Things that make me happy ...

- Wearing my "hakuna matata" shirt ... yes it's cheesy but was given to me by a Kenyan (thanks, Laura!), and it just declares "today is going to be a good day." Also, it makes everyone laugh, and that's nice, as long as I laugh with them!

- Seeing my students perform songs, dances, and poems in preparation for a little performance next week. They are really quite talented.

- Care package that arrived today - thanks, Chrissy!

- Having water and power, and using both to take a nice shower.

- Unlimited internet for one week, and all the fun that comes with that!

- Making homemade "fudge" - supposed to be no-bake cookies, but they don't really harden (but they're still great). Perfect when you want something very chocolaty but don't have access to real chocolate (only cocoa powder).

- Three day weekend since tomorrow there is a "games day" at another school.

- Grading exams and realizing my students actually improved since last time.

- Group of visitors arriving on Sunday! A short-term trip is coming to Ribe for a week to do work on the new school building and help set up the library. It's going to be so fun having more friends here and we're looking forward to hopefully accomplishing a lot!

- Oh, and this picture:

Lessons about Poverty: Whom are we serving?

The story of the “Rich Young Ruler” being unable to get into heaven and Jesus’ cautioning in Matthew 6:24 about idolizing mammon (money) that I closed the last entry with are things I have heard before, but God has shown me these lessons in a whole new light recently.

Rowell wrote in To Give or Not To Give? that “We could call this the ‘mammon principle.’ Jesus taught the disciples that riches are dangerous because they have a definite demonic power at work behind them.” He explained that, “‘mammon,’ is an Aramaic word defined in the New American Standard Bible’s footnote as ‘wealth, etc., personified as an object of worship.’”

Earlier in this installment of blog entries, I shared Proverbs 23:4, which advises, “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.” Shortly before that gem is a more ominous piece of counsel in Proverbs 22:16, saying, “He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich – both come to poverty.” Based on the themes I have been learning from Rowell and the Elmbrook Church sermon, I imagine the poverty that type of individual comes to is spiritual. He is devoted to mammon, and thereby despises God.

In an especially poignant section of his book, Rowell explains, “If we are not alert to the delusions of grandeur induced by our relative financial strength, we may never gain, and we may not long hold on to, a proper understanding of God’s heart for the poor. We must remember that according to James 2 the poor—especially the believing poor—are to be viewed as spiritual assets and not as financial liabilities. They are with us in part because we need them to teach us about what it means to truly trust God for everything and to avoid the influences of mammon. They are in this sense richer in faith than we are. The poor deserve to be treated with dignity in the family of God. There is simply no room for partiality as we relate to those less materially blessed than ourselves.”

In re-reading it just now, I noted his distinction of “less materially blessed,” not less blessed. His words here also contributed to my conviction in the last installment that even my meager material wealth (compared to Western standards) does indeed hinder my spiritual affluence.

Rowell’s assertion that “the poor deserve to be treated with dignity” rings very true when you take Proverbs 22:22-23 into accord. It states, “Do not exploit the poor because the are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the LORD will take up their case and will plunder those who plunder them.” Not only should they be viewed as spiritual assets to our own learning about God, but the Bible makes it clear that God is on their side. Remember we are called to take care of the poor, widowed, orphaned, etc.

How have we gone astray from that call when the Bible is very clear on the matter? Rowell strives to answer that question, but I wish to leave it a bit hypothetical. However, I was alarmed at some information in his book. For example, he wrote that “…even committed believers in North America appear to be keeping over 97 percent of their income. In 2002, only 6 percent of US evangelicals actually tithed” (according to Ron Sider in The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World?). Rowell quotes Sider again when pointing out that these facts lead to some other statistics that he shares, which amount to an “observation [that] is consistent with the general recognition that ‘the richer we become, the less we give in proportion to our income.’”

