Jesus was only Joshin

I was having a discussion recently with a brother about my ministry in Africa. (Joshing is a term implying that someone is kidding).  This brother announced I was teaching a heresy.  He went and read a blog post where I mention that we teach obeying the teachings of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount.  He said that teaching we were to obey Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, was a heresy.  And though we did not mention it, I also teach obeying, the Sermon on the Plain and I suspect if the bible included everything Jesus ever said, we would find the Sermon on the River, in the City and near the Lake.  My brother announced he could no longer support my ministry since I was teaching this heresy.  Why such drama over teaching to obey Jesus?  Well first let me defend his position, a bit.  Most people hold this view whether they admit it or not.  So don’t be hard on him.  More on that later.  Many people say it is impossible to obey the Sermon on the Mount.  Now this sounds  alarming.  First of all, let’s look at some of the words of Jesus about obeying His commands and teachings.  By the way that includes the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 28:18-20, Go ahead look it up.  It is known as the Great Commission and specifically commands the disciples to go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey all the Jesus commanded.   I know of few that do not think this is one of the most significant verses in the NT and in fact one of the most important aspects of Christianity.  Are we to believe that Jesus meant the first part but not the last?

John 14:21, tells us that if we love Jesus and keep His commands, we love Him.  If we don’t, we don’t love Him. Do you love Him? You do if you keep His commandments.  He says so.

John 12:47- Says the teaching of Jesus came straight from the Father and that on judgment day we will be judged by how we obeyed them.  These are Jesus words.  Don’t get mad at me!

Matthew 12:46-50 Jesus was told one time that His mother, brothers and sisters were at the door looking for him. Jesus said His family are those, who obey Him.  Are you a member of His family? Only if you obey. At least, according to Jesus.

John 15:14 Jesus also said His friends obey Him. Does that mean you are not His friend if you don’t obey?  Jesus seems to imply that, doesn’t He.

In John 15 Jesus teaches that we must abide on the vine to bear fruit or be cut off and thrown in the fire.  Then He says that He who remains in Me, bears much fruit. He then goes on to command us to remain in Him and remain in His love.  And then says, if you obey me you will remain in my love.  Fruit is obedience, according to Jesus.

Luke 6:46 And finally, He ask why do you call me Lord and do not do what I am saying.

It seems pretty clear that Jesus meant to be obeyed by scripture.  But you will find theologians trying to negate the plain teachings of Jesus at every turn.  You see, the Kingdom of God, and yes the Sermon on the Mount as well as ALL the teachings of Jesus, comprise the most radical proposition ever offered to man.  And make no mistake, the teachings of Jesus and yes, the Sermon on the Mount, are the teachings of the Kingdom of God.  First, let’s look at a few of the theological opinions for NOT following the teachings of Jesus.  I will list them briefly you can study them for yourself.  (Special thanks to Greg Herrick on compiling this list.  You can find him at bible.org.  I have paraphrased and altered some of the text).

1. The Absolutist View. This is my view.  Jesus, says obey Him and in fact if we don’t we have built on the sand and great will be our fall. Matthew 7:24-27.  Amazingly this way is dismissed by most because it is a threat to society.  They are right.  It is a new society.  The Kingdom of God.
2. The Modification View.  Most folks, whether they admit it or not, fall into this category.  It holds to the teachings of Jesus, but just modifies them so that they are not so radical.  Softens them, as it were, and thus leaves society and in fact most lives in no need of any change.
3. The Hyperbole View.  In this view Jesus simply used hyperbole to make a point.
4. The General Principle View, proposes that Jesus is laying out some good general principles but they must not be taken to the extreme.  For example turn the other cheek has it application but certainly it must also be ignored or society itself is at risk.  The risk of society and the risk to our capitalistic way of life in particular, is a common theme to ignore the teachings of Jesus.
5. Another way is the Attitude Not Acts View.  In other words Jesus just wants you to be willing to turn the other cheek.  I heard this one a lot when I was young.  It is that willingness He admires.  He certainly does not expect you to do it in all situations.  Again, society and normal life is at risk if you do.
6. The Catholics enjoyed using the Double Standard View.  Holding clergy and priest to these special standards but not the general public.  It’s okay for St. Francis of Assisi, but not expected out of Joe the Plumber.  Protestants modify this to mean, this is only for disciples, not believers.
7. Martin Luther liked the Two Realms View.  The Sermon is practiced in church, but again society would fall if it is practiced outside the church.  Two moralities.
8. Most reformers love the Analogy of Scripture View.  Taking the various teachings of Jesus and them combining them with other scriptures on similar topics and kind of averaging them out.  I am oversimplifying of course, but like in turning the other cheek one would apply it in a Sermon and explain that wonderful message of forgiveness and gentleness but then quickly turn to an OT verse or a NT verse, sometimes not even addressing the topic, and mitigate the plain teachings as being not necessary or practical.   A very popular view.
9. In just in the last two years I began to hear of the Interim View.  A truly strange one.  The Sermon on the Mount only applied to the time from Jesus till He died on the cross.  Relegating everything Jesus taught to irrelevancy.  Some go a bit farther and say His teaching applied to the Jews only.  Of course this is an innovation unknown by the church ever in history until these innovators concocted it.  A very recent innovation.
10. Then I have heard theologian and preachers like Vernon Magee and Hank Hanegraf relegate this to the someday coming millennium.  I think this is a Dispensationalist View.  This is interesting as it seems Jesus did not bother to share this view with anyone.  Neither did the apostles.  It is a position arrived at outside of scripture, from theologians.
11. Then we have another view, that I think my brother holds that resulted in this post.  It states that Jesus was giving us impossible to follow teachings, so that we would trust in the saving grace of Jesus.  Like the law of the OT it is impossible to keep and drives us to Calvary.  Like the observation above, Jesus and the Apostles failed to contribute to this train of thought.  In fact from the verses listed above you will see that Jesus taught quite the opposite.  He took His teachings very seriously.  Hence my title, in light of this view, Jesus was only Joshin.

