The Mathare Valley is a slum area within Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. Along with the Kibera Slum (also in Nairobi), Mathare is one of the two largest slums in all of Africa. Historically, the Mathare Valley was an old quarry and people started to build little hovels in it. This shanty town is about 3 miles from the center of the city. It is 1 ½ miles long and 1/3 mile wide and has at least a ½ million men, women, and children living there in abject poverty. Most live in little hovels made of scrap wood and old corrugated iron for the roof. Usually these slum dwellings are no more than 10 feet by 6 feet.
Share and share alike
Entire families live in these shanties. In many cases there is sharing of floor space for sleeping. For example one occupant would access the shanty from 8pm to 3am and another from 3am to 10am: in the same space. Families are large often 8 to 10 children. Every one fends for themselves. Many people live outside most of the time. The Mathare Valley slum is extremely difficult in the wet season. The Nairobi River runs through the center of the valley and as industries and humans dump their waste, the river defies any description of pollution. There is a big drug problem. HIV/AIDS is rampant in this community and crime is common.
A picture speaks a thousand words
I keep this picture close at hand and view it often. The boy in the picture is named Isaac as he is looking out over the Mathare Valley slum. The picture is taken as he starts his descent down trash ridden paths which eventually lead to the shanty row where he once lived as a street boy thief, sniffing glue to anesthetize his reality: I am a slum dwelling street child. I remember this day clearly as we followed Isaac back to his old ‘neighborhood’. I remember standing behind him with a dear friend who snapped this shot. It was a typical hot and musty afternoon with unnamable smells and the undercurrent of slum sounds; babies crying, the murmurs of despair, and the buzz of all sorts of desperate industry. As we continued down towards the bottom of the valley where the river divides, I noticed children everywhere. Some were clothed some were not. Most of the children were without hair due to nutritional deficiencies.
A Pastors Hand
Several years before we ever met Isaac or stepped foot into the Mathare Valley, a Kenyan Pastor by the name of James Mbai (Um-buy) received a vision from the Lord. In this vision, the Lord instructed him to leave his comfortable pulpit and do God's work with his hands, the hands that pull orphan boys from the garbage piles known as the Mathare Valley slum. On a piece of property deeded by the City Council, he establishes the Fountain of Life Deliverance Ministries Church and Children’s Home. He builds a few simple structures and erects a large tent for worship. He begins to venture into the Mathare Valley slums rescuing orphaned and abandoned street boys. Through the Pastor’s obedience and love Isaac is brought to the Fountain of Life Home where he is fed, clothed, housed, educated, and shone the tangible love of Jesus Christ.
“Isaac, is that you?”
With great familiarity, Isaac is leading us to the row where he used to live. We turn down a narrow path between shacks and Isaac stops suddenly, as if he has just remembered to tell us something. He begins to tell me that a few months earlier he had come back with Pastor Mbai and a handful of other boys from the Fountain of Life home as they would often do to witness to street boys, telling them of the hope found in Jesus Christ. As he is speaking tears begin to form in his eyes. He says that on his last visit, a man who used to be his neighbor suddenly approached him. Dressed in his blue school uniform and shoes, not tattered and dirty rags, Isaac’s neighbor does not recognize him. Isaac immediately recognizes that this man is extremely drunk. He has been a drunkard ever since Isaac has known him. The man asks, “Isaac, is that you?” Amazed at Isaac’s transformation and overwhelmed by the realization of his own depraved personal state, the man breaks down and sob’s like a child. At that moment Isaac kneels down and holds the man. He begins to pray for God to heal the wounds of a shattered life and the ravages of alcohol. This image still remains in my head: ‘a one time slum boy transformed by the love of Jesus holding a grown and broken man, praying for him, and ministering to him in his sorrow’. As Isaac concludes the story, he imply turns and sets off through the depressed maze known as Mathare Valley slum.
Instruments of Grace
There was a time when our father Abraham took his son Isaac up onto the mountain as directed by the Lord. On that mountain Abraham was to sacrifice his only son, the son of the promise. As he held the knife above the child, The Angel of the Lord spoke, staying Abraham’s hand from offering his son. ‘Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son’ [Gen 22:13]. The ram in the thicket : God’s instrument of grace.
A Nairobi Pastor, James Mbai, purposes to rescue and raise Mathare street boys at the Founatin of Life Children’s Home. A local Church and Pastor obey the Lord’s command to minister to the orphaned and abandoned amongst them. He feeds, clothes, educates, and extends both hands of the Gospel to Isaac- the hand of compassion and the hand of salvation. Pastor Mbai and the Church: Gods instrument of Grace.
