During the Holiday

I was walking to Starbucks with Darlene. It's 20 minutes. It was Dec 29, and I was thinking about Anna and Simeon, waiting in Jerusalem to meet Jesus. They were heralds of the new year, the new age of King Jesus. I like that woman. I was close to tears, unable to talk to Darlene about it, remembering another time I cried in the middle of a seminar over the absolute goodness of God. I like Anna. Her whole life was worth living for the moment she met Jesus. We have no idea what she may have suffered, what griefs she had, what joys. But this was the big moment, the moment she was living for. As Simeon says, "now I can die in peace." I like him too. And it is so for us. When we meet Jesus, life is made. We could die in peace. What is truly wonderful is that we get to keep on living, with Him, knowing him every day, walking to Starbucks with Jesus. And always the surprising work he has for us to do.

Poetry about the Streets

Watcher I

I am a watcher I

Have a place to observe the sky

Watcher I see mighty hand

Lightly touch waiting land

Waiting they who have none

Squinting at equatorial sun

Then to sleep on the street

Where pain and despair meet

Watcher I their daily pain

Dirt pads where they have lain

Time was when I did not see

Those born to misery

Watcher I edging near

Close to see the smallest tear

Observing a divine plan

To make of ragged boy full man

Watcher I take delight

In finding new sight

Days spent not seeing

Are days with no true being

Watcher I see young men giving

Day after day of their living

Sacrificing heavenly seats

For those Made in the Streets

I wrote this poem in September 1996 when we were only serving young men sleeping on the streets, and 9 young Kenyan men were working together with Darlene and me. It is well to gain understanding, to see the lowest of the low, and to take part in the plan of Jesus to dramatically alter their lives and transform their hopes. Boys and girls who sleep on the streets of Nairobi have no reason to think that anyone loves them. It is delight to see them respond so happily to affection and care.

Hear My Cry

Last night was a great experience with grandchildren. It was the grandparents' job to close out the day - trampoline jumping, swimming, a shower, dinner, finishing reading "The Last Battle" by C. S. Lewis with them, a snack, brush teeth, jump into bed. Time for a story - so I told them a story about their mother when she was a little girl even younger than they are.

And this is my story: "She was young, and she loved her grandparents - you know, Granny and Grandpa. We were in California and they were in Oklahoma, and that's a long way. We had friends who were going to Wichita, Kansas, in an airplane, so we let her fly with them. That was her first time in an airplane. And Granny and Grandpa drove from Oklahoma to Kansas and met her when she got off the plane. They drove back to Oklahoma, and I bet they stopped for ice cream along the way. They had a good time - did you know your Mom loved to catch grasshoppers? She caught a big jarful with her great grandfather on that trip; he's my daddy's daddy. (One of the kids said, "She wouldn't do that now.") But in those days she loved grasshoppers and frogs and all things that moved.

When the visit was over, Granny and Grandpa took her to Oklahoma City to catch a plane and return home. She was to fly alone - well, not all alone - the flight attendants take good care of kids who fly. When they got to the airport, and the luggage was on the plane, and the people were getting on, a man called the airport and said there was a bomb on the plane. So they hurriedly got everyone off and took off all the luggage. They did a careful search of everything.

Your Mom called me from the airport and told me she was scared. I was really glad that I know something of the Bible -- you will want to learn all you can of the Bible, and where everything is, so you can use it for good. I asked her to get her Bible out of her carry-on -- she always carried her Bible places with her - and open it to Psalm 61. Then I read the words of the first few verses and sang the song that goes with it: 'Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer. From the ends of the earth I cry unto you. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I, that is higher than I."

I told her to keep those words in her mind and to pray - to ask God to be with her and help her heart to be encouraged. And she did. And she came home. So please keep these words in your mind when you have trouble."

One of the kids said, "Did they find the bomb?" "No," I said, "there wasn't one. They searched every place, then allowed the plane to fly. But it was still scary, and a real adventure. Sometimes there is no real problem when we think there is, but either way, we put our trust in God."