So is it impossible to obey Jesus?  Jesus certainly commands it.  We are not His family if we don’t obey, according to Him.  We don’t love Him, unless we obey.  At least that is what Jesus says.  In fact unless He is just “joshin”, Jesus says we will literally be judged by His teachings.

The writings of the first century shed some light on this dilemma.  The disciples of John, Paul and Peter all not only taught the teachings of Jesus were to be obeyed but they wrote about it extensively.  The Didacte, one of the earliest writings we have written around the time John died, perhaps well before, gives clear indication that this was the universal position of the church.  Now before you dismiss these guys as heretics too, let’s take a look at them.  Jesus handpicked the disciples to go into all the world and spread the Good News.  The great commission, as we have seen, told them to spread the teachings of Jesus, to be obeyed.  Paul and possibly Peter, commission such men as Clement and others mentioned in the bible.  Clement and others within one generation of the death of John were teaching obedience to the Sermon on the Mount.  These same men were burned alive, crucified, speared and tortured for Christ.  They are the same men that collected and passed down the documents that make up your bible.  The only reason you know that Gospel of Mathew came from Matthew is because these early leaders recorded that is who wrote it.  History records the early church living the Sermon on the Mount, literally. If they were lying about this, then how can we believe them about the bible you have on your desk?

History records believers like St. Francis and others living the Sermon on the Mount, literally.  The Anabaptist were persecuted for teaching and living this way.  It is a historical fact.  But I am told it is impossible.  I have brothers that have sold all or much of what  they had, given to the poor and changed their entire lifestyles to live this Sermon.  They turn the other cheek and give radically to the Kingdom.  They make no vow and forgive even their enemies.  I am learning from them as they modeling this way of life to me.  I am sincerely trying to follow this model.

Why can’t we live the sermon?  Let’s take a quick look.  Most of the teachings of Jesus, not surprisingly, we all teach to obey.

Repent and be baptized.

Let your light shine, to be great in the Kingdom, be least.

If you are even angry you commit murder,  Well we don’t like that one.

A radical value of relationships even above religion.  I think we all aspire to that and I see it preached often.

Lust is adultery.  I think most everyone agrees this is the case and even one as immature as me can testify to victory in this area.

Live a life of sexual purity, “if you eye causes you to sin pluck it out”.  We teach this to our children.   Marriage and divorce, a very hot topic in the NT and clearly a stumbling block in the church today.  We DON’T want to follow this one. Period.

Turn the other cheek and love our enemy is one Americans struggle with mightily.  We imagine ridiculous scenarios where serial rapist might enter our homes and we need to be able to dispatch them with extreme prejudice to protect our family. We DON’T want to obey this one. However, even secular society has adherents to this type of teaching.  Pacifist, Anabaptist and many other groups are historically documented to be obeying this literally.  So it can be obeyed and was for centuries in the church.

Be perfect.  AHA!  It’s impossible so “let’s call the whole thing off”.  You know potato, potato, tomato, tomato.  Okay, if you don’t know the song you won’t get the pun.  The problem is Jesus never called it off and neither did any of His disciples.

