Pilot Project Progress Part 1: Man's Work

Authors Note: This post is the first in a series about the newly started Pilot Project. Look for regular updates as the project is just now beginning!

The first general meeting with the new group isn’t for two more days, and yet the real work has already begun. As many of you will remember, Planting Faith is conducting a Pilot Project in the Murang’a District to try some new techniques and strategies based on keeping the best of what PF has done before while also improving and addressing issues and challenges we’ve had with other groups.

One of the first issues we wanted to address was the issue of group size and formation. At a simple level, it’s really hard to have meetings where everyone’s voice is heard if there are 50 people. At a much more complex level, we’ve found that if you ask people “hey do you want to do x,” they basically always say yes, whether you’re talking about promoting agricultural business or about underwater basket weaving. Which makes it really hard to make sure you have people in a group who are really interested in what it is you actually want to do!

Of course, these are some of the things that make international development so difficult, right? I mean, cross-cultural communication is hard, often times what the NGO thinks the community needs and what the community thinks they need are quite different, and it certainly seems so much more efficient to work with 50! And yet, often times it seems that these simple decisions made at the outset really do set the stage for the entire shebang.

So with this project we asked CCS to help us find a group that already existed, that had expressed an interest in agricultural business before hearing about our project, and that was already involved in their own projects. And what a group they found!

The Githuri Water Project group consists of 100 farmers who have mobilized themselves to access gov’t funds in order to get irrigation for their farms. Previously a total drought region, their group has now managed to get irrigation water for 50 households (and counting) using gravity, a nearby river, funds from the gov’t, and a whole heckuva lot of work. And after discussing with our CCS partners, they’ve agreed to mobilize 25 of those 50 households who are specifically interested in agricultural business for our project.

So, having met the leadership, Rebecca, Beth (our new CCS coworker), and I decided that it would be a good idea to invest a little time in the community to learn more about what’s going on, to begin some relationships, and to communicate how excited we are about what they’ve already accomplished. And so, just yesterday, we picked up hoes, pick axes, and shovels, took of our shoes, and joined the group in digging the main trench where they will put the next section of irrigation piping.

Let me be clear about two things: this pipe is a big pipe. And this ditch they put it in . . . it’s a big ditch. And so, what we had dreamily contemplated as a relational building time became (in addition to that) probably one of the hardest days work of this city slickers life. We’re talking digging 6 feet down into the earth, removing enormous boulders, and shoveling out tons of dirt in the excruciatingly hot Kenyan sun. And we’re also talking about watching women old enough to be your grandma totally making your 23 yr old self look like a complete pansy. I mean, these folks can work! So of course, Bec and I got blisters in all of thirty seconds, and did our best to not make total fools or ourselves. And while we’ll be feeling the effects for a few days, the relationships begun, the message conveyed, and the sheer joy of feeling in your bones a hard days work done together was well worth the effort.

Actually, most of my hardest days of labor have been on missions trips: mixing cement in Mexico, gutting houses in New Orleans, etc. But I’ve never, on any trip, really worked under local leaders who are already providing all the supplies, labor, and planning that the project required. There had to be 30 people who showed up to work all day in the hot sun with no pay and no food. If there’s ever been a time when you might have generalized the poor as lazy, incapable of managing or leading, or at least not very driven, it’s time to think again.

What a great opportunity for us! Hopefully, it was the start that we needed in the community (in addition to meetings with the leaders and a walk through the village as well). Please pray for us these next couple days, because our first meeting is on Thursday (check the blog on Friday for the next update!), and we’re all going to be out of our comfort zones!

Peace,

Michael

Long Time Gone

Well, there’s nowhere to begin but by apologizing: sorry it has been so long! But despite the long silence on our end, there’s plenty to tell . . . we just haven’t had time to tell it. To dive right in . . .

Visitors
Since the World Freedom Day party we’ve hosted numerous folks at our home in Nairobi, including Marian, Mark, Christen, and Stephen Sasscer (Rebecca’s Mom, Dad, and two of her siblings), Dr. Russell Mask (one of my profs from Covenant), and Mom and Dad from Memphis. All in all, that’s more than 30 days of visitors since July!

Former professors and new in-laws sound like a recipe for major stress, but we can honestly say that all our visitors were an incredible encouragement to us, and that everybody weathered the various small storms of international travel (running out of water, no power, bumpy roads, multiple day car breakdowns, food poisoning, and one really mean jellyfish) with incredible graciousness! I’d like to publicly thank Dr. Mask for interacting with us and giving guidance on all sorts of work and cultural issues (he worked in Nairobi for several years), Christen and Stephen for spending the last few days of their break running around with us, and all of the parents for being incredible role models for us newlyweds, for giving us great advice and encouragement, and for being willing to roll with the punches during their stay. Plus, ya’ll were a great excuse to do some great vacationing!

