Duncan

One of the best things about coming to Kenya is the people I get to hang out with. One of those people is Duncan Kimani (he’s the one on the left). Duncan is one of the Kenyan directors of Care for Aids (www.careforaids.org). Care for Aids is a ministry that partners with Kenyan churches so people who are HIV+ can come to the church to get physical counseling, spiritual counseling, and resources to meet their physical needs. Duncan has a real heart for Kenyans with AIDS and has given his life to helping them. So much so that Duncan has taken in a 9-year old Kenyan orphan who is HIV+ named George. For all practical purposes, Duncan has adopted him as he is providing for all his needs. When Duncan first met George, he was very sick and living in poverty. Over the last year, through Duncan’s intervention, George is healthy and has a bright future. As if that was not enough, Duncan has opened up a house for 5 other orphan boys in the community. The boys are supervised in the house by a couple young men and a women comes in during the day to cook for the boys. They have a plot of land to provide their own vegetables and this week, Duncan is buying the boys a cow to provide much needed milk. The kingdom of God is a better place because of Duncan Kimani as well as the community of Limuru where he lives. Wouldn’t it be great if the same could be said of you and I?

The Door

Suppose you had to replace a door in your house, what would you do? Me, I’d get help from my friend Brad, he’s a builder. Suppose Brad could not find the right size door? Suppose all he could find is a big piece of wood that was the right thickness? Still no problem. He’d bust out the power tools, cut the door to size, chisel out some hinges, drill a couple holes for the door knob and be done. Maybe take an hour?
Not in Kenya. I have been watching a couple guys replace a door in the guest house I am staying and it has literally taken them all day, and they are still not finished! What’s the difference? No power tools. The door has to be cut with a regular saw, the holes drilled out with a manual drill, etc. This is the way things are built in Kenya. Very low on modern tools, very high on manual labor. I once saw some guys hauling concrete up to the third floor of a building with a 5-gallon bucket attached to a rope, one bucket full at a time. The other day, a guy was painting lines on the road with a paint brush! It’s a wonder anything gets built in Kenya.

Mosquitoes and the big D

During my time in Kenya I am constantly reminded of things that, in the US, are minor annoyances and how big a deal they are in Kenya. This happened to me last night. I have spent the last 3 days in Western Kenya and as I was nodding off to sleep last night I became aware of the buzzing of a mosquito in my ear. Back home, this would have just been annoying with the potential danger a red itchy mark on my skin in the morning. However in Kenya a buzzing mosquito is a whole different story. Did you know mosquitoes kill more people in Kenya than any other animal? (I know mosquitoes aren’t animals, but you get the point and just in case you have been living in a cave your whole life, mosquitoes carry malaria.) This was especially disconcerting to me since I don’t like sleeping under a net and I did not bring any malaria medicine with me. I spent half the night swatting at the air just to have the buzzing begin a few minutes later.

Another one of those annoyances I am confronted with is the big D. If you don’t know what that is, ask someone who has been on a mission trip. While a little more annoying than mosquitoes, it astounds me that while I can go to the drug store and spend a couple bucks for a cure, the big D is a potential death sentence for a child in Kenya. The primary cause of the bid D in Africa is dirty water. So if you don’t drink the water, you get dehydrated and die and if you do drink the water, you get dehydrated and die. Some choice huh?

How is it possible that in the 21st century someone can die from a mosquito bite or diarrhea? I just don’t get it.

CU Official

As important as the CU Patron is to the spiritual development of the students on campus, there is another group that may be more important, the CU officials. The CU officials are a group of students that oversee the activities of the Christian Union. They are responsible for the weekly meeting of the CU fellowship, prayer meetings, and Bible studies. If you are a CU official at a boarding school, you are also responsible for Sunday service. When I say responsible, I mean completely responsible with no adult supervision! For all practical purposes, they are the pastors for their student body. I got to meet with some CU Officials yesterday and I was blown away by their maturity and the seriousness with which they see their calling. The students I talked with met every morning for prayer before school and everyday at lunch to discuss issues and problems of their fellow students. At the end of this term they will select new CU officials for the upcoming school year. On a visit to a school in February, I asked them how they pick new CU officials and they told me they start with a week of prayer and fasting before they pick their new leaders! I could not help but think about what an impact a group of students with this kind of commitment to God and to their classmates could have in America.

TIA

For those of you who have traveled in foreign countries, you understand that there are cultural differences, some minor and some major. For example, Kenyans understanding of time is much different than ours. At lunch yesterday the waiter told us our lunch would be ready in twenty minutes. Twenty minutes is the standard answer to every question about time. Very rarely does it mean twenty minutes and at lunch yesterday, it actually meant ninety minutes!