Give unto God, not as unto man, check. (We agree).

Pray for the Lord and not mans benefit.  Check.

The Lords prayer.  No problem here.

Forgive to be forgiven.  We don’t like it always, but hey we’ll let this one go.

Fast for God not man.  No worries there, we say, since we are not commanded to fast, so, we don’t.  This is looked at as just another irrelevant teaching of Jesus anyway.  As for me and my house? check.

Lay treasures up in heaven NOT on earth.  WAIT A MINUTE!  Houston, we have a problem.  We all know that God has ordained America and that means He chose capitalism.  Capitalism requires me to accumulate capital to invest and make more capital.  But Jesus says here and elsewhere that where your treasure is there is your heart.  Sorry, we reject this, hands down.  In fact let’s stop right here.

We really have just a few problems.  We are Americans.  We want our money, our stuff, our big houses our vacations , 60 inch TV’s and we want to be able to get divorced and remarry as many times as we want.    We want to kill the bad guys because that is what brave Americans do. We can’t be perfect anyway so this is just an object lesson.  This is too radical and yes, if everyone did this society as we know if might would be transformed.  But lets face it.  We are worried about ourselves, not society as a whole.  Imagine if we turned the other cheek.  What about Hitler?  I need my IRA, my stocks, bonds and my cool car and I make all this money and lay up all this treasure, um I mean, I am a steward over all this stuff for the glory of God.  The problem is we don’t understand the teaching of the early church on the Two Kingdoms, a principle scattered all through the NT.  More on that another time.

Frankly, you can be a great American.  A great American Christian, tithes, goes to church, reads his bible and may even teach Sunday school.  He prays and every now and then he “might” tell someone about Jesus but most likely will invite them to church.  Great American Christians, vote republican.  They try to raise their kid’s right.  They do many wonderful and Godly things.  I know, that is how I viewed Christianity.

I am not writing this to condemn anyone.  I want to tell you about an amazing way to live.  I want to tell you that the Sermon on the Mount is the abundant Life.  You can obey Jesus. I want to invite you to step outside and beyond being a great American Christian.  I want to invite you on a journey to become a loyal citizen of the Kingdom of God.  You may not be there yet.  That’s okay.  You may want to cut me off for being a heretic.  That’s okay too.  But listen to what I am saying.  One day I discovered something new.  I met men and women that lived the sermon.   They gave radically of their time and recourses, yes money, to extend the Kingdom. They believed that if they invested in the Kingdom, to the determent even their personal comfort, their world, they would have reward in heaven.  Just like Jesus said.  Some reduced their personal work load to spend more time in the Kingdom.  They sacrificed the American dream and replaced it with a new dream.  A Kingdom Dream.  They served the poor and the orphan, they turned the other cheek.

Stop right there Glenn!!!!! This is just radical stuff!  You are crazy!  Heresy!  Yeah, I get that sometimes.  I actually got called a heretic for quoting Jesus one time on Facebook.   But if you don’t believe you are to obey Him, then none of this matter does it?  However, if you do believe Jesus meant what He says, then you know, it matters, oh so much.  So I admit it.  I teach obeying the commands of Jesus, just like the Great Commission says to do.  I am trying to obey my Lord and Master.  He is not only worthy of worship in church on Sunday, but He is worthy of believing and obeying.  And as I am so often seen as quoting Dietrich Bonheoffer, only the obedient believe; only believers obey.  Am I obedient all the time?  Of course not.  But by His grace, the power of His blood, the help of His body and the Holy Spirit, we can be transformed from glory to glory.

Widows and Orphans

Widows and Orphans

Today I am writing about our Widows, raising orphans in many cases.  Some brothers have contacted me asking about Widows and I thought I would simply post some of them to allow others an opportunity to connect with some widows that are in great need.  All of these ladies are in our house churches and most are in great need.  Some have orphans as well that they are raising.  In 2005 we had civil unrest and many murders in the slums of Nairobi.  As a result, godly people found children abandoned all over the slums as their parents were either murdered or simply fled without them.

Mathere Slums

Mary Auma Oloo born 1954 to a polygamous family raised a traditional Christian.  She joined our house churches this year and after going through the discipleship training is now a Kingdom Christian meaning she now literally ascribes to the teachings of Jesus and has gone through an extensive extensive spiritual inventory, designed to identify strongholds and sins that might impair her commitment and growth in the Lord.  This is the case of ALL the widows you will read about.  They are serious Christians working to learn to be good disciples, not just converts, and disciple makers.

