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| Habari Yako?
(How are you?) Greetings from the other side of the world… I am now in Kenya and have
settled in. I left almost two weeks ago and had a tough time adjusting the first few days
due to the hard reality that I would be gone for a year…I love Seattle and all of you
and will miss my life at home I’m sure. After getting ample sleep and many prayers
from all of you, God has given me comfort and strength. My purpose has become clearer and
the reason I am here… the kids… continues to remind me every time I see their
glowing faces that I am where I’m supposed to be. It’s been fun to have 4 other students from the University of Washington here with me on Deputation as well. They are teaching at Woodley School, a transitional school for street kids, that allows them to get up to speed so that they can enter formal school at the right level for their age. Not only is it humbling to try to teach the deputees how to live in a city like Nairobi, and to give them tips on how to interact with the kids, but it has also stirred up some old memories from two summers ago when our team did the same thing. This team is much more on top of things and they spend hours planning the following day’s crafts and lessons. The kids love them already and they are a real gift to this ministry. I am also very blessed to have my friend Summer Jackson here with me. She was a deputee in Kenya with me two summer’s ago and will be here a month, helping me settle in and doing some traveling to places we weren’t able to go last time. Reminiscing with her has been surprisingly humorous as we remember all smells, sites and experiences we had in this city. I am SO HAPPY SHE IS HERE!! The turning point for me last week was the first time I set foot in the school and I saw the eyes of the children light up and their smiles span cheek to cheek as they gazed with disbelief at the sight of Summer and me. With meekness they approached us and shook our hands…we quickly swept them into our arms, feeling as though we had never left them. . .but with a feeling like the void we felt from two years of separation was finally fulfilled by their presence. They are SO precious. Their growth over the past two year has been incredible. Several kids grew a foot, no kidding. It’s amazing what some food will do. They are doing well in their studies and they play like kids…just what they should do. It still shocks me when I see kids on the street in Nairobi and I compare them to the kids in our program. Through that witness I have been able to see what kind of fruit a small investment in a child can produce. All of the kids in our program were on the streets at some time… some were even born on the streets. The opportunity to go to school, have adults care about who they are and to have the opportunity to know Jesus as their hope in life, is life changing. Most kids have never heard that they are worth anything. They are told that they are trash and are treated as such by many people. The introduction that they are children of God, that He knows each of them by name, that He created them, loves them and will never leave them is so life giving. I want to thank all of you for your support in my call to be a servant to these kids. To each of you who pray for me or who provided finances in order to get me here and sustain me this year… THANK YOU. Each day I am reminded that I have a support network at home and I can literally feel your prayers. If there’s one thing I request, it is that you would pray for me here…
Please write me if you have time… (I love receiving letters!!) With Christ’s abounding love, Sarah Jamieson |
For
strength and peace as I work very much outside of my comfort zone in this city, and in a
place where Satan wants to keep a foothold