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

Kenya captured my {heart} Part 3

“You have brains in your head; you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know; you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.” –Dr. Seuss

West Nairobi School

In Kenya we had the awesome opportunity of visiting our sister school, West Nairobi School. They are in the same network of international schools that my school Pyeongtaek International School is in. It was so fun because I actually knew a few of the teachers from our pre-field orientation. I loved being able to catch up with them, share some stories and hear how teaching in Nairobi is.  We enjoyed a yummy Kenyan meal from the school cafeteria (which was outside under some huts- SO AWESOME!!).  And our students had a fun time playing soccer with some of the middle schoolers during recess then we went around to different classes helping out with reading week and answering questions about our life/school in Korea.

Cafeteria

The best school lunch ever!

 

Something that I think is so amazing and why I started out this blog post with a Dr. Seuss quote is that no matter if you are in a school in Kenya or a school in Korea you can share some similarities… like celebrating reading week with Dr. Seuss. This is totally an elementary teacher thing to get excited about, but I loved it! I loved seeing second graders in Kenya learning which made me think about my second graders in Korea. I loved that the second grade teacher in Kenya had the same theme as me for our classrooms which is travel (I got some awesome new ideas to add for next year! J) I love that I got to talk to kindergarteners all about their favorite day to dress up that week which the most excitement was about wacky hair day! YES!

First Grader Fun

 

Kindergarteners are just TOO cute!

It was just great to see that students no matter where you are eager to learn, excited about life, have troubles, talk without raising their hand, and have so many questions! Teaching is more than the physical place you are at- it is about reaching the children in your class where they are at.  I loved being able to spend the afternoon observing and learning at West Nairobi School.  It was also super fun to hear stories about monkeys stealing snacks from the students’ backpacks and having lock-downs for baboons! J It was an awesome school! And maybe just maybe someday I will teach there- you never know- it definitely wouldn’t be a bad place to teach!

Great opportunities for monkeys to get a little snack...

Love, Daniella

 

 

Kenya captured my {heart} Part 2

3 weeks ago God called me out my comfort zone to lead 6 students to Nairobi, Kenya along with 3 other adults. Never did I think this trip would completely change my heart and expose desires that have been on my heart in a tangible way along with “sins” that have been hiding their way in my soul. I have grown up in missions and have learned/experienced what short term mission trips can be- they can either be a blessing, but always changing the person who came more than the person who was left or they can be a disaster and bring more hurt than good.  This trip changed me more than I thought it would. It has left me broken, exposed, hurt, clinging, questioning, missing, longing, and wondering. It has overwhelmed me to the point of having a hard time putting words to it and just wanting life to slow down for a little bit so I can get my feet under me again. Even though the past 3 weeks have been difficult I am so thankful for them because it is a tangible way for me to see that this trip in my life wasn’t just some trip that I will soon forget about like what happens to so many short term mission trips that people go on, but that this trip was a gift from God to grow me. There are many things that I loved about this trip and one of those things was seeing some many awesome ministries that are empowering Kenyans to bring hope and change to their country for God’s kingdom. Today I would love to share with you the very first ministry that we went to Joseph Kamgethe, Street Boy’s Center.

The Joseph Kamgethe, Street Boy’s Center is actually a government run center that is a very dark place with lots of “evil” things that happen. The boys center is located on the outskirts of Kibera slum, the largest slum in Kenya. The center houses “street boys” that are found around Nairobi. “Street boys” are exactly what you are thinking: boys who live on the street. They are everywhere in Nairobi, knocking on car doors and begging for food and money. Some of them are orphans, but most of them are runways that have left their abusive homes looking for better lives somewhere else. Nairobi’s City Council thinks the boys are criminals and sends men to drive around the city and capture the boys to drop them off at centers around town. The boys usually have some type of food and some type of bed at the center.



Our amazing hostess for the week, Emmy has been volunteering here along with three other Christian friends for the past two and half years. She focuses mainly on teaching English and trying to share the gospel with boys. They have also raised funds for 28 of the boys to go to school (many of them have never attended before because it cost $200). This $200 covers their school fees, uniforms, books and food. Can you imagine buying a pair of $200 shoes knowing that you could have used that 200 to change someone future for the better for the rest of their lives?  How easily do we spend $200? There are currently around 40 boys at the center so Emmy tries to teach the boys some type of school until they can raise the funds to send them as well. The boys can be ages 4-16, but right now the center has boys from the age 6-16!

