Would you do something if your family was being neglected? They are! Our children of God in Kenya need our love
and help. They are not asking for a hand out. They are asking for us to work alongside them "hand-in-hand." Our brothers and sisters, those who have been born into a land where the
government has trouble getting their act together, are suffering.
This photo below shows a garbage dump that
developed in the middle of houses where many children live. This mess had pigs,
ducks, dogs, and children wading in it looking for some form of sustenance they
might use. But as they searched, bacteria laden trash was contaminating them.
When I visited this Mathare Slum four years ago,
this lot beside the Living Word church was clear of trash. In the years since
then, a group of young people found a way to make money by taking advantage of
the fact that the county government does not pick up home trash as expected. To
meet that unmet basic need, the group contracted to pick up trash from local
homes and businesses. However, rather than responsibly taking the trash out to
the legal dumpsite, the entrepreneurs just dumped it into their little space
leased to them by a local councilman, right next to the church, in the midst of
homes and small businesses. This past June, the horrific trash was spilling out
into the road and walking paths that all the local residents must walk to get
past this space.
It doesn't take being a health professional/pastor to know that the trash was greatly impacting the health of the people in this whole community. The
children looked especially lethargic, had more sores on their skin and more
runny noses than I observed four years ago. It was truly shocking to witness
how a whole community could be so devastated by their county government’s
neglect. Despite many appeals to the local health department from the
local pastors, the threat to the health and wellbeing of the people of Mathare
remained.
How would we react if such neglect happened in our
own neighborhoods? We wouldn’t tolerate it, would we? We would protest, take
action, write letters, make phone calls, and insist that the councilman revoke
his permission allowing such contamination. So – why do we allow this to
happen to our family of God in Kenya? How do we empower them to empower one
another and take a strong stand against such abuses and neglect from their
county government? Pray for them, lift them up with our friendship, go and
speak alongside them to the authorities in charge, empower them with advocacy,
give them confidence that the Holy Spirit is with them because God cares about
their wellbeing, too.
The day after we returned to the US, this big
shovel showed up and the garbage trucks came to haul the garbage to the city
dump where it belonged. The clean up took three days. It was a heavenly sight
to our Kenyan brothers and sisters. We pray this will not be just a momentary
sign that the county will do its job and meet the basic needs of the people.
We will continue to pray, do what we can to
strengthen our Living Word church friends and enable them to keep fighting for
their rights to a clean environment. And we will go back and thank the health
department staff in person along with others who did their part in cleaning up
what was once a tragic mess. By God’s grace and through the power of the Holy
Spirit, God taught me that each one of us can make a difference in the
world. My tiny drop of loving help in an ocean of need may continue to ripple
out in ways I may never know. But we trust that God knows and appreciates every
drop of love. Now we all must add our drops and make an ocean of love wash over
Kenya. Go, see, do, be a light of hope there or wherever you can give loving
help that empowers.