If you are going someplace and you ask the driver how far, it’s always “Not far.” Soon you realize that every place in Kenya whether five miles away or five hundred miles away is not far. When I ask my friend Nawaz about Kenyans inability to understand time or distance he usual responds by saying, “TIA (This is Africa).”

Another one of those TIA things is hospitality. Hospitality is a very big deal in Kenya, much different than in the US, so when you visit someone in Kenya it is considered a blessing from God. It is customary for you to offer your guests something to drink and even something to eat. Usually you are either served a soda or chi tea. Chi tea is boiled with milk and has a much thicker consistency than American tea. Some people really like it and some don’t. Regardless, if someone offers you chi, it is a huge insult if you do not drink it. Fortunately over the years I have acquired a taste for chi so it is not as big a problem as it used to be but on my early trips to Kenya, I would dread it when the host brought out the thermos of chi. When we bring students to Kenya and they are served chi, we strategically seat students who like chi next to those who don’t and discreetly switch cups during our conversations so that when it is time to leave, all the cups are empty.

On Tuesday, we visited a school after we had just finished a big lunch and after our meeting, we were offered lunch! Not just a small plate, but a heaping plate of rice, vegetables, and meat. This was a poor school in the slums so for them to offer us lunch was a huge sacrifice. So what do you do when you are already full from lunch and someone offers you another lunch? You smile big and eat it and that’s exactly what we did.

CU Patrons

Every secondary school in Kenya by law is required to have a Christian club called a Christian Union (CU). It does not matter if the school is a public school, a private school, a Christian school, or even a Muslim school. These CU’s are led by someone called the CU Patron. He/she is responsible for overseeing the CU and helping the students mature in their relationship with God. SOL East Africa partners with these CU patrons by providing Bible study materials for them to use with their students. Currently we are working with about 400 CU Patrons throughout Kenya.

I have spent most of my time thus far meeting with CU patrons and trying to discover ways we can improve our partnership with them to help them become more impactful in the lives of their students. I have been with CU patrons in government schools, in Christian schools, I even visited with a CU patron in a Muslim school; talk about a difficult job. I met with the CU patron at the premiere school in Nairobi as well as CU patrons from the slums whose student bodies consist primarily of orphans. They are an amazing group of committed men and women who love teaching, but more importantly love God and love their students. I have been encouraged by what I have seen and overwhelmed when I think about how much of their work depends on us and our ability to provide resources. Most of them are doing what they are doing with very few resources. One of the things that they have consistently asked for are Bibles for their kids. Can you imagine not having a Bible? If you are like me you probably have several lying around your house. How is it possible that this book that I take for granted and often times neglect, is a prized possession in other parts of the world?

Matatoo

A matatoo is a van that is used for public transportation in Kenya. They are everywhere. It is the size and shape of the old VW vans from the 60’s and 70’s and are made to hold 12 people plus the driver. The big advantage of taking a matatoo is how cheap they are. We hired a cab to take us to Care for Aids on Saturday, a distance of about 30 km and it cost us 2500 Kenyan shillings (about $30). On the way home we traveled in matatoos and the cost was about $2. The disadvantage of taking a matatoo is the size. The saying in Kenya is that a matatoo is never full. The reason for this is because every body the driver can cram into his matatoo is more money for him. Today on the way to church, we rode in a matatoo with 25 people! I don’t know if there is a Guiness record for the most people in a matatoo, but I think we set it today.

Corruption

If someone asked you what the biggest problem in Africa is, what would you say? HIV/Aids? Poverty? Hunger? Clean Water? While all of these are enormous problems, I believe the biggest problem facing the African continent is corruption. The reason corruption is the biggest problem is because it’s the problem that affects all the other problems. Everyone wants a piece of the pie so when money and resources are sent to Africa to assist in the AIDS crisis or to provide food and clean water, by the time it gets to the people the pie is much smaller.

That’s why I believe Source of Light East Africa can play a critical role in changing the culture of Kenya. At the heart of our ministry is discipleship. There is a lot of evangelism going on in Kenya but not a lot of discipleship. Currently SOL Kenya disciples approximately 25,000 high school students through our Bible studies. They are learning the basics of the faith through Bible study courses like New Life in Christ, they are learning about sexual purity through Understanding Love and Sex, and they are learning how to mature in their faith through courses like Practical Christian Living. If a student remains active using SOL Bible studies during his entire high school career, they will graduate with a thorough understanding of God’s Word and the foundation to live godly lives.

So this year, around 6,000 of our students graduated from high school. In four years many of them will be graduating from college and ten years from now, many of them will be the government and business leaders of Kenya. Not the “business as usual where’s my piece of the pie” leaders, but leaders with character and integrity that love God.

