Good Samaritan

“Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’” – Matthew 19:13-14

Last week, Colleen and I had the privilege of helping our friend Robyn Moore, a WGM missionary and Nurse Practitioner, at Good Samaritan orphanage in Nairobi.  Good Sam is located in Mathare, a slum with over half a million people living in it.  Robyn has an incredible ministry to several orphanages around Nairobi, providing medical care and food for the children. 

 

We mainly played with the kids and helped with crowd control as Robyn saw some patients.  It was so much fun spending time with the kids... Colleen taught a bunch of them “Skidamarink” complete with motions, so she was surrounded by kids singing and dancing for most of the day.  We had made peanut butter sandwiches the morning before we left, and the kids loved them… they lined up so quietly as we passed them out, and there were huge grins on all of their faces.  It is amazing how much joy a little Jiff can bring! 

We were shocked to hear some of the childrens’ stories – many of them have experienced more than a lifetime of trauma in their young lives.  Some of the things that have happened to them are horrible… Our only comfort is knowing that God loves them more than we can even imagine, and He promises to take care of them and set things right in the end.   

Early in our time at Good Samaritan, a little boy named Newton latched onto Colleen and they were inseparable for the rest of the day.  He was such a precious little boy who just needed some love.  Like many of the kids, Newton has already had so much happen in his little life.  He was so sweet and loved all the attention that he was getting… we wished we could just take him home and love on him! 

Please pray for Newton and for all the other children like him.  There are so many kids who have been rejected by the world, but are priceless to the Lord.  In the verse posted above, Jesus confirmed how important little children are to Him and how we are to treat them, even though so often they are cast aside in society.  “The kingdom of heaven belongs to them…”

Also please pray for Robyn and her incredible ministry.  She deals with things on a daily basis that most of us cannot imagine, yet she perseveres to help the children.  Click HERE to see Robyn Moore's WGM page. 

Thanks so much for reading and for your prayers,

Cason

Click HERE to see the whole album of pictures from our time at Good Sam... so many beautiful faces!

She was so beautiful and photogenic:

A view from the second floor of Good Samaritan out into the Mathare slum:

Colleen is always surrounded by kids… they love her!:

I cannot get over how amazing orphans’ eyes are sometimes…:

The kids waiting in line for their peanut butter sandwiches:

Newton getting checked out by Robyn:

As always, thanks for reading!

Salgaa Clean-up

We’ve written before about the ministry that our church, Ngata AGC, has to the women of Salgaa and the local Internally Displaced Persons Camp.  Today we had the opportunity to go to Salgaa with our youth group and students from Kabarak University to help clean up the streets. 

Salgaa is located right along the main road from Nakuru to western Kenya, and is a popular truck stop.  Because of this, it is a poorer community with a large commercial sex worker industry.  It is difficult to get real numbers, but on any given night there are up to 300 women out working the streets.  Many of these women turn to prostitution because  they see it as the only viable occupation available – many hope it is temporary necessity just to get by, but they end up getting sucked into a lifestyle that won’t let them out.  The church hosts a weekly Bible study for the women, and partners in other ministries that teach health education and alternative occupation skills. 

Because the town sprung up quickly around the truck stop, there is no working sanitation or refuse disposal… so trash is tossed haphazardly or piled by the streets.  It is everywhere, and is a big health risk since many kids run around in bare feet. 

For our clean up day, we met in Salgaa armed with gloves and garbage bags, and walked around the dirt streets picking up trash.  Kids came from everywhere wanting to know what we were doing, and many wanted to help.  We gave them gloves, which they loved, and they helped pick up trash for hours… I made quite a few little friends, mostly because they were interested in being around the crazy mzungu (white guy) who was picking up trash.  After a few hours, I had a little army of trash picker-uppers helping me as we tried to communicate in broken Swahili and English.   When most of the garbage bags had been filled, we loaded them into a lorry (truck) to be hauled back to Nakuru… again, because there is no refuse dump in Salgaa. 

We realized that our overall message of cleanliness wasn’t totally sticking with the kids when we gave them each of them a piece of candy for their hard work…. almost immediately after they had the candy in their hands, the wrappers were tossed all over the ground… right next to the bags of garbage that we had just collected!  I guess old habits die hard, even when you’re 7 years old.  Someone explained to them about picking up the trash and keeping things clean, so hopefully they remember the lesson the next time the get a sweet. 

The goal of the day wasn’t to rid Salgaa of trash – that would take many days, shovels, and backhoes – but it was merely to show Christ’s love in the community and try to let people know that the are valuable.  While working, I talked with some women selling vegetables who were so appreciative of what we were doing and were asking about the church and Bible Study.  Just showing up with gloves and trash bags afforded us conversations that we wouldn’t have been able to have otherwise. 

It was also great for our youth to serve, and to think about how they were working for the Lord, not for men.  Sometimes showing Christ’s love means picking wrappers and condoms up out of the mud and sewage… there are many ways to worship the Lord, and they are not always pleasant.  He calls us to be servants, because He humbled himself and became the ultimate servant… willing to give all of Himself for each one of us.

