Photo’s from Kenya are up
Feel free to leave all comments you have about the pictures here and enjoy…
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Tags: Kenya, Nairobi, photographs, pictures
I’m back
So I Went to Kenya and I’m back. I had a life altering changing experience that I simply haven’t been able to put in words. I’ve been TRYING for the past 10 days to write and I simply can’t. Some of things I’ve seen, and the odors I’ve smelled, and the people I’ve touched I’d do a disservice trying to write them into words. I’ve been in peoples homes where six people live in what is equivalent to the size and less sturdy then the shed that my mom had built to hold her garden/lawn tools. I’ve met people that had a faith so strong that you sit there in shock and awe because you just can’t believe that that has happened in real life. One man adopted 60 orphans with NO means of income but God continues to provide and take care of all of their needs. I walked through slums with raw sewage just going down the middle of the street like a stream and people just dealing with it because that is their life. But in spite of all of that they had HOPE. They believed God was going to provide for them even if their reward was in heaven. They had FAITH that through God they could do all things… and some of their faith even allowed them to take care of others when they had nothing, and when I say nothing I’m not talking about $500 in the bank I’m talking less then a penny to their name. They also had LOVE. I’ve never experienced love like that before. I walked down the street and children remembered my name from when I spoke to them for five minutes in their classroom. People remembered your name from doing simple things like hugging them or sharing with them your struggles and life story. The best part of the trip was just realizing we are all the same. My Kenyan brothers and sisters kept sharing how excited they were to one meet black missionaries and then secondly there were so many of us and thirdly we jumped in feet and hands first and got involved in their community. They shared that most people stop in for a day here and there and do their thing and leave. But we met them, went to some of their homes, met their families, played with their kids, fed the people in the community that had HIV and AIDS, honored their teachers, honored their leaders, sang with their praise and worship team in their language, went to their church service, gave the largest donation they have EVER received, celebrated and cheered at their football game and simply just became a part of their community.
Also I thought I’d escape the election. Not so much. Kenya is obsessed with Barack Obama lol. Bumper stickers, tshirts, people young to old asking about the election and talking politics. At church on the streets, in the market…EVERYWHERE. The people were even doing the Barack and Michelle fist bumps. I was told by a little boy there that Obama wasn’t an American but a Kenyan, we just borrowed him and when we took pictures instead of saying cheese they said OBAMA! lol. The one sad thing about it is they feel so connected that one boy said he fears riots if Obama doesn’t win because they really feel like if he loses they lost. So it’s not just a US thing but this election effects the world.
That is all about my trip for now. Pictures will come soon. I’m trying to readjust to being back here in my house and back in the US
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I’ll update later…
Internet access here is run by the slowskies so more then likely updates won’t happen until I’m on my way back because updating via blackberry isn’t the business.
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Amsterdam…
Our flight got here earlier then expected. So we have a 3 hour layover in Amsterdam as opposed to two. But It’s very early (7:50am) and very cold outside so we are chilling in the airport. I’m typing quick since I paid about 6euros for 30 minutes of access lol. Hopefully I’ll have some access when I get to Kenya as well
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Time is drawing close…
I always wanted to say that. It’s something granny would say. But anyway three days until take off. I was telling a friend last night I’m just a well of various feelings. I’m nervous, scared, anxious, excited, ready, reluctant and sometimes confused.
I’m not sure why God is sending me alllllll the way over there. But he kept pushing and pulling and tugging me. I didn’t think I’d be able to fundraise allll that money in two months. God had it where I had the money before the final due dat with minimal coming from my pocket. So it’s OBVIOUS I’m heading over there for a reason.
I think that is also why the range of emotions seem to surface. Because I don’t know how God is going to use me and I don’t like being unprepared. But how can you prepare for the unknown. I’m also scared. I feel like this is going to be the catalyst. That life changing event that makes me self evaluate and go to Christen version 4.0 and have me looking at life different and living different and acting different and that scares me just a teeny bit. But it’s okay. This trip is going to be a bit of a contrast from last year. I was living it up. Nice hotels with pools and room service and so on. This year who knows. But I’m going there to do work.
People keep asking me if I’m ready for my vacation. This is not a vacation. I’m a servant. I’m following God. Listening to what he told me to do. I could easily be on a beach somewhere using my leave that way. Instead I”m going to work. Draining allllll my leave and doing some leave without pay. Why?
God told me so. And When he tells me so I can’t ignore it.
So am I ready. Somewhat. Clothes and things I need are on the couch. I plan on finishing my packing tonight and putting them in the suitcase tomorrow. Then I plan to spend time with my guy, my friends and my family Saturday. By Saturday evening I have to shift into game mode. Relaxing, focusing on worship and work and preparing for Sunday. Sunday I have to go worship at Zion and then get ready to hit the plane and do what I have to do.
