Africa Day 11
Another good day here in Kenya. The conference organized and hosted by Waterbrook Church is still going on. But today, Dr. Dennis and half the team went to the conference. Judy and I, Dean, LJ, Michelle, and Jeannie went out into the city of Nairobi to see how God is working among His people.
My last several posts have been about the Power of God, the Holy Spirit, and God’s Spirit (‘Other’, ineffable) falling on His people; healing and delivering them. Wow!!! So important. We cannot release God’s Kingdom into the kingdom of the world in our power, even though we frequently think that we can. Without the Power of God, which we receive when we are born again but which Paul tells us must be refreshed each day, all of our work will be fruitless.
On the other hand, if we just make it about our receiving healing and deliverance through the Power of God, we are not completing God’s command to take the Great Commission into the world. Today we saw the Great Commission in action.
While half the team were at the conference, we took a field trip. First, we went to the sports center owned and operated by Waterbrook Church. We were led by one of their young, on-fire-for-Christ women named Purity. This sports center is a large open space of red dirt adjacent to one of the slums of Nairobi. It is the size of 4 soccer fields. 4 guys in their 20s volunteer their time to coach soccer teams composed of boys ranging in age from 3 to about 16. There were about 100 boys on the field when we showed up. We warmed up with the boys and then, when they broke up into teams, played (sort of) with them. I played with the 8-year olds for about 10 minutes. Those guys are good. And fast. Yikes.
What a ministry. The coaches require the boys to get to practice on time, if they are late they have to do pushups. The head coach gets there an hour early to set an example. They take turns cleaning the field, burning the trash. Each boy is expected to share all the equipment because they don’t have enough. But in some cases, they make what they don’t have. As we were leaving, the boys presented us with gifts. They make soccer balls out of tightly tied up (with twine) plastic grocery bags. These were the gifts they gave us (when we got back to the hotel later all the staff came up to us, looked at the ‘balls’ and said “Hey, we used to play with those”). The boys are required to cooperate. And the coaches encourage and love each boy. Most of the boys have no fathers and so these coaches play an important role in their lives.
These boys live in a slum across the field. Many sniff glue. Of course, they get addicted to the glue. But the reason they start glue sniffing at the age of about 5 is because they are always hungry. When you sniff glue it takes away your hunger and appetite. On Friday evening, the boys have a practice, and then they are fed. It is not much, but it is probably the only decent meal the boys get during the week.
If that is all the church did for the boys, they would be providing temporary support – treating the symptom without providing a cure. The biggest thing the coaches do is to teach these boys about Jesus and back up the words about Jesus with love. Here is where the Power of God comes in. The coaches release the transforming Power of God into the lives of these boys. This Power gives them power to rise above the death all around them. I heard the story of the Senior Pastor of Waterbrook church, Pete Odera. He was one of these boys. Today that Pastor is a well-known musical recording artist, preacher, husband, and father with a rich, fulfilling life. He credits his life with hearing the Word of God when he was about 10.
Too often the church makes a fundamental mistake. We know that we are called to minister to the poor. So we minister by providing food, shelter, clothing, access to financing so they can open a business and become self-sufficient, and even receive medical care. These efforts are necessary, but not sufficient. And too often we do not understand that. Most importantly, through these efforts, we must share the gospel and release the Power of God. Not just so the church grows, but so that these lives might be saved in every sense of that word – so that (in this case) these boys are given a fighting chance. Ultimately, it is God who saves these boys, not us. If all we do is give them human support without opening the door to the Power of God, we will have failed them. It has to be both, it cannot be just one or the other. God has given us a huge responsibility. I might add, we cannot release what we ourselves do not have. If you are not walking in the Power God, you can’t release it. If all you know is medicine, you can provide that. But if you are a doctor walking in the Power of God, not only will you be a better doctor, but you will be able to share Jesus in a way that not only touches the head, but also the heart. That is where the real transformation occurs. It is my opinion, that too often the western Church is not walking in His Power.
After we visited the Sports Center we went next door to the the People’s Clinic Miliki Afya. This is another example of the Power of God being released through godly men and woman. This is one of the clinics being opened by Dr. Ernest Mureithi. I told his story in yesterday’s post. What an incredible place – well equipped, staffed with caring and competent people, spacious and clean. And everyone who enters hears the gospel at least once. Doctors and staff have no compunction about praying over people. Here, the patient gets excellent medical care inexpensively; they also get to hear about the real life, abundant life. The doctors and staff not only minister to people’s bodies, they also minister to their spirits and souls.
After I returned from my first mission trip to Uganda several years ago I asked God what He wanted our long-range work in Uganda to look like. I heard Him say “I want the Church to do what only the Church can do”. Governments, other secular NPOs, the UN, etc. can do a lot of really good work providing medical care, food, shelter. These are necessary and we should applaud what they do. The Church can and should do these things also. But only the Church can bring the Power of God that transforms lives. That transformation might take many forms: it might lift a boy out of poverty – rags to riches. Or it might give that boy strength and power to live with peace and joy in the midst of poverty. Or every type of life in between. Every human being needs to know deep in their heart that they are valued, accepted, and valuable. At the end of the day, only God can do that. “I am accepted, I am valued, I am valuable whether I live in poverty or in a palace”. I don’t want those words to be words I hear in my head and repeat to myself everyday as a mantra. I want to be those words. To know in my heart that they are completely true. Most importantly, because this is the way to the Power of God which makes all things possible and gives life, I want to have them living in me in the Person of Jesus Christ.
We closed the day off with a formal dinner back in the conference center celebrating Dr. Pete Odera’s 25 years in ministry. It was fun. He performed a concert for us with all of his former band members from the group 5 Alive.
Tomorrow we end the trip with worship at a church here in Nairobi. I am not sure where we are going, but I’ll know when I get there.