The Week That Was

It has been difficult since Sharon disappeared. A lot of time, energy and even money has been spent to try and find her. Our hopes have gotten up several times, but only to come crashing to the ground. The feeling of helplessness overwhelms me.

But as I was complaining to God yesterday that he has not returned Sharon yet, He reminded me of what he has been doing this past week. On Monday when we were looking for Sharon, we found another runaway girl and we were able to trace her home and school and get her back to being a young girl again. Later in the week we picked her up on the way to watch some of our girls play their secondary school district tournament. It was good to see her interacting with some of our girls and be a normal 14 year old.

On Thursday, we went to visit a young girl that gave birth last year. We offered some encouragement, joked around with her a bit and prayed for her. Then we visited the homes of a couple of our new girls in the football club. The first one was a 6th grader, Maurine. She has 7 other siblings in her family and her parents are trying to provide for each of them through any job they can get on a daily basis. She had been sick and out of school for 4 days so we were able to give her a ride to the hospital so that she could get treated. The family was so happy that we made the effort to visit their home.

We also visited Winny, a tiny, energetic girl from another big family. She also has 7 siblings that her father tries to provide for by fishing. Going out into the community to visit homes still deeply impacts me, even after being here for almost 8 years. It reminds me of the challenges these families face with high food costs, low income and many children to provide for. Each family was so happy that their child was joining the football club. Both fathers talked about how much their daughter loves playing, even when they are sick or injured. They were happy to encourage them to develop their God-given talents. They commented that the club gives them a ray of hope in their life.

On Friday, I took a boat to Mfangano Island. As we boarded the boat a young third grade girl came and sat next to me. She was all alone so I tried to take care of her. As she snuggled up to me, she told me about her school and that she was going to visit her father on the island. When we reached, she ran to hug the father who was driving a motorbike. He became my angel that day as he ended up carrying me all over the island to see different people and to look for Sharon. He took me to the school of one of the girls who had played with us during the Primary School ball-games. When Nancy saw me, she ran and gave me a hug. The school's head teacher and deputy were happy for her to be able to join the club but said we needed to get permission from her guardian who lives on the other side of the island. We were also searching for another man who was the father of a young girl who is in a boarding school in Mbita. By God's Divine Providence, it turned out the man we found was both the father of the young girl and the guardian of Nancy.

We had a great conversation and he narrated to me the story of Nancy. She had told me this a few months ago, but the guardian confirmed that Nancy's father died back in 1996 and Nancy's family came down from the top of the island to live on the shores with the father's brother. In 2005, the mother died, leaving Nancy and all of her siblings in the care of the uncle. She sat her national exams in 2008, but failed (probably because of missing a lot of school because of the lack of fees). She was out of school for two years before the guardian decided to let her go back to 7th grade to get a better foundation and try again at the national exams in 2012.

These visits just remind me once again of the way poverty, disease and death are destroying many lives in this district. I returned to Mbita that evening, though we had quite a scare on the way back when the boat almost capsized.

On Saturday, we brought some of our students and some of our football players to Asumbi to watch a few of our secondary students play in their district tournament. Two teams were having several of our club players and CGA students. Unfortunately they had to meet in the semis where Asumbi defeated Magare 2-0. Asumbi went on to win the finals. Three of our girls star for them. It is fun to watch them play and hear people in the crowd (who don't know us or them) comment about how good "that little one" can play or that the goalkeeper is so skilled, etc. Watching our girls shine in their secondary schools (in class and on the field) is always one of the highlights of the year for me.

On Sunday, we had a great church service where they prayed over me individually and the sermon was excellent.

So in spite of the struggles and challenges, God is so good!

Prayer Request

We are still searching for Sharon Akinyi. She ran away from her home on the night of June 14th. The father had come to school to report it the next morning. He said he had been asking her to come to the table to eat dinner, but she kept doing her homework. Because she wasn't obeying him he got annoyed and starting caning her (beating her back with a stick). When he went outside to get another stick, she ran away and didn't come back that night.

After reporting the matter to school he went back home to find Sharon in the house with two of her brothers. Because he felt guilty, he asked her what she needed. Sharon asked for new slippers and so the father gave her the eqivalent of $7. The old man fell asleep on the couch and when he woke up Sharon had left with all of her things. Since that day (June 15th) she hasn't come home.