Hopefully I will have some sort of internet access the next few weeks so that I can complete updates. If not expect pictures and stories when I return
Christen
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Mission Trip 08
Family and Friends
As some of you may know I have been attending Zion Church for the last four years and for the past nine months I have been serving as a leader within the music ministry. As a leader and someone that feels drawn to serve I have decided to go on a short-term mission trip to Nairobi, Kenya October 19-28. My church is partnering with World Hope Baptist Church to reach out to people in a very impoverished area in Nairobi.
You may wonder why I have decided to travel at this time and the answer can be found in one of my favorite quotes “whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm we are following our legend.” I visited South Africa last year (the journey is shown below) for a personal vacation and during that visit something within me was stirred up. I feel that God has given me so much and that he desires that I use my gifts and abilities to impact other lives.
Since January 2007, Zion Church has been working with World Hope Baptist Church and investing in the Hope Center. Over 300,000 people live within one mile of Hope Center in Nairobi, Kenya. Thousands live in some of the most tragic conditions imaginable: 75% of the adults in the Kawangware slums are alcoholics; 50% are infected with HIV. 90% of the children living there are given little or no education. Hope Center reaches out in a variety of ways: it supports an extensive athletic outreach including basketball programs and four soccer teams, an HIV/AIDS ministry, several micro-businesses, as well as Hope Baptist Church.
One of the major reasons I’m interested in going is to visit and work with girls at the African Inland Church (AIC) Girls Boarding Primary School, which is focused on improving the quality of education it offers students and providing shelter for some two dozen young girls, as young as nine, of the Massai tribe who have been “rescued” from pre-arranged early marriages.
The reason I am writing this letter is because I am looking for a support team. This is a team of people who will promise to pray for our team before during and after travel, give toward this project, or both. We need prayer as we strive to meet other people’s needs and we also need prayer for safety as we travel. Financially, I need to raise $2800 to cover the cost of my expenses while on this mission trip. I will be contributing from my own personal funds but I’d truly appreciate your support as well. If you’d like to give you can click on this link “Donate to Mission Trip 08″ and pay through pay.pal. If you prefer to write a tax deductible check it can be made out to “Zion Church” with “Africa Mission Trip c/o Christen McCluney” on the memo line (email me your address and I will send you a self addressed stamped envelope). Even if you can’t give I still would appreciate your prayer and moral support while we are on our mission.
Thanks so much
Christen
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finally…
any questions or comments feel free to leave them here
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coming soon
I’m almost done with the webpage that has all the pictures. Need to edit and check for accuracy and then I will upload it to my .mac site and share the link.
Now that I’ve been back almost a week. I realize that I really don’t want to be here (here as in Maryland and here as in work lol). This is the first journey I’ve gone on where I want to be there more then I want to be here. I think I’m about to change some career goals around. I’ve got to get back soon. Would yall visit me if I move to Cape Town lol
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716…
is the number of photo’s I took in South Africa. It’s going to take me a while to organize and label them (knowing me they’ll be done by Monday). But I will put them up as soon as I can.
The flight back was great. Went really smooth. Got all my South African wine through customs and no talkative and crying kids on the plane **hooray*
Now it’s time for laundry and un-packing.
It’s good to be home. But I miss South Africa already.
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playing catch up
I haven’t written anything in the blog over the past few days because one it’s been emotionally draining and secondly I just hadn’t had a free moment to sit at my laptop and write.
I have been writing though. A lady on the trip teased me about typing on my little gadget all the time.
I usually do so throughout the day when I see things so that I won’t forget. So I’ve compiled all my thoughts I’ve been writing over the past few days into this one post. (It’s long lol)
Wednesday
“This test is your storm be strong hold on”
That is a line from a song that some of the children at Kalksteenfontein Primary School danced to this morning. This school is one that we found out about and decided to sponsor… The money we raised would go toward renewing the bathrooms, upgrading the library, and putting in new windowsills and screens. As a group we raised about 50,000 Rand (around $7000). But that is what had me excited and worked up about the visit.
It was the kids. As soon as we pulled up you saw them peering and waving. We were divided into 13 groups so that 10 could go in each class and interact with the kids. It was a lot of fun to be able to interact on a small level and have them ask us questions and we ask them as well.
American culture has a lot on influence on the culture there… So just about everyone’s favorite star actor singer etc was American, minus the soccer players of course.
