Matatus

Matatus are fascinating.  They are mini-buses that are used for public transport in Nairobi and all over Kenya.  They have 30 seats and hold 77 people - or they did until they passed a law in 1994 saying everyone had to have a seat.  Once Darlene and I turned off 1st Avenue in Eastleigh into Juja Road and there were 4 matatus abreast coming at us (and that's on a 2-lane street).  I guess they missed us; I didn't remember anything for a few days.  Here is a picture of two matatus coming down a street in Eastleigh with lots of trash in it.  Many of them are wildly painted, with all sorts of graphics and words on them.  And they play loud music and drive as fast as they can wherever they are.  The objective is to pass one more car.  And the method is to stop anywhere and without warning to try to pick up one more customer before another matatu does.  They cause lots of traffic jams by passing anywhere, especially if there is a slowdown, blocking cars from the other direction, filling up the round-a-bouts (traffic circles) and causing all traffic to come to a standstill.  Everybody hates them, and everybody rides them.  Of course some of our kids at Made in the Streets aspire to be matatu drivers. 

  And yesterday we were in a small traffic jam on the highway, following a matatu, and we saw written on the back of it -- Max Lucado!  Now that's fame!  

Virda Stevens

  Sadness and joy seem always mixed in our lives.  We have to say good-bye to a close friend.  Virda Stevens, the person who convinced us to visit Kenya in 1990, died, and we feel an empty space.  We often tell this story when people ask us how we came to work with street kids or why we do what we do.  In 1988 Bill and Virda visited Kenya, spent time with some missionaries, and fell in love with the concept of ministry the missionaries held.  And they developed a great vision for the work that led to a great school in Eastleigh Section II of Nairobi -- KCITI.  Under their vision and help, it became a computer and electronics school that excelled in training computer operators and technicians.  For many years KCITI produced more graduate than all the other schools in Nairobi combined, and they got the jobs because they had everyday experience on the computer.  

  But back to the story.  In 1989 they decided to join an evangelism campaign led by Lloyd Deal in Eastleigh.  They invited us to go with them, but we refused.  We had no intention of working in Africa, since we wanted to eventually go to Singapore and Malaysia.  Besides that, we were set on going on a backpacking trip in Europe that summer.  So they took several other people with them on the trip.  Deal's campaign, lasting over 2 months, baptized 360+ people, and a church was begun.  

  That was great, but Virda had another vision.  She saw hundreds of kids on the streets, and they were only evangelizing adults.  So she wanted to return and do a Vacation Bible School and train teachers, so they would one day have a good children's ministry and Sunday school.  She came to us and asked us to write a series of 5 classes and a two-day teaching training manual of the type she felt they needed for the kids in poverty in Eastleigh.  We said, "Okay, but we are not going."  It took about 3 months to write the material.  When we gave it to Virda, she read it and liked all the graphics and lesson plans and crafts.  A few weeks later she came back to us and said, "Uh, you are the ones who wrote this teacher training material; you really ought to be the one to do the training."  That was too much to resist.  So we went, and 35 people from the Eastleigh Church came for training, and it was wonderful. And on the last day of VBS, there were 435 kids.  

  She wanted to go again the next year, so we did the same thing.  This time 76 people came for training for the two long and grueling days of preparation.  And on the last day, 1003 kids showed up for VBS.  We could have died and gone to heaven then.

  But Virda has continued to serve the Lord, and so much more has been done in all the years since.  And we are still in Nairobi, now working with street children, still in the Eastleigh area, because of Virda's love for us and her perseverance. Thanks, Virda, for a friendship well lived.

Moving Gets You More Friends

Those who know Darlene and me know how much we love California.  The San Francisco Bay Area was home for 21 years.  We love the rugged Pacific beach and the stunningly beautiful Sierra Mountains.  We love many people there who live in our hearts.  The Redwood Church holds wonderful memories for us.  

And we have truly enjoyed having our "base" in Southern California for the years we have worked in street ministry in Nairobi.  Returning for time with family in between visits to churches to make reports is a delight, as we watch grandchildren grow and spend time with an aged mother, who herself did great ministry in Nairobi for 6 years.  And the growing relationship with Conejo Church has enriched our lives, as we have developed many dear friends.  

Now our lives promise to be divided further, as we will have 3 homes.  We will continue to be in Nairobi half our time, but we will be divided between the Greater Dallas-Fort Worth area and California.  Because of street ministry, we have found great friends among Christians in Irving, Denton, Colleyville, North Richland Hills, Hamilton and Garland, not to mention Dallas itself.  Such varied churches as South MacArthur, Prestoncrest, Legacy, Hamilton and Singing Oaks are dear to us.  