Work
Based on our guest schedule, you might assume that we’ve hit a lull in our work schedule. Not so! In fact, and maybe I always say this but really this time, I don’t think we’ve ever been busier. To take it group by group:

Our farmers in Ngare Ndare have planted butternut squash! Back in August we visited the group and took a tour of about 7 farms with the entire group, which was really fun. They had just germinated at that time, but they looked good, and the reports over the phone line sound like they’re coming along well. This is great news! Please pray that we’d be able to get up there in October before harvest, and that we’d be able to help the group to put together a marketing plan in time to really turn a good profit. This would be a major success.

In Mang’u farmers continue to grow passion fruit, but the truth is, many of the farmer’s crops failed due to neglect or disease, and we’ve spent most of our time since arriving trying to help the group find its feet again and decide on a way forward. After the leaders sent letters to all defaulting members (on their own initiative), we got a good portion of the group together for a meeting. The group decided they want to plant a new crop together using their own funds, to get on loan repayment schedules that would allow them to repay their loans slowly, and to start a community managed loan fund referred to locally as a Table Bank.

Table Banks are basically small-scale, informal credit unions that, using only the members contributed savings, make small loans and allow members to save with the potential for annual dividend payments. Table Banks have several distinct advantages over traditional microfinance banks and loan schemes. First, and most importantly, Table Banking is an initiative that begins in the right place: with the community’s own assets and resources. So many well-intentioned community development programs implicitly enter a community with the message that “You need help. You have problems. And we can fix them for you.” Nothing could be more disempowering and hurtful to the vulnerable poor, who already feel powerless and destitute than to bring a message that says, "You can't solve your problems without our help." But Table Banking begins with the message that “You have resources! You have opportunities! You have money! If you work together, you can help each other achieve your goals!” Second, using the community’s own savings for the loan capital means that loans are smaller, safer, and more appropriate. Whereas an outsider might over-estimate a poor person’s debt capacity, and mistakenly give them more debt than they can possibly manage, Table Banking begins at the right level, as determined and managed by the community. Third, whereas microbanks and lending programs tend to be totally based around credit, Table Banks reward people who do nothing but save by giving them dividends or interest payments on their savings at the end of the year!

Our group in Kabete has also decided to begin Table Banking, so we’ve agreed to lead both groups through a training on forming Table Banking produced by the Chalmers Center at Covenant College. This is a totally new step for us, and we’re trying to equip our coworker, James Njeru, to be able to do the training on his own by the time we finish, so pray for us in all of that.

Our sunflower and aloe vera groups are continuing. We finished our Prepare a Better Business training in one of the groups, and the training continues to go well in all the groups. Two groups have harvested their sunflower, but low production because of the drought here and complications with getting the machine for processing have made the process more complicated. Our aloe vera farmers are implementing some new irrigation techniques, and production seems to be good, but we’re continuing to work on the marketing side of things. Please pray for wisdom and encouragement for both us and the farmers.

Finally, we’ve begun meetings with members of our new Pilot Project group! I posted something about the project several months ago, and more updates will be coming out soon, but for now I’ll just say that CCS hired an excellent new staff person for us to work with, and after meeting with some of the farmers and even visiting some farms we’re more excited than ever. Stay tuned to see how all of this new stuff unfolds!

Etcetera, Etcetera, Etcetera
And of course, there’s always the rest of everything. Rebecca and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary on August 23rd. Not many people graduate from college, move out of their parent’s houses, get married, and move overseas all in the space of a single year, and both friends and family have covered us with prayers because of the potential stress and strain that all that change can put on a marriage. We praise Jesus for giving us an incredibly happy and joyful first year, and for leading us to a job and country that have given us such a huge opportunity to learn more about each other and our future lives together.

We also are continuing our adventures with urban gardening. Having successfully harvested a heckuva lot of lettuce from one tire and some very small carrots from another, we’re ready to expand our operation to five tires for the October rains. And while you might be thinking that we’ve got bigger concerns than learning how to make salads grow up out of our driveway, I’ve got to admit that there’s been something significant about getting into the rhythms of growth and harvest, of participating in just a minute way with what our farmer’s do every day, and in remembering what our farmer’s have always known: that food doesn’t come from a restaurant or in a box, it comes from the earth, and it comes with care.

And we’re continuing to try to find ways to engage relationally with our farmers and other friends here in Nairobi. Our New City Fellowship small group continues to be a blessing, as does our relationship with my good friend from Bungoma, David Khisa. Alvin Mbola, a local community development professor and field worker here, has given us priceless guidance and direction in everything from our pilot project to how to help our friend who is trying to decide how to care for her orphaned, HIV-positive niece. And even as I write this, our three farmer friends from Mang’u, Lucy, (another) Lucy, and Mary, are busy in our kitchen learning how to make pumpkin pie.

