My parents are in Kenya this winter serving as substitute missionaries for a few months. They left in October and they'll return in January. Part of their job is to minister to the people living in the slums. (It sounds so un-PC to say slums, but I don't think there's another word to descibe these living condtions.) If you're familiar with the movie The Constant Gardner, it's the same area where Rachel Weisz's character does her charity work.
My mom is volunteering in a school. This is how she describes it:
On Tuesday's rather than witness, I have chosen to go to a school that has 120 very, poor children. 22 of them have both parents, 58 have only one parent due to abandonment or death by HIV, 40 of them are completely orphaned. They are too poor to have a uniform, many come barefoot and they are so dirty and ragged. But this school is doing a great job with 6 teachers who volunteer their time to teach. Then at noon all of the teachers are cooking rice, ugali, or slicing cabbage or greens for the childrens lunch while they play. I am so humbled by their ability juxtaposed to their love for the kids. I was looking at the science lesson on the blackboard and the sixth grade was studying perimeciums and amoebas. They are multiplying and dividing fractions. I was very impressed. The classrooms are the size of your computer play room and they will have 25 kids packed in there. I hardly have room to stand in front of them when I tell them the Bible story each week on flannelgraph. I am doing a 4 week series on Joseph.
I am planning to send a monetary Christmas gift to this school so the teachers can buy whatever they need most. If anyone wants to help, email me by December 1 and tell me how much you want to contribute. I don't think it's tax-deductible since I was just planning to send the money to my mom to give to the teachers, but I'll let you know if that changes. Thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment