kids were honestly just struggling to survive. I’ve never been to a more desperate area. These people were plagued with so many problems and so much depression that church was not forefront in their minds. These people have been dealt a hard life. For example: There was a 6 year old girl with a really bad cleft lip that she could not afford to get fixed. There was a lady with cataracts so bad that I doubt she could even see 6 inches in front of her face. There was a little girl somewhere around 6 or 7 that was scared so bad physically. She had major scaring on her chin, neck and ear area. She look like she had been severely burned and was incredibly lucky to even be alive. There were kids with no shoes and disfigured feet from walking the mountains. These people had it rough – and for most the journey had just started.

These people had no hope and no faith to cling on to. They were barely making it through each day and were lucky if they were in some kind of church for some shred of hope. I’m fairly certain some of these kids will see more pain this year alone that I will see in my whole entire life. The thought of that alone is enough to make me weep. These kids were clinging on to our every word, our smile, a touch or even a simple hug. Some of them just wanted us to look their way. 

I honestly remember half way through the day thinking I don’t even know if I can finish this. This area was a new level of poverty to me. Their clothing was tattered, and you could tell their education was low but the Lord put them on my heart and I weep for them tonight and I pray for them constantly. 

These kids did not want us to leave and I had a hard time saying goodbye and waving myself. And they were sooooo happy when they held up their boat crafts as we left.

On the way home we stopped on one of the roadways hangers and looked over a savannah. We could see little cities, hills, plains areas and even several massive craters from where active volcanos used to be – it was gorgeous. I need to head to bed, I’m emotionally drained.

p.s. – Tonight Emily and I had a really great bonding time. We talked about similar experiences we have had in the past as well as what God is doing in our life now. It was a really good time and I think God is going to do a lot with that. 

7/6/08 – Day 12

Today was the most rewarding day we have had so far – or at least it was to me. We went this morning to pick up Catherine from the gas station and Lenick from KTC and then we were on our way to church. We left the hotel at about 9.15 but didn’t even get to the church until about 12.30. It was incredibly hard to get there. We headed to Mt. Kenya national park and picked up some people along the way. We drove along the main road for a while until we got completely lost. They have started to put up electric fences along the property to keep all the animals from getting into the crops and eating it all up. 

After we picked up a boy who knew how to get us to our church we drive for about 45 more minutes, not because we had a long way to go but because the roads were tore up so we had to creep in order to keep our van from bottoming out. At one point we came across a ditch that had been made (they are on the way to putting water irrigation pipes in) and was to big for the van to go across. We feared the tired would get stuck to we got out and filled the ditch with dirt enough that we could drive across. When we finally got through the forest into open fields it was beautiful. There were hills covered with crops of different colors of green and little tin and mud homes littered on the countryside. We even passed through a clearing with tons of trufula trees! (from a Dr. Suess book – he must have spent some time in Africa because they were identical. 

Once we finally got to our church it felt like we were home. It was a little church probably not even the size of my room at church. It had wooden sides and a tin roof. Most of the people there were children, we were told that the adults already had church and went home so they could send their kids back for church and CBS.

 When we first got there we visited for a little bit and listened to the people sing and then they asked us to come in and join them. When we came in they did a little presentation for us. First a couple girls came up and recited a couple memory verses. Then all the kids SS class came up and danced and then sang a song for us. I only remember a little bit: I’m a soldier in the army, I’m a soldier in the army, I’m a soldier in the army, I’m a soldier in the army of the Lord. If I die let me die in the army, If I die let me die in the army, If I die let me die in the army, I’m a soldier in the army of the Lord.

 It was precious! After that the older youth came up and sang and danced. We had seen 2 of them at KTC once before so it was good to see them involved in church. Next we had time for visitors to introduce themselves, which always makes me super nervous. This time was not so bad since it was mostly children. We had a time of singing which I love – its somewhat hard to explain but it feels ok when we sing together. Even though we don’t know what they are saying I know they are praising the one true God like we are. I know they are proclaiming the truth – and I feel like I belong.