Jesus has been good to us. The work is hard, and we’re always looking for better ways to do what we’re doing. Please pray specifically for the work, that our farmers would see success and that these projects would benefit their lives, that Jesus would guide us through this pilot project, and that he would guide us in our daily life as we seek to understand how best to walk through the many trials and struggles that our friends face here. Pray also for our Muslim neighbors who are celebrating Ramadan now (and who occasionally bring us tasty leftovers), that we would be good neighbors to them.

We would love to hear from any and all of you any time.

Peace,
Michael

A Different Spin On Independence

Ten days ago, on the day that Americans traditionally celebrate independence from Britain, we decided to do things a little different here in Kenya. Instead of American Independence Day, we celebrated "World Freedom Day," complete with tasty Kenyan "nyama choma" (fried goat) and ugali, Indian curry, and American deviled eggs, potato salad and burgers. Many people from church came, as well as 25 children from a nearby Children's Home, neighbors, co-workers, and other friends. In other words, we had a PAR-TAY!

The day was both amazingly busy and unexpectedly delightful. Some of my favorite parts of the day. . . 2 women from church coming to spend the night just so that they could help us in preparing for everything. All the men helping Michael grill hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken and goat by the truck load (okay, maybe not a truck load, but almost). Kids running around everywhere, playing various forms of soccer, rugby and wiffle ball. Youth from the church lounging on blankets in the grass and eating popcorn (lots of popcorn). 15 women all packed in the kitchen, all rapidly chopping, cooking, spreading, filling - whatever needed to be done in order to serve the 80 or so people who showed up over the course of eight hours - and along with all the preparation, lots of chatting and laughing. Seeing different people from different places, cultures, ethnic groups, economic backgrounds, and communities being together, eating together, and playing together.

When we gathered together to pray before eating, Michael explained why we decided to celebrate the 4th of July like this. First, he explained that we knew this 4th of July would be different for us simply because we are here in Kenya and not in the States. But more than that, he shared that we really wanted to celebrate our true freedom, as believers in Jesus Christ, instead of merely celebrating America's independence from Great Britain. Instead of celebrating the country of America and being exclusive by definition (as many people know, a person cannot simply be an American by wanting to be an American), we wanted to be inclusive by definition, because as Jesus followers (from anywhere in the world) we get to celebrate our freedom together every day, and also as believers we get to invite others into the joy of knowing Jesus and finding their true freedom as well.

I know this might sound hokey, or like I'm trying to over-spiritualize something that we shouldn't be so worried about. But I don't think I am. If living here in Kenya has taught me anything, it has taught me that I should never take for granted the freedom I have in Jesus, and the constancy of His love and His peace. As an American, it's true that I have noteable "freedoms," freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to buy assault rifles, etc. But all of these freedoms are temporary, incomplete, and unfulfilling. American freedoms don't get at or solve the problems that I have. . . the problems that I have with God, with myself, and with other people. American freedoms don't make me a better person, and they don't make other people better people. American freedoms can't promise lasting peace, security, or love. American freedoms are not what make me free. And they do not and will never make anyone free. When we look at all the different horrible sins nations, including ours, have committed in the name of preserving "freedom," it seems like at least sometimes, national freedom really means slavery, whether for ourselves, or for those people that get rolled over in the process.

But Jesus changes everything. Jesus does promise, has brought, and will fully bring eternal, complete, and fulfilling freedom. Freedom in Jesus chases away sin "far as the curse is found," and brings me back to a right relationship with God, with myself, and with other people. He is the only way that any of my relationships will ever be good and right and just. Freedom in Jesus doesn't just make me a better person; He makes me a new person, and has actually given me Himself by dying on the cross and defeating death by His resurrection. Freedom in Jesus promises peace, security, and eternal love. God has so loved the world by giving His Son, Jesus. He is our Peace. He is our Freedom. Happy World Freedom Day.

Rebecca

Beginnings and Continuings

The problem with getting bogged down and forgetting to update the blog is that when you finally get to it, it’s hard to even begin to sum up all the things you’ve been doing. But here goes nothing:

Rachael’s Visit
For the past two weeks we’ve hosted Rebecca’s older sister Rachael, who came all the way to Africa just to say hi. Expecting, as we all do when we first arrive, the “slower pace of African life,” I’m not sure Rachael was prepared for the jam packed two weeks we prepared for her. It’s been awesome to catch up, to get her perspective on our work, and to have an excuse for doing a bunch of touristy stuff that we haven’t done yet.

