3 Days till Take Off

Blessings Received and Blessings to Give

Kenyans are not shy about offering words of blessing and I have been the recipient of abundant blessings in the name of Christ these past weeks. Two nights ago, lit by the amber glow of a campfire, utterly exhausted and just thinking about bed, my thoughts were interrupted by a suggestion from a wise and humble mzee (elder), “I don't know how many of you know this, but Jim is leaving Kenya in just a week's time. He has been such a blessing to us and I suggest we take this time to bless him before heading home.” One by one they went around the fire offering words of encouragement and speaking blessings over my life. How humbling. How Christlike. I came to serve them and they are blessing me. They 'washed my feet' with their words.

This wasn't the only blessing I received either. Last Sunday, I visited my friend John's house in Kibera. Kibera is the largest slum in all of Kenya, possibly the largest slum in all of East Africa, over 1,000,000 people living in temporary, corrugated metal homes. John and his family had me over for dinner. This wasn't the first time either, actually the third. Their humble home did not mean humble portions of food. I ate till I could eat not a bite more and Rose, John's wife sent me with 5 extra chapatis! John offers this same royal treatment to anyone visiting Kenya, to show them 'the slums' as he calls it. He will not only share with you an experience in 'the slums' but he will also share with you his God given vision for 'the slums,' to extend the arm of the churches in Kibera through a resource center he runs. In the words of Paul, He welcomed me as if he was welcoming Christ himself.

One of the blessings prayed over me were the words God gave to Abraham, “I will bless you and make you a blessing to others.” I pray this will be so through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Mt. Kenya

I have posted a detailed photo album on Facebook. You can find it by going to my profile and clicking albums. If you are not my Facebook friend it is high time we became friends. Mt. Kenya is an experience I look back on with bewilderment as to how in the world am I so blessed. By the few pictures I am posting on the blog you can get a taste of the beauty that I was a part of for 5 days. We, our group composed of 2 Kenyans, 2 South Africans, 3 Americans, and 2 Canadians (I am Canadian in this count to make it more impressive) were blessed with 5 days of perfect weather. That meant sun during the days making views of the summit possible while approaching from below and an indescribable expanse of stars at night. I suffered from some acute mountain sickness at about 14,000 ft. that settled after being administered Diamox. Mountain climbing is the perfect environment to get to know people well and we were a group made up of different amazing people who were all a joy to get to know.

Tanari Newsletter

Here is the most recent Tanari Newsletter. To see the page full size simply click on it and then you will be able to read it. The newsletter gives you information about what we have been up to the first few months of this year. I have had a part, in various ways, in all the events that are written about. I was also responsible for the layout, production and a few articles. My friend and co-worker Grace edited it. Hope fully it is informative. I promise one more post before I come home in a few weeks. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. I believe whole-heartedly that without them, these 6 months would have been in vain.

Here and Now

Prompted again by Doey... here is another post. She is the fuel that drives this truck.

I am often shocked when I think I only have two and a half months remaining. I am excited to go home and see family, of course, but I also want to live in the moment and appreciate what God has for me here and now. Two nights ago I read a quote from William Blake, that's truth was very potent. It reads...

He who binds himself a joy

Does the winged life destroy;

But he who kisses a joy as it flies

Lives in Eternity's sun rise.

I don't understand all of it, but I want to live in the moment and kiss joys as they fly by.

We have just pasted a major milestone in my time with Tanari. Last Saturday we had a graduation ceremony for all of the adolescent ROPES graduates, which amounts to 800 students from all over the Nairobi area. The event went very well, praise the Lord, with the governor spokesman as the keynote speaker. Very prestigious. There is a lot of excitement for this program right now, so the challenge now is to see how we can build off of it. My specific role was to produce a short documentary that chronicled the camps, which went over very well. I also acted as the official event photographer, even with my shoddy credentials, but my price was right.

With this out of the way the office has quieted down significantly and now my focus shifts to the ROYAL program that is currently hanging by a thread because of lack of enrollment. We have two candidates enrolled, and have a meeting tomorrow with parents who are interested. Unless we have greater enrollment we will have to cancel the program for this year and start again the following. I am also exploring possibilities to make the program more attractive for perspectives.

Personally, the Christmas season was amazing! Tom came and visited for two weeks after he was done studying London and we shared some awesome adventures. Just a few photos are posted here from our time but if you want to see them all I have an album up on facebook called "The Grand Adventures of Jim and Tom." We went on a safari together, watched Prison Break, had Ethiopian meals with my neighbors, made chapatis, rode the motorbike, and made plans for future adventures. It was hard to see him go on the 27th but the Lord has been very near. I thank Him so much for all He has blessed me with, and His daily guidance. I have just started listening to a book on iTunes, recommended by Mom called, "Walking with God." As usual God's timing is impeccable and the book ties seamlessly with questions that have been heavy on my heart.

