Famine Relief Project

This last weekend I got to see firsthand how the people of Kenya are living, it is sad seeing even an hour out of Nairobi the lands are so dry, there is no grass in sight.  This weekend ventures took me out to a small place, really have no clue to where it was, we just went 4 hours south east of here, on the way to the coast.  My experience was of the multitudes of hungry people experiencing the worst drought ever.  It was shocking, my goal to go on this ministry trip was first of all to see what our church was doing to serve outside the church, second of all, it was to see Kenya.  Living here in Nairobi shelters you to a life in the city, being able to go to the Nakumat (grocery store) when you need supplies, often 

getting rain when other parts aren’t.  It is a life that can make you blind to the real conditions that Kenyan’s face.

It was an awfully early Saturday morning that we all faced this weekend, getting out to the camp for 7 am meant getting up in the dark, for those that know me well...I don’t do well at early mornings but I didn’t think twice about this, I did think once but knew that this is what I wanted to do.  After a frightening drive out to where we were meeting, our day was about to begin.  

When we arrived, we ended up visiting two churches, at the first church as we were introducing ourselves, I found it neat, that the group we went down with consisted of, three families from the UK, an Australian, a Brazilian, Kenyans, a couple Americans, and myself a Canadian.  It was such a diverse group that I was blessed to be serving with these people. 

 

The surroundings were so dry, there were dirt devils everywhere, and no I don’t mean the vacuum cleaners.  We came across another church on the way, this one there was a crowd outside waiting for the truck to deliver their maize.  As we made our way up to our destination, we go out of the vehicles to the sound of the congregation singing.  There was a group of old momma’s waiting to greet us, they were sweet and making me say things in their tribal language I wasn’t sure of.  But we laughed as I am the language idiot, and continued to greet everyone, and the children.  Walking into the church was amazing, the singing and the dancing, I felt like I was in the heart of Kenyan, nothing like what I have experienced anywhere else.  Then we listened to them sing, and then we sang a song for them, sort of an impromptu choir was made up of our group, never sung together before but we managed to get through it. 

 

The neat part of the trip is that there was a student that choose for a service project he had to do for school was to purchase a bag of maize for a couple of the ladies in the church, so he presented them with a bag of maize to share.  He used his savings to help these ladies out.  It was neat to see how gratefully that they were for this unselfish act of kindness.

From there we were done, usually the group goes to several different churches and gets home rather late, we were all done by mid afternoon, hot and dirty we got back into the vehicles and headed out and back to Nairobi.

As we were leaving I stood back and admired the church, there stood many grateful Kenyans, not for much food but there they received some, and there they stood grateful but the small amount that they got.  This community was reminded that God blesses the faithful, that the rains will come when they are ready, that God is not punishing anyone by not providing the rains.

 

Throughout this week, highlighted for me was this trip, allowing me to see the extremes of selfish people, and those that are totally unselfish, with the willingness to give up what they have.   With people around me having their own agendas to a kid that put out $350 to feed two people for the next month.  I am thankful and blessed that I gave up my weekend morning of sleeping to have this experience, to see how God is working throughout Kenyan, to see the church alive in other parts of Kenya.

 I am eternally grateful and know that there are more trips that I am going to be a part of in the future.  If you want to get involved in helping with the famine relief projects, let me know.  Not that you have to come along, but your donation to a country that is running out of many things can use you assistance.  From the lack of rains, has taken away crops, the lack of crops has increased food prices everywhere.  

What selfless thing can you give up to serve others this week?

Still continued prayer, here in Nairobi, we are experiencing rations of water, electricity, some food.  All the prices of everything have increased about 30% in the past three months.  I have been cutting back in electricity to save on costs, cutting back in water usage, for me there is only a hot shower once a week but then I realize that to some here in the country that is more than what they get.  I am grateful for the roof over my head.