Not The River I Was Expecting

It's a challenge each time I visit Kenya to express in words what my heart feels.  I think I 

I wonder if God's plan for cameras all along was so that 

we could be reminded that true joy is not a result of 

our circumstances.

have that disease that shuts my emotions down when I experience something so unnerving and so hard to understand that it is just easier to deal with if I just go through the motions, keep the stiff upper lip and smile a lot.  It's that disease that encourages us to click the remote to a mindless sitcom or some silly rehearsed "reality" show whenever a story of poverty, ethnic cleansing or some radical group that murders another 5,000 comes on.  (notice I didn't pick on NCIS).  Do you have that disease sometimes?

It is what it looks like

I was blessed, humbled and privileged to preach at the Reuben Church on the Rock which is located not just in the Reuben Slum but in a very destitute part of Reuben where the raw sewage runs openly and freely, where the streets (rocky hard dirt paths) are framed in on one side by a river and on the other side by homes.  Mind you, the definition of home has nothing to do with the structure but rather with what goes on inside as a home as the people who dwell in the structure do their best to raise families and survive. 

The River

Within these structures of sheet metal, mud and sometimes cinder block are people who are sleeping in multiple numbers in one room and most likely as many beds, people who don't have refrigeration, running water, an oven, a stove and I wont even mention the other necessities of life like microwaves.  What you will find however, are people who are doing their best to make a home.  When I met them they had gathered for Sunday service, it was stifling hot in that tin building but the Spirit was flowing.  I asked myself the same question I always end up asking, How can they be so filled 

"fearfully & wonderfully made"

with joy? What did they have to sacrifice to find that suit or dress...truly their Sunday best....how can the dance and express their love for the Lord with such exuberant reverence after walking across the "river"? Uncomfortable chairs, 3-4 hour services, loud distorted keyboard, drum machine and chorus' that repeat as many times as the hairs on your head.  Church growth books would say they are doomed for failure...I'd say those gurus of church growth need to stop trying to figure out the movement of God and how he works and doesn't work.  How dare we measure the heartbeat of God, especially among the most marginalized in the world or the wealthiest in the world? The answer to the above questions can only be Joy in the Lord.  

"I live just across the bridge on the other side of the 'river' "

I was asking a church member where they lived and they smiled and said, "I live just across the bridge on the other side of the river".  Not quite the river I was expecting to see and definitely not as pristine looking and smelling as I am used to...

Sunday Night Crusade - Reuben Slum -
100+ make a decision for Jesus

In the evening we went back into the heart of Reuben Slum and put on the Crusade for a much larger and just as responsive crowd.  They were hungry for hope.  I found myself feeling very humbled to stand before those were hungry for a message of real hope. No way was I going to entertain them with 8 Ways to Have a Better Life or "Five Steps to Real Happiness".  How dare I patronize them with anything other than the Giver of "abundant life", Simply Jesus and nothing else.  I have 

Look at that cute Guya Face!

nothing they need other than the Gospel, so that is what we gave and that is what more than 100 received with anxious and willing hearts.  It was thrilling to see that several who attended the Crusade on Saturday night and had given their hearts to Jesus were at the morning service I preached at. The church leadership was thrilled, God was given the glory and there you have it! 

Today, Monday, was supposed to be the Boys Prison Day but that was postponed until Wed. Instead it was filled with video production training, grocery shopping and planning and executing a 30th Birthday party for Jannekah, complete with all the Kenyan ministry team hiding and screaming "SURPRISE" when she walked in.  They were giddy with excitement having never been a participant in a surprise party.    

Peek a boo!

I'll post again after we visit and preach at the Kamiti Maximum Security prison.

Peace and keep fighting the good fight.  It's worth it!