I AM LEFT ALONE. WE ARE OK ON THE MISSION FIELD

Dave and Sophia, 1993 Source of Nile River, Jinja, Uganda

When my daughter Sophia was a toddler she would stand on our front porch and cry as I left for work, “Don’t leave me daddy.”     In my first time parent feebleness I vacillated between reason with a toddler and discipline.   Eventually, I just closed my heart and drove away.     Yet, a few times later God’s Spirit whispered, “Make her laugh.”

Sophia was crying on the porch, “Don’t leave me daddy.”

I picked her up and said, “I won’t.   You’re the one who is going to leave me.”

She had a puzzled look.   

I said, “Someday you’ll marry a boy you love.    You’ll leave me.”

Her puzzled look turned to a dream.   I hugged and kissed her.   I put her feet back on the porch.   She giggled.   I left and came home a few hours later.

The “Don’t leave me” routine became our missionary family rhythm.   We laughed at transitions.

Over a furlough in 2010 Sophia was a junior in high school.   We looked at different universities as possibilities.    We traveled to Wheaton College.   It was the only university where I noticed young men who I would not mind asking my daughter out on a date.    They even called me, “Sir.”    

Dave, Jana, and Sophia at her Harambee in Rwanda

I begged God for Sophia to be accepted at Wheaton College.   When she was accepted I was elated.    We were short cash to pay the first semester’s tuition, but in Harambee our Rwandan friends rallied and got her through.     A few questioned sending our daughter to a university we could not afford.   A Rwandan family told me, “If we can get her through one semester.   God can do others.”  

I took 40 days away from Rwanda to put Sophia in college.  As I left her to return to Rwanda she hugged me and said, “I was right.    You’re leaving me.”    We giggled.   The painful transition was easier. 

A year later we arrived in Chicago.   It’s been three years rebooting as missionaries to America.    We fell into debt and poverty.    Yet, two things kept us going.   First, we needed to be on the same continent as all of our kids.   Our first task was to shepherd them.   Second, America is a Post-Christian nation.    Our East African Diaspora people are in the USA.   Our Diaspora people fit the church planter profile growing church movements look for more so than any demographic category in the USA.   Someone must shepherd them as missionaries to America.

Sophia at a Traditional Wedding in Uganda

When Sophia was about 10 we walked home from a kwanjula (Traditional Ugandan Wedding.)   She told me, “Dad, when I get married I want to have a traditional wedding.”    She meant an African Traditional Wedding.

When Matthew Cardillo asked me if he could marry Sophia my only concern was my daughter’s wishes.   I trusted her judgment.    My task was to bless and honor.

On Friday, July 3 our East African Diaspora rallied to bless Matthew and Sophia in a Gusaba (Rwandan) / Kwanjula (Ugandan) / Traditional African Wedding.    Over 250 people from 10 nations (Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and the United States of America) attended.   The attire was exquisite.    The humor was full of joy and wisdom.    The food was great.   The dancing was captivating.    When it came time to bless the Cardillos over $5,000 was contributed.    

On Saturday, July 4 our families had a small church wedding for the Cardillos.

On Friday, July 10 our Chicago based missionary family drove Matthew and Sophia Cardillo to

Matthew and Sophia Cardillo at their Gusaba

the O’Hare Airport.   We said, “Good bye.”      Sophia is returning home to serve as a missionary teacher at Kigali International Community School (KICS.)   Matthew is doing what missionaries have always done.   He’s following his best friend, showing up, and trusting for God to use him for His glory.

I hugged Sophia and told her, “I was right.   You’re leaving me.”

We laughed.   I watched Matthew and her go through security until I could no longer see them.   

I cried a little.   I took a nap when I got home and then awoke to take a long bike ride to both grief and celebrate.    

On Saturday, July 11 I spent the evening with the South Sudanese Community in Chicago celebrating their Independence.    

On Sunday, July 12 we called Matthew and Sophia in Rwanda.   They are good.     We trust their care to our community in Africa.