Now think about increasing the number of students involved in our Bible studies from 25,000 to 100,000 and you’ll understand what keeps me up late at night!

First day

After 19 hours of travel and layovers, I arrived last night at about 7:30 PM (I am 7 hours ahead of Atlanta time). Someone was at the airport to pick me up (which is always a good thing) and bring me to the Gracehouse where I will be staying. This trip is unusual in that it is the first trip I have ever taken to Africa alone. Usually I am here with a group of students from Landmark. I guess I will get used to it, but it was a little weird this morning at breakfast. My work starts in earnest this afternoon with a meeting with Timothy Kiyuli our Source of Light Kenya director.

View of God

On my first trip to Kenya, I traveled to a boys boarding school outside Mombasa. It was a difficult trip over tough roads traveling to this school high up on a hill. Upon arriving, we met with some Christian boys in their library. Remember those movies you've seen where they go in to the library and it's so dusty, the pick up a book and blow the dust off it? That's what the library was like. It was a 10 foot by 20 foot building with no electricity but light was not a problem as there were enough holes in the mud and stick walls to let in ample light.

My job at the school was to talk to these young men about their relationship with God and to encourage them to stay in the Word. Little did I know that I would learn so much from them. After my little talk, one of the boys stood up to lead the group in prayer. As I bowed my head and closed my eyes to pray, not only did this boy begin praying, but all the boys in the room began to pray. Out loud! It surprised me so much that I took a little peek and was blown away by what I heard and saw. I could hear some of the boys near me just pleading with God and begging God, some of them with tears flowing down their cheeks. And while I could not hear everyone, it was clear from the expressions on their faces that they were having deep and intense conversations with God.

It was at that point that I realized the God these boys served was different than the God I served. It really shook me up, I was the great bible scholar from America and these were just a bunch of high school boys living on the top of the hill. They didn't have electricity, cell phones, hey they didn't even have ipods! Suddenly, all the stuff I had didn't seem half as important as the relationship with God they had.

Here's my challenge to you. What if God came to you and told you that because of all the people on the earth today He was really busy and would not be able to handle your prayer requests anymore. Suppose He told you that while He still had a home for you in heaven when you died, you were on your own for all you needs in this life. How significantly would that affect your life? While I want to say God plays such a key role in my life that it would devastate me, when I dig a little deeper, I find a truth that is not so appealing. How much do I depend on God as opposed to Kroger, and my doctors, and my money, and my talents. The ugly truth is that maybe it would not be as devastating as I like to think and that really bothers me.

Retirement

I spent the week at Source of Light headquarters doing some training. I think the average age of the workers at SOL is in the 70's. In fact, I think there are only 2 or 3 people at SOL who are under 50. If someone had blindfolded me and walked me into the building I would have sworn it was a retirement home!

At first, it was kind of weird hanging out with a bunch of people in their 70's but after spending time with them I was blown away. I think there is this nagging in the back of minds of people my age about retirement. When will I be able to retire? Will I have enough money to retire? Will I spend my retirement eating mac and cheese and Ramon noodles? What I discovered about these people was that instead of sitting around on their porch drinking sweet tea all day, they choose to use their "retirement years" serving God! They are all volunteers who spend their days printing and preparing bible study materials that are sent all over the world. Because of their efforts, hundreds of thousands of people have come to know Christ and countless more are being discipled!

It has really challenged my view of retirement. Though I haven't studied it, I'm pretty sure retirement wasn't God's idea. So maybe there will come a day when I won't have a vocational job, but I hope I always have a kingdom job.

I think it'd be pretty cool to be in the middle of doing kingdom work when God calls me home. What better way to meet the "Boss" than while on the job.

Ignatius

God has been bringing people into my life over the past week that are really challenging my faith and my walk with God. Last week it was Christi Baker and the children's choir from Kenya. This week it's Ignatius. I am in Madison, GA this week doing some training with Source of Light. That's where I met Ignatius. Ignatius is a missionary to India.
Several months ago, a group of Ignatius's relatives got really upset with him. So upset that they beat him and his father up. Hearing Ignatius tell the story with a smile and a chuckle makes it sound like a minor thing, until you ask him what they did. His beating required several stitches in his head, he could not raise his arm above his shoulder, and his knee was bruised. For several weeks he had trouble eating because his jaw was bruised as well. His father, who by the way is 95, suffered significant injuries as well.
What I find amazing is that Ignatius can laugh about this and cannot wait to go back to India! I am really challenged by this. I'm pretty sure my response would be different. I am pretty sure that I would not go back and what's more, I think I would find some spiritual way to justify not going.
My idea of hardship is not having access to the internet or having to drink Chi tea.
I think I have a lot to learn.