Every move we have made has resulted in finding dear friends with whom to enjoy life and ministry.  We are certain that will continue.  In Christ there is never a need to look back, only forward, and sideways to those we walk beside.  For Christ is always the "yes" to what we seek to become.

An Answer to Despair

  I am happy to have an answer to my questions in a short time.  I have known people who struggle with issues and bad feelings for long periods, and who thus have to battle against bitterness as well.  Asaph writes in Psalm 73 of his own struggle as he watched bad people get good things.  The rich got richer, the proud gained more reason to be proud.  He was almost reduced to complaining and bitterness.  Then, he says, "I went into the sanctuary."  Then he understood the vaporous character of gain without gratitude, the slippery slope of self-pride in place of God-pride.  

  So today I went to church.  It's my job to make coffee and teach the 9:00 am Bible class.  Today it was 1 Thessalonians 2.  But it was afterwards that I found my answer.  I begin on Sunday getting ready for next week's class, which is to be 1 Thessalonians 3.  I sat in church and listened to two of our girls sing, and one of our boys read a scripture about hope from Isaiah.  And in a quiet moment I started to read chapter 3.  Paul wrote to the church that "we must have these troubles." He says, "we told you that we all would have to suffer."  I know those concepts, but it was only in the context of the church that they became real for me.  For Paul also wrote, "we have much suffering, still we are comforted by the faith of the church."  

  So there it is.  Suffering does not diminish joy, when you are in the church.  Loss does not bring despair, when you listen to the song and the scripture and you experience in living color the faith of the church.  

  Next time I suffer loss and feel the pain, I will seek to remember to go right away into the presence of the One who lets us see.  And I will not forget the church.  And I will never cease to value the role of the church in my life.  

Dealing with Loss

John Wambu and I are having a hard time dealing with loss.  We made the offices at the Learning Center of Made in the Streets as secure as we knew how.  We put a safe in the wall when we built it -- and put a cement roof on the room.  We put a metal door on the office, a metal door on the outside office door, metal gates on the Learning Center, and we stationed a dog at the Center.  As it turns out, we did not have at the time of the break-in the strongest possible locks everywhere, but we had strong ones.  Thieves broke in and stole $8,000 of the ministry money, which was scheduled to do renovations on the property, to build part of a new building and to pay for special activities for the street kids, among other things.  No one had actually seen us bring in the money, and only 4 people knew about the safe.  

But people know that a school will have cash at the end of a month.  And they know it will be in the most secure office.  And someone may have noticed that there was a connecting door between the conference room and the office area, and the conference room had a strong lock but one that could be cut.  So...they came at night, broke the locks, found the safe and took the money.  

For us, loss is hard to deal with.  Both John and I feel guilty, knowing there was more we could have done for security.  And we feel bad for the ministry and the kids.  We sorry that someone we know and love may have been involved.  We wonder if we can keep money safe the next time.  

There are many things we think of.  Jesus suffered loss; he even let Judas Iscariot continue to steal out of the common purse.  Paul counted all material, mental and social things of this world as less than nothing for the sake of knowing Christ Jesus.  Paul said he was content, with little or much, with whatever happens in life.  Christians are called to rejoice in all circumstances.  We are called to believe that we are in the will of God, that God is in control, that all that happens to us will further the kingdom of God in some way.  

We still find it hard to deal with loss.  It happened on our watch, and we built the office and the safe.  And we have responsibility for the ministry's money.  So how do we find peace? Or do we need the turmoil until we find better ways to take care of God's resources?  

We each forgive and try to encourage the other, and it is hard for either of us to receive the encouragement.  It keeps us awake at night, and both of us have lost weight (and John can hardly afford the weight loss).  We both know that God loves us, that this ministry is worth doing and these kids are more valuable than all the world, but all that doesn't yet console us.  Each of us keeps thinking it's our fault, and that's hard to shake. 

I have discovered many times that one of the answers to guilt is the passage of time.  One usually feels better in the morning, at least after sincerely changing and desiring to be a better person.  So I feel sure that a morning will come when we both feel better.  We want once again to have what John writes about, when the heart does not condemn.  

I usually don't write like this, because my life has been incredibly happy and full of joyous things.  Bad things have happened,  but I have been basically untouched.  So why does the loss of money hurt so much?  Maybe it's because my Dad was so responsible when it came to money, and I think the way he did.  

I'm also working on forgiving the people who took the money.  May they find the Lord!