kargi

We have been in Kargi for 4 days now. Life here is very different to what I have seen in the rest of Kenya. Kargi is inhabited by the Rendille people. They live very traditionally. The culture here is very hospitable which makes us feel very welcome. Kargi is however very hot (although I have been told that it has been cool while we have been here)

The Rendille people live in villages close to the township of Kargi. The villages are grouped by tribe of which there are 9. Each tribe has a manyatta which is a group of smaller villages. The individual villages consist of a number of small spherical huts called min surrounding a set of animal pens made of acacia branches.

During our time here we have gone and visited a different manyatta each day to tell bible stories. It has amazed me how open people have been to hearing about God. It's very cool that people here are excited to hear about God. When we arrive at a manyatta we walk around the outside of a village telling people that we.are.about to tell some stories. We then sit under an acacia tree and sing some songs, pray and tell a short story.

The children here wear little to no clothes which is a bit weird for us westerners. Another thing that we have found w little wierd is that women here will often not wear anything on the top half. We were told that the Rendille do not consider anything above the waist to be nudity.

Another thing the Rendille do is adopt newcomers into a family. When you are adopted you ate given a necklace to identify your family and a new name. I was adopted into a Christian converts family. My tribe is uruwen and my new name is Galbeitu Ogom. It's quite cool and opens doors to be accepted into the community.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Heart wrenching slum experience- How long O Lord?

Today our team spent the morning in the slums of Kwa-Njenga in the East lands of Nairobi. For some in the team, it was their first time in the slum. Although I have been in the slum many times, I still was moved to tears by what I experienced. We visited 8 homes and stayed for about 30 minutes in each home. The team was split into two so that each team visited 4 homes. In the first home we met a lady who was HIV positive, 5 children, had been married three times and all three husbands had passed away within a period of about 10 years. Second home- a family of 10 children living in a wee place about 10 feet by 10 feet. No regular income, not sure when the next meal will come from. Their teenage children have gone to the streets due to desperation. Last home, we find a woman bedridden due to an illness that has not been properly diagonised. She cannot afford to go for tests. It may be an acute liver or kidney problem or a tumor. She can hardly move. We prayed for healing and hope to follow up her progress. AND YET..... in the midst of this pain, injustice and hopelessness, we felt that God was there in every home we visited. There was a joy and peace behold understanding! Kids entertained us with songs, dance and poems and yet many may not have had breakfast that morning and they were not expecting to have lunch.
After a 3 hour experience that felt like a full day we sat in a coffee shop to de brief. Many in the team said they felt the people in the slums have a lot of hope and that keeps them going in the midst of heart wrenching challenges. But I still long to see justice flow down like a stream. Poverty is multi faceted and requires a holistic multi faceted solution. There are no quick fixes and yet one person like Rachel or Kim at Utu Wema project that we visited a making a huge difference in the lives of about 180 children and their families. And yet they have very limited resources. I think one way we can make a difference is to walk alongside people like Kim and Rachel ( locals in the slum) as they know how to effectively engage poverty in the slum in a sustainable way. I ask .. how long O Lord? But surely God has not left himself without a witness

Finding love

Us Nairobi-based lot visted a lot of different projects last week. We have visted a heap of churches and Christian organisations doing their best to meet the practical needs of people here... The basic theory seems to be that God wants to capture all of creation into his purposes - not just salvation of people, but transformation of every aspect of our lives, including economic and health needs. Meeting the practical needs is as much part of expressing God's love as 'saving souls'.

One of my favourite projects is run by Diasy, she runs a micro-enterprise business that gives loans to groups within a community. The model is basically to get them to save money, then approve a loan relative to their savings; they pay it back, and can then work towards another, bigger loan. She started this business because her house maid and house guard approached her for a loan - meetings with them grew to meetings with 40 people, and then she decided to formalise things. She now runs the programme with accountability through her church.. the church is now essentially supporting her vision.

We have seen heaps of examples of people trying in different ways to meet the practical needs of their community.

The church that I have known and seen in NZ has focussed a lot on evangelism (probably up to the mid-late 90s) and community, but has struggled with local mission. I think it has definately struggled with practical mission within the community, perhaps because of a tendancy to over-spiritualise church. I think Christians in NZ acknowledge that God is a Sunday to Monday church, but many churches struggle as a community to give effect to that acknowledgement outside personal frienships of church members. Sometimes our leaders have struggled to mobilise an apathetic congregation, sometimes our congregation has struggled to apply the relevance of Jesus to our communities where we don't talk about God with people until we have earned the right.

