VBS Week

This weekend I went to the airport with Wallace to pick up the short term missions team from Mountain. The main purpose of their time in Nairobi is to run a VBS program at MOHI while the students are on break from school. Over the last two days I had the pleasure to take photos of their time with the kids. The team has prepared puppet shows, crafts, bible lessons, games and snack stations for the students to rotate thru. It was really cool to see all of their creative ideas over the past two days. The kids seems like the pupils were learning a lot and having a ton of fun.

Yesterday I dropped off the disposable cameras to the photo store to be developed, digitized and put on CD. I will be picking up the CD's tomorrow morning and can't wait to load them on my computer to see what images they were able to capture. I am really excited to see how they turned out.

Made in the Streets

This weekend I realized how amazing God is through His beautiful creations in the Masai Mara. You can see his hand when looking at the sunrise, lions, mountains, zebras, birds, buffalo, and even through the ugly wildebeest. If you know me well then you probably already guessed that I took over 500 photographs of my safari experience. I put up a few of my favorites on my Facebook page. My favorite safari moment was seeing a lioness carrying her cub in her mouth and walking within feet of the front of our vehicle. Bwana Asifiwe!

This week is packed with projects. On monday the Pangani center was busy checking in Joska students from class 7 & 8 and getting them on buses to go back to Joska. Before they left I had the opportunity to see Benson (Mom and Dad's sponsored child) again and had the opportunity meet his grandmother.

On Tuesday Franklin, Lyn (Social Worker) and myself went to Bondeni to do some filming and got to see one of the homes he lived in for 2 months while in the "Made in the Streets" program. We also filmed him telling about his childhood and living on the streets.

Today I had the opportunity to film Franking in Eastleigh, the place he lived while on the streets. It was really eye opening meeting his street friends that live under a tree with clothing hanging in the branches. I even walked on the dirt streets that he walked every day selling drugs, and living life. It was incredible to see the difference between Franklin and his street friends. When we walked up they were sleeping on the side of the road under a tree. Their clothes were dirty and tattered and I could tell they were high on drugs and didn't look like they had much to live for. Franklin on the other hand was clean, wearing new clothes, is off drugs, and has a future ahead of him. While sitting with his friends Franklin told me, "I would like my friends to get out of the streets, for God to help them, and for them to return to their homes." It has been truly a blessing to get to know Franklin's story and I hope it touches the hearts of many.

(Franklin with his street friends under their tree)

(A street kid, about 13 years old, high on glue, trying to hold a conversation with Franklin.)

After we returned from filming I meet with students from various classes to start phase 1 of my student photo project. In short, I handed out 49 disposable cameras and gave them detailed instructions on how to use them, how to take good photos, and that I wanted them to take 10 photos of things they see or do on a daily basis in the Mathare slums. I will be doing this 3 times before getting the photos developed. This will give 147 students the opportunity to be creative thru the art of photography. Out of 1,750 photos I will choose the best of the best and make an art gallery in one of the rooms of the center. This will be MOHI's first student art show! I am really excited to see what shots the kids take.

Meeting Franklin

CMF (Christian Missionary Fellowship), www.cmfi.org, asked me if I could help them with a pending video project that they are trying to make to show to Youth Group student across the USA. It will be focusing on helping kids in the slums that have been effected by HIV and how the student can help. Keith Ham and I sat down yesterday to nail down a plan on how we were going to execute this 3 part video series. During this meeting Keith told me about a by the name of Franklin and how he was found on the streets and has been in MOHI (Missions of Hope International) Joska Center in class 7 for 2 months now. We decided to use his life story to portray the life of a typical orphaned teens with HIV and how MOHI has helped change his life.

After talking with Keith about the project I went down to the Social Work office to talk to Lynn. With her help I was able to meet up with Franklin this morning to get to know him better and to hear his life story. As he was telling me about his childhood my heart felt heavy for this young 14 year old boy. I can't even imagine how hard it must be to grow up in the slums as an orphan and finding out from doctors that you have HIV at the age of 7. I start filming Franklin tomorrow morning around 10:00 AM in the Mathare slums. I will try to post some photos of him in a later post.

Keith and I were trying to come up with a good title for this video series. So far we haven't come up with anything we like. I am looking for something short, sweet & would catch the attention of teenagers. I know that some of you can be very creative so I am asking for you to put on your thinking cap and try to come up with a title option. Who knows you may come up with a title that we think would be fantastic for the short film series. So, if you would like to submit a title option please comment on this blog post and make sure that you include your title option and your first and last name. I can't wait to read the title that you come up with.

Please be pray for:

• God to be with Franklin through the filming process.
• Help Franklin to be able to clearly portray his life in a way that will inspire students in the US so we can help others with similar lives.
• Give me a clear vision of what needs to be filmed to help visually portray life in the slums.
• God to be with me as I try to film Franklin's story in a way that will help students have a better understanding of what life is like in the slums as an orphaned child.
• Help me as I guide Franklin through the filming process.

The Weekend

On Friday all 6 apprentices (Meredith, Luisa, Bethany, Erin, David & I) were invited over to Doug and Jennifer Kurz's House to spend the night. We arrived at their home at about 6:00 PM and had a great time hanging out, eating a home cooked american meal, watching movies, and sleeping. In the morning they cooked us a pancake breakfast. YUMMY! After with breakfast it was time to head over to the Pangani Center for the Talent Show/Music Festival. I was in charge of trying to make sure that we video tape as much of the event as possible.

