home.

jambo...

from IL. :)
i never had a chance to blog in kenya for several reasons, and i have been trying to think about what to even write now that i am home.
to be honest, right now i am overwhelmed. overwhelmed with emotions, overwhelmed with stories, overwhelmed with how much i love the children of mitumba.

they changed me. the Lord changed me. being in mitumba and spending time with the children and teachers and Pastor's family helped me to see the Lord in ways i had never seen before. in ways my faith hasn't allowed me to see Him. it is easy for me to say i have been blessed tremendously by my time with them.

i know that i am not going to be able to adequately write about my trip, at least not now and maybe not for awhile. i think i am going to use this blog to process a lot of the stories and things that i experienced and try to make sense of it all in that way.



beth

beth pauline wanjiru.
she became an instant friend. a 12 year old from class 5 who always has a smile on her face and loves life so much. i spent time with her every day and looked forward to seeing her when i went to the school. we talked about life and what she wants to do when she gets older, she braided my hair and asked me questions about america. she is wise beyond her years, but is also so much fun to be around. she loves to dance and tried to teach me to dance on numerous occasions. i spent most of my time in her class and became friends with all the children in class 5. we shared several walks halfway home with our arms around each other with conversations full of dreaming, laughing, and making funny voices. some of the teachers started calling her my daughter because of how much time we spent together.
one day beth came to school wearing a stocking hat. it made me laugh inside because to kenyans, this is their cold season and many of them just think it is too cold. i asked her why she was wearing a hat and later that day found out she was wearing it to cover up her newly pierced ears. i immediately was very concerned...the majority of the children and people in mitumba are HIV positive and i was worried about beth. the children were just becoming real to me, as friends, as children growing up in the most difficult conditions; and my heart broke.
something as simple as getting your ears pierced for these children could be deadly. and as much as you teach them about AIDS prevention and taking care of themselves, sometimes they still don't understand. beth just wanted to get her ears pierced and she just "loved them so much". i just cried when i realized that these are conditions the children face each day. and more than that, i cried for beth- for the girl i had grown to love so quickly and for the idea of her being exposed to such a disease.
i continued to spend time with her and check on her. during my time there, our friendship continued to grow. i didn't fully understand the extent of it until the day that i left mitumba. i was saying good bye to her and another girl who is close to my heart named irene. i started to cry and couldn't stop. some of the boys began to laugh at me, but then i looked and saw these two girls having tears in their eyes. this only made me start to cry more of course. i wanted so much to stay with them and not be a person who was there for a short time and then to walk out of those girls' lives. i wanted to stay to see them grow and be someone who would consistently show them love and friendship. but i knew it was time to go home. and so the tears continued to come.



those girls will forever be in my heart.

before i left for kenya, i prayed that the Lord would bless me with one girl who i could be close to and really form a deep relationship with. well, the Lord multiplied the answer to that prayer and really blessed me with so many relationships with the girls in mitumba. this is just one way He answered prayer throughout the trip.

the Lord is mighty, full of blessings that overflow.
i know the Lord has His hand over beth and over the girls of mitumba, and i know He never leaves them. that is the truth i am resting in tonight as i miss them deeply and know my heart will never forget them.