So whatever you do… do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31

Thanks so much for reading and for your prayers.

Cason

Click here to see the whole Ngata AGC Facebook album of pictures from the clean up day.

Here’s me and my army of helpers taking a break from work to show off our dirty gloves:

Cute little girl that followed Colleen around all day… big thanks to Colleen for all of these great photos!:

Pastor Paul, Rael, and a friend from Kabarak:

I think this is my “stink” face:

The whole group in front of the Kabarak bus:

Andrew and Malachi come back for a visit

Cason and I were so blessed by a return visit from our two most recent children to leave the Baby Centre.  Andrew and Malachi came back for their three month visit.   Cason and I pulled up to the Baby Centre to the sound of swahili yelling "that's Colleen's car!"  and as I climbed out of the car I was immediately tackled by the boys.  They were so incredibly happy!  After I was tackled the went running to Cason and asked to be thrown in the air!  

In just three months their vocal skills improved drastically!  I could no longer keep up with their swahili.  They both were so affectionate with the parents and wanted to show off their new families.  The parents knew the boys were best friends, so they let them call and chat on the phone from time to time.  It's just an incredible blessing to see what God has done for these two children and the families that now have them. 

Cason and I have kind of had a rough last few weeks  here and this incredible joy was a wonderful reassurance from God that he is taking care of each one of these children.  We are so thankful that we were able to see them and visit with their families.  Praise the Lord who is the great provider. 

 

Thanks so much for reading, for your prayers and support.

Colleen

Here are pictures that Cason took while he was swinging the boys around…

And here is both families together. 

Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp

The past month or so, I (Cason) have had the privilege of helping our church, Ngata AGC, with their ministry at a local Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp.  The camp, which is about 10km from the church, was initially set up after the violence following the December 2007 elections – so most of the people have been living there for almost 3 years.  According to one mze (older man) at the camp, there are 700 family units and over 2600 people living in the tent village.  Some of them have outside jobs, but most just get by on what they can.  There is no clean water source at the camp, and the government stopped bringing supplies, so the primary ministry of the church is bringing truck-fulls of clean water.

The picture on the left is of Pastor Habib, from Ngata AGC with some of his friends from the IDP camp.  Habib and the church found out about the camp through another one of its ministries to women in a town called Salgaa.  Since it is along the main highway, Salgaa is a major truck stop, and prostitution is rampant.  Many women turn to it because there is no other work available. 

The church holds weekly Bible studies for the women in Salgaa, as well as clinics that teaches life skills and provides training in alternative occupations.  One of the women, with whom the church came into contact from that ministry, is named Truforcer (that’s how it is pronounced… I have no idea how it is spelled).  She lives in a tent at the IDP camp with her two children, but comes to Salgaa to look for work and also to attend the Bible study.  Truforcer is a leader at the IDP camp and teaches Sunday school to the many kids who live there.  Below is a picture of her with her children in front of their tent/home.

The camp is a village of white-ish tents, about 2km off the main highway behind some maize  fields.  The people who live there say that the government has ignored their camp in favor of helping others since theirs isn’t visible from the road… got to keep things looking nice for the tour groups who drive by, I guess. 

The people are there for a variety of reasons, but most had to leave their homes after the tribal-driven violence following the 2007 elections re-emphasized the tribal lines in many communities.  They are waiting on the government to give them land since they left their untenable homes after the post-election clashes, but they have no idea if or when that might happen. 

The tens are so small and most don’t have any bottom – entire families live in what we would call a “pup” tent, and they must get soaked when it rains.  The tent in the photo above is probably for a family of 3-5.  The kitchens are little fire pits dug into the earth in front of the tents and there are no places for bathing. 

The camp has a little football (soccer) pitch right next to it with homemade goals.  I was able to take them some balls that were given to me by South Central Soccer Academy from Greenwood, Indiana (the club that I used to play at many years ago).  There are kids everywhere, and i must have looked like the pied piper walking to the football pitch, because I more than 50 kids following me and yelling out things about the mzungu (white man) and the soccer ball.  I kicked the ball around with them for a while, which was so much fun.  It is amazing what a $10 soccer can do to raise spirits and put smiles on faces.  My team, Ngata United FC, is hopefully going to partner with the older players from the IDP camp to give our old uniforms and invite them to the next tournament that we host. 

Our church is struggling to know how to help the people of the camp without creating an unsustainable expectation.  It is difficult to know how or how much to help sometimes, but we so know that Jesus called us to help those in need.  Please pray for wisdom for the church and the mission, that we would know how to provide appropriate assistance.  The most pressing and basic need is for water – the people of the community line up for hours with whatever containers they can find to fill up at the truck.

As I walked around talking to people the last time I was there, I thought of all the times that Jesus taught his disciples to meet physical needs as well as spiritual.  “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."  (Matthew 10:42)

Please pray for this amazing ministry of Ngata AGC, as well as for the people of the IDP camp - especially that the church and mission would get wisdom as to what the best ways are to provide assistance, and also spiritual discipleship.  Thanks!

