|
SubscriptionsSites I Read
|
|
|
|
| Sitting on my front porch, I am very tempted to watch my neighbors. They are an interesting group of people. The TV plays loudly from the main house and I understand each word spoken. If I use my imagination for the picture I can enjoy an Andy Griffith rerun. I saw the youngest boy fully dressed in clothes that fit for the first time today. Anderson has an assortment of interesting people and my neighbors are some of them.
Tonight I notice the sky. It is blue and beuatiful. Back from Africa I am noticing things in a new way and in a sense experiencing life differently. I love it here and am thrilled to be back yet there is a part of me that misses Africa and longs for the day I can return. The simplicity of the children, the crowded streets, the beans and rice, the begginings of relationships with the nationals pop in and out of my mind. The nation has a new place in my heart, people come to be veiwed differently.
Yesterday I carried the babies at work African style - it helped. Sesitive Alex found my back to be comforting and stayed contetedly on my back allowing me to accomplish closing tasks and tend the other children. Kaydon couldn't decide if he liked it or not but when I attempted to put him back on the floor he cried worse. I will thus say it has been succesful.
Classes start soon. I am eager for my final year. Excited about learning and sharing. Excited to take some time to focus on writting. Eager to interact with students and proffesors after the summer off.
The summer has been very good. My house is home. My housemates wonderful. Tonight I am surrounded by peace. I know that God is God and he will provide. I know he is good and has enables us to love one another. Anderson and Africa though on other sides of the world are much more alike than I first had imagined. Both are in need of the knowledge and power of God. Though we are of different cultures and socail standings we share the common bond of humanity.
Tough Fluff (the block's cat) seems to have decided to keep me company as of late. She greets me for my breakfast and joins me on the proch as I write in the evening. It is kinda nice to have the company. Now the constant meowing and trying to steal my food may need a little work. | | |
| Dear Friends and Family,
I will be traveling to Kenya in July. I write this letter for the sake of awareness. In one way or another you have already helped me prepare for this journey. And I invite you to continue with me as I head to Africa.
Selom, Martey, and Francesca’s first home was the bush (jungle) outside of Accra, Ghana. Struggling to survive with their severely mentally ill mother, the children were often left for weeks at a time to find for themselves. Living conditions were so dismal that five-year-old Selom was feeding baby Francesca water scooped from a mud puddle. While being sheltered in the garage of a local hospital, the mother eventually abandoned the children completely.
This is not an unusual story in Africa. Many children’s parents die or abandon them because they are incapable of caring for them. The oldest child, often no more than eight, is caring for the younger brothers and sisters. With the rise of HIV/AIDS it is estimated that every seven seconds a child is orphaned due to HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, alone. Prior to the death of their parents the children care for them and younger siblings. Once the parents die the orphaned children are left in worse situations than while the parents were alive. Relatives are often unable to care for additional children due to poverty and illness. Without parents the children loose the family farms and our often outcasts by the community because HIV/AIDS is often believed to be caused by a curse which the children carry. Some orphans are taken in and cared for by relatives but the numbers of orphans are far too high and the number of parents too low to care for these children, new alternatives must be found to care for the vulnerable children. It has been said that a generation of people is being wiped out in Africa due to the AIDS pandemic. Though their parents died of AIDS it is not a guarantee that the children have the virus and yet an opportunity for a place to live and an education is almost nonexistence for these children.
I will be in Nairobi, Kenya from July 20 through August 15th to work with an organization called Rafiki (Swahili for friend). The Rafiki foundation began in 1985 by Rosemary Jensen, former missionary. In 2000 the organization opened their first village style orphanage and within the next couple of years hope to complete their goal of having a village in 10 different countries in Africa.
Rafiki was contacted in the case of Selom, Marty, and Francesca. These three orphans were taken in by Rafiki and placed together in a home in the village. A typical Rafiki house contains a local woman who serves as a mother for up to ten orphans at a time – biological siblings are kept together. The children are cared for by their Rafiki mother and given a classical Christian education in the Rafiki schools. Schooling is provided from preschool to secondary school with the goal that the children will continue on to college. The villages also consist of playgrounds, medical clinics, long and short term missionary housing, dining facilities, dorms for high schoolers, and agricultural land. The children are provided with a safe and loving environment to grow up in.
The organizations goal is that the children to stay in their local communities and become active contributors in their countries, thus they are taught primarily by qualified African nationals. They are taught about their own culture and histories. The children are also involved in various African churches which provides opportunities for them to interact within the broader community.
Rafiki provides jobs for the national men and women through being a Rafiki mother, a teacher, a security guard, or other necessary job in the village. Rafiki villages have a tuition free program for up to 60 local high school age students where they are taught academics as well as a trade. The boys and girls learn how to make handmade products which are then sold at the Rafiki exchange in San Antonio, TX. The skills they acquire from the training school will enable them to create a product for profit outside of the school. Medical clinics are held for two weeks sporadically throughout the year. These clinics are open to individuals outside the village who are in need of medical attention.
