2013 JENKINS FAMILY TOP 10 HIGHLIGHTS:

1.       Early in 2013 we noticed how much America was in need of church planting missionaries.   When Jana and I asked the kids, “If we church plant what type of church should we plant?”    They responded, “Multi-cultural.”    When we Googled, “Chicago’s most diverse neighborhoods” we found them to be on Chicago’s north side where Sophia had lived from September to December 2012 (http://www.wbez.org/series/curious-city/question-answered-who-settles-refugees-chicagos-north-side-104781,  http://www.examiner.com/article/study-discovers-chicago-s-five-most-diverse-neighborhoods, http://loyolastudentdispatch.com/2011/01/15/census-shows-rogers-park-most-diverse-neighborhood-in-chicago/, http://www.tenthousandripples.com/tenthousandripples.com/crp.html.)  Once again, Sophia led the way.

2.         A few of us who had been blessed by Rwanda realized that no Genocide Commemoration was planned for the Chicago area.  Thus we began organizing one.    A Genocide Commemoration was held at the Misseo Dei Church in Chicago on Saturday, April 13.     The grieving were comforted.  Some of those unaware of Rwanda’s Genocide were informed. (For more info http://en.igihe.com/news/rwanda-community-in-chicago-marks-19th.html)

3.       Caleb chose to instead of spending his high school senior year in a new high school to take a GED and enroll at the College of DuPage (a local community college.)   

He did tremendously well.    He played in the band.   He served with The Crew (Campus Crusade.)   He became part of a new church plant, The Church at DuPage.    He was accepted at Wheaton College, plays in the band, and like Sophia is in Work Out (Theater group)  We are very proud of Caleb's resilience. (To read more http://jenkinsinrwanda.blogspot.com/2013/05/caleb-jenkins-definition-of-mk.html) 

 

4.       During the summer we were homeless without either a place to stay or the resources to pay rent.    We used this season to visit family and friends and explain the vision( http://jenkinsinrwanda.blogspot.com/2013/09/were-expecting.html.)  In August Dave and Ethan came back to Chicago to try to start.    Rwandan friend, Alba Kamary found an available apartment in our budget.   Our upstairs neighbor is Lewie Clark, a fellow church planter among the Jewish community.   Jana’s prayers for good neighbors were answered (http://jana-joyinthejourney.blogspot.com/2013/09/homeless-no-more.html.)

5.       All of our kids had been home schooled at some point in our missionary journey except for Ruth.   As we considered the complexities of navigating Chicago Public Schools as an 8^th grader we decided it was the whisper of God to home school Ruth her 8^th grade year.   We’ve greatly enjoyed her daily presence in our home.    She is blossoming as a photographic artist. 

6.       We registered Timothy for a fall soccer season before we had enrolled him in school.     At his first game other parents asked, “Where is he going to school?”   Dave responded, “We have not figured that out yet.”    Other parents made some phone calls.   Three days later he started school at Waters Elementary, a fine arts magnet school.   It was the timing of God as Timothy got their 1 remaining 5^th grade opening during the last day they accepted new students.

7.       Ethan began the school year at Chicago Hope Academy – Chicago’s only non-denominational preparatory   high school.    He played soccer, was chosen as one of the team captains, and made Second Team All Conference.   We’re thankful for how African soccer nurtured both Ethan and Timothy’s success and adaptation (http://jenkinsinrwanda.blogspot.com/2013/10/soccer-is-life-or-everything-i-needed.html.)

8.       We spent Christmas Eve with Jacob and Mona Zikusooka’s family, old friends from Uganda and Kenya.   We had done their pre-marital counseling many years earlier.    When Gabriel Mugisha Jacobs was having seizures we stayed with them in Nairobi as we sought medical care.    After 18 months away from Africa it was very good to have old friends near during the holidays.    They gave us an African map and blessed us with having it colored in with Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda nations we had served.   They blessed us with a belief that our influence would grow in Chicago by serving Diaspora from nations different than our African locations.   They asked for us to record each time we served a new nation on the map.

9.       In 2012 Dave had preached at a Liberian church in Chicago.   In 2013 Dave preached at a Tanzanian fellowship and a South Sudanese church.    We colored in those nations on Jacob’s map, and trusted Jacob’s blessing for our future.

10.   In 2014 Ignite Church Planting plans to join our partnership ( http://www.ignitechurchplanting.com/.)  Also, Abilene Christian University plans to begin a Chicago cohort for their masters in Global Service degreehttp://www.acu.edu/academics/gst/prospective/degrees/global-service/ ) and has asked for Dave to be a supervisor of a one year ministry internship..   Thus we face 2014 with hope in what God will continue to do through our dream of shepherding East Africans as church planters (http://jenkinsinrwanda.blogspot.com/2013/08/10-point-vision-of-shepherding-africa.html.)

Our ministry is only possible due to the generous support of people like you.   Some of our historic partners were unable to continue their financial support of our family’s ministry in 2013 and our funding was very low.    Yet generous surprise donations helped us make it.   December is usually one of our key months in fund discovery.    Can you make a year end gift?   

