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

THERE ARE NO FORGOTTEN BIRTHDAYS

The humble one’s stories are too easily forgotten.    This morning as I checked my Facebook I had 37 friends whose birthday is January 1.     On an average day I should have 8 or 9 friends to wish a birthday.   (3,051 Facebook friends divided by 365 days in a year equals 8.35 friend’s birthdays per day.)    Today, there is a 411% increase in birthday averages.   What is up?

A couple of my Bazungu (white, or those who wander in circles) friends truly know that January 1 is their birthday.    A couple of my friends from Africa who were fortunate to have their mother deliver in a hospital during a day of relative peace truly know that January 1 is their birthday.

Yet, for the majority of my 37 Facebook friends today they were born during a season of absolute chaos.    They were born in places like remote villages, refugee camps, and urban slums.   Their mom was one of the world’s poorest of poor.    She was likely on the run.  Their mom was thankful to have lived through delivery, and today is exceptionally thankful the child born on that day is alive.

These friends of mine share a common past with my boss, Jesus of Nazareth.   He too was born in poverty (Luke 2:1-21).     Stables and mangers in church nativity scenes frequently miss this point.    If you can’t smell the manure your church has understated the chaos of Jesus’ birth.    Jesus was born in forced circumstance as his nation, Judah was under Roman occupation.    His parents were forced to travel near the end of his mom, Mary’s pregnancy just to register for a census and pay tax.    Forcing a pregnant woman to travel is the height of oppressive government policy.    

These friends of mine share another common past with my boss, Jesus of Nazareth.   His family too was forced to flee for their safety as refugees (Matthew 2:13-18.)    An evil despot intended to kill all rivals, and that included infant boys in a remote village.     Despots do the same things today.

Where is God in such circumstances?

Paul in describing the riches of knowing Christ tells an unfathomable truth (Ephesians 1.)    Before creation God in His infinite knowledge knew His creation would rebel.     God’s holiness could not dwell with rebellion.    Our rebellion would cause eternal separation from the God of infinite love.     The consequence was as horrific as an infant child abandoned and left to die in a field (Ezekiel 16:4-6.)    God chose to rescue us by sacrificing the life of His own Son.    In the process He took us rebels, and adopted us into His family.    Can you imagine?    He knew every sin we would commit.   He knew the horrific costs.   Yet, He chose to create what He would redeem though sacrifice.    Amazing.  Jesus is Emmanuel, God near and with us.

In the chaos that humanity lives God watches every movement of life.   In God’s eyes there are no forgotten birthdays.  His word states,

“Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast (Psalm 22:9.)”

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13.)”

“This is what the LORD says— he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid… whom I have chosen (Isaiah 44:2.)”

“This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself… (Isaiah 44:24.)”

“Before I was born the LORD called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name. (Isaiah 49:1.)”

“And now the LORD says— he who formed me in the womb to be his servant (Isaiah 49:4.)”

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; (Jeremiah 1:5.)”

In eternity, God will redeem each one of these chaotic births.   In God’s eyes there are no forgotten birthdays.   Yet, we do live in the here and now.   Is there hope in this life for God to bring good out of chaos?

Absolutely.    God is sovereign.   He is good.    He is full of love.  His ways are mysterious.   Yet, His ways are just.    History is full of stories of God bringing good from chaos.

One of the privileges God gave me during my season in Rwanda was to be a facilitator in the Presidential Scholars program.   Facilitator sounds important.   All I did was pragmatically pastor.  I made friends.    I helped friends communicate to one another.    Sometimes it was rather mundane.   One of the mundane moments was filling out visa applications.    The applications required filling out a date of birth.    Many times we wrote in the application January 1, _______.

Most of those bright young Banyarwanda who wrote January 1, ______ were not born on January 1, ______.    Instead they were born during absolute chaos.     All their family can remember is a year filled with turmoil.    In some ways, God has helped them forgive the sources of the chaos, and in the process forget a few details that would even include the month of the birth.   

Rwanda Presidential Scholars at Hendrix College

Yet, something wonderful happened in the years following the traumatic birth.    Enough peace came that a family could survive.    They could put down a root somewhere.    The kids could go to school.    Many times the schools were barely functioning.    Yet, somehow learning happened.    The brightest students found a place of marginal stability and success.    They kept at it for years.    Then they sat their final secondary exam.   They scored near the top of all the students in the nation.     Then they received an opportunity to interview with the different universities offering scholarships.    For some of these bright Banyarwanda, this was the first time they had even been in the capital of Kigali.   If there was no God they would have had no chance.    Yet, there is a God.  He is good.   He enjoys showing His grace upon the most humble.   These kids whose families don’t remember their birthday were offered scholarships to attend prestigious universities in the United States.   God is good.