Isaac, a one time thieving slum kid, goes back to the slums and upon seeing his broken neighbor, a raging alcoholic, he holds him and prays with him for The Fathers Love, the Son’s salvation, and new birth in the Spirit. The neighbor receives Jesus Christ and today is a maturing Christ follower attending Pastor Mbai’s church. Isaac the one time slum boy: God’s instrument of grace.
Share and share alike
Entire families live in these shanties. In many cases there is sharing of floor space for sleeping. For example one occupant would access the shanty from 8pm to 3am and another from 3am to 10am: in the same space. Families are large often 8 to 10 children. Every one fends for themselves. Many people live outside most of the time. The Mathare Valley slum is extremely difficult in the wet season. The Nairobi River runs through the center of the valley and as industries and humans dump their waste, the river defies any description of pollution. There is a big drug problem. HIV/AIDS is rampant in this community and crime is common.
A picture speaks a thousand words
I keep this picture close at hand and view it often. The boy in the picture is named Isaac as he is looking out over the Mathare Valley slum. The picture is taken as he starts his descent down trash ridden paths which eventually lead to the shanty row where he once lived as a street boy thief, sniffing glue to anesthetize his reality: I am a slum dwelling street child. I remember this day clearly as we followed Isaac back to his old ‘neighborhood’. I remember standing behind him with a dear friend who snapped this shot. It was a typical hot and musty afternoon with unnamable smells and the undercurrent of slum sounds; babies crying, the murmurs of despair, and the buzz of all sorts of desperate industry. As we continued down towards the bottom of the valley where the river divides, I noticed children everywhere. Some were clothed some were not. Most of the children were without hair due to nutritional deficiencies.
A Pastors Hand
Several years before we ever met Isaac or stepped foot into the Mathare Valley, a Kenyan Pastor by the name of James Mbai (Um-buy) received a vision from the Lord. In this vision, the Lord instructed him to leave his comfortable pulpit and do God's work with his hands, the hands that pull orphan boys from the garbage piles known as the Mathare Valley slum. On a piece of property deeded by the City Council, he establishes the Fountain of Life Deliverance Ministries Church and Children’s Home. He builds a few simple structures and erects a large tent for worship. He begins to venture into the Mathare Valley slums rescuing orphaned and abandoned street boys. Through the Pastor’s obedience and love Isaac is brought to the Fountain of Life Home where he is fed, clothed, housed, educated, and shone the tangible love of Jesus Christ.
“Isaac, is that you?”
With great familiarity, Isaac is leading us to the row where he used to live. We turn down a narrow path between shacks and Isaac stops suddenly, as if he has just remembered to tell us something. He begins to tell me that a few months earlier he had come back with Pastor Mbai and a handful of other boys from the Fountain of Life home as they would often do to witness to street boys, telling them of the hope found in Jesus Christ. As he is speaking tears begin to form in his eyes. He says that on his last visit, a man who used to be his neighbor suddenly approached him. Dressed in his blue school uniform and shoes, not tattered and dirty rags, Isaac’s neighbor does not recognize him. Isaac immediately recognizes that this man is extremely drunk. He has been a drunkard ever since Isaac has known him. The man asks, “Isaac, is that you?” Amazed at Isaac’s transformation and overwhelmed by the realization of his own depraved personal state, the man breaks down and sob’s like a child. At that moment Isaac kneels down and holds the man. He begins to pray for God to heal the wounds of a shattered life and the ravages of alcohol. This image still remains in my head: ‘a one time slum boy transformed by the love of Jesus holding a grown and broken man, praying for him, and ministering to him in his sorrow’. As Isaac concludes the story, he imply turns and sets off through the depressed maze known as Mathare Valley slum.
Instruments of Grace
There was a time when our father Abraham took his son Isaac up onto the mountain as directed by the Lord. On that mountain Abraham was to sacrifice his only son, the son of the promise. As he held the knife above the child, The Angel of the Lord spoke, staying Abraham’s hand from offering his son. ‘Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son’ [Gen 22:13]. The ram in the thicket : God’s instrument of grace.
A Nairobi Pastor, James Mbai, purposes to rescue and raise Mathare street boys at the Founatin of Life Children’s Home. A local Church and Pastor obey the Lord’s command to minister to the orphaned and abandoned amongst them. He feeds, clothes, educates, and extends both hands of the Gospel to Isaac- the hand of compassion and the hand of salvation. Pastor Mbai and the Church: Gods instrument of Grace.
Isaac, a one time thieving slum kid, goes back to the slums and upon seeing his broken neighbor, a raging alcoholic, he holds him and prays with him for The Fathers Love, the Son’s salvation, and new birth in the Spirit. The neighbor receives Jesus Christ and today is a maturing Christ follower attending Pastor Mbai’s church. Isaac the one time slum boy: God’s instrument of grace.
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