April 2018 Prayer Letter

Enjoy our latest prayer letter!  Thank you for encouraging us and partnering with us in this ministry. Click here to read the letter.

Staying in a Home, not a Hotel, in Baringo

By Sara:

While we were in Baringo for Anthony to facilitate TLT and for me to facilitate the Bible studies (written by me and Brett) and teach some agriculture lessons, we were graciously hosted by the Suffragan Bishop and his wife, Dinah, during the nights we spent there.  We enjoyed drinking tea and talking outside in the cool evening.

Dinah's nephew was also staying with them and helped out with the cooking, including the butchering of a chicken.  The cats behind him were anxiously waiting for the feet.

I also got to help out with the cooking.  Dinah gave me a cooking lesson on making managu, which is a favorite leafy green vegetable in parts of Kenya.  In English, we'd call it edible nightshade - despite being part of the nightshade family like tomatoes and eggplant, the leaves are edible, hence the name.

 Anthony and I really like managu and I have some seeds, so I'm going to plant it in my garden in Soroti and hopefully we'll be enjoying our own soon, now that we know how to prepare it well.

We enjoyed our visit with this family.  They are very kind and hospitable people and we got to have good conversations together about life and ministry.  Dinah also helped me practice Swahili by sitting with me over tea and speaking only in Swahili to me so that I had to speak in Swahili back instead of reverting to English just because it's easy.

Putting "The Earth is the Lord's" Into Practice

By Sara:

While we were in Mogotio, Kenya, I had the opportunity to start going through "The Earth is the Lord's: Bible Studies on Creation and Agriculture" with the women I've been meeting with there while Anthony does TLT.  We had a small group, but it was very conducive to discussion.  And those who were there enjoyed it enough that we will probably start at the beginning again next time we're in Mogotio, so other ladies can learn too.

For those of you reading who know Swahili, have mercy on me for what I wrote - I'm still a learner!  But here's an example of the truths we learned from one of the studies, on Genesis 1:26-31.   I loved hearing from the women in the group about what they learned from these different passages.  For example, in this one, they mentioned how God had a plan in creation - he made plants before he made the animals and people to eat them.  So we should also have a plan in place before we do things, like having children or keeping animals in order to be ready to take care of them well.

In another passage, I liked the comment that someone made about how the thorns that are part of the punishment for Adam and Eve's sin also hurt our relationship with the earth - we can't just walk around barefoot anymore without maybe stepping on thorns (all the more relevant because on this very trip, Anthony stepped on a serious acacia thorn that poked all the way through his shoe and into his foot).

Here are some other interesting points from our time studying together:
-One lady told her husband that these were the best Bible studies she had ever done.
-Another said that she used to just read the Bible and then go off and get back to daily life.  But now, she understands that she can study the Bible as she reads and look for what God is teaching her in an active way.  She said she was going to practice at home the next day.
-They all liked the part in Genesis 1 where it talks about God creating plants that are pleasing to the eye and good for food.  Everyone said she was going to go back home to plant some trees and flowers that are pleasing to the eye, not just plants for food.
-One lady said she saw the importance of studying multiple translations or languages in Bible study because the different versions bring out different things from the text.

Some of them are now convinced that my Swahili comprehension is amazing because they learned new Swahili words from me (agriculture words that no one would be using in everyday conversation).  But to be fair, I only learned them from listening to Brett's seminar in Tanzania.  Still, I am enjoying getting better at Swahili because it allows me to develop relationships with people who I would struggle to communicate with if we had to talk through a translator.

We talked about agriculture and the importance of taking care of our soil.  I brought some jackbean and mucuna seeds which women who are interested can try planting in order to improve their soil or feed to animals.  

Anthony mentioned that I had the opportunity to introduce this Bible study method at Chris's church in Nairobi as well.  There aren't any pictures of us doing the Bible studies in Baringo, so here's a picture of me leading the people who were at church before the service started through a quick Bible study on Psalm 24:1-2. 