While we were there we had the opportunity of going to the center twice. The first morning that we visited my heart and mind were overwhelmed. We pulled up to the center which is one “community center” building that has one room open for activities and such and then one room filled with metal bunk beds squished together. There were about 5 stray dogs hanging around which yes, I overcame a fear and didn’t let those dogs scare me. I had courage! J There were a few boys hanging around (not yet sponsor to go to school), but most of the boys were at school.

Their "bedroom"

Our first morning there we took on the task of washing the boys’ blankets- all forty of them to be exact. Their blankets had never been washed before. We had no idea what was in these blankets, but we didn’t let it stop us. Each team member humbled themselves and went right to work without complaining or saying a word of negativity. We had to wash the blankets by hand so we started an assembly line of some people filling buckets, carrying buckets, scrubbing blankets, rising blankets, wringing blankets and laying them out to dry. The minute a blanket touched the water the water turned completely brown. We scrubbed their blankets many times, but each time we scrubbed more and more came out of them. We had a limited amount of water so we could only wash the blankets twice and rinse them twice, but they were still filthy dirty. {I was hurting inside. I was frustrated. I was angry. I just wanted those blankets to be completely clean. God very quietly spoke to my heart that all I could do with my very best for this moment and that He would cleanse the rest. He asked me to pray over each blanket that I washed that the boy would feel He love and peace as he slept with the blanket that night. I repented of my emotions and abide in trusting God by praying.} We worked hard. We left soaking wet, dirty and unsettled in our hearts.

Filling buckets with water

Carrying buckets after buckets of water

Washing

Rinsing

Wringing water out

The next day we returned to the center in the afternoon so we could play soccer and games with the boys who were at school while we were there the other morning washing blankets. The minute Emmy told them we were there to play soccer with them and they came running out shouting with excitement! J Our students played soccer with them for a few hours and of course they were tens better than we were. We also set-up a little corn hole game which I had the privilege of playing with some of the smaller boys. My job was to be the cheerleader and celebrate with them when they made it and encourage them when they didn’t! J

Cheering at the corn hole game! :)

We learned many sad things about what goes on at the center-lots of abusive, stealing, and punishments from the director. The director is a very evil man who gives me the creeps when I looked at him.  He makes me so angry and I wish that he would just be taken away, but I was remind again even yesterday at church how God can take the most evil man (Saul/Paul Acts) and change him! I was convicted of my prayer for this man and this was something that Emmy taught me as well. She said “I first pray that God will change His heart and that he would know God and then she prays that if not he would be taken away.” Injustice like this makes your heart long for Jesus to come back and bring justice so much more intense.

Before we left the center we had the opportunity to hand out toothbrushes and toothpaste to each of the boys. Oh, how excited they were to receive such a necessary thing. The little boys ran over to brush their teeth the minute they received their toothbrushes. Seeing their toothpaste filled smiles brought joy to my heart knowing it is just the simple things of life that should bring us joy. We don’t need things- we need to know that we are loved, cared for and wanted and the only one who is the best at that is God!!! Emmy also told them who washed their blankets the day before and this is when I broke down. You should have heard their expressions and comments of thankfulness. “Thank you SO much I haven’t slept that good in a long time.” “My blanket smelled SO good.” “It felt SO good getting into bed.” How can this be? There was no way that we washed those blankets to the clean that “we” would sleep in and think smelled good. We couldn’t give them “our” very clean, but to them it was perfect. Words can’t describe how this moved my heart… it seriously brings tears to my eyes each time I think or tell this story. And it also showed me a tangible way of how powerful prayer is and abiding to what God lays on your heart! I pray that I will never forget this center and deep things that I learned from this place.

Melt you heart?!

If you would love to sponsor a boy so that they can attend school please contact me and I will get you all the information! Also, if you would love to please join me in prayer for the boys at this center, Emmy and her friends who volunteer here shinning God’s light in the dark places, the director’s heart to change and that justice would be brought! My heart has to just trust that God is in control and that His plan will always rule over the darkest even when we can’t see it!

Thanks for reading a little glimpse into my trip. There will be plenty more (exactly 6 actually) posts talking about the other ministries throughout the next weeks!

Love, Daniella

 

P.S If you missed reading Part 1 of my trip click here or want to see all of the pictures from Kenya, click here.

Capture my Kenya

It has been a very long process uploading on the Kenya pictures. We had over 1,000 pictures of our time there. I also wanted to add words to the pictures so that I would remember and so that you could understand a little bit more of what happened. I couldn’t write under each picture, but I tried to capture the most I could. I LOVED going through the pictures and remember the stories, love and brokenness from them. I will write more details with more blogs post to come, but for now here is the link for the pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153175839269289.1073741843.619224288&type=1&l=d86e101507 Also, please feel free to ask questions or talk to me about the trip. I would love it!

