Back home in the USA!

I have been home now for 12 days and the jet lag is gone!  The return flights of almost 24 hours were really harder than the going flights.  Our team made it back and so did our luggage!  We were thrilled to see our family and friends at the airport after getting through customs.  One of the first things back in America was to get a drink with ice cubes and then a hot shower after two days of traveling.  How spoiled we are in America with clean water & ice!  Never take that for granted!

People have been asking me what is my take away from this trip.

I say it is to see the joy of the Lord in these Christian sister's faces.  There smiles and singing voices light up the world around them that is so so dark. 

They ask that we would not forget them and to get their stories out. 

There are hundreds of woman waiting to get into the HEART WEEP program!  For a donation of  $50.00 you, a family, or group can sponsor a woman and her children for one month.  These HEART programs will save their lives!

Those of you who attend Bayside Church in Granite Bay, CA you may purchase items these ladies have made in the Bayside Cafe'.  Each mission team that goes over brings back items for the Cafe'.

To never forget these in creditable ladies and how their trusting faith in Jesus Christ gets then through each day!
 
"Freedom for Girls" is a program where a $5.00 gift will keep a teenage girl in school for a year, because she will have something we take for granted "sanitary pads"!  Most teenage girls in Kenya miss at least 5 days of school a month, because they cannot afford "sanitary pads".  After they have missed 15 days of school they usually drop out, because they are to far behind to catch up.  Just think the cost of one Starbucks could keep a girl in school for a year!


Not to take where and how I live for granted, but to thank God each and every day.

I hope you have seen the pictures on our team blog site www.faithhopelovekenya.blogspot.com that Misty Smith has posted. Misty was our team photographer and was able to catch some amazing photos.

I would love to talk to each of you about what God has allowed me to experience, so please ask me next time we see each other or talk.  I would also love to share my trip experiences with any group that would be interested in listening.  I cannot thank you enough for your prayers and support during the trip.  I pray that I was able to make you feel a part of the trip through my blog and our teams blog.  I could differently feel your prayers too.

This is the link to the HEART web site to donate if you feel moved to support any of these projects.
 http://africaheart.org/donate/online
If the link above does not work go to the main HEART web page and then click on donate.

The main HEART web page where you can find information on all their programs is:  www.africaheart.org

Thank you for reading my blogs and traveling with me to Kenya.

Sat. Oct. 6th, 2012 Graduation Day for WEEP Ladies

Today is our last day in Kenya and it is graduation day for 9 of the WEEP ladies!  Our day started early with preparations for graduation at the HEART grounds and like anyone having special visitors the HEART staff wanted everything to look just right for these 9 special ladies.  The grounds were beautiful with white tents, chairs covered in white with pink bows, and beautiful flowers every where!  All of this was dim in comparison to the smiles on the 9 beautiful graduates as they practiced walking down the steps in their royal blue cap and gowns.  To think 18 months ago they were alone and near death with their children watching them getting worse each day.  Today they are healthy and full of hope looking forward to supporting themselves and their children.
Besides the graduates there were alumni from the last 2 graduating classes who were proud to wear their blue alumni sash.  One of the alumni gave a speech on how their class had taken the $150 seed money from last year and worked out a system to loan money to each other without taking out their seed money.  They have done so well they are now loaning money to the community with interest and have more than doubled their $150 each not to count for the fact that the community that had shunned them because of their HIV/AIDS is now asking them for loans!  These ladies were just busting with pride as they should be.   They also will be mentoring the 9 graduates from this year in the months to come.
The key note speaker was the Israeli ambassador Gil Hulsted.  His wife volunteer's with HEART in the slums and has shared with him how special they ladies are.  He encouraged the ladies and said they were the shining stars today.
Through different ministries and our Bayside team of supporters we were able to present each lady with $150 dollars seed money to start a business, a pair of scissors, $500 to purchase a home in the slums (no longer will they need to pay rent), and they get to keep the Singer trundle sewing machine they have learned to use.  There also were enough funds to sponsor 3 new ladies for the 18 month program!      
It was really hard to say goodbye to all of our new friends and the HEART staff today.  We are packed and looking forward to getting home to our families. but not to the 24 hours of travel time!

