Author Archives: passionpartners

Hope in the slums. We are all HIS beloved.

I pray this morning for the Lord’s provision and justice for ALL HIS CHILDREN after working in the slums the past few days. O how I find myself in a space of silence and attentiveness to anything and everything surrounding me while I am there. I see so many beautiful faces in such desperate need and yet precious smiles lighting up along the way! On the first day we had the opportunity to go deep into the slums and visit families with the intent to show them the love of Jesus in a tangible way be it through meeting their most basic needs: provision of sugar, beans, flours, peas, butter…etc. We sit together, share life and ask to pray for them, usually a widow, a sister, grandmother or a single mom…caring for multiple kids in the size of a small bathroom made with mud walls and tin roofs to secure their home. After visiting two families we went to a secondary school to participate in the Jitambue (“self-worth” in Swahili) Project and hear the impact it is having on their lives. It was so sweet hearing how these young girls have been eternally impacted by the Swahiba Youth team showing up, leading and educating them on positive reproductive health and the Hope of Jesus. We closed the day with one of the...

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An update “from the field” – Kibera

Jambo! I’m writing you tonight from Nairobi, Kenya – hoping to take advantage of some solid internet access and update you on just a bit of what’s been going on with us the past several days. Our trip started out with 2 days of ministering alongside Swahiba Youth Networks, our partners in Nairobi in the Kibera slums. On our first day, we visited some of the girls’ familes that are involved in the Jitambue Project. Most homes in Kibera are about the size of our bathrooms, with a dirt floor, a roof made of pieces of scrap metal, and everything the family owns packed inside—which is scarce. Our team of eight m’zungus (white people, in Swahili) wasn’t exactly inconspicuous, but we wound through the maze of small houses led by the Swahiba team. We met the families, brought them common, yet scarce items, such as sugar and rice, listened to their stories, and prayed with them. I’ve gone into Kibera several times over the past year. The first time, I was wrecked. It’s so much to take in. Each time after that, my feelings have shifted from being heartbroken for their situation to being angry and finding myself just a bit numb to it all. Kibera looked the same as it did ten months ago when I saw it for the first...

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We arrived!

FROM THE FIELD .  .  . Friday, July 27, 2012 We are here! (Departed Nashville Wednesday at 2pm to Chicago… onward to London by 6am and landed in Nairobi uneventfully at 9pm–though 3 bags didn’t make it, that was pretty good odds out of 16, considering the air traffic of the Olympics!) We arrived at our guest house at 11:30 pm Thursday night where dinner was waiting. And though it may not have been all we were craving after a long day of cuisine de la aeroplane, we were grateful for the hospitality, and I was reminded to take every opportunity to fill our stomachs along the way. However, the absence of a warm shower after 24 hours of travel, was the beginning of many more reminders to come that the expectations imposed on our lives by the western world are often times over-indulgent and can easily rob us of seeing the world the way God sees it.  Self-sacrifice is an afterthought, if even a thought–period.  So, we have set out as a team for the next 3 weeks by kicking our usual (blessed) standard of living to the curb and are asking God to trade filling our stomachs and fixing our eyes on material things, for filling our hearts with the things that break His and fixing our gaze on our roles in His Kingdom. Allow me to briefly...

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