God's light overshadowing the darkness!

Love, Daniella

Kenya captured my {heart} Part 1 of many!

Words. I can’t really seem to find them as I think about what I want to say or write. There are just so many thoughts. So many things I want to tell you, but I just can’t seem to find an organize way to do it. I am exhausted and life has to just keep on going. I wish for just a moment that I could pause for a few days and process all that I experienced while in Kenya, but it’s not reality so I am trying to pause in the little moments of here and there and reflect, think through, ask questions, remember, and figure out how to hold onto what I learned and move forward. My biggest fear is that I will forget everything and life will go back to normal, but you see I don’t want that. I don’t want my life to go back to way it was- I want to live with the newness that the brokenness I saw last week did to my heart. My heart is broken, hurt and overwhelmed. To be honest my trip to Kenya was two completely different trips except for the small little fact that it actually was one trip.  Personally my heart was broken, captured by love and I just wanted to stay in Kenya for so many reasons. We served at so many different amazing ministries and so many different Kenyans impacted my life with their stories. I loved spending the week listening with my whole heart and serving wherever I could so that those there could just have a moment of rest from the day in and day out of ministry and life. I saw so much hurt, injustice, abandonment, but at the sometime love, hope, grace and determination.  There are so many stories and lives I want to capture with words and remember so over the next couple of weeks I will try write more details with specific stories as I continue to process! Feel free to read as many or as little as you would like I just want to document all that I saw so I will never forget! God laid it so clearly on my heart that this trip would/will impact my future and I am already seeing how some of it playing out. Oh, how I love my Savior who is so faithful and so worthy to trust. Trusting in Him these days is all my heart is holding onto because to be honest I have had a bad attitude the last couple of days. My mind, my soul, my heart and body want to be anywhere, but where I am. But it is not a choice. I am where I am because this is where God has called me for now and I am being reminded again by a wise man Timothy Keller that “Faith is not primarily a function of how you feel. Faith is living out, trusting, and believing what truth is despite what you feel.” So even though I don’t feel like being where I am. I am choosing to live it out, trust and believe in the anchor that is holding me together, my Savior.

 Thank you SO much to those of you who supported me through this trip either with prayer or financially. Your prayers were felt and much needed. Thank you! And I was financially all fundraised! Yay! Really I cannot thank you enough for your encouragement and prayers. One of the many things this trip taught again was the power of prayer. My hope is that over the next couple of weeks I will be able to share more details about all that went on. If it is not happening please kindly send me a reminder- I may need some motivation and push to continue to process everything! Thank you for being patience and loving me! J

Love, Daniella

 

This is truth that I cling onto and press into through this season!

 

p.s My next project is to get pictures onto facebook so you can at least "see" what I experienced!  

Be Still.

One week from today I will be breathing in the air of Kenya, feeling the warmth of the sun on my cheeks and expecting to serve in whatever ways God allows.  I CAN’T believe it. 

The past few days have been filled with learning more about the culture of Kenya, the organizations that we will be serving and what it means to go on a mission trip. My heart has really been tugged at for this trip. It is the first time that I am a leader instead of just a participant and God is using this experience already to shape and form my thoughts more and more on what His heart is for serving others. What a blessing it has been to have 3 and ½ days off of school for Korean Lunar New Year to set apart time to pray, think and work through more of the details of this trip.  My heart and soul are full tonight after I having spent the afternoon watching videos of awesome organizations doing awesome things in Kibera, putting together material for our team to work through this week to be better prepared as we go to serve and nailing out all the details. Through it all I am learning what it means to trust God deeper, to rely on Him for strength and wisdom. To experience grace and learn more what it means to have grace.

And I have to be honest it has also been a hard 3 and ½ days off of school feeling extremely tired, about to throw-up any minute and overwhelmed by all that I have to do (putting together the trip, training on making eye glasses, having to teach this week, coaching soccer, first soccer game this Friday, taking care of members in my community, saying good-byes ect). I don’t know how I am going to make it through this week, but I do know that my problems, my to-do list is so small compare to what God can do and nothing can compare to the strength, the wisdom and the amazing way He (my Savior) helps you get through all things that are pointed towards bringing GLORY to His NAME. I just have to rest at His feet. Sit still and listen to His voice. Act when He says act. Love when He says love. Serve when He says Serve. Be still. Be still and TRUST.