Some Fun Animal Photos

By Anthony:

We went to Murchison Falls National Park with Sara's parents when they visited.  These are some of the best photos.  None of them were taken by me since I was the driver, so the credit goes to Sara and her parents!

A Bateleur:

The Nile River:

Jackson's Hartebeest (and Ugandan Kob on the left):

I am awfully close to this elephant, but rangers were nearby, and the vehicles were right behind me so I could escape if necessary!

Nile River Boat Ride:

Pretending to be tough:

Black and White Colobus Monkey:

Northern Carmine Bee-Eater:

Helping Without Hurting in Nakuru

By Anthony:

I had another opportunity to test Course 1 of the curriculum I'm writing called Helping Without Hurting in Africa.  This time I was able to teach it with one of my coauthors, Jonny Kabiswa, who is married to one of our World Renew colleagues.  Jonny is a Ugandan but living in Kenya right now.  Because I have contacts with missionaries and Kenyan leaders in Nakuru, we were able to lead a two day training there.  People had requested it over a year ago while I was still living in Kenya, but we had not yet completed the writing, but better late than never.  Sara came as well and was a big help, taking care of the registration and many of the logistics.  Joel, a missionary friend in Nakuru, set up the church venue and organized all the food.

Our numbers were small (22 people came) but that only made for really powerful discussion and everyone had a chance to talk.  We had several foreign missionaries and their Kenyan colleagues, people who do prison ministry, people who work with orphans and widows, a couple development staff from Anglican Development Services (one of World Renew's partners), and a few church leaders.  It was a diverse group so we could all learn a lot from each other's ideas and experiences.  Most of the people there had far more years of experience than I in caring for the poor, so I felt a bit intimidated.  But the curriculum is using principles that I did not invent myself, principles that are tried and tested by other Christians, and it is those principles which make the big impact.  It is only a gift and a privilege that I find myself as part of this project.

Here is Jonny teaching:

Below is a photo from a drama/exercise that Jonny led.  The other participants were volunteers and received no preparation.  They are supposed to pretend to be Jonny's relatives from whom Jonny is asking for financial help.  Through asking good questions they needed to try hard to listen well and really diagnose what is causing Jonny's poverty, before they determine the best way to help him.  It's a difficult exercise, showing that it takes practice and patience to do this well in real life.

One missionary asked what I personally do about all the people who ask for money.  He asked, "is it ever okay just to give even if we cannot diagnose what is causing their poverty?"  I answered that it's better to err on the side of generosity and we should listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so sometimes we could give without diagnosing the cause.  But I explained that my rule of thumb is to say "no" to most of the random people who ask for help.  But then with the money that I am able to give away, I will give to a few people and organizations.  This way, instead of trying to help many, I help a few, but in an effective way, over a long period of time, building the relationship, and making sure that my money is making a good impact.  If we simply give money to most people that ask, we might be only helping half of them, and leaving the rest in shame or dependency or sinful habits.

Throughout the training, it's easy for all the participants, as well as us facilitators, to start feeling overwhelmed by the complicated topic of poverty, and paralyzed by how easy it is to make mistakes, and how hard it is to help people in a wise way.  Jonny and I both shared stories of times we have tried to help people, thinking we were being very wise, only to find out later how many mistakes we made.  Yet we always encourage participants to not give up, not to feel paralyzed, but to do even more with the poor, and be even more generous in our giving.  We know we will not solve the problem of poverty completely, yet we can have hope that the Holy Spirit has the power to use us even right now to make real concrete change in the lives of individuals and communities.

One of the interesting discussions that we had was about how to stop Kenyan fraudsters and corrupt organizations.  This was not in the curriculum directly but it was a question that was raised.  I'm not sure we came up with many good answers.  I know from discussions with other missionaries in Uganda and Kenya that if Americans are giving money to individual Africans that they know, or giving money to organizations working in Africa, they often do not want to listen when a missionary tells them that things are not all as they seem.  If the American trusts the Kenyan pastor they are supporting 100%, then they will refuse to believe even an American missionary, or another Kenyan pastor, when they explain that this pastor has not supported the children you gave him money to support.  When missionaries tell friends and churches back in the USA, that organization x and organization y are actually causing more harm than good in certain communities, people don't want to listen.  I haven't had too much of a problem with this myself, but I've heard from other missionaries that this has happened to them.

