Mid-month news November 2024

Dear Friends,

We are to open our new hospital here in Maseno on Friday. Welcome, if you can make a quick trip to Kenya:

Boarding School
One of the children I now look after did her first year of secondary schooling in a boarding school. In a discussion last night, I asked her ‘why didn’t you like boarding school?’ ‘Bullying’ she said. There are good reasons for children to live with their parents (or grandparents) as a preference to boarding schools! I am glad God has been able to give me a small role to play, in rescuing this girl from a bullying context.

Gender Issues
Gender issues continue to impose themselves on us in Kenya. I recently discovered that local schools are making a booklet available for free for interested students. This booklet informs them of, while roundly condemning, any kind of, LGBTQ sexuality: (Note use of Kenyan English.)
Front Cover:

Part of the back cover:

Aggressive Church
I have frequently attended a wide variety of churches around my home in Kenya, for over 30 years. I was for the first time physically dragged to the front of the church, a few days ago.
On entering a church, I found 5 or 6 ‘prophets’ walking and jumping up and down in the central part of the church. Around them, standing, facing the middle, were about 50 people who made up the congregation. Most of the time the prophets were shouting ‘Jesus Christ’ as they walked up and down. All the prophets were possessed and in an ecstatic state. Presumably in their own understanding, they were possessed by the spirit of Christ. One was a man, the others were women. I was given a seat when I entered into the church (on the understanding that I was not there to be prophesied to). Nevertheless, the one male prophet stood in front of me as he took my arms in a vice-like grip. I knew the expectation, that I go to the front and kneel to have a sinful-spirit removed from me. I have, on principle, always refused to participate in this kind of exorcism. My assailant, a tall man in his 20s, leant back and with great force pulled me to a standing position, then to the front of the church. ‘Kneel down!’ everyone told me, while the steel-like arms of the prophet continued to encircle me. I refused to kneel. For about 2 minutes, the prophet told one of the priests about my supposed crimes as I stood there. He then released me and I went back to my chair. About ½ hour later, I was given opportunity to share from the Bible. I took about 20 minutes exegeting the book of Job, and connecting Job’s message to Jesus’ self-giving on the cross.
It is particularly disconcerting to find these kinds of prophets shouting in the name of Jesus. The man who dragged me to the front did not know me from Adam, so what he did was not based on any knowledge of my long-ministry in that area. As is the case for many African churches, healing is central to all that goes on, and he clearly took me as requiring exorcism. This is the first time I’ve been physically pulled, and hopefully the last. Many local churches would not of course even consider doing this. Nevertheless, your prayers are valued for my ongoing ministry amongst indigenous Christians.

Some Difficult News – for People in the West
One of the elders of the church I attended recently, stood during a service, to strongly encourage young people to go to school. This is how he justified their efforts in education: Many years ago he was one of a group of young men who joined a Bible study led by European people in Kenya,” he told us. He himself only had six years of schooling. All the other young men had done more schooling. All the other young men subsequently travelled to Europe! Hence, he told the children in the church: study hard so that one day you be given opportunity to go to Europe! The implication being, that once one has made a trip to Europe, one can be fairly certain that poverty will never again be a problem.
I hope you see from the above; one does not have to be a fiery Pentecostal to encourage the Prosperity Gospel! The pattern is sufficiently well known, that someone who travels to Europe becomes wealthy, often incredibly wealthy, as to encourage many people, like the above elder, to pressure all children to study (using English) very hard in school, so as one day to go to Europe.
Now, here is the difficult news: The more welcoming and generous people in Europe are to immigrants (in this case from Africa), the more young people here will orient themselves to trying to go to Europe. The more they orient themselves to going to Europe, one can also say, the less they orient themselves to being an asset to their own communities, except for bringing in finance and things from Europe. This is clearly, it seems to me, a major reason why Africa itself remains so poor. This means in turn, that the more people in Europe welcome and help (financially and otherwise) immigrants from Africa, the more poverty and corruption might continue in Africa itself.
I am not saying one shouldn’t welcome immigrants. What I am suggesting is: if we are so keen to help immigrants to settle in our own Western countries, we should be even more keen to assist their families so that they can thrive in their own countries. This latter is what is these days missing. It is much more difficult. It is ironic – that while ‘the rest’ love to come to Europe, there is at the same time a neo-colonial condemnation, from the West itself, of people who endeavour to assist ‘the rest’ when they are still ‘at home’. That is: although welcoming people to Europe is considered laudable, intervention by a European in the people’s homeland is often considered to be neo-colonialism.
One cannot control people when they are in their own communities as one can once they have entered Europe. More to the point: while they stay living in their own communities, it is very hard for people to learn just how Europe managed to become prosperous. Yet if their own countries don’t get to prosper, then the flow of immigrants may not end until Europe declines to the economic level of the places people come from. It takes European people getting to know conditions in Africa, and African languages, to be able to communicate sensibly into African contexts. (We call this ‘vulnerable mission’.) We need European people ready to give themselves in this way! For more on a related theme, reflections on my recent conference presentation, see here.

Rabbit
One of my lads has started a project of rabbit breeding in my house. So, here are my new housemates:

Jim