If you haven't read my post called, "take away their homeless things," read that blog for some background first.

So with regard to the street boys, my team confronted grave desperation. In a typical and detrimental short-term missions way we could have fed the kids a few Sundays, played a couple games of soccer, maybe preached a gospel of love while clutching our stuff to our chests and ignoring their nakedness and hunger. But we didn't come to fulfill expectations or take photos. We wanted to actually impact these kids and work for the kingdom of heaven. We looked to see if there is an organization already established to find that although attempts have been made the problem is deep-rooted and the children are stubborn, so people have long given up and the government and orphanages, who's intentions are often corrupt, won't give the kids a second-look because it won't be easy. 

If these kids were the cold-blooded monstrous outcasts that society portrays them as, then Christians would urgently need to help them.  But, in fact, they aren't even that disgraceful statistic. I know their names and their faces and their personalities. I know that when we brought them crayons and paper they all drew the same thing - their homes. Some are bratty, sure. They fight, they inhale drugs, they cuss, they have no respect for women. But sometimes they get tired of being strong and they come up to me and push their body against mine in a sincere, broken, I really need a mom hug. So I grab them and hold them hoping to be tender enough to combat their tough skin and singed hearts. We interviewed them one by one searching for the roots of their situation. Some just ran away from poor homes, now addicted to drugs and deeply ashamed they fear home. Some are victims are abuse or have fallen between the cracks in tense remarriage or polygamy situations. The fact of the matter is that a home isn't all these kids need. They need counseling, education, a trade. They need to see grace and compassion and to know they are covered by the love of Jesus. 

Two days before we left Busia my team was sitting in our little room figuring out plans for the day. We started talking about the street kids in depth and realized that we were more united in our passion for them than we thought. We started dreaming and we noticed that we could, for real, feel the Holy Spirit as we got excited. A month or so ago, one of the members of my team started raising money for land to grow food so that the church could sustainably feed the kids on Sundays. After talking to a lot of people we realized that a real solution could be a halfway house. And on that morning, those ideas became plans. We are going to build a halfway house where street kids who have made a personal decision that they want to go off the street can live for up to 18 months. They will be rehabilitated, counseled and discipled. A mechanic, seamstress and electrician from the church have already volunteered to take older or completely uneducated kids as apprentices. Otherwise, after initial rehabilitation they will go to school and be slowly be expected to help on the farm. The goal will be that the kids can either slowly return to their homes, be adopted by a member of the church or find a place in a legitimate orphanage. Our hope is that it will not take long for the center to be self-sustainable. This will start with growing their own food and by building a base of volunteers to help with practical aspects. We have drafted our plans with the senior pastor of our church as well a a wise, very trusted 30 year old friend with a passion for the street kids who will direct the project from the ground and soon become full-time staff. The pastor is in the process of registering the center as a community-based organization and we are praying that a strong leadership board will fall into place. Within the next year it is very likely that at least two members of my team will come to help with the project and we will remain in very close contact with the leadership board as well as the visiting missionary teams who can offer a different perspective. 

It is challenging because in East Africa organizations like this are associated with corruption. We are not social workers and we don't know what will be effective. (On that note, the college majors for 3/5 of my teammates changed this week. One's starting to actually learn Swahili.) And I know that something like this is a big deal. It comes with the responsibility of people's funds and children's lives, . We are well aware of our qualifications as a group of six college students. The reality of it though, is that after that passionate meeting a few mornings ago God came into that room and within a few seconds for no evident reason we all started sobbing. Then laughing, then singing and singing and yelling and singing. I think we walked straight into God's will and He didn't want us to doubt it. And that morning God told me something: "Take care of my kids." They are literally the epitome of the least of these. Eight, ten, twelve years old - sitting half clothed, high, dirty, wounds oozing, no way out and no one who cares. Even most churches in Busia will not let them in. At night truckers come through no man's land and do things to those boys that no eight year old should ever even know is possible. Satan can't get enough of those kids. He lets them walk around that place in that state. Then he sends someone to circumcise them, to rape them and he smiles at their pain and his relentlessness. But I am certain that God hasn't forgotten those kids. Those kids are going to be kings in heaven, myself a servant, might as well start serving them now. 

Please pray for these kids. Pray for the strength of the Kenyan side of the leadership and that their vision will be translated into effective actions. Pray that God will defeat the darkness in no man's land. We will also be fundraising if you are interested in helping. 

Thanks for reading.