26 July 2009

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

- Thomas Merton, "Thoughts in Solitude"

24 July 2009

a letter, from my friend eunice.

Dear friends,

My names are Eunice Ng'ang'a and am a volunteer with Colours of the Cross-Nairobi Street Kids Ministry. We basically make an effort to try and reach out to the street children.
I would like to introduce to you the late Antony Maina aka Maish.
Maish met his death on 23/07/2009 at Riverside(a back street nairobi downtown) at around 11am after he was hit by a matatu (minibus) that was trying to overtake while standing on the side of the road. he died while being rushed to hospital.His body is lying at they city mortuary. i went over to see him this afternoon-it was very hard!this may not be new to some of us on the conditions of city mortuaty and would not want to go into details of what a saw.We are trying to reach his parents and relatives and i wish we could move his body to chiromo as we venture into this,the conditions are much better there. Maish ran away from home at least 6yrs ago after his mother died and his father remarried.his step mom was however not so nice to him and he ran way.after being on the street for sometime he realised life was harder there and decided to go back home but the reception he got made him think otherwise and he opted to be on the street.Before he met his death we had a chance of hanging out with him and his friends every day for one week for atleast 2-3hrs in the company of his friends.when we(my friend Kristen and i) interved him on friday 17/07/2009 he expressed his wish to go back home ask for his parents forgiveness and hopefully go back to school(std 6). Maish has had a lot of shortcomings as well as making many wrong decisions in life but if you had a chance to interact with him he was agreat kid!there is so much to say about him.however at a tender age( about 17yrs) he never got the chance to correct his mistakes but he was sorry about it all!as we give him a decent send off please remember the at least 20 young boys(between 10-18yrs) and 1 girl(13yrs) at the base where he stayed(riverside).this not mentioning all the other countless street kids all over this country and the world at large.

If you feel compelled to join us as we purpose to give Maish a decent send off please write back (eunice_ngng@yahoo.com) or call me on 0723 741 704.

In Christ,
Eunice.

(facebook link)

eunice shares with with antony and massai one morning last week.

antony poses for a photo at riverside, where the boys stay.

23 July 2009

nairobi, kenya


this is peter, called massai. someone was trying to take his glue, and
they pushed him into the fire. he burnt his bare feet, and was lying,
doubled over, screaming "why, why, why". the government official came
and beat him with a stick, because he wouldnt be quiet. here, one of
the other boys is trying to comfort him.


all my hope is in this:
jesus christ has not forgotten peter.
jesus christ loves peter.