Sunday in Korogocho

Yesterday we had our first in-person experience with Korogocho and it was eye-opening to say the least. Tiny one-room shacks made of mud, tin and scrap lumber pass for homes, with most families paying $20-30 per month for these accommodations. The streets are narrow mud paths with trash strewn everywhere, and ruts down the middle which serve as the community sewer system. We walked just a few blocks in the slum, but it was more than enough to give us a sense of the world these people live in day to day.

We had come this morning for Sunday church, and I have to say the service was a beautiful contrast with the surrounding slum. They were already in full song when we walked in, singing beautiful hymns in Swahili, English, and a number of local hymns. About 70 people in a very basic room, accompanied by just a keyboard, were singing loud in these amazing African harmonies, lifting their voices to God in hymns and in prayer! It was at the same time beautiful and convicting to me, how these people could worship with such joy when surrounded by circumstances that were anything but joyful. Worshiping in Korogocho, when combined with a view (albeit brief) of the neighborhood of the congregants, was such a humbling experience.

The next 45 minutes consisted of hymns interspersed with announcements ("everyone needs to get involved in a small group" - sound familiar?) and testimonies form church members. The actual events were similar to an American service, but with about 1,000% more emotion and expression all the way through. After this, Tom came up and had Justin and Alisha introduce themselves. Afterwards, he brought me up and asked me to give the message that morning. He had warned me he would do this the day before, but it was still intimidating to say the least. I had thought through some things to say but I had no idea what I could possibly share with people whose life experiences were so far removed from my own, and whose passion for worshiping God seemed already to be so much greater than mine. I decided to follow the Gil Flores principle and pretty much just stick to Scripture and, with the help of a Swahili translator, gave it my best go. I focused on Psalm 23, which is one of the passages we've been hoping to share with the kids, and talked about God's promises expressed in the chapter. After I finished about 20 minutes later, the service concluded with offerings and more singing, and several people thanked me for my "good words" and commented that it was the shortest sermon they could remember. Apparently 2 hour sermons are more the norm.

There's so much more to share about yesterday - we had great conversations with Tom about the church, its history, some of its members and Tom's own story. Also visited a shopping mall that showed the other side of Nairobi - it would have easily been the nicest in Albuquerque - and got stuck in a slightly scary traffic jam that evening. I'll leave that for others though. In a few minutes we leave for our first time with the kids at the orphanage and I'm excited and again a little nervous. We've decided to focus our first day mostly on just having fun with the kids playing football (soccer) though, which suits me just fine :-P