Remembering How to Hear

Electric Riverboat Angela Louise

Go and Do Likewise Hosts the Crittenton Kids

Once again the Holiday Season brought our annual party on Newport Bay with the young residents of Florence Crittenton Services in Fullerton. Our 14th year, and like most, the best so far. Music from our Music Man Sam Parsons, some stories, good food provided by Captain Rick and his crew. Smiles, laughs and fun was the theme and the girls enjoyed the evening. Captain Rick Garcia donates his boat, time and that of his crew for this special evening for our young guests. It is easy in our comfort to forget that life is not easy nor fun for many youth who have experienced abuse of some form in their lives.

This evening is our attempt to change that, at least for a day.

Blessed most of all were those aboard who sang along with and interacted

Above is a piece of our most recent newsletter. In times of reflection the event and it's origin come to my mind as a remembrance of how easy it can be to miss the voice of the Lord. The story though is, I think, a thought to let sift through us. Life is busy and the time of the year during the Christmas season can be the most busy. My own understanding is that it is easier to miss the voice of the Spirit, that is the voice calling me, you , us out of the wilderness, when we are busy, frustrated, self absorbed in the many ways which this manifests itself; all of these take my focus from time to time so the beginning of the Riverboat Night on the bay for the Kids in residence at Crittenton was exceptional in that I heard.

2012 in review

We are so very thankful for the support of those who have dedicated their resource to assist the community in Rionchogu, Kenya.  The year 2012 has been significant in many areas and much has been accomplished.  The leadership is very committed as are the students and the villagers but the real hero’s for us are those of you who stand with us and provide the financial ability for the work.

When we began 2012 we were met with the dilemma of having more approved students than we had funds for school fees.  It was a difficult time yet we were presented with circumstance which, literally, is unheard of in Kenya.  The school administrators of various schools, due to the reputation and previous dedication of GA Kenya, allowed for those students to attend classes rather than sending them home, which is normal for unpaid fees.  These schools gave us a 3 month window to provide the fees before the students would be sent home.  Because of the many of you who stepped forward in early 2012 to increase your support or to take on the whole year expense for a student with a single donation of $360.00 many fees were provided.  Additionally we had planned to make two visits to the village and the number of travelers allowed us to secure the balances due to schools prior to the end of March deadline which had been imposed.   It was in our eyes a miracle.

Our plans for 2012 included a second addition to the rebuilding of the Neema Nuru Academy.  The first cement block and concrete building was completed in 2010.  Once again with the continuing support of open donations and the traveler fees we were able to construct the second phase during the early days of the second groups visit.  When it was determined to venture further to construct a third replacement section some of our travelers ‘phoned home’ and the response was clear we were to go forward.  At this same time we received a visit from a group dedicated to providing alternative energy for rural Kenya groups so we made the decision to complete the school rebuild, which is another miracle, and subsequently we received a multi level proposal for alternative energy from access:energy the group working to bring this energy to rural Kenya.  We are currently working to secure funding for this alternative energy option as a 2013 project.

Certainly one of the most profound acts of 2012 was the entrance into University of two of our sponsored youth.  We are very proud of the students, their families and the progress they have made, we know these are the first but not the last.  Education of the emerging generation continues to be our core focus.  It is, though, the education of all of us that continues to emerge as the greatest reward.

To say thank you seems a cliché, but when it comes from the depth of love we experience it really is much more.

One step at a time . . . or not

Have you ever looked at something and knew, just knew, that it needed to be different and yet you had no idea how or when or even if that would ever happen.  The described situation is exactly what we/I faced on the very first visit to the village of Rionchogu and the Neema Nuru Academy.