You can give via the following methods:

·    Monthly bank draft (email us for form)

·    On line Credit Card 1-time or monthly (https://rocfoundation.worldsecuresystems.com/Donation-Form)

·    Check: use following address: 

              ROC Partners
              3007 NW 63rd, Ste 205
              Oklahoma City, OK 73116-3605
              Memo: Jenkins

Thank you for making the past year possible through your prayers, encouragement, and financial gifts.


Mungu akubariki (May God bless you),

Dave and Jana

ABA = AFRICA BLESSES AGAIN

The Lord taught us how to celebrate Christmas in Africa.    After the Lord’s birth He soon fled as a refugee to Egypt / Africa (Matthew 2:13-23.)   In Africa He was safe and blessed.   

  There is something about the experience of sojourning that displays Africa’s ability to bless.    Home is heaven.   Everything else is temporary.    Home for Christmas means we are where God has called us on this earth serving with family and friends.   

Young Sophia with Jacob and Mona

Our first years in Africa were difficult during the Christmas season.    Yet, those first years taught us that we must display the Lord’s compassion.    The churches we shepherded were open at every opportunity over the Christmas season.   Our home also was full of people.     We assumed there were many who felt a sense of loss at Christmas.    Thus we must celebrate in community.   The Lord is near.   The Lord saves us from all our sins (Matthew 1:21-23.)   In that process of service Africa blessed us.  

Our second Christmas in our Chicago missionary posting had a familiar feel.   Africa blessed us again.    

In our early years in Uganda Jana and I mentored a young couple preparing to marry, Jacob and Mona Zikusooka.   Sophia was in their wedding.     We may have blessed the Zikusooka’s, but we were also truly blessed by their youth.   

Timothy, Gabe, and us with the Zikusookas and their daughter, Jasmine

As time went on the Zikusooka’s moved to Nairobi.    We lost a bit of touch.    Yet, in 2011 when we traveled to Nairobi seeking healing from seizures for our foster son, Gabriel Mugisha Jacobs we stayed with the Zikusookas.    When Mugisha went into seizures our families held him and prayed.     Eventually a drug combination was found and the seizures went away. In Christmas 2011 Africa blessed again.   

Starting over as missionaries can be a very lonely season.    Mystery reigns.    We can be active in prayer and listening.     Yet when asked by donors, “What are you doing?”   The answers only make sense if one understands the missionary journey.

Chicago is not where we grew up.    America changed greatly while we were away.   Being a missionary to America is not “home.”   In seasons like this visitors from “home” are the treasures of earth.    They remind us of the kingdom in our midst.

Jacob and Mona traveled to the USA this Christmas for Mona to do her residency as she

Chrismas Eve 2013 with the Zikusookas

studies for a Ph.D.    An added blessing was for them to visit family and friends.   They spent Christmas Eve with us.   

Then they gave gifts.    One was a kitenge shirt for Dave.   Another was a purse for Jana.   Yet, one was a very deep blessing that proclaimed our future and gave ongoing responsibility.   Jacob gave us an African map key chain.   On the map were nations in which we have served (Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda) colored in.   

 

Then he spoke, “I believe you are just where God has called you to be.    In Africa you can only serve in your location.   In Chicago you can serve the many places of the Diaspora.    Your influence will grow here.”

Last year Dave preached at a Liberian church.   This year Dave preached at a Tanzanian fellowship.  A few days ago Dave was asked to preach at a South Sudanese church.   Jacob told us to have each nation we serve in Diaspora to etch their nation off of the map.    Africa blesses again.

As we come to the end of the year we trust the blessings of our African family.   In relinquishment of being located in Africa we can have greater influence for Christ in dispersion.

Can you make a year end gift to bless our family and ministry?   If so you can send a check to 

ROC Partners
- Jenkins Memo
3007 NW 63rd Ste 205
Oklahoma City, OK 73116-3605

Or you can make an on line donation at https://rocfoundation.worldsecuresystems.com/Donation-Form

Mungu akubariki (God bless you),

Dave and Jana

CHRISTMAS IN CHICAGO

Our family has "gone native" in Chicago

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for your prayers, support, and encouragement as our family returned to the United States for a season.    We look forward to this holiday season to be with family.    Jana’s dad, Gaston Tarbet is recovering well from triple bypass surgery in November.   We are thankful that God brought us to America to be with family during this time.  

A little over a year ago we sensed deep within our spirits it was time to relinquish our sense of home in Africa, and for a season start anew in the United States.    We believe missionaries are specifically called by God to make disciples and develop churches.    We also believe the missionary calling is one of initiation.    It requires us to go to new places and new people who are in a crisis which can only be properly addressed by faith in Jesus.    We thank God that our time in Africa gave us a great wealth of experience and friendships.    We believe these gifts are to be stewarded with a great sense of awe.    Thus it is our conviction that God is asking for our family to continue to be missionaries to the Diaspora of Africa’s Great Lakes in North America.

