Thoughts about MITS from an ATM Visitor

This is a letter that Rebekah Norwood wrote to Dana Hardiman. Dana is a visitor with the Legacy group. She wanted a heads up about MITS before coming to Nairobi, Kenya.

This is what Rebekah had to say:

Hi,

Its so great to make contact with you. Charles and Darlene Coulston came to our church. It was incredible to hear from them how much progress is being made at MITS. Working at MITS was definitely the defining moment, and completely changed the course and direction of my life---so I'm always excited when newbies get to go.

I did a great number of things there. I taught English, Math and basic Reading classes, planned several youth camps, taught basic health classes for women and babies, and helped teach basic tailoring and design. I have to say though, that out of all these things, I only 'planned' to teach one. That is to say, I planned to teach basics reading and English, and they had me do everything else as well. So the biggest advice I can give is to be flexible, and be willing to do things that are 'outside of the job description' and in some cases, outside of your comfort zone.

I remember vividly visiting a base, sitting on an empty bucket in the middle of a trash pile with a group of young boys/men surrounding me and talking with them about heaven and days when

we will all stand equal before God. We had only 'planned' to take some chai and bread to one of the boys who was sick, but it turned into on of my favorite memories.

I hope you know what am talking about once you see it for yourself. I don't think i was ever excited about heaven until i visited Kenya. The reason being that I couldn't wait for the day that their suffering would end and they would stand as equal partakers of heaven's riches. Never before that time in my life had I ever considered wanting our world to end until i saw who the 'least' truly are.

The kids enjoy little gift too, like one year I bought about 1000 'Jesus Loves You' bracelets from Oriental Trading Company and handed them out to every kid I saw (even adults wanted them). They were cheap gifts, but really popular.

Get to know the staff. Some of my favorite people in this world are on the staff at MITS. They are highly knowlagable about social work in Kenya, politics, street life etc. many of them actually have (or are in the process of completing) masters' degrees. So don't discount any one of them, they are a wealth of knowledge.

God tells us to spend ourselves on behalf of the poor, I hope you get to do that in Kenya, and that you will be completely used up by the time you leave. Allow God to use you in ways you never imagined.As you can see I love talking about MITS.

Rebekah has visited MITS more than once.

Dana is currently teaching business classes with our skills students. She also works close with Ashley (her daughter) on beautifying the Tea and Coffee house, Salon inclusive.