I believe in discipleship. I believe in taking your time with a few people – helping them get it right. Matt Ruple is a good example of how that works. He went on the World Race. He was wrecked for the ordinary – his life was changed. Wanting to find out how to live out this new life, he came to Gainesville and was a part of a discipleship group I met with for the better part of a year.
Then Matt joined a team of other 20-somethings who felt called to move to Kenya to work amongst the poor who had been evicted from their homes in the slums of Kibera and forcebly resettled in the Rift Valley.
Matt describes the problems that they encountered there. They've tried a number of interventions, from wells to microcredit projects. After all their experimentation, they've found that one solution has produced the best result.
There are numerous single mothers trying to care for as many as 6 or 7 children. This is a difficult life, simply making it through the day-to-day and getting enough to eat.
So, in conjunction with helping get youth back in school, we're helping to start and after school program for those students. Currently, our team is helping to mentor a group of five young adults who have finished secondary school (high school). We've been meeting together, praying over God's vision for what's ahead, and empowering them to be the change that they want to see.
In the next couple weeks, these five young adults will start to give back what's been invested in them. They are going to be the leaders and teachers in the after school programs. They will be teaching English, helping students with their homework, counseling anyone who wants it, and investing time and energy into children who desperately need positive influences in their lives.
We're excited about what's transpiring here and about the generation that is going to shift the cycle of poverty that's been here for so many years!
People need water, they need schooling, they need microcredit. All are important. Social justice issues are all the rage and we need social justice. But they need to be given in the context of relationship and tied to discipleship. Jesus met felt needs, but his main thrust was to focus on discipleship as a top priority. Maybe we need to do so too.
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I'm motivated to join God in his global reclamation project. He's on the move, setting his sons and daughters free from their places of captivity. And he's partnering with those of us who have been freed to go and free others.
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