Interview with Death

   Death:  Have you seen my latest work, Charles?
   Charles: Watching you work is not my great interest.
   Death: I thought you like me. You think about me enough.
   Charles:  True, but....
   Death: And you know I am necessary to the world.
   Charles: But....
   Death: And we will meet face to face one day.
   Charles: Of course, but....
   Death:  I plan to be quick and gentle with you.
   Charles: That I would appreciate.  What I don't appreciate is the pain and loss some of my friends must endure, and the pain of families left behind.
   Death: I'm not promising quick and gentle, of course.
   Charles:  Don't tell me....
   Death: What's bothering you?
   Charles:  Charles and Jack and Bryce and Connor...the recent ones...it's painful for us.
   Death: You know they served well.
   Charles:  True, but....
   Death:  I take no one lightly; my work is serious.  There must be a season of harvest.
   Charles: I worked in harvest - the grain is cut, and dies.
   Death:  But it feeds life.
   Charles: True, but....
   Death:  You've read Paul.  "Unless it dies, it cannot rise."
   Charles: Thanks for reminding me of hope.  It still hurts.
   Death:  I know.

Good is where you find it

I went gold mining in the Sierra Mts in California with a friend several times. When we first went, I asked him, "where will we find gold?" he said, "gold is where you find it." It is a little more complicated than that, but still true.
We have discovered in Kenya that "water is where you find it." We wanted a source of water at Kamulu and heard there was only shallow water, and not much. But Kilimanjaro is only 120 miles away, we thought - there must be water. So we drilled, and at 304 feet, we were gifted with lots of water.
Now we have land for Made in the Streets on a small mountain just east of Nairobi. And they say there is no water, and it looks like they might be right! But....John Wambu was walking on the property, followed by a hyena, and he saw where hyena had worn a path. He followed it and...a spring! Now we have dug about 25 feet down and the water has risen to the top of our hole. Note the pic. So...I wonder if the Kilimanjaro water rises up here...?

Didn't God make a great world?

God's Great Plans

We had planned a trip back to Nairobi now, but plans change. And God gives new opportunities. the Team in Kenya does this ministry very well. We are truly proud of them and their work with street kids. Let me share how very good God is to us. I cannot fathom why He should love me as much as He obviously does, but I am glad. Since we were not going back now, we decided on the spur of the moment to go to California. I have a bad tooth anyway and a dentist I love in San Jose. Zoo we decided that in 8 days we would visit the Malibu, Conejo and Campbell Churches. So... First the dentist said "Sure we can fit you in - Friday the 21st. Then the Malibu Church said "we'll pick you up at the airport. And would you help lead communion service Sunday?" When I contacted the Conejo Church about visiting on Tuesday and Wednesday, they said "We're going on a church camping those days. Join us." We would have no camping things with us, but one of them said, "our kids are leaving Tuesday morning. We'll leave the tent set up for you" then someone at Malibu said, "We'll loan you a car." When I contacted the Campbell Church, they said, "You can preach for us Sunday morning. Want to stay with us?" What can you do when God is that good about working out a schedule - not to mention how kind His people are? You just do all you can do to serve Him well. And you rest assured that God blesses street ministry.

Goodbye and Hello

Darlene and I, along with Jackton Omondi, Joel Njue, Victor Otieno and Robin Ndunda (all Team members at MITS) went to the Eastleigh Church at KCITI to say "goodbye" to Berkeley Hackett. Berkeley was one of the key people in getting KCITI and the Eastleigh Church off the ground.  He and Charlotte raised much of the funds for KCITI in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s.  After my four years as Director of KCITI, Berkeley continued as Director until Lydia Wanjiku was appointed in 2010.

