FUN in Malindi

As I sit here in the middle of a morning rainstorm, I get the lovely privilege of recalling our time here in Malindi. God is so good!! These past 10 days we have had the opportunity to work with the Mahenzo Christian School in the village of Nine Poles. Our days start out with breakfast at the hotel followed by a 35 minute morning drive. When we pull into the school we are greeted by all the little smiling faces in the 3-7 year old class. These children get to peer over the wall and watch us work in the courtyard every day (sorry to their teachers for the constant high fives and funny faces we make to them!!) During our time here we have completed 5 floors and plastered a few walls! These cement floors are very important to the kids because they keep chiggers and other bugs that live in the dirt from getting into their feet and causing wounds. The first room that we completed houses 11 orphan boys at night. How great it is to be a part of what the Lord is doing here.

We filled each room with a layer of dirt…and then come the rocks. Thousands of coral rocks! The boys (Jeremy, Ken and Ambush) sure had their work cut out for them busting up the big pieces of coral rock with sledgehammers! We figured out a marvelous assembly line system and had many laughs throwing the rocks down the line to fill the rooms. Next came the mixing of the cement. Once again the boys had their work cut out for them! Every day with shovels they would mix the sand, cement and water together. It was so encouraging getting to watch because they were always so willing to do another load. I bet over the course of the week they probably mixed over 25 loads! LeShae, Kori, Shannon and I would fetch water in 10-20 liter jugs and carry them back to be used in a large container. One afternoon they bravely attempted to carry the water on their heads like the women so gracefully do here, it was definitely a sight to see! Once all the cement was laid our fellow Kenyan workers would smooth it out to perfection. During the afternoon the children would break for chai time and we would get to interact with them! Talk about joyful smiles and laughs! These children are so inviting and willing to let you sweep them off their feet onto your back or into your lap. A group from Lubbock Christian University is also here working at the school teaching classes. Over the past 10 days we got the opportunity to get to know and work along side them. The days end around 4 o’clock and we make our way back to the hotel, trying to catch that last bit of sunlight to swim at the pool or go the beach. Before dinner we get to gather together and have a small devo time given by Jeremy. It’s great to talk about the day and be encouraged by the bible. Dinner was always complete with snack time and gelato. Our Saturdays consisted of going to the market place, eating at “I love pizza”, and playing at the beach!

As Jeremy mentioned in the post before, we brought along with as two boys from MITS Ken (18) and Ambush (17) to work for the week! Ken is working on his skill of computers and Ambush is in the skill of sewing. It has been great to see them pour their hearts into working for their fellow Kenyan neighbors. MITS has taught them so well how to serve and it is so evident. They have become our honorary Aggies for the 2 weeks! Now as we sit waiting for the night bus to take us back to Nairobi, I get to reflect on the ministry we have been able to be a part of and how awesome it is so see God woven throughout this place. Please pray for our safe travels back to the United States. Just think in 48 hours we will be back in Dallas, so crazy! Kwaheri (Goodbye) from Kenya!!

Blessings, 

Candace Bayles

Safari/Malindi

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the late post! We have been busy working and doing great things :)

Safari: We went on safari last week to the Massai Mara Sarova Game Camp. It was so incredible! We left very early Wednesday morning and embarked on the 6 hour drive to the Mara. Before we even arrived we saw zebras, monkeys, and so many things! We got there around 2pm and had a short break before our 4pm 'game drive'. We were all very excited for the hot showers awaiting us! On our first game drive we saw many things...we saw elephants and birds and buffalo and other smaller animals. We saw some Ostrich too! After we got back from the game drive we ate dinner. The food there is so amazing and we all ate sooo much and were very blessed to have eaten that food. We ate so much for the 2 and 1/2 days!

The next day we woke up for a 6:30am game drive! It was so early because the beds were so comfortable but it was very fun to get up and see all of Gods creation and glory! It was so beautiful and we all had a wonderful time. We got to stand up in our safari vans and see for miles. We came across some more elephants and also 4 lions! Later we came across more lions and they were being chased away by a herd of around 200 Cape Buffalo! It was so reversed to see the lions being chased away instead of attacking!

