Sunday in Kisumu

So our first full day in Kisumu was a Sunday! Ashley and I (Dave) decided to get a jump on the day and rose early to go to a Sunday service in downtown Kisumu held for street kids. In Kisumu there are many homeless children, generally orphans or outcasts from the age of 4 and up that steal to provide for themselves. Some of these children end up in the children's jail (which we are going to visit on Friday), but many are left wandering the streets. There is a fairly high incidence of glue sniffing (check the pics) as they look for answers.

We spent our time interacting with the kids. Some spoke English, but the predominant language is Luo - the tribal language in the area and Swahili. We tossed Frisbees and played jacks with the kids while the team we were with cleaned and bandaged wounds received by the kids during the week. The service was entirely in Swahili, so a little difficult to understand, so I spent the time praying for the kids, coming against the demons that plague them. We felt privileged to be able to share a little of God's love with them.

This boy is explaining why he needs glue.

The street team we went with has an orphanage where they have taken in many street children, as well as a ranch that they have kids at as well. Please pray for their efforts.

After the time with the street kids we returned to the house to pick up the rest of the team and walked to church.

Church was in a large green striped tent. The service was in English, so this one we could understand except for the occasional bursts of Swahili. Afterwards we met the pastor who is getting married in a couple of weeks - the day after we leave to return to the states! Everyone we met there is very welcoming and it seems that they all want us to come visit whatever it is they have going on. On Saturday we may go to a group-home type set-up that one of the church members runs out of his home.

Please continue to pray for us and the people of Kisumu. Tomorrow we start the Choose to Wait ministry in a school in an area of Kisumu called Dunga. We will be there twice this week. On Tuesday we'll also start with the Care and Compassion ministry. We expect God to move while we are doing this work, but mostly we want to be used by God, so please pray that we are sensitive to his movement and we can be witnesses for Him and His love to the people we will be meeting over the next week.