No More Tears!

Boys on the streets of Eastleigh

     Over the past week I have got to resume one of my favorite works at Made in the Streets. Every other Friday the Kamulu staff makes the journey into Eastleigh to do base (places where street kids hang out) work.  We typically carry bread (made by our catering students) with us to hand out, we share a word of encouragement with the street kids, we pray with them and we explain to them about our procedures at MITS and how we can help them get off the streets.  So on Friday, i visited Mutindwa base with several other staff members.  It was a good experience and once again a reminder of how hard life on the streets in Nairobi can be.  On Monday, i traveled with Larry Conway to Eastleigh to do base work again.  This experience, although similar to Friday, was an even greater reminder of the hardships of these kids on the streets of Nairobi.

     We visited several bases on Monday and had some new and interesting experiences.  The last base though was a stark reminder of why we are working with street kids in Nairobi. The last area we visited was called Mlango Kubwa.  It is a sprawling, jumbled maze of buildings, alleys and people that are all smashed together into a small area.  Everywhere you walk you are assaulted by foreign smells, sad sites and hurting people (tons of kids).  The only words that felt appropriate at the time to describe the scene was "Satan's playground. Mlango Kubwa is full of malnourished children, people on drugs (typically sniffing glue), violence at every turn, trash filled streets and endless poverty.  I kept asking myself where is the hope for this place?  How can anyone find God amidst such poverty and hurt?  I kept wondering how does God feel about Mlango Kubwa?

     We all know that God loves the people in Mlango Kubwa as much as he loves anyone in the world.  We all know that God wants them to prosper, to have a hope for the future and to live lives of love.  What separates us and our experiences and lives from those lived by the people in Mlango Kubwa?  Why are we prosperous and their lives full of struggle?
     C.S. Lewis penned these words, "I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare."  I'm not sure i have the answers to the above questions that i just asked.  But i do know that much will be expected of those who have much!  Luke the disciples writes: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Luke 12:48).  Our responsibility as people of God who have been blessed with much is to be willing to share those things we have.  As C.S. Lewis writes . . . "to give more than we can spare."  Now that doesn't entail that you pack up into a plane and fly to Kenya tomorrow and give to the people in Mlango Kubwa . . . but it does mean that you begin earnestly looking around you now for people with needs.  People who need to see the love of Jesus exhibited through his saints.  People who need to know that there is reason for hope in the world and that goodness exists.  People who need to know that there is a loving God who longs to welcome them into his fold and to reveal His plan for their lives.  Can you be that saint?  Will you give more that what is required?  Will you be the hands and feet of Jesus to those who are hurting?  

     The Apostle Paul pens a prayer for the believers in Ephesus and writes these words:

"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen" (Eph. 3:14-21).

I to pray this prayer for you and me!  That we will know how awesome and powerful our God is!  That despite our failings God will use us to do bigger and better things so that people will know the love of OUR GOD!
     And finally, i yearn for better days when these people in Mlango Kubwa will see their God in all His Glory!  That they will be wrapped in white robes . . . in that place where there will be no more tears, no more hunger and no more pain.  An endless time where we can all sing the glorious praises of our Father, forever and ever!