Bringing Hope in Kisumu

Thursday I did many things I first did over 20 years ago.

-I smelled methane gas spontaneously combusting on a city garbage dump while watching kids scavenge through the trash still pouring off of the latest garbage truck to arrive.
-I crept through narrow allies and around crumbling buildings of a slum where children play in sewage water.
-I used a squatty potty in the midst of that slum.
-I tread over paths made of garbage and rot and inhaled air thick with the stench of poverty and filth.
-I teared up when passing malnourished children staring through hollow eyes while clinging to the door-frames of their shacks.
-I was mobbed by scores of shrieking, happy children wanting to shake hands with one of the few white people they’d ever seen.
-I saw beautiful smiles on filthy kids.
-I was encouraged by incredibly dedicated men and women who are bringing hope to the poorest of the poor with joy.
-I was in a place where most people never want to go and where Jesus definitely is.
-I felt that I belonged.

Surrounded by beautiful children who attend school at KAG Siany.

In 1989 I first saw Compassion International at work in Pasay City, Manila, Philippines. I was convinced then that Compassion was doing an incredible job reaching out to children in poverty in Jesus’ name. In the years since then I’ve become more convinced of that fact as we’ve sponsored numerous children, received at least a hundred letters from those kids, and have gotten involved with the Advocate Network. But today was the first time in 21 years that I got to visit a Compassion Project.

Eric, Kate, and I became the first sponsors to ever visit the KAG Siany project in Kisumu, Kenya that has been operating for just 16 months. 293 children in this project are receiving weekly educational tutoring, spiritual training, health care, and meals. When this Compassion site last enrolled children, they had space for 67 children to join. Over 700 kids applied. Today we met once of those 67 children, Ashley, the beautiful, five-year-old girl we sponsor for our own daughter, Grace. We were treated like honored guests as we went through formal introductions and listened to the project director tell us about their work and Compassion’s vision for the children they assist. The church that hosts the Compassion Project also runs a preschool with 150 children and the students mobbed us as we toured the project site. We were then treated to tea and finally had a chance to walk hand-in-hand with Ashley as she shyly led us through the filth of the slum to her school. In the Kenyan educational system, there are three years (baby class, middle class, and preparatory class) of preschool before beginning elementary school. Ashley’s mom had chosen a small preschool, wanting Ashley to get more attention than she might have at a big school. Ashley is consistently in the top three of the nearly 30 students in her class. Yes, we were proud sponsors.

After visiting the school, and speaking with Ashley’s teacher, we walked to Ashley’s home. I was thrilled as we passed through the slum and into a wide-open grassy field. As the end of the field was a typical Kenyan family compound and on this property was the modest mud hut that Ashley lives in with her mother and great grandmother.

With Ashley and her mom in their home.

Eleven of us crammed into the 10×10 room that held a twin bed, a dresser, a coffee table, two chairs and a couch. We had another round of introductions for the grandmother’s sake and then were able to hear from Ashley’s family what benefits they’d seen since Ashley became part of the Compassion project. Both Ashley’s mom and grandmother beamed as they told us through translators that Ashley came home with a full belly, that she loved the lessons and games, and that she was being helped and encouraged in her school work. We had a chance to give Ashley and her family some gifts and then Eric prayed for their family and all of the children sponsored there in Siany. After lots of photos we made our way back to the church where Eric took the opportunity to teach Ashley how to jump rope. It was side splitting hilarious! The Compassion cook treated us to a feast of beef, chicken, vegetables, and ugali, all eaten with our fingers. The project director again asked Eric to pray for their project and after another round of photographs; we were off trudging through the slum again.

I'm pretty sure Eric has never done this with OUR children!

There weren’t any dramatic moments during this day. No tears on behalf of an incredibly thankful family, no striking story of a rise from near death to health, no drastic turn around academically. Instead there was this. We saw that Compassion does what it says it’s going to do.

Ashley is fed two nutritious meals each time she’s at the Compassion Project. She’s tutored academically. She receives health screenings. She is taught lessons of character, of social skills, and vital health education. She worships God and learns about Jesus. Most importantly, she has enough.

Wes Stafford, president of Compassion, often says that the opposite of poverty isn’t wealth, it’s enough. We saw that in practice during our visit to Ashley. Lord willing, with the help of the Compassion project, Ashley now has what she needs to grow into a healthy young woman who serves the Lord, knows how to live a healthy life, is socially responsible, and economically self-sufficient. In the midst of the Manyatta slum, Compassion has brought Ashley hope.

Ashley