Correspondence from Team Members

June 2006 Trip to Nairobi, Kenya

Nairobi, June 2, 2006

From Michael

Our travels on Tuesday and Wednesday went very well. We had about a 2 hour flight to Miami, an 8 hour flight to London, and then another 8 hour flight to Nairobi. We arrived here Wed. night around 8:30pm local time (which is 7 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time) and Bishop Simba and one other pastor met us at the gate. We got our visas fine, then our luggage, and then made it through customs very easily. About 6 or 7 pastors and tour guides then met us outside. Everyone was very warm and hospitable. 

The accommodations at the Methodist Guest House are great. Most of us are sharing a room, while a few people have their own room. All the rooms have their own bathrooms, so that is nice. We've had 3 great meals each day so far here at the Guest House. And, as this email attests, there is a computer room with internet access.

On Thursday morning, we all met with the Bishop and about 8 other pastors for a meeting. We had introductions and the Bishop gave a short talk/sermon about his gratefulness for our being there and about some of the work they do here in Nairobi. We then spent about an hour or so going through our itinerary.  We'll be doing less physical labor than what we were expecting and spending more time visiting the local churches, schools, and orphanages so that we can interact with and get to know better the Kenyan people and their stories.

We also checked out the building site on Thursday. It is a large stone and concrete building that will have 4 stories. We are going to try to work on completing the 4th story by building the columns and beams. This will involve constructing the rebar and column forms and mixing concrete on the ground, while some Kenyan workers do most of the work on the 4th floor.

On Friday morning, I went with Tom and Mike to buy building supplies with our foreman and another carpenter. We spent several hours at a couple of different local stores buying lumber, rebar, sand, gravel, cement, stone blocks, and some tools. We think we got most of the supplies we'll need for the 4th story columns and beams, as well as, some blocks to construct the walls on the 2nd floor for about 225,000 Kenya Shillings or about $3250. 

The other 10 folks in our group went on Friday morning to a slum called Kibera, which is described as the largest slum in Africa with 700,000 to 1 million people living in desperate poverty. Our group had very strong reactions to the horrible conditions that the people were living in and described it as despicable. One said it was like being a deer in headlights. They visited a church and nursery on the outskirts of the slum where they were able to interact with the children.

On Friday afternoon, all 13 of us went to another slum called Kawangware where we visited a Methodist private school that had Kindergarten through 7th grade. The school also functioned as a church on Sunday's. The pastor and school headmaster were very hospitable and showed us all around. We were able to see the kids in each classroom, take pictures, and talk to them. One class even sang a song for us and then we sang a song for them as well. 

We've been having some group meetings in the mornings and evenings where Les has been leading us in some great songs. We've had short devotionals each morning and reflections each evening. We are all very impressed with the people we've met so far and everyone is having a wonderful time. Just a couple of folks have felt a little sick/tired so far, but nothing major.

Please continue to keep our group and the people of Kenya in your prayers!

Peace.

Michael

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Nairobi, June 6, 2006

From Michael

We arrived in Nairobi Wed. night around 8:30pm local time (which is 7 
hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time) and Bishop Simba ("lion") Mauta 
and about 6 or 7 pastors met us at the airport.
 The accommodations at the Methodist Guest House are great. All the 
 rooms have their own bathrooms and the beds are comfortable, and we've had 3 great meals each day so far here at the Guest House. Tom 
 has taken advantage of the Olympic-sized swimming pool, which children 
 from the neighborhood also enjoy. On Thursday morning, we met with the bishop and several of his pastors.
 The bishop gave a short sermon about sacrifice and spoke of
 his gratitude for our being here, described some of the work the Methodists
 do here in Nairobi., and helped us refine our "programme". It is clear that the Synod needs partners from the US, and we have been mightily courted - for example, we were treated to an elegant dinner 
 and show at the large Safari Park Hotel on Saturday night.