Mary’s husband died in a car wreck in 1973, she washes clothes, as do many of our women and makes about .83 a day.  She has experience selling fish.  She gave birth to 15 children but only 7 survived.  She is now raising 4 children of her own and has taken in 2 orphans.

Susan Ochieng born 1920.  Susan is obviously very old and does not remember much about her previous history.  She simply needs some funds to survive.  Her daughter, Mary, listed above is her car giver.

Pamela Onyango, born 1973 in a polygamous family.  Her husband died of a stroke in 2008.  She made her living selling illegal beer for years.  Mary, lead her to a new and deeper level of Christianity and challenged her to leave her life of sin and has helped her meet clients to wash clothes.  She too has experience selling fish.  We are exploring how to start a business with these women in their skill sets.

Jesinter Awino, born 1978, to a polygamous family.  Married in 1997 and her husband died of Malaria in 2008.  She sells a local fare called samosas on the road side and also some cereals and grains. She would like to get enough money to start a cereal business with a real life sustaining inventory.  She has 5 children.

Pamela Atieno, born 1979 in a polygamous family.  Her husband died in a road accident.  She washes clothes for money and a local merchant allows her to sell or clerk in a grocery store and gives her daily food for pay. She is very committed to helping others and is raising 6 children.

Kayole Area

Eunice Niger born, 1974 with 3 children.  Her husband was poisoned by “friends” at a bar.  She makes soap by hand and I have helped her make soap before.  We have funded her a start up business buying her supplies as she had gone out of business.  She is a committed disciple maker and trains others in this skill.

Damarus Acarna, has 2 children and her husband was stabbed to death in a fight with “friends” that owed him money.  She runs a grocery store and is doing okay.

Evertine Ayetah,  born 1975 with 5 children.  She keeps house for a family of Muslims that are open to learning more about Isa, or as we say, Jesus.  Great potential here.  She is paid 18 dollars a month but really needs 36 a month to get by.  She is struggling greatly.  She fears for her children as her long hours leave them alone much of the time.  They are living like street children while she is out working 12 hours a day and they collect bottles among the garbage to sell.

Muitscent Angango, was an orphan herself.  Her husband died of AIDS and she contracted it from him.  His family kicked her out and she is raising her kids herself washing clothes and selling ink pens on the street.  She has two children. She would like to open a small kiosk to sell items to support her family.

Eunice Migizi,  married in 1995 and her husband was poisoned by “friends” at a bar.  She lives in the Soweto Slums and washes clothes to support 5 children.

Most of these women can be helped to start a business with less than a hundred dollars.  They have no health care but we provide simple antibiotics and malaria medication through the house church network.  It takes so little to make a huge and lasting difference.  Will you consider giving?  If so you can go to this link: http://kingdomdriven.org/glenn-roseberry and make a donation.  If you specify a widow and include a picture in an email to me at midtownglenn@gmail.com they really enjoy seeing their brothers and sisters in America and around that world that love them and help them  I have told them you love them and that you are obeying the Lord to help them in their time of need.  These women are sacrificial givers themselves and routinely help the, even poorer, in their community.  We teach sacrificial giving here.  They are obedient followers of Christ.  They are your sisters.

My Week in Nairobi

As many of you know I went to Nairobi this past week with a couple of issues in mind.  One to check on a new brother who was formerly a Muslim and had been attacked  by radicals.  We will call him Caleb.  Caleb had hospital bills and perhaps a home that had now been compromised to the radical Muslims.  Hospital bills and a new residence were financial issues to be dealt with.  The other reason I went was to purchase the Overlock sewing machines for my sisters in the house churches in Mathere and Kayole.  I am so appreciative of all my brothers and sisters that have contributed and made these efforts possible.

I began in East Leigh where many of the persecuted live.  As always we have to be flexible.  This is the underground church.  We stagger our times to meet and choose our meeting places carefully.  My mere presence compromises some of their secrecy.  Trust me there are few white people that go here.  I have NEVER seen another one on my visits.  This is where the bombings occurred around Christmas.  We recently had a sister murdered here by a machete attack.  My short term mission group coming in a couple of months will not be  coming here.

We ride the crowded Matatu mini bus to East Leigh.  We arrive at a brothers home and he is not there.  We find he has headed to the meeting place ahead of schedule.  This is not a bad idea.  We meet up and enter the restaurant.   The food is excellent here and it is one of two safe restaurants we go to when I come.  For 10 bucks we have two huge platters of food for four, that could have fed eight.  Four sodas and six cups of coffee while we talk.  I am surprised the Caleb speaks some English.  He is from Ethiopia.  His wounds are looking good but he is sore in the ribs and his broken nose is giving him problems.  My dad had his broken many times and I tell him that it will get better but straightening it is just as bad as getting it broke.  He seems to decide to leave the now crooked nose as it is.

