Coral Garden and Mangrove Forest

We arrived on the island in the afternoon. Once we got situated in the homes of our host families, we strolled out to the "coral garden" and mangrove forest. We enjoyed the fanciful shapes that many of the coral formations took. As twilight came, the sun rapidly dropped in the sky. The changing light added to the whole experience.

Ryan on the boardwalk through the garden

Roots from Mangrove trees

Wasini Island

Wasini Island lies off the southern Indian Ocean coast of Kenya across the channel from Shimoni. It's only about 3 sq. miles in size. The island is sparsely populated and undeveloped. There are no cars, roads, policemen, or electricity. There is no source of water other than rain.


A site of early Swahili civilization, this coral island is occupied by the Vumba people, an indigenous group of Bantu speaking peoples who have a rich history. There are 1,500 residents on the island, living in only two villages - each at opposite ends. Their history includes invasion and settlement of Arab influence from the Persian Gulf states, and from the island of Zanzibar, just a bit south.


Located 50 miles south of Mombasa, this island's population has the highest infant mortality rate in the country. Poverty levels are indicative of poor historical and current development. Fishing is a main subsistence occupation, using trees hewn into canoes - meek refuge in rough waters of the Pemba Channel. There are repeated fatalities using such craft in each fishing season.


The island is only 6 miles from the Kisite-Mpunguti Marine National Park. This park annually attracts many thousands of overseas and local tourists per year. The entry fees are not recirculated within the collection area - instead they are remitted to Kenya Wildlife Service Headquarters in Nairobi. The majority of visitors arrive on prepaid packages organised outside of the Island and outside of Shimoni. The larger operators are foreign owned.

You can see how close Wasini Island is to Tanzania

Shimoni - the village

After our time in Mombasa, we traveled 50 miles south to Shimoni, a port village on Kenya's coast - very near to the border with Tanzania.

Shimoni is known for its Swahili ruins and slave caves. In fact, Shimoni is a Swahil word meaning "holes' or "caves". In the 1890s it was once the center of the abolition of the slave trade in this area of Africa. Over time it has developed from a sleepy fishing village to become the main port of clearance for ocean going trade dhows arriving from as far away as the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, the island of Zanzibar, and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

In certain seasons, the aromatic smell of cloves permeates the evening calls to prayer in the towns two main mosques.

We waited 45 minutes for a matatu to come along (the day we left Shimoni)

Eating a wonderful lunch with my fingers (when we first arrived at Shimoni)

Fresh Red Snapper, sukuma wiki, coconut rice, and fresh pineapple juice

Shimoni - the caves

Between the 18th and 19th centuries, the caves at Shimoni were used by Arab slave traders to hold slaves before shipment to the slave market at Zanzibar.

Stalactite

Remnant of a chain used to hold people before they were sold into slavery

It was a very sobering thought to realize the atrocities that went on here!

Improving Your Serve, by Chuck Swindoll, Part 2

No servant is completely safe. We who give and give become increasingly more vulnerable as time passes. There are times we’ll get ripped off. We will be used. We will feel unappreciated. But realizing ahead of time this will happen, we are better equipped to handle it when it comes. Lean hard on the Master when you serve others.

Most deeds will be initially unrewarded. If you are the type who needs a lot of strokes from people, who has to be appreciated before you can continue very long, you’d better forget about being a servant. More often than not, you will be overlooked, passed up, behind the scenes, and virtually unknown. Your reward will not come from without, but from within. Not from people, but from the satisfaction God gives you on the inside.

All motives must be honestly searched. Before jumping, think to ask why. Before accepting any tangible gift of gratitude, probe into your reason for doing so. Check your motive. Why am I planning this? What’s the reason behind doing that? Why am I excited over this opportunity? What causes me to bring up that subject?

I find it extremely significant that when Jesus (Matt. 11:29) gives us a glimpse of the real stuff of his inner person, he uses gentle and humble. Those are servant terms. We are never more like Christ than when we fit into his description of himself. And how do those things reveal themselves? In our obedience. Servanthood and obedience go together.

CONSEQUENCES OF SERVING

You will give, forgive, forget, release your own will, obey God to the maximum, and wash dirty feet with an attitude of gentleness and humility. And after all those beautiful things, you will get ripped off occasionally. If we serve others long enough, we will suffer wrong treatment for doing right things.