It was sobering to say goodbye to someone less than 2 years older than I am, and someone with whom I worked so closely.  I mentioned in the previous post that Berkeley is the one who invited us to move to Nairobi.  There is another really helpful thing he did for me.  When it came time for Made in the Streets to leave the KCITI campus, due to overcrowding -- the industrial training was growing, the street ministry was growing and the church had a Sunday school of about 350 -- Berkeley was willing for us to stay on campus until MITS got its own building to work out of.  So he let us stay for more than 3 years after I resigned as Director and began full-time street ministry.  That was a great gift.  There was pressure on him to have us leave quicker, but he quietly let us stay much longer than some wanted.  By the time we moved out in March 1999, we already had a contract to buy a building and friends in the USA had already committed the purchase funds.  All that made saying goodbye a moment both for sadness and gratitude.

We met Charlotte for a short time.  She is doing well, confident of Berkeley's relationship to God and the happy life he now has, at home with the Lord.

And a wonderful thing about a funeral is the people you get to see!  There must have been at least 50 former students in the computer and electronics program from when I was Director. And we saw more than 30 of the youth group we led from 1992 to 1996.  And lots of the kids from the Sunday school who are all grown up now.  Plus several former staff members at KCITI who have moved on to other jobs.  Sammy Gitau was there -- he is the first street kid we ever met, and the one who brought so many more to us, including Francis Mbuvi, our MITS Administrator.  Sammy is now working in several slums in Nairobi as a community development person.  He has gone from living on the streets in 1992 to having his Master's Degree in Community Service and he has begun work on a doctorate.  What a Treasure!!!

Here is a picture of Sammy hugging Darlene.  

And we saw some of the women whom Tony Mauldin helped go to the USA to play college basketball.  There were 2 sisters, Maureen and Mercy, so I was asked to perform Maureen's wedding in June, after which she and her husband will go back to Texas.  And another former teacher at KCITI sent us a resume as she is looking for work.  I saw several people who have become preachers; I am really pleased about those guys.

Another special thing was that we sat behind a girl who was working for Good News Publishing International, who were asked to video the funeral.  She had on a black T-shirt with "Crew" on the back.  It was our own Anastacia Njoki, who completed our program in 2009, got an internship with GNPI, then a full-time job.  We have some really good kids who come through MITS.

So...a day to treasure!

Sorrow with Memories

I have felt sad for the last couple of days.  And I have been filled with memories of our early years in Nairobi.  John Wambu, who handles all our property matters and construction, went to Eastleigh Monday to do emergency repairs on our Center there.  The rains - and it is raining as I write this - have been great this year, but that means leaks and damage to buildings that were put up in 1937 (like our Eastleigh Center - we have a title that was granted by King George III).  While there he talked to an old friend whom I hired as a guard when I was Principal at KCITI.  Then John called me to tell me that Berkeley Hackett has died.  I felt great pain at the loss, especially of a friend who is only 3 years older than I am.  And I thought of the loss that many churches will feel, and especially the Eastleigh Church and the staff at KCITI (Kenya Christian Industrial Training Institute was the dream of missionaries in Kenya, and especially of Berkeley, who wanted to see a school and a church that would serve many Kenyans. The end result was the brainchild of Bill Stevens and Bob West of California, who gave computers and electronic equipment and came up with the initial scheme for courses).  The Hacketts came to Kenya in 1970 and committed themselves for the duration.

Immediately I was flooded with memories - of the breakfasts and lunches Darlene and I had with Berkeley and Charlotte, of the rapid growth of KCITI, of the occasional problems of staffing we had to deal with, of the Bible courses we wrote, of the development of an administrative structure for the school, and much more.

Darlene and I were very involved with teenagers and with Sunday school, and that led to street children coming to the building.  As we became more involved with them and an outreach program began, it became obvious to me that I could not do both things well. So I left the administration of KCITI and began full-time work with street kids.  Berkeley was gracious and allowed us to continue the street ministry on the campus for almost three years.  The street ministry grew and KCITI continued to grow, and finally it was not possible to have a college, a congregation and a street ministry together.  So we moved down the street. After that we did not see one another very much, even though we are in the same section of the city.  There is always plenty of work for a missionary.

I feel gratitude to Berkeley - especially for 2 things.  The first is that he and Charlotte are the ones who invited us to move to Nairobi to live.  I doubt we would have made the decision if they had not invited us.  And that has made all the difference to our lives, for I found my heart's desire in Nairobi, among the street kids.

