We stayed up until 1am a few mornings ago (which is SUPER late for us) making about 100 chapatis for the kids. Chapatis are like a thick African tortilla and a staple in their diet. Chef helped us make all the dough and portion it out; he made about half of them and then we finished the task. It took all of us, manning the wood burning fires and the one gas stove burner to turn and flip then, the rest were oiling the pans and rolling the dough (which we had to reroll when we learned they aren’t good to stack 30 high!)
We then woke up at 5:30am to make about 10-15 gallons of chai for the kids, or rather Ruth blessed all of us by letting us sleep in an extra hour and got up to start the chai (YESS!). We packed it all up and headed out, only to find that not a single kid was there. They didn’t believe we would actually come back with breakfast, they had so many things promised to them and they hardly ever came true. Slowly kids saw us and started showing up, about 50 of them. We past everything out to the smiling, joyous faces, we prayed over them and with them, told them about their friend Adhiambo and just loved on them. One child was so thankful he kept shaking our hands and kissing the back of them over and over again. We want to build a strong trust with them, so we didn’t take away any glue bottles they were huffing, since lots of them return back to the streets even after people try to help them, because the rules are too strict. I asked the leader why they huffed glue and he says they need it to keep warm at night and as an escape from their life, so sad. I’m hoping that as soon as we can get a roof over their head and clothes on their backs they will be able to ween off the stuff, we’ll see what God has in store for them.
This is such a huge thing for our Pastor to pick up, he already is leading the church, teaching classes and so much. I know he will need lots of prayers to keep his spirit up, as well as his 50+ year old body and that the Lord will use him to really reach these kids.
We then woke up at 5:30am to make about 10-15 gallons of chai for the kids, or rather Ruth blessed all of us by letting us sleep in an extra hour and got up to start the chai (YESS!). We packed it all up and headed out, only to find that not a single kid was there. They didn’t believe we would actually come back with breakfast, they had so many things promised to them and they hardly ever came true. Slowly kids saw us and started showing up, about 50 of them. We past everything out to the smiling, joyous faces, we prayed over them and with them, told them about their friend Adhiambo and just loved on them. One child was so thankful he kept shaking our hands and kissing the back of them over and over again. We want to build a strong trust with them, so we didn’t take away any glue bottles they were huffing, since lots of them return back to the streets even after people try to help them, because the rules are too strict. I asked the leader why they huffed glue and he says they need it to keep warm at night and as an escape from their life, so sad. I’m hoping that as soon as we can get a roof over their head and clothes on their backs they will be able to ween off the stuff, we’ll see what God has in store for them.
This is such a huge thing for our Pastor to pick up, he already is leading the church, teaching classes and so much. I know he will need lots of prayers to keep his spirit up, as well as his 50+ year old body and that the Lord will use him to really reach these kids.
When we past out the food a few of the older kids gathered around, kids who grew up on the streets and are looking out for the kids that are in that spot now. They wanted to meet with us yesterday at the “trailer park”, but when we got they told us just to come back later, so we left.
Adhiambo is doing well, but the hospitals here make me nervous. There was a lady who was admitted last week who could barely speak, she could hardly move or anything and they diagnosed her with ‘not having blood’… so her bother came in to give her a few pints, they fed her and gave her water and she is good now. I think she was just malnourished and dehydrated? They have completely different ideas though.. Adhiambo has a clearly broken leg that had healed since the accident was 10 months ago, but the doctors just say that she has a broken Achilles tendon and no broken bones. They are just doing a skin graft on her ankle and then sending her out. People can only be in the hospital for 2 weeks and then have to do home care, but she doesn’t have a home. Mama is trying to contact her family, but the reason she is out on the streets is because her sister in law hates her and sent her out, so what is going to change? The doctors say she is going to walk like that forever and there is nothing they can do, so sad. We are possibly visiting the Kisses from Katie girl (look up her blog, it is amazing. She is like 22 or something and has felt God calling her to stay in Africa and is now mothering about 7 African kids) and thinking about seeing if she will adopt her, we’ll see , it’s a long shot and possibly not a good idea to take her away from the other street kids.
WARNING: IF YOU GET QUEEZY EASILY, SKIP OVER THE NEXT FEW PHOTOS!!
Our time her is almost up, this upcoming week is our last! Kelly is preaching at church this Sunday and I think I’m helping with Sunday school, can’t wait 🙂 One group is coming a bit early on Friday, then the whole squad is coming to Busia next Saturday. We are blessing them with a huge meal when they get here, full of African food, and we have a house for them all to stay at. I can’t WAIT to see them all!! We leave on Sunday and head to Jinka, Uganda together to spend a few nights camping and we are going to raft the Nile. The Kisses from Katie girl lives there and some of us would love to visit her house, but we’ll see. Then we are off to our next ministry contact in Mbarara, Uganda. The town seems about the same size as Busia, but the ministry contacts house doesn’t have any power or anything. A big change since the house we are in now just got a running (kinda) toilet in the house and, drumroll please… A HOT SHOWER!! BOOYA!! We have the choice of staying with them or in a local hostel, not sure which one yet. I think we will be doing a lot of door to door ministry and preaching a lot, gah, not sure how good I am at that, or experienced!
Thank you all for your prayers and for reading these novels of blog updates!!
oh! p.s. Mr. Tumnus, our goat, dies tomorrow! Saturday is our feast!
SUPPORT UPDATE: same spot, still about $4k to go or so! If you would like to do a monthly contribution for a tithe or just an extra ministry support that would be awesome and I would love to show you how!! Thank you!
