Kenya - Days 7 to 9

I decided to take Saturday off in order to rest up a bit, but it still turned out to be an interesting day. I met up with Jackson, a friend of a friend, who lives and works in Kibera, the largest slum not only in Nairobi, but in all of Africa. I heard a statistic that 60% of the Nairobi population lives in slums. Jackson went to seminary and has helped to plant two churches in Kibera. He has also helped to start a youth program which not only supports the youth but also goes out to different areas doing programs to promote abstinence before marriage. Jackson also houses 15 boys in his home who would otherwise be living on the streets. With support from a church in the States these boys are able to not only be living in this Christ-centered, supportive home but also have their education paid for. I don’t have any photos of this experience because I decided to leave my camera in the car for safety reasons. Sunday was another day at Kikuyu Baptist church, where I was asked to preach again! I did it but hopefully that will be my last time, I don’t think I’m called to be a preacher :-)
Monday was our last day with the church. We had a counseling session with a street family who are all HIV positive. After finding out they were positive they were given no help or information about what to do next. Fortunately we had a nurse with us in the church who was able to give the couple information about how to take care of themselves and where to go to get ARV’s (anti-retriviral drugs). We also had a debriefing session with the church members. They desire to start a training program for the street kids in carpentry/mechanics and other areas to enable them to get jobs and get off the streets. We found during our week that that is the desire of many of the older kids. The younger kids tended to be addicted to glue, one was even sniffing it in our presence. But it seemed that as they got older many gave up this habit and tended to get more serious about trying to find ways to support themselves and get off the streets. We’ve committed to be praying for the church for provision to begin a training program and that God will lead them to continue growing this ministry and supporting these children. Please join us in prayer for this as well. Also pray for the seven individuals who accepted Christ this week that the Lord would reveal Himself to them in mighty ways, would provide for their needs, and would grow their faith in Him to His glory.
Before leaving we went to say goodbye to some of the boys at one of their local hangouts. They invited us to play a game of billiards with them... a great way to fellowship and end the week :-)

Photos:
*Crystal and I with some of the members of Kikuyu Baptist Church who we worked with.

*Kikuyu Baptist Church.

*Our friend Jane and another lady fixing us tea. They served us tea twice a day, a custom throughout many parts of Africa.

*This little girl insisted on sitting next to me and holding my hand through the entire church service Sunday. I soon had a whole groups of little ones surrounding me, but she had to be right next to me and didn’t have a problem shoving anyone aside who tried to take her place!

*Playing pool with the street boys on our last day.