A life that overflows with hope

The first time I met her I was unsure and out of place. It didn't help that we spoke two different languages. I spoke English and had said I would "never" go to Africa and she spoke Swahili and had grown up in a 6 square mile piece of land in Africa. We communicated with the universal gestures. I had landed in Mathare Valley, Kenya in a room full of Kenyan babies and their caregiver, Emma. I spent most of that morning with Emma but since we couldn't speak to one another with any sort of understanding I didn't even get to know her name. But I didn't forget her.

Fast forward two years and I meet up with Emma once again. This time I was thrilled to be back in Mathare Valley and I found Emma in the cookhouse on the roof of the church. And this time I determined to get to know Emma despite our communication barriers. We smiled at one another and I was struck. Her smile lit up the Valley!

Many will ask, "How can she smile? Doesn't she know where she is?" The answer? Oh it's so simple that we have complicated it. The answer is HOPE. Many look at the Valley and and don't see hope, instead they see despair. But Emma proves that hope is alive in Mathare Valley.

On Monday afternoon Pastor took us on a tour through the Valley. It was the first time I would be face to face with the oldest slum in East Africa. The church sits on the main road and on the fringes of the rows and rows of homes that are the make-up of the Valley, so the only interaction I had to this point with the slum was a few of its residents and children that are active in the church. We started winding our way through the rows of homes toward the first of the houses we would visit that day. As we got closer the space to move got tighter and the light grew dimmer. Finally we arrived, single file, at the home of...Emma. I was thrilled! She welcomed us into a space that didn't feel like it could accommodate 16 people and was pitch black despite the kerosene lamp burning. The flame went straight up but didn't emit light into Emma's home. We crowded into her pitch black home and listened to her share her story in Swahili while Anthony translated.

Emma, her Christian name, is an HIV positive mother that has three children. One of her boys, John, lives at Sanctuary of Hope (SoH) with Pastor and Mama Karau. Everyday she cooks two meals at the church for the school children. She worships on the worship team each Sunday. She lives in hope because she invited Jesus into her life and allowed him to transform her darkness into light. What an honor it was to be welcomed into Emma's home, to hear her story, to be reminded that hope shines brightly in the midst of despair.

During the next week that we spent there, every time I saw Emma we smiled and greeted one another. It made my day to see her smile, so big and bright. I would seek her out each day just to see that smile. My heart warmed toward this woman whose circumstances said she should live in despair and yet hope told her she could live. This was a lesson my heart needed to grab onto and take home with me.

Our last Sunday in Kenya Emma stood on a stage with the worship team and worshipped the Lord, who rescued her from the pit. My attention was captured by her joy in worship, by the freedom she was living in because of God. She freely rejoiced in the Lord, uninhibited by her past or even her present. Her countenance reflected how joy and peace flowed in her life because of hope and it overflowed to touch others. I will never forget Emma's smile, it shines with the promises of God and the overflow of hope.

"Yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him, if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear. You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by. Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning. You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety." (Job 11:13-18 NIV)