Dream Awakener

Boy Pointing Through Mirror
Originally uploaded by dream awakener

When it comes to mission trips and developing countries, typically those of us in the West travel to developing countries.  But in a reversal to this common approach, one of our canvas groups at Kairos Los Angeles decided to pool our money together to fly two pastors, Moses and Joshua, from the small town of Lodwar, Kenya to Los Angeles.  In preparation for this trip, Moses made his first trip ever to Nairobi to get his passport as well as visa.  This was the first time either of these guys were in an airplane and the first time Moses ever left the small region of the world that he grew up in.

One of the reasons that some of us thought it would be good to fly them over to LA was that it would give them the opportunity to get to know our congregation personally.  The reason being is that I think that we as Christians care for the poor, but sometimes don’t act because we rarely know the poor. 

If one of our parents or brothers and sisters were in deep need, most of us would respond with some kind of generosity, because they are family and we know them well.  So why is it that we sometimes don’t respond in generosity to our brothers and sisters who are in deep need?  I think one of the reasons is that we just don’t know them personally and we forget that they are family as well.   

I know that as I have gotten to know my brothers and sisters who are living in very difficult situations, that my heart has been enlarged and my feet have been moved to action.  One action that we have taken as a congregation is to forge partnerships with congregations in developing countries in order to be a blessing to one another.  They help us in our poverty (things like community and prayer life) and we help them in their poverty (typically financially).  We recognize that we each bring something to the table.

One of the results of our partnership with some of the churches in the Turkana region of Kenya is a ministry we started at Kairos called The Unembraced.  This is a ministry to orphans who live in Lodwar.  You can learn more about the history of this ministry as well as our current project at our website.

My hope is that every church in West would find ways to partner with churches in developing countries so that no one would be in need and in this way bring glory to our Father.  James says that pure religion is about looking after the orphans and widows and remaining unstained by the way of the world.  What is pure is beautiful.

I wanted to write a little bit about their journey in a few upcoming posts, thus I am calling this part one.