Wisemen visting Baby Jesus in Bethlehem

As we enter this Christmas season many memories come to mind.    However, one in particular is the beginning of our sense of call to return to America.  In 2009 both Jana and Dave were recovering from surgery.   Over Christmas we were with Dave’s family in Minnesota.   While there we reconnected with old friends from Uganda, Godfrey Lutalo and Tabitha Mugabi.    We knew them as university students in the early 1990’s.   They had immigrated to the United States, and we had lost contact.    Several times we had tried to look them up, but never were able to find them.   Then the wonder of Facebook permitted us to reconnect.     We had dinner.   In the process God opened our eyes.   Lutalo and Mugabi had done well.    They had married.  She had completed a master’s degree and was an executive for an insurance company.   He owned a small business.   They owned a home.   They had three delightful children.  They had helped their extended family immigrate.   Lutalo’s brother joined the USA military and had served in Afghanistan.   They were ideal immigrants.    They were deeply spiritual people.    Yet for their family adapting to American church life and socialization was a struggle.   We left our dinner with a sense of God whispering in our ear, “Your people are in the USA.   They need the skills, network, experience, and gifting I gave you in Uganda and Rwanda.”   

Rose Apolinary, Marguerite Nyagahura, and Jana at Christ's Church Rwanda

Our people, the Diaspora cluster in major cities of North America and Europe.   Some came as refugees.   Yet, as stability came to their home nation some chose to stay dispersed.    Some came as students.    Some came seeking employment.    Many are skilled professionals.    You find them in places such as banks, small businesses, insurance, real estate, information technology, and universities.     They are the largest source of foreign income for their home nations.    They invest back in their home nation to build homes, businesses, and schools.    Some explain their unique place in history as “transnational.”   With easier means of travel than a few generations ago plus the internet and mobile phones transnational Diaspora remain deeply connected with their home nation.     They present an extremely unique missions opportunity.    They are one of the primary informal thought leaders of their home nations.   

An example of Diaspora we have been fortunate to know is Marguerite Nyagahura.  Her childhood was spent in Uganda as a refugee.   She immigrated to Sweden, furthered education, and developed professional skill.    Jana met Marguerite in a small business in which she was a partial owner.    Marguerite was one of the first to attend Christ’s Church in Rwanda (CCR) as we launched on March 4, 2007.    She began operating a Day Care in the CCR property, and was a key advisor in our community.    Recently, she was appointed one of Rwanda’s newest Senators.     In this role she has the opportunity to shepherd national policy and infrastructure to bless future generations.    Thus both theory and experience show that an investment into missionary work among the Diaspora of Africa’s Great Lakes produces enduring fruit.

Jesus calls first disciples

Currently, we are in the early stages of beginning a ministry we call Great Lake’s Fellowship (GLF) in Chicago.     We find ourselves much like Paul in Acts 18 as he entered Corinth with a drop in support and without colleagues.  Yet he was clearly in a city filled with many people God was calling .    We are making as many friends as possible.    We are praying.   We are looking for strategic needs, clusters, and locations.    We are in the process of gathering a core leadership team.

Our plan after the gathering of a leadership team will be to begin a monthly fellowship in Chicago.    It is our hope this fellowship will strengthen the relationship between local churches and the Diaspora in Chicago.    We plan to rotate in different church locations in Chicago so that GLF is accessible to all scattered throughout the Chicago area.    During the fellowship we will have vernacular worship to maintain continuity with home nations, a good speaker, communion, and a common meal.   It is our hope that Great Lakes Fellowship will lead to several results which we believe are key for disciple making in Africa’s Great Lakes.   First, we hope it will promote unity that crosses national, ethnic, and denominational lines.   Second, we hope it will facilitate more Christian investment in thought systems and the institutions of church, school, and business in East Africa.   Lastly, we hope it will shepherd well the second and third generation Diaspora children.    Most are like our own children who are Third Culture Kids (TC’s.)    They live and function in several different countries.    With this cross-cultural socialization comes a certain measure of disorientation.   Yet as TCK’s mature they have remarkable ability to bridge cultures, and with this bridge building capacity tremendous influence for the cause of Christ.

Some have also pointed out that GLF has great potential not only for effective mission work, but to promote high levels of local church involvement.    For instance, GLF has the potential to nurture local church understanding and involvement in the rapidly evolving opportunities for transnational ministry.     Africans bring a sense of worship and hospitality to local churches that stir new found vitality.     As with all of these new endeavors we know our foresight is limited.   Yet we trust that God in His providence will give us many new insights and open new doors of service.

Our family in Wheaton, Chicago, USA

Over $3,000 in total was given in response to our October newsletter and prayer card.   Thank you.   We still could use some help in the expenses of transitioning to America.     Also, as we have transitioned to the United States a few of our supporters have informed us that they will not be continuing their support into 2013.   We anticipate this will involve the loss of approximately $3,000 per month.     We request that you make a financial gift to our ministry this Christmas season, by sending a check to ROC Partners (with Jenkins in the memo) to:

 3007 NW 63rd Suite 205,

Oklahoma City, OK 73116-3605

Thank you for remembering us this season.   If we can visit you or others please feel free to contact us.

Because He Lives,

Dave and Jana

Emails: jenkinsinrwanda@gmail.com; jananrwanda@gmail.com