Kawangware

I meant to write about this during the week, but I completely forgot!

Kawangware (said: cow-an-gwar-e) is a slum in Kenya, Nairobi. There is an estimated 400,000 people living there in approximately 4 square KM.

A number of years ago, one of the pastors (John Leach) of our church became aware of a church, the Christ's Restoration Centre (CRC) Church, in Kawangware, and since 2004 our church (Barrabool Hills) has been working in partnership with CRC on a number of projects.

CRC has some land within Kawangware and on this land they have a church building, a well, a toilet block and a school. In 2007 the first free medical clinic took place.

Every year since then our church has held a fundraiser to support the medical clinic. It started out as the K15,000. The idea is that a bunch of people volunteer to exercise throughout the month of March and others provide financial sponsorship while they do it. Every year my Dad and pastor John have cycled to raise funds and this year was no different.

This year the aim is to raise $30,000 (last year raised over $26,000)

What does $30,000 provide?

• a minimum of 6 clinics staffed by trained medical teams
• approx. 7,500 patients having the opportunity to be seen by the clinic doctors
• prescribed medication for patients
• medication for things such as worms for all who attend 
• testing and counselling for diseases such as HIV/Aids
• instruction in health and hygiene
• people hearing the gospel message and receiving prayer
• limited follow-up care for some extreme cases (if money stretches).

Every dollar spent means blessing a person/family who wouldn't normally be able to afford the care provided through the clinics.

Last weekend dad and pastor John set up their bikes in one of the downstairs rooms at church and prepared for a 24 hour marathon of cycling. They each planned to ride 500km over the 24 hours.

While they were inside cycling away, there was a group of girls set up outside with a couple of trampolines set up to jump for 24 hours! Larissa and another youth leader had organised with four of their youth girls to jump on a trampoline for 24 hours from 6pm Friday night until 6pm on Saturday night. They had even organised for a local company to donate a trampoline to them, and they were written about in the local paper!

By 1pm Saturday Dad and John had finished their 500km each, so they got to head home for a rest while the girls kept jumping. The girls wrapped things up at 6pm after jumping all though the night, and it was a cold night!

1 Chronicles 21:24
'But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”'

All these people gave up their sleep and their time for 24hours to give to those they will never meet in this life, to give to people they don't know who live on the other side of the world. That is Christ's church at work!