So today I ask that if you definitely know the day of your birth thank God.    Much of the world does not have that luxury.   If you’re one of those who wrote January 1, _____, but really don’t know; also thank God.   If you meet someone with a January 1, ____ birthday, listen to their story.   Thank God.   He is good.  There are no forgotten birthdays.

CONGOLESE KITENGE SHIRT SUNDAYS

Eastern Congo troubles my sleep.   I check the latest news each morning.   I pray about it continually.

                I’ve taken a vow.   I will wear a kitenge (East Africa) shirt each Sunday and pray for Congo until the consensus of my Congolese friends tells me they believe enduring peace has come to Congo.   On the day I break my vow I will wear my tuxedo to church on Sunday.    I will not ask you to join me with the tux.   However, I ask for my community to join me on Congolese Kitenge Shirt Sundays.

                Let me tell a few African stories.

                My wife, Jana was baptized in 1979 in a shallow muddy river in western Kenya near the equator.   We really don’t know exactly who was at the event.    However, throughout our adult years in East Africa we’ve met Kenyan church leader after church leader who has told us, “We baptized Jana.”    Jana’s parents, Gaston and Jan Tarbet are what many consider to be “historical missionaries” in the lore of Churches of Christ and Christian Church missions in East Africa.    Beyond what God mysteriously did in that shallow muddy Kenyan river in Jana’s life, God did something magical in the lives of the young men gathered around Jana’s family that day.    They saw themselves as bound in a covenant community.

                My daughter, Sophia was baptized at the Kampala Church of Christ in 2004.   In the photo you will notice me in my Uganda preaching uniform – short sleeve colored dress shirt, tie, short hair, and tight beard.    I learned that if I wanted to be taken serious I needed to dress well and be well groomed.    In the background you will notice two of my friends; Vital Byabushi in a kitenge shirt (a Congolese refugee), and Fred Senkumba.

                During the years of 2000 to 2004 while I pastored the Kampala Church of Christ there were many Congolese refugees.    Most were educated professionals who fled Eastern Congo due to insecurity and instability.    I found them to be dear friends and colleagues.    I greatly enjoyed their music and laughter.    They slowly nurtured my beginning understanding of Congo.    We even once hosted a meeting where we gathered Congolese church leaders and missionaries who were scattered all over Africa.

                As my family left Uganda to move to Rwanda the Congolese refugees at the Kampala Church of Christ blessed me with the gift of a purple kitenge shirt.

                As we moved to Rwanda and we launched Christ’s Church in Rwanda I decided it was time for a makeover.   I was too old to be bound by a tie.    I was too African.  I embraced my mentors’ and friends’ dress.   I began preaching in kitenge shirts.   They became my Rwandan preaching uniform.

                You will notice that in photos in which three of my other children (Caleb, Ethan, and Ruth) are baptized in Rwanda I am wearing a kitenge shirt.   This is the blessing the Congolese gave my family.   We are bound in a community covenant of compassion.   We are African in heart.  Yet we are constrained by temporary documents and skin colors.  We wait for our final destination in heaven.   The kitenge shirt my Congolese refugee friends blessed me with in our Uganda departure became my Rwanda identity. 

                I cannot find any photos of myself in Rwanda in April.   Maybe it is because I have rarely been able to take a photo with a smile in April when Rwanda remembers the atrocious Genocide of 1994.    However, if one is found you will notice that I always wore a purple kitenge shirt to church on Sundays in April.   Purple in Rwanda is the color of mourning.   I believe in blessing me with purple kitenge shirt as our family moved to Rwanda my Congolese friends nurtured old African values of community and compassion.

                Now I choose in a vow before the Lord that I will wear a kitenge shirt each Sunday as mark of my compassion for my Congolese community.

                I ask that you join me in Congolese Kitenge Sundays.

                I do not know the future of Eastern Congo.   I know there are many opinions about what is needed to bring peace.    I do believe the best answers for peace will be found in our faith tradition.   Please join my prayer for Congo:

                “King of Kings.   Lord of Lords.   God of All Creation.   Alpha.   Omega.    

                You are the author of justice, grace, truth, and peace.    We ask for your kingdom to reign in Its fullness in Congo.    May you bring forth enduring peace.   May justice roll like a river.

                See the cries of your suffering people in Congo.   Have mercy in Congo upon the most vulnerable.

                Institute enduring peace.   Forgive our sins.   Teach us to forgive one another.

                In the name of your powerful son, Jesus.

                Amen.”