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We’ve been here in Eldoret, Kenya for just over a week, and yet it feels so much longer. Our transition from China to Kenya has not been minor. We left crowded city streets, overcast skies, and restrictions on our personal freedom to find ourselves in a town with dusty streets, sun-filled days and star-filled nights, and the freedom to openly share our faith. There has been a big switch in the spiritual climate. Many in China have heard the name of Jesus, but many also believe that He is simply a part of Western culture. We discovered that those Chinese who are hungry for something more are coming to the realization that Jesus is the One they are seeking after. Most if not all Kenyans have heard of Jesus, and although most claim to be a Christian, we have discovered that many of these people don’t know what it means to have a relationship with Christ. They haven’t yet come to the understanding that He wants to be involved in every part of their lives, which greatly reminds me of the spiritual state of America.

We keep asking ourselves, “Why are we in Kenya?” We believe that the Lord has a purpose in bringing us here, but it’s not always easy to see. It’s so hard to witness people struggling in addictions and poverty and to see babies suffer as a result of that. I sometimes feel as though there is so little I can actually do when the problems are enormous. It reminds me that everything is completely out of my hands, and I can only do the little I have been called to. It’s clear that the only thing I can do here is LOVE the broken and PRAY for God’s power to make itself known. Our world is so broken and will remain that way until Jesus brings about complete restoration.

We have spent the past week at the house of a pastor and his wife that have been so gracious in opening their home to us. The pastor started a church in downtown Eldoret that is located right behind a dump site. Although it’s on a much smaller scale, this site is similar to the one we ministered at in Manila. The difference is that in Manila, we found families in make-shift homes and here, there aren’t so many families or homes. People of all ages rummage through the trash looking for food and whatever else they can salvage in order to make a few shillings. This place is their home, and they sleep on the ground. We call the kids in this place street children, and the church ministers to many of these kids without real homes and families. They have all come to church the past two Sundays sniffing little bottles of glue because it helps them forget that they are hungry and cold. Although these street children appear to be hard on the outside, we have been able to see glimpses of the child that lives deep inside of them. It’s a joy just to be able to love them in whatever way we can.
 

Our nights have been spent doing what are called “open-airs.” These consist of large speakers blaring with music and lots of dancing in an effort to draw in as many people from the community as possible. African people LOVE to dance! We sometimes offer a skit and always share a word from the Bible. The community we are ministering to has an alcohol problem, and every night, most of the adults show up drunk. Children from the community pop out from every direction and instantly latch onto us, not letting go until we have left. They are always filthy and most come dressed in rags, not knowing any differently. You never know whose children they are because their parents don’t pay much attention to what they are doing. We see many girls around the age of 10-12 with little sisters or brothers on their backs, acting as a parent. I suppose this is partly cultural and partly because the parents don’t want to take care of them. Some of my teammates have even been offered children as a gift. It breaks my heart to think that these mothers and fathers are in so much pain that they care more about feeding their addiction than feeding their children. 

I have no place to judge the hearts of the people here, and I am not saying that these circumstances have been the case everywhere we have been. We have met some amazing men and women of God who have given up their lives to serve him, and they are teaching us so much about the love of Christ! However, I am here to relay the things I have witnessed in an effort to help you see what I see. Hopefully it will cause you to turn and examine your own life in the same way it’s caused me to examine my own.
 
Here on the streets of Kenya I see brokenness. I see hopelessness. I see desparity. I am seeing how these things draw people to take drastic measures and turn to things they wouldn’t otherwise. 

What do I really have to offer them? I’ve realized that all I CAN offer them is the love of God that is living inside of me, and that is more than enough, because the God I know is the God of healing! He is the God of hope! And He is the God of prosperity! I continually pray that I would love these people without even knowing I am doing it. For the children, it’s by hugging them, holding their hands, and letting them play with my hair for hours even when they are covered in muck. It’s in the smiles and the joy the Lord gives me that He can touch them. Because His presence is alive and moving in me, I am able to love them without doing anything out of the ordinary.

I have hope for this place simply because I have hope in God. I believe that God wants to take away the pain and replace it with joy, and I believe He is using us to do just that. We have not been called to fix the world, as much as our hearts long to do that. But we have been called to do our part by loving the ones in front of us.

You are called to do the same. By joining our hearts and our hands in prayer and action, we are living out our calling to be ministers of reconciliation to a world in desperate need. So step out; reach out. Love the unlovable and see what happens! God says that the measure in which you love others is the measure in which you love Him, and the measure in which you love Him is the measure in which you will love others.

 
“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’

And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'”

Matthew 25:34-40