It seems almost as if people reach a point in their giving that they feel they are meeting a set quota rather than continuing to tithe based on a percentage, more specifically a tenth as established in the Bible. Ten percent is not that much! Only a dime from each dollar, and don’t tell me they add up, because that is precisely my point. It can certainly add up for a much greater good, but apparently most people cannot part with so little of their wealth, while it could help the poor so immensely.

Lastly, Proverbs 22:7 caught my eye, stating, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” The first half certainly applies here, and plays out almost subconsciously even when the rich does not stipulate it. Rowell described, “Undeserved deference heightens the sense of superiority that is presumed by the wealthy and conceded by the poor who relegate to the rich from a position of decided economic disadvantage. This is a natural dynamic, but it misses the kingdom expectation anticipated by James 1:9-10: ‘The brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.’”

I have been blessed to experience some degree of that situation in James. While there are certainly times that learning Swahili in advance would have benefited us, it has not been very detrimental that we did not. However, it is by that means that God has placed me in situations of humility when interacting with elders in the church and community here. For that I am thankful.

To close, Proverbs 22 proved to be a paramount chapter for enhancing these lessons, and verse 2 reminds us that “Rich and poor have this in common: The LORD is the Maker of them all.”
So, whom will you serve – Mammon or the LORD?

Lessons about Poverty: Which of us are really “the poor,” again?

In the sermon we downloaded from Elmbrook Church’s website, the pastor was preaching on the Sermon on the Plain from Luke 6:20-26. He explained that it is shorter than the more famous Sermon on the Mount (in Matthew 5-7), “but the main theme and contents are basically the same.”

In Luke 6:20-21, Jesus says:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”

The pastor said, “‘Blessed are the poor’ – what does he mean by poor? He means POOR – beggar, destitute, to have absolutely nothing.” But then he echoed some of what I read in To Give or Not To Give? (and shared in the last post). He described that in their physical poverty, they’ve realized their spiritual need – they have absolutely nothing to give but themselves, so they come and throw themselves at the feet of Jesus.” The poor are better positioned to have a stronger faith, because that is what they rely on a lot of times, whereas the wealthy lose focus on God when they rely on themselves.

The Elmbrook pastor described that Jesus was in effect saying, “In your poverty, you will know kingdom life, you will know the Christ life living within you, you will know kingdom power, kingdom joy, kingdom fulfillment and satisfaction in the midst of your circumstances whether they are good or bad.” He went on to point out that “these are revolutionary type thoughts.
In that time [and I would say in our time as well], the world said the blessed were only the wealthy, well fed, popular, but Jesus basically says, ‘No, not in my economy.’” People still usually use the word “blessed” for something physical, tangible; something the world would say is good. Meanwhile, when Jesus says “Blessed are the poor,” he says they will be fulfilled and content with the kingdom of God.

Likewise, in “Blessed are the hungry,” the pastor claims that by “hungry” Jesus means starved or famished. He explained that “Jesus says, ‘I have a food from Heaven that will satisfy you, a food that will last forever, a bread from Heaven that will go on and on and on’” and that Jesus is “looking for people with a holy hunger for Him, and passion for Him more than anything in the world.” The pastor paraphrased Paul’s sentiments in Philippians 3 that, “everything the world has to give me is like rubbish; it’s worth nothing.”

It is in these ways, that the pastor said, “The values of Heaven are on a collision course with the values of the world.”

In Luke 6:24-25, Jesus says:
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.”

The pastor explained that “woe” means sorrow, dismay, and disappointment. He also pointed out that “Jesus is not saying laughter is wrong; it is not an attack on laughter, joking around or having fun. But what he is saying is, there’s many people in our society today that all they’re trying to do is have fun, to party, and just have a good time at the exclusion of God.” Therefore, the woes Jesus warns us about are not predictions upon all of us, but rather to those who enjoy their wealth and laughter while leaving out the Christian lifestyle of sharing, giving, and loving. Again, the pastor explained that Jesus is in essence saying, “What I have to offer is going to last; what the world offers is temporary. Divorce yourself from that all out pursuit of popularity and wealth.”

