My friend Joel and his family are about to leave for Nairobi, Kenya to do some work with Made in the Streets (“MITS”). MITS, in Joels words, “is a school that exists to find homeless and abandoned children on the streets of Nairobi and (if they are willing) teach them literacy and math, introduce them to the love of Christ, and teach them a marketable skill like hairdressing, farming, mechanics, woodworking, or tailoring so that they never have to live on the streets again. The school has recently opened a facility for street mothers and their babies to live, where the mothers can learn literacy and job skills as well as how to care for their growing children.”
Joel and his wife, Jennifer, ask special prayers for their work and for the children they are going to work on behalf of. Following are Jennifer’s suggested prayers for the street children in Kenya. I invite you to add one or more of these to your prayers each day:
1. Pray for the more than 60,000 children who live in garbage dumps on the streets of Nairobi. Pray that God will lead them to people who will care for them and help make their lives whole.
2. Street kids must often steal water or break city pipes to get a drink because they cannot buy clean water. Pray that these children will find sustainable sources of clean water.
3. In order to eat, street children must beg or collect food thrown out in the garbage. Pray today that children in our world will find wholesome food. Pray that their empty tummies will be filled.
4. Most street children do not own shoes. This is a big problem because they live in garbage dumps where broken glass and sharp edged metal is common. Pray today for all the children without shoes.
5. Many, many street children sniff glue because it is cheaper than food and provides relief from the pain of hunger and the overwhelming problems of living on the streets. Pray today for street children to find real solutions to their problems and not false solutions like glue and drugs.
6. Many street children do not have national identity cards. This means they are invisible people: they are unable to get a job, have protection from the government, or receive even those government services that are available. Pray that street children will find an identity in Christ, society, and their countries.
7. Street children do not have parents to protect them. When they sleep at night they often have to pay for protection. Pray that children will find places of safety to sleep.
8. Street babies have nowhere to take a bath. They have no toys to play with and no one to read to them. Pray today for all the babies that are living in extreme poverty on the streets.
9. Street children never celebrate a birthday. Some children do not know how old they are or when they were born. Pray that street children will find someone who celebrates the fact that they exist, that they grow, and that God loves each one of them.
For those interested in learning more about the Nichols’ work this summer, Joel has started a blog on which he will try to keep us up to date.