Later that Sunday I went to a celebration for a Kenyan friend, Mary Tororeiy who just completed her Ph.D. and will shortly return to Kenya.

As I left the celebration I went to watch my son, Ethan play soccer for the Chicago based Ugandan Cranes. 

Some summarize the current season of Diaspora Missions as “from all nations to all nations.”  It is true.   We live that out.

Others remark that “All Christians are missionaries.”    I disagree.   When all Christians are missionaries none are missionaries.   (I’ll blog later extensively on that matter with an open Bible.)    Also, the ability to make key missions strategic decisions is undermined when there are no priorities or philosophic commitments.

Here are some big picture missionary sweeps.     Over the last 100 years Africa has been transformed by church planting missionaries.   There are more evangelical Christians now in Africa than in North America.   That growth ushered in great social changes ranging from the stopping of the slave trade to the relinquishment of colonialism.    We’re thankful that we were a small part in that historic movement.      In contemporary times that movement is about things such as education and business.   One of our missionary mentors, Dr. Dwight Jackson says, “We can’t be for the liberation of the poor if we’re not for the establishment of the middle class.”   We concur.    

Sophia returns to teach at a KICS that creates an environment to support both missionaries and the establishment of East Africa’s middle class.

We stay on the mission field of America helping those East African Diaspora missionaries adapt to and transform Post-Christian America.

It’s all painful.   Yet it is God’s missionary call.

Jana and Sophia at Gusaba

Let me drop Bible and missionary strategy for a moment and be parentally concise. 

You’re not a missionary if your parents don’t stand at the airport and cry as you leave.   

My parents do that when they leave Chicago, but marvel at the character of our African missionaries here.

I do that as I watch Matt and Sophia leave from O’Hare for Rwanda.

May God’s peace travel with all of His missionaries around the world.    May missionary parents’ hearts be comforted.

PRAY FOR KIDS

Our family arriving at the Chicago's O'hare Airport on Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

It has now been 4 months since we left our home in Africa following a call to return to the USA because of our hope that our ultimate home is heaven.    The transition has been overwhelming yet our Lord continues His steadfast love and providence.    Our pace has been slower.   In many ways this has been a season to catch our breaths.    This month we ask you to focus your prayer upon children.    In this transition kids occupy our thoughts, prayers, and actions.

1.    First, please pray for the children in our African Great Lakes region.   (In catching our breath Dave blogged about AIDS’ deaths and children at   http://jenkinsinrwanda.blogspot.com/2012/09/i-hate-little-coffins-yet-my-boss-is.html.  It took 19 years to put the wrestling into words.)   There is tragedy, but also great hope.    May the children of Africa’s Great Lakes remain healthy.   May they thrive in exceptional education.    May they bring a new vision of the future to us.

Our kids all together in Chicago for the summer

2.   Second, please pray for our own children.      The sociological term used to describe them is TCK (Third Culture Kids.)    Our kids are a blend of several different cultures.    This gives them great empathy and resiliency.   It also means that during some seasons of life they must make rapid adaptations to assimilate and thrive.   This is one of those seasons.   They have done well:

• Sophia is participating in Wheaton College’s “Chicago” program.   Since her whole life has been overseas she chose not to do an “overseas study,” but to study for a semester with 11 other Wheaton students in Chicago’s Up Town neighborhood.

•   Caleb has shown remarkable resilience as he was uprooted from his home in Kigali for his senior year of high school.   He is taking courses at the College of DuPage and preparing for entering a Christian liberal arts university next fall (To read about the humor of American education and bureaucracy that Caleb has masterfully navigated check out http://jenkinsinrwanda.blogspot.com/2012/09/office-bouncing-in-usa.html)

• Ethan is playing JV2 Soccer for Wheaton North High School.   Two weeks ago he was awarded, “Man of the Match” for his soccer play.   He has enrolled in more difficult academic classes and is doing well.

