[photo journal] everyday life in kenya

For more from this mission trip to Kenya and Uganda, check out [the africa diaries]. You can also check out the complete set of everyday life in Kenya on Flickr.

[the africa diaries] day seven: wrapping up business in kenya

[the africa diaries] day seven: wrapping up business in kenya

She walked up to me as I was setting up for my morning session, shook my hand, and simply stated, “I am Alice.” We laughed about that for a moment, but I never realized that this was about to be one of the most powerful moments of this trip for me.

In order to understand what I mean, you’ll have to understand part of the lesson that I was responsible for. I had taught the last lesson of the day in yesterday’s session, and was about to pick up where I left of this morning. I was responsible for teaching the section on finances. Before we finished yesterday I had already started my piece on the importance of separating personal and business money. One of the illustrations that I used was this story about a fictional person named Alice…

Alice has a small shop located in front of her house. She sells groceries, such as eggs, sugar, flour, and soap. If she needs any sugar or other groceries, she takes them from the store. Sometimes Alice loses customers because she runs out of items. She does not have enough money to buy more items until she sells something. She often does not have enough money to buy food for her family. She wonders why her business is not making money. She must ask her husband for more money to put into the business.

After this story we would continue by discussing her situation and how not separating personal and business money was affecting her ability to be successful in her business. So when this woman came to me as I was preparing for my morning lesson and introduced herself as Alice, I thought she was referring to the Alice from this illustration!

As we laughed she continued by telling me, “My real name is Alice. But today I am a new Alice!” In a sort of ironic twist, she actually meant that she was both (1) really named Alice, and (2) that she was also the Alice from yesterday’s lesson. She proudly told me that, “no more will [she] be the old Alice who is not wise with her money!”

She was incredibly grateful for what we were doing for her, and realizing the impact I was having made me feel awesome!  I felt like I was somehow becoming and important part of Alice’s life. Before I left for this trip, one member at my home church had told me that God would ‘knit my heart with theirs, and I just starting to realize that this was actually happening!

By the end of this day we had completed another great session with some amazing people. They were so grateful for what we had done that they even sang to us…

As we wrapped up our work in Kenya, we had a couple of days over the weekend before we needed to be in Uganda to do it all over again. So we headed out for a little retreat!

We had found a GREAT deal at a tented camp called Sweetwater in the area of Mount Kenya. I was incredibly excited about this much needed safari retreat!

As we arrived and got checked in, we immediately had to select the safari drives that we were going to go on. One of our options was to do a night drive, and our best chance for that was going to be to do it that night.

After dinner we loaded up in the van (a special one that the roof opens on, especially made for safari drives like this), and headed out to see some of the nighttime activity of the animals.

We saw some cool giraffes, elephants , and many other cool animals. But the highlight of the night was watching a lioness stalking a pack gazelles! It was amazing to see the big cat crouch down into an attack position and attempt to pounce her potential dinner! After several attempts this lioness never did get her prey, but to watch it was an experience that I will never forget!

After a busy week it was great to be in a place of rest but it was even better to be out in the wild in God’s amazing creation! This might sound kind of funny, but there is something about being under the African sky watching these animals that makes Creation make more sense than it ever had before.

After this amazing night drive, it was time to go get some rest. We had to get up early the next day for more safari and enjoying God’s beautiful creation…

 

Check out more from this series in the africa diaries.

[the africa diaries] day six: starting with the next group

I was finally an accomplished missionary! Well, at least in my mind I was. After all, I had just finished my first full sessions with one of the churches in Kenya, and now I was off to another. I knew that this next group that we were about to work with would be different, I just didn’t know how.

For our next two-day session on basic Christian business skills, we had to drive about an hour outside of town into a much more rural community called Kairi. Most of the drive was down poorly paved and/or dirt roads making this commute a bit of a bumpy one.

The land was beautiful! But along the way, I regularly saw people living in conditions that I just never imagined. The truth of the situation that I was watching as we drove by became quickly apparent to me. THIS is how most people in Kenya live!

While relaxing in my room in the evenings, I tried to take in some of the local culture by checking out what they had on TV. That alone was quite an experience! It has been a long time since I had to adjust the rabbit ears on a set with a 13′ screen!

One evening I was catching the local news out of Nairobi when I saw a scroll come across the bottom of the screen. Apparently Kenya Power was proud to report that now 18% of homes in Kenya had access to electricity! This was something to be proud of because it represented a huge increase in access to power in homes over recent years!

For me, the hardest part about this is realizing that the majority of these fortunate homes were culstered in the larger towns and cities. That meant that the area that I was driving through right now was likely well below the curve on that statistic.

