Wisdom through Experience, Worshop through Service, and Hope through Love

The past several days have been anything but what I expected them to be, and that is a great and beautiful thing.  Truth be told, I tried to limit my knowledge of Kenya and ask little questions about the ministry at work so that I would keep my expectations low; it worked beautifully.  Kenya is nothing like I expected it to be aside from the poverty and heat.  It is very green, mountainous, busy and full of life, nothing that I thought it would be but it is very beautiful and welcoming.  These passed several days God has been showing me many things that include new ministry and a growing passion.  I never expected to be a part of such a powerful service that specifically seeks to help suffering women and children feel loved and cared for.  It never fully occurred to me how important widow and orphan ministry was until my service on this trip.  I have seen so many women this week with more drive and ambition than I could ever dream of possessing.  I have seen more orphan children with despair and pain in their hearts but yet they do not lose hope.  The history behind Kenya leads to Englishmen colonizing the many people and cultures of Kenya in the goal of helping them to become more modern with society.  They have left a noticeable impact but there are still many things left that the Kenyans are recuperating from such as the economy and the politics.  As we have ridden in the back of jeeps and vans to and from widow house locations to build houses and give supporting gifts I cannot help but observe the cultures and how everyone has to live their lives here.  Life is very hard in Kenya, it is a very unforgiving country with little opportunity and much responsibility.  One of the things blossoming here is Christianity and the love for Christ which is found everywhere and in nearly everyone here.  Through these passed several days I have witnessed a multitude of people seeking and worshipping God as though it is more than a cultural fad but that they each know God Himself.  There is much pain and suffering here and it breaks my heart because there is no visible limit to the end of how the people here suffer.  Everyone is affected by the constant calamity and yet it is in the culture for people to take advantage of one another.  In the midst of all of these selfish endeavors there is a fight to be more like Jesus and to love without reason, hope without dreams, and community without direction.  The people here know more about love, worship and faith than I ever had before and despite everything that these widows, orphans, and relatives there is a fight to live a Gospel centered life that is growing within the hearts of many people here.  It is a place of growing love and conflict and in an imperfect world the two will always run side by side, but Christ is working in the details as there are many missionaries here that love and serve the people for their own sake and sustenance.  Before coming to Kenya I was a part of a masters class in Barclay College called Friends Missions where I was able to learn much about the Quaker movements and how the Gospel had been spread to other far off places in the world.  One of these was in Kenya.  As I read I began to see how English Quakers brought the word of God to this country in an effort to help people know Christ.  It was a different time then and despite the best of intentions not everything was successful and there were many hardships that resulted from the evangelism.  However, Kenya now has the largest population of Quakers in the world and it seems to have a unique humanitarian focus that is much needed and deserved here.  Our team leader has lived such a life as she selflessly gives her time, prayers, and money for the simple betterment of suffering families and women who are left with little to no regard otherwise.  That is where our Junior’s Global team has come in.  We have helped to build six mud houses for suffering widows and given the supplies as well as aided widow groups who have been praying for months for God to save them.  We serve a God of faithfulness and through His love and grace we are blessed to be able to be a part of that plan that fulfills His promises.  To me, I certainly feel as if I could do much more but I must not forsake the efforts that have been done already and how impactful they are in a world that I do not yet understand.  I am growing a heart for Kenyan culture and as its radiant beauty grows so does its pain and turmoil.  Hopefully some day soon the culture and country will change in a way that accommodates women and children to a higher status and the widow and orphan count drop in record numbers.  God is on the move in Kenya and I feel that I will be drawn back her soon by Him.  As the rocks cry out in silence so does Christ and his aching heart for everyone finding their way in Kenya.  There is much hope, love, and hospitality here but they need more people willing to serve as the hands and feet of Jesus, such as our team leader.  For the future, no one knows; but may it be in a prosperous direction where everyone is equal and pain is hard to find.  

In Christ,George Jackson  

Upendo wa Mungu Baba ni wa……….ni wa ajabu”

My time here in kenya hads been eye opening. This was my first time out of the country. Other than movies (The Lion King spasificaly) I had no exspectations. I have been on mission trips before and thhought I would know somewhat to exspect. When I got here, I quickly found out that everything I thought I knew was wrong. Yes we work on houes and yes we interact with these widows and orphans, but to them it means so much more for them to feed us and just spend time with us. I find this hard to get used to. I was expecting to work and work more then anything. but getting to know these people means so much more. Getting to hug these widows and learning their story.

I also had the oprtunity to teach a short leasson onthe verse John 16:33 with Erik to some kids at Sunday School. This was a fun exsperience.

Even though these people have nothing, they still strive to be happy and want to give us everything they can. What we have done for these people and given them seems so small to us, but to them it means the world. It makes me look at the world different. Things are not the number one thing. Relationships are, and beable to spread the word of God around to everyone we encounter.

“Upendo wa Mungu Baba ni wa……….ni wa ajabu”

“We are saying thank you to our God.”

