Baylor student-athletes’ mission to Africa bears fruit

NAIROBI, Kenya—Seated beside a destitute man on the streets of Nairobi, Kenya, Andrew Judy wanted to bring a message of the hope found in Christ. As he walked away, the former Baylor University football player realized he had just received a blessing from the man he came to bless.

Melissa Jones from the Final 4 women's basketball team visits with the children at one of the orphanages in Nairobi.

“He was basically preaching to me about how God had affected him,” said Judy, part of a 28-member Baylor Sports Ministry team that traveled to Africa. “And it wasn’t about money or this and that. … He has God, and that’s all he needs. God is going to take care of him. I was there to help him, but he actually helped me out.”

That was a message team members received repeatedly during their two-week mission trip. As much as the group from Baylor came to show the love of Christ, they got it back tenfold in the hearts and faces of the children and adults that exuded joy and love for God in the midst of poverty and pain.

“Honestly, I don’t think anybody could be prepared for that, unless you’ve actually been there,” said Fred Ellis, a junior on the men’s basketball team. “They’ve got families of four or five or more basically living in a little closet. And the funny thing is they have so much pride in what they have. They didn’t look at it like, ‘Oh, this is all I have.’ They made you realize that the greatest gift we have is life. You shouldn’t worry about the little material things that don’t matter.”

Since the sports ministry team’s first trip in May 2009, ministries have flourished and new doors have opened through Kenyan leaders like Walter Machio and Pastor Boniface Mwalumu.

“I shared with them last year that you all are breaking the ice here for what can continue,” said Athletics Chaplain Wes Yeary, who led the trip with help from Kim Scott, director of Campus Recreation and the McLane Student Life Center. “So, I think a lot of it was (Machio) kind of feeling out we can do and then just us being available. Some things happened last year that I think kind of surprised him, and he was like: ‘Wow! God is really working in a neat way through these guys.’’’

“Just to see some of the same faces and see some of the same people from the year before, it was so heartwarming to know that they knew how much we truly cared about them and how much they have impacted our lives,” said Melissa Jones, a senior on the women’s basketball team.

Sign up for our weekly edition and get all our headlines in your inbox on Thursdays Email Address Fred Ellis from the men's basketball team washes the feet of a boy during a clean-out day in Murang’a with help from football players Phil Taylor (left) and Jared Salubi (back) and Cecila Mwangi, 2005 Miss Kenya World.

“It was cool to see the fruits of your labor and to see how much it meant to them,” her teammate Lindsay Palmer said. “They would run up to you and they’re like, ‘Do you remember when we played this game or did that?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I remember. But I didn’t expect you to remember such a small, 20-minute thing we did over here.’ It was really cool to see that the little things we did meant way more than we could have imagined.”

When the group arrived in Kenya, they hit the ground running, beginning with a sobering visit to the slums in Mukuru, where 600,000 people are crammed into corrugated tin shacks measuring at most 10 feet by 10 feet. Nobody there has electricity, running water or indoor plumbing.

The following day, the group visited street children in Nairobi with Mwalumu. As part of his street ministry, Mwalumu visits the homeless several times a week and provides bread and milk for children and others, most of whom become addicted to glue to mask their hunger and pain.

Later that day, the student-athletes worked at the Omega Kids home—a rehab house for Mwalumu’s street ministry, originally built with funds raised by former Baylor volleyball player Jenne Blackburn. While the women planted trees, the men cut grass in a half-acre field with antiquated sickles.

At the start of the third day, the group headed off to visit the inmates at Lagranta Prison in Nairobi.

“We didn’t really know what to expect,” volleyball team member Elizabeth Graham said. “We didn’t know what kind of history they had.”

Any fears or doubts were quickly washed away as the group broke into rotating stations offering volleyball, basketball and soccer. Sports truly is the international language, they discovered.

“Once we started playing soccer, the one thing they knew and enjoyed, it was like you didn’t even know they were inmates anymore,” soccer player Staz Salinas said. “It was like everything else just dropped, and we were there just to play soccer.”

Perhaps the most moving and memorable experience happened on the next day, when the group joined in with a clean-out project in the Murang’a Village.

Ahadi Kenya, a mission project spearheaded by Cecilia Mwangi—Miss Kenya World 2005—is devoted to curtailing the jigger infestation that is rampant in Africa. Miss Mwangi was leading the way in Murang’a in washing the heavily infected feet and hands of the people in the village.

“She made that her platform when she won the crown. Instead of something that was shunned or people tried to hide, she said, ‘We’ve got a problem that we need to deal with,’ And she brought it to the attention of everyone,” Yeary said. “To me, it’s kind of cool how this beautiful young lady comes into these villages. And when someone like that comes in, a celebrity of sorts in their country, kneels down and works with them, it’s a humbling experience for both.”

At the same time, it’s a pretty scary proposition for folks with foot phobias, some participants acknowledged.

“I think a lot of us would say the feet washing was the most powerful, just because we see it as something Jesus did when he was here on earth,” volleyball player Jordan Rice said. “So, I think it was just that moment of doing something exactly how he did it and doing it without worrying about touching people’s feet. Because I hate feet, and I just did it. It’s like we had a power in us that allowed us to do that without worrying about how nasty their feet were.”

And as the student-athletes continued to wash one foot and one hand after another, they saw the smiles on each of the faces.

“It was probably one of the oldest ladies in the village, and she started tearing up while we were washing her feet,” volleyball player Briana Tolbert said. “And we were like: ‘Are we hurting you? Is everything OK?’ And the woman next to her said, ‘She’s just happy, because nobody’s ever done this for her before.’”

Plans are already in the works for Kenya 2011. And the bandwagon that grew from 16 to 28 in one year may explode by next year, organizers said.

“Just the people that touched me and hopefully I touched . . . they’re going to have an impact on my heart forever,” Ellis said. “Without a doubt, I’d love to do that again. I’d like to continue doing that for as long as I live.”