Another brother, Kevin, updates me on his work with the glue boys.  These are small young boys that spend their days begging, stealing and sniffing glue.  I have had Kevin simply loving them and feeding them and telling them of Jesus.  They go to the Catholic church to eat all the time.  They are told of Jesus, but to them He is irrelevant.  They sleep in alleys, move around a lot and all carry knives.  It takes him days before they trust him with a name we think is real.  More days till he knows where they really live and a bit about life.  The police round them up regularly to find out about crimes in the area.  The glue people are responsible for most snatch and run crimes.  They will rat on each other for a few hundred schillings.  They will stab someone for a thousand schillings.  It is said they will kill someone for a thousand schillings.  How much is that?  Around  eight dollars and thirty cents.

Keven is also from Ethiopia and like Caleb has little education and cannot find meaningful work since Kenyans don’t really care for refugees and would rather hire someone from their tribe or at least a real Kenyan.  We talk about buying a wheel barrow and buying some pineapples and bananas and selling them on the street. A good business and if you add some bottled water you can make a decent living.   We think we can do this for about 6000 schillings.  We decide to investigate.  For now the brothers will receive rent from us for two rooms.  About 60 dollars.  They will let some others live there with them and sometimes have as many as eleven in one room.  Kevin has nine living with him now.  He charges them all a bit to stay and then can buy food.  They cook right in their rooms.  They open the door to let the smoke out as there are no windows.  They are so thankful.  They smile and tell me of the glue boys, thank me profusely for the rent money and I give them some to buy more rice for the kids.  They tell me that they are feeding them about three times a week and still have five hundred schillings left over from last month.  I tell them to keep it.  We go to Kevin’s room and talk of making disciples, loving like Jesus loved and laying down our lives for these glue boys.  No one want to work with them.  They stink, they lie, they steal and they are just little boys.  They are just the least of these.  They all carry knives and they use them.  Kevin is learning how to share with them.  I can’t be directly involved and I truly regret it.  A musungu ( white person)  is viewed as nothing but a silly, stupid rich person to be fed a line and get some money.  My presence in this instance is problematic.  I watch from afar and disciple Kevin for a while.  His true mentor is a former Imam that is my contact.  We pray and I head back home.

Next it is the slums.  On my last visit I visited called all the house church leaders together and meet for three days.  Day one was teaching on the Kingdom of God.  Day two on the teachings of Jesus and Luke 10 evangelism.  We were to go out and witness the next day but it was during national elections and there were many murders in Mathere where we were going and I got over ruled by the pastors.  So we spent the day talking about challenges in the house churches.  As you might imagine they are legion.  Of course the main one is financial.  Eight to ten people living in a 10×10 room.  The women make a living watching each others children and taking turns walking the rich neighborhoods looking for work cleaning floors or washing dishes.  The men look for jobs as laborers. Over 50% of Nairobi lives in the slums.  At least that is what I am told.   About 20% of my house church leaders also run a small business.  Sewing, selling vegetables and making a flour taco type of food called a chipati.  Some are very good at it but spend all their profits feeding their house church members.  Sharing and sacrificial giving is the African way.  To accumulate money for yourself while your friends, neighbors and family struggle is not normal.  The ones that live that way quickly exit the community.  They move off where they don’t have to be around family members that are in constant need.  The more Westernized they get the quicker they move off.

I pledged on my last visit to write about the needs there and see if the brothers and sisters in America would join them in this service and buy additional sewing machines and fund vegetable stalls and buy more supplies to expand their fledgling businesses.  Not to prosper these business people.  But rather, we identified those people sharing at the greatest level of sacrifice and determined to help them.  In returned they agreed to begin to train the others on their skills.  Sewing, buying and selling used clothing and other skill sets we could identify.  This trip was the time for me to fulfill the commitment.  Thanks to your generous giving I am purchasing four sewing machines.  Your are funding a used clothing business, purchasing 80 kilos of rice for the hungry in our churches and purchasing supplies like needles, cloth and thread.  These are not loans.  These are investments into the lives of people that are sacrificially giving to our brothers and sisters.  I cannot loan to someone that is giving all they have for others.  With your help, we join in their giving.  It’s that simple.

