Angela's Story

Angela Kimilu (married to Victor Otieno, who manages our crops at the Farm) was still in high school when her parents moved into Nairobi.  She went on to attend Daystar University, getting a degree in community development.  She needed to do an internship at the end of her program.  One day she attended worship in Eastleigh Section II and met Joseph Mwanga, who was working with Made in the Streets.  They talked, and she told him about her need for an internship.  He explained what MITS was doing in Eastleigh and invited her to check it out.  She was not at all sure that she wanted to do this -- she had once been threatened by a street guy with feces in his hands asking for money -- or else! She ran away.  But she came to the Eastleigh Center, and her first day MITS was doing an intake of street youth who would move out to Kamulu in a few days.  She says they were so dirty and smelly and noisy, jumping all over everywhere.   She was doubtful about staying.  Then one of the Team members asked her, "Are you staying? They've run off all the other girls."  She went home and told her parents about it, and her Dad asked if she really wanted to do it.  And she said, "I think so, I think I can."  Her parents agreed and did not try to over-protect her.  At the time she started daily work MITS took in 11 young boys for a one-year experiment with getting kids back in their families.

She quickly brought change to the program.  There was not much organization in the beginning, just the idea of helping these small boys from the streets.  So she wanted the boys first to learn to take care of themselves.  She made a chart with "got up and made bed," "showered," "brushed teeth," "washed hands," "read Bible" and other things on it.  They got stickers for doing their chores.  She would get up at her parents' home very early in order to get into Eastleigh before the boys woke up so she could check all the thing on the chart. Phillip was volunteering (he was just getting out of high school), and Angela and Phillip looked at the very few books that had been left at Eastleigh when the rest of the Team moved out to Kamulu.  They worked out a teaching schedule.  Soon the boys were orderly and learning and all the Team was very happy.  She says they actually wanted to do what she said!

Angela eventually came to Kamulu and taught classes and stayed with the girls.  After two years she left and went to work for an orphanage called Rafiki.  While at MITS-Kamulu she had met Victor, who has worked with MITS since 1999.  They married and moved to Ruai, which is 3 miles from MITS and 4 miles the other way from Rafiki.  After a few years she left the orphanage.  They received a loan from MITS and built a house on a plot given to them by the Coulstons, and their house is just across the driveway from the house the Coulstons built 3 years ago.

Now they have a little girl named Kelcey who is a delight and loves to play and run.  She laughs when she sees Charles and Darlene.  On Sunday afternoon the Coulstons and Tim and Ann Lewis, who are visiting from Irving, Texas, were invited to the Otieno's for afternoon tea, served with mandazi (a doughnut like pastry in a triangle shape).  What a delightful time!  We never underestimate the meaning of both being invited into someone's home and being the one who invites.

The picture is one of the family when Kelcey was a little one, but it shows the delight they have in her.

Chapel at MITS-Kamulu

We are always in process at MITS-Kamulu.  We have 5 new young men as of last week in the residence halls, and we have 15 young men and women in the Exit Program.  There are 50 students in the literacy program and 41 in skills training and Exiting.

We always want these young people to be independent and capable of making their own decisions.  So we leave them free to decide every day to stay at MITS.  We want each one of them to be leaders to the degree they are capable.

So we have begun a new phase in our morning chapel.  On Wednesdays and Fridays we now have a different format.  Our Team meets with them on those days, but only for two songs.  Then announcements are made and the Team exits to have their own development time led by Charles Coulston.  The students are left in the chapel to do their own devotional.  In the beginning we are having them sign up for song-leading, Scripture reading, prayer, sharing a message and a presentation (maybe a solo or a group song, or poetry, etc).  Later we will have certain ones of them develop the whole devotional.

We are proud of these young people who have come out of the worst situation imaginable into a new life.  The picture is of four of the newest street youth to come to Kamulu.  Pray for them that they might take their place as leaders in this country.