Travel delays have got me sitting in Heathrow airport in London wishing I were already back in the US with Anneliese and Titus as originally planned, but the delay has also given me more time to reflect on my experiences over the past two weeks. Here's just a little of what I'm thinking about.
I preached at Victory Christian Centre in Nairobi Sunday morning, grateful to again have the chance to speak to and fellowship with people who have meant so much to me over the past several years. Attendance was a little light, which was due partly to Saturday's wedding festivities (Tom told me before church that usually the numbers go down the day after a wedding) and partly due to the meal served at the wedding, which we found out had given food poisoning to several church members.
Still, the room was mostly full as I began my message around noon. Service in Nairobi runs from 10:30-1 and is actually reasonably on-schedule these days, a change from every other time I've been here. I preached on the greatness found in servanthood, a message I felt needed to be shared since the Kenyan culture devalues serving, implicitly encouraging people instead to focus on gaining wealth, status, and influence without thinking about the needs of others (sound familiar?). But at the beginning of the message I mentioned how cool it was to see how far the church had come since Justin, Alisha, and I first visited it at its former site in a tiny shack in Korogocho slum. Since then I've been reflecting on (and rejoicing in) this fact, and also thinking about just how far I've come as a result of my involvement in God's work here.
I first traveled to Africa in May of 2008, visiting Zambia for Camp Life, an awesome week-long VBS-on-steroids for slum kids in Lusaka. For years before that I had taken an intense interest in the continent and my reason for going was simple: Africa seemed like a poor, desperate, nearly hopeless place and I wanted to do something to help. Wanting to help people of course isn't bad, but my view of the continent itself was extremely immature. Over that trip and the four trips to Kenya that followed, I learned about the continent and what's more, gained data points over nearly seven years that have helped me see not just where Africa is at a given moment, but how it (particularly Kenya) is changing.
As I've written before, Kenya in 2015 is a very different place than Kenya in 2010. It's still a country with more than its share of problems, but it's growing more prosperous and more alive every year. Furthermore, the Connect With a Child ministry is growing even faster than the country itself. Not just in funding, partnerships, and stability, but in maturity, leadership, and the number of lives it changes. What was once a rag-tag start-up trying to figure out how to care for the kids literally dropped off at its doorstep is now a stable, organized ministry that employs over 20 local staff and cares for hundreds of kids and touches thousands of lives in Kenya. And here's what's so cool about that: I had almost nothing to do with it. Sure I've invested time, energy, resources, and trust in the ministry and I pray God has used all that to good effect, but the real growth has come from God's power working through the daily dedication of His people to the work. I myself have received far more than I've given as I've gotten to see God's faithfulness change lives on a huge scale. Seeing all this has changed me for the better in so many ways; simply put, my own return on investment has been huge.
I first started investing in Africa because I thought it was a poor, desperate, nearly hopeless place and I wanted to do something to help. Now things are very different. I now invest because God is at work in Africa and I want a part of the action. I used to invest money as a profession and just like a financial investor looks for where things are moving and puts his money there to get in on the action, a kingdom investor should be doing the same thing. Look at where God's kingdom is moving fast and put your resources there, because that's where the returns will be greatest. Like with any investment, there are risks - a lot could go wrong (and does almost daily) in the ministry in Kenya or in the country as a whole. Earlier-stage investments - like investing in God's kingdom in the Muslim world - carry even higher risk profiles. But any good investor will tell you that where the greatest risks are, there are the highest returns. The only difference between kingdom investments and financial ones is that in God's kingdom the returns are eternal.
I'll be writing more over the coming days about specific things the ministry in Kenya is up to and encouraging people to be part of the action and I hope you all will consider it. Wherever you invest, though, be faithful with a few things and God will entrust you with more, and your returns will grow now and forever.
I preached at Victory Christian Centre in Nairobi Sunday morning, grateful to again have the chance to speak to and fellowship with people who have meant so much to me over the past several years. Attendance was a little light, which was due partly to Saturday's wedding festivities (Tom told me before church that usually the numbers go down the day after a wedding) and partly due to the meal served at the wedding, which we found out had given food poisoning to several church members.
Still, the room was mostly full as I began my message around noon. Service in Nairobi runs from 10:30-1 and is actually reasonably on-schedule these days, a change from every other time I've been here. I preached on the greatness found in servanthood, a message I felt needed to be shared since the Kenyan culture devalues serving, implicitly encouraging people instead to focus on gaining wealth, status, and influence without thinking about the needs of others (sound familiar?). But at the beginning of the message I mentioned how cool it was to see how far the church had come since Justin, Alisha, and I first visited it at its former site in a tiny shack in Korogocho slum. Since then I've been reflecting on (and rejoicing in) this fact, and also thinking about just how far I've come as a result of my involvement in God's work here.
I first traveled to Africa in May of 2008, visiting Zambia for Camp Life, an awesome week-long VBS-on-steroids for slum kids in Lusaka. For years before that I had taken an intense interest in the continent and my reason for going was simple: Africa seemed like a poor, desperate, nearly hopeless place and I wanted to do something to help. Wanting to help people of course isn't bad, but my view of the continent itself was extremely immature. Over that trip and the four trips to Kenya that followed, I learned about the continent and what's more, gained data points over nearly seven years that have helped me see not just where Africa is at a given moment, but how it (particularly Kenya) is changing.
As I've written before, Kenya in 2015 is a very different place than Kenya in 2010. It's still a country with more than its share of problems, but it's growing more prosperous and more alive every year. Furthermore, the Connect With a Child ministry is growing even faster than the country itself. Not just in funding, partnerships, and stability, but in maturity, leadership, and the number of lives it changes. What was once a rag-tag start-up trying to figure out how to care for the kids literally dropped off at its doorstep is now a stable, organized ministry that employs over 20 local staff and cares for hundreds of kids and touches thousands of lives in Kenya. And here's what's so cool about that: I had almost nothing to do with it. Sure I've invested time, energy, resources, and trust in the ministry and I pray God has used all that to good effect, but the real growth has come from God's power working through the daily dedication of His people to the work. I myself have received far more than I've given as I've gotten to see God's faithfulness change lives on a huge scale. Seeing all this has changed me for the better in so many ways; simply put, my own return on investment has been huge.
I first started investing in Africa because I thought it was a poor, desperate, nearly hopeless place and I wanted to do something to help. Now things are very different. I now invest because God is at work in Africa and I want a part of the action. I used to invest money as a profession and just like a financial investor looks for where things are moving and puts his money there to get in on the action, a kingdom investor should be doing the same thing. Look at where God's kingdom is moving fast and put your resources there, because that's where the returns will be greatest. Like with any investment, there are risks - a lot could go wrong (and does almost daily) in the ministry in Kenya or in the country as a whole. Earlier-stage investments - like investing in God's kingdom in the Muslim world - carry even higher risk profiles. But any good investor will tell you that where the greatest risks are, there are the highest returns. The only difference between kingdom investments and financial ones is that in God's kingdom the returns are eternal.
I'll be writing more over the coming days about specific things the ministry in Kenya is up to and encouraging people to be part of the action and I hope you all will consider it. Wherever you invest, though, be faithful with a few things and God will entrust you with more, and your returns will grow now and forever.
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