Rights of Passage Training Meeting

We had a wonderful rites of passage training meeting last week. I want to thank everyone who faithfully prayed for this meeting. It was a wonderfully beneficial time in so many ways.

Two gentleman from the TANARI Trust in Nairobi (www.tanari.org), Steve and Hosea, spent two days with us teaching on rites of passage, their meaning in life, and ways that we can facilitate them in a Christian manner. They are excellent teachers and we feel so blessed that they came.

This was a great way to launch our committee. They were able to see the bigger picture of what we are trying to accomplish and to see that this has been successful in other areas. They were challenged to begin to think about what should be included in a rites of passage time here among the Kuria. Some necessary teachings that were mentioned are Biblical teaching on becoming a Christian adult, life skills training, physical challenges to demonstrate the passage into adulthood, actual physical circumcision (for the boys, not for the girls), and a celebration at the end which includes the traditional gifts of a new set of clothing for the new adults.

There are many challenges ahead of the committee. We are breaking away from traditional society and the committee can be bogged down in that issue. We will have to teach both the adults and the youth about this new opportunity. There will be youth who feel they cannot be received as adults by the larger community unless they participate in the traditional celebrations. There will be parents who refuse to allow their children to do anything but the traditional ways. One big concern is helping the girls who run away from their families because they do not want to be circumcised.

One benefit that I see from this conflict is that we can actually create an atmosphere of young people who only want to marry those who have participated in a Christian circumcision rite rather than a traditional rite. This is a long-term benefit that might take years to come to fruition, but it could be a powerful thing. I only hope that the committee can see this future benefit.

Another huge matter of prayer is finances. NGO's and the government have set an unfortunate precedence that we are fighting. When they conduct meetings they pay a per diem to each participant as well as providing for all costs. This means that we even have to pay our committee members a per diem for every meeting. This is a personal cost as we have no ministry budget for this. Even this training meeting we conducted came out of our personal finances.

This is not a plea for money. This is the history that leads up to the real problem. The committee is convinced that the churches will have to foot the bill for everything that has to do with a Christian rite of passage. I do not think this is true. In my mind, parents are already used to paying for this in a traditional manner and it is quite expensive. I do not see why they should not contribute to the church for the same reason - and it will be much less costly. In this way it should be completely self-supporting and therefore completely reproducible without outside funding.

One obstacle to this is youth whose parents are not supportive. However, these churches are able to fund the things which they truly believe in. Also, if the churches of the community come together and participate as one, instead of each doing its own, they can help each other to provide for these youth.

However, this is an obstacle that truly challenges the thoughts and beliefs of the committee members. At this point they are really wanting outside funding (i.e. us). The first order of business at our next meeting will be to work through this issue. Please pray about this as it may be the greatest obstacle to overcome. If they cannot work through this then our hopes for a Christian circumcision will die right there.

On a personal note, we have had a few health issues. David has developed some vertigo problems. We praise the Lord that he did not have a truly debilitating episode until we were last in Nairobi and were able to quickly see doctors. The diagnosis is that piece of the cochlea has broken off and become a "floater" inside the ear. When it moves into a bad position it causes vertigo. David has some stretches - for a lack of a better word - to help keep the inner ear fluid in its correct place and some medication. These are helping greatly and he has not had another episode. This will not go away and will be a continued matter of prayer because if it happens while he is driving or out in the village it could be a big problem.

We had a wonderful month of April. The kids were home from boarding school and David's parents came out to visit. It was refreshing and joyful to our spirits to be surrounded by family.

We also ask for prayer for the sister of one of our pastors. She has almost been kidnapped by a family who has taken her far from home and forcing her to work for them. She is about 16. Being in a strange town she has no one to turn to for help. We know that our pastor wants to go get her, but doesn't have the funds. Unfortunately, because of all we have been doing with the circumcision meetings and other ministry plans, we cannot help him at this time.

Thank you for holding us up in prayer.

Blessings.