One Intern’s Story
By Heather Crocker, 2008 REACH Intern to Nairobi, Kenya
I have no words to explain what we saw, what we heard, or what we smelled among the winding dirt roads of the Mathare Valley slum. When I first set foot in the heart of the slum, I was overwhelmed by emotion. Never before had I witnessed poverty so heartbreaking. What could we – 20 interns from the United States – possibly do for these people? We could give them food for today, but tomorrow they would still be hungry. We could give them medicine, but next week they would become ill. We could give them money, but tomorrow they would still be poor.
It was in that first moment that all I could do was pray, “God, I don’t know why You’ve put me here, why You’ve put us here, but I believe You have a plan. Use us this summer to reach these people for You and use this summer to reach us.”
She had the most beautiful brown eyes. Her mother, Jackie, brought her into the clinic for a cold she had been having for the past week. You could hardly see this baby girl as her mother had wrapped her in what seemed like ten blankets. All you could see was those beautiful brown eyes. As I picked her up to get a better look at her and listen to her lungs I saw just how tiny this infant was. We asked the mother her age, and she proudly stated that her baby was around 6 or 7 months old. Yet at 6 or 7 months old I knew this baby girl should weigh more than what I felt in my hands. We listened to her lungs and determined that she didn’t need any treatment for her cold.
As her mother stood to leave, I watched in horror as she collapsed to the ground on top of the infant and began to convulse violently. The nurse working with me acted quickly to roll her off the infant and tended to the seizing mother while I scooped the brown-eyed beauty into my arms. After Jackie’s seizure, it was determined that she would stay with one of the staff members while someone else cared for the infant … little Alice. At night someone would take Alice home, but every morning around 7 or so Alice was placed in my care. We quickly learned that Alice was severely malnourished. At 7 months, she weighed a mere 8 or 9 pounds compared to the normal range of 14 to 20 pounds. Another intern and I put Alice on a feeding program, and, in time, began working with Jackie on how to care for Alice.
Everywhere I walked in the slums I saw women like Jackie and babies like Alice. Women who were desperate to find hope. And I saw Christ calling out to them just as He had once called to me. After speaking to a few people around the center and some of the other interns, I set out on faith to begin a ministry for these women. I didn’t know where or how to start, but time and time again God amazed me and blessed the ministry.
I remember the day I walked into Isabella’s house with one of the social workers from the center. We told her about the dream and vision God had placed on our hearts for women in the valley. Her eyes lit up as she told us how much she had been praying that God would give her the opportunity and direction to minister to women who were experiencing the same hopelessness that she once had. She desired to have the opportunity to speak Christ’s love into their lives. Shortly after our meeting I began to make house visits to women in the valley with Isabella. We spoke of the love Christ had for them and the hope they have in Him. We taught lessons on the health of women and children. And we shared the vision that we felt God had for them and the women of Mathare Valley.
Week after week during the summer, I watched in awe as God revealed Himself. I realized that God didn’t bring us to this place to merely give the people of the valley food or medicine or clothes. No, those things will pass in time. But God brought us here to share His love and His hope. In the midst of the darkness and the ugliness of Mathare Valley, I saw God’s light shine through the beautiful hearts of the women we ministered to during the summer.
God hears our prayers. I prayed that God would use us to minister to people in the valley, but I also prayed that he would use this summer and these people to minister to us. And he did. And I will never be the same.