We began with a trip to Nakuru National Park (home of the famous Nat’l Geographic shots of a lake filled with like a kabagillion flamingoes). Rachael arrived at 6:30 a.m. on a Thursday, and by 5:30 p.m. that evening we were looking at rhinos and water buffalo in the park. Karibu Kenya! During this two night camping excursion, we also ended up at Naivasha again, and finally took the boat ride to see the hippos. Very cool, and because Rachael is a fanatical photographer with a new camera, our lives are better documented than they’ve been since our wedding.

The next week we went on a 4 day work trip that included visits to Nyeri, Ngare Ndare, and Mitunguu. We got to stay with Rebecca’s co-coach at Rosslyn Middle School for a night, followed by another night with Jedida and John in the Ngare Ndare group, and were once again amazed by the extraordinary hospitality of pretty much every Kenyan we know. Mitunguu was also fun, and by the time we got back, we were all completely exhausted.

This week we also visited the elephant orphanage (probably the “cutest” experience on the planet), where you get to see, and touch, numerous baby elephants and even a baby rhino that apparently thinks it’s a dog. None of them are more than three feet tall, so you can imagine the googooing that occurred between my wife and her sister. It’s a good thing you can only be there an hour.

All in all, we cherished our last few days with Rachael, and were really sad to see her go. She’s been an encouragement and a reminder that what we do for work is also, as it turns out, quite a bit of fun.

Work
On the surface, our projects are continuing as they have been for some time. We’re still doing the Prepare a Better Business trainings (and getting better at them all the time), the groups are still meeting monthly, making savings, and growing their crops. Under the surface, however, there’s a lot going on.

In Ngare Ndare, we have at last agreed to grow the butternut squash, and have been working with the group to try to be ready to plant by mid-July. This will require a whole lot of finagling on our part in terms of getting them the inputs that will constitute the loan in-kind, and probably more trips up that way than usual these days. But we’re excited about it all the same.

With our CCS coworkers, we have recently visited the farms in both Embu and Mitunguu (sunflower groups). The rains, as feared, have gone away as quickly as they came. In parts of Mitunguu, the flowers are, frankly, looking pretty bad, although still harvestable. Elsewhere in the region, our farmers have great sunflower, so that’s going to create some interesting group dynamics as it comes to processing and selling. We’ve also been working on actually getting the processing machines that the groups will use to process the sunflower seeds to create and sell the sunflower oil. This has been a trying process, requiring a lot of difficult discussion with our coworkers and the farmers, trying to figure out the best way to go about all of this. I spent all of yesterday actually driving around Nairobi looking for the machines, and yet we still haven’t completely sorted out how all of this is going to work. Please pray for guidance on this issue, and also that we would remember that the way we deal with the farmers is as important in development as the final product. Development is as concerned with empowering means as it is with financially empowered ends.

In Embeere and Kirinyaga, we are working to get simple, cost-effective irrigation systems installed, while also beginning the trainings. The Embeere group, which is in a drought-prone region, is working really hard, hoping that aloe vera’s drought resistance will make it a good source of income for them. Pray for them as they continue to learn how to take care of this new crop, and for us as we continue to try to understand the marketing aspects of the crop.

In Mang’u, the group continues to sell passion fruit, which is a huge blessing. Several of the farmers have almost paid off their loans, and they sold 70 kilos just yesterday! But many of the farmers’ crops have failed, and the group is struggling to find its way. Rebecca and I recently lead the group in a discussion to try to understand what has worked, what hasn’t, and what could be added to the group to make it stronger. This was all, of course, a great excuse for me to play with beans and rankings again like I did in Bungoma (check out thedudegoestoafrica.blogspot.com for pictures of what it looked like last time). The long and short of it is that we used participatory activities to make sure that everyone’s voice was heard, and that the group will be able to plan how to go forward. One thing we learned in classes back at CC that we’re seeing in real life now is that participation by the community is the most important element of community development. Designing good programs is much less important than empowering the community to design their own. This is a first step in shifting the focus away from us and back to the group.*

Other Stuff
To begin with, we’ve started a garden. Most of you are probably imagining us with a nice little plot outside of our grass thatched hut. In reality, it currently consists of two used tires and a seedling tray in our concrete driveway. Urban gardening is definitely in with the Rhodes family. This is our first effort at growing something from start to finish, and we’ve begun with tomatoes, carrots, and lettuce. We have absolutely no clue what we’re doing, and I honestly never expected anything to come up whatsoever. But about a week ago, on day five, we saw some green! And now, our little tires are just full of little veggies (that will, because of our ignorance, probably never make it out of the tire, but nonetheless)! I have to admit, seeing a bit of the process in our own backyard (tires), got us both pretty fired up.

