19.04.2009

Hi Everyone!

I'm trying to write as often as I can. I don't know how boring it will be, but we will try. Right now I am at home with Paul and we are watching James and the Giant Peach. We made pizza. It feels kind of like home. Except there is a guard that walks around outside, and if I am quiet enough, I can hear lions growling. Seriously.

Yesterday I took my first tour of Agape. For those of you who do not know, Agape is a home/school for street boys here in Kisumu. Kisumu is the 2nd or 3rd most populated town in Africa. Nairobi is the most populated with something like 3 million people. I think there are two major slums here in Kisumu, and one of them is right down the street from the house. They are "houses" packed closely together with tin roofs and garbage everywhere and more people than I would ever like to see in an ordinary neighborhood. I think you should visit Kenya if you get an opportunity. It's beautiful and green. But it will break your heart.

Anyway, I was at Agape for most of the morning yesterday, meeting the staff and some of the boys. It almost seems tired to type about it, because I feel like everyone has seen the tv commercials with the little children looking sadly at the camera and the old white guy asking for money. It's like that. Only I'm not an old guy asking for money.

One of the major things that I'm learning is how difficult it is to keep the kids in the home. Most of the boys that come in are addicted to glue and sex and stealing and fighting. They are like the convicts back home except they are 8 years old. They come to Agape to get healthy, but they leave because they are addicted to the street life. And with the political catastrophe that has occurred in the past couple of years, the poverty here has gotten worse. Homes were trashed, burned, and broken into because of your tribe. Because of where you lived. It's the worst kind of prejudice. Karen pointed out that it has absolutely nothing to do with skin color. Luckily, it has subsided some. I pray it stays this way.

(On a side note, I would like to say that there is a prime minister AND a president of Kenya. Neither of the candidates would give, so they both became leaders and they still don't agree on anything. Now I know part of why this country is in such rough shape.)

Anyway, the missionary life is tough. It requires flexibility and strength and you have to be a warrior like Jesus all the time, because they need it here. I feel and see evil stirring all over and there is such a need for hope and love and truth. So keep us all in your prayers.

Thanks. Love, love, love you all,
Riss