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JL's Journal

SALVATION IN THE SLUM

December 04, 2011
Kibera Slums Nairobi, Kenya
 
Dear Friend & Partner,
 
When you receive this latest email blast, I will have just blasted off for Africa!  So start praying NOW!  This is my last mission trip for the year.  And what an exciting way it will be for me to end my 2011 year of travels.  It is also my favorite way to prepare for Christmas!  It really gets me into the true spirit of Christmas.  In fact, God has already given me a great Christmas gift from Africa.  He literally bought this gift with His own blood -- in one of the worst shopping areas in the world!  It is called Kibera.  God does His Christmas shopping in some of the worst places on earth!
 
Kibera is a sprawling, smelly, sewage-strewn hell-hole located on the borders of the City of Nairobi.  It is considered the first or second largest slum on the African continent.  In Kibera, 1 million people are crammed into 1 square mile!  No running water…no sewage system…no drainage…no paved roads… little or no electricity.  Virtually all of the homes and buildings are built from sticks and mud covered in canvas and cardboard -- or tin for the lucky ones. 
 
In Kibera, unemployment is off the charts.  People live from hand-to-mouth.  Most go to bed each night with empty stomachs.  It is a breeding ground for poverty, ignorance, disease, witch-craft, prostitution and crime of every sort.  HIV and other STDs are rampant.  So are pregnancies out of wedlock.  For many, the only temporary escape from their poverty and hopelessness is through alcohol, drugs, glue-sniffing and sexual promiscuity.  And the only consistent education or medical opportunities available are made possible by private NGOs (Non-Government Organizations) -- but mostly by Christians working through the "slum churches" that dot Kibera.
 
Over two decades ago, the Lord led me into Kibera.  In the natural, I wish He would never have taken me there.  I was invited to Kenyatta Market where a sister-in-Christ was trying to feed 12 street children a cup of gruel and piece of bread each day around noon.  It wasn't much, but it was better than the scraps of food the kids would find by foraging through garbage cans and dumpsters.  This sister was out of money.  She asked if I could help.  I knew I could not walk away.  So by faith I told her "Yes."
 
Before long we were able to move those 12 children from one meal a day to 3 hot meals a day.  And in the following months the numbers grew:  50…100…200…300…500 -- 1,000!  The feeding program soon evolved into a church.  Then an informal school.  Vocational programs were started to provide job skills and income.  Later a medical clinic was established.  All of these growing programs stretched me beyond my limits.  So I turned to my associate, Larry Warren, for help.  He quickly put his head, heart and hands into the project.  When he put his hands to the plow, he never looked back -- to this very day. 
 
This following testimony, by a young man named Vincent Missigo, will thrill your heart.  He is a 'trophy of grace' from Kibera.  We met him about 18 years ago when he was a young boy.  He was one of those "street boys" God sovereignly connected us with through our partnership with Pastor Timothy Mulehi.  This month, Vincent will graduate from Kenyatta University in Nairobi -- with honors!  While this education and degree is his golden opportunity to leave Kibera forever -- he has gone back in.  He now lives back there with 16 street boys who were just like him!  Listen to how he recently expressed his desire to me in a email:
"My current and major plan is to give back to the community. Just the way I have been assisted, I would like to assist others from the slums to overcome the slum challenges by being firmly rooted in the Lord. I would like to work with the youths and the young ones especially from the slums.
Right now, I am working at a boy's hostel started by Mr. Larry Warren at Huruma slums here in Nairobi. These boys come from very pathetic conditions, just like I did. At this hostel, I act as their mentor and also their teacher of History and Kiswahili. They are 16 wonderful boys and we stay with them in a single room made of simple iron sheets. We basically share everything with them!  When I shared my testimony with them, they were amazed and their hope in life was rekindled again! I feel so lifted when working with such people."
My friend, that's pay day for me!  That's my MO.  That's what gets me out of bed in the mornings.  That's what gets me on airplanes to fly to countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.  That's why I keep writing partners like you for continued faithful prayers and generous financial support -- even if sacrificially!  
 
So that's my "African Christmas present" -- wrapped in the flesh of a graduating college student known as Vincent from the slums of Kibera!  And his following story is my Christmas gift back to you because your spiritual and financial partnership made it all possible!  His one life has been worth it all!  Our God is still the only God who can bring both salvation and transformation in the slums of Kibera -- or anywhere else in the world!  After all, since He was born in a cattle shed and laid in a manger, slums are His turf!  He still loves to do His Christmas shopping in places like Kibera!
 
In His saving love and transforming compassion,
 
J.L.
 
PS:  Update on Larry Warren:  After a dozen years of ministering with me through NDI, Larry started African Leadership, which he led for the next decade.  Under his leadership, it became the largest informal training program for pastors and leaders on the continent.  He has recently started a new ministry, Leadership International, and I serve on his Board.  It is primarily focused in Africa with a priority of evangelism through holistic community development.  Larry and I continue to work together as closely as our busy travel schedules permit.
My long time friend and associate, Larry Warren
 
 

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