Neema Nuru Academy is a non-government school which is supported by GAD Kenya and the King of Victory church.  It is a primary day school and was initiated to serve a very poor population with the desire to provide a more affective education and be inclusive of the very poor in the area.  On our first visit we found a facility of mud and stick rooms and very dangerous latrine (toilet) facilities.  The rooms were better than nothing but you could see the rapid deterioration which accompanies mud in a very wet environment.  It was a paradox, school was available to the very poor in the community but how long would it last.

poor light was not the only issue

The most distressing issue was that the most dangerous of the rooms were those for the youngest of the  students.  The nursery (pre school) and the pre unit (kindergarten) as well as the first through 3rd grade were in the worst of the buildings.  The smallest and the youngest were in the building which received the most direct assault from the weather.  Add to this the standard latrine structure, which was a pit with wood over the opening surrounded by a wall of banana stalks and you can begin to sense the mind that would say; how can this not ever change.

It seems impossible that we can see these structures and really believe that they were used by the children as their toilet facility.  That in our vast experience, our denied opulence and our fear of not having enough . . . . there are actually places and people who are daily living at a level we simply would not tolerate, if we had to face the reality in person.
                                                                                                                                                                                   

How would you like your children to have this for a toilet

or this

The danger that is attached to an open latrine pit with a rotting wood floor is not so easily looked past nor is it a thing that allows memory to cast it aside once it is out of sight.  It is in that understanding that we saw so clearly that the first order of support was to improve the safety and privacy that children deserve simply because we are residents of the same planet, for no other reason than we are told, in scripture, to care for the poor and the children.

It is no surprise then that new latrines of block and concrete with permanent floors are permanent additions to the school.  Boys latrines, girls latrines and also latrines for teachers were first to be provided.

Then in 2010 the decision was made to replace the most dangerous of rooms with a new permanent structure.  This began as an idea to build a room to house books, a library, but quickly grew to be a structure to house at least three additional room, actually four when counting the library room, to be occupied by the very youngest of the students.

Students digging first addition

 September 2010, ground breaking and digging the foundation for a new building.  The students dug the trench for the foundation and carried bricks for the construction it seemed so simple a start and indeed it was but by the beginning of the year 2011 the rooms were occupied and the children had new rooms, at least the smallest ones; the nursery, kindergarten, 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades were housed in a safe environment and the oldest of the old was taken down.  It was a beginning but the question was, how do we continue.

first four rooms

first old building to go

 Sometimes I feel like a beggar, maybe I am, I am not above what ever it takes to try and paint the accurate picture of what is and what can be.  It is frustratingly lonely and there are dark nights of uncertainty and sadness.  It is in those times that I find myself asking the Lord, why, how, and of course complain about so many insignificant issues all tied directly to fear and desperation.  Then there are situations which of their own dynamic are causal in a new day.  Such a time was the spring and early summer of 2012.  So it is that this year we had two groups travel to the village.  Even at a time when we were at such a desperate need for student fees that schools actually gave GAD Kenya 3 months to meet school fees requirements, such a time as the travel expenses of visiting the village helped pay for the unfunded students; still the faith was evident to go forward and begin a new building with three more classrooms.

Destruction of the old to make room for the new and the new was a hands on experience for the travelers who were in the village from late May through early July.

digging

The travelers helped dig the trench, each taking a turn with the tools.  Hard work and tiring work and then too they carried the rocks which were to be used as foundation for the cement footing for the walls.

carrying rocks

 In case you have missed it, this group was all young women, college students who were led to do more than think about being Christian.

3 new rooms

So after a little more than two weeks a new building is almost ready for occupancy and in the exuberance of the moment foundation was dug for another new building, another new home for three more classes, which of course meant taking down another of the old buildings.

Demolition

Which, of course was assisted, actually mostly done, by the young women.  This is the day that the Kenyans finally admitted that these Americans were hard workers and tireless

Three more rooms

Urgent funding help was necessary, not surprisingly, families of some of the travelers responded and the construction continued until just shortly after the group left this third building was occupied.  This left only two classrooms, one of which was to be a teachers prep room, yet to be constructed.

Ready to occupy

Two new buildings and 6 new rooms, was this really happening?  Somehow, yes, somehow it was, it is; somehow Neema Nuru was being rebuilt; somehow the dream was coming true.

