It’s been a great year for Spendyourself, and without all of you, this would still be nothing more than a dream.
As our way to give you all a big THANK YOU for all of your support over the last year, we’ve decided to give two people free shirts for a year!
What exactly does this mean? For each new shirt project we create over the next year, Spendyourself will be shipping you your very own shirt, and it’s all free.
In conjunction with the Resc/You project, we’ve come up with several different ways for you to enter the contest and raise awareness for human trafficking at the same time. Do as many of the following as you like and you’ll get an entry for each one!
The contest ends November 30th… so start spreading the word!
Ways to enter:
1 . Leave a comment on our blog on human trafficking (facts, useful links, etc.)
2. Retweet the following message: Win free clothes for a year! http://tiny.cc/d8m6V @spendyourself
3. Send us a picture of you wearing any Spendyourself shirt: jessica@spendyourself.net
4. Buy any Spendyourself shirt (counts as two entries)
5. Put a link to spendyourself.net on your blog and email us to let us know
6. Visit us at the GMHC, 11/12 – 11/14
7.Tell someone the story behind your Spendyourself shirt and email us
8. Make this your profile picture for a day or more, and post it on the Spendyourself Facebook page
9. Perform any random act of kindness, just let us know!
Questions? lee@spendyourself.net
Much like the previous post, we’ve asked a few of our friends who spent time this summer in Kenya to share their thoughts. It’s been great hearing how they have been moved to respond to situations that they have been immersed in. The text below is an excerpt from Natalie’s journal.
I had my first wake up call to poverty today when we walked around one of the largest slums in Africa called Kibera. I’m trying to find the words to describe Kibera; all of my senses were awakened. Kibera houses two million people and the huts were nearly as far as my eyes could see. Wood, mud, animal poop, and jagged sheet metal was the material used for their schools, homes, and businesses. Walking around in the streets was hard physically and emotionally. Breat hing in air was cloudy and thick, and constituted a lot of sneezing.
My throat thickened with smoke and grime as I took each breath. The roads were winding and rocky and the only way to walk without tripping was looking down at the ground with each step. The busyness of the streets is still ringing in my ears, hearing men, women and children shouting in Swahili. Raw meat, crops, food, clothing, hair salons and other businesses surrounded us as we continued on. Everything was so crammed, it was as if everyone were literally piled on top of each other. Afterwards, we continued walking into the slum, only to have my eyes opened deeper to poverty. I stepped off the plane in Africa convinced that I’d full grasped the concept of poverty, but the Lord humbled me at the flick of a finger. Walking around Kibera yielded many sights. Men, women, and even children sleeping in the streets next to garbage and livestock. J ohn shared with us seeing a small child fully awake and lying face down in the dirt…the sheer epitome of hopelessness. Heart-wrenching is an understatement as to the smell and sights of Kibera. Children going to the bathroom in the middle of the street, animals rummaging through trash right next to a raw meat kiosk, body odor and human excrement-all these with the added sight/smell of garbage burning. The sad truth was, the garbage was burnt as means to rid the overflow piling in the streets. Yet despite these circumstances, God is there; the people survive. Smiles and waves followed us as we walked on.
One sound in particular that I will never tire of hearing: “MIZUNGU! HOW ARE YOU!” which was the only English the small children knew; it’s a sound that I’ll take back with me to America. Crowds of children approached us chanting that same phrase over and over with beaming expressions. I took pictures of them and showed them the what they looked like. Having not been used to seeing themselves, they giggled and laughed with joy.
Looking into their eyes, I remembered Megan Sullivan’s advice before leaving home and wanted to make an effort to give each of them a small part of me. I did just that, even to the point of correction from Ben Hardman (lol). Two little girls are etched into my memory especially; I approached them, shook their hands, and told them how beautiful they were. They timidly laughed and came closer towards me. As my group pressed on, I waved goodbye to them and started to walk on, when I felt two little chapped hands slip into my palms. As we walked on , these girls held onto me tightly, as if my hands held their hope or security. We reached a point where the kids could no longer come with us, as their neighborhood ended. I knelt down on the rocky ground, bid them a final goodbye, and wrapped my arms around both of them individually. They clung to my shoulder and everything in me wanted to just stay there; but I let go and the girls stood there, watching me walk off with my group. I was dirty & my knees were scraped from kneeling on the rocks, but I actually dread the day they heal back, because I want to glance at the scars and remember what God showed me in Kibera. I was never able to learn the names of those little girls due to the language barrier, but I’ll never forget them.