I know this is a natural tendency we have, to want to trust organizations we care about and support - for example, it would be hard for me if I heard criticism about World Renew.  We want to trust people and organizations.  And it is really really tough to face the possibility that our money we gave generously might be causing harm and dependency in communities or ending up in the hands of corrupt individuals.  But we need to be open minded about the possibility that this could happen.  I've seen this issue talked about in online discussion groups for missionaries, that a number of missionaries can testify about a local Ugandan organization, that in reality is doing absolutely nothing, but American donors don't listen and keep sending money, filling the corrupt pockets. 

I don't know the solution.  But I guess the general rule I would give is this - "If you don't live in Africa yourself, but give money to organizations or individuals in Africa, please be willing to listen to people who are there on the ground."  Africans can be paid to share stories that Americans want to hear, statistics can be inflated to make problems sound more dire than they are, and photos can be manipulated.  

Another rule might be - "Be willing to ask hard questions of the organizations that you support financially." Questions like these below.  Answering these questions is hard, even for me to do about my own work.  And hearing answers from organizations will not necessarily give you an easy decision on what organizations to support.  But these questions can at least help to steer us in the right directions.

1. What is the community contributing to this project in terms of money and resources?  (They should contribute at least something, even if 1% of the total cost. Everyone can do something, everyone has something, and everyone can contribute something).

2. Are your development workers doing anything for people that the people could do for themselves?

3. Are you giving people relief when really they need development?

4. Are you listening to the ideas of the people in the community?  Is this project really the project they want, or is it just that donor money was available for the projects you are doing?

5. Do you do monitoring and evaluation and audits of the people and projects who are doing this development work to make sure there is effective work being done and no corruption?

6. Is the community really taking ownership of this project, or do they feel like it is organization x's project?

7. Are you paying people to come to trainings, for their time, their food, their transport, their accommodation, etc., or do they actually desire to learn and are willing to pay something for it?

8. What do other people in the community, region, and country say about the work of the organization?

9. Is the Church being built up in country x through your work?

10. If the organization pulled its money right now, would the project completely fall apart, or would the local people feel ownership of it and try to keep it going?

11. Is the work of your organization hindering the stewardship, responsibility, and generosity of the local people?

12. Is this project really the vision of the community and church there?  

One Kenyan leader shared that Kenyans learn quickly that they should never share their true vision with a mzungu (white foreigner).  Instead, they should let the mzungu speak first.  When the mzungu shares their vision, then the Kenyan should say, "ah yes, that is exactly what I had in mind!  It seems that God brought you here and connected us because our vision is exactly the same.  Just as you have a vision to care for orphans, that has always been my calling as well."  He said you never turn away money or projects from a mzungu or organization, even if you know that is not what you are interested in or what your community really needs.  Obviously, when looking at this issue, there is change needed both on the side of foreigners and of Kenyans, so that we are more honest with each other and really listening to each other.

We also discussed how there are some regions in Kenya, as well as Uganda, that seem to be stuck in cycles of relief and dependency.  Yes, our curriculum teaches that relief aid should be given when a community is in a famine.  But what do you do if that famine comes every 2-3 years, regularly, like clockwork, but the community refuses to change any of its practices in order to prepare for it, but would rather depend on the aid that keeps coming very reliably?  What do you if an African government refuses to ever change their policies or fulfill their commitments to the local people in a hurting region because they can rely on foreign organizations and governments to feed their starving people and build them wells, and give them medical clinics?  We didn't come up with a good answer, but agreed that these are important questions for aid organizations to keep asking. 

