What can you buy for $25?

Comido School

Today we walked through the slums of Kwa Njenga. It was smellier than I remembered from last year, but the smiles from all the children were the same and the roads were much smoother (and here I mean comparatively smoother, as in I only tripped once or twice instead of like ten). The scariest thing that happened in the slums today was me and Dakota getting attacked by roosters. Once we were at the Comido school, I was reminded of how happy the children made me. They absolutely loved getting their picture taken and getting to see themselves on the screen, and we were all shaking hands and communicating not with words but with actions of love. There was one cute girl in a purple sweater, and she’d let us take a picture of her but then when we were about to show her she’d run away screaming for her mother, only to return a few minutes later to restart the whole process over again.

I was super nervous and feeling sick before we got to Comido, mostly because I had to share a last-minute speech-ish encouragement testimony thing, and also because I learned that I get carsick when riding on big buses through badly paved roads, and also because eating breakfast makes me stomach sick, and also because I’m developing a cough. But I had a lot of encouragement from my fellow teammates (regarding the last-minute speech=ish encouragement testimony thing) and somehow during that bumpy bus ride to the slum I managed to write out what I felt like God wanted me to say.

The students at Comido prepared many performances for us, and they were all wonderful. It touched my heart when Pastor James would say something like, “The Lord is good!” and all the kids would reply loudly, “Amen!” We did a worship concert for the kids, and they particularly loved “I Am Free,” which happens to be our theme song this year (props to Matt). I think we only sang it three times haha.

Afterward, we took a tour of the school and we got to see the well that Lighthouse sponsored, which is looking very good. When we were in the kitchen, Pastor James told us about how Comido school used to give the students two meals a day, but now they only have the resources to give one a day. He said that $25 feeds 325 children one meal, which, in most cases, is their only meal of the day. It’s crazy to even try to comprehend. Most of us at home spend $25 on one semi-nice dinner. The same amount can feed over three hundred children.

We got to play with the children a bit more in the yard, and I was having fun, but I kept noticing the group of older teenage girls in the back. They were standoffish, not smiling and not rushing like the rest of the children to shake our hands. And it made sense to me – at that age I would have done the same. But it broke my heart because I wanted to go to them and talk to them since nobody else was, and I wanted to make them feel like I was there for them too, but my own fears of being judged or made fun of prevented me from doing so. I regret that I never went to those girls, even though I had multiple opportunities to, but this sad experience has made me resolve never to ignore a push from the Holy Spirit to leave my comfort zone and do something crazy and radical for Jesus. Tomorrow, and the rest of this trip, whenever I get a chance I am going to talk to the older kids and at the very least, let them know that I respect them and acknowledge their presence. And if they don’t talk back, then I’ll probably freak out for a little and feel super insecure, but that is all ok because I’ll know that God will work in their lives somehow in a way that I won’t expect.

Tomorrow we’re going to Mathare, and I’m not going to lie, I’m a little more than uncomfortable because I just remember feeling sick because of the horrible living conditions of the people there and just feeling very tired and overheated in their small worship building, but I pray that God’s presence will fill the place no matter what and that lives will be transformed.

Love,
Kristine