In fact, this is supported in Matthew 6:24 where Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.”

If “mammon” (money) and the pursuit of riches has consumed us in the Western world, I think many of us would agree that it has become difficult to connect with God. Even as I try to commit to reading my Bible consistently (if you may recall I am trying to read the whole Bible this year), I can see that many of our Kenyan neighbors are richer in their faith even without owning a Bible. Since I have “already received [my] comfort” in many ways, I am finding that I am the more poor in spirit.

Lessons about Poverty: Learning from our poor brothers and sisters

We can definitely identify with Rowell’s description in To Give or Not To Give? that “in spite of the sacrifices apparent at home to those who watch well-intentioned friends and family members ‘forsake all’ in order to serve the gospel in foreign and faraway parts of the world, missionaries to the poor often arrive on unreached fields only to find that they are fabulously wealthy in relative terms. Surrounded by poverty in the new mission setting, the Western missionaries’ attempts to abandon worldly wealth often serve only to magnify their material abundance.”

Later in the book, he explains that “historically, material wealth has caused lost neighbors among indigenous people to manifest utter indifference to what a missionary says while attracting rapt attention to what he or she has.” I think it is for this reason that I am thankful that we are in a fairly Christian community since we came to volunteer as Christian servants rather than serve directly in cross-cultural evangelism since I was previously not aware of such facts. I like something Lesley recently said, which was something to the effect of “more often than not, when we try to share Jesus’ love verbally, we end up getting preached to!” Beyond that, our neighbors are almost always very gracious in sharing what little they have, receiving what we offer and respecting us in what we do not.

In continuing a bit more to the heart of the book, Rowell points out that “James [the book in the Bible] teaches that poor men and women who are chosen to be part of the family of god are to be prized because they are uniquely prepared to be ‘rich in faith.’” He describes, “poverty somehow creates conditions that reinforce the human compulsion and capacity to rely on God in humble ways. Prosperity, on the other hand, induces pride, self-reliance, and disregard both for God and for the poor. The corrupting influence of riches is a danger the Scriptures repeatedly warn us about—one so great that wealth alone can make it hard for rich people even to enter heaven.”

The pastor from Elmbrook Church referred to this very fact in part of his sermon as he talked briefly about the “Rich Young Ruler,” found in Mark 10. In this story, the man asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Eventually, Jesus tells him, “Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Mark 10:22 states, “At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.” The pastor described that the young man basically debated “’Jesus, or riches? Jesus, or riches? Which is going to be the focus of my life?’ …and the man turned away and walked away from Jesus.”

In my opinion, Jesus is a bit extreme in that story, as he makes a point about the dangerous lure of riches. He directs the disciples to notice how difficult it is for the wealthy to get into heaven. Meanwhile, central to Jesus’ directions to the rich man (literally the center of the statement) is “give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” I think this is more practical, because we sold a lot of our possessions before coming to Kenya, and yet it was not “everything you have.” If we would have been required to do that, I know my face would have fallen, and I would have been sad just as the man in the story was. I would have had to debate, “Jesus, or some of my cherished belongings.” Of course, I like to think I could still follow Jesus in that situation, but I am glad His call is not that extreme, and I take heart in recently discovering Proverbs 22:9: “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.”

As we have shared at other points in this blog and in monthly updates, we have felt blessed at many points this year as we try to live sacrificially to serve in the community. I feel even more blessed though, for the opportunity to witness, meet, and get to know people here that truly do seem richer in their faith as a result of their circumstances.

Lessons about Poverty: An Introduction

There have been times in our living here that there is a break in the activities and projects that I (Chris) can get involved with. I tried to visit the school more and help Lesley a bit extra during those periods, but I have also taken pleasure in my rediscovered enjoyment of reading. It is like this year has alternated between contributing to projects – not only mentally, but also very physically (making up for never working a manual labor job growing up) – and on the other end of the spectrum, it is sometimes like a sabbatical.