We had another brief drama to illustrate the problem of "paternalism" which we should try to avoid when helping the poor.  We want to treat people with dignity as people made in the image of God, and not treat them as helpless, dependent children.  So we should avoid routinely doing things for people that they can do themselves, and avoid routinely giving people things that they are able to purchase for themselves.  These two missionaries agreed to do the drama we had planned, and they did a wonderful job showing the foolishness of paternalism!  It is demeaning to have people feed you, dress you, and brush your teeth for you when you have the ability to do it yourself!

We also talked about the feelings of inferiority that many people have in Africa, and participants admitted that some of them and other Kenyans do still feel inferior compared to foreigners, because of the issue of economic differences, but also because of the history of colonialism and being made to feel inferior due to their cultures and skin color.  There is so much still to do to overcome this.

A missionary shared her experience that she tried to simply walk alongside a group of women, instead of being a leader or telling them what to do, or giving them handouts.  Yet the dynamics of being a foreigner in Africa are so complicated.  Her very presence in the group, even when she tried not to speak, altered the whole mood of the group.  They still looked to her to make all the decisions and guide the group.  It took a really long time of her resisting this for the group to finally learn to walk alongside her instead of relying on her completely for guidance and money.



Through testing this curriculum, we found errors we need to fix within it, and also realized we have too much content and need to shorten some of the lessons.  We are grateful for other people who are testing the material around Africa, who will give us even more helpful feedback.

Sara's Cool Demonstration Video

By Sara:

We made a video which you can download from this link which shows many of the items I've made at our home for demonstration and teaching purposes.  When I watch it, I feel awkward - who likes watching herself in a video? but everyone else who has watched it thinks it's super interesting and fun.  So, you should watch it!

Baringo TLT - From Harm to Harmony in the Family

By Anthony:

It was wonderful to return to Kenya in March, to Mogotio specifically, to continue the Timothy Leadership Training program I started there.  We did the third of six manuals.  It is called "From Harm to Harmony: Overcoming Violence in the Family."  I think this manual has the most engaging, deep, and personal topics.  It was hard to finish the manual in three days because there was so many long discussions.  As a facilitator, I have to balance letting everyone talk who wants to, and also making sure we keep a good pace.  It is such a privilege to do this for my work, to help people think through these topics and study the Bible together.

One problem we continue to have is time keeping.  Many people do not come on time, so they either miss lessons or the rest of us have to sit and wait for them to arrive.  But that problem has been solved!  We initiated the fine system.  For coming late, you have to pay 50 shillings (50 cents).  No more are people coming late!

Interesting things happen when you visit rural areas for trainings.  First, I was ambushed by sheep running through the church gate one day and they got poop all over my trousers as they went between my legs. Second, another day I stepped on a piece of an acacia branch on the ground on accident, and one of the thorns went through my shoe.  Imagine a nail sticking up out of the ground.  The thorn was two inches long at least and went through my shoe and into my foot, but thankfully I did not end up with an infection.  Third, we stayed at the Bishop's home during the week in the village (village means the rural area).  One day his neighbor made charcoal, let it cool, then put it into a sack and put the sack into his storehouse, but apparently the charcoal was not yet cooled enough.  During the night it caught fire and the whole building burned down.  Thankfully it was not the dry season anymore or there could have been quite the wild fire.  It was a big loss for the neighbor so we went over and prayed with them.

This TLT manual covers such things as how we should honor people because they are made in the image of God, healthy marriage relationships, healthy relationships with children and other family members, overcoming sexual addictions like pornography, reporting abuse and counseling victims and perpetrators, and attitudes we should have toward others.

Some interesting questions people brought up that we discussed:

• "Men and women are both made in the image of God.  What about people born with both male and female sex organs?"
• "Some people have grown up without a father.  Since God is spirit and not male or female, can we call God 'Mother'?"
• "Is there such a thing as rape in marriage?"  I was surprised to learn that most of them quickly said "yes."  This was not the case in discussions in Uganda about this.
• I asked, "what percentage of families in Baringo are polygamous today?"  The answer was that 50-60% of families in Baringo county (where Mogotio is located) are still polygamous, and every church has polygamous families in it.  But you cannot be a leader in the Anglican church if you have more than one wife.  The church allows people to be full members if they got saved when already in a polygamous family, but once saved, church members are not allowed to marry another wife.