Being Thankful In Every Moment

After a long day of serving our widows and orphans in Kenya, we all sit around the table to talk about our day. I have been amazed about how much each of us mzungus “white people” mean to each widow and widow group. We are received with amazing dancing, beautiful songs, and shouts of praise to the Lord. These ladies are an inspiration of what it means to be thankful. These ladies are a clear definition of the lyrics It Is Well In My Soul. They have learned to be joyful despite all that is against them, they have continued to thrive even in the midst of the culture.

If there is one thing I want to learn about all these ladies is to be thankful in all moments; to realize that I can glorify God despite all circumstances. That God is our provider, and that there is hope and grace in Jesus.

Mungu awa bariki wote.

Greetings from Kenya. May this post inform you that God is at work on the mission field here, and also to assure you that we are not yet dead.

Maizakha Friends Widows Group

On Friday night, we landed in Nairobi after 22 hours of continous flights and layovers from Wichita, to Denver, to Frankfurt, to our destination. Despite our shared exhaustion, we arrived in Kenya on time with no complications, and we rested well at the Amani Gardens Inn (formerly the Mennonite Guest House) before driving to Kaimosi the next morning for 10 hours. Again, we arrived safely and without incident at the Rural Service Programme Guest House next to the Friends Theological College campus.

In rural Kenya, widows possess the lowest status in society and are often considered to be cursed by their communities — somehow responsible for the death of their husbands. They are subject to much abuse and shunning. Through farming, many earn an income as little as USD $0.50 per day. The Friends Church has a very prominent presence in Kenya and sponsors many widows groups of women who financially and spiritually support each other.

Since Monday, we have visited four widows’ groups throughout western Kenya even as far as Mt. Elgon on the Kenya-Uganda border. We have assisted in the building of mud-houses for three of these groups and delivered goats to the fourth.

When we had arrived at the meeting place in the village of each widows group, we were greeted jubilantly by the ladies as they danced and sang beautiful call-and-response praises to God. We then would don our work gloves and assist in construction of the house. After this, we the JG team, the RSP staff, and the widows would sit together and enter into a time of introduction. In Kenya, to be known by name is a dignity denied to these widows, and the opportunity to introduce oneself in front of a group is reserved for “big people”. By engaging in this ritual of introduction, the widows’ status is greatly elevated and gives them the dignity that they are too often denied. After we all introduce ourselves to each other, we exchange gifts — from us, clothing, sandals, food, candy, calendars, crayons, medicines, etc. — from the widows, hens and fruit. We then share a meal, typically of tea, chicken, kale, bread, and ugali (corn mush) that the widows had eagerly prepared.

Our assistance in building the house has been almost entirely ceremonial. The widows had only handed us each a few mud heaps to apply to the walls of the building before inviting us to their table after thirty minutes of work at the most. At first, we were a little anxious to have been led away from labor after so little time and felt guilty that these poor women would lavish their food on us during the time of year known as “the time of hunger”. It all seemed so one-sided. We were supposed to serve them.

We came to realize, however, that most of the money we paid to go on this trip was used by RSP to purchase the wood, the nails, and the sheet metal used to build the homes and the goats, chickens, and other livestock given to the widows to assist in their income production. Besides, if the widows invited us to visit them, it would not primarily be so that they would totally entrust the building of their homes to some clumsy white kids.

The seemingly disproportionate response of these women was not because of our labor or our gifts, It was because of our presence. Whereas their very neighbors despise them and heap abuse upon them, a few comparatively very rich American college students spent several thousand dollars and traveled 4,000 miles merely to share a meal with them. We had communion with them.

Wherever we travel in rural Kenya, George, Shauntel, Amber, and I are greeted with excited cries of “Mzungu!” (“white person”) from the local people. We are perceived to be opulent and are immediately treated with respect merely due to the fact that we are Americans and because of the color of our skin. It’s a very uncomfortable fact, and it’s entirely unfair. But this unfair, unearned, and undeserved status the culture ascribes to us we use to demonstrate Christ’s love, and utterly confound the local people, when they find that the rich white Americans didn’t come to their market or their village to be treated like royalty but to share a simple meal with those considered to be unpersons. How much greater, then, is the love of Jesus — whose praise, adoration, and respect is entirely fair, entirely earned, and entirely deserved — when he left his opulence and status behind as King of the Universe to break his body, the bread, and pour out his blood, the wine, for us — the people who hated him and hung him. Our response to God should be like that of these Kenyan widows — joyous singing, dancing, and thanksgiving — every single day.

So, yes, we are still very much alive.

Ireland and Kenya 2019

We currently have three teams oversees: Ireland, Kenya, and Greece. Please keep them in your prayers. They will be updating us with blogs throughout their trip. Here are a couple of pictures from our prayer sendoff for Team Ireland, led by Josh Bunce, and Team Kenya, led by Nate Perrin. We did not snap a picture of Team Greece, led by Ryan Haase, the night before. Team India, led by Dave Williams, will be leaving later in the summer.

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