•     Ruth is in a local Ballet, enjoying Wheaton’s Franklin Middle School, and leading our family in making the most new friends.   It has been delightful to watch her grace and beauty.

• Timothy is playing soccer for the Kopion Junior Academy.   All who meet him are struck by his immense resiliency, rhythm, and outright speed.    God answered his prayer to be on the second floor of Lowell Elementary School.   (To read about Timothy’s journey of blessed persistence check out http://jenkinsinrwanda.blogspot.com/2012/09/give-me-these-stairs.html.)

Six of KICS graduates of 2011 are at USA universities.

3. Please pray for the children of our African neighbors in Chicago (Cyikago is how some of us with Africa roots spell this American city.)   We are amazed at how many we are meeting from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo in Chicago.   Some have come as refugees.  Some have come as working immigrants.   Some have come as students.   The children of our African neighbors are like our own children.   They are TCK’s.    Please pray that they will also grow in their gifting, empathy, education, and resiliency.   Also, please pray that our family will discover how God intends for us to serve our African friends in Chicago.

Mungu akubariki (God bless you),

Dave and Jana

ANNOUNCING THANK YOU TOUR

Our family running in our new post of Wheaton, Chicago

Dear Family and Friends,

Two commands fill God’s word when His people are in seasons of transition.  Those words are “Remember (150 references),” and “Thanks (100 references).”  (References counted by www.biblegateway.com.)

Our family last week finished getting the kids in five different educational institutions (Lowell Elementary, Franklin Middle School, Wheaton North High School, College of DuPage, and Wheaton College in Chicago.)   This past Sunday at Willow Creek Dupage we heard Shauna Niequist remark, “Enrolling a child in kindergarten is like getting a job in the CIA.”  We concur it is thorough and exhausting.

Christmas 2011 with foster child, Gabriel Mugisha Jacobs

This week we are beginning the process of organizing 19 years of memories.  We must remember.   God was, is, and is to come “Faithful.”  He used many family, friends, churches, and organizations to share this journey.  Here are some highlights:

• Of 21 years of marriage, 19 happened in Africa’s Great Lakes
• 2 nations of day by day labor (Uganda and Rwanda)
• Raised 5 great kids (Sophia, Caleb, Ethan, Ruth, and Timothy)
•   Fostered 1 pre-mature baby through weight gain, colick, and at one point 3 seizure clusters per day until he was adopted (Gabriel Mugisha Jacobs)
• 177 churches developed and 55 missionary families entered Uganda through New Testament Churches of Christ (1993 – 2004)
•   2 urban church plants (Kampala Church of Christ and Christ’s Church of Rwanda)
•  1 School Start (Kigali International Community School)
•    3 ½ years doing a weekly prime time radio show with Monitor FM (now KFM)
•    Volunteering at Kampala Kids League
•    6 years writing a column for The Rwanda Focus
•    200 children sponsored to attend school through Christian Relief Fund
•   1 library developed (Better Living Resource Center)
•  1 ministry to university students and young professionals (UP)
•   Over 300 of Rwanda’s brightest studying at USA universities through the Presidential Scholars program
•   Over 2,000 university students in Ethics lectures (School of Finance and Banking, and Kigali Institute of Science and Technology)
•   10 adoptions facilitated
•   5 houses serving as earthly homes and guesthouses frequently filled with delightful visitors
•   Daily morning walks, runs, swims, and bike rides that occasionally became community endeavors (NTCC Bikathon, Kigali Peace Marathon, and Kumbya 3 Hump Island Swim)
•   More baptisms, baby dedications, weddings, and funerals than we could count
•   Countless friends made and experiences shared
•   ONE SOVEREIGN, PROVIDENTIAL, AND MYSTERIOUS GOD

We sense as the Lord transitions us to a new season as missionaries in the United States He asks us to thank many of you face to face for your participation in this journey.   We’re a little scattered, but starting to put a pencil to a calendar.   

