FROM STREETS TO STUDIES

by Samuel Montoya, Teacher's Aide Intern

Each day the sun sets and rises over a clearing across the Kamulu area. And each day when the sun rises, it will rise a little bit brighter. In a small, but impactful, school lies around 100 students whose lives have been drastically transformed. Why is that? The best answer we can give is God’s goodness, His mercy, and His never ending love.

The school, MADE IN THE STREETS (MITS) has given hundreds of children a chance at a fresh start. Each student that walks through the door frames of the chapel that you can see praising and singing to God are the same kids that you would have seen high and addicted to glue or rocket fuel 2 years (sometimes 2 weeks) before. This incredible transformation is a lot of times unfathomable and indescribable knowing where street kids start from.

A passage that came to mind since being here these past four weeks comes out of Ephesians. Paul begins his letter by addressing the Ephesian church about their citizenship in God’s kingdom. Ephesians 2:19-22 reads: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
Throughout my first four weeks here in Kamulu, I have seen God’s transforming power to take a child who is left for dead on the streets and turning them into a bright young mind of the future with their hearts turned towards Him.

I can see this transformation through their writing abilities. On an Eastleigh Friday, I asked Irene if I can provide the dictation writing prompt for the students (to help me out with a side poetry project I am working on this summer). I had all the students answer three questions relating to sin and how sin affects them in their everyday lives. And the responses I received were incredible. Not only did all the students know the nature of sin, but some even provided metaphors to how they thought sin worked in their lives. Reading through near 90 essays regarding sin, I could tell that these students have come a long, long way since being on the streets.

MITS has provided a platform to launch these students, these former street kids, into a new life, a new direction that doesn’t look back. I am enthralled at the levels of eagerness and perseverance that these kids have shown throughout their lives and their willingness to soak up any, and all, information that comes their way.