Kenya captured my {heart} Part 4

New Hope School in Kibera Slum

Desires.  A wish. Long for. Crave. Want. Yes, God has placed desires on my heart and I believe that He places specific desires on each of our hearts to draw us closer to Him and bring His kingdom to Earth. There are a few desires that God placed on my heart at an early age like the passion for education and teaching and as I have gotten older He has continue to put desires on my heart. And on this trip to Kenya God clearly showed me some tangible ways to live out a desire He has been growing in my heart for a few years now…

An awesome school in Kibera Slum

We had the privilege of attending New Hope Initiative (New Hope Academy) which is an elementary-middle school in Kibera slum (this slum is one of the largest slums in Africa!!!!) that accepts boys and girls from the neighboring communities. The school feeds the students twice a day and also has a high school and college scholarship program. They also provide a source of income for the students’ moms through Project Biashara which is amazing jewelry co-op.  You should check out their products and buy yourself something beautiful… hey maybe what you get was made by me … continue to read to find out how! J And we had the awesome opportunity of working with these moms! Oh, how I love it!  

This is how they take attendance each day! :)

Another thing I love about this place is that the school is run by a Kenyan director and all the teachers are Kenyans. They are supported by a church in Houston and have an on-site overseer who helps the teacher with professional develop, helps the school with their goals and just serves as guide with wisdom and knowledge overall (the lady working there now is super sweet and great!) And this is something that God has been placing on my heart to do some day! I would LOVE love love to empower teachers in remote places. I would love love love looovvveee to support, encourage and train them to be the best they can be. I love that this place is empowering Kenyans to change their nation through education. It just makes my heart sing! La la la! (And I think my dad would be proud because they are living out community development to the T!!)

An amazing Kenyan teacher with a heart of gold!

We had the opportunity to visit the different classes and be put out of our comfort zones by impromptu teaching “lessons” for a few minutes in each class. We just kind of said whatever came out of our mouths. I remember in one classroom I taught the difference between saying “hi” “hello” and “hey” and pointing out that “hey” is homophone because you also have “hay” that animals eat… oh, my! Now thinking back about it I am embarrassed! J

It was a joy though to walk into these classrooms and see that these beautiful students were learning so much. Their teachers showed deep dedication and excellence in teaching. It sadden my heart to see that they don’t have awesome supplies… they have a chalkboard and a few of the lower elementary classes had some posters that were homemade. Oh, how I wish these classrooms could be full of color, but to these kids they were just so thankful to be getting an education. My heart wrestles with thinking about these differences?! How can one place have so much… technology, poster, ect and other places so thankful for something so simple like a chalkboard.

Their classroom posters

God really blessed our time at New Hope. We ended up visiting the school on the perfect day to hang out with the mom’s and their jewelry making business. They meet about 6 times a month at their co-op. They start every gathering together with a time of worship in Swahili. Wow! How awesome is it to hear believers worshiping God in another language. It felt like I was in heaven for a few minutes. I can’t wait until the day that every tongue and every nation will bow down and worship God with their native tongues! We got to dance and clap and try to sing along with them. My heart felt so full and overflowing!!

Beautiful time of worship

 After worship time we sat down with the moms and helped them make wooden salad spoons and bead beads. It’s a joke on our team that someone in the US is going to order salad spoons thinking that they are made by a Kenyan woman when they actually were made by an American teacher teaching in Korea. Haha! Anyways, right after worship one lady called me over and was so excited to sit, show me how to make a wooden spoon and talk to me! She had oh, so many questions!!!  One question she asked me was first “was I married?” and when I said “no” she said “would you be willing to marry any man of any race?” Oh, did I laugh and then response with “if he is a godly Christian man who loves God with His whole heart and loves me deeply His race doesn’t matter to me”.  She smiled at that answer. We are pretty sure that she had some Kenyan man for me! Oh, dear! Another question she asked me that strike me and was hard to answer was “how much money do I make being a teacher?” I really didn’t know what to say because even though according to worldly standards I don’t make a whole lot, but I sure do make a lot compare to the people of Kenya! It is really something to think about and put into perspective!  It was a joyful morning working with these beautiful mamas who are trying their best to provide for their families and get them out of the cycle of poverty!

This mama was SO great!!!

What we "helped" make!!!

Speaking of poverty- I have never seen such a poor place as Kibera slum. One it is absolutely huge!!!! I was blow away with how many shacks upon shacks there were. The minute we stepped out of the car you could smell the smells. There were no roads- just small dirt paths to walk along. We had to cross a filthy stream by stepping on stones then crossing a bridge that had many big holes in in it. The water was steadily running down the stream filled with mud, pigs, potty water and who knows what else. There is no running water or bathrooms in the slums. Everyone lives super close to each other, but New Hope is a bright spot in this slum. A bright spot of hope for the future generation to break the cycle of poverty! It really is hard to put into words what we saw at the slums, but I think the pictures can give you a pretty good idea of what we saw. Please pray for the millions of people living here that they were find a way to break the cycle!

 

 

Something I crave now is to go back to school and get whatever masters’ degree I need to be able to continue my pursuit in teaching teachers in improvised places how to be the best teachers they possibly can be! And now my favorite college ever, Taylor University is exploring the possibility of offering training curriculum for orphan and vulnerable children “workers”. This screams my heart! Right now I just feel like I can’t get started fast enough on pursuing these desires, but at the sometime I don’t even know where to begin! Ah!! I just have to continue to trust that it is all in God’s timing! J

God will guide your steps....

Oh, Kenya has impacted my heart and future for the good! And I am oh, so thankful! Don’t worry there will be more blog posts coming soon about the other ministries we visited… 4 actually!!

Love you all!

Love, Daniella