-Natalie
We’ve asked a few of our friends who spent time this summer in Kisumu to share their thoughts and reflections on the experience.
I have been asked many times to share my experience and I seem to only be able to say the same few sentences. The world I know is forever a different place. It’s next to impossible to describe my experience in Africa. I’m sorry but my response is the same; you have to go there and see it for yourself to truly understand what is happening. I’m embarrassed to say that it took this long but about two thirds of the way through the trip something inside of me changed. My passion in pursuing myself and earthly things became kind of a joke. To think that I had control of what I could achieve if I just put my mind to it seemed frivolous, yet it is a line I’ve been taught and repeated to myself countless times. If anyone witnesses what we did, returned home and didn’t pick up the cause of local, national and international compassion for those in need and those who cannot provide and defend for themselves they have completely missed the point of why God had them on this trip. I have found that Matthew 25:31-46 still holds true today here in Louisville and around the world.
In the days leading up to this trip, I was thinking this would be an amazing experience where I would share the gospel, make new friends and have a good time. I couldn’t have been more wrong. What I learned from 250 orphans and 50 street children was their amazing joy and simple love for God; A love that I have complicated and made hard to attain. I was recently baptized by my roommate and pastor. I had been putting off this act of obedience to God for selfish reasons. I thought I needed to know everything about baptism before I would do it. It was my roommate who reminded me that the first Christians were baptized as infants in their faith in obedience to God and then grew in their knowledge of Christ. I still remember the water covering my face, it was as if it was happening in slow motion and the whole time I was recalling the sentence that was just said to the crowd that baptism is the emblem of burial and cleansing, signifying death to the old life of unbelief, and purification from the pollution of sin.
I have a family back in Kenya and the mission field is not only here in Louisville, but all around us. Don’t be afraid! It’s time to stop thinking “Oh some day I’ll…” and make that some day and some time here and now. I am constantly amazed by how people of my generation have stood up and said “I’m not what the world is making me out to be” and are showing their love for God by giving of themselves in so many ways. Please pray and seek that you’ll do the same. For things we crave of this earth will soon loose their shine and eerily fade away. Pursue which is eternally yours. Pursue God.
In His name,
Jason
Click here to find out one way to become engaged with LIA’s work in Kenya.
All proceeds from the sale of the Kisumu shirt will go towards LIA’s work in the Nyalenda slum.
HIV/AIDS is devastating families, communities, and entire cities, leaving orphans and vulnerable children in its wake. In these regions throughout Kenya, Life In Abundance International (LIA) is partnering with local churches to empower the left behind.
LIA has approached this situation with a pioneering method that is both sustainable and holistic, meeting the needs of the children in the short-term and empowering their caregivers (relatives, neighbors, etc.) to care for the child over the long term. In conjunction with partner churches, LIA meets the immediate physical and spiritual needs of these children and, over the course of three years, serve to empower their care givers.
Kevin’s story: While most 17 year old boys in America are worried about who they are taking to prom and where they will be going to college, Kevin Juma (pictured below) is working hard to help take care of his siblings. His family of eight were living in a one room shack when LIA made it’s second home visit.
Their parents died eight years ago. His older sisters (both in their 20’s) were away working as housekeepers, trying to make money for the family. Both sisters have children of their own now, so sending money for the others is hard. Life is not easy for his family. The little ones are always in need of food, clothing and supplies for school.
Kevin is very thankful for the LIA church partner and the ministry they do for the family, helping make ends meet and providing food for the family. The church is transforming their lives through food support.
He said he’d like people to pray that he feels better. He was sick when we were talking to him. Kevin asked that people pray that doors would open for his sisters to make a good living. He said he also prays that the other orphans in the area will have a normal life and that the church will continue its good ministry.
This is just one story of one family in the Nyalenda slum of Kisumu, Kenya and there are over 200,000 people in this slum with similar stories.
“Whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me.”(Matthew 25:34-40)
Friends of Spendyourself are currently visiting the Nyalenda slum and will be providing an update on LIA’s work when they return.
Photography by Jessica Nichols of J*Grace Photography
To read more about LIA and the work being done in Kenya, please see the following blogs:
