This Saturday, our team went with our squad leaders and Pastor Ezekiel to do ministry in the Kibera slum. This month we have been primarily doing door-to-door evangelism and university campus ministry so we haven’t really had time to go to Kibera and to be completely honest, it’s not a safe place for “mazungus” (foreigners) to go without a local Kenyan. As I said in one of my previous blogs, Kibera is the largest slum in Africa and the second largest slum in the world. We can see the slum from our church and every time I look at it, I say a prayer for every person living there. Kibera is filled with violence, theft, sexual immorality, rape, extreme poverty, child abuse, and has a vast majority of uneducated and unemployed people. My heart breaks for the people of Kibera, their harsh living conditions and the struggles they face each and every day. We have to be extremely careful when ministering in Kibera, even with a Kenyan contact, because car jackings and robberies occur all the time there, even in broad day light. I know we are surrounded with legions of God’s angels, however, so I refuse to let fear keep me from bringing Jesus to the people there. In Kibera, we were able to spend the day at the Paradise Children’s Center, an orphanage with 115 kids from the slum. This was the same children’s orphanage our team had visited at the beginning of the month (that I had mentioned in a previous blog) and we were all dying to go back there and love on the kids some more. We got to the children’s home and were met by the owner and founder, a beautiful Kenyan woman named Pamella. Pamella started Paradise Chidlren’s Home in 2006 when her heart broke for the many children she saw in Kibera suffering tremendously with no help or love. Since 2006, Pamella has taken in 115 children, 45 of which are orphaned with no parents or relatives remaining and 80 of which have suffered extreme neglect and child abuse. Sharon is a true inspiriation to me, along with all the young mothers at the Paradise Children’s Center (some of whom have multiple children due to rape in their previous homes). They do not pity themselves, they do not hide their faces in shame or turn their backs on God. Instead, they smile, they dance, they sing to the Lord, for HE is their strength and their joy. It was a true gift from God getting to watch Sharon finally be able to play duck-duck-goose that day, and spend some time as “a kid” before she had to go back to being a mother and take on the responsibiliity of motherhood at the age of 10 years old. Our day at Paradise Children’s Center was filled with games for the children, cookies for snack, songs about Jesus and God the Father, and a message I gave about how God will take any sacrifce they can give Him and multiply it a hundred times for His glory. I told the children that a little boy on the Sea of Galilee gave Jesus a few fish and some loaves of bread because he had faith in Jesus, and Christ was able to multiply that bread for 5,000 people to be able to eat that day. The same can be said with any gifts and blessings we give to God. If we are obedient to Him, He will be faithful to reward us tenfold. We encouraged the children that they are powerful warriors for God’s army and that they are precious children of the Most High God in His royal family. It was such a beautiful day at Kibera. While some people are afraid to set foot in Kibera slum because of fear of car jacking, gun robberies, or violence, I am confident to say that since we were bringing Jesus to those children, we were fully protected and provided for that day. There is a quote that goes something like this, “The safest place in the world is walking in God’s divine path for your life and the most dangerous place in the world is walking down your own path.” I know that wherever I go, whether it be in Kenya, Uganda or in America even, I will be safe and provided for as long as I’m being obedient to God and His will for me. The children of Kibera are some of the most beautiful, joyful, passionate children I have ever met in my life and I know that Paradise Children’s Center is one of God’s favorite places on Earth to be. There is so much love, hope and praise to Him there and while the outside of the center might look grim, the inside is filled with a PARADISE of heaven on Earth that no one can take away from those kids. Praise God for that. Praise God for Pamella…and praise God for the children of Paradise. The kids loved playing with my “mazungu” hair!
There are even some underage mothers at the orphanage that are as young as 8 and 9 and have been raped by men in the slum and have been thrown out in the streets with their child(ren) to fend for themselves. While Kibera is one of the darkest, roughest, scariest places in the world, the Lord has used Pamella to create a “paradise on Earth” type of safe haven for these children. They have a place where they don’t have to worry about where they’re going to get their next meal, if their father is going to come home drunk and beat them that night, or if their neighbor is going to rape them that night. They are safe, they are protected and they are thriving as children of the Lord. Since coming to Paradise Children’s Center, these children are now able to go to school, receive all the medical care they need, go to church and Sunday school, and have a childhood.
One of the hardest parts of the entire day was sitting and talking with a young girl, Sharon who told me she was 10 and how she wanted to play duck-duck-goose with the other kids but she couldn’t put down the baby she was holding. I kept trying to take the baby from her, so she could go play with the kids but the baby was terrified of my white skin and wouldn’t let me hold her. After Sharon had finally been able to hand her to one of the older kids at the orphange, my team mate came up to me and told me that the baby Sharon had been holding all day was her son. Sharon had been raped at the age of 9 and was now caring for this little baby all by herself. I couldn’t imagine what strength and patience the Lord must have been giving her to get through such a thing.
At the church the kids of Paradise attend, right after I gave the message!
Getting ready to sing Sunday school songs with the kids in a circle!
Sharon (10) and her one-year-old son at the church.