When we got back from the drive we had all day to relax. It was very nice to relax and I personally took a nap haha! Around lunch time we were all back together and ate and then played some games after and the ladies laid at the pool and caught some sun. Then it was time for another game drive. This one was very fun as well and we were in search of a leopard but we never found one on this drive. We sawe some giraffes and also some other things I forgot the name of! After we ate dinner and then the night came.

Morning came quickly at 6:30 again and we had to be packed and ready to go because after we were leaving straight back to Nairobi! This game drive, we saw something I had never seen before! Although we drove for 2 hours and found nothing, we finally found a cheetah! It was very beautiful and amazing to see. We saw it for only a short amount of time and then it ran away (very fast!).

Malindi: After our safari adventure we went back to Nairobi to catch a night bus to Malindi, Kenya (the coast). We spent the afternoon at Java House waiting on night to come. We got on the bus and it was good. We all slept and a funny thing is we all talked and felt like whenever we woke up, everyone else was asleep, but everyone said they woke up a lot! What are the odds?! We made it to Malindi around 7 in the morning and rode in tuk-tuks to the hotel and checked in. We had the whole day to ourselves and we went to the beach and hung out and also relaxed a lot! It was very nice. I know it sounds like a lot of relaxing, but the group worked very hard at MITS and has also been working very very hard doing manual labor since Monday at Mahenzo Christian School here in Malindi.

There will be more to come shortly about what we have been doing in Malindi, but for now we will leave you with this; lots of hard working Aggies! It has been very fun to work hard and see what we can do as a group.

Another thing: we were able to bring two MITS kids with us to Malindi. They are two of the older boys from MITS and are very very excited to be here. They are very respectful and nice, hard working young men and we are so extremely blessed and happy to have them here with us! Ken Owino (18) and Ambush Goyo (17) are the two with us.

Thanks!
Jeremy

Base Walking

Part of the ministry in Eastleigh is to go out into the streets and minister to people that congregate in various places, which they call a base.  The people there include men, women, and children, and sometimes they may not even be a part of the base but they come because they recognize the Eastleigh staff and want to hear what they are preaching about.  The message that the staff wants to send to those in the street is that God is all-powerful and that he is strong enough to bring them out of this phase in their life.

Every Monday and Tuesday the Eastleigh Center has a program for all of the street kids to attend as a sort of audition for them to be asked to come to Made in the Streets (MITS).  If the kids come consistently, show that they are changing their behavior, and get off of the drugs that they are taking, then they will be asked to attend MITS and that whole process of getting them to Kamulu will begin.  We knew that we would be going base walking this last Monday so we were very excited and eager to see if the boys that we worked with during the camp the week before would return for the program classes.  When we first got there we drank some of Augustina’s, the cook at the Eastleigh Center, chai which was absolutely delicious.  We were just hanging out and enjoying the fellowship with some of the staff there and realized that class was actually going on, so turned around and peaked into the classroom and it was FULL of boys!  We found out that there were twenty-six boys who came for class, and most of them were ones that we had seen during camp last week.  We were so encouraged and excited that those boys had come back and are very prayerful that they will continue to come.  After we finished our chai, we had a meeting with some of the staff so that they could prepare us for some of the things that we might see and give us some guidelines about what we were going to be doing.  Then we just started walking.

The first base we went to was not too far from the Eastleigh Center.  There were several people congregated together, and there were even some that stopped to listen as they were passing by.  To prepare for our base walking experience, the staff asked us to choose one verse and come up with a short explanation that would be encouraging to the people on the streets.  It was neat to be able to talk to them about God and see their faces light up.  All five of us were given the chance to either pray or talk about our verse, so it was really neat to see the reaction from the people we were ministering to.  We ended up traveling to three other bases; one had three people there and we prayed with them, one of them did not have any people there at the time that we passed, and then there was one that we visited that was so big and had so many kids.  This was the one that was probably the most influential for me just because there was so much more to see and feel.  It also broke my heart because there are two boys who are currently at MITS who used to live in this base so it was hard to think about them being here and having to endure the environment for so long.