(1 Peter 2:20-24; 1 Peter 3:17, 18; Hebrews 11:35-39)

Paul lists four common struggles servants live with - 2 Corinthians 4:8, 9

• Affliction – suggests idea of pressure or stress brought on by different circumstances or antagonistic people
• Confusion – perplexed, without a way, confusion (not knowing where or to whom to turn for help)
• Persecution – being chased, having others “on our case”; conveys being intimidated, assaulted, or attacked. Servants will suffer persecution.
• Rejection – struck down, shoved aside, or cast off. Even though we may faithfully and consistently do our job, help, serve, and give to others, we can expect on occasion to be thrown aside and rejected.

Truths to claim

Here is the 1^st truth to claim when enduring the consequences of suffering:

Nothing touches me that has not passed through the hands of my heavenly Father. Nothing.

The 2^nd truth to claim is this:

Everything I endure is designed to prepare me for serving others more effectively. Everything.

Rewards of serving

1 Corinthians 3:13 – The fire will test the quality of each man’s work. We humans are impressed with size and volume and noise and numbers. It is easy to forget that God’s eye is always on motive, authenticity, the real truth beneath the surface, never the external splash. When he rewards servants, it will be based on quality - which means everybody has an equal opportunity to receive a reward.

You can be a “nobody” in the eyes of this world and your faithful God will, someday, reward your every act of servanthood.

Hebrews 6:10 - 12 - For God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we want each of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

God remembers our work - each individual act. He takes note of the love within us that prompted the deed. We forget, but God remembers. We see the action; God sees the motive.

Even the best of servants get weary. The Lord’s desire is to encourage us to be diligent and to trust him in spite of the demands.

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith. Galatians 6:9, 10

When we have done what was needed, but were ignored, misunderstood, or forgotten… we can be sure it was NOT IN VAIN. When we did what was right, with the right motive, but received no credit, no acknowledgment, not even a “thank you”… we have God’s promise WE SHALL REAP. When any servant has served and given and sacrificed, and then willingly stepped aside for God to receive the glory, our heavenly Father promises HE WILL RECEIVE BACK. (1 Cor. 15:58; Eph. 6:7, 8)

Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple - truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward. Matthew 10:42

These words tell us that “improving our serve” begins with little things. It begins with thoughtful things - an understanding embrace of one who is hurting, a brief note to one who is lonely and feeling unappreciated and forgotten, a cup of cool water for one whose lips are parched from the hot blast of a barren desert when all seems futile and worthless. God takes special notice of all these efforts.

(Matt. 25:31-40)

Summary

• Every act of servanthood - no matter how small or large - will be remembered by God.
• God takes special note of the heart - he knows the love behind our actions.
• As servants reach out to others, Christ’s life is modeled and a spirit of thankfulness is stimulated.
• Special and specific rewards are reserved in heaven for those who practice the art of unselfish living.

Conclusion 

Since Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took upon himself the role of a servant, so must we. The one who could have been or done anything, consciously and voluntarily, chose to be one who served, one who gave. So then, if we are to become increasingly more like Christ then we, too, are to give and to serve.

May God honor his name as you and I commit ourselves anew to improving our serve, to cultivating the art of unselfish living, serving, and giving to others. Like Jesus Christ.

November 2010 Prayer Letter

Uhuru Garden in Mombasa

The following excerpts are from the book - Improving Your Serve, by Chuck Swindoll.

Thank you for "reading between the lines" to know how to pray for me this month!

MONUMENT OF ME

I
ME
MINE
MYSELF

We’re going to assault that monument. We are going to give our full attention to what it means to be different:

Not a getter, but a giver
Not one who holds a grudge, but a forgiver
Not one who keeps score, but a forgetter
Not a superstar, but a servant

There is a telltale sign of authentic servant-giving. It is impossible to give ourselves to others at arm’s length or in abstentia. Personal involvement is essential - not incidental - and it usually involves adapting our ways and schedules to fit into other’s needs… Being a person who genuinely and personally gives to others calls for a plentiful supply of flexibility… Authentic servanthood calls for people with a passion for giving whatever without recognition, without reservation, without reluctance, and without restriction.

