Hey Grandma!
Sorry I failed to write last week. Our break days seemed to
slip by faster than I could realize.
Kenya is incredible. It’s hard but so good. I can not
necessarily say that my calling has been clarified yet but it has definitely
been confirmed. My eyes have been opened to more and more and so I want to do
it ALL but I do know that I have a burden and responsibility that I cannot deny
and Africa is definitely going to be a huge portion of my life.
We’ve been busy busy busy with our latest team, but I like
the busy days because it makes time move quickly. Today is my day off so I’m
just spending it writing and being still. It can be hard when I am though
because everything seem to catch up with me. Having been here for 5 weeks
already the burdens of these people are gripping my heart pretty deeply. And
now that we are half way, I see goodbyes creeping nearer and I don’t want to
leave.
Things we have been doing with this last team include:
working at Cure hospital, visiting a deaf school, spending time at RVA and IDP
camps, time at Little Lambs and today they are splitting up at different
construction projects. We visited a school yesterday and today they are
building desks for them. At Cure we split up into different departments to
help- some to the ward to play with kids, some help maintenance build, others
work in the kitchen preparing food, etc. Well I got the opportunity to go to
the orthopedic workshop, where they make prosthetics. From scratch. This
awesome guy named Francis let me help him make a thigh strap for a prosthetic
leg. We had to trace out the leather, cut it out, attach a buckle to it, glue
on padding, sand down the padding on the sides, glue on liner, cut off the
extra liner…then I had to leave. It was so cool to be a part of a process that
is literally getting people back on their feet. Kenya never fails to give us
opportunities we’d never have in the States. At the deaf school we got to
observe some of their classrooms and it was so cool. I’m blown away by the kids
and the teachers. They are so intelligent.
I’m eating well…too well. So many carbs and yummy food that
I eat a lot because of the long days, I think I’ll gain weight here. We are in
the mountains on the tail end of their rainy season so the roads are pretty
bumpy and it’s been pretty cool. I have enough clothes and jackets, but super
chilly at night.
How are you guys doing? Hope y’all are not melting in the
summer heat. Miss you guys so much! Much love from Kenya!
---
The
people here need so much more than I would ever be able to give them, ever. And
it is very hard reality. And I can see myself slipping into where I was that
first year as an RA where my empathetic heart can become hardened, or guarded
because it is easier to not feel toooo much or get too attached. In one sense,
guarding my empathetic heart is healthy so I don’t melt to puddles with every
heart breaking story, but I have to be careful not to be to guarded. And this
is when I realized (something I kneeew, but never knew) how huge my two years
of being an RA was. Like I knew there were, but I see very clearly how both
years play into where I am today. And the lessons I learned both years and
things that I can apply today. I’ve grown and strengthened and know myself, and
how to deal with other people in ways that I never would have.
Since being here I have sat with a lot of women. Women I
think you’d love just as much as I do. Their stories are hard but empowering.
I’m sad to say that if you’d told me everything we’d be doing here, I might not
have come, but I’m so glad I didn’t know so I did come after all. I thought of
working with kids and talking to missionary families. I didn’t expect to be
singing Amazing Grace in a room full of women who are prostitutes or have been
displaced from their communities during times of violence. They call this Bible
Study “women of courage” and my heart is so empowered by them. I didn’t expect
to walk a train track to a small house so that I would sit with a 21 year girl
who was going to the Bible College here, but was raped and left pregnant…with
twins. Now the babies are 4 months old and the cutest thing ever. And when I
hold them my heart grieves and rejoices with this scared mother. Women who have
followed the Lord’s call to be spiritual leaders in their communities. A woman
named Ruth who works at our guest house to just get a little income to support
her 5 kids. And when her husband, who had left her 4 years ago, fell into a
hole, she had the grace in her heart to take him to the hospital and care for
to make sure he was okay. Now her kids don’t have enough money to go to school
but she trusts in the Lord. And Esther who I blog about a lot, who lost her
baby yet spoke only of the Lord’s peace and joy. I would never call any of
these Kenya’s happy, because I don’t think they are happy with a hard hard
life, but I would call them joyful. I don’t know how much I have actually
touched Kenya, but man oh man, has Kenya touched me. It’d be impossible for me
to be the same.
Hope you are doing well!!! Leslie