The first week we spent visiting three local church/school complexes near the slums (Kibera and Kawangware) and a center for AIDS-related orphans at Ngong, where the children and youth presented a dramatic and musical program for us. The recent movie "The Constant Gardner" takes place in Nairobi, and if you rent it you will see the Kibera slum, which is the largest in Africa. Our visit there was heart-wrenching. People are allowed to build temporary housing on public land, so that their primary expenses are food and clothing - some of which is in short supply.

We will visit one more project tomorrow, at the Lavington Church, and will attend that church as a group on Sunday.

We are much impressed with the graciousness and quality of the leaders in the Nairobi Synod. Some have either been to or want to come to Atlanta, and we expect to have a long-term relationship with them. The people in the churches (we scattered into several churches for worship on Sunday) are incredibly hospitable, grateful, and intelligent.

Friday morning the Building/Finance Team went to purchase lumber, steel and tools for our building project, and we all got to work yesterday. It didn't take long for us to realize we needed a circular saw (virtually unknown to the carpenters here) so by noon Monday we were picking up speed. Our timetable and budget will not allow us to roof the building, but will hope to complete both the vertical columns and the horizontal beams on the top floor before we leave in a week. The skilled Kenyan workers we have hired are doing most of the carpentry work , and our Strong-Arm team is sawing the wood and steel. The Measure-Mark team has been busy also. 
 We have devotionals in the mornings and group meetings in the evenings where Les has been leading us in some great songs.

We were pleased to arrange a Thursday -thru-Saturday trip to the Masai Mara, on a "safari", but Les has decided he would rather use his experience in the Atlanta housing projects for work here in Nairobi.

Michael

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Nairobi, June 7, 2006

From Les

Grace and peace to you in the name of Christ Jesus.

I'm happy to report that the members of our team are in good spirits and in good health, and we are tackling our work with great energy and enthusiasm. Both Jean and Michael have reported most of the details of our trip, so I'll fill you in since they have written:

The construction of the building is going very well, and the Kenyans are extremely happy with the progress. We have a Kenyan carpenter installing doors on what will eventually be Bishop Simba's office on the first floor. A masonry crew is laying stone blocks to enclose the walls on the second floor. We have also set up a cutting station on the second floor and are cutting both wooden boards and steel reinforcement bars faster than the carpenters on the top floor can use them. As Jean told you, this operation has been greatly facilitated by the purchase of a power circular saw which cuts through both wood and steel like butter. The Kenyan workers have never seen anything like it, and the first day we brought it on site we had a small wide-eyed audience gathered to watch it work. When we leave, we will be leaving the saw with the Nairobi Methodist Synod to use to complete the construction of the building. Since the Kenyan carpenters are totally unfamiliar with power tools, we are training Stanley Mungathia, the construction foreman, to use it. He, in turn, will train his workers to use it when we leave. This one simple and basic tool will greatly increase the speed at which the project can be completed. Several of us have developed deep friendships with Stanley, and seeing his joy at learning to use this new technology makes us happier than you can imagine. In a nutshell, Stanley is like a kid in a toy store.

The main portion of the heavy construction, however, is on the fourth floor where workers are building concrete forms for pouring the concrete columns. The steel reinforcement bars are being bent to form and wired to a base. The forms are being fitted over them. Hopefully, the concrete will be poured soon. When the concrete cures(about two days), the forms will be removed, disassembled, and re-assembled to make forms for the horizontal beams. Using this method that Tom Z. and Stanley have devised, we have been able to buy materials for about half of what we had estimated, leaving more money to use for other things. Be assured, friends, that we are making the money you have donated to this project go as far as possible, and we are helping to enable the Kenyans to continue the project with the most efficiency and speed that we can afford.

Our team has grown together as an effective working unit, and we have developed a deep spiritual connection together. We share our experiences at the end of every day, and we have become unified in our process of decision making. We share our feelings and opinions intimately and honestly with each other, and we are developing lifetime friendships and close community. We sing three or four songs each day together, and we have devotional worship every day. At the beginning of the trip we had our devotionals every day at the guest house where we sleep. When the construction started, we began having devotionals on site with the Kenyan construction crew. On the first day of construction, we took our lunch at the guest house while the crew had their lunch on site. This separation was extremely disturbing to some of us, so we made arrangements to eat our lunch on site with the crew. We now sit on the ground in a circle with the workers and eat the same food they eat. We also eat it the same way they eat - without any utensils. Eating with clean hands is extremely important to the Kenyans, and no one had made arrangements to have wash water and soap on site - a condition that seems to be the norm here. We have since brought these on site, and we serve the crew by pouring out water from a pitcher and offering them soap to wash with. At first, they were very uncomfortable having us serve them in this way, but today they accepted it with no discomfort, and the practice has bound us together in much greater unity.

