one morning we popped in on a small school in the nearby slum. the classrooms were extremely small: imagine a backyard shed with 16-20 small children and a teacher. the smells that add up inside such a small space is so strong and so overpowering that it's hard to enter in any further than the doorway.
we spent the morning making balloon animals, painting faces and loving on the kids as best we could before they had their lunchtime. all of them were too young to communicate with us so we loved on them as best we could (balloon animal style).
later, when i was talking with another american who lives in nairobi he expressed how important our balloon animals were.
"some of those kids have never gotten a gift."
how do you explain the free gift of Jesus to someone who doesn't know what a gift is? to teach Jesus in the slums of nairobi you have to start with a balloon animal. you have to give a gift so that these small kids can discover for themselves what a gift is.
this reality breaks my heart. this reality is why i selfishly prefer to ignore my feelings about africa.
1 comment:
How do explain the need for a gift of grace to people who have everything they could possibly want, need or desire....? The more I live outside of America, the more my heart breaks for it....
Your post just made me think about that. Hope your trip was very very very good.
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