One last note.  There is a business model in Tanzania where women with Aids are making handbags out of flour sacks and coffee bags.  They are then sold in the shops that cater to tourist.   We are going to do the same, in Kenya.  Soon we will have pictures of the bags and purses.  I wondered if you would be interested in buying them or selling them in your church or to your friends for gifts.  Many of you give Christmas gifts.  These would be perfect.  The sewing machine for this ministry model is being delivered next week.  We hope to begin sewing right away.  Let me know if you would be interested.

Thank you all for allowing me to serve these people.  I am not the one giving.  I am not the one sacrificing.  In fact, I am having all the fun.  You and your generosity are making a difference.  You have heard me say this before and if you keep reading my post you will keep hearing it.  I am you. WE are serving the least of these.  My prayer is that if someone ask you what you are doing for the Kingdom you will say with complete confidence that you are feeding the poor.  You are visiting the sick and you are serving the least of these.  You tell them you have sent and are supporting a brother named Glenn.  He is your agent for the Kingdom in Africa.   You are feeding orphans, because many of my house churches are feeding them.  And you are providing the rice.  You are clothing children, blessing widows and spreading the Gospel.  You are reaching out to the unloved glue boys.  The hopeless ones that if we can’t reach in 6-10 months will have ruined their precious minds on this glue.  I hope that your giving here inspires you to do the same in your neighborhood.  Trust me the poor are just a few miles away.  The lonely and the needy.

God bless you my brothers and sisters in Christ.  And thank you for the privilege of being here to serve the Kingdom.  For our King, and for your His faithful Church.  Please pray for us.

Sunday Safari: Elephant Poop, Monkeys and a dog named Kugi

This morning I took off on my normal morning run.  On Sunday’s I almost never attend traditional church.  By Sunday I may have been in 4 to 30 house church meetings and seminars.  I may have spoken for 20 or 30 hours.  When I go to an African church I am inevitably either forced to sit with the elite members of the congregation, the pastors and elders, and often even asked to preach on the spur of the moment.  If they preach, they feel obligated to offer me a translator and then the preacher speaks at such a speed that the poor translator gives up in a few minutes as I assure him I will be fine without his attempt to translate.  Since so much of what I teach is contrary to the African definition of the church, I prefer to go on my own most Sundays.

Today it has been a wonderful adventure.  16 minutes and 38 seconds into my daily run I spot something unusual in the road.  A huge pile of poop.  I mean huge, like a bushel basket of poop.  It is not domestic poop, it is elephant poop.  Two months back a local was killed trying to protect his corn from an elephant just a few kilometers from here.  And though the local national park, Aursha National Park, states that elephants seldom migrate through here any more due to the presence of so many humans the recent death tells another story.  I visited the park just this week in preparation of some church members from my home church, ICC heading my way in two months.  I learned there is NO fence around the park, as I had imagined.  The Masai plains leading to the Serengeti are just North of the park, so all kinds of animal roam into what is called the park and obviously into our area as well.  I have heard the elephants at night making their unmistakable trumpeting sound, but just stay inside in light of the recent tragedy.

But today I had another idea.  It cost 35 dollars to officially visit the park.  But hey, I am less than a mile from my house and here we have elephant signs.  I finish my run quickly and rest a minute have a bowl of cereal and some mango juice and head back out.  My faithful companion Kuji is at my side.  I lay out all my accoutrements for the trip and begin my march.  My plan is to go one hour into the mountain and then return the same way and try to safely spot an elephant.  Kuju is a cur I have adopted along with her puppies some few months back.  Nearly starved,  with her hair falling out she was a terrible sight.  Though her puppies did not make it she gets fed dog food by me three times a day, at least.  She sleeps under my tarp protecting my  motorbike, barking, should anyone or anything approach.   Great alarm system.  She is normally skittish of strangers especially the alcohol brewers down the road.  I am confident they are NOT kind to dogs.  But when she is by my side she is fearless.  She will charge a pack of dogs bravely.  If I am there to back her up.  Besides, she does not talk much, and I enjoy visiting with her although she does get under my feet and trip me at least a few times each trip.

We take a foot trail that comes out up from  the poop sighting.  I begin to follow an area where something very large has tramped down the grass.  Still not certain that this is an elephant, I imagine that perhaps someone was hauling cattle and got a huge chunk of feces hung under a wheel well and it just came loose all at once.  Although, this is definely NOT cow feces I still am only hoping.  This theory is quickly dispelled as I follow the trampled brush up the mountain.  About every 50 or so feet there are many droppings all of the gigantic proportion and they are firm and fresh.  No, I did not handle them, but I did get down and smell them and they were moist and firm.  I soon realized that this was not a single elephant but a small herd.  The trail would go for several yards then you could tell the herd had branched out and fed crushing the foliage for several meters in an area and then more poop.  Finally I lost the trail which seemed impossible and decided to climb a hill and see if I could relocate the trail.