Other topics we discussed that I found very interesting, and I think were helpful to them:

• Caring for children with disabilities, and supporting the parents of children with disabilities.  In many African cultures, including in Baringo, parents are told that they are cursed, and that must be why their children were born that way.  Sometimes children with disabilities are kept inside the home all day because of the stigma and the shame the families feel.
• The issue of shame transfer in rape, how victims are shamed and sometimes blamed, specifically looking at Amnon and Tamar in 2 Samuel 13.
• Understanding our love languages and our spouse's love languages.
• The sins of "beating our spouse" (physical abuse) and also verbal abuse.
• Alcohol addiction.  We talked about this for hours.  One interesting thing was that they still use wine in all of their churches for communion.  One member used to be an alcoholic but he said the wine does not give him a problem with temptation.  I'm thinking maybe this is because communion wine is quite different from their local brews in taste.
• While talking about communion, it came out that some of the churches are almost Roman Catholic in their practice.  Some pastors are afraid that they have to drink all the wine and eat all the bread, and not leave any leftover.  It appears some pastors in the Anglican Church believe in transubstantiation whether knowingly or unknowingly, but my TLT group said this belief is not the view of their denomination.  Transubstantiation is the Roman Catholic belief that the bread is actually the body of Jesus, and the blood is actually Jesus' blood, so that we are really indeed eating Jesus.  In contrast, the Anglican Church of Kenya, and the Christian Reformed Church, believe that Jesus is spiritually present with us in a special way during communion, but his body is in Heaven, he is still incarnate. 

More discussions:

• One of the most vigorous discussions that I could barely control, which involved yelling and laughter, was whether families should have one big plate of ugali for everyone to take from as they eat, or if everyone should have a separate plate of ugali, or if the father should get his own bowl and the other family members share from one big plate.  It was a funny discussion, but it does have meaning, as different practices show different family dynamics.
• One of the longest discussions was about headship in marriage and church.  Specifically we looked at three different views of Genesis 3:16, the curse given to the woman, "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."  Is headship part of the curse, or was Adam already the head of Eve before the curse but the curse twisted the headship from being one of service to one of dictatorship?  I did not tell them what to believe, but outlined some of the many positions, specifically the patriarchal view, the complementarian view, and the egalitarian view.  90% voted for the complementarian view, and a few people voted for each of the other views.
• We talked about FGM (female genital mutilation).  It doesn't happen much anymore and it is against the law in Kenya.  But just a few months ago apparently 100 women in Baringo voluntarily underwent the ritual at around the same time as their boys went through their circumcision ritual to become men.  Because the women did it voluntarily, it seems the government did not know how to address it.
• We talked about saying "I love you" to husbands or wives.  It is very counter cultural!  The men mostly all said that in the culture this is not necessary, uncomfortable for everyone, and love is shown through actions.  But the women said that they crave to hear their husbands say it!  So I suggested that maybe there needs to be a change and we shouldn't too quickly dismiss the issue because of culture.  Similarly it is rare for either husbands or wives to say "thank you" for something that is expected to be done as a duty.  But in the TLT group I had us take time to appreciate things about one another.  They realized it felt really great to be appreciated and are ready to go home and appreciate their family members!  One of the pastors said they should begin by appreciating their spouses on holidays like Valentine's day.  It was amazing to see how powerful the influence of Western culture is, both positively and negatively.