Would you like to see us and share some of these memories?   We’d love to visit.   Please drop us a note and we’ll start planning to share the thanksgiving memories.

Mungu akubariki (God bless you),

Dave and Jana

UNFORGETTABLE

As 2011 comes to a close one word stands out – unforgettable.

We sensed Christ’s Church in Rwanda’s (CCR) future was to be found through investing in Rwanda’s youth. We prayed and moved forward assuming God directed our thought process. Dave in the spring of 2011 lectured to over 600 university students in ethics. Later Dave facilitated the Rwanda Presidential Scholars program with 20 of Rwanda’s brightest students beginning their undergraduate career at some of the top liberal arts universities in the United States. On Friday, 23 December over 300 young people gathered at CCR as we celebrated God’s goodness through music. Unforgettable.

We sensed that CCR must find a way to serve Rwanda’s most vulnerable children. God’s word and the best of Christian theologians resonated with the theme of adoption. On May 13, Mugisha Gabriel entered our lives. He has brought new joy and discovery to our home. On 17 November Mugisha Gabriel began having seizures. The seizures have decreased in frequency and intensity, but still remain. We do not know the future, but belief in God’s call. Unforgettable.

With a few others families in 2005 we began the dream of Kigali International Community School (KICS). We began with 26 students in a 4 bedroom rented home. In April 2007 KICS moved to her current home. The number of students has grown to over 200 from over 30 nationalities. KICS empowered investment and made Kigali livable for many families. On Friday, 27 May Sophia graduated from KICS. It was one of our most rewarding days since we arrived in Rwanda. She was accepted at prestigious Wheaton College. She began her college journey on Thursday, 18 August. Unforgettable.

We sensed that we had entered a season to seek God’s will for the future. Dave spent 40 days outside of Rwanda as we settled Sophia into college. It appeared doors were opening for a year furlough in Chicago to be near Sophia, serve Great Lakes Diaspora, and pursue further education. Then the ROC leadership asked if we would consider returning to the USA for a season to mature ROC as a missionary sending organization. We believed this was the call of God. Nineteen years of missionary service in the Great Lakes Region of Africa is coming to a close as we begin a season of serving in the Great Lakes Region of the United States. Unforgettable.

Our African missionary tradition is to celebrate the Christmas Season with all the strength and joy the Lord gives us. Just before Dave began his Christmas Eve Sermon, news came that our friend, Major Eustache Nsinga had passed from this life to another. Rwanda lost one of her brightest minds in ICT at the young age of 38. His sense of justice, loyalty, hope, and joy is irreplaceable. Our community’s loss is immense. Unforgettable.

Our CCR numbers were high over the Christmas Season. Over 200 attended our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. Approximately 350 attended our Christmas Day Service. We faced paradox on Monday 26 December as over 650 from our community gathered for Major Eustache Nsinga's funeral. We remembered his life and our hope of a resurrection. Unforgettable.

Rwanda’s missionary tradition from the days of the East African Revival in the 1940’s is to gather on the Kumbya Peninsula on Lake Kivu to rest and reflect. Sophia is home with us for Christmas. Our family is together for a few days in Africa before we begin our newest transition to the United States in 2012. We again are at Kumbya. This morning Dave remembered 45 years and 4 recovered back surgeries as he swam 2400 meters in Lake Kivu. Unforgettable.

Through these journeys old truths remain. Our hope is in the resurrection. On this earth our greatest joys are in family and friends.

Many of you have sacrificed deeply to make this journey possible. Your sacrifices have blessed many. Our December financial report showed that giving was down in 2011. Yet, God has done the surprising through friends and family for 19 years. A year end gift would greatly ease our transitions in 2012. However, God chooses to shape us in 2012 we trust it will be unforgettable.

May your yearend reflections also be filled with joyful memories of the Lord’s goodness.

Imana ikurinde (May God Stay With All of You),

Dave and Jana