This month has definitely not had the quiet, sabbatical time periods. At the end of January, I began to take on a bit larger role in the completion of the new building at the Ribe Primary School. At first it was just acting as liaison between Ribe and America to enhance the information flow. Then, I was taking and sending measurements and specific information for the group coming in a few weeks.

Last week, I managed (and helped with) completing the cement floors in the classrooms, including making a quick run for more cement sooner than expected on Wednesday. Over the weekend, we had Mophat (the in-country Project Kenya representative) and an electrician in town. They are both from Western Kenya, and came to confirm some arrangements for the group coming and do a lot of the electrical work, which continued to keep us pretty busy. I am now managing a little remaining plastering and hoping to get the floors in the corridors done before the group arrives as well.


Thus, I have been quite busy even through the weekends, but today we had an unexpected day to relax because a cement delivery was delayed. As a result, I finally got a chance to put some thoughts down to share. Managing the progress at the school and discussing the labor wages between the donors in America and the laborers here in Ribe has been a lesson about the poverty level in this area, but most of these thoughts are from other sources. In fact, I have had some blog material bouncing around my head since mid-January when we were experiencing the power outages.

I have been reading To Give or Not to Give? Rethinking Dependency, Restoring Generosity, & Redefining Sustainability by John Rowell. Now I’m sure you could’ve guessed which way his argument was to the question “To give or not to give?” even without the subtitle of the book, but I am really enjoying the book and learning some interesting things.

A few things really struck me, and then shortly after that, Lesley and I listened to a sermon we downloaded from Elmbrook Church in Wisconsin that complemented the material very well. Additionally, I then came to a section of Proverbs that had verses that spoke about the same topics.

Combined together, this material added up more than I realized, so I will share it in a few installments. I hope you enjoy, but don’t get your hopes up too much; I am, after all, an engineer, and it has little personal commentary but rather the juxtaposition of the material after milling around in my head.

Random stories from Kenya

1. Going bananas
Today I wanted to buy some bananas ... shouldn't be hard to do, since there are tons of banana plants growing everywhere in Ribe ... yet I couldn't find any. None of the little shops we frequent ever carry bananas, since they only seem to be used as subsistence farming. This seems odd, because bananas are essentially a communal food - one tree has one branch that produces 30 bananas that all ripen at the same time, then it is done for the season. I can't imagine eating 30 bananas one day and none the rest of the time, but perhaps if your family is large enough and you have enough trees it could work. Anyway, I ran into a smart boy I know and asked him if he knew where I could get some. He offered to go look for me, since he was on a bicycle and I figured he would probably just visit someone's farm. About 20 minutes later, he came back empty-handed. "No bananas?" I asked. "Yes, there are no bananas," he replied.



2. Plant a tree
The other day I taught my English class immediately after they had Social Studies, and the lesson was still on the board. I noticed it was about the importance of trees for the environment and why you should plant 2 trees for every one you chop down. Now, for your average American this may be all rhetoric, but for rural Kenyans this is immediately practical. Their families cut down trees to clear land for farming, to use as firewood, to build houses, etc. It's not that they don't care, but that those are the necessities of the situation. Then tonight I saw on the news that new regulations are requiring all farmers to allocate 10% of their land for tree planting, and that river banks should have trees, not farming, within 50 metres of the edge. Now, I don't know about environmental or agricultural policy in the US, but both the lesson and the news seemed to be very encouraging that the country is continually emphasizing sustainable practices that will be good for the entire community. Let's just hope they provide resources and incentives to make it happen.

