The Lord sees Vanessa

Parking in the dirt area near where the stage is being assembled for the last crusade of the week, children begin to run to our van to greet us. They knew the van, and most have left their handprints to decorate the once white color. The speakers are already blaring praise music in Kikuyu, the mother tongue of most of the residents of Mji wa Huruma slum.

The children love to feel and pinch the white skin that is not covered on both of my arms. Especially of interest is the extra skin at the elbows and veins that may show through the skin. Each child holds a finger, allowing at least 10 children to each feel that they are getting special attention from the visitors to the village.
They hang and climb, pinch and twist, pull hairs and feel of my longer hair. They are mesmerized by the “wazungu” (white people) that have come.

With this being the 7th day of crusades, being of such interest to the children is now expected. As I walked into the area, one child just kept drawing my attention. I just had this overwhelming sense of love for her. She was more quite, and a bit dirtier than most. She just held my finger and walked with me. Nothing was exceptional about her, but I had this strong urge to bring her home. I felt like she was mine – and just could not get away from it. I held her and offered her some of my water. With the other children around – offering it was a risk. She drank it all over the next few moments, showing me another glimpse of her need. I found an English speaking believer from the village to ask if he knew her. This is when I was told her story for the first time. It was repeated to me through the night.

5 year old Vanessa’s mother passed away, leading her father to marry again. 3 months before, the 3 of them moved into the slum. Since then, the lady had left. Vanessa now had only her father, which spent most of his time on drugs and alcohol. Instead of feeding her and caring for her, he beat her and left her neglected. Vanessa was often found sleeping alone on one of the dirt paths in the slum village – where she would have spent the night without even a blanket. Even the children began to come up to me and tell me that this child – their own pier – had no food – and to please help her. Upon questioning further – I was also told that she was the only one like this in the village. While poverty was rampant, this was the only child that was in this situation.

Desiring to know where she lived, I asked to be taken there. As we began to weave down the narrow dirt paths between the metal sheets forming boundaries for homes, Vanessa began to squirm and cry out in fear. She was fearful to go to her home. I was trying to memorize the paths to be able to visit Vanessa when I came back.

The home that was pointed out to me was not even made of tin sheets – but was about an 8 ft by 6 ft area made from bamboo poles that had been split and made into a fence. There was a piece of fabric hung on the inside to give a bit more privacy through the gaps of the bamboo. There was a makeshift door made from scrap wood, and flour sacks sewn together hung over the area to give a small amount of protection from rain. I was told that he was home – and not to knock because he could become violent with me.

I returned and shared the story with a national grandmother from our church. “Will he not let me take her and raise her? She could still be his – but I could offer a place to sleep and food – and get her in school.” The grandmother went to talk to this father. I held Vanessa and could not get Isaiah 61:1-3 out of my mind. I have never seen a better example of the scripture. I knew God was at work. I was just blown away how the Lord had just flooded my heart with love for this one child – the one that needed help – out of all the hundreds of children in the village. It made me just think of the Lord – seeing Vanessa curled up in the dirt without food or shelter – or anyone to love her. God loved her, and made it to where I could not get away from it. I knew then that the overwhelming love that came into my heart was from God. He was saying that Vanessa was His, that He loved her and wanted her.

The next thing I know, the grandmother is walking up to us – followed by a young man of about 25. Vanessa begins to whimper, telling me before the introduction who this young man was. He had agreed to the grandmother’s plan. While the plan was discussed, he was invited to listen to our Sr. pastor as he was preaching. The invitation followed, and this father, who had been in the pit of despair, went forward to receive Christ as his savior with 6 other men from the village.

Our pastor led him in prayer. I watched from a distance, astounded at the Lords plan unfolding in front of my eyes. I approached our pastor after about 10 min of him counseling the father. “Linda, you would not believe the dramatic change I have witnessed in this man. He has prayed to receive Christ as his Lord and savior, and when he finished, there a visual change in him. All I could say was “WOW!”’. I filled him in on the rest of what had happened, and he witnessed how Vanessa was very fearfully aware of her father there. He was even more astounded – at the work of the Lords hand.

In mental awe afterwards, I was just overwhelmed by this Lord we serve. The creator of the universe saw Vanessa. He saw her and her situation. I can’t get away from the Lord being with that sweet child as she curled up alone in the dark on the dirt without food. I also can’t get away from a God that is so big yet sees me, just like He saw her in this slum. Situations arise that sometimes make me question my head knowledge of this God seeing us. Today, however, I was reminded of this deeply comforting detail.

Today, weeks later, Vanissa is living in a nice Kenyan home, her own bed, food to eat, and she is looking forward to starting school after the Christmas break. Her father is a new believer that met with the pastor 3 times just last week. The plans that the Lord has for Vanissa are good.

