MARY - A GIFT!

Many of us have ‘heroes of the faith’, Christian men and women who lived their lives in such a way that we can easily point to them as examples of how Christians should live. If you asked people who their hero of the faith would be, most people would identify someone who either gets a mention in the bible or died some years ago.  So it was a joy for me to meet someone who I consider to be a modern day hero of the faith. 

Mary is a teacher. She is not employed. She lives in Mathare slum, one of the largest slums in the world, along with an estimated 600,000 people. During the morning we talk to her about her life in the slum. She tells us that tensions run high between various tribes and groups (as evidenced after the post election violence). She tells us there is little by way of clean water or sanitation. She tells us that people are fearful and insecure all the time.  During our visit, she shows us a landslide site, where 12 people had lost their lives and many more lost their homes one week ago. She discreetly shows us an illegal brewery (we are told not to take pictures as we would be subjected to violence) and tells about alcohol being the scourge of the slum. She shows us the one registered clinic in the slum and about how difficult is to access the very things we all take for granted. She tells us a lot more but it is difficult to write about all the various issues that affect Mary and Mathare.

Then she takes us to The SA's Kosovo Outpost. We walk the last kilometre as our 4x4 vehicle can’t deal with the last part of the journey. As I look through the facilities and hear about what happens in this pathetic building, all that comes through my mind are the words from the gospel of Matthew;

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

The light blue building is The Salvation Army hall and school

Both Heidie and I were moved to tears. However despite all the despair and poverty, we came away with an overriding sense of hope, largely because of people like Mary. Mary is someone who serves humbly, receives little credit, lives incarnationally, sacrifices willingly and has found a way to demonstrate her faith and love for others in this world.

In the ground floor of what appeared a rather unsafe structure (SA Hall), Mary runs an informal school for 262 pupils in the most appalling conditions.  The classrooms are tiny and flooded, they are full of dirt, and they have no door and no windows and lack any real educational resources. The school has no running water and has about 12 cups, which the children have to share. Yet every day, Mary teaches children who otherwise who have no access to schooling. Every day, Mary feeds children who would otherwise go hungry. Every day, Mary gives a little hope to children who are in desperate situations. Why? Because she loves Jesus.

Mary is also the Asst. YPSM at the outpost and helps out at a midweek Children’s Club and the Sunday school. Recently I read that in scripture and early writings Christians are said to be "poor while making many rich." Well, there is something about Mary that is my opinion that despite her obvious poverty, she is making children very rich. I am reminded that Jesus had time for the children of our world, thereby demonstrating their value to Him, and Mary is following in His footsteps by placing value on some of the poorest children to walk this world. 

Me and one of my heroes of the faith!

 There have been many heroes of the faith. Mary in one of mine.  Much has been written about incarnational living and I am sure there are many theological debates about what this actually means. However, Stuart Williams writes “incarnational living is a calling, a choice and a challenge but ultimately a gift.” Mary is a gift to the people of Mathare and I want to say thank you for her. I am also going to try and support her as best I can and you'll probably hear more about that over the coming days. But most of all I am going to pray for Mary and her work and thank God for the hope she brings every single day.

GREAT WEEKEND

What a great weekend, spending quality time with family and friends. This is one of the benefits of living life the African way. This weekend saw a visit to the Giraffe Sanctuary with the family. I made a friend in Ed; he’s a Rothschild Giraffe.

Ranked #6 of 162 things to do in Nairobi by Lonely Planet travellers

( FYI..The African Fund for Endangered Wildlife is commonly known as the Giraffe Centre. Founded in 1979 as a core breeding centre of the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe and further escalated its conservation efforts in 1983, opening up an outstanding environmental education centre for the Kenyan youth. As of now, A.F.E.W (K) Ltd. – Giraffe Centre deals with breeding of the endangered Rothschild giraffe, Ecology Trips, Training of Trainers Workshops, National Environmental Competitions, Funding Micro-projects, Monitoring and Evaluation, Production of resource materials among other environmental conservation activities.)

One by One!

This week, Heidie and I ventured out on a few trips to visit some of small projects. Our first stop was the Nairobi Girls Centre, a training centre for older girls and younger women who, for a range of reasons, were unable to complete their education. We then moved on to the Loins Girls Hostel, who’s aim is to empower and support girls through college in order to ensure they complete their education and reside in safe and secure environment in Nairobi.  Both are excellent centres and both require some attention in terms of maintenance, water issues, equipment and development.  From  here, we moved on to our final visit of the day. It was this journey that shocked me.

Travelling through the back streets to avoid the absolutely crazy traffic, we passed through Mathare, the Somali section of Nairobi and Dandora.  I was genuinely stunned and outrage by what was before me.  The vastness of the slum areas,  the squalid accommodation, children fighting with dogs for scraps of food in the rubbish at the side of the road and the temporary shelters for which people are paying a rent!  We must have been in the car for almost 2 hours and for the duration of the journey, I did not see one white person. I am told some of these areas are no-go areas but because of The Salvation Army sticker on the side of our car, we are afforded some protection.  In my humble opinion, it all seemed a hopeless mess.

