Day 1

We arrived safely last night around 12 a.m. Kenya time. We arrived at our beautiful hotel around 2 so you could imagine how ready we all were to plop down in our beds. I cannot tell you the joy I felt when I simply smelt the air and saw the familiar landscape. It felt like home, even though I only spent two weeks here before. There's something about this place that my heart longs for. This was made apparent to me when I awoke at 7, only getting 4 hours of sleep and a few more hours between the traveling, joyful and wide awake. I was too anxious to get back to Mathare and the pangani center, the school we work with in Nairobi. Once we arrived at Pangani, I was greeted with the all to familiar "how are you" chanted from the children's mouths as they run up to us and reach for our hands. No one minds this abrupt interruption from these random children. It actually is not an interruption at all. It's something that is welcomed joyfully. We proceeded to head into the school to hear about Missions of Hope (MOHI) current efforts and how they got started. This is something I definitely want to share with you all because the way they run their programs is amazing. 

MOHI was started by Mary and Wallace when they realized the great for improved education in the slums of Nairobi. From there they rented a one bedroom apartment that would be used as a classroom. They found kids, preschool age, that presented the highest need for education and those who would fit their goals of using education to improve the quality of life of the children. Receiving an education means getting out of the Mathare Valley and out of the perpetual cycle of extreme poverty. So these children were given an enormous opportunity by receiving free education through sponsorship. Eventually the popularity grew as people found out about MOHI. To provide for the need, MOHI partnered with CMFI to receive financial aid for their sponsorship program. This has grown from that one bedroom apartment to now 17 schools across all of Kenya. Each one of these kids is carefully selected by choosing those who have the highest need such as pregnant mothers or orphans. These children receive education, health care, a nutritious meal, a uniform, and the love of God. This alone is a beautiful system that God has so graciously crafted for his children. That is not the only thing MOHI is doing. They saw the shame the parents felt that they could not provide for their children so they provided a solution. Mothers are given the opportunity to go to sewing school to eventually relieve a micro loan to begin a business. These women are also given jobs by MOHI to make the children's uniforms once the moms graduate. The fathers are taught welding and wood working to start their businesses to provide for their family. They also receive work opportunities to make desks and other things the schools need. Recently a water bottling plant was built to sell bottled water and farms have been started to provide the ingredients for all the children's meals. Isn't is amazing how every aspect of the school is empowering the entire family and community? It is so clear to me that God has blessed Mathare and the Kenyan people. God is doing amazing things, more than amazing. It's grown vastly in ways only God can create and conjure up. Praise him for all these beautiful things he has done. Yes the valley has much much more work to do, but there are amazing things already being done. 

Thank you for reading and showing interest in these people and Gods work. I encourage you to pray for God to reveal himself in more depth and creativity. Ahh God is good, so good. 

In his powerful name, 

Maddie