Garden of Delight

We weighed the basket that we got in from the garden this morning - 9 pounds - green beans and tomatoes and passion fruit. And we have two stalks of bananas ripening in the garage. When I left the Oklahoma farm for university, I said goodbye to the farm, thinking it was forever. Now we have our own "little farm," and the street ministry has a lot of farm land in which our students can learn agriculture and which help feed the kids as well.

Tonight I went out where young passion fruit vines are growing near the fence. I took twine and began to disentangle the strands of vine to tie them up on the fence. The passion fruit complained that I was hurting them, as I had to break some of their tendrils that cling on other surfaces in order to raise them higher where they could grow better. They thought I was being mean to them. So they cried out in pain, and they did not understand that I had a better plan for them.

So it must be with God at times. He works in our lives, shaping and molding and creating a future for us. And we hate change and pain, and we cry out against Him, or we seek some other answer to life besides His patient but pain-giving tending of our lives. And He has a better plan for us than we can make for ourselves, sinking our tendrils into the lower parts of the earth, when He would have us climb and produce.

MORNING IN KENYA

Early morning the hyena are whooping, and many birds singing their joy. The mara in Kenya is a most marvelous place, even in a time of drought. Six AM coffee, then to the hunt. Two cheetah walking across the plain, a thousand gazelle dot the landscape and lonely acacia trees spot the land. Seemingly lazy giraffe walk in majesty and a lilac-breasted roller sits calmly on a branch in the wind. Lions are sleeping, and a few raise their heads and show golden eyes. Four Thompson gazelle run with all their might, and an eland stands quietly in the early morning sun. A black rhino casually saunters down to the river bank and up the other side, charging a secretary bird just for the fun of it.

And God said, "it's good."

Hard to find a better experience than seeing African animals in their own habitat. And then back for breakfast at the lodge- omelettes and fruit and coffee and toast until bursting. Happy conversation with friends, talking over what we saw.

We were the guests of Nargis and Minaz Manji, who are businesspeople in Nairobi and have part ownership of the lodge. Nargis is the salon operator who has trained and employs five of our street girls. Minaz has helped many of our visitors with safari plans at his travel business.

And on this trip they introduce us to other people, who are interested in the street ministry and willing to help. And they have ideas and suggestions and they know people who will give our kids attachments and maybe jobs in their businesses.

Nice to mix pleasure with ministry.

Prayer and Doing the Right Thing

Certain things seem to have power to work out. One of those is prayer - we know the power that God exerts in the lives of those who pray. When the local member of parliament here in Nairobi and a group seeking to gain money from a government community growth program invaded Made in the Streets land, brought thugs to attack two of our team members and a student and tore down our fence around our skills training property, we immediately began to talk to the kids about how to respond to trouble. No violence! No anger! Pray for your enemies, in obedience to Jesus. Seek to let the law take its course.

The law taking its course has not worked well. The police did not protect us nor did they deal with the invaders in any way. They fear the powers that be. Nor have the courts proven to be a place that upholds the laws of property ownership. Even the Ministry of Education has allowed an illegal registration to take place; it violates the policies they have tacked to their most visible bulletin board (No registration shall take place without receipt of copies of legal ownership of land where schools are built.)

But prayer has had power in the lives of our Team and kids from the streets. Last Sunday morning one of our young men, Titus Kioko, prayed in church for the health and well-being and blessing on the member of parliament. The character of our young people is being developed in prayer.

And today John Wambu came by to talk about some of his conversations with people in the community. There is a man in the community who operates a school, and he has been our "enemy," encouraging those who seek to take land away from others. Last year his school had a terrible fire. The only people in the community who came to their aid was Made in the Streets. We took them a load of sand and some cement to help rebuild. We re-welded their metal bunk beds, which were twisted in the fire. He told John that he has encouraged everyone he has influence with to leave us alone. So doing the right thing has power too.

This doesn't solve the current ongoing problem of the land that was invaded, but it does help secure that we will not be invaded again. And through prayer maybe those who are involved with get what they really need in their lives.

Visitors to Made in the Streets

We love having visitors at Made in the Streets. We love introducing street kids to visitors, giving our kids a chance to interact with all kinds of people. For two days Dr. Don Moore from the Otter Creek Church and Vanderbilt University has been with us. He talked about medical issues and answered questions from both our Team and kids, and the kids had lots of questions. He endeared himself most to them when he presented them with a soccer ball from his son.

Yesterday Greg Clodfelter, who works in Nyeri, showed up about 5 PM with David Roland and Keith Pilcher of Knoxville, Tennessee. They rode a matatu (our local transport, famed for its disrespect of the law and crowded conditions) from Nyeri. Four of our girls saw them as they arrived and directed them to our house. They enjoyed talking to the 4 girls, whom they said were quite talkative. That shows how much confidence kids gain from being at MITS. It was really great to have David ask us, "If I went back home and told my elders what you need here, what would you say?" That was great! So we told

him that 1) we need a hairdressing teacher, and we need to fund that teacher for a couple of years (and we could use someone here a few weeks from the US to train someone. And we said 2) we need a pre-school teacher, again with funding for a couple of years, since our single moms will need a place for the kids to be while they do skills training. Each of those is about $125 a month, in case a reader is interested. Donate online (see madeinthestreets.blogspot.com) or send to Made in the Streets, 409 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37027. We also told

David that we feel a need to send our Team on a retreat two times a year, since we are a 24/7/365 enterprise. It costs about $1,200 for a retreat, unless we do something really special such as flying to the coast and staying at a resort, which costs about $325 a Team member.

some of the men on the MITS Team

Things That Inspire

I felt inspired by a passion fruit this morning. We have a garden on our stone wall surrounding our house in Nairobi; passion fruit vines are growing on it. We took 124 passion fruit down to Milly today so she could include them in the lunch for our students, former street kids now in our "family" and education and skills training program at Kamulu. So I took one of them into chapel and talked to the kids about it after the first couple of songs (it's great to be back here singing with the kids -- that's inspiring in itself!).

I held up the passion fruit, and they told me what it was. I told them it is dark like them, but unlike them, it is kind of ugly, while they are beautiful. They laughed, and I shared with them that many American visitors have never seen passion fruit before, and when they look at the fruit, they doubt whether it will be any good.

I reminded them that they have had experiences like that, when nobody thought they were very good. They nodded their heads or said yes. They have had people shout at them, run them away, pour hot water on them, throw stones at them and abuse them in other ways when they were sleeping on the streets.

Then I told them the value of the passion fruit, that it makes everything else better. You mix it in with mango and strawberries and apples and oranges, and it adds a special flavor that is delightful. And I said, "You make my life better." And I told them that I believe they will make many other people better during their lives. Most of them will marry, and they will make husbands and wives into better people. They will help their employers to have a better life, and they will make fellow employees better. And they will make others in the church better.

They will do this because they love God, and because they love what is good. So I said to just keep on going the way they are going, and they are like the passion fruit, making life delightful in their own way.