Photo by Keenan Morgan, (c) 2023 We walk their community where half a million people live in six square miles. We slip in sewage-laced mud; duck under live, pirated-electricity wires; crowd into one-room, windowless homes; gaze over a garbage clogged river. We mourn the gap between what is and what should be. In their living…Read more Let It Rain
Kenya
Unspeakable Treasure, Tucked Into the Cracks
Photo used by permission. (c) 2023 Keenan Morgan, Hope's Promise Kenya Connection Trip, Mathare Valley treasure. We walked their community where half a million people live in six square miles of abject poverty. We slipped in its sewage-laced mud; ducked under its live, pirated-electricity wires; crowded into its one-room, windowless homes; gazed over its garbage…Read more Unspeakable Treasure, Tucked Into the Cracks
One Pebble… Thousands of Ripples
I wrote this entry for the Hope's Promise blog about my dear friends, Brian and Debbie Lee. Decades ago, when I was a twenty-something campus staffworker with InterVarsity, they were leading teams of students to serve in Kenya. One summer they brought back necklace gifts with little hand-carved bone pendants for all the staff. As…Read more One Pebble… Thousands of Ripples
Speak for Those Who Cannot
There was a time in my life when trauma stunned me into silence. I unexpectedly learned about harm perpetrated against someone I love. A friend exposed the truth to me with kindness and sensitivity, but I walked away from the conversation shattered. I told no one even though surrounded by people who cared deeply…Read more Speak for Those Who Cannot
Mathare Valley Children
Mathare Valley in Nairobi, Kenya, sprawls in the equatorial sun, harsh and desperate. Six square miles of corrugated metal shacks overflow with half a million people. Here, children are born into deprivation, starvation, abuse, and disease. All the more startling, then, is the light and life in their eyes. Even the worst of this world…Read more Mathare Valley Children
My Secret Is Out…
I’ve been keeping a secret for five years. It started as fragments – scenes flitting through my mind, snippets of conversation coalescing, personalities merging into characters. When I was five years old, I wrote and illustrated a series called “Jumpy the Frog,” and planted seeds of a lifelong dream. Five years ago, almost forty years…Read more My Secret Is Out…
From Their Hands to Yours… Part 2: Kumbatia
I stand with my two sons Jacob and Justin, our friend Jenny, and my mother-in-law Joann, staring out over mountains of garbage as far as we can see. The expanse is simply staggering in its immensity. In the distance, massive machines move the refuse. The stench is so thick, it's actually visible in thick haze…Read more From Their Hands to Yours… Part 2: Kumbatia
From Their Hands to Yours… Tuungane Pamoja
As an artist, I am passionate about other creative people, especially those buried in situations where they struggle to have a voice. My involvement with Pamba Toto (my friend and I founded the business in 2006) beats at the core of my heart… For these artisans buried in Nairobi slums to realize how incredibly talented…Read more From Their Hands to Yours… Tuungane Pamoja
How Great is our God – Kenya Connection Team 2017
They were just exploring the wonders of being in a family, home less than a year. Some were learning to use utensils for the first time, riding in cars for the first time, trying to figure out why it was “raining” in the house and their new parents wanted them to stand in the “rain.”…Read more How Great is our God – Kenya Connection Team 2017
In the Cracks (2)
The earth hurtles through space in all its breathtaking wonder; and yet, if you dare to look closer, you will find terribly brittle cracks. There, rivers of misery erode human existence into ever deeper, darker canyons. Children ooze out of one of these cracks, known as Mathare Valley slum in Kenya. These little ones are…Read more In the Cracks (2)
Colleen Briggs Art & Writing 