Thin Floors and Prayer at Babadogo

What a crazy day in Mathare! Leann and I made our way to Mabatini to finish teaching the really young kids about personal/oral hygiene. The young kids are always the cutest because when they answer the questions, they don't really understand what we are asking so they answer with really general things like, "We should wash our bodies!" And then they smile super big and sit back down. It's pretty sweet. Above is a picture of the school from a hill. The school is in the middle with the blue door. In any community in Mathare, you can tell which school is a Missions of Hope School because they all have blue doors! I don't know why, but that's just how it is haha.

So for our last presentation at Mabatini we had to move rooms a couple of times because the one we were originally in was undergoing construction. Then the second one we were in had too much light that we couldn't cover, and it made it hard to see the projector. Finally we made it to a darker room, but then we had to talk loudly over all the construction going on downstairs in the original room! The floors on the upper floor are really thin so at one point when the men were hammering, I could literally see the children moving up and down with each hammer stroke from the floor. I was afraid to even approach them for fear that we would all fall through! We were safe though and it all turned out okay even when the projector quit working again haha.

From Mabatini, I was picked up by Robert and we made our way to Babadogo so that I could lead the Bible study. We hit a few obstacles on the way there, like almost tipping over in the mutatu because the driver was being ridiculous and also seeing a thug being caught by police and almost getting shot...but other than that we made it safe and sound! The group was amazing today! Thank you so much for all of your prayers :) I taught on Luke 11:1-13 where Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray. We had some great conversation on prayer and Robert translated for me which was a blessing. There were about 9 people who showed for the lesson and it was inspiring hearing their stories of God's provision. I think out of the people pictured above, only two have accepted Christ. From left to right there is Eric, Thomas, Lynn behind him, than Belinda, Steven in front of her, Omosh, me, Caleb, a guy from Tanzania that I don't remember his name :(, and then Lucy in front. Most of the boys pictured were thugs before they joined this community group. I have really connected with these people and I hope to spend as much time with them before I leave. I talked with Robert today and asked him if there was something specific that this community needed. I have funds that I raised in order to use for a project and I have decided that I want to use those funds for this specific group of people. He told me that they really need shovels and wheel barrows for when they do community clean-ups, but also there is this recycling machine they could use to support themselves. The only problem is that it is pretty expensive, and he would have to let me know how much it costs to get. I pray that I could empower them with something though, because they have greatly inspired me. I also hope to possibly lead them in another bible study next tuesday! We will just have to see what God has in store. Please keep these people in your prayers :) They have become very dear to me and I will be extremely sad to leave them. Bwana Safiwe!