I know that we are all facing things this Christmas season. I pray that the Lord will give you a moment like He gave me through meeting Vanissa, a moment where He makes it even more real that He sees us through eyes of a love that we can’t comprehend this side of heaven. What a comfort that is as we face challenges.

Thank each of you for praying for us, and for all of you that make it possible for us to be here. It is during this time each year that the Lottie Moon Offering is collected, which pays for our ministry budgets and salaries. Times are harder this year, making us even more thankful for each of you that are sacrificially giving so that we can be here. We feel so blessed to be here to be used to help Vanissas of all ages around Nairobi hear that there is a God that sees them and loves them.

I pray that you have a wonderful time as we celebrate the birth of Jesus this year.

CFS - Cultural Field Study

CFS is a yearly trip that classes take at the girls’ school. This year, Gillian and Natalie both had their trips at the same time. Each class in middle school had different destinations. I was one of the chaperones for the 8th grade class this year. We traveled to the area around Mt Kenya and camped 2 nights with about 45 kids. We studied about the culture of the people that live in that area, learned some bush survival skills, visited a chimpanzee sanctuary, and worked in the community school doing some painting and laying some concrete. I was the photographer! Much easier than mixing concrete! I did have a nice workout with hiking most of the day at the higher altitude! Wow. Great start to an exercise program!

Natalie was great playing with the kids at the school. I also loved being able to watch Natalie's best friend, Nate, lead in worship time both nights. Being a missionary means you "adopt" other MKs (missionary kids) as nieces and nephews. He is an adopted nephew.

The kids were great. It was neat getting to see them interact with the kids at the school and then talk about it afterwards. We are all so blessed - even you if you are able to get on this and read a blog.

We had a praise time after dinner each night with a Bible study. It was a lot of fun. I will say - that after 4 days without a shower - I enjoyed the hot bath when I got home. My bed is calling my name even now.

Gillian also went with the 6th graders. She said that they had bats that were sleeping in the room with them every night. Pretty brave in my book!

First Swim Meet

Well, with Lydia being the first of our girls to be involved in competitive swimming, we did not really understand the following  . . . until today.  We were told that if you only have one more day to live, ask for it to be a swim meet day, and at least it will be as long as it can get!

After watching 3000 entries compete over the weekend, I feel quite experienced already.  Lydia was a bit scared the first day.  Having her name called over the loud speakers with a couple thousand people watching was more than she realized she was biting off.  Once her first meet was behind her, she was good to go.  It was all taking so long that they have now taken the last 12 categories and moved them to Wednesday morning.  We get one more day of it!  

Lydia’s 10th Birthday Party

On September 27th, Lydia turned 10!  She spent the day at her first swimming competition, so we celebrated a week early by inviting 4 friends from school to join her for a head-to-toe pamper party! They started at a nail salon where pedicures and manicures were enjoyed and giggled through.  (One benefit of living where labor is cheap!) Pizza followed before we came back to our house for facials.  A perfect girl movie followed the cake and ice cream.  Jim, who has only one brother, assured me that he had never been given such a birthday party.  (All the pampering was more than he had witnessed before!)  Lydia’s friends are Madj, MaKayla, Katie, Gracie. 

Meet Fred

Sometimes, when we are in the group of street kids, I wonder what all their stories are. I know some, but others are a mystery to me - a dark mystery that goes places that even if I were told - I could never understand. Questions like "How did they end up in this place?", "What is it like to live here?", "It looks horrible to me, but how bad is it to really be a street kid?"

I want you to meet Fred, one of the guys that has been working side by side with us in the street kids ministry for about one and a half years. He once lived on the street, and recently wrote out his testimony for me. I took it and put it here - word for word as much as I could and have it understandable to you in the states. We are thrilled to tell you now - before you see where he has been - where he is going. He has been called by God to work with street kids and teens. The Lord has also put the need for him to have formal training on the hearts of some believers. He will start a 3 year course in Youth Ministry at the seminary here in November. Now that you know where God has him going, I want to share with you where the Lord saved him from. I also think this will help you - as it did me - in understanding the situation that these street kids find themselves in.

I was born and raised up in a village area. After the death of my father, my uncle took me out of the village area and promised my mother he was going to help her pay my school fees. He took me out of the village area to the city. Things went well for about 2 years, but after that they started mistreating me. Sometimes they made me stay home from school to take care of their younger children. If I told them I wanted to go to school they would hit me. It progressed to where I was their house help – with all house jobs and jobs with children being mine. My aunt then lied that I had taken 1000 shillings from her purse (about $15.00). They locked me in the house and beat me for 3 hours. They then threw me out of the house and I ran for my life.