Sharon is 16 years old and in 8th grade. She is registered to sit her National Exams in November and then begin secondary school in January. She was always responsible and hard-working. She was even selected as one of our school leaders for the 2nd year in a row. She performs well in school, in fact she had really been improving over the last couple of months. She is also a great football player which makes all of this more confusing. Because of her athletic ability she is known all over the area, so if she really is around here, then surely by now, someone would have spotted her. The only person that has seen her since that time was someone in the Mbita market who talked with her when she was going across the causeway to Rusinga Island on June 18th.

In conjunction with the family, we have been searching for her everywhere. I have been to Rusinga Island almost everday, driving around the island, stopping at marketplaces, beaches and schools to show her picture and see if anyone has seen her. We have reported to the police, chiefs, and clan elders. We have followed many leads that offer so much hope, but ultimately culminate in dead ends. We have interrogated several people, and even searched some houses. On Friday I took a boat out to Mfangano and covered almost the entire island searching for her. We have announced over the radio locally, within the province and even nationally. And we have prayed, fasted and prayed some more. We have prayed individually, corporately, and in churches; pleading with God for her safety and protection, and that he would bring her back.

We have done everything possible to try and find this girl, with no fruit at all. My mind wanders so many places just imagining what is happening with her, things that I don't even want to write down or speak outloud. A 16 year old girl is so vulnerable.

SO I am just requesting you to pray for her. Pray by yourself and in your small group and in your church. Pray for her protection and safety. Pray for her to realize what is happening and to realize how much she is cared for by her family and friends. Pray for her to come back today or for us to be able to discover where she is.

Please Pray

Half of Population Infected

As I was driving up and down the road, trying to find run-away school girls so that they could go back home and back to school, I got a message from a friend that was telling me the latest statistic from the ministry of health. 47% of the population in Mbita is infected with HIV/AIDS. Isn't that just absolutely mind-blowing!

A Tale of Two Girls

Here is my attempt at summarizing 14 hours worth of activities into a short blog...

Late in the night on Sunday I got a phone call from the guardian of one of our football girls. Madam Colletta said her girl had told her that one of our girls had run away from home. She said that her parents back in her homeplace had found a school girl wandering near the market and they took her to their home a couple of days ago; and from the description she could possibly be the girl that we are looking for. The girl was trying to leave for Sori on Monday morning so we needed to act quickly.

So Colletta and I agreed that we could go early in the morning to the homeplace to confirm if she was the one that we were missing. Hopefully we could do it quickly and then both get back to our jobs before missing any of our lessons (Colletta is also a primary school teacher). So I headed out of the house by 5:30 a.m., collected Colletta by 6:00 at the Luanda market and then we drove 45 minutes into the bush to reach their homeplace. This place is literally "in the bush." You can't get more rural than that.

We arrived just as the sun was coming up and the girl was still asleep. I had many conflicting thoughts in my head. I was hoping with all of my heart that she would be Sharon, but I was also trying to be realistic that it probably wasn't. We sat in the sitting room of the main house with a group of relatives doing the formal Kenyan introductions as we waited. Finally, she arrived; but it wasn't the right "she." My emotions got the best of me and I couldn't speak at all. I didn't even want to speak because I was annoyed that we hadn't found Sharon. Another dead end

The family members started interrogating this other girl about who she was, where she was from, and what school she was learning at. She had showed up on Saturday and this family had taken her in, given her clothes to wear, food to eat, and a place to sleep. She was a young girl, athletic looking and a very good English speaker. She told many stories about being an orphan and talked about many different places. She said she was learning in Kisumu but was sent away because of school fees, and then she had a sponsor who promised her another school in Luanda (not far from Mbita). When she was brought there she was just kept in the house and when the man's wife came home, he claimed she was his maid. After that she ran away from that home. She said she took all of her things and got on a motorcycle taxi. Her cousin had sent money to the motorbike boy through the phone so that he could take her to Sori, but once he got the money he dumped her on the side of the road and took all of her things. That is when she walked to Nyatoto and Colletta's family had found her. Earlier she had said her name was Pauline Otieno and that she was learning at Nyamasare Girls.