The final step, change has taken place

Always the trusting, always the visionary, always the believers; GAD Kenya went ahead, without a thought of their own reputations of the how, or doubt, and destroyed the final buildings and began the final two rooms.  With in a week or two, by the end of August, they will be completed and occupied and this season of building will be finished, at least this season.

We are not changing the world but we are being used to change lives, one life, two lives, fifty lives, one hundred lives, who knows, but the important thing is that there is a difference in Rionchogu because of the participation of a few people.  If you are not already participating perhaps now is the time.  There is much yet to do and many students who need assistance with school fees and now emerging young who have earned admittance to University in Kenya, village and sponsored youth who really are the world changers and we get to help; if we are willing.

Check out www.gadkenya.org; be part of the new army that is not willing to be told it is impossible to make a difference.

Bud Potter
Go and Do Likewise

Shooting arrows at the moon

They said it could not be done:  I was told a few years ago by church insiders who were supported by the leaders; it is like shooting arrows at the moon:   You cannot go to Africa and make a difference.  Sadly there was a part of me that held onto that statement, a part of me that accepted the statement of pending failure as truth, a part of me that struggled with Spiritual authority I had allowed the religious church to hold, and the Truth is, it takes a Greater Power than any of us.   The Spiritual resides in the One not the religion.

It is time for a final surgery.  It is, in fact, past time.  For literally centuries missionaries have spent lifetimes over much of the African continent, preparing the soil, if you will, for the crop to grow.  Sadly I think, in many cases it has been a misapplied varietal; the wrong crop.  The nice, constructed, safe and comfortable western church cannot grow in Africa and it should not.  The truth is that many times these efforts have carried an unspoken, sadly too spoken as directive, doctrinal commandment:  You must be like us.

The term “A mile wide and an inch deep” has been used to describe Christianity in Africa.  If you look deeply, in many cases, that is exactly what the western church has planted.   It is what the western church is much of the time.  Gandhi once said (not a quote but close) ‘if Christians ever live what they say they believe, they will change the world’.   Possibly that means smaller and deeper as it relates to mission.

If the Spirit is speaking step out.

The question is, even more the challenge is; who will take on this task of the paradigm shift.  Who will partake in an uncomfortable, but very exciting, trek of being the servant church in Africa?  The servant church is not a religion; think about it, the religion, a religion any religion immediately becomes the master. 

Believing in a power greater than ourselves, who and how or what does it act like, this servant?   Our servant path lies parallel to the education of the rural poor.  Not that we necessarily should or need to educate, rather the work of the servant is to assist, empower and lift up the ones called from the location itself to this very purpose for the local communities.  We have tried to maintain our servant position, admittedly poorly at times.  The truth is, we are in the very process of discovering the ‘job description’.

If the Spirit is speaking help us discover.

Never the less, the crop is growing.  Young adults are stepping out, standing up, making different decisions and setting new standards of self discipline and commitment.   We see this time and time again.  It is not something we are doing, rather a response to encouragement and empowerment.

The young adults of Rionchogu and the surrounding area are the manifestation of the paradigm shift.  They are the change makers.

The activity of GADL and GAD Kenya in rural Kenya is NOT shooting arrows at the moon.  The transcendent One who is, was and ever will be was manifested here, on earth, as a servant, standing for the widow, the orphan, the poor and the oppressed.  He stood against the systems of that oppression, especially religion, and continues to call His church to do the same. 

If the Spirit is speaking imagine the impossible.

Just a story

Just a Story

Many, many generations ago a man was walking along a path. Then, for no reason he was responsible for or for any active thought on his own, he looked up and noticed an object, shiny, bright; an object which seemed to have its own light. As he approached he noticed it was a pearl, a very unusual one which must have been dropped by some great king or nobleman as they passed by. He walked over to the pearl and then bent down to touch it, picked it up, checked to see if anyone was coming to get it and then; with a peaceful mind he did not fully grasp, put it in his pocket as his own.