Mathare - home to 500,000 people

 My initial and somewhat selfish reaction was to thank the Lord, my lucky stars and anything else that people think can that may play a part in changing destiny (I'm sticking with the Big Man!)  that I had been spared from living in such a desperate place, which would have immediately disadvantaged me in so many different ways. Then my thoughts became a bit more rational and turned to what can I do to help those who live in such poverty, those who suffer injustice, those who are not offered the basic things that I take for granted. It was difficult to see what I could do. Then I came home and read this;

“The almighty God of the universe is prepared to use us, his people, to seek justice,  to rescue the oppressed, to defend the orphan and to plead for the widow.” Concretely, he is prepared to use you and me to fight for the people of the slum areas of Nairobi.  So it’s up to me and you!  The bible says if anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth (1 John 3 v 17).  Interesting to me that this passage refers to a brother or a sister. It focuses on meeting the needs of the poor by keeping our eyes focused on the individual.

One of my favourite stories is about a young boy who was walking on the beach with his father and he came across millions of starfish stranded on the sand. He shouted to his father; “we’ve got to do something”. His father replied in a very disparaging way "This beach goes on for miles and miles, and there are millions of starfish, how can your efforts make any difference?" The young man looked at all the starfish, picked one up and threw it back into the sea and turned back to his dad "It made a difference to that one"

So as individuals we can make a difference to a brother or a sister. I can’t see that I am ever going to be able to solve all the problems, tackle all the injustices, lift all the residents out of the squalor of living in a slum.  I may not be able to make a difference for all those living in poverty BUT I can make all the difference for one person living in poverty. So one by one here goes!

The Road to Thika!!

Today we ventured on our first major drive. We travelled on the new super highway to Thika (I’ll come back to that in a minute!!) Thika is home to 2 Salvation Army Schools for the physically disabled (Joytown) and a School for the Visually Impaired.  It also houses a vocation centre for young women and the Officers Training College. However the purpose of our visit was for the final festival of the music school. The week had been led by a delegation from the Kenya Trust (UK) and their inspirational leader and trustee Territorial Envoy Ken Clark.  It was a great final festival and the standard of music was very high. I thoroughly enjoyed the day. For me, highlights included the timbrel group with no timbrels, the Trombone Ensemble playing and singing Cairo Red Shield (sounds a bit corny but to see the heartfelt way in which the guys sang and played was a real blessing) and two of the band pieces (There’s no one like Jesus and Praise Party).

The trombone ensemble.....

The timbrel group with no timbrels!

Band complete with sousaphone!

The band in full flow

It was a three hour festival and a number of people highlighted that the time length was not bad for an African meeting such as this. The only dissenting voice was Luke, who comment that it was “a really long Army for a little boy like me” was fairly perceptive.

Now, I come back to the road; a superhighway. A super highway = 3 lanes and my understanding is that it is supposed to mirror a motorway from back home. HOWEVER, where it differs is that this particular superhighway has no road markings but does have speed bumps, zebra crossing, people sitting at the side of the road, the occasional car coming head on towards you and numerous diversions. Quite frankly it is crazy, crazy, crazy!!

Action Africa

We have also been following the exploits of the Action Africa team in Chikankata and it was really great to speak to Simon and Jo this afternoon about the various aspects of their visit. You can read more about this at  http://blog.action-africa.org.uk/ Sounds like they had a great time at a great place and we were sad to miss out. It was an inspiring and encouraging conversation and I am really glad that we have friends like Simon and Jo who really care. We still miss Zambia and Chikankata a lot but are delighted to be back in a different part of Africa. These are exciting days for us.  Kenya is very different and much, much bigger. Yet many things are the same. Difficult to explain really but perhaps things will unfold as we go along.  For the little that I have seen so far, urban poverty is something completely different to the extreme poverty of the rural setting; there appears something more desperate and indeed sinister about urban poverty.  Squeezing 3m people into such a small area like Kibera, where we visited last Friday, is completed unacceptable and difficult to believe this place exists in 2012.   For more information on Kibera see http://www.kibera.org.uk/Facts.html

When we were in Chikankata we kind of took on a mission statement / promise / theme for ourselves and our family;

Romans 12: 12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

This time my attention in the lead up to this move was continually directed to the prophet Micah’s question come statement;

“ He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6 v 8 (NRSV)`

In my very humble opinion, God needs his people to seek justice, love kindness, rescue the oppressed, defend our next door neighbours (the orphans) in the children’s home, plead for the widow and help the poor. We really hope to use the gifts, the resources, the relationships, any expertise and experience, along with the power he has given us to fight for and demonstrate all the above. It's a tall order by anyone's standards! However, the reason God gives all of us the gifts, personality and characteristics we have is not just for our own benefit and joy but so we might serve those who lack them. It is our prayer he will use us to do justice and love kindness and that we will walk humbly with our God on this new adventure!

New Job

It is always a challenge to “follow” someone. At Chikankata I followed in the footstep of many giants of the faith. In R&D I followed my good friend Mr Mitch Menagh as Director. As Project Officer, I am following the highly effective Marshall Currie. It always appears so daunting and so that is how I feel right now. However, I am reminded of the story of Joshua, who probably had the hardest “follow” in the world, when he took over where Moses left off. He was given this promise, reassurance and direction;

“As I was Moses, so I will be with you.  I will not fail or abandon you”

I am also reminded that all the great achievers in the Bible had one thing in common; they were just ordinary folk who took risks in obedience to God and believed in him. Generally the results were quite exceptional. In many cases, his strength was showcased through the weakness of others and I really hope that happens here

.