The people were amazing though! As we taught our lessons at this site, I could not help but to think about the conditions that these people lived in. But nonetheless, they came and gave me lots of reasons to hope that what we were planting was going into good soil!

At times their lack of quality education smacked me in the face, but regardless of what they’ve gotten before it was easy to see their hunger for knowledge! I once again felt like the presence of our team and the knowledge that we were imparting literally uncapped their potential. All that most of these people knew was farming, and even that was on a small scale. I saw their eyeslight up as they started thinking about working together to accomplish much bigger dreams than what they previously thought possible. That was really cool!

However, I also realized another need that started to present itself. We were there to teach them BASIC business skills. But as they started to have bigger dreams for what they could do, it became obvious that they would need much more in-depth training and mentoring.

Don’t get me wrong! The two days that we gave them was successful beyond what I ever imagined! But it also opened the need for more. It breaks my heart sometimes to think that while I helped them dream big, that many of them may end up frustrated because they don’t know what to do next.

But these people are resilient… beyond anything that I’ve seen back home in the states. Somehow, they just find a way to make things work. And that is my prayer for these people. Until we can help them get even more education, Lord please help them to make good use of the tools that we gave them. Lord, help them to be successful and multiply. May the seeds that we planted, be fruitful… VERY fruitful!

There is also a bit of sadness as I wrap up this day, because it also means that my time in Kenya is coming to an end. Tonight we all have to pack up because it was our last night at our lodging place in Thika…

 

Check out more from this series in the africa diaries.

[the africa diaries] day five: finishing with our first group

Finally! Today is my day to teach! Well, at least for half of it…

Day two of our lesson plan calls for two important subjects. First up was the financial session. In this session we covered such basic, yet critically important, topics like keeping your business and personal money separate, and how to create a budget. This is the session that I got to teach! Then we wrapped up the training on the second half of the day with a session on business planning. Here we talked about things like putting God first, and using all of the information that we covered previously to create a business plan.

Because I am a teacher by nature (a corporate trainer by profession, and a small group and ministry teacher at church), I was super geeked about getting to teach my lesson that day! And as I got started, I had the opportunity to share my personal testimony with the students. What I shared went something like this…

Hi! My name is Dan King.

I’ve tried to be successful in business for a long time. But, I’ve always failed at whatever I tried to do. I was not good at business. I was not good at relationships. The only thing that I was good at was failing. After a while I started to realize that I must be missing something, but I could not figure out exactly what it was.

Then I met a friend who had what I was looking for. It was the one thing that would make my life make sense. This person eventually led me to Christ as my Lord and Savior! I was so thankful for what she did, that I married her! And we’ve been married for 10 years now!

One of the things that was so special about her is that she believed in me when no one else did. And the more that I grew in my relationship with Jesus, the more I started to realize that there was One who had believed in me all along, and His name was Jesus! And He believes in you! I believe in you, and I know that the rest of our team believes in you! Now I am discovering that I can be successful in many things. I am earning success at work, in ministry, and with my family! And today I hope to share with you how you can be successful as well!

After that introduction, I was ready to teach! I was ready to pour my heart into these people’s lives, and I had a blast working with them! My session had some cool activities in it that allowed me to get interactive with the people, and I could see that my points were sinking in with them. That felt SO rewarding! 

My session finished around lunch time, and we finished the lessons in the afternoon as planned. So as we closed our first two-day class it was time to have our graduation ceremony. And this ceremony was one of the bigger moments of impact that I had on this trip.

Most of the participants that we just had in our two-day training session had never been part of a graduation of any kind before. The ‘diploma’ that we gave them that day represented one of the biggest academic accomplishments of their lives. This was a powerful experience for me because I realized how much we take something as basic as our right to an education for granted in the United States. Sure… the system isn’t perfect, but most of us at least have the opportunity to get a decent education. I thought back to my high school graduation, and the thing that I was happiest about was the fact that I didn’t have to get up and go to school in the morning. I, like many others in America, really didn’t care about the diploma that I had just earned.

The participants of our meager two-day training session may have just earned a piece of paper, but to many of them it was one of the greatest accomplishments of their lives. I’ll never forget the pride that these people had as they walked up to the front to shake the hand of our team leader and accept their certificate.

After our graduation ceremony, we went out in front of the church for a group photo. This was an event that was important to capture! It represents a moment in time where the future was never brighter for these people. There was hope like no other time in their lives. Many were about to walk away now with the tools that would enable them to provide their children with the education that they never had. It was the beginning of a future that was now full of possibilities.

Lord, thank You for allowing me to be a part of something so special in so many people’s lives!

 

Check out more from this series in the africa diaries.

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