We are never more like God than when we give. John 3:16

“[Mercy] does not mean only to sympathize with a person in the popular sense of the word; it does not mean simply to feel sorry for someone in trouble. Chesedh - mercy - means the ability to get right inside the other person’s skin… Clearly this is much more than an emotional wave of pity; clearly this demands a quite deliberate effort to of the mind and of the will. It denotes a sympathy which is not given from outside, but which comes from a deliberate identification with the other person, until we see things as he sees them, and feel things as he feels them. (Mt. 5:7)”
- William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew

Those special servants of God who extend mercy to the miserable often do so with much encouragement because they identify with the sorrowing - they “get inside their skin”. Rather than watching from a distance or keeping the needy safely at arm’s length, they get in touch, involved, and offer assistance that alleviates some of the pain.

True servants are merciful. They care. They get involved. They get dirty, if necessary. They offer more than pious words. James 2:15, 16; 1 John 3:17

This is exactly what Jesus, our Savior, did for us when he came to earth. By becoming human, he got right inside our skin - literally. That made it possible for him to see life through our eyes, feel the sting of our pain, and identify with the anguish of human need. He understands. Mark 10:45

“Pure in heart” (Matthew 5:8) does not refer simply to doing the right things, but doing the right things for the right reason. God desires his servants to be “real” people - authentic to the core… The term pure literally means “clean”. It’s the idea of being uncontaminated without corruption or alloy. Without guile - sincere and honest in motive.


THE PERILS OF A SERVANT – THREE MISCONCEPTIONS:
1) Servants have special powers in themselves. 2 Corinthians 4:4-7
How very easy it is to look at God’s servants through rose-colored glasses! - almost as if they possess a mystical, divine unction of some angelic “mantle” that causes them to ooze with supernatural, heaven-sent power (2 Corinthians 3:5). But this is wrong! Servants are absolutely human, filled with all the weaknesses and potential for failure that characterize every other human being.

2) Servants don’t struggle with everyday problems. 2 Corinthians 4:8, 9
Afflicted. Perplexed. Persecuted. Struck down… Under stress, confused, pursued, rejected. Paul (and every servant since his day) understands what it means to endure the constant blast of problems… it is in the crucible that the servant learns to release his way for God’s way. Servants do indeed struggle with daily difficulties.

3) Servants are protected against subtle dangers. 2 Corinthians 4:10, 11
People who serve God and others “carry about in the body” signs of death - dangers and perils that are undeniable. Subtle and silent, these dangers lurk in the most unexpected places, pleading for satisfaction. The true servant is vulnerable.

“Although [the godly leader] is by no means immune to the temptations of the flesh, the dangers most to be guarded against lie in the realm of the spirit. He must remember that “sabbath-less Satan” - his relentless enemy - will take advantage of every inch of ground he concedes in any area of his life.”
- J.Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership

Summary:
Servants - no matter how useful, godly, unselfish, and admirable - are every bit as human and subject to the perils of life as any other person on earth.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.
- Philippians 2: 3, 4

Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.
- Hebrews 10:24

(I'll share more excerpts from this book in two short weeks. Stay tuned!)

Mombasa Tusks

If you're not sure what is yonder...

On the train... looking at what might be "yonder"

 

If you're not sure what is yonder, throw a pebble toward it and see what happens.

-Ethiopian proverb

Because of certain circumstances, Ryan - my missionary friend from Omaha, Nebraska - basically had the month of October off from his ministry in Kampala, Uganda. So... he decided to visit me in Kenya - to see my ministry. We also decided to do some sight-seeing together. My accountability team in the States has encouraged me to take some time off every 3 months or so - just for myself. It seemed as if God had arranged our "pebble-throwing".


We weren't sure what was "yonder", but we threw a pebble towards it... and waited to see what might happen.

I consulted my Kenya Rough Guide (travel book).

We made sketchy plans.

And... off we went!

We were reminded once again, that there's a thin line between "pleasure" and "ministry". In addition to much planned "pleasure" in our 3 weeks together, God also supernaturally ordained some rather unexpected "ministry" time for a few folks we encountered along the way.

We also "book-ended" our time together with Julie - another missionary from Omaha. She serves in Kisumu, Kenya. How cool that God has three of us from the same city in the United States all serving him and his people here in East Africa!

I hope you'll enjoy my prayer letter, the photo gallery, and the videos!

Kenya vs. Uganda soccer/football match - Nairobi

Kiboko Bay on Lake Victoria, Kisumu

Kenya vs. Uganda football match

Ryan and his friend, Robert

Julie and I at the match at Nyayo Stadium

Masudi

Jim