Each day as this man would do his chores and go about his living he would spend some time with the pearl, looking at it and imagining what it must have been like when this pearl was in its kingdom for surly such a valuable pearl must have had an amazing background. Daily the man would do his work when he had finished his time with the pearl. As time went by the man grew more and more attached to the pearl and hardly a day passed when he did not spend time just holding it and taking in the majesty which must have surrounded it.

Then one day it was as if the pearl spoke to the man, just a simple word, a small task that the man could do as he went about his work. Days went by small tasks continued to come, and the man continued to do these small tasks as he went about his day. More tasks, more days, the man married, had a family and still he worked at the daily tasks. Then one day the pearl vanished, some say it was found again but no one seemed to know for sure. The man however continued his work as if the pearl was still present. People around began to write letters to each other about this man’s efforts and how he just kept working but no one knew what it was he was building.

It happened that the man’s son had a son and so as the grandson grew he began to spend his days with his grandfather. As he watched he was curious what was being built so he asked his grandfather, ”I Don’t know” said the grandfather, “I just keep doing these little tasks but I don’t know what this will look like or be, it seems this is the pearls purpose not mine”. The grandson mentioned that sometimes it looked like a garden, or a road or a foundation for a grand castle or meeting place but the outcome of all this work was unclear. The boy enjoyed these days very much, until, one day the inevitable, the grandfather died; the boy wished he had paid more attention to the words and the thoughts of his grandfather, it was, however, too late. The boy was very sad and everyday for some time he would go to the place his grandfather worked and wait, looking for someone to come and continue the work. No one came.

For weeks the boy came and then his visits became fewer and fewer. The frequency of the grandson’s visits that had become weekly changed to monthly and then hardly at all. The boy grew and had children of his own. Sometimes the family would ask about the great grandfather’s project but no one really remembered. They gathered all the notes and letters people had been taking to try and continue the work, but everyone had a different idea of what the project should be and no one could agree. One day someone mentioned that they thought they remembered something about a pearl but the family said that was just an old tale and who would believe a pearl would give any instruction anyway. So with time, the story became about the letters and the eyewitness accounts, after all it was easier to believe the stories and try to find clues in these stories as to what the project was.

More generations came and went but the family was unwilling to completely forget the story so they began to gather together, to remember the project, they gathered on the day the pearl was supposedly found and they gathered on the day it disappeared. The gatherings gave the family comfort and a sense of remembering the work started decades before. The work however had eroded and crumbled so there was not even a hint or any reflection of what their ancestor had actually done.

One day a young woman came along the path to the place of the project, she stopped and looked at the tangled mess, trees had toppled over and there were no signs of the garden or the road or the place of the grand castle; all that appeared was rubble and chaos of overgrowth. The young woman looked at the place and became sad; she thought “what was it my great, great, great, great grandfather was doing?” “Whatever it was he poured his life into it and now there was just rubble. Was her ancestor crazy as so many had said, after all over the years many had tried to follow the stories and became confused about the project’s real purpose.

Turning away the young woman noticed a stranger standing on the path. “Why do you stand and look at this place, and why such a sad face?” the stranger asked. The young woman recounted the story of her great, great, great, great grandfather’s project and how many had tried to follow the stories and writings and how different everyone had thought these writings meant. The stranger asked, “what do you see when you look at this?” the young woman answered “a mess, a real mess”. “That is too bad” said the stranger,"I don’t see that at all, perhaps you need new eyes?”. The young woman glanced at the stranger and almost in anger said, “new eyes?, I think these are perfectly good, my family has always had very good vision, it is a family trait”. Then almost as an afterthought she said, “What do you see?” The stranger said, “I see beauty and design, I see faithful work and effort, I see the beginnings of a kingdom, a place of royalty, a place like no other”. He paused, then added, “there is another piece of this story you have not told to me”.

After thinking for a minute the young woman remembered the part concerning the pearl and related this to the man saying, “Everyone agrees though that a pearl cannot speak, it is just too impossible for that part of the story to be true”. Turning her attention to the stranger she thought “How can he see beauty in this mess?” and then said to him, “do you know anyone else who has eyes such as you and would see this as you?” “Oh yes, there are some with the same eyes as I have” replied the stranger. A silence came upon this unlikely duo, standing on this path, one seeing ruin and another seeing great beauty.