The festivities started at 10:00 AM and the award ceremony ended around 7:00 PM. Their were activities going on in 3 different rooms.

So I got a good workout running from the first location on the Ground floor to the second location on the 1 first floor to the third location on the 4th floor all day long. :) I am continually amazed on how many God given talents these students have been given. It was so amazing to have students from all 10 centers competing against each other. It is a rare occasion for all the schools to be together in one building. They were singing, dancing, reciting poems, rapping, doing spelling bees, and cultural dances. I told you a few weeks ago that I had fun watching Huruma practicing their talents and how I thought they were going to do good in the competition. Yesterday, the judges awarded Huruma the best in show trophy. I was spot on!!!

I did find time to hang out with the students as they were preparing for their performances. For some reason I am a magnet for Joska kids. Maybe it is my magnetic personality and good looks or maybe it's because I had a nice digital camera hanging around my neck taking photos all day. I did become friends with one boy in particular that I kept running into thru-out the festivities. His name was Simon, he is 14 years old and goes to school in Joska and I believe is in class 7. He is a very gifted child and loves to sing in the Joska choir, play the drums, write music, sing, dance, play Football (american soccer), and his favorite subject is English class. During our lunch break we decided to have some fun and had a fun photo shoot with him, some friends and myself. It was so much fun getting to know these guys and can tell that they have a strong future ahead of them. Check out some of my favorite shots from this shoot.

Today was our day of rest, we went to church at the Pangani Center, went out to eat at the city market, and then came home to rest. Around 6:00 PM we had our normal group debrief time with Wallace, ate dinner (Mexican Monday was moved to Sunday this week) and then went back to relaxing. Around 10:30 PM I had an opportunity to catch up with my my brother, Tyler and his wonderful wife, Amy on Skype. It was so good to see/talk to them for the first time since I have been in Kenya. I have a fruitful week ahead of me and better head to bed.

Purity in Nairobi

What an awesome Wednesday! Yesterday was my fist day back working at the center since Easter. Because it is a short week I had a lot on my agenda of things to get done today.

I started off my day by filming Wallace in his office giving an update about Joska for Christ's Church of the Valley in PA. Wallace was the only person left to film to make this project complete. After lunch I was able to finish editing the film and am planning on sending the 6 minute video off to them tomorrow thru email. Technology is great!

After the filming was complete I went down to the social work department to go with Margaret Wairimu Ndungu to visit Purity Makena Kasunzu (a 9 year old girl in class 3 yellow). Purity is sponsored by Heather Lozada's 10th grade girls small group. So Margaret and I stopped by Purity's class and as soon as i walked in the door the student's greeted me as their guest, sang me songs and recited their memory verses. After we finished hanging out the kids in the class we followed Purity through the slums to visit with her mother at their home. Before we arrived at the house Purity greeted her mother at her general store. I greeted Mama Mercy and then we continued walking about a block to their 5 story cement housing complex. To be honest, I was quite surprised to find out that they weren't living in a tin structure like most people in the slums. God has truly blessed this family and has allowed her family to make enough money to rent a nicer house in the slums. Bwani asifiwe! (Praise the Lord!) Before entering the complex Mama Mercy insisted on buying us sodas! After climbing many steps and their small cement house was opened up I was able to sit on the sofa and have a great conversation with Purity and her Mother. I found out that the mother was not well educated so he speaks very little english and is so proud of her two daughters (Mercy (6th grade at Joska) and Purity) for pursuing their educations. Her husband left the family and divorced Mama Mercy. I had a great time getting to know this family and truly enjoyed their company. Purity is such a sweet young lady of God!

At one point on our conversation the mother told me (thru Margaret translating) that Purity wanted to go to the USA so she could meet the girls that sponsor her. The social told her that traveling to the US is very expensive and that they probably wouldn't be able to afford it. I then asked Purity if she thinks she could fit in my luggage so I could bring her to the US with me in May. She laughed and said "I'm sure I would fit." Then the mother asked me if the small group of girls would ever have a chance to come to Nairobi to visit their home. I reminded them how young their sponsors are but told her that maybe when they get older that they may be able to take the opportunity to come over and meet her family in person. I could tell that she feels truly bless by Purity's sponsors and has taken a huge burden off Mama's shoulders. Purity told me that she prays often for her sponsors and their families and loves them so much and thanks them for their support so she can get an education.

After hanging out in the house we all went to visit Mama Mercy's general store. She was able to open the store by taking out a loan thru Missions of Hope BDS program and Micro Enterprise weekly group training and meetings. She took out the loan for her buisness about a year ago and is now very close to paying it off. She sell's anything from Toilet Paper to snack food to the local community. Purity was really excited to introduce me to Pigron, her pet cat, that lives in the store. I could tell that she LOVES playing with the cat when her mom is at work.

Once we got back to the Pangani center is was about time for Lunch. After lunch I finished editing the video for Christ Church of the Valley in PA and took some photos for another church that helped put in a water treatment system so that the students could have pure water at the Pangani Center.