Last Tuesday, June 15th, I took my first trip into the slums. This time
around we weren’t going to be doing any intentional evangelizing, but
just getting a feel for it.
Lets take a few steps back. Woke up
in the morning, got on the bus, drove on a long, bumpy road, and saw a
new part of Nairobi. Almost everyone here walks. There are a lot of
cars, but many more pedestrians than vehicles. A lot of guys pull these
carts full of miscellaneous items along the road. The best way I can
describe them are like miniature trailers, but a man pulling them
instead of a vehicle. Piles of burning trash along the roads. Matatu’s
(kind of like taxi’s) driving very fast. And trash. There is A LOT of
trash everywhere. I get used to it, but I haven’t gotten to used to the
smell yet.
Anyway, when we arrive at our destination we split
into smaller groups to head out into the slums. As we get across the
street, before we even get into the slum, we find a group of people
standing around a dead man. He mustn’t have been older than 25. I’ve
never even seen a dead person, let alone one laying in the middle of the
side walk. Apparently he overdosed on some illegal brew and was dumped
there only a couple minutes before.
Omosh and I knelt and prayed
for him. It was both our first time touching a dead person. I felt kind
of silly kneeling there, praying for this guy. I stood up and knelt
back down three times before we went on our way. He didn’t raise from
the dead or anything miraculous, but I did feel something when I had my
hand on his head. Maybe it was psychological, maybe it was the Spirit,
or maybe it was nothing.
Later, after talking to Omosh, our
Kenyan guide, he affirmed that even though nothing miraculous happened
we still witnessed. There must have been at least 20 other people
watching and, they too, were praying in the hearts for something to happen. Maybe
watching a random white person pray for a dead man did something to
their hearts.
When we came back an hour or so later he was still
there, now half covered with a yellow tarp. We stayed most of the rest
of the day across the street at the school, and not for another two or
three hours was his body removed.
Omosh shared another piece of
wisdom with me: “Sometimes people pray, ‘God, if it’s your will, raise
this man from the dead.’ Why not pray, ‘God raise this man from the
dead’ and then find out if it’s God’s will?” I know sometimes I pray and
don’t believe and nothing happens. I think that’s the problem:
sometimes we don’t really believe our prayers are going to do anything.
Prayer
request: for myself to become more and more sensitive to the Holy
Spirit.