This trip has already been a huge step of faith for me as I have had to believe for all the funds to come and trust for the right team to come together. My heart is filled with joy as the day gets closer, but I also know that my joy is replaced with sadness as one member of our team is not able to go on the trip. When I first posted about this trip I talked about how excited I was that God was allowing me to go on this trip in faith with a student. We both believed in faith for finances to come and THANK YOU SO MUCH to those of you who have so generously given. It is so appreciated!!! But I have sad news to tell you, this student will not be able to go on the trip because of complications of her being from another African country. She is very disappointed. She is now trusting and seeking God for what He has for her this week without walls. She has many other local options to choose from and I know she will be a blessing to whomever and wherever she serves.  I would ask that you would please pray that she has amazing week experiencing God in a whole new way.

Tomorrow my team will be talking about expectations that we have for the trip so I have been thinking and praying through the expectations I believe that God has for me on this trip:

-          First to grow in my leadership skills (Lead with grace, love, support and confidence)

-          Second to have a heart that is ready to serve whenever and however

-          Third to give up my “to-do lists” and be willing to be flexible not worried about time

-          Fourth to prepare my soul to love every person I encounter deeply and encourage them with God’s love.

-          -Fifth to learn. Have a posture of learning, listening and humbling myself. I want to go on this trip with ears and eyes first. J

Thank you so much for your support. Your prayers are/will be much appreciated through this week, next week and the months to come as we all (my team) process everything that we learn. I promise there will be many more post about this trip to come! J   

Love, Daniella



P.S. If you would like prayer points for each day while we are gone click here.

 

Something that I have to constantly remind myself these days

 

Prayer for Kenya

Two little weeks from today I will be flying with six high schoolers and three adults to serve in Nairobi, Kenya! My heart can hardly take it- I just want to be there now. I can’t wait to see all that God is going to do in and through the lives of everyone involved. We have definitely have had some struggles getting everything figured between visas, buying tickets, fund raising, yellow fever shots and remember to show up at our lunch meetings, but God who is always faithful has provided so many open doors. I am continuing to be in awe of His amazing faithfulness! I believe with all my heart that somehow all the funds will come in. I am daily surrendering the anxiety that it causing me and refocusing my mind on Jesus who knows exactly what our needs are. If you feel led to give please click here; this link will take you to another blog which has the many different options to choose from for how you would like to give.

Prayer. I am asking if you would please partner with my team in prayer. We have two students going on the trip who do not know Jesus as their personal Savior, but are seeking to figure out more about what it means to be a follower of Christ. I am praying with excitement that God will minister so deeply to their hearts on this trip. Would you pray with me that their lives would be transformed to follow Jesus?

We have also came up with prayer points for each day we are gone if you would love to join and cover our trip with prayer. It is much appreciated. The power of prayer is amazing and it is something that God is showing more and more about these days.

28 Feb – Pray for safe travel for us from Korea to Nairobi, Kenya.  Pray all of our bags arrive safely and undamaged.

1 Mar – Pray for us to get prepared and rested so we can begin strong on Monday morning.  Pray for our health that no one gets ill or sick during the week.

2 Mar- Pray for us that we would wake up ready to serve with our whole hearts however the Lord leads.

3 Mar- Pray for the missionaries in Kenya who helped organize our trip and for their ministries to continue to grow in Christ.

4 Mar- Pray for the people of Kenya that they would experience the deep love of Christ and experience how faithful He is.

5 Mar- Pray for the students who do not know Christ that He would relieve Himself to them and their lives would be transformed

6 Mar – Pray as we leave Nairobi, Kenya that our hearts would be changed for the better and that we would leave knowing that everything we did was for Christ and not for man.

2 – 6 March – Pray for us as we make and distribute reading glasses; as we work in the Elementary and Middle School to share the love of Christ for each of these children.

7 Mar – Pray for us as we spend one day in Dubai as we see and experience some of the Middle Eastern culture that we would be a light for Christ throughout the day.

8 Mar – Pray for travelling mercies as we complete our trip back to Korea and prepare to go back to school the next day

8 Mar- Pray for us as we start to share our stories and what God did in our lives with those who did not get to go on the trip. Pray that it would be encouraging and bring glory to God!

Overall, pray for our students to see how they can be the hands of feet of Christ; how he can work on their hearts too so that they too can come to know the Lord. 

“It is about the greatness of God, not the significance of man. God made man small and the universe big to say something about himself.”— John Piper

Thank you so much for partnering with us in prayer! We are so thankful and it is much appreciated!

 Love, Daniella