We’ve also been introduced to some great new opportunities recently, both in terms of work and otherwise. I (Michael) recently got asked to lead a two part Sunday School class with the new deacons at New City Fellowship. The pastors heard that Bec and I are involved in microenterprise development, and wanted us to talk to the deacons about ministry among the poor. This was an incredible opportunity for us, because we love our church, and had prayed and thought about how God might use us to participate in the conversation about how the church can continue its life-giving, kingdom ministry with and among the urban poor. I spent the entire first session talking about God’s heart for the poor from Genesis to Revelation, and preparing for it was a good way for me to open my eyes again to the radical nature of God’s Word. Whenever I feel like I’ve got a good grip on my economic or political theory, the Scriptures quickly put me in my place.

Rebecca has also been introduced to some new opportunities, and is currently considering committing one day a week to a CRWRC/CCS project targeting high school age girls with programs to help keep them from being vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. This would include health training, as well as informal counseling and community building activities (cottage ministries, and most importantly for my athletic counterpart, SOCCER!). It would also require about a week’s worth of training, and could expand even into some basic economic training similar to what we’re already doing. We think this would be a great way for Bec to continue to use her gifts and abilities to really be a part of God’s kingdom work here. Pray for us as we think through all the ins and outs of this.

We went to our Kiswahili teacher’s children’s home to lead a soccer workshop with kids ages 8-17 last Saturday. We had a blast, I scored my first goal in any soccer game ever anywhere, and Rebecca wowed everybody who participated. Julius, our teacher who runs the children’s home, really is an incredible man of God who is doing really great community work for the kingdom.

We’re also diving more and more into a network or relationships here in Nairobi. Our neighbors, Josh and Emma, continue to be awesome guides around the city, and have also visited our church with us occasionally. This yielded practical returns when Josh came to our rescue after we broke down in downtown Nairobi at 11:00 p.m. (he’s a mechanic). We are growing more and more in our relationships with our predominately Indian-Kenyan Bible Study group, which has also grown into a Tuesday night badminton/Indian food event. And we’ve continued to enjoy playing soccer occasionally with the young Kenyans in the NCF youth group, and getting to know Agnus, our friend and house helper who lives in one of the poorer areas in Nairobi.

Agnus in particular has really helped us to understand the beauty of God’s image bearers who are living in Nairobi slums, and also the vast network of oppressive forces that they face in their daily lives. Just as a recent example, when Agnus got pneumonia recently, she had to get a “loan” from her neighbors . . . at 30% interest per month, while still not really being able to take care of her 8 kids and one adopted addition. Rebecca has led the charge in us trying to help Agnus plan financially, to begin saving with us (because she doesn’t have access to a bank), and to try to make the income she gets support her life.** Now Agnus is putting away her rent money every month with us, and only going home with a portion of her pay from us after working, letting us keep the rest in a “savings account” for a rainy day. This has reminded us that some of the most important work we do among the poor isn’t with big programs or based on education and specialized skills. It is the person-to-person, “walking with” our friends who find themselves in bad economic straits, and trying to apply God’s word to both of our lives together. And that’s something we can all be a part of in our lives.

Peace,
Michael

*Our explanation of our work on the blog is technical because we assume that people that go to the blog want to know more than those who just read our update emails. If you ever have questions or want to know more, please drop us an email at michaelandrebeccarhodes@gmail.com

**Agnus is also part of a cottage ministry that makes beautiful greeting cards. These have authentic Kenyan artwork on the front, and are made out of recycled materials. The proceeds go directly to benefit people who are doing honest work to provide for themselves instead of turning to all sorts of immoral alternatives or giving in to the despair that surrounds them. If you are interested in placing an order, we’d love to facilitate that. And seriously, they’re really cool.

Kanisa Linajengwa Na Kina Nani?

"God's church is being built by who?"

That's the question the congregation of New City Fellowship sang with great joy this past Sunday morning, followed by the exuberant response: "God's church is being built by old men, by mamas and papas, by children and youth, by all people from everywhere."

The worship debates rage as strongly as ever in the US, as far as I can tell. Pentecostals perpetuate a theology of power, based on teachings of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles' miraculous signs and wonders that marked the ministry of the early church. Many Catholics might counter with a worshipful theology based on brokenness, centered around the crucifixion and echoed in the humility and suffering Paul and the others experienced in the early church. Presbyterians love to quote the passage about "orderliness" in worship, while members of all traditions turn instead towards the Psalms which call God's people to dance and sing, to bang on tambourines and drums and whatever else we can find in mad joy over God's presence. My Easter and Christmas services were marked by the overwhelming mystery of the Incarnation and Resurrection, a mystery symbolized in the high church worship of 2nd Pres, but we never talked much about Paul's command to the church to make sure they have an interpreter when, as part of corporate worship, people were to speak in tongues and heavenly languages. Probably a similar oversight among charismatic churches would be neglecting the passage where Paul makes it clear that tongues are not to be considered among the higher gifts.