3. Kusalimia
You would think that after 6 months in Kenya I would remember very standard cultural norms like greeting people ... but no. Sometimes, especially after being particularly task-oriented doing work at home, I forget that I am in an uber-process-oriented culture (shout out to Steve Weaver for forcing me to be more process-oriented, by the way). When I walk to school I usually wave to the people I see and say "habari asubuhi" or some other greeting, but these are usually people I don't really know. The other day I was running late to school and when a woman yelled out "Lozi!" I just turned, waved, and yelled my greeting. In the US this would be totally acceptable ... but not here. I realized as soon as I got to school that I had probably really offended her by not going over and chatting for a while. In fact, it would have been significantly more important to greet ("kusalimia") her than to be on-time to school. When I saw her again a few days later I went to chat, and she remarked that she hadn't seen me a long time, since the wedding in December. Just further proof that making visual and vocal contact with a person does not count as "seeing" them ... you are invisible until you shake hands!

A Weekend to Recharge

As Chris wrote, we were without “moto” (fire, slang for electricity) here last week. A day or two in the dark isn’t too bad … but by day 5 we were struggling because everything with batteries was dead, too. Eating by candle-light may be romantic, but cooking and washing dishes by candlelight can be disastrous! So, Friday afternoon, a bit spontaneously, we packed up our backpacks with a change of clothes and as many electronics as we could hold (laptop, phones, AA battery charger, AAA battery charger …!). Since our phones and computer were dead we had no way to contact any friends or hotels, so we just set off to town, hoping we could stop by our host’s house in Mombasa to plug in and look up a place to stay. By 5:30 pm we were on the phone with hotels on the south coast, since we had not yet visited the area and thought we might as well use this opportunity. After booking the cheapest (but still decent) room we could find, our host informed us that they actually wouldn’t recommend trying to cross the ferry at rush hour because of the crowds and security. Well, we decided to take a risk, and managed to arrive at the ferry right as they were closing the gate. We safely and quickly traveled there (and back) without incident or loss of anything – God really watched over us.

We managed to get to our hotel before dark via multiple forms of public transportation and then just crashed for the night in an air-conditioned room. The hotel was quite decent for what we paid, and was just blocks from the beach. We didn’t spend much time at the beach, though; it was covered in seaweed and persistent trinket-sellers, so we took advantage of the power to have a “working weekend” of lesson planning, email responding, local phone calling, international calls on Skype, and just a little DVD-watching.

While the whole weekend was nice, a few serendipitous “mini-adventures” made it great. Saturday afternoon we went for a long walk to a grocery store we had seen … only to find out it was still “coming soon.” On the way back we gazed at the road-side kibandas (huts) that sell paintings, figurines, and kangas. After debating about getting a painting (we have wanted one for a while), I expressed that I wished there was a painting of coastal women, not just Masai women, since we wanted something that represents the people that we know here. The artist said he could paint one, so we commissioned the first painting we’ve ever owned!

On Saturday we had passed a sign for a church, and the artist said that he went there and the service was in English. So, Sunday morning we attended the Word of Life Fellowship Church in Diani, and it was awesome! It’s hard to describe … the grounds and building were the quintessential mix of Swahili style and modern but without any pretension, the small congregation was extremely friendly and welcoming, the worship which mixed Swahili and English was gorgeous and genuine, and the preaching was Biblical and heartfelt. God really spoke to me through his word and the message on Philemon (“PHIL-a-mon” they say). There were a couple American missionaries and a few Germans associated with the church, but otherwise it was very Kenyan and welcomed people from town and villages alike. It was great to see God working in this community and we were glad to be a part of it for one day.

We went away for the weekend to recharge our batteries – literally AND figuratively! – and as we returned home I was contemplating the ways in which I had been asking God for power. The service ended with a prayer that said, “God, there is no power … other than your power.” Chris and I both laughed a bit, but I think I had come to the conclusion that the weekend was going to have a happy ending whether or not there was power when we returned to Ribe. In fact, I felt God used this uncomfortable situation to bring us closer to him … so we were happily (ecstatically?) surprised when, 30 minutes before we would arrive home, we receive a text message from our host saying power was back! Hallelujah! A happy ending that included power was yet a little happier.