Sitting down I was reminded of my friend Joe Jones advice.  Just wait and let Africa come to you.  I sat down and was silent.  Kuji was panting furiously by now as we had gone two miles into the mountainous area around Mt. Meru, the second highest mountain in Africa.  Mt. Kilimanjaro is just 60 kicks away and is the tallest free standing mountain in the world.  It has glaciers on the top, a rare feature around the equator.  Mt. Meru frequently has a little morning snow on it as well being well over 13000 ft high.

I sat down and  pulled out my binoculars that my buddy Brett Hancock surprised me with on his recent visit.  It was about then I realized that I had left my compass sitting on my prep area.  Great.  I did NOT want to get lost here, though it seems impossible with a huge mountain to the East, I am not an experienced trekker so I have a passing sense of condern.   Sure enough sitting in silence I began to hear hooting and calling sounds.  Monkeys.  They are all around where I live but keep hidden from sight most of the time.  I had been gone an hour and according to my cautious plan I was due to head back having lost the trail.  How do you lose a trail of elephants?  I decided to return a slightly different route and came upon fresh poop.  I had previously determined I did not want to go into the forest as I was very near the edge of where the park begins.  They have leopards, giraffes and of course elephants.  But the trail and droppings were leading straight up, into the forest.  So off I went.  I could not imagine elephants on this narrow trail.  But sure enough I see the occasional place where a foot as large as a 10 gallon bucket had step off the trail into the soft soil.  I pressed on.  Climbing higher and higher I came upon many butterflies and the forest was so thick and cool it was wonderful, if not a little suprising  becoming dark from the thick foliage above.  I walked slowly and quietly always scheming how to exit should I become surprised by the elephants or some other creature that would not give ground.   All of a sudden Kuji presses to the front and then quickly retreats with her tail between her legs and then the sounds begin.

It sounded like a 500 lb man was burping into a microphone with huge speakers.  I looked up and there were big monkeys that looked like Columbus monkeys but with the longest and most beautiful white tails I had ever seen.   Perhaps they all had theses tail.  But I had not noticed them on the ones seen in captivity or in the wild.  Although I must admit, I  exited pretty quickly when I came upon these guys in the wild as I was in the water last time and had just seen a crocodile.  So maybe I missed it.  I opened my back pack and got out my Galaxy camera and prepared to take some pictures.  They were almost a hundred feet up so I didn’t know how the pictures would turn out, but you gotta try.   As I approached it became obvious who the dominate male was.  One large monkey with very distinctive facial features began to race down the tree to get closer shouting out his warnings.  Also,  ALL the monkeys began to defecate from the tree tops.  This was as strong as deterrent as the approaching menace. Being rained on by monkey poop could ruin a good hike.   Kuji was silent but looking up at me trying to ascertain if we were in danger.  She takes her cues from me.  I offered her no reassurance, as I had none to give.  Finally, the big guy stopped about 40 feet above the dark forest floor.  They were right at the peak of this steep hill and I longed to see what was on the other side but they were determined to defend it.  I took several pictures and told Kuji we had better go.  She was more than happy to exit.  We tracked our way back down.  I was happy having found a great hiking trail right into the the area where “the wild things are”.

Returning I realized that in all my concern of the monkeys and elephants that I had not been looking at the ground.  Should I be concerned with snakes.  I have not studied them at all but Brett, had brought me a snake bit kit.  It seems pretty simple to use, just use the shaving razor to remove the hair from the bite area, then use the syringe type device with the cup, to suck the venom out.  It occurred to me that this “seemed” how to use it but that I had not bothered to read the instructions.  I was reminded that Dad and I do things differently.  He likes to do things WITHOUT reading the instructions. Being mechanically minded,  he viewed things like puzzles to be figured out.  He always smiled when he told me that looking at the instructions spoiled the adventure.  Like when we were putting my daughters swing set together when Elizabeth was about four.  Which of course we got almost done and had to start over again, since it required certain steps be done BEFORE you got to another certain point.  I relished reminding Dad that we should have read the directions. ” What is the fun in that” he stated.  But just now, I had to laugh at myself.  I could just see someone finding my body in the forest, sprawled out in blue agony, with the directions in my hand having died trying to determine how to use this thing while reading.  Then Dad could say, “see I told you so. ” Not being mechanically minded I would most likely, apart from God’s Grace, NOT been able to wing it like Dad could.

