Learning to Love Like Jesus

Dear Friends:

On Monday we visited the Eastleigh Community Center, which provides education classes for street kids twice a week and programs for single mothers and their babies. The community center is also home to Made in the Streets ministry, a program that rescues young boys from the streets, teaching them a trade and providing a place for them to live until they are 18 years old. The ministry was started by Larry and Holly Conway, missionaries who moved from Texas to Kenya more than 20 years ago.

In the morning, Larry took us to the “bases” where the street boys live. We walked many blocks through the slums, escorted by Anthony and Kennedy, two former street guys. As we walked through the dirty streets, we passed a few boys whose eyes were red and glazed. They carried old soda bottles filled with a brownish-colored glue, which they sniffed to get high. They wanted to shake our hands and greet us. My first response was to walk quickly past them, but Larry wanted to introduce us to his friends. I tried to look into their eyes and connect with them, but they were “no longer there”. It broke my heart and my eyes filled with tears.

Finally, we reached a large mound of garbage alongside the sewer, with 8 boys sitting atop the pile. In Kenya it is an honor to have visitors, so we crossed the sewer to meet them. A few of them looked happy to see us and thanked us for coming. We talked with them, introduced ourselves, and Anthony shared a message of hope. They nodded their heads in acknowledgement, and bowed their heads as we prayed for them.

The fact that we came 9000 miles to visit these boys in their “home” made them feel very special. Larry told us that talking with these boys and showing them love and respect had more impact than giving them money. Money was temporary, but the memory of someone shaking their hand and showing them love was something that would last.

This was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. I realized it was probably the first time I had really tried to connect with someone living in such horrible circumstances. If I saw someone like this in Seattle, I’d probably walk on the other side of the street or look the other way. Most likely, I would never walk into a neighborhood like this in the first place.

But once you look into someone eyes, shake their hand and pray with them, they are no longer a stranger. It’s impossible to stay emotionally detached, and you enter into their world of pain and suffering. When Jesus calls us to “love our neighbors” we often choose to define what that means. But truly living a life of compassion requires stepping out of our comfort zone and loving those that the world has forgotten. It’s a difficult journey, and I humbly admit I have a long way to go…

Bwana asafiwe (Praise God) . Mungu yu mwema (God is good)
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