Paradox marks our faith at every turn. Funny thing is, most of our churches are based on theologies that make their stand on only one side of the Bible's many apparent conflicts. "Your worship doesn't reflect the joy of the lord, it's so bound by tradition, it's so dead," says one side. "Your worship is too focused on people, it's distracting, it doesn't show God enough respect or reflect the majesty of the King," says the other. And with a total lack of self-awareness, we shout scriptures at each other, using God's Word to fight God's Word.

While the worship team cried out, "Who will build God's church?" I noticed that one of the Kenyan singers was wearing a traditional Indian outfit, while an Indian percussionist was wearing a traditional African shirt. The singer is a young girl who has been pseudo adopted by an Indian family in town while she goes to school, the percussionist an Indian elder who has learned how to serve God amidst a congregation that breaks all the rules. Kenyans and Indians don't get along. Not in Nairobi, anyway. But in this church, they share clothes.

In fact, sharing clothes, food, and other cultural activities is simply part of what it means to be a Christian at NCF. And maybe a survey of what the Bible says about worship would reveal one stunning, overwhelming truth: the biggest mistake a church could make in worship is to do it all one way. Maybe the idea that God allows his people to pick their favorite worship type, and more tellingly, their favorite social demographic to worship with, is a lie from Satan. Maybe God created culture because we're His image bearers, and He's too big to be captured by any one group. That's the way New City sees it. That's what our church is teaching us. And when Paul talks about sacrificial worship, we know a bit more of what he means. From not understanding every third song (we sing in 5 different languages), to sacrificing "excellence for God" to stylistic diversity and all the chaos that results, to dealing with the much deeper issues that result from embracing the "ministry of reconciliation" in a community that actually physically demonstrates why reconciliation is needed, worshiping at NCF is neither easy nor simple. But neither is God. And neither is the worship that He calls us to, worship that includes rich and poor, black and white, young and old, liberal and conservative, every tongue, tribe and nation, not because "they" need it, but because He demands it. Maybe it's time to put on someone else's clothes for a change.

Peace,
Michael

*Sorry about another post that focuses on our church! The truth is, our experience at NCF has been one of the most amazing experiences of our lives (much as our time at ICF in Memphis!), and we just want to talk about it! Look for a general update later this week!

Hospitality and an Upside Down Community

When we arrive at a meeting, or just whenever we see our farming Kenyan friends, a typical greeting is "Mimea yako inaendelea?" ("How are your crops continuing?"). Until recently we would get hopeful but discouraging responses about how they were still looking for the rains that just didn't seem to be coming. But in the last few weeks, all of that has changed.

Michael and I are now frequently going to bed to the sound of rain pounding on our roof, we are overwhelmed at the beauty of the renewed green rolling hills of the Kenyan countryside, and some of our farmers are saying that these are the best long rains they've received in years! Bwana Safiwe!! (Praise the Lord!!)

We had a particularly encouraging experience with our Kirinyaga group just this past week. Out of the group of 50 farmers, 30 of these are landless, so CCS is letting each of these use a small plot on their demonstration farm to plant their 80 aloe vera plants. So there are 2,400 aloe vera plants growing very well, and the farmers are delighted about having a space and a crop of their own to care for (that's me being so excited about the growing aloe vera plants). After the meeting (which many were not able to attend because of the rain and mud issues), Michael and I got a tour of the nearby village where these landless farmers live. Most of them are renters in very small, closely spaced rooms, but they were so excited about showing us where they lived and worked, and were so hospitable to us.

I know we keep saying this in our blog posts, but it's just such a powerful example to us - Kenyans are so hospitable. The chairman of this subgroup of farmers, Florence (the one in the middle, between Michael and Priscilla, the secretary of the group), had us come into her home and served us avacado, arraroot (kind of like potato), and cokes, Veronica offered us chai in her home, Joseph bought ground nuts for us, John let us hold his newborn baby, and each one of them introduced us to their families and made us promise to return to take a full meal with them the next time we come.

So our work "inaendelea” (it is continuing). We are meeting with the Meru groups every two weeks to continue the PBB (Prepare a Better Business) trainings, and we’re going once a month to Embu, Kirinyaga, and Embeere to do the same trainings. So far we’ve had sessions about examining a good business idea, talking with customers to test ideas, and planning our production. Michael and I usually teach the lessons together but a few times we have split the groups up into men and women and that has been great.

When I am with just women they tend to be more vocal, they have great ideas and many questions, and they seem to latch onto the concepts really well. One of the lessons goes through all the character traits of the woman of noble character in Proverbs 31, and it was a very encouraging time to discuss and learn together.

I think we've mentioned this before, but we are so blessed and amazed by the New City Fellowship church body that we are a part of here. Last Sunday both Michael and I were almost brought to tears as we saw these lovers of Jesus show us what it means to be the body of Jesus. As usual we sang in four different languages (Kiswahili, English, Hindi and another Indian language).

