New missionaries Giles and Alison Emery have been in Nairobi, Kenya, for just a few months, so they see the poverty and sadness with fresh eyes and try to share a glimpse of it with folks back home. Here’s an excerpt from their recent newsletter about the young boys of Mathare and the hope that is offered to children through education at Missions of Hope, thanks to the CMF child sponsorship program.
We see him nearly every day on our drive into Mathare Valley: a young boy between the ages of 10 and 12, meandering aimlessly down the road, his hand clasping an open, plastic bottle filled with a yellowish-brown liquid. We’ve learned that the liquid in the bottle is glue, homemade and toxic. Countless street boys like this one (too many) sniff from these bottles all day long to receive an instantaneous, temporary high. We also encounter them when we leave Mathare and exit onto one of the busiest thoroughfares in Nairobi. Clusters of street boys stand in the median, streams of traffic on either side, and approach the waiting cars to wash their windows and receive a few coins in exchange, all the while clutching their plastic bottles.
Seeing these kids deeply saddens us. Who is there to take care of them, to tell them that this isn’t the life they should choose? When no other options seem possible, when the painful reality of the present is so consuming that dreams are unimaginable, perhaps this seems like the best alternative, finding a way to escape, to temporarily numb the pain.
We are blessed to work alongside an organization that seeks to end this cycle of despair. Missions of Hope helps kids dream and achieve their dreams through education. Most importantly, MOHI teaches these kids about the One who is worthy of their faith and trust, to place their lives and dreams in the hands of Christ to guide their footsteps.
Two years ago when we visited MOHI on our vision trip, Pastor Wallace Kamau, a founder and director of MOHI, shared with us Ephesians 3:20-21: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.” Pastor Kamau commented that this truth is why MOHI does what it does. Many kids in the slum have lost the capacity to dream. They only see what’s before them each day, a fight to simply survive hunger, darkness, disease, and despair.
But at MOHI, countless numbers of kids from Mathare Valley, one of the poorest slums in the world, achieve the improbable. Kids who passed rigorous national exams for admittance into prestigious high schools now spend their weekends and holidays mentoring younger kids just starting their academic careers. Young girls teach their sisters science, math, and God’s word. Young boys who once spent their days sniffing glue or stealing or marauding with gangs now attend school every day and participate in church every Sunday. Parents truly believe that their kids can have a different life than they have had, that their dreams are actually attainable, and that they can make their communities and neighborhoods better.
If you’d like to help a child begin dreaming about a better future for his life, consider CMF’s child sponsorship program. Go here to find your child!
