Sarah Beckstrom
Email:
whiteafrican01@yahoo.com
Summer of 2002
Updates April 15th May 1st May 17th May 23rd June 28th July 11th July 24th
April 1,2002
Sarah has attended Country Covenant Church since she was 8 years old. Today, a Senior at North Park University, she has developed a deep love for the Lord and is seeking His Will for her life.
Last year Sarah attended Day Star University in Kenya as an exchange student. She has felt a calling to mission work in Africa for a few years and her five months at Daystar has further led her to seek service in His Name in Africa.
A letter from Sarah.
Habari yako. This is Swahili for "Hi, how are you?" Attending school for 5 months in Africa has been one of the most amazing experiences in my life. Through a program at North Park University where I attend, I was offered an opportunity to study abroad in Kenya for a semester. During this time I made many friends, saw many things and reaffirmed my love for Africa and faith in God. What touched my heart and has made an indelible impression were the children. These children live in the streets. They are children of all ages, even babies. They are in need of food, shelter, clothing, and most of all hope. They are looking and searching for a future. On May 15, 2002 I am planning on returning to Kenya to help provide a future for these children. I will be spending my summer as a short-term missionary, volunteering my services to these street children through an organization called Homeless Children International (HCI). I will be working with Chombo Cha Upendo, which means Vessel of Love in Swahili. This organization has given me the opportunity to help provide counseling and discipleship to 53 girls, ages 6-17. These girls are the lucky ones who have been offered an opportunity to be taken off of the streets; they will have an opportunity for a future.
I am asking for your prayer. During this time in Kenya, I will be living in a small village and working with girls who have experienced more pain and heartache in their short lives than I could ever imagine. My prayer request is to help me focus on Christ and to be able to let God to work through me and in spite of me. Through your prayers I feel the Lord may use me to make a lasting difference in these girls lives.
More information about the program can be found below. Additional information is available on the Internet at http://www.homelesskids.org/kenya/default.htm.
You can also contact me by phone or email. I would love to share with you more about this program and to answer any of your questions.
Thank you for taking your time to read my letter. Thank you for your prayers and your support. And most of all, thank you for caring for these children, who can have a future because of friends like you.
Blessings in Christ,
Sarah Beckstrom
HCI-Kenya has operated since 1994, reaching out to street kids, and to the homeless and destitute children of Nairobi, Kenya, showing them the love of Jesus and bringing them hope amidst their despair. We provide a range of programs to meet the physical, educational, emotional, and spiritual needs of these children.
Street Children... Children who have been abandoned and battered by family and society, growing up knowing little about love, kindness, justice or security. Children having a "legacy of abandonment spelled out in such words as rootless, worthless and homeless." Children who must fight every day just to find enough food to survive and who are constantly on the move in search of shelter, often finding none.
Homeless and street children are the fastest growing un-evangelized population group in the world today. There are nearly 200 million children living on the streets of the world, mostly in highly populated urban areas. The daily fight of these children is to survive. To find enough food to eat, a dry place to sleep, shelter from ever-present violence, and often an unconscious desire to be loved and cared for. The children spend their days begging for money from passers-by, eating food wherever it’s available—usually garbage, sniffing glue to take away hunger pangs, and sleeping away their boredom. Some kids have contact with family members and often bring home their small change to benefit the family; others are orphans or have no contact with their parents.
About 60% of the urban populations in Kenya live in slums while occupying only 5% of the land. Daily Nation, 1997
In 1997 there was an estimated 60,000 street children in Nairobi (growing at 10% per year… 88,000 in 2001). Daily Nation, 1997
Social workers in Nairobi cite 3 out of every 10 girls on the streets are HIV positive. Additionally, 9 out of every 10 girls have a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Daily Nation, 1993
Chombo Cha Upendo (CCU) - Street Girls Program
Chombo Cha Upendo means Vessel of Love in Swahili and was begun as a means to rehabilitate hard-core street girls from the streets of Nairobi.
Sarah will be working in a home in Oloitokitok (LTK), Kenya, just north of the Tanzanian border and at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. This home is for girls from the CCU-Makina shelter, in Nairobi, who have successfully completed rehabilitation from street life and have demonstrated a desire to continue to improve their lives. At CCU-LTK the girls attend a school either on-site or one within the local community and continue to take on more responsibility for their home environment. Gradually, learning vocational skills will be added to their routine. Living in a more rural community, the girls feel less of the temptations that street life offered them as they continue to grow into young women.