Guatemala City mural

Last month I had the opportunity to add another dot on the map of places I’ve painted murals. This time I stepped out of Kenya and went to a new country--Guatemala! I traveled with a group from Texas to work with Engadi Ministries, an inspiring organization committed to stopping the cycle of gang involvement and drugs in Guatemala City’s young men. Engadi’s founder, Nathan Hardeman, had a big challenge for me…An outdoor mural on a 28’ x 12’ wall, and only 3 days to complete it. I had never painted outdoors before, nor had I painted a wall that was so big it required a ladder. This time, I worked with a group of 4 others (including my mom, who was part of the team!) and we put in 3 hard days of labor to get the job done.

Engadi’s logo is a silhouette of a boy reading a book under a tree, so I took that concept and expanded it to include rays of light emanating from the book and a quote from Jesus Christ. Because the school we painted at was a public school, I was not able to put the chapter and verse reference with the quote. It reads:

Y conocerán la verdad, y la verdad los hará libres. 

The English translation is:

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
John 8:32

I hope that the students who see this mural daily will realize that there is hope beyond this world for them, no matter their situation. I told as many students as I could that these were “palabras de Jesucristo”, or words of Jesus Christ. And I encouraged them to pass it on.

The building before...

...and after

The morning audience, elementary school kids

The afternoon audience, upper grade kids

Painting rays of light

The team that made it happen: Emily, Maddie, me, Carlos, & my mom

Murals part 2, plus leaving Kenya (for now)

Two more murals have been completed, taking my entire body of work up to 5 whole murals! Here’s what I did during my last month in Kenya…

I was asked to paint a mural for the ELI training hall which doubles as a church on Sundays. I decided to pick a verse that would be a reminder of the constant presence of God around us. What better verse than Psalm 46:10?

Be still and know that I am GOD.

I wanted to create a painting that captured something I have felt often while living in Kenya--the presence of God found in my peaceful surroundings. When I look out on the natural beauty of Kenya, I can’t help but stop, be still, and be aware of my God. The God of Kenya is the same God I know in America, yet back home He can feel distant amid all the noise. I hope this mural captures some of the beauty of rural Kenya, where life flows like a river and God's presence is felt all around. 

The training hall/church setup 

Painting in progress

Ruth being still, knowing God

Finished mural!

With some of the kids from the home

Signed it with my Kalenjin name, "Jerop"

Then during my last week in Kenya I traveled out to Lake Victoria to a school for orphans called Achungo Children’s Centre. Achungo has a brand new library with a blank wall just waiting to be painted, and I decided a map of Africa was in order. It turned out to be as good a geography lesson for me as it will be for students!

Now I know where Mali is...

Getting help from an Achungo student

Kenya got special treatment

Finished! I think they like it

I have so enjoyed making these murals, being in Kenya, and seeking after God daily. It's been a blessed few months on many levels. I flew home to the US earlier this week, but I loved my time in Kenya so much I've decided to return sooner rather than later to see what else God has in store for me. If all goes well, I'll be back with my brushes in hand very soon!

I'd like to leave everyone who has read this blog with a few verses to meditate on. It's about love--something I received a lot of in Kenya. No matter what you do, in America or Africa or wherever, do it in love. It's the key ingredient to the with God life.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7

     If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, 
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 

     If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, 
     I am nothing.

     If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

     Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
     It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

     Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
     Love never fails.

Murals!

I've been in Kenya for 2 months now, and I have completed 3 mural projects that I want to share. I've been dividing my days between working at the children's home with the kids and working on paintings, so the progress has gone a little pole pole (slowly slowly) as they say here in Kenya. 
My first mural "assignment" was to create a painting of hope and empowerment in the Empowering Lives International training center dining hall. People from all over Kenya come to ELI to receive various types of training from agriculture to education and much more. I wanted to convey the message of God's promise to us that His love is always there, so I chose to illustrate this verse in Isaiah that has been an encouragement to me:

Isaiah 54:10
Though the mountains be shaken 
   and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you 
   will not be shaken

This is a power verse! I hope you will put it in your heart and carry it with you. 

