If you didn’t already know, I LOVE Africa. I absolutely can’t stand it when I hear about people getting robbed or hurt while they’re in Africa. I don’t even like it when people get sick in Africa. I want everyone’s experience in Africa to be incredible and life bringing. I want them to love it as much as I do. Most of the time that’s the case – but this month there’s been quite a few people that will be leaving Kenya with a bad taste in their mouth.
Neither story is really mine to tell so I’ll be short. There’s an all-girls team on my squad that was robbed in the middle of the night. The girls were woken up and forced to give 8 men armed with knives and crowbars all of their expensive belongings. That’s not even the worst part; the worst part is that the men stayed there for almost an hour traumatizing these girls.
Then, two days later, I was walking with Erin and Travis and the three squad leaders from K squad in downtown Nairobi when three men on a motorcycle pulled up and robbed four of them at gunpoint. Two of them lost most everything – wallets, computers, cameras, passports, hard drives, iPhones and more. They were shaken up but overall had a really good attitude about it.
People stink. Really sin stinks. It’s terrible that people live in such poverty and darkness that they need to steal from people. After those incidents I found myself feeling sad for the robbers – which wasn't what I expected.
Thank goodness we live for a mighty God that provides healing, comfort, and love. I am really praying that as we go to Uganda in a week, and then to Swaziland and South Africa that this bad taste will go away. I’m praying that God will replace it with a sweet taste and that almost everyone in my squad will leave South Africa in August wanting to come back to Africa.