Since arriving at Rafiki, Salem and Marty have learned what it means to be loved and cared for. They have been given an opportunity for a childhood and education; both girls are at the top of their class. Little Francesca has developed into a beautiful toddler and will have the opportunity to grow up in a safe and healthy environment.
As a short term missionary some of the activities I will assist with will be: to help tutor the children, help teach childcare classes for the mothers, work with the teenagers in the training schools, help the mothers as needed, and help with the behind the scenes upkeep. My primary purpose will be to support the long-term missionaries and established figures in the children’s lives. I will help enable those who are permanent figures in the children’s lives to focus on the needs that matter the most – the consistent love and care for the children by a parent figure.
By serving as a short term missionary I will impact the village. The impact I make, though not directly changing a situation, will help enable change to occur. We are all interconnected and the seemingly most meaningless thing I do in the four weeks I am in Africa can work with the efforts of others to change a nation. I am going to Africa, but support from those in the US will help make a difference. The support I get from ordinary individuals will continues the chain reaction which inevitably makes a large difference. Nothing is too small a gift for it takes small steps to achieve greatness.
Practical ways to help me on this journey are: first, prayer and encouragement. I need prayer for safe travel, for the village I will be going to, for the children I will be working with, and that my heart will be a servant’s heart – that I may be evidence of Christ to the children. I need encouragement words of affirmation, thoughts, and actions that mirror Christ’s love and serve as a positive model for actions taken in Kenya. I need words of wisdom from people who have gone before me and ears to listen.
Yes, I also need financial support, (I will need to raise around 3,000 dollars this includes airfare, shots, passport, visa, and room and board) which some of you can give and others can not. This is good for each has something different to give and each is needed.
Together people effect change, together people make a difference, and together we discover God. Thank you for supporting me in this time and thank you for all you have done. You are making a difference.
Blessings,
Krista
| | |
| Six weeks and I go to Africa - I have only $20 of the $3000 I need. I am way behind on support letters - basically I haven't started :(. I don't have my ticket, my passport, or my visa. Yet, I can not think about Africa right now. I am in the process of moving - in fact right now I am borrowing the neighbor's internet signal - thankyou neighbor. And next week is my brother's wedding. I am borderline feeling overwhelmed - I just can't seem to catch up - but it will be a great week ;). | | |
| It is official - I am going to Africa in July. My plane leaves July 20 and I return to Anderson on August 16th. I am very excited. Here is a bit of the story.
As a young child I would dream of going to Africa and helping people. As I have grown older my desire to help people has increased. I have longed to leave the States and yet at the same time I have been okay to stay. As I have watched my friends travel and serve in other countries my heart has lept for joy and ached with longing. Though excited for them and their experiences I have longed to travel as well. I put that desire aside in order to concentrate on my studies and the ways I could help people here. I quickly learned that in order to selflessly love others you must learn to love yourself. As I learned what it meant to be who I was created to be and find my identity in God alone - I did find healing and the freedom to love others.
On New Years Eve a friend told me I should leave Anderson this summer and use my last summer as a college student to go somewhere. In mid January after giving this much thought I decided I did indeed need to go somewhere. I prayed and sought where this might be and coming as very little surprise the place was east Africa. I stated I would go to Africa this summer - yet I had no idea how nor did I know where to begin. I searched for places and then spoke with my parents. They were not for the trip and it did not seem a battle worth fighting. Some other things happened and I saw that being here in Anderson, working, and saving money could be a very good thing and became settled with the idea of doing that.
Around mid April my mother randomly sent me information about an organization that reached out to orphans in Africa. I had a very limited time in which to fill out the application so without giving it much thought did so and was immediatly accepted.
Wow, I thought now I go to Africa - not quiet other factors came into play and once agian it appeared I was not going to get to go. I was disappointed but agian could see the benifits to staying here. Yet, I could not shake the need to pursue this further so I called my mom and siad, "I really want to go to Africa." She surprised me by saying it might actually be possible. Other things happened and everything fell into place - two weeks before training I finalized my desire to go.
Last weekend I went to training in San Antonio Texas. Traveling by plane, by myself for the first time. The weekend was amazing and I can say with certianty I enjoy traveling by myself. I am going to Africa and I am going by myself. I do not have the money but am confident God will provide. I don't know how all the details will work out but God is faithful.
I learned this semester to surrender, everything to God. Even the things that are seemingly for His glory. I learned that it is only in surrender that God can work and freedom can be found.
I now begin a time of prayer and preperation. I need support from others, yes I need money. But more importantly I need prayer and community (which I am already blessed with). I need words of wisdom from people who have gone before me and ears to listen. But what I need is being provided. I will continue to vocalize the needs as I learn what they are and how to articulate it. As always be prayerful and be willing to listen and hold me accountable.
This is the beggining of a grand adventure - I will speak more to what I will be doing in Africa in a later post.
Blessings | | |
| the literary arts magazine is up check it out....
http://literaryarts.anderson.edu | | |
|