The second is that he introduced me to Maureen Nduku.  She was in the ninth grade at the time, and the family did not have school fees.  One Sunday morning Berkeley and I walked in front of the church building (and chapel) and I met Maureen.  From then Darlene and I paid school fees.  She became a teacher in our evangelistic youth group, and she went on to be a teacher of street girls when that program started (she still goes to Eastleigh on Monday mornings to teach street girls).  And the day came when I did the wedding for Maureen and Francis Mbuvi, who is now our administrator at MITS. It was a little like marrying my own son and daughter!!  

Maureen has done great things for the Kingdom.  She oversees the Kenyan end of a large World Bible School program that John DeFore and others at Golf Course Road church in Midland, TX, support.  She oversees several orphanages which are supported by members at Golf Course.  And they also have feeding centers where poor grandmothers who care for grandchildren come for food.  Many evangelists look to Maureen for guidance.

I would not have met Maureen if Berkeley had not cared for her and wanted someone to pay her school fees.  Of course God is able to do what He wants in many ways, but in face he chose to work through Berkeley, and us and Maureen to accomplish a great work in Kenya.  So I am grateful.

Preaching in Eastleigh

Darlene and I visited in Eastleigh and went to church at the MITS Eastleigh Center.
They asked me to preach on Numbers 9.  Before I looked at it, I thought, "I am to preach from
Numbers!! To street guys whose attention span is really short!!" But when I looked at it, I knew
it was the right text.
It's one year after the Jews left Egypt.  And God wants them to CELEBRATE Passover. They are
out in the desert, some have whined about going back to Egypt.  They worry about food
and water and the future.  And He says, "CELEBRATE".   So they do.
But some are unclean.  They touched a dead body. They were off on a trip.
And the priests told them they couldn't do Passover since they were unclean.
So I talked to the youth about their own lives.  They are seen as unclean, and they really are
physically unclean.  And some have done wrong things.  And women in the time of their
month think they are unclean and usually do not take the Lord's Supper.  And some think they
are slaves of the streets just as Jews were slaves in Egypt.
So Moses went off to ask God what to do for the unclean ones.  And God said,
"Let them CELEBRATE."  God did not see the uncleanness.
God saw his people whom he loved.
I had 30 chapati with me that some of the girls at Kamulu cooked on Sunday morning.
And we cut them in half and gave each person half a chapati, and I invited all
of them to eat it in honor of Jesus Christ, who loves the unclean.  That
was the first part of the Lord's Supper.  It takes a while to eat half a chapati, so we
had lots of time to honor Jesus.
We had a good time together.  And near the end of worship, a group of
12 Swedish people showed up who were wandering around Eastleigh
visiting some Somalis.  They came in, wanting to learn about street kids and
street ministry.  So we had a chance to witness to our faith in the power
of Jesus to change lives.  All in all, a good day!  

Taking a Break

After hosting the National Youth Conference for churches of Christ - 4 days with 300 teens!
Darlene and I went on safari near Mount Kenya. Here is Darlene standing at the Equator
with zebras and a bird in the background.  

They have a new not-so-tame rhino at Sweetwaters (one time Darlene sat on the
back of the old one named Morani). This one is called Baraka, and he
will eat from your hand, but best to stay on the platform.  The ranger
did get in his compound to take our picture.

A few years ago we took all our students and Team to Mountain Rock Camp
near Mount Kenya. We visited the Ol Pejeta Preserve, and Sweetwaters Camp
gave us a free lunch (and our kids were so proper!!). After lunch, the kids
planted trees in the lawn near the Equator sign. This one was planted
by the boys.  

This is the tree the girls planted.  We were happy to stop by and see
that the trees are still growing.  And Made in the Streets is still growing
as well.  Several students left us recently and found jobs.  14 students took the
8th Grade Exit Exams (KCPE) in November, and one scored at the
median in the country.  And we are growing in those things that matter,
in the Spirit.