RobAHokie

One of my highlights from Urbana 06 was hearing Oscar Muriu, pastor of Nairobi Chapel, speak powerfully on the state of the global church and the need for interdependency between western and non-western Christians. I highly recommend listening to his message through the link above - it could change the way you think about missions and the church around the world!

Wes and I actually had the chance to visit the Nairobi Chapel family of churches this past July, although at the time we didn't get to meet Oscar because he was in the US in preparation for Urbana! Below is a picture of us with Oscar at Urbana following an outstanding seminar he gave on Global Partnerships in the Church.

Karen, me, and my parents at the beach over Thanksgiving

My family, Karen, and I spent Thanksgiving with my Brazilian relatives in Myrtle Beach, SC. I hadn't been there in a year and a half, so it was good to be with them. There was lots of Portuguese spoken (though not by me!), and although we did have turkey, the rest of the meal wasn't the standard Thanksgiving mashed potatoes and green-bean casserole. It's good to be reminded that I come from a crosscultural family, which is a big reason why I'm in crosscultural ministry.


Me, my sister (Katharyn) and my cousins

After Wes and I moved to Blacksburg in June 2005, we set up a small prayer room at the front of our house. Since we live across the street from campus, our vision has been that students would be able to walk over and use the prayer room anytime as a quiet place to meet with God.

Just this month, we opened up the prayer room to vtONE, a student organization that brings together many of the campus ministries at Virginia Tech. For three nights a week, three hours each night, students come over and fill the place with worship to God and prayers for their friends, the campus and the world.

We're excited that students are using this space. Our dream is that whether in our house or in a combination of local places, there would eventually be a 24-7 prayer movement in Blacksburg. Please join us in asking God to draw more people into prayer!

On Saturday, October 21, I asked my friend and colleague Karen Gupton to marry me - she said yes! Karen currently serves on InterVarsity staff at UNC-Greensboro.

It's been a beautiful fall season in southwest Virginia. Here's a picture of Wes and I enjoying the view from nearby Tinker Cliffs on the Appalachian Trail.

I’ll never forget the day Wes and I met Jesus in the slum area of Korogocho on the outskirts of Nairobi. We were there to see Tulip, the Tumaini (Swahili for "Hope") Ladies' Integrational Program. The program offers vocational training with daily Bible study for teenage girls who can’t afford to pay for secondary education (high school isn’t government funded). In an area where many families scrape by on $1/day, Tulip has a real impact on the community.

Shortly after arriving, we were asked to share an encouraging lesson from Scripture with the girls. The program director, Mary, handed us a Bible and said we could have a few minutes to prepare. “You’ll have about an hour to speak to them,” she said. What had we gotten ourselves into? We thought we were just there for a visit! And who were we, two American men, to share a message of hope with these Kenyan girls from the poorest of the poor?

I led the small group in a discussion of the gospel story about the paralytic whose faith-filled friends lowered him through a roof to get him to Jesus. The interactive discussion was different from the sit-silently-and-listen-to-the-teacher Bible studies common to their culture, and I was glad they tried their best to respond to my questions. Still, I could see the lack of self-esteem in some of their faces. How often do these girls get to interact with young men who treat them with respect and believe they have something to say?

After the Bible study Mary and some of the girls led us into the heart of the slum to a clinic and church, both also named Tumaini. The pastor’s office in the clinic, shared by George and James, was like a closet, with a mostly empty bookshelf, a small desk, a bench, and a wooden chair frame without a seat. These men live in the slum, receive no financial support from their church, and yet they welcomed us by offering to go get us soft drinks. George probably spent the local equivalent of a day’s wages to offer us the refreshment of an orange Fanta – unbelievable hospitality. The church itself, planted last year, was as equally unimpressive as the office, with uneven dirt floors, tin roofing, and a few low, backless benches. Yet in that small space, the Lord brings 75 people (mostly children) to worship each Sunday.

Though I’ve seen images of material poverty in the two-thirds world, they cannot adequately capture the slum experience in Nairobi. One has to add to the sight of endless mud walls and tin roofs the smell of garbage and filthy water, the feel of the hot sun and the muddy, rocky ground, the sound of carts rolling through the market and of hundreds of children, near and far, crying out “Mzungu [white person], How are you!” as soon as they see us approaching.

At the end of the day we caught a ride back downtown in a Matatu, a hip-hop blaring 14-passenger van that typically exceeds its capacity. The bumpy, pothole-dodging ride was made more interested by the two cops with machine guns who hopped on for a bit (one sat right behind me with his gun resting on his lap in my direction), as well as by the conductor/fare collector/ride recruiter manning the side door who, after successfully filling every seat in the van, sat on the lap of the last passenger in the door (that is, when he wasn’t riding standing up outside the van with the door wide open).

Downtown Nairobi, where we spent the most time during our trip, is a skyscraper-lined metropolis with world-class banks, hotels, and shopping. But on this day spent just outside the city, in a slum where anything goes, we found world-class faith, hospitality, and even hope.

“And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.” Hebrews 13:12-14