I was forced to join other kids that lived in the streets while tracing my way back home. I expected to have help – to find my way home, but didn’t. I ended up living on the streets.

Food was a major challenge. The first introduction was how to cope with food problem. We camped at the dumping sites. The competition for food was high since we were not the only scavengers. There were dogs, ravens and marabou storks – as well as many others. So, these meant whoever found the bone first got the meal.

The garbage piles gave us what we needed – from metal to use to cook- to plastic – even drugs. We could tell the area that had fresh garbage because there would be lots of ravens.

Another issue we faced was pain. The only solution for pain, stress, and homesickness used to be drugs. The first drug I was introduced to was glue (bounding glue). We would collect plastics and scrap metal from the garbage pile and exchange that for glue. We would camp out and stay at the garbage piles waiting for more garbage to arrive. We always had sacks with us to collect things from the dump.

The more I stayed there, the more drugs I was introduced to. Marijuana and the like were introduced first. The more expensive drugs were out of reach for us, until we began to be used as peddlers to transport them from one place to another. We would hide them in our sacks full of plastics. It wouldn’t be easy for anyone to know what we were carrying. The owner of the drugs would follow us to where we were taking it – we would just be the ones carrying it. They were scared of the police. I began to transport guns and bullets as well. Many times we were not allowed to see what we were really transporting.

Death was common. Street kids may meet death from a mob or police. We were considered as dirt. Most of the time we could be ambushed with the police. They would beat us and leave us bleeding. I have seen many die, and many others become disabled from being beaten by the police. They would arrest us sometimes claiming they were keeping the city clean. Spending months at a time in jail was common – sometimes in the police station, other times in prison.

When we would get sick, there would be no help, no medication.

After 2 years of living on the streets in these conditions, I decided to quit living the dirty life – and joined a group of muggers. I start becoming involved in mugging, pick pocketing and robbery with violence. Things progressed to threatening people with knives to get valuables, drugging people’s drinks in pubs, and breaking in to their houses. We were now getting a lot of money, but we were spending it drinking and going to nightclubs and bribing policemen and prostitutes.

As life continued, I was arrested again and put in prison for 6 months. When I got out, I found that my gang had advanced. They had advanced to using guns. They began to train me on how to use them and clean them. While I was still learning, a robbery of a gas station was planned. I was left behind on this, and heard the next day that 2 had been killed and 3 were in custody. At this point, I had to decide if I wanted to leave this life or die.

I decided to start a small business. It was then that I decided to quit all that I used to do. By conducting small business, I could still get money to drink and enjoy all sorts of life. It was through that business that I came to know my wife. She introduced me to church and encouraged me to change my life. I decided to accept Jesus Christ and surrender all. It was through my wife that I came to know God. I can say the death of my 2 gang members which had occurred changed me too. Because I was supposed to be among the group, I think God used it to show me how much he wanted to use me and how much he wanted me.

Just in Time

This past Friday morning at 5 AM, Jim and I left our house to pick up 2 of the pastors from our church.  The 4 of us were to join 2 others downtown before the city woke to have a Bible study with the group of street kids.  We ended up with around 30 boys and Rispa, the girl in the bunch.  With us having 6 workers on this morning, we split up and divided the kids into smaller groups to pray for them.  Jim joined with Pastor Boniface to talk with and pray for a group of 5 or so boys.

While talking to them, 3 indicated that they wanted to accept Christ as their Lord.  They prayed with them and we talked a bit afterwards.  We were so thankful and excited about the decisions each of them had made.

Anton was one of the boys that accepted the Lord that morning.  Today we learned that just about 17 hours later he curled up to sleep that night in the alley - for the last time.  Sometime in the night police officers came through the alley and shot him while he was sleeping.  He went to be with the Lord that evening.

What would it be like - to curl up on the dirt - in clothes that are never washed - in skin that hasn't been bathed in months other than dips in the polluted river that runs through the city?  What would it be like to step off into heaven with the cleanliness, peace, and joy - knowing that hunger, pain, loneliness are things that will never be felt again?  What would it be like to know you accepted Christ 17 hours before you met Him face to face?  Anton knows.

To say that the other boys were attentive this morning would be an understatement.  Accepting Christ - for a street kid - is a big deal.  They have to stick together in groups for safety.  In groups - there is always someone watching - to warn if danger is coming - if the police come.  When they accept Christ, the things many did for entertainment or money are no longer acceptable.  If you don't join the group in these things, you are not welcome.  So, accepting Christ means you are walking away from your peers, your "safety", your family.  Anton did this and he did meet the danger that many of the boys fear when they accept Christ.  The boys know this, but they also know that he is now in heaven.  Pray with us that the Lord will soften the boys hearts and bring them to a saving knowledge of Christ.  Pray that they would fear the Lord more than they fear the consequences of accepting Him.

