One Hard Week

This week has been one of the hardest weeks of our lives, but at the same time it has been great. We got to live with one of the best girls ever for three weeks. She came to Mattaw to help with School, her name was Courtney. When she taught, you could tell that she was given more than just a lesson for the day, but incorporated compassion into everyone she came in contact with. It was awesome to end each day, laughing and getting to know Courtney as if she was an old friend. She left early this morning to go back home.

But she is not the only one that we lost today. We talked about a girl in our last blog Esna. She passed almost an hour ago. It is good to know that she is not suffering anymore and gets to rest in the arms of Jesus. My heart hurts for all the suffering that she endured, but the last few weeks she was loved, and well taken care of.

For whoever who reads this, Esna is gone. But pray for all the other girls in the same situation. Pray for them to be rescued and healed, and for them to know that no matter how others might be treating them, there is One who loves them no matter what. And the most ultimate love, love that they have never been shown, true love. The love of Jesus.

Esna’s story goes on, in our hearts, and is a great reminder that there is more to be found and shown the love of Jesus. Esnas left something very special behind, Blessing her beautiful daughter. We are breaking her family curse of poverty and disease. She will be the new start to this family’s line of things that are passed down. Hope. Life. Love. She is a precious girl.

Blessing in her new dress and shoes

We also have been going to the district hospital. Hospitals here have doctors and nurses, but are still very different than what we have in the states. You have to provide someone to take care of your sick. You also have to pay in advance to get treatment sometimes. This was shocking to see babies, 3 months old to young children the last time we went to the hospital. They have been there for a couple of days, waiting for money to get treatment.

There was this grandmother with a 3 month old baby she lifted up his shirt and there was nothing but bones, and his skin was sagging off. She only needed like $3 to start getting treatment for her grandson, which the mother ran off and left with her. Then another women placed a baby in mine arms smaller than the first, this one was not as skinny, but was reaching its tiny little arms up at me and opening its mouth innocently like a helpless bird. Hunger. This brings up a whole different definition. We knew we were in the worst ward in the hospital, but it was not until our last visit we realized it was all malnourished children. Seeing all the different effects of malnourishment was heart breaking. So what did we do, we fed the hungry. Anna went and got some biscuits (Kenyan crackers or cookies) outside and was passing them around, to see the joy that we were given something so small but put smiles on faces that have not been happy for days.

So lets just say, people were just putting children in our arms, we loved on them and pray over them. I am just glad that Jesus sent us Holy Spirit so that we can go on continuing the wonderful work that Jesus started. 

Esnas

Sorry we haven’t updated in a while. Between no electricity, hugging kids, rescuing people, and just being tired we have not got a chance to sit and write. These past couple of weeks have been full of lots of laughter and some tears. We have been to a waterfall, which was absolutely gorgeous. We have played with lots and lots of children. But we have also seen evil and people near death.

                One day a Kenyan social worker called Kim and told her that there was a desperate case and that we needed to come get two girls. We loaded up and headed to a nearby slum. When we arrived se saw trash and lots of it. We go in our parade of white women all eight of us through the slum, needless to say we attracted a crowd. We arrive at a very small mud hut that we all squeeze inside. You cannot see much because it is dark but I could tell that there was someone laying in a bed. This was our first encounter with Esnas. Esnas is a 19 yr old girl that has been trying to take care of her siblings and her own daughter. But now she cannot even take care of herself. She is at the worst stage in AIDs and has many other sicknesses. It is the worst case of desperation that I have ever seen. We prayed over her and  asked God to heal her and took the two girls.          

                We heard again from the social worker that we needed to come get her baby. This baby or what we thought was a baby was found outside in the rain in her own waste. She was very distant and would only go to her 12yr old aunt. But God restores the broken. She is not laughing and playing. Her new family at Mattaw have been so great for her.

                The social worker calls us once more telling us that Esnas is extremely sick and needs to be taken to the hospital. Once again we head to the slums. When we pull up we see kids playing half naked in the ditches. We pass by a boy who can barely walk because he was beaten the night before. We walk by a group of men smoking weed. But this is nothing compared to what we were about to see. We go into the hut and there is this limp body just lying in the bed. The room has a feeling of darkness and sickness. We stand there and try to convince Esnas that she needs to go to the hospital. She had lost hope. We finally convince her. A couple of drunk mamas clean her up and dress her while we wait outside. While waiting a small boy, around 2, runs right into Keela we notice that this little boy is drunk. Oh man. It was so shocking, so much evil and darkness in this area. Esnas is finally ready to go. The drunk stumbling women try to make Esnas walk but with every step she is moaning. I decide just to pick her up and carry her. I was so surprised at how small she was. She weighed between 50-60 lbs! A 19yr old! Most 7 yr olds weigh that much. We put her in the car. Keela had to hold on to her so she wouldn’t bounce all over the car, she had absolutely no body control.

Esnas is now at the hospital where she is daily improving. God is definitely Healer. She has hope again. She can communicate some and she is starting to eat and keep her medicine down. The Lord is working and it amazing to see her improvement even if it is just a little. The kicker is her hospital bill is raising daily. She has to be on so much medicine. But the Lord will provide. If you feel led to help with Esnas and her medical bills let us know.

This is Esnas with Ruthie, the wonderful woman this is helping nurse her back to health. Please pray for provision and continual healing.

Birthdays

Who knew that we would be back in Kitale with the parts of our hearts that we left here. We have already experienced so many things. This past week we have ran around like crazies and loved on beautiful kids. We were not sure what our summer was going to look like but we were completely okay with that. A team of five girls came in to work with Mattaw so we served alongside them this week. It was cool to work with people from different backgrounds but with the same heart to love on the broken. We also got to be a part of rescuing three girls and see them start to heal. We cleaned and organized. We worked hard and played hard. The Lord does amazing things! That’s all.

We also got to throw a birthday party for four of the kids at Mattaw. Their smiles and gratefulness could warm anyone’s heart. The plan is to have a birthday party every week celebrating the lives of four different  kids each week. This may seem strange to most people. Are their birthdays really all that close?No, but Kenyans do not actually know their birthdays. Kim decided that these kids should be celebrated so she likes to throw birthday parties. So part of our summer will consist of making five cakes and decorating every week.

A few of our decorations

Iube opening his gifts

Christine looking at her new dress

Jose looking at his new clothes

Dan smiling so big

Christine in her new clothes

After a long week of snugglin, playing, cooking, and tons of adventures we are a bit tired. So we have taken a true day of rest with watched a chick flick and lying around.  Now we are rested up and ready to run full speed into what the Lord has for us!

We got some really good news this past week. We leave for Kenya May 15^th! We knew that we were going back but it was a bit surreal. But it is soo real now. The plans are in the working and things are started to get nailed down.

When we left Kenya last summer we left part of our hearts and we are so excited and anxious to be reunited with the people that stole them! There are really no words for how excited we are to be back serving and doing the Lord’s work.

So we are going to need your help! Mainly with prayer! For Mattaw, for our hearts, for finances, for Kenya, for guidance.  Also we need to raise around $6,000. Any contribution would  get us closer to serving the broken.

In the next couple months we also will be having “parties” to sell our African crafts and tie dye shirts. But if you want to buy anything before then you can contact us through Facebook or email.

Much Love