 Motegii (Dr. Trull) preached a little message next, probably around 40 minutes or so in Kimeru. It reminded me of the Pentecost and how even though I don’t know word for word what he was saying I could follow along in the scriptures and know he was proclaiming the truth. I know they were being fed some heavy truths and they seemed so hungry to receive it. This place was so different from yesterday! Because they were not struggling to survive they could focus on actually coming to church and being involved in the studies they offer there. They had light in their eyes, they just seemed to have a presence of hope about them. A hope that even the hardest of trials could not pull away from them. I am sad to say that there are even places at home that are not this way. We have a huge task ahead of us.

 After the message we had offering and a time of prayer before taking communion. During singing as we were waiting to go get the elements a really drunk women came in and stood by me. She really scared me. She was flailing her arms all around and hitting people and yelling at the top of her lungs. Some of the men of the church grabbed her and physically threw her out of the church. They do not tolerate things like that in church like we do a home. Mama became a hassle to us all day but we just learned to ignore her.

 After church they fed us lunch and we mingled until it was time for CBS.

 The children here were precious. I had a little girl, Edina, who became my child for the day. During the first part of church she kept pointing and telling her friend to look at my tattoo and during prayer she came over and grabbed my hand until she was eventually sitting in my lap and hugging me. :) It made me teary eyed to let her go. At one point I let her take pictures with my camera so I have some nice pictures of fingers and peoples feet and legs. 

These kids were so content with just playing with us or themselves. They really didn’t even need us to do the CBS, but they loved it just the same. There was one little boy who played outside and kept making dirt angels while 3 little girls just sat outside and looked at the sky. Drunk mama started picking up sticks and acting like she was going to attack so I kept an eye on the little ones outside. When she would get close to them I would run over, pick them up and then bring them over to where we were all standing. I know she would probably never intentionally started hurting a child, but she was so drunk she could have injured one without even realizing it.

 Once we got the CBS started it went amazingly well. We did our first drama (Jesus feeds the 5000) and the kids all laughed at us, and when we came to the craft the kids had a blast! They all colored so well and most for their stickers in the right place. They all kept holding their papers up so I would take a picture of their good work. They were pretty much all like that when we made the little boats also and they all giggled when they got to try the boats out in our little basin of water. After the CBS was over we got all the kids together and had them hold up the “Love Me” sign to take a picture for the World Missions Workshop. I had a really hard time telling them by today. 

By the way I used a traditional choo today. This one was nice, and very clean. The hole was huge (about the size of a cereal bowl) the boards you stand on were sturdy and not rotten, all the walls were closed (no missing wood panels) It was large so you could get a good wide stance, and they had a door that actually closed so you could have some privacy. To top it all off, they had newspaper so you could wipe if you had nothing. Seriously, this was 5 star compared to some of the others we have been in. 

When it came time to go the other students walked home with the youth to the main road. I stayed with the Trulls and helped drop people off. We had the Trulls, Catherine and myself, 4 adults from church and about 15 kids. We were all scrunched up and I even had some sitting on my lap that I was holding so they wouldn’t slide everywhere or get thrown into the seat. Getting back home was easy, we had a couple of people with us that knew the shortest way to go.

 What slowed us down the most was how late it was. People were walking their herd’s home. We got stopped about 3 different times. I’ve never had to share the road with sheep, goats and cows before. It was hilarious. Dr. Trull being the impatient man kept honking the horn trying to get them to move which did not help at all. The herd’s owner finally got them to jump up onto the land on the side of the road and we then dropped everyone off and headed home.

 We are so lucky, on the way home again we got to see the peak of Mt. Kenya. This time everyone got a good look at it. The Trulls said none of their groups have ever seen it this many times on one trip. It was rather exciting. I don’t remember if I’ve already mentioned this but Mt. Kenya is the 2^nd largest mountain in Africa at 17,086 ft second only to Kilimanjaro. I would love to see that but I don’t think we will. Just another reason I have to come back to Africa. 

 (<—– don’t you see how nice it is?)