Christmas in Kenya

Now that we have a president in the USA with a slight connection to Kenya, we also have more news correspondents in Kenya, and they need to find something to do.  So one of them has done a good service with an interesting and true-to-life article on Christmas in Kenya.  It's Edmund Sanders in the Dec 23 issue of the Los Angeles Times.  You can find it at www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-kenya-xmas23-2008dec23,0,2397369.story

Kenyans who live in Nairobi spend a lot of money going home for Christmas -- higher bus fares and other costs, but especially relatives in the country who expect their "rich" Nairobi relatives to bring gifts and cash home for Christmas.  This happens partly because those who go to Nairobi to seek a living don't report back home that they only got a security guard job at $60 a month and one-third to half of it goes for rent.  They continue to make it sound wonderful to live in Nairobi!  The truth is that about half the people of Nairobi live in the slum areas of Kibera, Mathare, Soweto, Korogocho and the many scattered but smaller slums around the city.  And more than half of the people don't get enough food every day.  And most of those who come to the city to seek riches can't get skilled labor jobs but must work at the lower income jobs.  

We are happy that Made in the Streets can give the street kids who live with us a better Christmas than many get -- each one has a bed, and enough food to eat, and an opportunity to visit some relatives at least once during the holidays, and Team members who truly love them, and literacy education and skills training and a shopping trip and other activities that normal families take together.  

Thanks to all those who help us do this, and Merry Christmas

Tolstoy Tells it True

Had a great night last night.  The granddaughters spent the night with us for the first time.  An evening of delights for grandparents!  We had popcorn, colored Littlest Pet Shop, made a snowman craft, sat in front of the fire, blew up the air bed for the girls, ate turkey and dressing dinner, and read Leo Tolstoy's The Three Questions.  All while the parents were out of town having dinner and a night on their own.  Makes me really glad God let me live this long.

The book we read is a children's adaptation of Tolstoy's original story.  In the story Nikolai gets his 3 questions answered:  1) when is the best thing to do something? 2) who is the most important one? and 3) what is the right thing to do?  The girls appreciated the story and remembered the 3 answers -- good lessons for them, and for all of us.  I recommend the story to you, in either version.  

More good news -- social security is giving me an increase for 2009 -- such a deal!  It's great to grow old in this time.

When you pray, please remember these

  1.  Our good friend Virda Stevens needs God's healing hand,

  2.  Another friend, Hugh Fraser, needs continued improvement,

  3.  Land issue at Made in the Streets isn't settled yet - should get final court ruling Thursday

  4.  One MITS student, Joseph Kamau, left us to go and help his aunt on her farm after his uncle died.

  5.  15 young people from the streets have taken government skills exams in November and December -- in auto mechanics, 8th grade exit exams, and sewing -- and 3 others finished training programs outside of MITS (hairdressing and cooking) -- pray for their success in finding work and living on their own.  Anastasia will go to a 'bridging' program for her journalism studies at Universal College.  

Thanks -- peace and joy, charles

Surprised by Joy

We came to Oxford, England, to visit friends posted here to teach by Abilene Christian University.  Darlene has read the Narnia stories by C. S. Lewis to all the street kids in our Kamulu program.  And this year we took all the kids and team to see Prince Caspian because two young girls in Thousand Oaks, California, gave their earnings and allowance and money from recycling to Made in the Streets so we could do something with the kids.  It was a great experience -- 75 of us went to the theater in Nairobi on a day when they gave away hot dogs, popcorn and a soda with the price of admission.  The kids loved it, and Francis Wahome told us afterwards that he did not drop even one grain of popcorn but ate it all.

We had no idea we would get to see all the C. S. Lewis memories.  Mel and Jan Hailey took us on a walking tour of Oxford.  We walked down to Magdalen College where Lewis taught.  And we went to his house and walked around the little lake and wildlife trail where he often walked, which must have been his inspiration for Ransom's walks in Out of the Silent Planet.  And we saw trees there that looked like the Ents in Tolkien's stories (Tolkien was a friend to Lewis).  We walked over to the Trinity Church where Lewis attended and saw his grave in the cemetery.  And finally we went out to eat at his favorite restuarant.  

Needless to say, this was a rich experience.  Lewis influenced me greatly with his wonderful arguments in Mere Christianity about the value of the coming of Christ into the world and about the moral teaching of the Bible.  I saw in That Hideous Strength the necessity of taking action when truth and hope and joy are threatened.  

I feel once again a sense of joy, a sense that I am blessed above all men, a sense that God thinks about me and remembers me and makes a way for me.  

May you find an unexpected joy today,

charles

Love is a House

A long time ago, when I was in University, I fell in love with stories, so I read all the short stories I could find and listened to storytellers.  A few I vividly remember, like "love is a house."  It was the English countryside, and every person lived alone there, each in his or her own small brick home, for there were only so many bricks, and there was room for no one else inside.  One day a cargo plane flew over and accidentally dropped a load of bricks, which landed on a man's house and smashed it.  When he patiently rebuilt his house, it was larger than before.  

He gathered some extra vegetables and fruit, and he went over the hill to where a woman lived in her small house.  He invited her over to eat with him.  She was reluctant, but finally she came. And they were both delighted.  

So the next day he went out hunting for more bricks, and he rebuilt his house again.  Then he went into the valley and found others to invite to his home.  Years later, after he married and raised his family and lay on his death bed, his son leaned close so he could hear the last words, "love is a house." 

And it's true.  We are delighted with the home we have.  Wednesday evening we invited half of our leadership Team (and wives/husbands) to our house for Christmas dinner (I know it's early, but Darlene likes to get started on Christmas!).  I cooked steaks and sausages and roasted corn upstairs on our rooftop patio.  It was great sitting up there talking to Jackton and Irene and Robin and Victor as we cooked.  After dinner we all went upstairs and talked about the moon and Venus and stars and meteorites and whether they might ever have gold and the trouble we've faced over Made in the Streets land.  We are all so glad that we have chosen a non-revenge and patience and let-justice-take-its-course and God-will-work-his-will course.  

And the next day John Wambu came over after his work of building on the new nursery school building and his visit to the Department of Lands, and we sat on the rooftop and talked and enjoyed our friendship.

And tonight Darlene and I went upstairs after dark and turned off all the lights and felt the strong wind blow and watched Orion rise in the East and a beautiful but quickly burned meteorite.  And we felt the peace of love.  

Merry Christmas from Darlene, and may your house be love.