We walked down this alley-way to get to the heart of the base and immediately there were signs of desperation and despair; there were kids huffing glue everywhere I looked, there were random people lying on the ground asleep, and there was a massive heap of trash at least eight feet high and twenty yards long that people were laying on, searching through, and sitting on top of.  There was a woman there who is known as “Big Mama,” but the kids call her canini which is Swahili for small.  She claims that she helps the kids by feeding them, but she also sells them glue so that they can get high.  Most of them are so high that they probably won’t even remember that we came to see them.  This, by far, was the hardest of the three bases to go to and see because there was so much heartache and struggle there.  I was so shocked to see the things that I saw, knowing that this is the kind of situation that each of the kids here at MITS came from.  Each MITS student that I have talked to about their past, spent several years wandering the streets and it just breaks my heart to think that they had to endure such intense living situations with little shelter, no food or water, and little to no attention from their families. 

It has been such a blessing to see both sides of this ministry because without MITS, the Eastleigh Center would not exist because it is an extension of MITS and there would be no kids found to minister to.  In the same, without the Eastleigh Center and the outreach they do, there would be no such thing as MITS; there would be no opportunity for kids to be clean of drugs, be educated, be fed, or come to know God..  It encourages me so much to see the staff working so hard to make it happen.  Some of the staff came from the streets as well so they understand the struggles of the lifestyle they live, but despite that they have still decided to spend their lives trying to save the few kids who are willing to embark on a journey that would change their lives forever.  We ate dinner with Charles and Darlene when we first got here, and they mentioned how the transformation these kids make is totally a God thing and after visiting the bases I totally believe that statement.

We have completed our last day here at MITS and are packing up to head out in the morning.  We will leave pretty early tomorrow to head to Masai Mara for Safari for a couple of days and then head to Malindi, Kenya to continue our mission work.  Please continue to pray for us in our travels, and that we will be the hands and feet of Christ as we minister to more of His people.

Love Ya’ll!

LeShae

Eastleigh Camp

        Eastleigh is one of the largest slums in Kenya, and is where the majority of students at MITS live before coming to school. Made in the Streets has a building, referred to as the Eastleigh Center, where they hold Bible classes for different groups of street people everyday. The staff in Eastleigh also goes “base walking” everyday; a base is a place where homeless people congregate to live together- on a street corner, in an alleyway, or on a large pile of trash. When the staff goes out they talk to, pray with, and share scripture with the needy.  I have so much respect for the staff that daily pour their hearts and souls into this work. I am so thankful that for 3 days we were able to join them in this ministry.

       Wednesday through Friday of last week we were able to hold a VBS for street youth ages 9-13 and it was WONDERFUL. Everyday there were more and more kids that came, which was very encouraging! By the end of the week we had 41 boys! We studied the book of Judges and looked at the life of Deborah, Barak, Gideon, and Samson. We talked about God’s strength working in us, being a person who leads others to do what is right in the sight of the Lord, and not turning our backs on God like the Isrealites tended to do.  Everyday we fed the boys breakfast, played games, taught a Bible lesson, worked on memorizing a verse, had prayer time, did a craft, and then fed them lunch. We taught them simple games like Simon Says and Duck, Duck, Goose and it was so fun to hear them laugh, cheer and beg to play again and again. The boys got to color pictures, braid bracelets, and paint sacks to use for collecting items to sell. It was fun to give those boys a little piece of their childhood back. One of my favorite parts of the day was praying with the boys. Each boy had such genuine prayer requests- they all want to go to school, stop abusing drugs to help with their hunger pains, and get off the streets.        

        The memory verse we chose to have them memorize will hopefully give them the courage and strength to persevere through this phase of their life and cling to God. Our theme verse was Judges 16:28- Samson said, “Lord and King, show me that you still have concern for me. God please, make me strong just one more time.” Listening to these kids says the verse over and over again broke my heart. I wanted them to know how deeply God cares for each one of us, even when it doesn’t seem like it. Which lets face it, most of these kids have every reason to believe that God doesn’t care for them. They are dirty, starving, abused, alone and rejected; yet they make no excuses. They choose joy. They choose faith. They choose hope. And that is one of the many, many, many things I love about this ministry. 

In Him,

Shannon Musslewhite 

Classes and Skills

Monday and Tuesday of the second week in Kenya all of us were able to take part in teaching the literacy kids classes and we were able to go with the older kids to skills. In literacy the kids learn Science, Math, English, Computers, Social Studies, Library, Bible and Swahili. In skills classes the older kids are in one of the following: Salon, Catering, Woodwork, Sewing, Computers, and Mechanic. Jeremy, Candace and Laura were going to skills first and Shannon, LeShae and I were teaching classes first. We didn’t realize till later that we spilt the group in non-teachers and all teachers, it worked well though.

