So many memories to choose from and most will not soon be forgotten. This picture represents much. Couple of things I won’t forget and how they are impacting me still.

1. As far as the eye can see. Hundreds of thousands living like this. In “homes” that are 8 feet by 8 feet and often with 4-8 people living in them. A stark contrast to the day spent in the lush lands of the Lion King and all the animals of the Safari. “As far as the eye can see” and it shouldn’t be! Really it just shouldn’t be. But it is! Yet the ALSO is that the “Church” is alive in Kenya and even in communities like the one in the photo, God’s people–His Church is making a difference. What has impacted me about my experience is that what looks like NO HOPE as we listened to the story of the Mathare Community is that HOPE is present. Authentic community is present. And God has not abandoned His children. He knows each one by name. More on the power of a name later.

2. The River Runs Through It. It is somewhat difficult to “see” because the color does not appear to be that of water…but in the lower left corner of the picture is the river that splits the Mathare Valley in two. Again a significant juxtoposition for someone like me who has snorkeled in the Bahamas and fished in the streams of Yellowstone. What the picture does not show is how dangerous that water becomes when the rains come. The dangers of traveling at night when one can’t see their hand in front of them and yet the water is a torrent next to them and rushing down through the shanties into the river. Additionally, a picture does not indicate that the river plays the role of a “toilet handle”. Everyone throws their garbage of ALL types into the river with the expectation that it goes away.
So I’m thinking a bit more critically how blessed I am when I wash my hands, teeth, and clothes. Or take a drink or even walk outside at night next to a street light that illuminates the water passing alongside the street drains that have signs “no dumping”. We are blessed. I am blessed and it causes me to ask the question, “What is my responsibility?”

3. No…roads, clean water, toilets, and little electricity. And little money to even buy the “sweets” that the children wanted from us Muzungas (crazy white man). But as I indicated above…the answer is NOT paving roads, purifying water, building toilets and adding electricity. The answer is listening to people (their story), building relationships, and empowering what God has already put in place even in the Mathare Valley — His Church. It is the body of Christ building up the Body of Christ both in the Mathare Valley and in Geneva TOO that will TRUIMPH.

My thoughts have been a bit scattered, but I have learned that the POOR WILL ALWAYS BE WITH US (Mark 14:7a) and the Kenyan Church has reminded ME that “I” have a Mathare Valley in my own life right here in the Fox Valley!

~ Pastor Bruce