The Sick and Their Experience of God, Based In the Slum of Kibera.
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Date
2002-02
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
"The sick are the poorest people among the poor." This is what I have seen in
the "slum" of Kibera. I started to do my apostolate in Kibera in September of 2000. At
the beginning, I began by accompanying one of my Religious Brothers in visiting the
sick. I felt "lost" because of the language. I felt a great challenge facing me because I
saw many sick people and I could not say anything to them neither I could understand
them. When I was able to express myself in Kiswahili, I faced yet another challenge:
How do I express to these sick people that God is a Father to them? Many of them had
been suffering for a long time; and it was not easy for me to tell them "God loves you".
Sometimes I saw them suffering very much arid I could say nothing to help them. I felt
that my prayer at those times was dry. As I was getting along, I started to discover
something: I found many sick who really trusted in God. They started to talk about
God in the midst of their suffering. I said to myself: "These people, in spite of their
suffering, can experience Goa." But one day, I asked myself a question. "Is it in spite
of or because of their suffering that sick people experience God? This question moved
me to want to become closer to the sick in order to find an answer. I have discovered that many sick people experience God simply and clearly because of their suffering.
They undergo a process of purification through questions and feelings that they ask
themselves about their situation. They find that they have a need to depend upon
someone outside of themselves to endure their suffering.
The sick have taught me in my life to believe in God in a stronger way. They
helped me to talk about God in the midst of suffering. Now I am able to remind the
sick that God loves them and that He is accompanying them in their struggles. This
experience which I have had with the sick is the motivation for this written Essay. Here
I want to present my experience of the suffering of these sick and their experience of the
presence of God in their lives.
In the First Chapter, I present some of the history of Kibera and the situation in
which the sick people live as well as my own lived experience with some of them. In
this Chapter I conclude that poverty has a lot to do with the illnesses of the people.
In the Second Chapter I reflect upon what the Scriptures and some scholars say
about the sick and their suffering as well as the way in which they experience God in
their lives. God is very much present in them and to them. In Jesus' suffering they find
meaning for their own suffering.
In the Third Chapter I present the challenge for us all in living with and
ministering to these suffering people. We Christians are called to be Good Samaritans.
We cannot be indifferent in confronting this suffering; and we must ask ourselves how
it is that we can respond to this reality.
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Keywords
Sick, Experience of God, Slum, Kibera