You might be in Kenya if…

You might be in Kenya if…

* Baby Crocodiles are a common snackfood.

KenyanSnack

* No matter what what meal of the day, you are guaranteed to bite down on a bone of some sort.

* 84 degrees is “bundle up” weather.

CuteKenyanGirl

* When you ask the locals what type of monkey that was jumping around in the trees and they look at you rolling their eyes to say, “It’s JUST a monkey.”

* Kids come up to you and ask if you know President Obama personally.

* Common refreshments on a 90+ degree day include; hot milk, hot tea, hot coffee, or hot chocolate.

* You’ve seriously considered several schemes to smuggle gorgeous kids home in your luggage.

Mob

* An offer of “fresh” lemonade in someone’s home feels a little bit like a nice gesture to ingest Anthrax. However, it would be culturally insensitive to decline.

* Prayers during a church service are so long that it’s possible to fall asleep twice before they’re over.

churchservice

* You accidentally break the news to people that Michael Jackson is no longer with us. Oops.

* Large groups of people think you are hilarious just because you are white.

FunnyGuy

Check back in a few hours for a post about hope that flows through the most dangerous slum in Kenya.

In the meantime, check out what the other bloggers have to say about our experience by going to the Compassion Bloggers Kenya Trip page.

The day of spiritual jealousy…

EyeOnYou

There is a part of this trip that has totally sucked for me.

It’s caused me to shuffle around nervously at times and hide behind my camera at others. The realization hit Allison and I that we were the only bloggers coming on this journey to Kenya who did not sponsor a child from Kenya. I had my reasons, and they were good.

We were contacted about a month before our trip asking us if we would be interested in sponsoring a child from Kenya since we would be going there and blogging about child sponsorship. I declined to sponsor another child because we are currently sponsoring two children; Miriam from Bolivia, and Ana from Honduras.

CurrentlySponsoring

We were told that there was a good chance we would be able to meet our sponsored children in person if we chose to sponsor in Kenya. I thought about it for a little while, but decided it wouldn’t really be my heart choosing to sponsor a child in Kenya…it would have just been convenient for blogging. Not only that, but we can’t afford to sponsor another child right now. Plus, I wasn’t even sure what Compassion International really provided with our current sponsorships. I just didn’t want to do it for many reasons.

Today was terrible and wonderful at the same time.

It’s Sunday, so we went to church. Little did I know that we would be getting up during the service and leading the congregation in worship for a song. After our rendition of “Lord I lift your name on high”, of which I knew the words, but had no idea a dance went along with, one of our trip leaders spoke for a few minutes while we were still all on stage. Two things he said hit me pretty hard:

“Even though we have different skin color and we come from a different country, we are related to each other. We both have the same Father. Our Father in heaven calls us all His children and that makes us brothers and sisters.”


And then the crusher…


“Compassion International is trying to help release the poor from poverty, but it’s also helping to release us from our wealth.”

As I stood there in front of around 300 of the poorest people I’ve ever seen, I have never felt so rich in all my life. I thought about the $120 I had in my pocket as I stood there and how it could be used to purchase a home here in Kenya…and maybe a goat.

From the church service, we headed to a Kenyan amusement park of sorts. It had animals for us to see, rides, a nice restaurant, face painting, and all sorts of activities for people to have fun with.

Most importantly, it was where all of the bloggers on our trip got to hang out with their sponsored children. Some of the children were picked up from 4 hours away just so they could meet with their sponsors and have a day of fun. Some of these kids had never been in a car before. Most of them had never eaten at a restaurant before.

All of the bloggers on this trip had sponsored children to play with…except us.

Here is Chris (http://blog.compassion.com/) with his sponsored child:

ChrisSponsor

ChrisHead

ChrisWithChild

Allicroc

LV (http://www.catalystspace.com/catablog/) with his sponsored child:

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LVwithMichael

Butterfly

Jennifer (www.mckmama.com) with her sponsored child:

JenniferSponsor

Michele

Camel

Brad (www.bradruggles.com) with his sponsored child:

IvonWithBrad

Ivon

BradWithChild

Babies

Patricia (www.jonesbones5.com) with her sponsored child:

PatriciaSponsor

PatriciaWithHannah

Ostrich

Kristen (www.wearethatfamily.com) with her sponsored child:

KristenWithChild2

KristenWithChild

Geoffrey

Kent (www.churchrelevance.com) with his sponsored child:

KentWithOwen

RecentlySponsored2

Goose

And there we were. Allison and I. Walking around looking at the animals and taking photos of the others with their sponsored children. I wasn’t feeling guilt. I was just thinking. Thinking that I had missed an opportunity. I thought that it would be ridiculous to sponsor a child from Kenya just before we go there so that it would look great on a blog as I met my child in a third world country.

