Letter's Home

Words are hard sometimes, so forgive my laziness, but instead of writing a whole new update for you guys I am going to insert from two letters I have written to people back home.

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

Bwana Asifiwe (Praise the Lord)

Click here for a short video made by a girl was with us on both the first and second team, highlighting the past month. Love the faces and scenes captured in this video. Enjoy!!

One month!

Hey friends, sorry for the long absence. We sent off our second team on Monday and I just spent most of yesterday resting and simply being because I am very drained. Life here is so good and I love it so much. I find so much joy and purpose here, but life here is also very full. Full of love and joy, full of work and hard fought relationships, full of emotion and empathy. It really requires all of you- physical, spiritual, mental, emotional… But I can testify that the Lord has been our strength in every moment.

And as I sit here I can hardly believe it has already been an entire month.

As I think back on the past 4 weeks, I think of little snap shots of tender moments, and of tough ones as well. There are the laughs, hugs and many many cups of chai. Chai tea is part of life here. Every day everyone breaks midmorning to have chai, and again in the afternoon. Needless to say, not tons gets done but I love the emphasis it puts on relationships and communal living. Kenya has taken a piece of my heart that I know it will never relinquish.

The time spent with this last team was great and our time together was very different then the first team (not better or worse, just looked different). It was cool because we were able to help our partner ministries in a lot of physical ways. Love Africa focuses a lot of relationships, but we also wanted to be sure we are helping these people beyond those. We still visited the hospitals and prayed and talked with the families and patients. Praise the Lord that Little Lambs were able to have an extension on their time on their current land, but at double the rent, so we were able to go and visit and encourage them. Time spent with those little kids is always precious. Please be praying for them as they raise money to find a new home. Another highlight is going to the Women of Courage Bible study at Rift Valley Fellowship, those women are so strong and have a very different part of my heart.

But our team was also able to partner with our friend John, who has several ministries, but we were able to start building a preschool in John’s property for kids in his area that are not able to go to preschool and really do not have a safe place to be in the day. During the building project, lots of those kids were hanging around and some of our girls were able to love on them.

Another highlight was at the IDP camp. Slowly they have been constructing tin houses for the families to be able to move out of the tents that were given to them in 2007 by the UN. There was just 4 more families that needed homes and this past week that dropped to 3. Our guys got to go in and build Sammy, the chairman, his home. The look on his face when it was completed was indiscernible. Glowing with sheer pride and joy.  It is so humbling when you see this tiny, what we would call a shack, yet these families feel so blessed by this safe place they can call a home.

The final thing we built, alongside of the Kingdom of God, is we got supplies to build some desks for a school we visit often called Southern Cross Academy. If I have not mentioned it before, this school has a lot of children from the IDP camps, and they provide a lunch for all the kids- for many of them, that is their only meal of the day. It is fun and all to play with the kids but sometimes I wonder what impact that is making. We try to talk of Jesus and give them love they might not receive at home, but selfishly it is hard to not be able to see the impact you are making. So providing these desks is something we can see the actual impact of help. These kids cram 5 people to a 2 person desk because they just don’t have enough space for them all. The kids were so excited when they saw the desks and kept asking what classroom they were going in.

I should say that Love Africa is able to do all these different projects and help the ministries because we have set aside a portion of the money that each person raised for this purpose. So really, your financial support is making all this possible and you can know that we are putting it to good use. I thank you again for your support, not just so that I have the opportunity to be here, but because I get to see how big of blessings each shilling is to these people. Even the smallest dollar is making these people’s life significantly better. And we never want to be some white missionaries that come in with a bunch of money and try to make their life better, because they need ownership and dignity, but when we can partner these projects with the relationships we have formed, it hits deep. I feel so privileged that the Lord has brought me here to be one that gets to have hand in this. I don’t take that for granted.

It is easy for me say that “we did this” and “they were able to do that” because I don’t have many other words to explain it, but really I can’t emphasize enough how humbled I am. In the big things and the small the glory goes to the Lord because without Him we would be nothing. This past year I picked up Ann Voskamp’s phrase “All is grace” because really, every moment is only because of grace and I see that clearer and clearer every day.

Thank you for your love and support, for your thoughts and prayers. I feel so blessed.