Last night American Idol had a special show entitled "Idol Gives Back."  If you saw the show you saw the stories they did about poverty and AIDs across Africa and here in the US.  With one of the stories, Ryan and Simon were in Africa in a place called Kibera in Kenya.  The Kibera slum just happens to be home to one of our FYM teams.  The story showed how kids are orphaned and left to fend for themselves, how they need an education but don't have the money.  They showed a woman who was very sick but had no one to take her to the hospital nor could she afford the care she needed.  Simon was visibly shaken and made a comment that the situation there was deplorable.

Simon was right.  But that's life in Kibera.  That's the way these one million plus people live every day.  They live in deplorable conditions.  On the report Ryan said there were reported over 50,000 orphans living in Kibera.  It's a place of great need.  It's a place of desperate people.  It's a place where our team of 13 individuals ministers every single day.  The conditions are tough and the ministry is tougher.  But it's a place where our team can give back to these people from what God has blessed them with.

Currently, our team is scheduled to leave there on May 14.  But one of the girls on the team wants to stay a bit longer.  She has been reaching out to this woman who is about a month away from giving birth.  This woman needs help.  She wants to stay and help her through the birth of her child.  She wants to give of herself and reach out to this woman the way Jesus would reach out to her.  She's giving back.

Last year I had the privilege of walking the streets of Kibera.  I recongnized some of the places which were shown.  I interacted with people just like the ones they featured.  I know through those stories people will give millions of dollars and hopefully it will go to good use.  As you give to the ministry of AIM as one of our partners, you know your money is going to help the people of Kibera.  We are commited to sending teams there, to reach out to the hopeless and provide some help and hope to the people there.