Shafkat, our assistant pastor, really brought the Word in his message, talking about the truth of God's promises - His love and His grace - so powerfully, and then after the service we had a potluck feast consisting of foods from all around the world. But what really got Michael and me that day was that we had brought our Kenyan neighbors, Josh and Emma, with us, and I think just about every single person in the church came up to them, greeted them by name, asked them about themselves, and were just so kind. As Michael pointed out, possibly our most powerful form of evangelism as Christians is simply how we love one another ("They will know us by our love," check out 1 John), and I think New City Fellowship was a powerful witness to that love to our friends last week.

There are many things we love about New City Fellowship, but something that stands out the most is this church body's obvious belief in 2 Corinthians 12:9 where it says that God's power is made most perfect in our weaknesses. Right now our pastor is recovering from major eye surgery after a freak accident, and he has been coming to church on painkillers and with a patch, but he's still there, shepherding and leading the people (and also regularly making jokes like, "I've always wanted to be a pirate.") Our assistant pastor, Shafkat, is a compassionate and passionate pastor who happens to be in a wheelchair. Mimi, the young woman in charge of slides during singing, has a physical handicap that makes it hard for her to communicate. We have Indian Kenyans and African Kenyans who typically don't get along who are worshipping together as members of the same family, and a bunch of Congolose refugee folks who don't know a lick of English but come with huge smiles and big hearts to be an intricate part of this body. And even though they can't understand much of the sermon (which is in English), the Congolose (28 of them) get up and sing a song almost every week, which sounds like it must be a taste of heaven. All this to say, New City Fellowship is made up of so many different kinds of people from so many different places (nationally, ethnically, and socio-economically), and it just doesn't seem like it should work. What in the world are we all doing together? The answer is simple. Jesus, our Redeemer and our Brother, has called us to each other by calling all of us to Himself.

Just this past Sunday we got to go visit our Congolese friends' homes. They are two families who have been here in Kenya for 5 months after long years of living in their war-torn country and seeing many family members and friends suffer and die at the hands of inexplicable violence. First we went to the home of Donata and his wife who have their seven children, one sister-in-law, two nieces and two nephews staying with them, and then we visited Victor and his wife who have 12 children, five of their own and seven adopted (I think most of those adoptions happened as a result of many being orphaned by the war in Congo). Again, we were overwhelmed by their generosity to us, serving us lunch and practicing their English with us, and letting us practice our Kiswahili with them.

Obviously I'm still regularly amazed at the hospitality and kindness of the people here, but maybe I shouldn't be. I think the source of my continual amazement is my basic assumption that happiness is necessarily linked to a person's financial status, but according to Jesus - that's totally wrong! I can't believe how often I forget the backwards and upside down things that Jesus promised, things like blessed are the poor, and blessed are those who hunger and weep now, and blessed are those who are hated and excluded. He says to those people to rejoice and leap for joy. And then he goes on: he says woe to the rich, woe to those who are well fed, woe to those who laugh now, and woe to those who all men speak well of, for that is how the false prophets were treated (Luke 6). I don't understand all of what that means, but I do know that we are getting to see a glimpse of the fulfillment of that in the lives of the poor here.

This group of ragtag followers of Jesus who make up New City Fellowship (the Indians, Germans, Kenyans, Americans, Congolose, and others) do not have it all together, but the difference between them and many other Christians are that they do not pretend to have it all together. Maybe that makes them more “put together” than those of us who are always trying to put on a good face and trying never to appear like we are hurt or angry or sad about things. Jesus says that all who are weary can come to Him, and He will be our rest. His promises are bigger and better than the emptiness of more wealth, more things, or more power; He promises His presence to us, He promises to be our Peace, and He promises to be our Rest. For now, New City Fellowship is showing us glimpses of the fulfillment of those great promises. May we continue to learn with them and continue to be challenged and changed to conform evermore to the radical calling of Christ on our lives.

Resurrection Hope: Try, Try, and Try Again

You know, when we think about the church in the world today, and what we’re doing in God’s kingdom both collectively and as individuals, it’s easy to get discouraged. Satan roars around like a lion waiting to devour us, often by using our good intentions and misguided battlefronts “to lead us like lambs to the slaughter.” Living on another continent and listening to the news and noise from back home often makes me grieve rather than rejoice. As an example, seeking to own Christ as the Risen Lord and King who claims our allegiance over all earthly commitments and communities, Rebecca and I have tried to think about politics in ways that are difficult to define and that are nonconformist to either of our two parties (neither of which reflects God’s dream for the world). And so whether in the NY Times, Christian social justice blogs, or in chain mail, we’re constantly discouraged! Whether it’s the Christian activist who writes about Obama’s presidency as if it is the sign and seal of God’s kingdom coming for the poor, or the chain mail that tells us that “Christ died to save your soul, and the American soldier for your freedom,” we feel sometimes that the kingdom might be stumbling.

