Kibera

This week is a week of reflection for me.
  I just spent the past two months ministering in Kenya.
  While I was far from my home in Swaziland, I was still close to the African culture I have come to love.
  Now only after sending my team back to the states and resting for a few days can I call my journey to Kenya restoration.
  The Lord restored in me a vision I didn’t know I had lost.
  I experienced restoration of faith, because I experienced the presence of the spirit of God manifest in the ministry in Kenya.

The first month my team stayed inside Kibera, one of the world’s largest slums.
  I have never experienced anything like it.
  I am at a loss to explain what it is like to walk for an hour and still surrounded by shacks woven like yarn in a scarf.
  The smell of sewage and supper mix in the air; smoke is an invited identifiable aroma.
   Occasionally the maze of homes opens up to a small dirt field where children play soccer with plastic bags tied in knots to serve as a ball.
 

I think about these children.
  What would they think of a soccer field with grass lined with shade trees?
  What would their laughter sound like as they role down a grassy hill?
  The poverty in Kibera is overwhelming because even the simplest pleasures are unavailable there.
  No clean water, no fresh air; it seems as if there is no hope.
 

But in the midst of this place there is the most beautiful presence.
  There is a joy and certainty in the believers.
  They are hoping in what they have never seen.
  Their faith is strong.
  They see their surroundings and can’t help but meditate and long for the rescue of their savior.
  They are longing for the Kingdom of God, because they are so aware of the kingdom of darkness here on earth.