I was wrong.

It wasn’t about that. It was about an opportunity to begin a powerful relationship with someone halfway across the world. Compassion International goes to great lengths at helping sponsors meet their sponsored children in person. There are stories of children being picked up and driven 8 hours just to meet their sponsor because it’s that important. Sponsorship isn’t about the money, it’s about letting someone know that they have value and that you are pulling for them.

It’s not about $38 a month. It’s about the letters you write and the dreams you instill in a child. I watched as several people began a deep relationship with kids that will last a long, long time today. I heard a voice in my head multiple times. It was saying, “It’s really hard to ask people to give until it hurts when you are not giving until it hurts.” It was a call to respond.

Allison and I got back to our hotel and we sponsored our third child through Compassion International.

Our newest addition

His name is Kayoo and he has been waiting for a sponsor for a long time.

I really hope that we’ll meet him someday.

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Compassion in Kenya // Day 3 photo walkthrough…

This monkey is a thief. As Allison was sitting outside writing her blog post yesterday, she saw this monkey casing the scene and waiting to make a move. Once a woman got up from her lounge chair for a quick dip in the pool, the monkey hopped down from a tree and stole the sugar packets she had next to her tea. The monkey then ran back up the tree and ate the sugar packets. Allison came and got me to shoot this photo. We’re not in Ohio anymore.

SugarThief

Today was different than our last two days. It was a day filled with activity just like the others, but I was able to hop off of the emotional rollercoaster I’ve been on since we arrived. Honestly…I needed it.

Mirror

We traveled to a Maasai village that was not in our plans. Our original Maasai destination was mostly under water due to high rains and so we visited another church where Compassion International has partnered for 5 years.

MaasaiChurch

This particular church has a huge number of children who are sponsored and being very well taken care of. Out of 300 kids, there were only a few that were without sponsorship. It gave us an opportunity to see what Compassion does on their “big day” of the week, which is Saturday. I realized that I am great with groups of kids when they are small, and I start having small panic attacks when the group is huge.

SharpEyes

Kids were swarming on us for multiple reasons. They love visitors. They love attention. They love white people. They love asking questions about politics and Michael Jackson. They love having photos taken.

Hoardes

PatriciaKenyans

CrestAd

The people of Kenya love tattoos. I do not believe I am exaggerating when I say that I got far more attention than anyone else in our group. Normally, I love attention to a fault. I learned that I’ve got a limit though and it’s somewhere in between three kids pulling on my arm while two others try to lift my shirt up (to see if there are more tattoos) and a Maasai woman pulling the earrings out of my ears.

Attacking

Inside the church, there was a welcoming ceremony for our group where people spoke, sang, and even performed spoken word skits for us. This country is truly the most hospitable, and polite place ever.

SingASong

MaasaiPastor

Shadrach

MaasaiPastor2

I wanted to place this baby up on a mantle in my house just so I could come in and look at her every couple of minutes. She was so small, but much more alert than a baby usually is. She looked to be 6 months old, but I am guessing she was over a year.

CutestBabyEver

MaasaiMama

MaasaiMan

After the welcoming, it was time for us to visit some classrooms. Compassion has the kids all day on Saturday. Feeds them, teaches them, plays with them, and loves on them.

BeautifulGirls

Classrooms

ClassroomExperience

GodCreatedHer

GodCreatedUsToWorship

HerVeryOwnBible

Achievers

Today was an opportunity to see the good that comes from children being sponsored. It wasn’t the heart wrenching experience we’ve had in the previous days of seeing poverty’s grip, but rather the hands and feet that are pulling kids away from that grip.

EyesOfJoy

RiceHauling

WashYourHands

FoodLine

ServingLunch

JohnSena

We headed out to do a home visit…in the middle of nowhere. There were no other houses anywhere in site. The family was able to keep a piece of property because the child’s sponsors had given gifts of livestock to them. This helped them to become sustainable.

LoneHouse

They had a photo of their Compassion sponsor.

SponsorPhoto

And lots of letters.

SponsorLetter

This particular sponsor even had the audacity to come to Kenya with her family to meet their child in person. The nerve.

InHomeVisit

Doorway

MckAdvocate

We finished our day by playing with these beautiful children, singing songs, and praying.

KenyanSoccerball

MaasaiBoy

Dresses

Praying

Prayer

In a world where so many things don’t work the way that they should, I can say with confidence that child sponsorship does.

KenyanSky

Wave

Today was a good day. The only thing that could make it better would be wild Zebras running near our van as we traveled back home.

WildZebra

Zebra2

Icing on the cake would be you committing to lift a child out of poverty. You know you want to.

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