From Geoffrey to You — One Life Changed, just the beginning

Monday May 4, 2009

First and foremost I wanted to apologize. I didn’t mean to freak you guys out about where I am staying. I haven’t been stabbed or anything like that. I am just not living in a very safe place and because of that we want to take as many precautions as possible. Ill give you more details later, but as an overall this famine is really hurting a lot of people financially and seeing as how they all think I am a millionaire the best thing is for me to be in the most secure place to make sure I don’t get robbed or get out of any kind of danger.

PLEASE don’t freak out, keep me in prayer because I’m not in the safest place in the world, but understand that I am fine.

Anywho…

I want to write to you about Carro, the girl with the swollen head, my mom said it is called hydrocephalous meaning that a build up of water is around her head. This excess fluid has crippled her body and stunted her growth; she is eight years old with a body the of a three year old and lacks the ability to walk. Transporting Carro is quite the task, her mother has to heave her fifty pound body onto her back and carries her by foot to their destination, which can be miles, through rain and extreme heat, her mother is getting old and carrying Carro is an heavy strain on her body.

If being crippled and lacking proper resources for her needs isn’t bad enough, Carro lives with her mother and her two younger sisters in a room the size of a closet; they are the epitome of poverty. If you venture into their home the grotesque smell of decay and rot floods your nostrils, probably from the mold-covered, soiled and decaying mattress on the floor that they all share. A broken bench, if you can call it that, is pressed against the wall. A grimy old sheet laden with rips and tears is strung across this incredulously small room, in some futile attempt to separate the bedroom and living area; but that doesn’t do much good in eight-foot by eight-foot room. Mama Carro, Zipphorah, uses every ounce of energy in her body to provide for her small family, but with this famine she isn’t able to buy enough food for them to neither eat each day, or pay bills on time, nor send her children to school. This woman was married and had six beautiful children but because of Carro’s condition, I am told that the father took the three other children and left. This stay at home mom was abruptly thrown into the work field without any skills or specialization in any trade and had three other mouths to feed. Lacking family to turn to, without access to a proper job, and as a last resort she turned to prostitution. When I put myself in her shoes, having my children crying, dressed in rags, and going DAYS without food I can understand why some mothers turn to prostitution.

The tides have turned as of right now. Mama Carro has an entire year of rent covered, which cost about sixty bucks. When we told her that news about her rent you would have thought we wrote her a check for a million dollars, it was an answer to prayer and a Godsend. This past Friday night Carro was given a wheelchair. No longer would this aging and broken-down mother have to strain and pain just to move Carro around. Instead of sitting and crawling on the ground all day, this little girl is free to venture around and see what Masii has in store for her. She normally spends all day sitting in the dirt in front of a shop, playing quietly and peacefully to herself, and now she is free to move about. Mama Carro shed a few tears when the news was broken to her about how she wasn’t going to have to carry Carro around anymore. Carro NEEDS to have the fluid around her brain drained, the pressure from it is what’s crippling her. After this surgery she should be able to walk and should grow at a normal rate. This procedure costs roughly four hundred dollars to perform and so far we had only raised about fifty. The group of Americans that came this past week donated the rest of the needed money for the operation. Mama Carro’s life was turned upside down when she was told about the operation. This woman went from being the trash of Masii, the lowlife, the prostitute, the woman that everyone talked about and that was only good for one thing… she went from that to being loved and cared about more than she had ever experienced before.

I preached about money yesterday at church. I talked about a few different aspects of it, but something I said really took me off guard, yeah I know how can something you say take you off guard? How can you surprise yourself by what you say? I guess I was just talking and it came out of my mouth… I dunno. Anyways, it was something that I said as I read from Malachi.