We crossed by into familiar woods and steadily made our way home.  I love Africa.  There are blessings and adventure at every turn.  Kuji drank lots of water and ate hungrily.  For the third time in this young day I might add.  I headed back out on my motor bike to write to you. Come and see me.  I know where the wild things are.  I even know where just off the main road about an hour North of Arusha, the Masai still have to kill lions to protect their cattle.  They do it with spears and sticks.  Just down from where I live there are apparently elephants in the wild and monkeys galore.  I don’t know what else.  But I also have widows, orphans and the lost for you to meet.  Anything can happen here.  And by God’s Grace wonderful things will.  In fact they already are.

The Kingdom in the Slums

I received word that two of the pastors I had held a seminar with on Expanding the Kingdom of God had planted six churches in the slums of Nairobi. I quickly scheduled a trip to go and encourage the new believers and connect with the work there in a real and personal way.

Upon arriving I found that ONE of the pastors planted six churches and the other eleven.  I determined to visit and speak to each church.  As you might imagine life in the slums is startling to the Western mind.  No infrastructure, no jobs little hope.  There are also few churches and little outreach.  At least the two that I visited.

Most miss at least a day of meals a week and eat a limited diet of ugali and some vegetables.  Ugali is a corn mush made from boiled crushed corn with no seasoning and not much flavour.  But it is filling and that matters when you are hungry. Each house church I visited was actually a 15×10 room with a couch some chairs separated from the sleeping part of the house by bed sheets or sacks for privacy.  Some of the churches were just a few neighbors and others had over 30 members.  No windows, one door, a single light bulb, no running water or toilet facilities.  The streets are dirt and stone with sewage running down the streets.  This is where the children play.  The few schools are packed with children eager to learn.

I purposefully expressed my vision for the church there and asked about jobs and food.  It seemed that each church had one or two women with a vegetable stand or a couple sharing a sewing machine to provide income.  The others in the church walked the streets when someone would watch their children, in the richer neighborhoods and looked for work cleaning floors or doing laundry.  The men went out almost everyday in search of work as a casual laborer.  One man, in all the churches I visited had a regular job he worked at and got a regular check.  He loaded trucks.

Being an entrepreneur, I immediately began to scheme on sustainable solutions.  I asked the ones that could sew to show me their work places and explain their challenges.  One could sew most of the work but had to send parts of it out and pay others to do things like pleats due to her machine only did so much.  Another, was successful but due to the needs of her congregation she was drained to nothing helping others eat.  Another knew how to buy and sell used clothing but the lady she worked for had closed her business.

My solution.  I asked if the sewing ladies would teach other ladies to sew if I agreed to purchase the newer machines to expand existing business models and do additional stitching eliminating the need to sub out work. Everyone like the idea.  I also introduced a new product of sewing bags using flour sacks that was quite popular in Arusha with tourist interested in getting a great African souvenir  while contributing to a worthy cause.  Finally, I agreed to fund the initial inventory for a used clothing shop if the lady with the skill set would agree to train and provide purchasing expertise to other women in a distant slum.  The wheels are turning on sustainable incomes for these ladies while they connect and serve one another.

Each lady understands that none of these programs are for their personal enrichment but rather to benefit the entire body of Christ.  The spirit of sharing and helping is entrenched in the poor in Africa and this element was easily understood and accepted.  We encouraged the believers and passed out bibles and literature.  I am going back in one month to begin the investment and follow up on the training.  New believers came to Christ on the visit and we are baptizing when I return, hopefully in a rented swimming pool.

God is doing great things.  In the short term we bought 40 kilos of rice and placed it in and elders home.  No one knows we are doing this and his job is to personally stay on top of needs and make sure no one is going without food.  There are many house churches all with many children.  I am honored and pleased with what is happening in these slums.

I told them all that Christians back in America loved them and were their brothers and sisters.  I took pictures of every church member present.  Most of the men were out looking for work.  But I want you to see the people and the environment and consider reaching out to serve them.  They are the least of these.  They are those that Jesus proclaimed, that when we serve them we are serving Him.  Will you feed Jesus?  Clothe Him, and give Him something to drink?  We are promised that on Judgement Day, that there will be a judgement for us to determine how we served Him.  Him, in the disguise of the Least Of These.  Come let us adore Him!  Email me at midtownglenn@gmail.com and asked me how.  Or go to http://kingdomdriven.org/glenn-roseberry and make a tax deductible donation through Paypal or your credit or debit card.