jina langu ni......my name is.......

On my flight home from Kenya, a friend told me that in the movie Duma it says that if someone in Africa gives you a name, they take responsibility for you.
Well out of Africa this past week came two new names that mean so much to me.

The first is Archadius Treasure Satterlee. I introduced him to you in my last blog as my son. His name is no longer Odundo and is Satterlee. He felt this was important because the rest of his family carried this name. So he now carries the name Treasure from his mama Vicki and Satterlee from his family here. I could not be more honored to have someone share my name. I will be posting much more about him later but for now I thought you should all know to welcome him into the Satterlee family.

The second is my Kenyan name, given to me by my family in Kenya. This is no simple thing. They discuss it thoroughly and decide which tribe you belong to first and then your name second. The first time I came to Kenya the kids I was teaching gave me the tribe Kamba and the name Mwende, but it didn't stick because no one else knew it. So, this year at our final meeting my Kenya family gave me a name. My tribe is Kikuyu and my name is Nyambura. It means rain, because in Kenya rain is a blessing and something they pray for. It is also the older sister of my Kenyan mama, Mary. So, now I have a name. I belong to a family of people in Kenya, and they have taken responsibility for me...and I have never been happier.

#3 huyo ni kijana wangu

Ok Ok so after a power outage (which thankfully really only took out my internet and TV) the 40+ reasons I love Kenya may not reach 40. But here is #3


huyo ni kijana wangu.....this is my son.
Meet Archadius. He turned 18 this year and he is my son.
We look alike right? :-)

The funny thing about Archadius is that right when I was in the middle of feeling like I had about all I could take of teenage boys at home already, God put this young man in my path. He lives at Victorious Children's Home in Kakamega, Kenya with my dear friend Vicki.  From what he knows about his birth parents, his mother was a very young girl when she gave birth to him, maybe 13 years old. She was unable to care for him and the mother of his father would not take him in. I don't know what happened to his father, maybe it was rape, or maybe he just didn't care, I'm not sure. In Kenya, if you are a young mother, you are an outcast...from your family, from school, from everyone. 

Vicki took Archadius into her home at a very young age and started teaching him things and then was able to send him off to school. He is the brightest young man and he hopes to some day come to the U.S. to go to college and be near his American family. He is great at football (soccer) and rugby and his academics too. I always joke with him because he makes better grades in English than Kiswahili. He has the kind of heart and attitude that when he his home from school (in Kenya you go away for the older grades) the whole atmosphere in the house changes and he could someday be the one who runs it...but he wants to be an engineer. 

Due to certain regulations in Kenya I was unable to even try to adopt him and now, well he's technically an adult. But you ask my kids, he's their brother. They write each other and dream of going to Kenya someday to meet him in person. Recently, he sent me a letter telling me a little more about how he came to be at VCH and about going to school. He told me thank you for making him a part of our family because now when he goes to school, he is no longer an orphan and he can hold his head high. It breaks my heart that this wonderful soul should have ever had to hang his head and that such a small thing as just claiming him as son and brother and doing our best to support him in Kenya could make him hold his head high. He knows we are family.

If you have not ever had the privilege of supporting an orphan, I recommend it for everyone. Our church supports this orphanage and one in Haiti just to start or there are many organizations like Compassion International. I know, I know, charity starts at home...blah blah blah. We are all in the family of Christ and this planet is our home. These are the least, these are the widows and orphans and taking care of them in their need is religion pure and undefiled....the Bible says that. God made it clear.
Not to mention, you are just missing out if you don't. I know not everyone will get to meet the child they sponsor like I was able to do but you will still be blessing one beautiful soul. On your worst day you have not had it as bad as one of these kids. You do not have to decide that the meal you will give up today is lunch because you don't want to wake up or go to bed with your stomach growling. And when you eat your other two meals you don't just have porridge or tea and a cracker. You don't only get one egg a week for your protein. You eat daily, you have clean water coming out of faucets, daily. You most likely don't have a 12 foot wall with barbed wire running around your yard to keep out people who want to take what little you have, that you are sharing with 63 other kids. You don't battle malaria every year along with many other diseases. You have it good and if you didn't think so before, I hope you do now. 

25 days until I see my son again...and then I can say: 

Nina furahi kuwa nyumbani... I am happy to be home.