The spiritual context is different in Nairobi. The church is unashamedly passionate about Jesus. The community has so many needs (different to those we face at home), but people get on with praising Jesus for what they have. Here you have buses and cars labelled with slogans about faith, God and Jesus. Talking about God with people is normal, and can happen within a few minutes of meeting. Some churches struggle with the few people doing most of the work of the church, others manage to develop leaders and send them out.

I have found the spiritual expression really refreshing and inspiring. Oh, and these guys can SING ; )

I have seen that the Kenyan church has different struggles from ours, and there are a few challenges I'd like to bring back home. The first is about practical mission to meet the needs of the community. I don't think it needs to be done with banners and songs celebrating Jesus. In our context I suspect that love is the gateway to talking about Jesus. Whether it's helping out in Prisons to look after children while parents visit, or helping with trouble kids at school to stay in school... there are plenty of needs. I think there's room to just get started on the practical needs and see the opportunities that creates to talk about God.

Second, I'm not really sure when the NZ church became less confident about the power of the gospel. I'm not sure exactly sure how it can be overcome. I think that materialism has something to do with the problem - that we have so much, and have come to have security in our stuff... when we don't have it we are less likely to trust God to look after us because we are so used to looking after ourselves. I don't know that removing the stuff would solve the problem, but definately I think there's opportunity to take stock of our attitude to stuff and consider how it affects our view of God.

The church in NZ is really blessed...we have abundant resources, we have a mature church that probably needs a bit of a refreshing, and many of us have learned over the years that God is faithful. We have a lot to offer our communities...

Let the love of God explode from us.

Melelo and life in Kenya

Pip, Thomas and I spent last week at the LifeSpring youth camp, in Melelo, Narok (about 3 hours drive from Nairobi). The theme of the camp was 'Life is Useless, Break Loose' and we spent the week looking at the book of Eccelesiastes. It was a great experience! My eyes were opened to the youth culture of Kenya, and their view of God. What an inspiring group of young people! I have come back with some new friends, as well as a lot of good memories and funny stories to share :)

I think life in Kenya is great. I think what I enjoy the most is the fantastic sense of community that is present, and also the incredible faith in God that people have. God has been so good to us all. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does during our final week here.

Family, friends, food, fun etccc

Today is a public holiday- celebrating Kenyan independence day. My friends are coming over for a bbq. The last week was amazing as the team encountered various ministries in the city of Nairobi. Tuesday- we met with staff of Lifespring chapel and Mamlaka hill chapel and shared words of encouragement from scripture. Wednesday -we went to Beacon of hope-www.beaconafrica.org, a community project addressing HIV /AIDS pandemic challenges among poor communities. We were blown away by the work and impact of beacon of hope. Thursday -we entered the Slum of Kibera and visited two micro enterprise projects, a feeding program and two homes of people affected by HIV/AIDS. I'm sure the team will describe how they felt in their blogs. Friday- we spent the morning with CMS Africa hearing about three key ministries- New dawn- a program for helping children 9 to 12 years old to deal with issues of sexuality from a biblical perspective; a business as mission project helping provide bio digesters to poor communities in Machakos, Kenya and Samaritan strategy seeking to raise leaders in Africa that will respond to issues of poverty.
Saturday was a day off and the day the Narok team returned. Sunday, the team ministered in 3 different Churches. The service in the slums of Kwa Njenga took 2 hours longer than I expected. I think I have become a kiwi.... Well it's been a great week, heaps of lessons and great bonding with the team. The team has become my family and I have enjoyed introducing them to my friends. We have enjoyed Kenyan hospitality, great food and fun. Most of the team members have been adopted by a Kenyan family and some have even been given new names. I think Kenyans and Kiwis get along pretty well! I think there is great potential for building deeper partnership between the Church in Kenya and the Church in NZ.

re gonna cook our host family a 'boil up' tonight Ha!! Ha!! We will miss the kids. Leaving them in a couple days time. Seen glimpses of Heaven on earth here!!! Yay Jesus.

The adventure continues

The Kargi team finally arrived in Marsabit this morning ( Sunday) after over 24 hours of travel. Each of the team members will have interesting stories to tell about the experience of a long journey, rough road, major delays and warm hospitality.

The Nairobi team ministered at Lifespring Chapel today in song, testimony and giving the sermon. I discovered many in the team could dance like Kenyans. They were really into this dance thing! 3 team members left this afternoon to Narok joined by over 20 youth attending the Youth camp. The other 5 will remain in Nairobi this week and plug into Social justice ministries in the Slums as well as spending time with our hosts.