As I end, I can tell you that this trip has been so far an intense and transforming experience for all of us. We feel God's blessing every day and the Holy Spirit is moving among us in a powerful way, enabling us to work with power and Kingdom-awareness. I only wish that each and every one of you could experience what we have experienced and feel the power and peace that we feel now.

Tomorrow, when I have more time, I'll share more with you. But for now, I wish you many blessings and thank you from deep in my heart that you have made it possible for all of us to be here.

With great love,

Les

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Nairobi, June 10, 2006

From Less

Yesterday I wrote you about the extreme poverty here in Kenya. Today I would like to focus on some of the really wonderful things we have found here.

The Kenyan people, in spite of the extreme suffering here, are really amazing. They are, for the most part, an incredibly warm, hospitable, and generous people. We have been met with such generosity and thankfulness that it is almost overwhelming. Friends, I need to tell you that these people have a lot to teach us about mission and giving. This is no overstatement - they give until it hurts. For the past four years there has been drought here, and famine has followed in its wake, but in spite of the fact that money and food are in short supply here, the Kenyans still care for the poor - even if it means that they empty their own pockets not knowing where their next meal will come from. Bishop Simba has not been paid for six months, and he is six months behind in his rent, but he still manages to distribute food and clothing to the poor who come to his door twice a week. I have been with him for two of these sessions, and I have seen him take money out of his own pocket to buy food for the poor - about three hundred each time, mostly women who bring babies and small children with them. They come sometimes from great distances walking with their babies or with small children in tow to receive a small bag of maize meal from the bishop's own hands. He knows many of them by name, and he recognizes most of their faces. He does all this without knowing if he himself will have food for the coming week or if his landlord will come to him and evict him from his house.

We American Methodists usually consider our most important activity is our worship. To us, our mission activities are an outgrowth of worship. To the Kenyan Methodists, serving poor, sick, and suffering people is the basis of their faith - worship is there to support their mission in this world. They do it almost without thinking. All of the churches we have visited have extensive programs for the poor, and most of their budgets go to these programs. Churches take the poor into their buildings and into their sanctuaries to provide education, health care, food programs, children's programs, worship activities, counseling, and many other services. Kenyan worship, for the most part, is warm, intimate, supportive, and community building.

The pastors we have met pray frequently and passionately. Every meeting is opened and closed with prayer - even if it is just two people. Prayer is absolutely central to their lives. Whereas we struggle constantly to improve our attitudes of hospitality and community, the Kenyans do both as naturally as breathing. Yesterday, I went downtown(known here as "city center")with Bishop Simba. This is an area that is packed with thousands of people bustling here and there in a great hurry. But in the space of fifteen minutes, the bishop met four people on the street that he knew and that supported him in his work. All of these people knew him intimately and knew of his financial situation. Each of them subtly passed him small amounts of money either for his food distribution or his own personal support. I got the impression that if we had stayed on the street longer, he would have encountered many more.

Since I have been here, there has been nothing that has happened that has been routine or ordinary. Every experience has been intense and significant, every meeting has been deep and meaningful, and every friendship is a great blessing. Every child in every program I have visited or led has been bright-eyed, happy, eager to learn, and eager to participate.

I came here to feed, but I have been fed until I'm full. I came here to give, but I have been given even more. I came here to serve, but I have been served more than I can say. In every moment, in every hour, with every journey, with every visit I have been inspired, loved, thanked, and appreciated in ways I can never express.

I only hope that all of you can be blessed as much as I have.

Amani ya Kristo - Peace of Christ.

Les