After a near month-long hiatus in blog postings from our Deputation team, I’m sure many of you would like to hear what we have been up to recently! This delay has not been intentional, our team has simply been incredibly busy while doing our daily activities and attempting to fully engage in the community here. BUT..enough of the excuses and on with the update:
We have spent the past 4 weeks working as teacher’s assistants in the classrooms in Rafiki’s Primary school. Andrew A. in 1st Grade, Emily in 3rd Grade, Elle in 4th Grade, and myself in 6th Grade. A couple of other mini-missionaries are also working in the Primary School (Abby Burton in 4th Grade and Kristyn in 5th Grade). Our days consist of making copies, grading papers, drinking tea during morning breaks on the veranda, writing tests, tutoring students, and helping out however else necessary. It is a great chance to see the children who live here in a different setting and help them learn effectively. There are also 100 community students who come to school every day from the neighboring village of Mwiki. Many of these children come tough family situations and some are even orphans. It is sobering to think of what many of the children in our classes have been through (both resident and community children), and this helps me to continually use grace and patience in my interactions with students. I have been working one on one with a 14-year old boy named Paul who is a complete joy to spend time with. Sometimes he has a hard time focusing, but he works as hard as he can and is a very visual learner. When reading through A Wrinkle In Time with Paul, we often draw pictures on the whiteboard to increase understanding of the plot line. The day-to-day of helping in the classroom has been a large highlight of the trip for me, and it is exciting to see each of these students work hard and their excitement for learning.
The past few weekends we have spent mainly within the city limits of Nairobi. We have gone to a few shopping centers around the city and had delicious food with some of the longer term missionaries here. There are 5 other wonderful mini-missionaries staying at Wageni (the guest house) with us, so we are very busy socializing in our free time and don’t have a lot of time alone. That being said, we still seek alone time with the Lord and attempt to find time to connect with Him in our own ways.
Last Saturday, we walked through Kibera (the 2nd largest slum in Africa) for the day. It was an overwhelming amount of new things to take in, but eye-opening to see. I was blown away by the living situations of these people, and the overall dirtiness of the area. Kibera had a distinct smell that was a mixture between fruit, compost, gasoline, campfire, soil, and sewage. Despite the appearance of Kibera, the people there were the opposite of what their circumstances would indicated. They had smiles on their faces, and the church we visited was full of people ecstatic to welcome us and sing praises to God! We had a short worship service there, where we heard a message on the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:2-12) and heard a message of hope for those who follow God and His commandments. The people at Kibera showed me many things, and I will definitely remember my time there. Even though they live in a much different situation than I do, we are all exactly the same in the Lord’s eyes. Our time in Kibera was a great time to see another part of Kenya and see fellow believers in a much different situation than ourselves.
Since we have just over 4 days remaining here at Rafiki, the time of reflection and processing must begin. Living together has been a challenge at times, but it has catalyzed spiritual growth and produced meaningful friendships along the way. It has been a blessing to spend the past two months working with a devoted missionary staff and the various mini-missionaries that have stayed with us at Wageni. Possibly our favorite experience here has been building relationships and getting to know the children, Mommas, teachers, and other Kenyans we have spent time with. We all came to Kenya in search of a romanticized “African experience”, and we came up empty-handed at the end of that search. What we DID find was real Kenyan people, from difficult real-life situations, living life as followers of Christ despite their circumstances and past experiences. The children have shown us again what love and excitement really mean, and are sources of joy for us every single day. The community here at the Rafiki orphanage is one created single-handedly by the saving grace of Christ and God’s Holy Spirit bringing every resident and missionary here together. The past two months have shown me that Christians worship the same God and that He loves us the same with no regards as to who we are and where we come from.
“So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone” Ephesians 2:17-20
Blessings and thanks for your support and prayers,
-Andrew P. and Kenya Rafiki Team
p.s. Emily has a blog with pictures of us at school and around the village that you can check out at http://emilyvo77.blogspot.com/
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