Friday Oct. 5th, 2012

Wow is all I can say about are travels today!
We left early so we would have time to see the Kibera Slum, which was the 3rd slum this week and by far the worst.  None of us can think of words to describe the smells and sights we saw today!!
All we can say is no human or animal should live in those conditions.  Even the few dogs we saw seemed hopeless!
We went by bus, but the bus could not go down the street / path to the Kibera WEEP center, so all 10 of us got out and walked with the ladies of the WEEP center who came to meet our bus.  We walked about a half mile down a dirt rocky path with garbage every where, chickens eating the garbage, people selling the eggs from the chickens, childern running barefooted through all of this plus raw sewage running in ditch along side of the road, constant herd of people going up and down the path along beside us, needing to find a spot to stand while cars drove by on the single lane, people cooking over charcoal & wood fires, kids playing with anythiny thing they can find to make a toy out of , and people selling anything they could to make a little money!  We met the ladies that walk up to an hour to get to this WEEP center with their young children each day!  This center has a pre-school room, sewing room (the size of my bathroom with one light bulb hanging down), a meeting room that they divide into two rooms (it is the size of my bedroom), and a room they call a kitchen where they make one healthy meal a day for these ladies.  It is the only bright area in this very dark place.  Each of these ladies sing and praise God with such joy for being alive!  It really makes you look at the things we think are problems in the America in a whole new light.
After we walked back to the bus we all had to take the time it took for us to drive to the Ngong WEEP center to get our tears out and faces dried.
We were met again with singing from the ladies at Ngong.  We gathered in a room about the same size as my kitchen with our 10 team members and 15 ladies from Ngong to hear two of our team explain how to have quiet time with God and how to start a Bible study / small group.  They then served us lunch of rice, stew, warm cabbage dish,  and tortilla type of bread, which all was very tasty.  We then walked up to a community center about a half a block where ladies from the slum who all have HIV / AIDS gather each Friday as a support group.  They get a healthy lunch and have speakers come to give them encouragement & health information.  We were the encouragement team!  Two or our team members spoke on being a Godly mother and trusting God.  One ladie excepted Christ!  We then gave each of the ladies a gift bag with "Jesus Calling", devotional little note pad & pen, sunglasses, & a bookmark.  The ladies were so excited and immediatly put on the sun glasses!  We did get a group picture which will be on our team blog page later.
All in all a very emotional day!

Thursday Oct. 4th, 2012

Wed. morning we were up early to get ready for a Diplomatic Wives Tea.  The setting was beautiful with a white tent and pink accents around the 4 posts and over the white table clothes.  One of the WEEP graduates gave her testimony and India Graft from our team (this is her 2nd year coming) spoke about what it means to her to come and work with the HEART programs.  One of the HEART staff spoke about the "Freedom For Girls" program and how this keeps the girls 5th grade & above in school.  The impact of keeping the girls in school is huge for future generations.  As a team we spoke to the individual ladies about what we had seen and the impact it has had on us.  We pray that many of these ladies will help with the programs and financially support them too.
After the tea we left for a 24 hour Safari.  We really needed a short break to see how God created the animal world to co-exist!  We all had paid extra for the Safari and it was an experience of a life time!  We saw every animal we could think of that lives in Africa.  The last animal we saw was a Cheetah eating it's morning meal of a Gazelle that it had just caught.  Here is a list of other animals we saw:  Loin's & 2 baby clubs, Hyaena, Hippopotamus (20 of them in a river), Elephant's, Crocodile (laying on the river bank across from our tent when we woke up on Thursday morning), 2 mother Giraffe's & 2 baby Giraffe's, Rhinoceros, Zebra's (probably close to a 500), Warthog, Wildebeast heard (hundreds of them running across the land), and Monkey's to name a few.

This week we have seen the worst living conditions man can make and the best of God's creation!

We returned Thursday evening to get ready for our trip into the last slum and our Woman's Conference on Friday. 

Wed. Oct. 3rd, 2012

Today we gave the HEART staff a party of apprication for all the ways they servc the teams that come through here each week.  We had lunch catered (So non of them would need to work.) along with tea and appetizers.  We played card games, chinese checkers, and dominoes before lunch.  We also played musical chairs and relay races.  They truly enjoyed they afternoon and commented on this being the first time anyone had ever had a party for them.
We finished the day off by making up the bags we will be giving to the ladoes attending the conference (80 bags)  on friday and the bags we will be giving the graduates (9 bags) on Sat. at graduation.
It was nice to be able to stay here on the HEART Lodge grounds today.