Later we found out this whole story was made up, but as the story went on I finally snapped out of my doldrums and decided that if I wasn't able to find and help Sharon, maybe God had brought me here to help this girl. So I joined into the conversation and began my own investigations. I began trying to find out the number for the principal at the school in Kisumu she was claiming to be from. We wanted to take her back to Nyamasare girls in Luanda to confirm if they knew her, but she was unwilling to go. Everyone tried to convince her, but the more they tried, the more she resisted. Finally I pulled her outside the house and tried to talk to her very nicely. We talked about sports and about school and other things. Finally after about 15 minutes she agreed to go with us. After a couple of photographs with the entire family and receiving a live chicken as a gift (which ended up pooping all over the inside of my vehicle), we headed back out.

When we reached the school we found there was a girl at that school with the name Pauline Otieno. When the teachers called her to come, she identified our new friend with the name of Mary and said she was a cousin of hers. They had learned in the same primary school and sat their National Exams at the same time. She said she was a student at Waondo Secondary. Mary admitted some of those things but denied other parts of it such as insisting she wasn't a student at Waondo. Some of the teachers and other people there began to get harsh with her (and rightly so for all of the lies and stories she had told and even tarnishing the name of their school). They began threatening to take her to the police or the chief because she was insisting she wasn't a student at Waondo and wouldn't give them her admission number.

Again, I was able to take her outside for a few minutes and talk to her alone under the tree. She began opening up and telling me some of the truth. She admitted to being a student at Waondo and said she was suspended from school because of spending a night out with a boy. I asked her if she had a relationship with Jesus and she said she did some time ago, but had backslidden because of some big mistakes in her life. I tried to give her some advice from scriptures and talk about forgiveness. I asked her if we could pray. She agreed to pray first. I couldn't believe what transpired next. This lying, deceitful girl who has been getting into sexual relationships with boys prayed the most amazing, heartfelt prayer I have ever heard. She was honestly confessing her sins, quoting scriptures and just pouring her heart out to God. It was amazing. This was obviously a girl that was having a battle between the spirit inside of her and her fleshly desires.

Finally I reached the headteacher from the school in Kisumu that she claimed was hers. He knew the girl very well and said she was a good girl, very bright in class and good in sports last year. He was interested to know where she was because he had not seen her since the first week of school when she was sent away for school fees. He gave us the number to the guardian in Kisumu. I was able to reach him and find out that after leaving that school she was sent to stay with her grandfather in Waondo. He didn't have the number, but gave us the name. We were able to go through the education office to get the number of the grandfather because he was a retired school teacher.

We then proceeded to the chief's office. They found the motorcyle taxi boy and interrogated him. We stayed for several more hours. The grandfather, who is a retired school teacher, showed up and gave us the suspension letter from Waondo secondary. It turns out she is not an orphan, but she is staying with her grandparents in a very nice house and attending Waondo Secondary. She was suspended for two weeks from school for spending a night out with a boy. When she was suspended she was afraid the grandfather would beat her, so she decided to run away. She was trying to go to a former boyfriend in Sori. If she would have reached there, her life probably would have been spoiled. He would have taken her as his wife and her chances for finishing her education would have been gone.

After finishing with the chief, the girl and the grandfather both requested that I drive them back to their home and see where they live. That wasn't an easy task because of the hard rain they had just received. I had to use the four-wheel drive to get through the muddy road, although a few times it didn't seem like we would be able to get out of the deep ruts, especially with very little control of the steering wheel. When reaching, we narrated the whole story to her grandmother. They prepared some lunch around 3:00 (which was great since I hadn't eaten since 5:00 that morning). Mary showed me her report forms and some of her exams from school. She does so well academically, usually in the top 5 of her class. I also discovered that she is only 14 years old. She will turn 15 next month. Imagine this very young, bright, athletic girl was ready to leave school and get married.

I was able to counsel and advise her on several things. She was very open and honest with me. She promised that she would not run away again, that she would stay in school, and work hard to seek first God's Kingdom and His Righteousness. I promised her that I would come and visit her in school sometime this term and that when she was playing her next football match, I would definitely come and watch her play. After talking with her mother on the phone, we said our goodbyes and headed back to Mbita at around 4:00 pm.

I dropped off Colletta in Luanda and then picked up my friend Paul in Mbita so we could drive out to Rusinga to look for Sharon, since that was my original goal for that day. A shopkeeper had seen her passing through the market on the way to Rusinga Island Saturday. So we drove all around the island looking for her. We stopped several times when we saw people we knew to ask if they had seen her. I had done the same thing yesterday, but had no success either time. We finally reached home around 7:45 pm, victorious and defeated at the same time.