Monday Shannon, LeShae and I were in the learning center teaching classes. I started off teaching advanced English, LeShae started in beginner English and Shannon started in the Library. We then rotated through random classes teaching. Shannon did library and Bible the whole time, LeShae did English, Bible and Science and I did English, Math, and science. The whole time us three were teaching, Laura, Jeremy and Candace were at the skills classes. After we finished teaching we ate and then LeShae and me were told to teach the fast tract English class, that was so much fun to me. Fast tract class is a 2-hour class that is available for the kids that learn faster than some others and that are working to take their national exam. These kids are SO smart! They were writing better than some people do in America, me included. After LeShae and I finished the fast tract we went to the boys compound and met up with Shannon, Laura, Jeremy and Candace and ate dinner and hung out.

On Tuesday Shannon, LeShae and I all went to skills while Candace, Laura and Jeremy all went to teach classes. We started off the day with an early breakfast and then an awesome chapel! These Kenyans know how to get up and sing and praise God, it was such a blessing to be a part of it. When we arrived at skills LeShae and Shannon were pulled to Salon with a bunch of girls to be customers while I headed to woodshop. While in woodshop we sanded two tables and then me and a boy named Rashid painted them with two coats of white. While I was having fun in woodshop Shannon and LeShae were havin an adventure in salon. It started off as these two girls were giving both Shannon and LeShae pedicures and they said, “It feels really good!”  Well the next thing that happens is I walk in and see both of them getting their hair done. The thing is that both girls decided to wash, blow-dry and style the aggies hair, but it was not what they thought it was. When they began styling Shannon and LeShae’ hair they put a thing called Hair Food in. Hair Food is pure hair grease and it is thick. When their hair was styled the girls put handful after handful in. Our team did not see them until we met up for lunch. (at this time there hair was dry) We sat down and saw LeShae and Shannon and it looked like they had just gotten out of the shower. It was so funny but so awful! That day they washed their hair three times and it still wasn’t out. LeShae started cheering when her hair was finally getting tangled after she washed her hair.  That night though we were invited to go to Irene and Robins house to play games. (Irene and Robin are a couple that live at Made in the Streets and Irene teaches English and Robin teaches in the woodshop skill.) We ended up playing Life Choices. It was a game that you had to share a lot of personal stuff like “What is a story about one of your uncles” or “describe your perfect day.” It was really fun! Shannon ended up winning and when someone wins everyone else has to say something positive about that person. It was really fun to all go around and said what we like about Shannon. Overall Tuesday was a day of adventure and excitement.

Monday and Tuesday was very special to me because since I do want to become a teacher. Teaching and having a classroom to myself for the first time was kinda scary and nerve racking. I was nervous but after I did it felt good to connect with those kids on a different level. My favorite part of Monday was teaching the fast tract class. Those kids were so smart and they were so eager to learn! We were learning about how to write a formal letter, a friendly letter and a comparison paper. Their formal letters were very good and when they wrote their friendly letters we wrote the names of all us Aggies on the board and said they could write any of the Aggies or just a friend from MITS. All of them wrote an aggie but one and their was 18 kids. It was so cool to read those letters and just see the love of those kids. The Lord just kept blessing me through these two days by showing me how talented these kids are and just how incredible and powerful His power is that he is able to turn someone life totally around and do it honoring Himself! Tuesday my favorite part was the skills. I was able to hang out in the woodshop a lot and it reminded me of my industrial tech teacher in high school and made me thankful for all the things he taught me in that class. Also during woodshop I had the chance to talk to a lot of the kids in there and they told me how Christ was working in their lives and just their life stories. It was heartbreaking and I was so honored because that was just seeing God face to face, He was very evident in every kid I talked to! Overall the teaching days were a success and I was blessed not only to teach the kids but learn from them as well (: 

In His Name, 
Kori or as the Kenyans say "Koe"

Camping at Mt. Kenya

While preparing for our trip to MITS, we were told that we were going to have the opportunity to take the literacy students (ages 12 – 15) on a camping trip to Mt. Kenya for 5 days.  We did not know all that it would entail, but we came prepared and it was quite the hit!

