First report from Carla & Peter’s journey to Kenya

After a long travel day, we caught our first glimpse of Kenya from the window of our airplane. I turned to Peter and mentioned how beautiful the.mountains looked. The man behind us, a native Kenyan, said, in his lovely musical accent, “Oh, dat ees not a mountain, dat red a heell.” Fair enough. Perspective. I suspect we will learn a lot about perspective in the coming days.

This evening we gathered with the rest our team to eat a delicious meal poolside and to get a preview of the coming adventure. Reegan, our guide and the Kenyan Zoe director, spoke to us about the 6 areas of focus for each of the working groups who enroll in the three-year Zoe project. The overall theme and goal is empowerment, of course, and the areas of instruction and support are these: Food Security, Income Generation, Spiritual Development, Safe and Adequate Housing, Child Rights, and Health and Hygiene.

Each working groups had 30 heads of households and up to 90 related siblings or chosen younger children. Money is handled collectively and democratically. Leadership is elected among the heads of households. Business plans are written and advice from the leadership is used to help revise plans. At the end of the day, the group determines its success.

Reegan made it clear that the children we will visit look at us as encouragers and as answers to prayer, but they neither expect nor want handouts from us. They are gifted by God to make a good life for themselves if they are helped to access appropriate resources. 

Lord, open our hearts to see and hear and learn and grow, and help us to share your love here and everywhere. Amen.