The Kenya Story

For those of you that don't know, I recently returned from leading a group from church on a mission trip to Kenya. It was an incredible experience, so here is my attempt to put in to words what it was like. It's pretty long, but I like writing, and I loved the trip, so.....enjoy!

The Beginning

Things got off to a rocky start for us. When we got to the airport, we were informed that Sophie could not travel with us because her passport expired in less than six months. By about a week. And apparently Kenya won't let you in if that's the case. Whoops. However, God was still in control. Sophie got a new passport a couple days later, flew out the day after that and met us in Kenya. And pretty soon we barely remembered anything went wrong.

The Safari

We started out the trip with a two day Safari at Amboseli National Park, which was pretty awesome. We stayed at a place called Kibo Safari Camp, where we slept in permanent tents I guess you could call them. They had beds and a toilet and everything though, so we were by no means roughing it.

That's Stephanie and me outside our tent-hut thing. And for some reason the camp had a man come around and do 6am wake-up calls, whether you asked for it or not. It was pretty weird and a little scary the first day.

From the camp we went out on four different "game drives" in these cool van things with pop-up roofs.

We saw all kinds of animals, I could barely believe we were really there right in the middle of them all. Lots of zebras and wildebeests and gazelles and water buffalo and flamingos and tons of elephants. The elephants were my favorite.

We also saw the occasional lion or warthog or hippo or giraffe, but those were much less frequent. And I was pretty content most of them time just driving through the park being in awe of God's creation and the fact that I was in Africa. It was pretty amazing.

Also as part of the Safari, we made a stop to visit a Maasai tribe.

It was kind-of cool, we saw them dance and do their singing deal, as well as make fire without matches and stuff, but it was kind-of a rip-off too. They made us each pay $20 to come see their tribe, which just seemed weird. And then at the end they try to sell you souvenir type stuff for outrageous prices. Not cool. But oh well, I guess it was a cool experience.

The Story of Tumaini

After the Safari we headed out on the four-ish hour drive to the Tumaini Shamba, which is the Swahili word for farm.

Tumaini Ministries currently has two properties just outside of Nairobi. One is the shamba, and the other is the home for the children. I guess now is as good as time to take a moment to explain what Tumaini is and how it all started (to the best of my knowledge)...

About ten years ago, a Kenyan woman named Eunice moved to Denver from the East Coast, and because of several different circumstances, her and her two children ended up homeless. Eunice and her family found help from the Denver Rescue Mission (they're great), as well as Mile High Ministries. During this time, Eunice began to feel a calling from God to go back to her home country to help the many children left orphaned by AIDS or abandoned by their parents.

After months of prayer and study, Eunice sensed that God was calling her to return to Kenya to start an orphanage yet, not an orphanage: rather, a home for children who have become orphans.
-Tumaini Web Site

In June of 2004, the Tumaini Children's Home began. Today, Tumaini is bursting at the seams with over 50 children in a house made for about 40.

But these kids are taken care of so well. It truly is a home, and they really are a big family. These kids are not waiting to be adopted or placed in another home. They have found their home--or really, their home has found them.

Before I continue to talk about how amazing Tumaini is, let me explain where Tumaini is going. As I said before, Tumaini currently has the home and the Shamba in two different towns. The eventual plan is to have all of Tumaini located at the 50 acre Shamba. One of the first building projects at the Shamba was the guest huts, where we stayed.

When we arrived at this hut area, Levi (our volunteer coordinator) told me that this was one of the most peaceful places on earth. He was right. The huts are tucked in a small corner of the Shamba, and it's just a beautiful and well-kept little area. I loved it. Although I think we probably disturbed the peace from time to time with our intense card games or soccer juggling.

But anyway, the next building on the Shamba was just finished while we were there, and it is the baby rescue center.

When you hear the stories of the little kids we played with, ages 1-7, you'll find that most of them were abandoned at just days or weeks old. But because Tumaini is over capacity, they cannot take anymore kids. That's where the rescue center comes in. Now they will be able to take in babies, take very good care of them, and place many of them in children's homes or with families.

