Here is the second update I have sent the parents of the American Youth Team. All of us who are parents would be proud and blessed if our children served as this team has.
Dear Parents of the American Youth Team, It is time for me to tell you more about your kids. Yesterday they did what many people have never done and wil never do. They walked through Mathare slum, through the trash, the human waste, over small bridges, even at times jumping over the little rivers that run through Mathare carrying waste to sit in a small shack with someone infected with AIDS. The shacks are so small with one room, no kitchens or toliets and just a sheet hanging to divide the sleeping area. In these shacks they found mothers and sometimes as many as four children living together. They went in teams of two with Caleb and Rebecca going together with the Partners for Care staff Franko and David. Second team was Christian and Sarah with Partners for Care staff Justus and David. In each home they sat and listened to the stories of the women. Common stories with AIDS - their husbands died from the disease, they got tested and found themselves infected. Poor, alone and sick. These are the people Nick and Charles are called to help. Growing up in Mathare themselves Nick and Charles decided to stay and try to make a difference. Both age 27 are the co-directors of Community Transformers (CT). CT consists of young volunteers who are trying to make a difference in Mathare. Over the three years of CT they have seen over 400 clients - all infected with HIV. They have seen 82 deaths -23 of them children the last one a baby they called Diamond who they had loved and nutured hoping he could fight the mighty enemy called AIDS. I took your children for home visits for two reasons. One, for them to see at the "ground level" the effects of AIDs. Two to encourage those they visited. Nick and Charles have taught us that sometimes their clients feel so low, sometimes they have no food to take their medication and God sends an angel to encourage them. Yesterday God sent your children. The encouragement helps raise their spirits so they hang on for a few more days better equipped to fight the disease. And that is what each one of your children did with no one holding back. They sang Smile Again, they listened to their story of how they got infected, they listened to their struggles and they prayed for them reaching their hands out to hold the hands of someone infected with AIDS. And, they used the money they had worked to earn to bring them much needed food. And, as we stood to leave each one of them hugged the women they were visiting. A real, honest hug. Your children have seen HIV/AIDS in a way most in the world have never seen it. They have spent the night at an orphanage where all the children are infected. They have held a small child who is infected. They have sat at the bedside of someone infected. They have seen the poverty this disease has caused. And, they have joined the Temples of Worship in concerts where the Partners for Care staff ask the question what if? there was no AIDS? And, they heard the Temples of Worship call the youth of this nation and the world to do their part - to test to know their status, to wait until marriage and to be faithful to one partner. They heard the Temples of Worship in their song what if? sing "we can, we should, we must create an HIV free generation".
What your children will do with what God has shown them will only be revealed over time. But I know their efforts have not been in vain. They will remember the people they have met, the children they have held and those they have prayed for. They have come and equipped, enabled, encouraged and empowered those left behind to fight this disease on all levels. Thank you for trusting me with your children. They have served well and faithfully. I was proud and blessed to serve with them.
From Kenya,
Connie
Sent via Cingular Xpress Mail with Blackberry
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