One of the children's home kids and me painting waves

These girls loved helping with the sun rays 

The lettering part was tedious 

Finished! 

Once that wall was complete, I moved to the opposite wall in the dining hall and painted the ELI motto verse:

Ephesians 2:10

For you are God's workmanship,
  created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for you to do. 

World's most unstable ladder

More lettering

Finished wall #2!

It is my hope that when people take their meals at ELI, they will read these verses and be reminded of God's powerful love for his people, as well as his desire for us to take that love and spread it outward to others through our actions and our lives. I really enjoyed the challenge of painting for adults, and after I finished these two paintings, I got to jump into a new project that was more in my realm of expertise--painting cute animals for kids! 

So I traveled about 20 km away to a new village that ELI works in, and stayed there for 3 weeks working on a mural project at an elementary school. I was given free reign to transform the Pre-K classroom, and I had so much fun painting a wall to wall to wall to wall Noah's Ark complete with ridiculously cute animals marching two by two around the room. Since the kids were on holiday, they were able to watch me paint and even paint a bit themselves. I almost never worked without an audience! 

The classroom before painting

Finished classroom

The animals marching wawili wawili (two by two)

Painting with an audience takes getting used to 

Using a combo of paints I brought from home and paints from the local hardware store 

Getting some help with the turtles

Some of the kids sitting by their animal of choice

Look out for the nyoka! (snake)

Happy kids in their new classroom

Painting the classroom was hard work, but so exactly what I enjoy doing that every day ended with a sense of real satisfaction. 
There is a verse that sums up my experience painting during those 3 weeks at the school:

Ecclesiastes 2:24

A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil.

This, too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 

I thank God at the end of each day for bringing me here to Kenya and allowing me to do work that makes my heart glad. 

Reflections

It’s now been 5 weeks since I arrived in Kenya, and I am feeling totally at home and content. It’s hard to describe exactly why I love life here…I could tell you about how great the kids are. How they run to me when I walk over to the children’s home, and take turns grabbing my hands. Or how they pile in my lap and squeeze next to me on any sitting surface and braid my hair. I could tell you about how welcoming the adults are, and how open and friendly the Kenyan culture is. How everyone treats me like a most welcome guest wherever I go. Or maybe I could describe the beautiful scenery.  The green maize fields compliment the red dirt roads and the grey blue skies, and the almost nightly rains make everything fresh in the morning. All of those things and more make up my world in Kenya. I understand now why people say there’s something magical about this place. It draws you in and makes you want to stay.

I’ve seen some harsh realities, too, during my brief time here. Living and working at an organization like Empowering Lives has kept me pretty protected, but I have had a few brushes with poverty. Like yesterday, I visited a neighbor who had recently taken in an abandoned two-month-old baby. Children are abandoned fairly often here, but this one was different. She was found inside a pit latrine. I cannot fathom what would make a mother so desperate as to drive her to leave her baby by a waste filled hole in the ground, but I know it has to do with deep poverty and hopelessness. Then there are the kids at the children’s home. They are all healthy and well taken care of, but each one comes with a story. Most of the children have histories of malnourishment, abandonment, neglect, parents dying, hunger and more. They smile and laugh and play like children do, so it’s sometimes hard to imagine they were once in any kind of bad situation, but I catch glimpses of their pasts sometimes. Like when one of them cries too much over something small and then goes limp and stares at nothing for too long. Or when another eats his food too fast and lines up for seconds before I’ve finished serving the other kids their first plate. Or the way many of them wet the bed beyond the usual age, a sign of trauma in their past.

So there’s a contrast in life here, and I know I haven’t witnessed even a small fraction of it. There’s beauty and joy and peace and there’s also suffering and sorrow and pain. And I am just here, taking it all in, absorbing life in Kenya and feeling blessed to be in this place. 