The grandparents then sang the song several times to the grandchildren as they went to sleep. Softly they met the night. We looked down at them for a few minutes, asking that they be spared the troubles of the world, but asking even more that they be given strength and courage and undying hope in God's great love.

Daughter of my Daughter

August 2011 has been a highlight month for me. August 1964 was the month that Darlene and I gave our lives to one another. August 1995 was the month that street ministry in Nairobi became a passion in my life.

A few months back, one of my granddaughters asked me to study the Bible with her. So in August I studied a number of passages of the Bible with all the grandchildren. Our studies were Discovery Bible Studies. That means we studied as a group, that I wanted them to draw their own conclusions from the Bible, and that we focused on "what it says," "what it means," and "so what?"

The passages were all from 5 to 10 verses - some on who Christ is, some on faith and some on baptism. I gave each of them a notebook, a ruler and a pencil. We wrote the Bible reference at the top of the page, then we made 3 columns on the sheet. On the left hand side, we wrote out part of the passage, whatever they together said was the most important part of the passage. Then we talked about what the passage means - sometimes we talked about the meaning verse by verse, sometimes the passage as a whole. Then we wrote down what we concluded about what it means. In the 3rd column we wrote "so what?" and I had them talk about what we could do to obey the passage. We wrote those things down. We did 12 studies together.

I had to be patient and work slowly with them, since they are young. One of them did not know how to spell the words, so writing it out was laborious. But it was worth the time and effort.

Last week one of the girls said, "I'm ready. I want to be baptized Sunday. I have to do it."

Saturday night we had dinner together at our house. We brought out the pottery from our wedding shower and cooked steak and chicken and taquitos. We had wild rice and green beans. And ice cream for dessert. And we gave the girl planning to be baptized a little book called "God Thinks You're Wonderful" She loved it. First she read what we wrote in the front, smiled and said thank you. Then she read some pages to us, delighted with what it said to her. Then her mother gave her a journal and encouraged her to keep a spiritual journey book. She treasured that too.

She wrote out what she wanted to say to the church at the baptism on Sunday, but when the time came, she said, "Just ask me questions." So I asked her, "Do you believe Jesus is God's Son?" and "Do you believe that Jesus died for us?"and "Do you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead?" and "Do you say that Jesus is Lord?" To all these she said "yes."

Then I told the church about the studies we had done. I said that I have baptized many people, and this one has the same joy as all the rest. Well, maybe a little more joy.

And I reminded her that her grandmother was baptized at 8 years old, that her mother was baptized at 9, and that she has models of women who stay with Jesus all their lives, so she can do it too. Then I said, "By the mercies of God, you will now receive the baptismal wash in the name of God your Father, in the name of Jesus your Lord, and in the name of the Spirit who guides you. And all your life you will live in the promise of forgiveness and having the Holy Spirit with you. Amen."

And helping her under the water was a most weighty thrill, a joy without parallel. I have felt warm all day, and it has nothing to do with Texas at 105 degrees. And she has been smiling all day.

Happy Sunday

What a happy Sunday.

I led the Discovery Bible Study groups at Kamulu - John 6:1-15 is the story of the young man who brought lunch to the coronation (well, Jesus didn't allow the men to make him king, but they wanted to). Jesus checked out his disciples' faith and vision, then he pointed the way for them with a young man's lunch (should he have been in school with his lunch box?). The groups seemed to get the point - that Jesus can take the little that we think we have to offer him and make much of it. After all, he said his original plan is to shame the strong with the weak, exalt the poor among the rich, and so on (1 Corinthians 1:26-31). Francis Mbuvi preached a quality sermon on the same topic - he made us laugh and touched our hearts. It was all Swahili today, since our group of visitors from Texas A&M are off to the Coast. Darren Wilson is here working with Moses Okoth on our computer curricula, and Alex Atema (one of our older students) sat with him and interpreted.

After that we drove across the city to see Caroline Wanjiru and Jane Wangare. They were from the early group of young people from the streets who lived at Kamulu (before there were boys out here). They have been working at the Narcisse Salon for about 5 years. They have their own apartment, and they can cook!! We enjoyed a wonderful meal of rice, sukuma wiki (kale), fish, tomatoes with avocado, potatoes and beef stew. They were delighted to have us over, as they tend to think of us as the parents they might have had. We spent a long time talking about their plans, their church life and Bible study with other young adults, their words to pass on to our current kids and their work at the salon.