“Sir” said the young woman, “how do I get eyes such as yours?” “How can it be that I might see what my Great, great, great, great grandfather saw and what he was doing?” The man smiled and quietly replied, “Find the Pearl”.

Is there really a gender gap?

What have we done . . . I don’t want to sound alarmist or seen as in an attack mode especially when I am speaking gender specific. BUT . . . where are the guys. I understand that in many individual situations pressures of one kind or another affect the outcome of any dynamic, whatever the purpose. BUT . . . where are the guys.

I am trying to get my mind around the simple fact that, with a few notable exceptions, the ratio of male to female travelers who accompany GADL to the rural village of Rionchogu Kenya is almost 4 to 1 females to males. I am trying to put this into some understandable context that allows us guys to retain some sort of positive image concerning risk, compassion and interest for others outside our immediate comfort zone, but it is increasingly difficult. It just can’t be that men are more apt to be the central identity of their life and therefore see ‘just helping’ or ‘taking a risk’ that may not have any self promoting efficacy a waste of time.

I know there are probably at least as many men as women who are public figures involved in some benevolent activity, but then there well may be many more men who have the resource or time to go outside their comfort zone yet chose not to. Maybe I will ask a sociologist or an anthropologist but . . . where are the men. I promise, I promise I promise, I am not a feminist or writing under an assumed gender. I really don’t have a conscious agenda I am tracking. I just have spent a few years taking this journey and find there seems to be a missing link in our male gender DNA or maybe an added link that allows us to see differently . . . yes differently; that helps me think better of us. We are just different.

During our visits to the village in Kenya we stop at a Christian guest house for a night stay over. We meet many very interesting couples there and many have children, all ages. We also meet a number of solo travelers involved in some sort of mission. I am trying to think if any of these solo persons have ever been guys. Guys traveling out on their own, just doing their thing to help others, involved in the risky, maybe, business of being in a foreign country, alone, impassioned to make a difference somehow.

Guys, I am getting some negative vibes here.

I can remember a number of times during travel in airports, on the plane or in some public place or transportation, and you do have a lot of that, where I have met fellow travelers and as conversation develops you identify individuals who are traveling alone to a foreign place on a purpose to help people. I cannot remember one situation where that solo person has been a guy. Now maybe I find it easier to talk to women or maybe other guys are not very public about personal passions, but then maybe guys are not too often included in this grouping, then I come back to the May trip.

We probably started out with over 20 young people, guys and girls who were interested in this journey. Even in the beginning though the ratio was maybe 2 to 1 or 3 to 2 female to male.

Here then is the item by which my attention has been drawn to this subject: In May we will depart to Kenya with a group of very motivated and focused young people. They understand there is risk and yet their attitudes and priorities have stayed the course. They have and will, I believe and have confidence, complete the requirements and the preparations and embark on what I think is in reality a journey of a life time. The group will consist of 9 people, me, Pastor Jon from ULC in Austin TX and 7 young women of great passion. See it? Does it stand out to you? SEVEN (7) young women; I have met quite a few people involved in International activity to help others and I would say by far the greatest percentage are women.

So to a few people; Eaar, Chris, Terry, Brent, Don and now Pastor Jon and Brandon ( an April traveler), I say, you are standouts among men.

If I take out Eaar who is my traveling regular, Chris who is our Kenyan super media man and Terry who helped start this whole thing it leaves 4 guys who have decided to make the journey.

To Chanel, Anastasia (twice), Julie (twice this April), Kristen, Suzanne (twice), Wanjugu, Joyce, Anne and the seven new faces in May I say praise God for women of strength, passion, courage and vision. In this group are 15 women who have decided to make the journey. Well done, your strength and sense of adventure and concern for others leads the way. And . . . as women you are members of an almost 4 to 1 gender majority of very special people of courage and compassion for the village of Rionchogu, Kenya.

Thank you for all you do