Malachi 3:9-10 “Will a man rob God, yet you rob me? But you ask, “How do we rob you?” “in tithes and offerings. You are under a curse the whole nation of you, because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house”

I have heard the argument, if God is so great why does he let children die in Africa? Why are people starving and malnourished? Why are people suffering so much throughout the world? I don’t think it is God’s will for these people to starve to death and that isn’t how he designed it to be. There are over 2,200 references in the bible talking about money and how we need to use the resources we have been entrusted with to help others in need and to be faithful to God in our tithes and offerings. It talks about one of the first churches in Acts, which is the perfect example of the relationship that should take place between the church and believers. It said that whenever there was need people gave and were charitable in their giving, some sold properties and laid the money at the alter of the church, and because of this it says that there was NO NEEDY AMONG THEM. “Bring the whole tithe into my house so that there may be food in my house,” that food we bring into the house

God has given us the resource. He has given us the command, 2,200 of them. He has made it perfectly clear what our responsibility is dealing with finances and yet we continue to ignore that part of the bible. We say God take my life it is yours, I will pray, I will fast, I will go to church, you can have EVERYTHING but don’t touch my money that is mine. Only three percent of Christians faithfully give to the church. With only three percent giving to the church there is no food in God’s house, there are no resources to provide for those in need. We didn’t used to have welfare, the church met the needs of the people. When we are obedient in our giving our society looks like the church in Acts, where there are no needy among us. On the flip side, when we are disobedient we end up with a continent like Africa. My disobedience in my giving affects other people. If I was faithful, if everyone was faithful, the needs of others would be met. It isn’t Gods will that people starve and die each day, but God has given us free will and the opportunity to either honor him and follow his commands or do our own thing. According to the U.N. it would cost about eight six billion dollars to theoretically end world poverty. If every Christian in the U.S. faithfully gave their ten percent there would be an extra eighty seven billion dollars in the church. Is God the reason that people are starving and dying, or is it ours?

I didn’t write this to give you guys a guilt trip, I just wanted to express this “ouch” that I was feeling. I have been tithing faithfully for years but this is something that I never thought about before; my disobedience causes others to suffer and die. “you are under a curse the entire nation of you,” I can’t think of a worse curse than starvation and prevalent disease like here in Kenya. “Because you are robbing me,” because faithful givers are few and far between.

I’m not asking you for money or any donations today. I told this story about Carro and her family because it shows what life can be like when people give faithfully and it was a HUGE encouragement for me as well as a rude awakening. This entire families life was changed and transformed because a few people were obedient. This was just one family because of a few, imagine what society as a whole would look like if everyone was. In Masii people are dying and suffering like no other and, like most churches, a few people do the bulk of the work and are the only ones who tithe. I can’t tell you what it was like speaking in front of a large group of people and to give them this reality check. This church has never talked about money before. Never has it been mentioned in a sermon, they just take an offering. I have been given such an incredible opportunity to deliver these messages and hope the rest of them went as good as this one did. I had TONS of people come up to me and applauding the presentation, praise be to God it was Him not me. I hope that this message was an encouragement to you, it really inspired me to continue to be faithful in my giving. I hope it made you think about your tithes and offerings in a different way, if you are religious. I also hope it showed you what type of difference can be made in the life of someone when we are faithful. We can become like that church in Acts.

Asante Sana,

Mwendwa

Prayer Requests:
Speaking next week
My travels the next few days
Funds for a generator for Tumaini
This week they are opening the medical center for Tumaini, it is going to cut down costs dramatically, pray for the staff and that all goes well
Pray for my move into the hotel I am moving in Wednesday… bachelor pad woot woot

Randoms:
I went on a safari today… we got charged at by a rhino.
You can buy ostrich meatballs here
Apparently being fat is a good thing here… they used to tell them American women they were fat as a compliment, they learned pretty fast not to do that tonight.
I ate STEAK tonight… SOOO good
Each time I go to buy something at a market people look at my skin and try to charge me like twenty times the price. I look at them and tell them “I have been living in Kenya for two months, don’t think I’m dumb just because of my skin color.” Then they lower the price and then we haggle with each other. It normally ends with me saying “I’m not dumb. I’ll buy it for _____ shillings or else I am walking away.” Then they lower their head in shame and say… …ok…. I still give em a good deal, I just don’t let them take advantage of me like they do everyone else.

WORD OF THE DAY
Simba (like from the Lion King)
Lion

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