Visiting Maisha's Home

So the story continues...

First of all, if you are ever fortunate enough to get to visit one of your Compassion children in their country, you need to visit them at their homes if at all possible! It was definitely the favorite part of our visits. It was fun to meet all of the family members and just to see our sponsored children in their home environment gave us a whole different perspective of their lives. It also made the visit more personal and more intimate as we shared time at their homes and literally met them where they were.

We drove most of the way there, then had a little walk back through some bush to get to their home. Along the way we met Maisha's grandfather, his father's father. I should have had Maisha in this as well to get the 3 generations, but I think E and him were already off down the path to his home!

Walking to Maisha's home... Peterson, the Compsasion social worker is carrying a bag for us - it was a gift of basic groceries we took for their family. They told us this was a good idea, and we are so glad we did it!


Here we are walking up to their home - a series of 3 little huts.


Here's one of them, this is where the children sleep.

This was just a sitting area, for eating or tea or just relaxing.


This hut was the kitchen, which is why it was more open.

Here's a look inside, kind of makes my 1970's counters and kitchen cabinets seem just fine after all. Let's see, a couple of chickens, a few old containers for water, a fire ring and a couple pots for cooking. That's it. We felt so strange at first about bringing a bag of basic groceries to them - things like flour, oil, corn meal, rice, beans, etc. But when we set the bag in thier kitchen after presenting it to them, we realized they had nothing stored in there for tomorrow. They live day to day, and we are sure the groceries were greatly appreciated. We wished we had brought more.

This is the third hut, this is where the parents sleep. That is a neighbor standing next to the hut. Everywhere we went we pretty much drew a crowd.


This is Maisha with his brothers. The boy in the white shirt is the oldest, then Maisha, then the boy in the stripes and the youngest brother is in yellow.

Here E presents Maisha with a gift he brought him, a new soccer ball. We were really excited to bring him this gift since he said he likes to play soccer, but suddenly it seemed so out of place here at his home. I'm not sure what a better gift would have been, but you know that he has never had his very own brand new soccer ball before. I just hope that even if it wasn't completely practical, he is able to enjoy it and share it with his brothers and remember us.

My boys were loving on his dog. Two thoughts - one, that dog isn't getting many scraps around here, and two, I was thankful again for all the vaccinations we got.


A picture of our family and Maisha's family.

And the 7 boys.

Then we went and sat in the open area and they presented us with gifts that Maisha (and probably his mother helped, too ) made. Here Maisha is putting a necklace he made on E, it's made of dried seed pods strung together.

I received a similar one, and it brought me to tears that Maisha and his family gave of the little they had to us. They also gave us a chicken. We were a little dumbfounded on how to respond, but thankfully the Compassion rep walked us through thanking them and asking Maisha to help take care of it because we couldn't take it with us right now. I honestly can't imagine taking one of their chickens from them, they had so few animals and no dry goods stored at all.

Kevin received a beaded bracelet from Maisha and at the end, Maisha's dad had something special for Kevin. They both stood and Maisha's dad pinned an AIDS awareness pin onto Kevin's shirt.

It was a very touching moment. They gave us simple gifts but they meant so much and we were very humbled. Somehow I felt I was living out the parable in the Bible where the rich were giving an offering out of their abundance, but then the poor widow comes and gives her last two pieces of copper. We felt a lot like the rich men only giving of our abundance. I am more thankful than ever for the easy life I have had and which I live. But I also know that 'to whom much is given, much will be required'. What is required of those of us with much more than we need to live on? There were so many emotions as we sat under that primitive sitting area, exchanging gifts. Mostly I think we felt love for Maisha and his family. True love that can only come from God for these brothers and sisters of ours. As I wept for their circumstances, for the poverty we saw, I also wept in shame at my selfish heart. I wept for the difficulties in their life that I have never known and probably will never know. It seemed so unfair that they have to struggle for daily existence and we are wealthy and spoiled beyond their dreams. And yet, they have a simple faith in God. They have peace and joy and a depth of trust in God which I have not known because of my self-reliance. It was such a paradox. How can we help these brothers and sisters of ours meet their basics needs, and what can we learn from their trust and dependence on God? This partnership that began with a simple click of the mouse on a picture of Maisha had turned into an amazing relationship with a family a world away. One that had touched our lives and hearts forever and we hope will also change theirs.

After an emotional exchange and a prayer of blessing on Maisha and his family, we headed back to the project.

This is the view along the ridge behind Maisha's house. Isn't it beautiful?

Driving back to the project. You can see the river Maisha has to cross and many gardens terraced along the hills. Most of the people in this area are considered 'farmers', including Maisha's family. Unfortunately, the soil is poor and there are often draughts and when the rain comes it often strips the land and washes away too quickly to be of help. There are people who are working to help them learn what to grow, how to grow it, how to build dams to retain the precious water when it rains, etc. We met a few of these people later on during our trip, and it was exciting to hear about their practical work with the Kenyans and teaching them to make the most of thier land and animal resources. More on that later...

When we returned to the project, we shared a meal together and then our final part of the day was planting a tree. It was really neat to be able to do this on the project site. They provided the tree and had it all dug out and ready to go for us. We decided it would be special to have Maisha and E plant it together.

Setting it in...

and watering...

Maisha and E, friends for life.

View from the project of the old church and the new building in process. The tree the boys planted is over by the new church building.

E wanted to take a picture of me with Maisha. Not the greatest picture, but I will still treasure it!

A few more pictures from our ride home. Oh, the things you see...

This picture is a great capture of all the road hazards at once. A speed bump - just as you get up to speed on the Kenyan roads, there are speed bumps to slow you down, without fail. Slow riding bicycles, cattle crossing randomly, pedestrians everywhere, possibly darting out at any moment. I'm so glad we had drivers and weren't trying to navigate these roads and hazards on our own!

And as the evening came, we passed the rice fields once again, empty and stretching as far as the eye could see. This area of Kenya was truly breathtakingly beautiful.

To wrap up our visit with Maisha, just a few questions that we were challenged with that I will also challenge you with today. So, what is required of those of us with way more than we need? What can we do without (easily, without hardly noticing it even) so that we can sponsor another child? Or give more to another organization that is helping bring people out of poverty, meet their basic needs, and telling them about the hope found in Christ? Are we doing as much as we can, or are we doing our minimum tithe? Where is our treasure, our hearts? Do we have a heart for God's people next door? In the US? In Europe? Worldwide? None of what we have is really ours, anyways, and you can't take it with you. As believers in Christ, our purpose is to glorify God. How does that all practically work out in our lives? We were rather ashamed of our western affluence that day. But rather than be ashamed, how can we use our relative wealth and influence to help those who are less fortunate? These are just a few questions that we walked away with that day. Stop and think about it. Pray about it. It doesn't require a trip to Kenya to change your perspective on life (but it sure helps!).

Our adventure continues... next stop, Mombasa...