I'm new to this whole blog thing, but I feel like I could really get into it. Anyway, on to my post:
As I'm sitting here in my room learning more Swahili through an online course I got completely distracted. ADD is awesome, huh? Not so much. But I guess in this situation it was...
I got to thinking, and when I start thinking about something, I REALLY think hard. I was thinking about the street/glue boys that I met in Nakuru, Kenya this past visit. Speaking of Kenya let me just give a brief story of my life and Kenya, then I will get back to my thoughts...
My freshman year of high school, I was not making good decisions and finally when I was confronted about my poor decisions by my parents, we got some advice regarding what my family should do from then on out from my youth pastor at the time, Tom Stickney. He recommended that I go live with him in Kenya for a year or so, as he was leaving his job as a youth pastor and heading to Kenya as Executive Director of African Christian Outreach. My mom immediately said "No, that's not going to work" because she couldn't have me go to a foreign country where she had never even visited before. Starting my sophomore year of high school I was still not making good decisions. That following March my parents decided that it might be good for my family to take a step out of the norm and go on a mission trip to Kenya. Returning from my trip to Kenya, after falling in love with 75 or so orphan children from the Virginia Children's Home in Nakuru, it definitely changed my heart. My family and I realized when we got home that our trip in March was not going to be our only one. We've now made several trips since then.
Okay, now that I've explained all of that, back to where I was headed about the street/glue boys of Nakuru. So when I made a trip to Kenya in March, 2012 I really began to notice the glue boys around Nakuru. I especially noticed them because one, who was obviously very high from the intoxicating fumes of the glue, opened up our van door while we were waiting for our driver. It was very disturbing and very saddening to see such lost and burdened kids. I was in the airport on the way home and I was really thinking hard about these guys, and I began to realize God obviously never wanted me to get involved with the wrong crowd and make the decisions I made but He's turned that around for me and He's showed me that I can use the struggles I went through to help these guys. I told Tom all about that because I was more than excited that right then and there God hit me with a strong desire to change the lives of these guys who are walking around, lost and feeling hopeless, because at one point I was headed that way too. From that day at the airport I have never lost that desire, and on this recent trip it was set up where I actually got to sit down and meet them.
The time that I got to meet them, was probably one of the hardest things I've ever witnessed. When I first got all of them in a group to sit down and talk with them, I had no idea what I wanted to say. But then as I asked the first question, which was, "How did you get here, where you are right now?", the questions just kept popping into my head. Their stories honestly broke my heart. I could see it in them, how much they want something different. I know, even though they may not know it, that they need the Lord more than anything else. After giving them food, I noticed one boy in particular, Daniel Ngonga (15 years old), who made sure everyone had food and milk before he got any. He pushed away the older kids to make sure the younger ones got food too. I saw in him, that God has a plan for him. I just know it. After that day it only made me realize more that I want to help these guys. So that's where I'm headed now... to college to most likely study psychology and after graduating college to be on my way to Kenya, to hopefully, with God watching over me, to reach out and provide a home, family, and an education to as many of the street boys as I can and to live by this verse "You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love." (Galations 5:13)
