Choice
"Choose this day who you will serve, but as for me..."Joshua gave the Israelites an option before they went into the Promised Land; an option to choose whether they would serve the pagan gods of those occupying the land - or if they would serve the Faithful One who brought them out of Egypt and preserved the nation for 40 years of wandering in the desert.
The first choice of everyday should be Who we will serve. Will it be a God focused, desired day or will it be self-serving and fear driven? We make hundreds of choices each day, what to have for breakfast, what to wear to work, how to wear our hair, which one of the multitudes of pairs of shoes will match our attire or allow comfort for what the days plans hold. Our choices are seemingly endless - even in an economy that has begun to limit financial expenditures and commitments. BUT... we still have choices.
Today, we met 100 children with no choice. They represent a far greater number hidden in the slums of Kitale, with no option for education, clothing, food or hope. At the edge of one of the largest slums Wycliffe, a local believer, began an outreach to children living on the streets without even one choice. He saw there would be no opportunity for them to receive an education (they could not pay the school fees) and their future was sure to be cut short by disease, malnutrition or abandonment through the death of parents suffering from AIDS. He began an informal "school" in two mud huts teaching the basics. He also took orphaned and abandoned children into his own two room home.
Then God moved
... in the hearts of a few visiting Americans to come alongside the work he was already committed to and expand his territory. Teachers were hired, a tin building was constructed to enable three classrooms to operate and serve 100 children. Each day the children come and start the day with a cup of porridge. They are taught not just "reading, writing and arithmetic". They are taught the love of the Father. Before they leave they are fed rice and beans. The food the children have at school is the only nourishment they have for the day - but they take home in their hearts a portion of "the Bread of Life".
What choice do you have if you are 5 years old living in the slum, your mother is dying and you are the caretaker of your 2 year old brother? You watch the older children. You learn to look through the trash heaps for scraps of food, you learn to pick up discarded plastic bottles and fill them with the filthy water running through the ghetto. It is the water you wash your face with, it will keep you hydrated but in the temporary quenching of thirst lies the dangers of parasites and bacteria a small body has no choice or chance to fight.
We watched the documentary last night called "Glue Boys" to educate us to the plight of the thousands of homeless and abandoned here in Kitale. IF they survive - they are offered another choice to help them cope with the cold nights, the hunger in their bellies, their sorrow.
Glue...The plastic bottles that once held water are now used to hold the toxic glue that will create a euphoria deep enough to drive away the cold, it numbs the hunger. And as it kills brain cells it also kills the memory of their loss and the hopelessness.
Most are dead before their 12th birthday. The poison creates brain damage and eventually kidney failure.
There are ministries here fighting to give them a choice. But the addiction of children so young, combined with those willing to exploit and continue to provide them an toxic but anesthetic substance to numb the pain - make structure a choice to hard for their damaged minds to make. A choice their hearts did not have an opportunity to understand - love over "slavery" to forgetting.
After seeing the film, we asked, "if there are "glue boys" where are the glue girls?" Then the horrifying truth was told. Some did not think the world was "ready" to hear about the "glue girls" kept hidden in the back houses of the slums, and forcibly sold as prostitutes, who are having babies (born with the addiction) succumbing to HIV/AIDs and the epidemic of TB that is ravishing the area. Babies are born to these girls as soon as they reach puberty - they do not live long after that. The "world" is not ready to hear - were we ready to "see"?
Outside the English run cafe filled with foreign missionaries, sitting in the grass with his water bottle held closely to his mouth for inhaling the fumes of euphoria was a boy barely 10. He had been there all day - dazed and forgetting how he got there. He will quickly forget the blur of white faces that passed by him during this day. Especially, when the darkness requires he find a sleeping place where he can cover himself with a discarded potato sack for warmth - the rest of the heat coming from the intoxication of the glue - his sleep induced by the fumes that will soon take all his choices.
The "glue girls" lost their choice long before they lost their caregivers. They are covered with bodies of men hungry for the innocence they are free to steal.
"Remember oh God, that my life is but a breath, and my eyes will never see happiness again". Job 7:7
Job cried out God.
Cry out for those who have lost their hope to cry at all.
Cry out to God for the workers are few.
Cry out to God for provision in abundance - to build a clinic to serve those in the slums.
Cry out to God for mercy.
Cry out to God for forgiveness for all the choices we take for granted.
Cry out to God for the church to have a heart to exercise pure religion undefiled - VISIT the widow and orphan in their distress.
Cry out to God for the nation of Kenya - for the continent of Africa where evil reigns but GOD is King!
Cry
For those who are under the influence of impoverishment and glue have no tears or remembrance of love.
Searching for a breath of life to impart to the dying
For more information and learn about the ministries helping the children in Kitale see the website:
www.glueboys.com