Thank you for your prayers and please write me. I would love to know how you are doing. This doesn't need to be one sided. Until Doey prompts me again to keep up with my blog, Jim.

King's Kids Village

Again its been awhile, I have a hard time just sitting down to write but I have a great post for you. Two weeks ago I met John, the director of King's Kids Village, an orphanage on the outskirts of Nairobi. Torrey and I were facilitating activities, which was a blast. There was one girl who took a particular shine to me, I would guess she was 12 and had severe autism. She took pride in showing me, her new friend off to all of the facilatators of the orphanage. Where I would awkwardly say "hi" and then she would tug on my arm and take me to my next meeting.

John, the director, took the ministry from the hands of his mother who has moved back to the states with her husband just a year ago. He took the time to tell me the story of the orphanage. It was amazing. When his mother was 25, back in 1950 she recieved word from God that she was going to be the mother of many. She took it to mean that she was going to run an orphanage. Her answer was, "just tell me when and where and I will do it." No word for 50 years and in 2000, the Lord said, I want you to build an orphange now, in Kenya. She replied, "Lord I am 75." The Lord reminded her that Sarah was 99 when she gave birth, and he was only asking her to open an orphange. So she went to Kenya and found the land she was confident the Lord wanted for the orphanage. When her and her husband left for Kenya they sold everything they had and were able to make a down payment on the land but they needed another 100,000 USD. The proprietor of the land gave 3 mo. and they were able to get 3 more. She heard from the Lord again and he said, you didn't believe I could do it in 3 mo. so I am going to do it in 1. At the end of the month they had the money and now 9 years later, they are operating at full capacity and transforming lives.

Bwana Asifiwe

How I became a Licensed Motorcycle Driver

I have a motorcycle but I didn't have my Kenyan License till yesterday. My roommate Torrey and I went to get them together yesterday morning. We had what we thought was all the paperwork you needed but to find out that it wasn't even close. So we got to where the test was to take place and there were over 100 people waiting outside, so we thought we would definitely be there all day. So I went up and talked to someone about how the process worked and apparently we had to sign up with a driving school, and then take the test through them. We hadn't done this but found out there was a driving school right across the road. So we ran over there and payed a man 2000 shillings each about 20 dollars a piece for what we thought was the price of the test.He didn't give us a reciept and I see why in retrospect. We needed to get passport photos and copy our passport, and he personally took us to do all this. Then the best part he took us back to the police station, in the back door, in front of the 100 people and it was testing time.

Now there are 3 parts to the test, the sign test, the table test and the road test. We only took the road test! And this included, getting on a bike, starting it, and going in a circle. I passed with flying colors! The 2000 shillings we payed went directly into the police's pockets and we innocently bribed our way to a Kenyan Motorcycle License!

What I do

Its blog updating time. Pole sana (very sorry) for taking so long to post. Thank you for those, caring so much who have called me out on my lack of updates. There is a silver lining though, because it has been so long since I have updated there is plenty to draw on and this should be an interesting post. My sister requested that I post a little about what I do at work and in the day to day. I thought that was a fair request so here you go.

As all of you know, at least I assume and if not now you do, I work for Tanari Trust. I specifically work with the ROPES program with Tanari. ROPES stands for Rites of Passage Experience. Tanari offers two ROPES programs, ROPES adolescent and ROPES ROYAL. These programs are in place to guide youth through important transition times, the adolescent program falls in between elementary school and high school and the ROYAL program is for high school students initiating them into the market place. Rites of Passage Experiences are long standing in the African context performed by one's tribe. Kenyan youth are reeling from the lack of these experiences. One of the key factors in any rites of passage experience is the tribe or village. For rites to be effective it must fall in the context of a community. The ROPES program is performing these transitions in the context of the church as the community. So my job in relation to all this is program planning and execution for the ROYAL program, and participation where I am needed with the adolescent program. Where we stand now with the ROYAL program is hunting for participants. There is a hefty price tag attached to the program and we don't have an effective way to subsidize it for people who can't afford it. The price stands now at 40,000 Kenyan Shillings, just over 500 USD. That seems like a minimal price tag for a 6 month program that offers a climb up the second highest mountain on the continent, a 3 month internship with a business associated with your field of interest , and invaluable leadership, life skills and discipleship training. As of now we have two people signed up for a program that is due to start in December.

There is a church interested in partnering with us. There are pluses and minuses that come with that. The plus is that we will instantly have significant increase in enrollment but that price tag is scarey and the church may want to alter the program in significant ways to lower the cost, such as replace the Mount Kenya experience with something much more docile. Please pray about our negotiations with the church. If God wants us to give somethings up so more people are reached that we would be open to that, but if it is a necessary component of the trip as I see it now that we may be able to work to shave back the budget in other ways.

There is much more I can write about but I will let you digest that and I will fill you in on my crazy weekend in Homa Bay and the motorcycle that is being delivered as I write this.