Monday morning I piled onto a bus for a bumpy ten hour ride from Nairobi to Busia, Kenya. The ride was astoundingly beautiful (life goal to see a zebra - check!) and much more lush than I had expected. When we arrived we were greeted by our contact, and Kenyan father for the next three months, Pastor Gideon. He has welcomed us to live in his humble home with his wife, and blesses us daily with his wisdom and servant-heart. 

 

     Busia is a city on both side of the Kenya-Uganda border supported by a stream of trucks that bring goods from costal Kenya to landlocked countries. The town strip is bustling with vendors during the day but off of the beaten road the majority of the population lives on small farming plots around the city in simple homes made of brick, tin, mud or straw. 

 

     Each week our ministry will look very different. Between nine and one in the morning we either walk (1.5 hours each way) to the pastor's field to farm of help to build a new church building. This week in the afternoons we went to the church's crusades - basically open air worship and preaching. Our job was to entertain the flood of more than 100 children. They come in groups and are excitied to greet the "mzungus." Five year olds carry babies on their backs, but it doesn't stop them from running around and dancing with us. Every one of them is super precious! Passerbys and neighbours stop to listen and many of them have heard the gospel in a new way this week. Next week we will be helping and praying at the hospital each afternoon. 

 

     I thought that it wouldn't get to me too much, I thought that I had thought about it so much in advance that no amount of poverty would surprise me. I suppose I wouldn't say that it surprises me, but it is breaking my heart. There is this one little girl in particular that I was watching today. She might be seven years old. She wears this dirty, threadbare dress. It is one of the kind that little girls at home use to play dress-up as princesses. The kind meant for halloween and innocent tea parties with teddy bears. Her dress has a huge hole right across the stomach and it gapes open exposing her body. When she runs she puts some of the loose threads from her dress into her mouth so that the skirt part will not slip too low. 

 

     There was this other little baby who had been left in the dirt to crawl around by himself, understandible since his caretaker was eight. I picked him up and he clung to me for a good hour. His stomach was bloated and hard but his little legs and arms were thin. I just wanted to feed him a big handful of vegetables and fruits, but I didn't have any. He is so small and helpless and there are so many children like him. I know though, that he is a big deal to Jesus. I can't take away his poverty, not now anyways, but I can pray that I will meet that little guy in heaven one day. 

 

      Anyways, the final leg of our adventure promises to be both challenging and fruitful! I have no doubt that God already has good plans to use us in the transformation of this community and for renewing of our hearts. Please keep my team and Busia, Kenya in your prayers!