Eventually, the plan is to build several different cottages on the Shamba and have all of the kids live there. Then they will be able to have around 200 kids as opposed to just 50. However, Levi and others continued to stress to us that it won't be an institution. The kids will most likely be placed in cottages and given a "mom" or "auntie," and each cottage will function almost like a separate family. The kids at Tumaini are not just numbers. They are individuals who are loved and cared for, and Eunice wants that to continue even as they grow.

Eunice's story is pretty incredible. God is using her in big ways to change lives in Kenya. We were incredible privileged to be a small part of this story...

Being a part of the story

Sometimes when people hear about a mission trip to a foreign country, they think building a house or a church or something. We knew from the start this one would be different. As we prepared for this trip throughout the semester, we knew we wanted to just humble ourselves before God and let him guide us completely. We knew we wanted in some way to be a part of God's justice work in the world. At one of our first meetings together as a team, we created this as our purpose statement for Kenya:

We are going to Kenya to serve the Tumaini orphanage because we want to love, serve, and learn from our brothers and sisters in Christ there.

Looking back now, I believe, by the grace of God, we did just that and more.

Work

Let's start with some of the "work" we did. We were there at an opportune time to help, as several finishing touches were being made on the rescue center, as well as around the farm to prepare it for everyone who would be there for the dedication, which took place a few days after we left.

First, we painted the rocks (zebra style) that line the drive up to the building...

Let's get a closer look...

I forgot my hat that morning. So I improvised. The final product looked like this...

Apparently they were super impressed with our work, so that's fun.

After painting, mostly just some cleaning was required. And what cleaning means is scraping red Kenyan mud off of every surface using brushes. It was...tedious. But that's ok. We scraped dirt off of the walkway rocks...

Don't I look so excited to be doing that? We also scraped dirt off of rocks and walls. And Stefan and Barry thought it would be funny to leave this small section unscraped...

Hopefully it's etched there forever. We also did some mopping and cleaning walls on the inside. And one day we did some landscaping outside the gates to make the entrance look pretty for all the guests that would be coming for the dedication.

Most of us wanted to do some work on the farm too, so we got put to work digging up potatoes in the potato field one day.

Fun times, but I don't really think I'm cut out for potato picking.

Barry also helped out our friend George one day with the pigs. George is a great guy. I met him the first day I was at the farm wandering around. His life is a great witness to Christ, as he works such a humble job with a servant's heart because he knows the greater good of what he's doing.

Two of the pigs had babies while we were there, so we made frequent trips to visit George and the piglets.

And...that was about the extent of our physical labor, but we were glad to be able to contribute.

The Kids

Most of the rest of the time, we played with the kids. My first experience with them was the first day we went to the school.

The school was a close walk from the Tumaini home, so a couple days we would walk the lunches over for the kids and then play with them there the rest of the afternoon, usually in this open dirt field. The actual classrooms were up the hill. We loved seeing our Tumaini kids at the school, and met some other not so well behaved kids there who were pretty crazy, but we love them too. The kids were just all over us--playing with hair, holding our hands, sitting on our laps, everything. And they loved being in pictures.

And then they loved seeing the pictures, and taking pictures, and then we had to put the cameras away. But it was fun while it lasted.

I loved playing at the school, mostly because we always ended up playing a soccer game. So the first kid I will tell you about is my soccer buddy Sevia.

Sevia is not a Tumaini kid, so I don't know his story or where he comes from, but we just bonded over our love of soccer. By the second time we went to the school, he was forming teams and said we were on the same team. He must have been watching the world cup a lot, because whenever he scored a goal, we would have a big celebration. And whenever he missed or messed up, he would jokingly collapse to the ground. He was entertaining and he knew it.

Sevia speaks great English, and one of my favorite quotes from happened when a little 3 year old girl was crying and he says, "Hey man, why you cryin?" We quoted him on that the rest of the trip. We got to play one last game with him the day we left, and after giving out water as part of our victory celebrations, we said our good-byes.

Ok in reality, we didn't actually say good-bye because once school is over the kids basically scatter. But I will most likely not forget my boy Sevia, or him yelling my name across the soccer field.

After school we would go hang out at Tumaini with the kids for a little longer and had our afternoon chai, while the kids had their porridge or yogurt or some unknown substance in a plastic cup at little plastic tables with little plastic chairs.

