Friday, April 25, 2014

Pray for Lydia

This is a picture of Lydia from the back at our closing program for Term 1.  Please look at the MITS Facebook page for pics and info about our great closing program. Note the bandage on Lydia's arm and how she is sitting slumped over. That's because she has pain!

We did home visits this week, and Lydia made the mistake of starting across a street near Mathare Valley at the wrong moment.  She was hit by a car, and she has a head injury, plus contusions and bruises on arm and back.  She has been to the clinic twice, and they say she will be okay, but it takes a while to heal.

So...please say a prayer for Lydia. By the way, our kids are always so happy when they have opportunity to go and see some family members.  We have Team members go with them, and they go in small groups.  Even though they were not treated well at home and weren't taken care of, they love their moms or whoever is there at the family home.

But of course...they are ours!!!

HELP!

HELP!

Well, it's not a crisis.  But we do need your help - we can't do this without you.  There are some things we want to do that are not in the current budget for 2014.

Jackton told me that he wants to do a trip with students again this year.  It has been several years since the "Transwestern Tour" and three years since we went to Malindi on the coast.  Most of our current students have never seen the wonders of their homeland.  They were born in the deep slum, went on the streets when they were little kids and now are with us at Kamulu.

So...if you are willing to help, we'll plan trips for the kids, maybe in three groups.  Where we go depends on the funds we get.  Cost for each trip with about 30 students and 8 Team members in each group for 5 or 6 days would be about $4,500 -- so we need $13,500 total.

If you can help, send funds to Made in the Streets, 409 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37207 and write me at charles@madeinthestreets.org telling me what you are sending.  And thanks!

ALSO - we want to take some of our students and Team members on some Vacation Bible School trips to villages this year. It gives opportunity for students to have experience in teaching Bible, gives them contact with other congregations and raises their confidence level -- besides being a blessing to the village congregations.  It takes about $800 for 6 people to make a teaching trip -- includes transport, food, treats for kids, duplication of teaching materials, etc.

Do the same if you want to help with this!!  And thanks in advance.

Peace and Joy,

charles
A VBS picture from 2006!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

ZUHURA IS HAPPY....and so am I

Darlene and I often say that “we live in Paradise already” in Kenya. In the morning the birds sing us into joy.  Surrounding the house are hibiscus and bougainvillea and roses.  Out front are the California wildflowers and banana trees and our garden and more roses.  And on the nearby plots are some of the people we love best in the world – Victor and Angela, Jackton and Millie, Laurent and Eliza, Joel and Tira – our neighbors with little kids who are like grandchildren to us.  Often Raymond and Kelcey and Kehl will come to the door for “sweets” or “bi-qui” (biscuits, cookies). 

This week we hosted six families for a Passover Seder – so much laughter and enjoyment – they looked at old pictures from the first years of Made in the Streets, and some of the kids are now old enough to read part of the Seder and share in the “dayenu” (“it would have been enough…”). 

Paradise…but nothing compares to those rare and precious moments in chapel when true life is revealed to us.  On Thursday morning, the same day as our Seder, Zuhura stood up to share (most days either a student or a Team member will share a short story, a scripture and maybe a song).  She had found a story about a girl riding a bus, a girl in tears, in deep agony, and no one on the bus noticed much.  But one man, as he was about to alight, turned to the girl, wanting to say something to help.  The bus stopped, and it was time to get off, and everyone wanted to get on to their destinations, wherever life takes us, but the man asked for a moment. Reaching in his backpack, he pulled out a Bible, handed it to the girl, and told her that whatever the great trouble was, God has an answer and this book will guide you.  And it turned out to be true, as the girl’s life turned around, and of course the man never knew, or did he?

Paradise…and then Zuhura talked about herself.  She reminded us that a year ago when she arrived at Kamulu, she was bitter in heart, angry and confused.  Then she said, “When Charles came back from the USA this time, he told me, “Zuhura, you have changed. You are happy now.”  “And it’s true,” she said, “I am happy now. Christ does that for us.”  Then she told about something I had completely forgotten.  She said that when we were building the new girls’ residences, I came through the girls’ compound one day and walked by the house where the moms and babies stay.  I heard arguing and anger.  She says I poked my head in the door and yelled, “Is God here? Let God be in here.”  And she said that is what we need, to let God be here. 


Zuhura is a good student...trouble is in the past. The future is bright.
If you want to help send her to jewelry training, let me know.
charles@madeinthestreets.org 
Paradise…my kind of place.  And as one old song says, “I’m always going home inside.” Whether I am heading for Texas or Nairobi, I am heading home, to children and grandchildren and all that I hold dear.  And just think…there is a third destination, a Paradise that exceeds all, that is more than mortal mind dreams of, filled with fruit out front and leaves for healing of the nations…and for healing me…a place where we will not even notice the birds singing and flowers blooming, but our eyes, our hearts, our minds, rest on the throne, and the Lamb.   

Monday, April 14, 2014

Never Give Up

One of the writings on the wall at our Eastleigh Center is "Never give Up" in huge letters.  We often talk to the street kids about this.  And we remind one another that, even if one of our students runs, we never give up.  And if we have conflicts or struggles or disappointments, we never give up.


We had a girl named Advella in the very first girls' program at MITS.  Remember when Lynley Baker (now Phillips) came wanting to do a girls' class at the WorldWide Youth Camp event at Eastleigh?? And we said, "That's hard!"  And Lynley said, "Please."  And she did, and it was hard, but out of came a special camping trip for several girls and an invite to our first boarding program at Kamulu. There were seven of them at first.  Joann ran away the first week; she couldn't stand the wide open spaces of Kamulu (those were the days).  And Advella ran a few months later.

She is in the green in the first picture, fourteen years ago.  And the second was taken this week when she came to visit us (that's Darlene on the left).  Now she lives at Huruma, has her child in school, is attending our congregation at the Eastleigh Center and teaching Sunday school.  She has a job with the Child Welfare Association - she gets to see that what happened to her will not likely happen to some of the cases she deals with.

And she is very grateful to MITS and to those who support our work and to the teachers at MITS.  She had tears in her eyes as she expressed her gratitude to us.  Then she talked to John Wambu and did the same.  He said it was the first time one of the former students actually came back to him to say  thanks and express joy.

So...never give up.