We then went to their multipurpose area for an assembly. There they did their rituals and sang, prayed, and did their greetings. They then put on a show for us where they sang, danced, and played instruments for us (I think every kid in the world plays the recorder in primary school). What really got me at the assembly was the end. All 210 kids sang a song for us to make us feel at home. In their gorgeous accents they all sang the star spangled banner. I think every adult was in there crying. They sang it with more love and conviction then I’ve ever heard.
All throughout the assembly we were taking pictures and we had a few hams that would jump in every pic lol. I decided to show one the pic on the LCD screen and was like a phenomenon.
Something that small triggered this wave of excitement. We were taking pictures of them and they could see the picture immediately. That was so amazing to them. We were all in the courtyard after the assembly and had a chance to talk to them between their many requests for pictures.
Some of the most beautiful kids telling me I was pretty and asking me for a hug and to take a picture with them. The second emotional trigger was this little girl that tapped my friend on the shoulder and whispered… Please take me home with you”
I was done. It was a wrap.
**stepping on soapbox now**
What really gets me is how their education is not free. When driving to school there were kids of the appropriate age on the street or in their yard. Why? Because more then likely they couldn’t afford the school fee.
$21 American dollars a year.
A YEAR?!?
That almost made me sick to my stomach. I think about how easily I blow that amount on nonsense… and that could have sent one of the kids on the street to school. Hell the cost of the purse I had could have sent 8 kids to school. I think about the shoes I “treated” myself to for my birthday and how many kids could have gone to school with that.
Madness.
I got so attached to those kids so quickly. It was crazy. I’m going to work on creating a scholarship there that would sponsor 10 kids a year to go to school and cover their schooling grades 1-7. The Jamisa Project. Those little ones really captured my heart.
5:30 pm
In a cab with some friends on our way to a local mall to grab dinner and just to do some mindless wandering. I couldn’t even shop if I tried today.
We just left Robben Island where Nelson Mandela stayed 18 years of his sentence. The island is situated a few miles off the gorgeous Victoria & Alfred waterfront, so you have to catch a ferry to get there. I can’t even explain all the history of the island but it was a weird place to be. Absolutely gorgeous in scenery and their are rabbits on their like we have squirrels but times 2.
To visit the prison was heart wrenching. The tour of the prison was given by a former inmate who works and lives on the island (that would be so hard for me to do retelling the story daily but with unemployment at 43% he said it was a good job and a way to tell his side). But anyway his story reminded me of slavery (they were taken to the island shackled in the bottom of a ship… Mind you this was the 70’s and then he was taken to a cell where he was stripped and left naked for 3months.
There was a lot of history on that tour. We are at the mall now. I need to process all I’ve taken in today.
2:03am
Just finished packing. We are leaving in the am. We were at the mall too long. I’ve got to say in America we have nothing compared to that place. It was like Vegas and Times Square got together and had a mall lol.
This evening we had our farewell reception. As a part of it everyone finally got up and shared when they graduated and what they do. That was a proud moment. Over 130 alum and guests and we had doctors, lawyers, judges, editors, anchors, execs, superintendents, parole officers, counselors, and the list goes on. We ran the gamut of black professionals.
The principal from the school we went to stopped by to say thank you for setting an example for the kids to live up to. He said they always see white professionals but the kids thought it was cool that the met black people that were doing big things.
Emotionally draining is how I would describe the majority of my day but so fulfilling.
Thursday
Today is essentially a day of travel. Woke up had breakfast got my last look in at the beautiful beaches of Cape Town and headed to the airport for Jo’burg.
Looking out the window while flying makes me really just amazed by God’s artistry. Looking down it just looks like a mosaic. A variety of colors and perfect shapes places together in a unique and yet well planned way.
Friday
Its 3am I think. I’m not really sure.
That is what my mda says but I’ve crossed over some more time zones and have been in lala land dreaming.
We are now in Senegal on our way back to the United States from South Africa. My trip is over and I’m heading back home. This is definitely a bittersweet moment. I am ready to go home to MY house. But I am really going to miss South Africa.
The beauty of the country from the mountains and hills to the sea. The hospitality that the people have shown us in each country that goes far above and beyond anything we dish out at home… But then again I was home as well. Children’s faces and smiles and laughter are what I will really miss. They were so authentic whether it be expressing the need for help or just sharing love.
This trip has changed me. I can’t explain it and I’m not even sure how people will see it in me, but it has changed me to the core of my being. It makes me appreciate all that I have in life and also has really shown me how selfish and arrogant we are in general.
I am so very grateful for this opportunity and that I could afford to go. It’s something that can be attainable by all and I seriously encourage anyone who can to visit. It will seriously change perspectives. I was sitting here listening to my ipod really just crying and thankful for everything. Little things I take for granted, big things I take for granted. It is really time to make changes.
The plane is about to depart Dakar.
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