Our first Sunday there, we went to church near Tumaini and then went and spent the rest of the afternoon with the kids. That day is memorable to me for two reasons.

One, that's the day I met my friend Kimani.

Kimani is a special kid; he has cerebral palsey. I noticed him that day sitting on a chair and thought to myself, Jen would love him. (As in Jen Fogleman, she works with special kids). And then I thought, wow, I love him. So I eventually made my way over to him and sat next to him. And then pretty much never wanted to leave. He was a little feisty that day--he kept grabbing my arm and digging his nails in, and he even bit me once or twice. But I just sat there and let him play with my hand and my watch and my bracelet. That's usually what we did as friends.

One day Sophie and I got to ride along to go pick him up at his school. He goes to a school in Nairobi that has a program disabled kids, which I was pleasantly surprised to hear existed and seemed pretty good too. We went to his classroom with the Tumaini driver who takes him to and from school everyday. He was so excited to see Samwell the driver. Then Samwell, knowing that me and Kimani were bff, handed him off to me and called me Auntie, which is what they call the women at Tumaini. I loved that moment. I felt super honored to be in his life.

I'm not sure if he ever knew who I was or recognized me or anything, but I love that kid. And I love that he is part of the family. The other kids call him by name, they bring him things and they love on him, even though he tries to grab their heads if they come near. That's Kimani.

The other thing I'll remember about that Sunday was that I got to see how well the Mommas or Aunties, as well as a couple Uncles, love on these kids. They are not just employees, they're part of the family. The are so loving and caring and nurturing, and it was so incredible to watch. They were jump roping with the girls or having little conversations or joking around or wiping noses all the time. They are why those kids are going to grow up as strong and loving individuals. The kids are so well loved. I thank God for them.

One day of our trip we went to visit the Nairobi Children's Home, which is the state run orphanage. While the staff there is loving as well, it was just a very sad and dark place. There were a few smiling faces, but mostly the kids were sad and quiet and sick, and all they wanted to do was lie on us.

Levi kept telling us that Eunice is not allowed to go there anymore because she would always want to take every single one of them to Tumaini. Several of the Tumaini kids did come from that home originally. It's not meant to be a permanent place to stay. Those kids are sent to other homes or possibly adopted, but they just live in a very sad state there, mostly due to lack of funding.

Tumaini is like a different world compared to Nairobi Children's Home. It made me even more thankful for the work they do. The kids at Tumaini are happy and healthy and smiling and loved. Hopefully as Tumaini expands, more and more of those kids can leave Nairobi Children's Home and join the Tumaini family.

Another great day we had was the Saturday before we left, which was also a week before the baby rescue center opened. Eunice decided they should have a celebration for the completion of the construction of the building. So that morning while we were probably once again juggling the soccer ball in our yard, we see this bus roll in to the Shamba...

The kids were all just stacked on each other. Everyone came that day: all the kids, all the aunties and uncles, all the construction workers and farm workers, etc. For most of the day, a lot of the people there, including the older Tumaini kids, did some more cleaning and landscaping stuff. But most of us just played with the kids all day.

The coolest part of that day was when everyone first got there, and everyone stood at the front of the rescue center and they all started singing praises and celebrating that God had given them this place.

That's Eunice in the visor, and her daughter has the pink braids. It was just a really cool moment to watch, and to praise God along with them.

That day I got to spend a lot of time with another one of my good friends Issa.

We were drawing that day. Issa is about 7, and we became good friends about halfway through the trip. He learned my name, but then always asked me my name again. He also played soccer with us, and I loved hearing him yell my name on the field too. Issa was just kind-of mesmerized by us. We would walk in, and he would just stare. It was really funny. I love Issa, he's great.

Later that Saturday, we had a big celebration meal. The men had slaughtered a cow and cooked it up for us, so we ate beef and rice and cabbage with our hands all together. It was a great experience.

Well I've left a couple important kids out. Sophie and I had two boys that we spent a lot of time with, Uncle Charles and Peter. Uncle Charles is actually only 3, but Eunice had an Uncle named Charles so they just decided to call him that. The four of us were in a best friends club.

