Kibera,..... Lord, you know that I love you..... Really!!??

So, imagine you're one of about 1.2 million people (and by some estimates, up to 3 million) in a community, and immediately adjacent to your home is a stream. It has rained the previous night and the stream is overflowing,... y'know, similar to your local river after the torrents have come. Downstream, a goat has relieved itself in the water that feeds your brook. You have to go to work, presuming you can find work, and your children have to go to school crossing the footbridge outside your "backyard" that crosses the stream, that the goat has relieved itself in. You step nimbly across the muddy footbridge, one foot across the other, -- you do this everyday-- and you and your children are on your way to find work and to go to school. Stepping through mud across the refuse and sewage as you make your way ot the main road, you greet others along the way,.. "jambo, habari gani?",... "mzuri sana, na wewe?" is the reply and you in turn respond, "mzuri sana", very well. But is it well? Kibera, perhaps the world's largest slum in the center of Nairobi, Kenya is home to the worst poverty on this planet. There are more routinely stories of disease, teen pregnancy, unclean water, no sanitary conditions or electricity, than not,.. all in an area 2 km square containing 10 villages. Today we trampled, climbed, slid and otherwise journeyed through three of these villages: Gatwakera, Soweto and Kianda. These 1.2 million people live here, I get to go home and eat a nice meal. The children, play here, amidst the unsanitary conditions, sometimes falling as they do, but these conditions are alien to my children. "How are you?" is the song heard as the visitors pass many smiles ripe for picture taking. But this is not a pretty picture and we woudn't be smiling if we lived here. As we walk, replying to the greetings we receive and returning the smiles, our hearts are heavy as is the dusty air, and as we continue on, our allergies are affected,.. our eyes begin to water,... tears of allergy,.. or are we crying for Kibera?


My kids, their kids, they're all God's kids, and regardless of where they were born, should anyone "live" like this? Susan Werner's Gospel Project says it well: "When I close my eyes so I would not see,.. my Lord did trouble me. When I let things stand that should not be, my Lord did trouble me. " Not enough of us are troubled when see this, or, too many of us close our eyes. The problems of Kibera and Mathare Valley and other places are too numerous to mention or think about much less solve, but this generation can at least begin the process. We fight over strips of land in Palestine and Israel, when the land we should be concerned about lanquishes in poverty and desperate need. The war on which we need to concentrate is one that combats disease, homelessness and other elements of poverty while claiming human dignity as the victory prize. We decry abortion while allowing those born to exist in squallor. Do you want this for your children? Perhaps the answer is obvious, but we have turned away from many obvious answers while neighbors suffer and die. Jesus said, the poor will always be with you because he knew that without Him, we'd turn away,... like we turned away from Him. He also said, that we should "love each other as I have loved you", and He knew that without Him, we wouldn't do this, yet we say we reciprocate the love He has for us. "Lord you know all things, you know that I love you." Do we really? So, maybe the key is that Jesus needs to be in the love we extend to each other and in the eradication of poverty. Smart man, that Jesus. If we want to be like Jesus, and He didn't turn away from the poor, why do we? Can we hold all children in our hearts, the way Jesus holds us in His? Do we really love and want to be,... like Jesus?