Cason

Click HERE for a link to an album with more pictures from the IDP camp.  Below are a few more of our favorite photos. 

The girl with awesome hair… really it was half done corn rows, but I thought it was sweet looking:

Truforcer and me:

Yellow laces:

Little girl in front of her tent… looks a little scared of the white man with the camera:

Checking my photos and fielding a call from the office:

My friend with the great hair:

Thanks for reading!

Church Events

PART I

A few weeks ago, we took our youth group on a day trip to Lake Bagoria, just a few kilometers north of the equator.  Seventeen of us packed into a matatu (van) and headed out for the lake, early-ish Saturday morning.  Lake Bagoria is known for having hot springs and an abundance of flamingos.  There is a geyser that shoots water 20-30 feet into the air, and in some places the water is boiling… so on the way up, we stopped and bought eggs.  The youth tied them to sticks and put them in the boiling water for a few minutes to cook themselves a snack!  See Pastor Wycliffe in the photo on the left standing on the rocks above the boiling water just to cook a few eggs…

After sight-seeing at the hot springs and flamingos, we got out a picnic of sloppy joes and carrots that we brought… it was the first time the majority of the youth had eaten sloppy joes.  Most really loved them and they especially liked the name, “sloppy joe,” after we explained it.  Below is a picture of Colleen and me serving up the ‘joes!

From the park, we left for a local hotel with two swimming pools.  One was a normal, chlorine filled pool, but the other piped water in from the hot springs… so it was a bit green-ish and felt like a giant bathtub of warm water.  The majority of the youth didn’t know how to swim, so we gave some impromptu treading water and dog-paddling lessons with varying degrees of success... It was quite funny trying to teach them how to swim!  There were water polo goals in the hot spring filled pool, so we had a fun hour or so of intense competition (in shallow water, so everyone could participate). 

On the left, Mathew and Aggy battle during water polo.  Below is picture of Colleen and Rael trying to be flamingos, as well as one of the whole group with the geyser in the background. 

It was a great day, primarily just of fellowship and community building.  We did have a brief discussion about how we want the youth group to progress over the next few months and how we can be encouraging each other to continue to grow in Christ.  Please pray for the kids as they face daily trials and temptations, just like all of us.  Also pray for us that we could encourage the youth and be Christ-like examples for them to follow.        Click this link to see the full album of pictures from our day at Lake Bagoria…The Ngata youth at Lake Bagoria. 

PART II

Another recent Sunday was “family day” at Ngata AGC, so after a combined (English and Swahili translated) service, we had a get together of games and fun behind the church.  Toro led some games and did a great job getting everyone involved… even the wazee (older men).  

For the first game that we played, everyone say in a circle and made a pointed their finger with their right had, then they put their left hand on top of the finger of the personal on their right… at Toro’s signal, everyone tried to grab fingers with their left hands while trying to get away with the right.  It was really fun and got everyone involved.   

Next they had three wazee and three mamas (women) place their shoes in a pile in the middle of the circle.  They were blindfolded, spun around, and then set lose to try to find their pair of shoes… it was complete chaos, but everyone was laughing so hard.  The crowd was all yelling instructions, and eventually most of the blindfolded contestants were reunited with their shoes.  The picture above is the blindfolded mamas trying to find their shoes. 

It was great to see the men and women willing to make themselves look a bit silly so everyone could have a good time laughing.  It is not as culturally acceptable here for a respected man or woman to be made to look ridiculous, so it was hilarious to all of the kids and helped reinforce equality among the different ages, tribes, and socioeconomic classes.   The last game was musical chairs, which they call “dancing chairs” in Kenya… can we all agree that “dancing chairs” is a much cooler name?  Even though I was the photographer for the events, they roped me into playing.  Again, it was great to see the adults, youth, and kids all mixing together and interacting.  I think I made it to the final 5 or so, but my mzungu (white person) butt wasn’t fast enough into the seats to stay in the game any longer than that. 

Family Day was a wonderful time of unifying and community building for the church, and I’m so glad that we could participate.  Being a part of a church body in Kenya has been such a blessing and encouragement to us.  It is always so cool to me to think about how just a few hours after we worship in Kenya, many of you praising our same Lord in churches in the US – what a big God we serve! 

Last week, I also made the church a facebook page where we can upload photos and post updates on Ngata Africa Gospel Church events.  Go to facebook.com/NgataAGC to see the page, and “like” it if you want to stay updated.  To see more pictures of the Ngata Family Day, click this link… Family Day at Ngata AGC. 

As always, thanks so much for reading. 

Here are a few more pictures of the fun at our church family day…

We had a chair casualty from “dancing” chairs:

An old mama watching the festivities:

Mrs. Kamoing’ was the life of the party!:

Pastor Paul’s beautiful wife and daughter swaying to the music:

Before and after the games, we had group stretching/calisthenics led by Toro… everyone stood in lines and danced around to the music.  I think that was my favorite part!: 

Thanks for reading!  We’ll try to post again soon about some work that we’ve been doing in camps for Internally Displaced People.  God Bless!