More discussions still:

• I learned that divorce is very uncommon, but separation isn't.  Kenya, and I think other African countries, have made it a very difficult process legally to get a divorce.  And it is also quite difficult between the families and clans involved, especially considering the issue of land.  In divorce, usually the children always go with the man.  Also, in cases of divorce, or even in cases of separation, it is common for the husband to request his dowry payment back from the wife's family.  I have heard of cases in Uganda where clans began fighting one another physically over conflicts like this.  This is one of the really unfortunate complications that the whole dowry system causes.  Because of the complications of divorce, people just get separated and live apart from each other, and many of the men take another wife, and end up being polygamous.  So while people like to say that divorce is extremely common in the US but not as common in Africa, I don't know if this is really true.  It seems to me from the discussions that separation is extremely common in East Africa.  For all purposes, it is a divorce in God's eyes, as these people live apart the rest of their lives.
• I learned that these leaders generally fear to get involved in family issues of people in the church or community.  It is hard to report cases of abuse, or hard to stick up for wives who have been beaten.  Some of the leaders have done so in the past and been ostracized by families or whole clans.  One pastor put a church leader under church discipline for regularly beating his wife, and the result was that the pastor was almost killed, and his bishop ended up having to transfer him to another area.
• Surprisingly, when talking about fair treatment in the family, they agreed it's good to make boys and girls do an equal amount of work, even though culturally that hasn't always been the case.  I was surprised because in TLT groups in Uganda, the pastors really resisted making that change, because they didn't want their boys to do "women's work" like fetching water or cleaning.  I think Kenya is a ways ahead of Uganda on the issue of gender equality in general.
• Another really big discussion was about teaching children about sexuality.  Probably it's true in the USA also, but most of them were never taught about sexuality from their parents.  The few that heard from their parents only heard, "don't play around with women before you get married."  So they learned only from friends or from experience.  Apparently, a lot of sex education used to be done during the male circumcision ritual for boys, and a similar ritual for girls to become women.  But as people have become Christians many of these traditions have been lost.  So these pastors said they need to reestablish that aspect of the tradition, to have the church teach these things to boys and girls.

I loved hearing their reports, hearing about what God has done through these leaders.  It is always so amazing.  Surely, there are always some goals that were not completed, and sometimes that is discouraging.  But even when their goals are not reached, good things have still happened and we celebrate those things.  Here are a few of the highlights from their reports.  These are things that happened after they took the Christian Stewardship manual and went home with action plans:

• Leaders from one church taught about tithing at their church and there has been a 25% increase in the offerings.
• One pastor, (my former Berea student), just got ordained and is now pastoring a church.  Since arriving there he has helped the church to begin taking good records of all the offerings and money.  He also helped the church to open a bank account to keep the money in a secure place. 
• The pastor of one of the largest churches of the group also had an action plan for the offerings to increase.  But his expectations were far surpassed.  The offerings at his church are 269% higher this year compared to last year!  He did a good job of setting a personal example in giving and teaching the church about giving generously as part of our worship.
• One woman had an action plan of cleaning the church compound regularly with the youth of the church.  She started with only 10 youth and gave them a meal each time they cleaned together.  But other youth from the community liked what they saw and joined in.  In the end 20 youth from the community got saved, and the church compound is looking very smart!
• Another pastor's church has really prioritized caring for the poor, for widows, and for children.  As a result of this loving activity in the community, there are 30 new members in the church since December!  She was especially excited to report that the church paid the school fees for one local child for a whole year.  (When we as Americans go overboard with child sponsorship, the local community can lose these amazing opportunities to show love, have the joy of giving, and building tight relationships in the community).

In this photo, everyone is waiting in a queue to see me.  I have to help them all revise their action plans and finally approve them.  But they help one another also.

This time it seems that the topic of alcohol and drunkenness really touched people's hearts because 90% of the action plans concerned this topic.  They all know "drunkards," (we would call them alcoholics), who live in their communities, and they understand how hard it is to overcome the addiction, and they understand how much alcohol contributes to broken families, violence, and poverty in their region.  Most of these leaders will be spending time befriending alcoholics, encouraging them to quit, explaining the health effects of addiction, and preaching to them the good news of the Gospel.  Their goals are that these alcoholics would quit drinking, come to church, and be born again.

Other action plans include personal reconciliation with a family member, teaching others the lessons in the manual, and helping married couples who are separated to reconcile and live together again.  Please pray for them that God would empower them and use them so that these goals will be accomplished!

Praying for their action plans:

Most of the participants (some left early):