Our African Home

Darlene and I have 3 homes -- not as many as some candidates, but enough for us.  One is a promised home, a place in God's eternal family.  And we also feel at home in the USA, in California, where old friends and familiar places are.  And of course Nairobi, with street kids and the MITS Team.  From 1998 to 2002 we stayed in Eastleigh, down the street from our street kids' center, in an apartment building that slowly became an almost totally Somali enclave.  Down our stairs and the next building over was a camel butchery. When they butchered a camel, they put the head in the doorway so people could see how fresh the meat was.  After a few days the flies and the warm sun made it a little less appetizing.  It was great to be close to the street kids and the Team in Eastleigh; many was the time Team members came in the middle of the night to borrow our car to take an injured street kid to the hospital.  They would usually clean it up good, but eventually a number of blood stains became part of the car.  

Then  in September 2002 we moved out to Kamulu, where we had built a center for street girls on an acre that we owned.  We added a room in the girls' center and lived there until two weeks ago.  It was also great being with the girls -- Kamulu has fresh air, we came to know the Drumvale Farmers Cooperative and received rights to the land that MITS now uses for ministry and education and skills training and the farm.  And the girls came over at all hours -- with a cut finger needing a bandaid and antibiotic, with a headache, or a heartache, with something the girls' leaders had trouble handling, with a desire to earn a little bit of money.  

Two weeks ago we moved into a house we have built on another acre that we own.  Instead of the two rooms at the girls, we now have a spacious bathroom, a bedroom, a very spacious combo kitchen, dining and living room, and two guest bedrooms (1,799 square feet, counting the garage).  And we have planted bananas, hibiscus, roses, mango and avocado and orange and mulberry trees, passion fruit and cape honeysuckle and other climbers.  We have a garage for the car (our 1989 Toyota), which we had repainted last week, and on the roof of the garage is a patio for sunset and star watching and coffee-drinking.  And it's quiet and private, a real change in our lives.  We felt a desire for this and are glad to have this change (maybe it's from being 65 and getting social security -- how much does that change a person?).  

It's a sign that we are even closer to fulfilling our desire to have the Kenyan Team take over all the responsibilities of the ministry -- administration, student affairs, loving the kids, teaching, first aid, skills training, developing new team members, holding close together in a pleasant working relationship -- all those things that make the ministry work.

We are far from a perfect ministry, maybe even far from a good one.  We need more work on our farm -- to get to zero-tilling our irrigation areas, to intensify our production, to get a full crop rotation program going.  We need more work on our businesses -- to get the cafe running again, to learn how to market our sewing and wood products in a continuous manner, to set up a more professional salon, and so on. 

Our best works are the Eastleigh ministry on the streets, the literacy education, production in sewing and woodworking, development of the infrastructure in buildings and the staff, and the congregation that meets at our learning center.  And maybe the best of all is seen in the morale and attitude and quality of the kids who have come from the streets and live at Kamulu -- our Team is doing a truly amazing work with them.  We see the signs of God's work among us. 

Anyway, Darlene and I are happy with this house.  My "office" is now a corner of the living room, and Darlene has her desk in the opposite corner, looking into the back yard.  And over in the kitchen corner sits a large bunch of Kampala bananas, which was taken off one of our many banana trees here at Kamulu.  And yesterday Joseph Kamau (ask me to tell you his story some day, and don't be squeamish) asked me to baptize him in the Indian Ocean at Malindi on our trip to the Coast.  And he said he won't be Kamau any more -- he wants his new name from God -- call me Joseph, he says.  So I will.

peace and joy, charles