A couple of weeks ago I was thinking about Claire and then
the phone rang and it was Claire! I met Claire at an HIV Positive Youth Camp in
December of 2012. We became fast friends. She joined me in January of 2014 with
the Bethel students at Daystar University.
When she called I was in the middle of a second draft of a
portion of the Maarifa curriculum and needed some assistance coming up with
questions to ask the youth. Claire was the perfect choice for a helper. So
Daniel and I went to see her one Saturday afternoon.
Claire lives about an hour and a half from Nairobi in tea
country. The rolling green hills of tea plantations are absolutely stunning.
Claire and her auntie Monica walked down the road to greet us. Claire is petit
in stature but larger than life in personality. She is also blind. We ate the
lunch of mukimo (mashed potatoes with green vegetables) and cabbage that was
prepared for us and then Daniel went off to see the neighborhood with Claire’s
cousin George and Claire and I read through the narrative, a fellow writer in
Nariobi and I had composed for Maarifa. Claire listened intently to the story
and posed great questions to ask the youth as well as helping me identify words
that might be difficult for them to understand.
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| Claire and I at her house on Saturday afternoon May 31 |
When Daniel came back I had Claire perform her I CAN spoken
word piece. I posted it on YouTube a long time ago. Click here to watch
Afterward I told her that she wasn’t the only person in the
room with a disability. She was surprised and asked who else had a disability.
I told her that Daniel wears hearing aids. Daniel let her run her fingers over
them so that she could “see” them for herself.
Daniel told her that one of the things he liked best about
me was that I loved him just the way he is. Claire smiled and said, “Me too!”
We said goodbye to Claire and her amazing family and drove
back through the rolling hills of tea to the new by-pass that is being
built…it’s not open yet, but we drove on it anyway…lots of people do. We cut
maybe an hour out of our trip both ways by driving on the bypass road. It feels
strange to drive on a road in Kenya that is not full of potholes. It’s going to
sound strange but we really enjoyed ourselves!
The last Saturday night of every month our church holds an
evening Praise and Worship Service. It’s mostly singing and praying and brief
message. Two months ago at a Praise and Worship night, Daniel and I spoke for the
first time, so to us it’s an anniversary of sorts.
During the singing portion I thought I heard God telling me
that Maarifa was of his heart; that it was His vision and that I was just the
instrument to carry it out. You know when you think you hear God saying or
doing something but you’re not sure…that’s how I felt. A few minutes later,
Ann, a Kenyan woman from my Bible Study came up and asked if she could pray with
me. She said God was telling her to tell me not to doubt. “I keep hearing the
words abundant joy, joy unspeakable, have faith and trust, do not doubt.”
Sometimes when you need confirmation, God gets right on it.
So here I go - not doubting, having faith and trusting Him
in his plans for Maarifa, in his plans for Daniel and I, and for a future of
abundant joy.