Sitting in a pile of kids from the children's home

The big boys preparing a bull for slaughter

Dinner will be bull's head soup, complete with bone and the occasional tooth

The small boys watching the big boys play soccer

It's hard to catch the kids not posing for the picture

Afternoon drawing class 

Two of the youngest boys at the home playing

Options and Opportunities

I’ve been in Kenya for 3 weeks now, and I’m finally feeling somewhat settled in. There’s so much I could write about, but I’ve decided to limit it for now to this one recurring train of thought I keep having during my time here. It’s about options and opportunities.

I’m spending a lot of my time with a group of 30 orphans who are all a part of a house family. They are being raised at a children's home along with 3 other similar group families. Each bunch of 30 kids has a house mom and house dad who look after them in a way that’s part like a parent, part like an RA in a college dorm. The kids are ages 3-18 and are loving, funny, cute, sweet and all around as entertaining as kids can be. And they are so curious about everything. They ask me lots of questions, and one of the favorite questions is this: “What do you eat in America?” I feel a little pang of guilt every time they ask me that question, and I try to limit my answer to a few things. “We eat potatoes”, I say. “And hamburgers and spaghetti and greens”. When they press for more details I tell them we also have corn and beans and rice and eggs. I try to only talk about foods they are familiar with, because I can’t stand to paint a picture of the vast amount of culinary choices we have in the States. These kids are happy with their daily meals. They eat the same slice of bread with tea for breakfast every morning, the same beans and maize for lunch in the afternoon, and the same cabbage and ugali (a thick corn flour and water paste) for dinner every evening. They have other foods here and there on occasions (like meat on Saturdays, or a special meal on holidays), but for the most part, these three meals are their life. And in a part of the world where malnourishment frequently claims young lives, they are fortunate to have these meals.

And so I have been thinking a lot about options as I take my meals of ugali and cabbage with my new Kenyan friends. I think about my life in the States and how I have the opportunity to make so many choices big and small. I can choose whether to take this job or that, whether to live here or there. I can choose between 20 different lunch options and 37 different brands of bread at the grocery store. I get to choose the direction of my life, and I can even choose to leave my life of options and opportunity and go to a place where choices are limited, just to see what it’s like. And when I’m tired of beans and maize, and I’m ready for a change, I can choose to go back to my world of plenty. But I will never forget these kids, and what I am learning here in Kenya. I’d like you to meet them, so here are a few pictures to round out this post. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to be here with them.

Being monkeys in a tree

Enjoying lunch

Machetes have many uses here

6-year-old giving me a lesson in doing laundry by hand

The kids doing their laundry after school

What am I doing exactly?

I’m at the airport beginning the long travel process that is getting from Texas to Kenya. In order to get to the village where I’ll be staying, I have to do one of those drawn out, multiple leg, 2-day ordeals that I kind of enjoy and kind of do not like at all. But that’s nothing compared with the long journey I’ve been on over the past year that has brought me here, heading to Kenya with what a friend of mine calls my “missionary wardrobe” in tow.

So what is it that I am doing exactly? I’ve been getting that question a lot lately. The factual, succinct answer is that am going to be working as a volunteer with an organization called Empowering Lives International in a village outside of Eldoret, Kenya for the next few months. I will be helping with the care of orphans in some capacity, I will be teaching in some capacity, and I will paint murals on walls in some capacity. After Kenya, the plan gets more vague. You’ll have to keep reading this blog to find out what’s next. But the real answer to the question “what am I doing exactly” is more than just those facts. What I am doing is this…

I am following the compass in my heart that is God’s direction and will for my life. I am surrendering my own ideas about what I want and what I have planned totally and completely to His will. This is a new way of living for me, and it is not always easy but I am beginning to get the hang of it. Stay tuned to see where I find myself in this year of seeking and beyond. Where I wind up might surprise you…and me too!

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

  and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

  and he will make your paths straight.

Painting at Achungo Children's Center in Rodi Kopany, Kenya October 2012

Painting at Bethel Orphanage in Juarez, Mexico January 2013