August 2008 Update

Welcome to our Blog! While we attempted to get this up and running a while back - we are just now actually introducing it. We hope to be able to keep a better handle on keeping everyone updated this way. When something happens - we can update the blog - and then send out a monthly reminder to check what is going on.

At the bottom of this post, I have included several new pictures that have been taken over the past couple of months. The pictures show the lioness that we drove up on, monkeys chewing our wipers - and drinking beer! We don't care for monkeys so much - as we had them open and . . I will just say . . "spoil" our bedding on a recent camping trip. There are a couple of pics of house churches that we were able to attend among the Digo people on the coast. And then there is Jim having his first experience riding an ostrich. I got to take the pictures and was just fine with that! The street boy pictured is one that has recently saved!

Family Update
We are now past the summer break for the kids, and returning to the school routines. Natalie has been enjoying 5 months of being infection free. She has gone for a couple of tests this week, but all seems to be well. Linda has recovered from surgery and is doing well. Still trying to finalize the balance of the hormones and such, but on the way to a full recovery. Jim is enjoying running and being about 40 pounds lighter these days - which is wonderful but sickening me! Gillian is doing great and enjoying being on the middle school worship team at school. Lydia is adjusting to being back at school with her sisters. She found out she made the swim team, so she is thriving on her new found talent in swimming.

Street Kids Update
The street kids ministry is going well. We saw 2 of our regular boys come to the Lord just this past Saturday. Boniface will be moving into a home about 45 min from Nairobi around September 1st. This home has room for him to bring boys to live with him. There are 4 younger boys (around 8 years old) that are ready to come as soon as he has moved in.
We are also still praying over the involvement of Ridgeways Baptist Church with the ministry. They are seeking the Lord's will for how they are to be involved. We are excited to see what the Lord has in mind. The ministry is ready to grow - and to do that we need more help.

Sudan Update
We have a couple of big events coming up for the Southern Sudan team. First - we have a prayer retreat scheduled for October 12-14. Pray with us as we ask the Lord to revive each of us in our walk with Him and to give us direction in our ministries in Southern Sudan.
Towards the end of November, it looks like Linda may be traveling up to Sudan to do some people group research again.

Requests from the Southern Sudan team:

> Team is under spiritual attack.

> Pray for Wycliffe, a national helper for our team. He is having trouble getting back into the country due to documentation issues. He has turned in everything and paid all fees - but the delays are steadily coming. Pray that all this would be worked out. Also - Wycliffe had a motorcycle that he used for ministry that was being held at one of our missionaries houses. Thieves cut into the fence with AK-47's and took his motorcycle. Pray that the motorcycle is recovered by police.

> Pray for our journeymen to be well. They have had some health issues. They are in languages school - and doing well - but need to finish strong.

> The new couple due to come to come in a couple of months to work in Southern Sudan need to sell their house in the next 5 weeks to be able to come. As of now -there has been nobody to even look. Pray that their house sells.

Media Update
Jim is in the process of finishing up the second set of 17 people group prayer cards. If you have not checked out the Standing in the Gap material that he has put together to help churches pray for some of our largest people groups that have some of the greatest spiritual needs - look it up. You can purchase a set for 3.00 off the IMB website - which covers the cost of printing only. This is the link to purchase this online at the IMB website:

http://imbresources.org/index.cfm/fa/store.prod/ProdID/2058.cfm

We are also working on materials for the Digo people who live along the East African Coast. We went on a trip there a couple of weeks ago to gather information and media to create a couple of projects that will help our churches know about how they can join in prayer with the missionaries working among the Digo people. Jim and I will be finishing a virtual prayer walk that can be set up at anywhere - that will guide in praying over our part of Africa. Be looking for that!

The media team is also finishing up the work for the Democratic Republic of the Congo team. Jim does have a tentative trip to the DR Congo planned the last week of November and the first week of December. We will keep you updated on that. They are needing to go into a new area in the central part of the DRC to gather information and look for opportunities to bring the gospel to that area. It will be traveling by foot and canoe deep into the jungle. He is looking forward to that.

Pray for Debbie and Rusty Pugh as they go arrive in the States in the next few days to share with several churches about what is going on in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Pray that people will watch and hear all that is shared. Ask the Lord to call up people to pray for the DR Congo, to go there on short term trips to help and that some would also will be called to go to plant their lives among the Congolese to share with them about Christ.

Jim will have to swallow hard after he views the blog - because of his design background. Hope you enjoy the information and pictures - even though it doesn't have the professional touch that he adds to all that he does!

Thank you again in advance for your prayers for our family and our ministry here in Africa.

We love hearing from you!