That's Peter in the KU hat and Uncle with me. We loved these two kids. Uncle Charles would typically be found either in my arms or Sophie's, and pretty much everyday would fall asleep in one of our laps.

He was way cute, and didn't really speak a word of English. I will probably always remember little Uncle Charles finding me out of a crowd of people and reaching his arms up to me to be held.

I don't know how you could ever resist, I love that little guy. Peter was awesome too, he had the cutest little voice and actually spoke a lot of English for only being about 4. Sophie taught him to say, "Sophie and Amanda are my best friends," and it was really cute. Peter also had a pee pants problem though, so you always had to be careful about picking him up, as Sophie discovered one day.

Yep, that's our pee pants Peter. Love him.

Well I could go on and on about the kids. They were all so great, and I hope I don't ever forget them...I don't think I will, they were way too awesome.



Transformation

I have so many more stories to tell--about visiting the slums, about funny things the kids did, about cool church services with awesome choirs, about encouraging words from the people we met, about Barry puking out the side of the van, the list goes on. But I feel like this is getting long enough, and I still need to make sure I talk about what we've taken away from this experience and why we even went.

Throughout the trip we studied the book of Luke and discussed it in team meetings, led by Mr. Rick Gager. From the beginning, I noticed how often Jesus did something and the people were amazed. I challenged the team to be amazed by the work of Christ. I feel like sometimes we forget to give credit to Jesus for the work he does in people's lives and in this world everyday. So several times throughout the trip I asked everyone to answer the question, how are you being amazed by Jesus?

Well, here's my answer. I am amazed at the work of Christ in Tumaini. It truly is an incredible organization, founded by an incredible woman. Before the trips this summer when we were having our "mission training" I guess you could call it, we talked about doing justice versus just doing service. As in, service is just giving someone water and justice is finding out why they need water and building a well or something.

Tumaini is an organization through which Jesus is bringing justice. They don't just merely give kids a roof over their heads and a couple meals. These kids receive better love and care than I would have ever expected. They are happy and healthy. The many of them with HIV are given proper medication so that you would never know which ones have it and which don't. Because of how well they are raised and the support that Tumaini receives, several of these kids will have an opportunity to go to college, or even just to high school, that they probably would never have had without Tumaini. The best part is, these kids are growing up understanding that Christ is their Savior, and being encouraged daily to follow Him.

To that I say, Bwana Asifiwe, Amen. That's Kiswahili for Praise the Lord.

Finally, throughout the trip, I felt like this one phrase kept popping back into my head: Let your lives be changed. This is another thing I asked the team to think about and consider, especially near the end of the trip. God is in the business of transformation, and I believe that through an experience like this, we need to seek what it is He wants to teach or in what ways He wants to change us.

Some members of our team realized they wanted to invest more in their relationship with God, others were encouraged by the relationships we formed with people there and wanted to take that back with them. The lesson that most hit me is one that has been on my heart for the past couple years. Through reading Luke and seeing the lives of the people in Kenya, I realized again that I want to keep working to live more simply. I continually remembered that phrase, "Live simply so others may simply live."

I want to live a simpler life. Jesus lived a simple life. The kids at Tumaini live a simple life. Why do I think I need so much stuff, so much complication, so many plans? I just want to enjoy people and enjoy God. Easier said than done, but that's what I'm going for.

I was amazed on this trip. I believe God worked on my heart in ways that I won't even really realize or understand, and that's awesome. I just love that we can go around the world and meet all these new people and still worship the same incredible God.

As I look back on this whole trip, all I can do is give all credit to the Lord for leading and guiding every step. I may have been the "leader," but I was only able to plan and lead any part of it by the grace of God. This trip was not about me teaching some kids about serving others, this was about God transforming all of our lives.

Well that seems to be enough. Like I said, I have a lot of other stories to tell, so just ask! I also want to take a moment to say thank you so much to all of you who supported us on this trip whether that was financially or in prayer or both. I really really appreciate you wanting to help make this trip possible, and I really do consider that you were a part of this experience too. God works through a lot of people to accomplish his purposes.

All I ask in closing is that you remember Tumaini and remember the work God is doing there. And maybe think about being a part of that too! Because they are da bomb.

Bwana Asifiwe! Amen.