We camped at the bottom of the mountain at a place called Mount Rock.  The grounds were beautiful with tall trees, a dam, cliffs, a playground, places to play, and nice facilities to clean up and cook.   We all slept in sleeping bags in tents at the campgrounds and rotated groups to prepare the food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  There were 35 students, 6 Aggies, and 5 staff members making that a total of 46 people. 

The camp week consisted of classes in the morning and playtime in the afternoon.  We taught on the life of Moses because the students are learning about Moses through the book ‘The Story” at MITS.  We had 4 classes each day; a bible class taught by Shannon, a choir class taught by LeShae, a craft class taught by Kori, and a quiet time/memory verse class taught by Candace and I (Laura).  Jeremy kept the time and floated through all the classes for when help was needed.  We tried to make it fun while also being informative.  The kids seemed to really enjoy the classes and were able to do activities that were different than their normal routine.  In the afternoon, we had organized games and also just free time.   The students really don’t get a chance to just chill so they really enjoyed having time to play, walk around, relax, and just do what they want.  The one hard thing about the week was keeping the children engaged especially in the afternoon since there were so many distractions.  I think they would have been perfectly content doing nothing in the afternoons since they normally do not get a lot of free time, but we tried to at least keep them semi-engaged.  Throughout the week, we played soccer, freeze tag, a cat and mouse game, and chain tag.  One afternoon, all of the students had the chance to ride a horse!  Jackton (a MITS staff member) was able to negotiate with the campground and got a really good deal for all the kids to ride.  There were two horses saddled up and each student was led through the grounds.  Some of the kids had never even seen a horse before so to see the pure joy in their faces when they were riding the horses was priceless.

On the last day camping, we were able to all take a 4 ½ mile hike up the mountain to caves that were used by the Kenyans during the 1960s in their fight for independence against the British.  When I say walk…. I mean a power walk (almost jog) up to the caves.  All of the Aggies ended up in the back of the group within the first five minutes and that’s where we stayed.  All of the students were so enthused to be going on an “adventure” that it was practically a full on sprint the whole way.  It was awesome to see the beautiful landscape in Kenya and to be in the middle of God’s wonderful creation.  The caves were so tall and expansive with a waterfall in the middle.  Apparently, the Kenyans hid in the caves in the daytime and at night would raid the towns and kill all of the British.  The caves were an integral part of gaining their independence and we were able to see them face-to-face.  The way back to the campgrounds was a lot slower of a pace, which was a nice change.  The kids were also exhausted from going so fast up to the caves so it was a struggle for them to get back down the mountain.

During camp week Shannon, Leshae, Candace, and Kori had a really good prank pulled on them by Jackton and Irene, two of the MITS staff members.  There were baboons literally walking around throughout the campgrounds and in super close quarters to us the whole week.  Apparently baboons are notorious for taking things from campgrounds, which we were not aware of.  Well, Shannon, LeShae, Candace, and Kori left their bibles, journals, and water bottles sitting on a table one day while they were down at the playground.  When they came back, Jackton and Irene told them that they saw the baboons from a distance come and take their stuff and run away with it.  At first, they all didn’t believe them, but Jackton and Irene made it sooo believable and kept it going for hours.  We had all come up with alternatives about how we were able to go with just my (Laura) water bottle and no bibles to teach bible class.  Eventually, Kori opened Jeremy’s tent and saw their things sitting in the corner.  So in the end, the real baboons were discovered as Jackton and Irene. 

My favorite part of our time camping was being able to build stronger relationships with all of the students and getting to know them so well.  We were able to spend 24 hours a day with the students for 5 straight days.   I am not going to say that our patience was not tested, but I would not take back having that time with the kids.  It was especially good for Kori, Candace, and LeShae who have not been to MITS prior, to be able to meet the kids, get to know their names and stories, and to just love on them and build their trust in a short period of time.  Something that I especially loved was being able to have one-on-one time with some of the students.  To hear all of the horrible things that the kids have been through or even done, and to now see how they are filled with the love of the Lord and the ultimate transformation that can come when they are taken out of the situation that they are in still baffles me and the only answer is God.  These kids have been through more things and seen more things than I probably will in my lifetime, but have a faith in the Lord that I cannot even describe.  They love like I have never seen and are so knowledgeable in the Word and are so eager to learn more everyday.  I am so thankful that I have been able to come back because these kids are impacting me more than I even could impact them through their love for others and God and their faith in Him. 

 Sincerely,

Laura Seifert