#2 Love

Love.
It is all over the Bible and the thing we are most commanded to do. After all, if you love someone you do what you have to do for them. If you love someone, you do even things you don't want to do for them. If you love God, you go when He tells you to. From one of my favorite Christian Rappers, Flame, "if the Lord tells me move I'll move, anything He asks me to, yeah I'll do". There can be no greater privilege in my opinion than following after your God given passions and to find love in the middle of it.
I love the friends I have in Kenya. I love the people I go to Kenya with. I love the people who pray for me and my family while I'm gone. I love the kids that give so selflessly and my little friend Riley who isn't even 5 yet but remembered (mostly) the word malaria. We have a bond that you probably can't even understand. But one of the things I love the most, is watching the people I love, love others.
We are blessed in the time we are in to have a way to stay connected to people around the world. Through Facebook I was able to meet a dear friend and sister Chesi. Chesi runs the Vigilant Lady ministry in Nairobi, Kenya. When I say ministry, this is not some big organization, it is a ministry. It is Chesi and some of her friends and sisters (and occasionally brothers) from church who have taken it upon themselves to do their best to take care of girls in their area. To teach them about purity. To provide feminine items to them and just simply, to love on them. They also work with widows and single mothers, especially teenage mothers who are often abandoned by their families and kicked out of school.
I have heard Chesi's story about what it was like trying to attend school and not having the proper items during her menstrual cycle. Please imagine what it is like to use anything and everything you can to protect your clothing- old clothing torn into strips, mud smeared in your underwear and left to dry. On top of that, remember that they do not often have access to fresh water to even wash these things with. Imagine.
Such a simple thing like pads can show these girls that they are loved and that they are important and that God created them for bigger and better things than embarrassment and a missed education because they can't attend school for a week each month.
And of course there is my friend Vicki. Mama to over 60 kids at Victorious Children's Home in Kakamega, Kenya. She has provided so much for those kids. Most of all, she has provided them with love and a safe place to grow up. There are hundreds of street kids still in Kakamega. You can drive around on any given night and see their little fires burning as they try to stay warm. Yes, by the way, it does get cool at night in Kenya. I know if she could she would try to save them all, but for now she saves the ones God sends her way and she does an amazing job of it.
Love. It's doing what you can with what God gave you, and then watching Him give you more in unexpected ways because you try. It's doing what you have to do for others, even things you don't want to do.

42 days until Kenya 2012...or 42 reasons I love going to Kenya...#1

Reason #1 I love going to Kenya...Vacation Bible School. This will be the third year that I will help run VBS for kids in two countries, and it was the thing that led me to write my first post on Kenya and Me.
Each year when we hold Vacation Bible School at Covenant Church I get to see such a great side of the kids and volunteers involved. This year our theme was "Everything is possible with God". Let me tell you how much that has meant to me. This year it just felt like even up to the first day, things just weren't going the way I wanted them too. It wasn't anyone's fault, so many of my volunteers, and friends were going through some hard things and had to step down along with just many other little things. In the end, as always, it did all come together. God does always come through and I should know that after holding VBS in Kenya for 2 years now. What we do here with 70ish volunteers for 150 kids, we do with about 10 people for up to 300 kids in Kenya. Of course, people's expectations are different here, but not to the kids. Someone said to me, " just remember if you mess up it will still be perfect to the kids because they don't know what it's supposed to look like." That's what I love about kids. They really just want you to try. They will get excited about what you get excited about. For several years now the kids of our church have been excited about the kids in Kenya. I love it because I love those kids and I see the difference our kids are making in their lives. Since I have been a part of Victorious Children's Home and our kids and church have been giving to them, I have seen a wall of protection go up around their property. I have seen food for at least one meal every day. I have seen kids go to college so they can change their futures. I have seen transportation provided so they can get to schools, appointments and church. I've seen mosquito nets go around their bunk beds and blankets on each one. Year by year and penny by penny their lives are being changed. The really cool thing is, they aren't the only ones being changed. I've seen some adults come forward with some very generous gifts and I've seen kids give with the widow's might.
This year was no different. Each year we try to overflow the buckets that the VBS offering goes in. The kids bring it in change so that it takes up more space. Each year my dear friend (and our Children's Minister) Gail allows us to do something to her if it happens. The kids work for it all week, trying each night with empty buckets to overflow them. This year a young lady whom I adore gave up the money in her savings account to buy each of the 63 kids in Kenya a mosquito net. This girl has had her own hardship this year. She lost her Daddy at the young age of 13. Still, she saw that these kids had a need and instead of feeling sorry for herself she dug deep and gave all she could. I know her Daddy and our Father were both smiling down on her that night. I know they were proud. I'm proud. I'm proud of these kids for not ever forgetting their friends in Kenya. I'm proud of them for knowing what sacrifice is and not being afraid of it. I can't wait to share their sacrifice with those beautiful kids in Kenya. I can't wait to put up new mosquito nets and stock their pantry with food that will last months.