I had set out early this morning to find one girl, but I guess God had a different plan. Funny how he does that sometimes. I am still discouraged and bewildered about Sharon's disappearance, but I am thankful that God used me to help bring another young vulnerable child back to her family, back to school, and most importantly, back to Jesus.

The search for Sharon will continue tomorrow.

Needing Prayers!!!

One of 8th graders who is only a few months away from her national exams and finishing primary school has run away from home. She had a disagreement with her family and after she was beaten, she ran away and has been gone for two nights now. She is also one of the girls in our football club. I am very worried about her, especially where she could be staying and her safety and protection. She is a good girl, very discipline, hard hard working, etc.

Please pray for her and for her quick return.

Impressive Tournament

This was the best tournament we have ever competed in since I came to Kenya. Not only did they pay for all of our expenses for the weekend, but they even kept time! Every match started at the exact time according to the schedule. I have never seen anything like it here. The field was fenced off to keep out hooligans. You couldn't access the field unless you had a wristband. They also had sent up tents for every team. Ours was adorned with a big sign that said, "Suba Lakers FC." There were 20 plastic chairs and a table for us in the tent, with a couple cases of bottled water. They even brought us some fruit as we watched other football matches.

Even though we lost, each player was given a certificate, an over the shoulder bag, t-shirt, cap and handkerchief. One of our players also received some money for being the top goal scorer.

It was a good experience and great exposure for our girls to be in that kind of a situation. I know it will prepare them for the next time they compete in that environment.

Sakata Ball

We took our top team to Kisumu this weekend for the Sakata Regional Finals. The best part was that it didn't cost us any money. The tournament paid for our transportation, meals and accomodation. Nothing came out of our own pocket. They put us up in a hotel and some of our girls were using flush toilets and taking hot showers for the first time.

When we reached on Friday afternoon, we trained for a short time and then they brought us to the conference room so a speaker could share with them about life skills. He talked about their future and their dreams. They discussed choices that would help them reach their dreams and obstacles that would derail their pursuit. He shared about discipline and hard work in the classroom and on the field. They received some great lessons.

When the tournament began on Saturday, we were matched against the best team in the semifinals. They were older women that compete in the Kenya Women's Premier League. When we first played them 4 years ago, they defeated us 9-0, then 4-0 three years ago, then 2-0 two years ago and finally 1-0 last year.

After about 5 minutes they scored their first goal on a cross that was headed over the goal keeper who had mistimed her jump. I think many people expected a blow-out, but we quickly rebounded by equalizing a few minutes later on a goal from Pauline Aoko. Unfortunately at the end of the 1st half we gave up another goal to go down 2-1. In the 2nd half Irine Achieng and Dorothy Adhiambo both had good shots at the goal, but were stopped by the goal keeper. Neither team converted another goal in the last half so it ended in a 2-1 defeat for us. The other team went on to win the finals in a lop-sided affair.

Our young girls put up a good fight, but couldn't pull it out in the end. We definitely made a positive impression. Even the next day, people around the field were still talking about the fight our girls put up. They didn't expect our young girls to be able hold a giant like that. They were commenting that our game was like the final because it was the two best teams. People were also impressed with our team's attitude towards the officials, referees and the other team.

It was a good showing, but it was unfortunate we couldn't have played one of the other two teams in the semifinals so that we could have reached the finals.

I am keeping faith that God will soon reward us for our faithfulness and honesty in these tournaments against some of the big teams.

Going to Regional Finals

We are taking our top 18 girls to Kisumu on Friday for the Sakata Nyanza Regional Finals. This is probably the strongest team we have ever taken to a tournament. As our young girls continue to grow and develop physically as well as improve their football skills, the team keeps getting better and better. We defeated two very good teams to reach this next stage.

There will only be four girls teams in Kisumu for the Regional Finals. The winning team will get a cash prize and a ticket to the National Finals, as well as each player receiving football cleats, socks, pads, shorts, jersey and a bag to carry it all in. That is a wonderful prize. The second place team will get a smaller cash prize.

The tournament is supposed to be for amateur players under the age of 23. Whenever you get good prizes like they have though, then many teams are tempted to cheat by bringing in players from other regions, or overage player or even professional players. So pray with us that there will be a fairness and equality to the tournament so that the right teams and right players are competing.

Our team is a mix of secondary girls with some 8th graders from primary schools. Pray for our safety as we travel and that we would bring glory to God by the way we play as a team, our effort and our attitude!