Guest Blogger, Jessica (volunteer with Leigh's Mission)
11/5: (SATURDAY) We headed out on our epic adventure to Gnong, Kenya with a layover in London. It was to be a short, 1 hour or so layover that was delayed and resulted in a 3 hour layover. Otherwise a fairly uneventful trip to Nairobi. We arrived at Huruma around 1:30 AM and hit the sack around 3:00 knowing we would get little sleep that night because of prayers the next morning at 6:30
11/6: (SUNDAY) We walked into the dining hall where prayer and worship is held in the mornings and we were met by the most beautiful, angelic sounds of sweet voices praising Jesus. Looking around at a sea of little black faces, I was overwhelmed with joy to finally be among them. When prayers were done, the kids swarmed around us ready to give plentiful hugs. We spent the morning setting up the dining hall for Vacation Bible School, decorating with streamers, snowflakes, posters and ribbons. It was a fun way to see the team come together and work together.
Afterwards we toured the Huruma grounds. We saw Mama Zipporah’s rooms, the dorms and the garden. It is quite amazing to learn what Huruma was just a few years ago and how with the help of generous donations and working hands, new buildings have been built to better accommodate the children.
We took a scenic, albeit very bumpy and rough bus ride into Karen where we shopped at the open market. I wasn’t prepared for the amount of street vendors all of whom were very much pushing their wares on us. I had no idea to expect this and being that I was a naive American, they made out pretty well with me!
We ate out and I sat next to David during lunch. I really enjoyed hearing some of his story and learning about his goals for his future. He is an impressive young man with a lot going for him and a bright future ahead.
We went to the Nakumat market for housing and food kit supplies only to find the market was very bare...toilet paper, dish soap, basic supplies were not to be found.
So we headed into Ngong to purchase the rest of the supplies which resulted in a pretty full bus but added to the adventure of bumpy roads, open market shopping and a day on the town.
Robbin and Riley were supposed to arrive in the evening but we got a message from Robinn in the afternoon that she and Riley were detained in London due to Riley’s passport expiring in less than 6 months. British Airways would not let her on the flight. We gathered around with Mama and prayed over the situation and as God always does, He worked it out and we got word pretty quickly that although they couldn’t fly out on their original flight, they would catch one the next day to arrive in Nairobi on Monday evening. Yay God!
11/7: (MONDAY) We had morning chapel and Brad shared a message with the kids about how #1: God likes to surprise us; #2: God uses us all in unique and special ways; #3: God has a plan for each of our lives that is different from anyone else’s plan and gifting. He used an example of a block of wood, representing our lives. That block of wood has so much potential to become many different things. In this case, he pulled a wooden car out of a bag, a wooden truck and another vehicle. All of them looked slightly different and could ultimately serve different functions. He talked about how our lives can be shaped and used by God when we submit ourselves to Him. Afterwards we all circled around the Form 4 students, prayed over them and sent them off with hugs as they headed to their exams.
We prepared pancakes for 5 of the transition kids from last year (Mary, Alisha, Isaac, Florence and Louis). We shared together in a devotion led by Carol. The kids shared a bit about what they are doing now, where they are living and favorite scripture verses. The devotion was centered around the idea of removing noise and clutter from our lives. We talked about different forms of noise and clutter and that ‘clutter’ can also come in the form of unforgiveness, anger, resentment and other emotions, it is not just busyness or physical things. We talked about praying for God’s help to recognize the clutter/ noise and his strength to help us eliminate it.
I went to the girls room to decorate for VBS and got a lot of help from the girls with putting tape on posters and hanging them up around their dining hall. You would have thought I asked them to raid a candy store. They were so eager to help and what started with a few girls grew to about 8. I asked the girls as we were working about holiday traditions at Huruma. They were excited to share about Christmas, which they are very much looking forward to, given the number of Christmas carols we have sang together during evening chapel. They shared that on Christmas morning, they head down to chapel in their pajamas and when worship is through, they circle around a tree that has a present sitting under it for each one of them. Then they out on beautiful dresses and eat all the food they want to have, all day long. They were all clamoring to share and as they did, a huge vat of porridge was brought into the room for them. The girls lined up, drank every last drop of their porridge and many lined back up again for seconds. Wow, it was a humbling experience to hear them recount their Christmas celebration with such anticipation and to watch them eat their porridge like it was their very last meal.
Later in the afternoon, we took a walk to the land where Mama LeighAnn’s home is going to be built. It was a slippery, muddy walk on a rainy day but so cool to see transition boys working on the land and to see this plot that will soon be transition housing for the Form 4 students.
We went back to Huruma and held our first day of VBS. It was chaotic to start but turned out to be a great day.
11/8: (TUESDAY) Morning chapel was led by a message from Jeremy. He shared some of his testimony and the underlying message in it was that it is #1: Important to ask God for help with making decisions in our lives; #2: Seek wisdom from those who loves us; #3: There is hope even after making a bad decision. He shared how decisions can be either good or bad and that they will almost always have a long term impact on your life.
The transition kids came back again today for breakfast with our team. We did a ‘Jesus Calling’ devotional and shared about the difficult times we have faced in our lives in which God has delivered us.
We went to Louis and Florence’s homes to see where they are each living. Their rooms were so nice, especially Florence’s. It was really neat to see how they have created these spaces for themselves and are learning to live as adults.
We then returned to Huruma and led our second day of VBS. It turned out great! The kids seemed to really get into it. The lesson was about building your life on the firm foundation of the Lord. They got the message and the combination of the science experiment/ lesson from Andra and the Bible story from Robinn drove it home pretty well.
Afterwards we spent time with the kids in smaller groups or one-on-one. It was wonderful hearing their hearts, finding out what they love about Huruma and getting snippets of their stories.
We had a fun evening of worship and prayer with a whole sleu of Christmas songs that filled a bulk of the evening.
What have I learned so far?
*They eat pizza in Kenya! It is a favorite food here.
*These kids work SO hard. They have chores to do every day and you hear no complaining from them.
*Gratitude, humbleness and contentment seem to be present among each and every child and adult here at Huruma
*Total reliance on God in prayer is what they go to first and when prayers are answered, they are praising him with deep gratitude.
*Prayer and worship is how they begin and end each and every day of the week
NOTES:
These kids are so happy to have visitors here to show them love, to receive their hugs and to know their names. There are so many children and many look alike so it is hard to remember which ones you have met and to keep their names straight. They are quick to learn our names however and anytime we walk anywhere near the children, many come up to us saying our names and wanting to give hugs. I am realizing how important a name is. This is one thing that every human being on earth has in common, we all have a name. We want to be identified by our name. It lets us know that we are seen and noticed. I have struggled this week with the fact that I get their names mixed up, cant recall that I have already heard some names multiple times and still ask again. It is just truly overwhelming to be meeting so many new people all at once, in an entirely new culture and to top that, to be overwhelmed by the stories of hurt and pain that brought these children to Huruma. All of this combined, has made it difficult for me to remember.