But the temptation to feel failure is even greater here in our own lives and work! Many of us have grown up with so many commercials that say things like, “For just 7 cents a decade, you can save an entire community from starvation, and build three churches, and convert the entire country,” that we’ve started to believe that God’s kingdom work among the poor is simple or easy, that all it takes is good intentions and cold hard cash. But that certainly doesn’t reflect our experience. Community development work is hard, and there are plenty of setbacks, failures, false starts, and all the rest.

And as opposed to some other areas of missions or development, where the field seems to have reached a fairly defined set of “best practices” or rules for success, in promoting market-based agricultural business, we sometimes find ourselves in what might be called “half-charted territory:” not untried, not without guidelines, but with a whole lot of really smart folks saying, “Now how exactly do we make this work?”

And this is even more discouraging than biased blogs and misguided (or dishonest!) chain mails. Discouraging enough to sometimes make you wonder if it’s worth it.

And then we remember the little parable of the mustard seed. In Matthew, Jesus begins his ministry by declaring the kingdom of heaven, the rule and reign of God that will set all things to right, that will be the jubilee year for the poor, the day of healing for the sick, the blind, and the lame, and a reversal of the fallen world’s order. And how does Jesus say that this great overturning of the world will happen? How will this mighty work for the outcast, the beggar, and the poor break onto the scene, this revolution that unseats the powerful and lifts up the lowly? Like a tiny insignificant seed, that hides in the soil quietly, and then slowly by slowly becomes the enormous tree that attracts all the birds of the air to its branches. In other words: the Risen Lord’s kingdom is coming, and if we want to see it, we’ll look to the small things, the quiet efforts, the little by little steps of His followers seeking His way in the world. In a society where our worth is determined by the bigness of our actions, whether inside the church or outside of it, Christ tells us His kingdom is coming, whether we see it or not, coming in the small things, the hidden things, the stopping, starting, halting efforts of His people to do His work.

What that means is that as community development workers, a good bit of what we’re doing is experimenting, trying this and that, seeing what works, and believing in God’s kingdom coming for the poor at every step despite the inadequacy of our efforts. I know that this isn’t as comfortable as saving a city for 7 cents, either for us or for the folks back home. The kingdom isn’t ever comfortable, but it is beautiful and good, the dream hidden deep in our hearts fulfilled by Christ in His death and resurrection.

So practically what does this mean for us? A whole lot actually. After four months of studying Planting Faith’s groups, learning from our partner organization and our bosses Horace and Ann Tipton, and thinking long and hard through everything we learned back at Covenant, we have proposed to try a new pilot project that would keep the best of what PF has been doing, to learn from our mistakes, and to adopt new techniques that will be more community-based, more empowering, and more sustainable.

So instead of lending to the farmers, we’ll partner with a local microbank that has proven that they are experts at making sustainable loans to farmers groups. Doing this will help us as the church and the “wazungu” to distance ourselves from the financial portion of our program (thus eliminating some of the negative incentives in our current model), and will save us a good deal of headache in terms of staff time and fundraising. Instead of forming a new big group of 50 farmers, we’ll work with a smaller group that has already been functioning for some time before we ever get to them. Instead of researching the markets and crop possibilities ourselves and then presenting them to the farmers, we’ll use a series of participatory activities and trainings to help the farmers analyze the market for various crops, their potential to produce those crops, and to develop a business plan to collectively conduct that plan. This will be more empowering and developmental, putting the future and success of the group totally in the hands of the group themselves, and equipping them to follow this exact same model over and over again without our help in the future.

And we’ll still be doing all of the other Christian business and agricultural training and research, the marketing assistance, and oversight that seem to have been successful in the good work PF has already been attempting.

This all may seem quite technical, but for us, it’s just another way we’re seeing the kingdom of God affect not only the type of work we do, but the way we do it: by starting small, by trying new things and learning from our successes and mistakes, and by building all of our work on the absolutely rock solid foundation of the resurrection, which means that “our work in the Lord will not be in vain.” Hallelujah, that Christ allows us to participate in the work He’s doing, accepting and using our faltering, stumbling efforts to build His kingdom.

Will our project work? We hope so, but we can’t be sure. But we know this: Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ is coming again, and in the meantime, the mustard seed sized work of the kingdom is coming in our world, giving us glimpses and hints of what He will do in full in those last days.

Peace,
Michael Rhodes

P.S.- Sorry for all these digressions! I hope you find them interesting, but regardless, look for a regular, "so what again have ya'll been doing?" post early next week!