Tuesday Oct. 2, 2012

Yesterday (Monday Oct. 1st) we drove into the Ngong Slum to the HEART Ngong WEEP center to meet the ladies who attend classes there and to make home visits.  On the way there we stopped at a large grocery store simalar to WalMart to purchase corn meal, one large bottle of water and beans for 25 ladies at the center.  This food was purchased with the funds our team raised for the trip and will need to last these ladies for a month.
As we arrived at the center the ladies came out singing a welcoming song to us.  Their joy and smiles are contagious as they sing & dance, then they each give us a hug.  We are shown into one of the rooms of the center where we are introduced to each of them and tell them our names.  Many of them were with us at the Park day on Sat. with their children.  We are then told about what they learn at the center and meet the staff.  We have been invited there, because today the newest ladies in the program will be presented with their own sewing machines.  When they complete the program they will keep their machine.  This is a really big day, so each of us gathered around and prayed for the ladies and their machines.  You could just see the excitement in their faces and how thankful they were for this opportunity.  As you looked around the room you saw brown paper bags that they use instead of material to learn to sew on, because of the cost factor for materials.  There are also hand made signs that have the 10 Commandments, health information about hand washing, what to do if you are raped, and nutritional information all parts of the total educational program.    The WEEP program takes in the whole health of each lady from spiritural, health, nutrition, and learning a trade. They have a 3 hour Bible study each week along with classes in health and what makes up a nutritional meal.  
Next we went on home visits in the slum to a graduates home, a mid program home, and a lady to sick to take care of herself let alone her children.  These were very heart wrenching visits as we walked through the slums to their homes, which were built of tin walls & roofs maybe one window and a rope hanging down the middle of the room to dvide the sleeping from the living areas. They were each so proud to have us visit them and show us around.  You can see what a difference graduating from the program makes.  The graduate home had electricity, small courtyard, lock on the tin door and 2 rooms.  The mid program home was 1 room with a 2 small beds, cooking in the corner,  a small coffee table & 2 chairs.  The last home was the hardest one to enter, because the children were sitting outside in the dirt, while their mother who was to sick to even stand laid on a bed in a dark room just inside the tin door.  All of these homes have outhouses for restrooms and only get water at a faucet near their homes two days a week!
After the home visits we went back to the center and heard 4 of the ladies stories.  There was not a dry eye left after they told how they had found out they had AIDS/HIV and their families turned against them, husbands walked out leaving them with the children and no money.  Having no where to turn except the WEEP center where they are loved for being God's child and cared for till they are able to support themselves and their children.   
All I can say is this program is not only saving these ladies, but also generations to come!  
I had asked God to break my heart for what breaks his and today I differently saw things that must break God's heart, because it has broken mine!

Monday Oct. 1st, 2012

Yesterday was a very emotional day for all of our team.  We drove into the Dandora slums to go to church yesterday morning.  The contrast between the trash dumped everywhere and people going through the trash looking for things to sale was hard to grasp not counting the smell!  The other things we noticed was how clean and well dressed people were.  That againest what was around them was hard to get your brain around.
We attended a church service at a building our church had sent funds to help finish a year and a half ago.  In fact this is the building that Bonnie's husband Paul had come to Kenya to help get the floor started on in March 2011.  Walking into the building and seeing what a difference the floor, walls being finished and glass in the windows made for these people was overwhelming.  They treated us as honored guests and we were seated in the front two rolls.  Worshiping with them you realize they are just like us trying to make a better life for themselves and their families.  We were greeted as sisters & brothers in Christ and felt very loved.
After the 3 hour church service we came back to the lodge and met our Compassion children we support.  They were here for 3 hours with their interupters.  We talked with them, had snacks and played jump rope and soccer / football.  It was great to meet these kids and see what a wonderful job Compassion does to help these kids get health care, spirtual instruction, and an education.
It was a long day and we were all exhuasted!
At dinner we found out there had been a bombing at a church in Nairobi not far from where we are staying.  The church we had attended had a guard at the only entrance to the church grounds, but we did not think to much about it at that time.  We feel very safe where we are staying and the H.E.A.R.T. staff is taking very good care of us.
I had hoped to be able to add photo's to my blogs, but I have not figured out how to get them from my IPad to the blog, so may have to wait till I get home.  A little tech challenged!
Thanks for all your prayer we feel them each day!