We all cried

Today we all experienced many new feelings as a result of the seriousness of our touring. It’s difficult to put all these emotions into words, but in short there were many tears shed throughout our debriefing session this evening.

The missionary couple who have provided us with our housing, Isaac and Esther Munji, took us to their church plant in Maai Mahui, a new church entitled Rift Valley Fellowship, this morning. Maai Mahui is located along a major interstate through Kenya and therefore invites many truck drivers to stop along their drive. This situation encourages prolific prostitution, as the severely impoverished women there have no other form of income. Isaac and Easter have taken these women in and tried to find other work for them. Today, several of these women, who have become dedicated members of the church, brought us to their homes. I personally visited five of these homes. Never before have I witnessed such dramatic poverty and my eyes have been forever opened to how incredibly blessed I truly am. All of these women were single, raising 3-7 children, and unable to send them all to school due to their inability to pay the school fees. We came across one family of three children left at home by themselves while their mother looked for work. We found the oldest (6 years) wandering in the street. She took us home where her 4-year-old brother was put in charge of his baby sister who looked to be about 1-year-old. This is just one example of the terrible conditions these people are accustom to.

Later in the day we visited a public school where we visited a group of 12^th grade students, the principal, the laboratory, and also a huge class of elementary students (about 80 students in one room). This experience was refreshing in contrast to the experiences of the morning since we were able to see how great poverty can cause great thankfulness. These kids know they are privileged to be finishing school and because of that they take their studies very seriously and joyfully. The 12^th grade class went around the room and told us of their plans after high school. They all aspire to go to college and study, some very advanced topics such as neurosurgery. I hope and pray that these students will continue to have the opportunity to be successful and that through the power of God they can help to break the cycle of poverty from which they came.

Again, today was filled with many emotions and thoughts that I’m sure the rest of the team and I will continue to process as the trip continues. I’ve learned so much in just three days of being in Africa; it’s hard to imagine how much God will teach me in the two weeks he has given me to spend here.

Rachel Fox