By Angela Wright, May 23, 2017 – On Sunday, August 13, 1989, Pete and Norma took us to see the sights in Nakuru, Kenya. It is approximately 100 miles from Nairobi. We drove through the Great Rift Valley. It was very beautiful. We visited Flamingo Lake. There were thousands of pink flamingos. There seemed to be a sea of pink for miles. We then went to a small game park. There were monkeys, warthogs, big bucks, apes, and baboons. We tried to take pictures of the baboons. They ran away. We were told that baboons are very shy.
We got back to Nairobi at about 4:00 pm in the afternoon. We went to see the Mathare Valley Slum. It is home to half a million people. It was the worst place for humans to live. The rains make the land muddy. Children were playing in the mud. Their clothes were tattered and torn. The houses were huts made of tin that had turned brown from rust.
We attended a meeting. It was held in a hut that had a little opening in the ceiling so that the sunlight could shine through. When we entered there was a cassette tape playing songs sung by Andre Crouch. I was happy to hear songs in English so that I could sing along. The leader then turned off the music and asked if anyone would like to sing. One young lady started singing, “I’ve Got Confidence God is Going to Fix it for Me”. She began to say how she believed that she was not going to always live in these conditions. She had such peace even in the midst of the poverty. The joy of her belief in the Lord was going to change her life.
As I sat there I began to pray to God for forgiveness for my lack of gratitude for all that I had. I had been thinking that it wasn’t much. I prayed for a grateful heart instead of a complaining one. This has been life changing for me. I began to see the world differently.