How great it is to see our kids loving God, successful at work, involved in church, and still caring about others who come out of the same situation they did.

By the way, there are more kids than ever coming out on the streets in Nairobi. Even the media and government have noticed it! And there are also articles and news broadcasts about the prevalence of alcohol addiction in Kenya - one of the reasons kids end up on the streets. Pray for us, pray for power and will to break addictions, pray for kids who suffer from the failings of those who are responsible for them.

Still, it was a happy Sunday!

Prayers and Strengths

We sent one of our students at Made in the Streets - Charles Kimani - to Malindi on the coast of Kenya this week to a medical clinic organized by Dr. John Bailey of BandS Ministries at a hospital there. He has a mass under his shoulder blade, and the doctor concluded, after looking at X-rays, that it needed to come out. But when they began surgery, they discovered that it is inoperable, and life-threatening either way. We will get further word about prognosis and what Charles can do. I announced it to the Team and kids in chapel today, and talked to them about the event with the young boy where Jesus said, "This kind comes out only through prayer." We broke up into groups of 7 or 8 and prayed for Charles, asking God to dowhat we cannot do, believing that He is able and asking that His will be done. So we invite those who love us and the street ministry to pray for Charles as well. More later. The pictures are of Charles when still on the streets and another a few months ago at MITS.

I also need you to pray for me. My diabetes is a tough case, and I have had a difficult time lately with sugar level. My body acts as it wants to, producing much more sugar than it needs or can take care of. It seems to jump up and down, depending on the stress level and on what I eat. I have needed help all my life with everything I try to do, and this is no exception. So please ask God to help me.

Otherwise, we are well. Darlene is with the Team and Kelly Davidson right now continuing the "strengthsFinder" seminar that Kelly has done with the Team. Today they are talking about how different strengths fit together, running scenarios on who would be asked to handle certain situations among the kids and Team and the ministry, and continuing to encourage the Team to use their strengths on behalf of God's work, develop their strong points even further, and mesh together as a Team. This is more in our ongoing plan to develop high leadership functioning in our Team.

Strengths

We are all gifted by God with certain strengths that are part of our nature. Making us in his own image means creating us with some of HIS strengths. Kelly Davidson, director of Aggies for Christ at Texas A&M University, is visiting with us, and he led our team through an exercise of finding our strengths and how they relate to one another. The assessment was done from a business point of view, so it doesn't portray a person's whole life. The reasons we do street ministry - compassion and love and understanding that God wants love and help given to the poorest of the poor and faith -- are not covered in this. But we found it very instructive and helpful in understanding one another.

The 5 top reported strengths that I have are called "Strategic," "Learner," "Responsibility," "Belief," and "Relator." Darlene's are "Communication," "Belief," "Positivity," "Developer," and "Responsibility." After hearing stories about the beginning and growth of Made in the Streets, Kelly said, "It is unlikely that Made in the Streets would have gotten off the ground without the certain strengths that Charles and Darlene have.

One of the best parts of the workshop was that all of us were struck with the idea, "That's how God made him/her." We had better recognition of why we are as we are. All of us felt better about each other. We also began to see ways that we could assist one another because of our particular strengths. Moses Gicharu said at the end, "I have been having some trouble understanding why some of the Team acts as they do. I have even been a little discouraged. But now I see, now I can feel better about all our work together."

We saw that Francis Mbuvi has a wonderful set of strengths for being our leader at MITS. And the Team at Eastleigh working on the streets all share the strength of "connectedness." This means they see the connections that exist between people and events, that they have a moral urgency to keep up those connections and to help everyone in their relationships. How important is that for working on the streets with demoralized kids?

On Thursday we will have a Team meeting, while the Aggies for Christ take care of our kids, and go over our strengths and how we can benefit one another and the whole ministry with our strengths. What a blessing!