Old Story, New Paradigm

On this particular morning, we arrived at Furaha with time to kill before I was to lead the first ever pastor’s gathering in Huruma (daunting). After talking with a volunteer security guy named Patrick, we decided to take a hike about Huruma. I think he kind of got a kick walking around with me – I stood out like a circus clown – quite a novelty. We looked at various shops, I met some of his friends, and we ended up at the dirt lot where he and his friends practice soccer. Most of the team was waiting at the field. The coach wasn’t there yet, and he was the only one who owned a ball. So they waited. And waited. What else are you going to do in an area with 70% unemployment?

With no soccer happening, we headed back to get to my meeting on time, which didn’t really matter because we were on “Kenya time” – our 10:00 meeting eventually began at just before 11:00 AM.

While I was hanging around with Patrick, a man came with a bag over his should and stood in the middle of the intersection in from of Furaha Community Center. He cleared the trash from a small area, and then he laid down a large piece of cloth, upon which he set out shirts for sale. Patrick informed me that the shirts were “hot.” Clothes like these are donated by the ton to poor countries like Kenya. When they arrive, they are sometimes (if not often) confiscated by unethical airport workers, who sell them to a middle man who sells them to a guy like the one I was watching. In other words, stuff given from the US is sold to the very people we’re trying to lift out of poverty. This reality made me glad that we were working under the radar of those who would take advantage of our generosity for their personal gain, at the expense of those who need it most.

At the pastors meeting, I shared with them my background, education, and experience working with clusters of pastors as a mentor. Then I dove into a teaching on Jesus’ interaction with a woman at a well in Samaria. The power of this story is that is shows Jesus breaking a ton of cultural barriers that would have prevented him from doing such a thing. This woman has a reputation. This woman was likely shunned by her community. She was of a heritage that made her an object of disgust in the eyes of Jews. Yet Jesus, in spite of all of this, initiated conversation with her, and even disclosed his identity as the Messiah to her – the first person according to John’s gospel.

I chose this text because of the discrimination toward HIV+ women I had heard about. These pastors needed to be reminded that the Jesus they proclaim was one who went across the boundaries in order to reach people. If we are to emulate Jesus, we must do the same. This meeting also gave an opportunity for the clinic leaders to share their experience and opinion with these pastors – another relationship created, and another breakthrough initiated.
The meeting and the message were well received. Those in attendance lingered so long, in fact, that I was asked to dismiss them so that they would feel comfortable leaving!

The rest of the day was spent visiting business owners who got their start through the micro-loan program administered by Furaha, and funded by supporting churches from the US. They currently have over a dozen small business in the process, which means that more business will be funded in the future as the current ones pay back their loans. We saw a doll and jewelry maker, a vegetable stand owner (sell out daily), and a seamstress with numerous employees.
In addition to these businesses, the AIDS clinic run by Furaha also has a business that funds their program – a soap company. They have the desire to launch additional businesses as well.
Later that same day, we traveled across the city to meet with one of Nairobi’s leading pastors – Kenya’s version of Rick Warren. Our goal was to feel him out on ways to network the Furaha leaders with him and his colleagues. This pastor was leary of us for sure, and assumed that we were the typical White Saviors from the West, present to satisfy our own guilt complexes rather than actually do any lasting good. Even though we tried to express that we were basically following a model he affirmed, the meeting didn’t result in much.

We ended the day treating the Furaha Four to dinner at our hotel. And then called it a night.