Many are familiar with the mythological story of the phoenix, the bird that rose from the ashes when he flew too close to the sun and had burned up. Well, we have a story that always reminds me of that mythological bird.
In our case, the ‘bird’ was a plot of land we were trying to buy. In our pursuit of this vision we felt God had given us of a place – a home where students could come for discipleship, for mentoring, for stimulating discussions of faith and life – we had been looking for land in the vicinity of Daystar’s main campus in the Athi River area, about 20 miles southeast of Nairobi. It was challenging, to say the least, finding a place that did not have too much black cotton soil (very unsuitable for construction), large enough for a group of people to purchase (no way we could buy a plot of land by ourselves), and close enough for students to walk to from campus. Finally, a suitable plot of 10 acres for sale was located and a verbal agreement reached with the owner. Perfect! In our eagerness, and using our own ‘wisdom’, we had been talking about our dream of a Christian community with other Daystar University faculty. Our assumption, naturally, was that it made sense for this community to consist of university families and we also assumed ‘outsiders’ would not be interested, it being a fairly long commute from Nairobi. We soon had a group of 9 families, all committed to joining together to buy the land and have it fenced off, with an amount agreed upon for each family to pay. There was much excitement among the group. We met regularly to plan and everything was ready to go….until time came for the first installment to the owner of the land.
One by one, the families in the group of 9 dropped out. They simply could not come up with the 1st installment…or spouses did not want to move so far from Nairobi…or there were no good schools for children…or… Finally, there was only 1 family of the 9 left – us! We were left holding the baby, having to approach the owner, red-faced, and cancelling the agreement to buy. There was no way we could buy all 10 acres by ourselves. So much for the vision. So much for building a community. It had all turned to ashes. This was very discouraging for us. Actually, I was devastated. I was sure we had heard from God. But perhaps my spiritual hearing was not as good as I thought it was. We dropped the whole idea.
Two weeks later, at church in Nairobi, a friend from our small home group we attended approached us and asked, “Whatever happened to that Christian community you wanted to build out in Athi River?” We briefly explained what happened and this person immediately asked (in an accusatory tone) “Why didn’t you ask us? We wanted to join this initiative!”. Not too long after, yet another approached us and a similar conversation took place. By the time a 3rd party repeated the same scenario, we began to get suspicious. Was God trying to do something unbeknownst to us? It began to dawn on me that there wasn’t anything wrong with the vision itself. Perhaps the problem had been our interpretation of it, of how it should look; how and when it should happen. So, after prayer, we tried again. This time, we put the vision out there and let the people come to us. And they did. Very soon we had 9 families again, nearly all from the same church and even the same home group. The seller of the land reluctantly agreed to give us another chance, and this time everyone came through and the land was bought.
Thus, Lukenya Village arose from the ashes of the original dream Chip and I had. We were surprised with the people God sent to comprise the original families for this initiative, but we all worked hard and well together. Even as we shared our dream of Ukarimu House, a mentoring ministry for university students, our new neighbors were agreeable to give it a try. Looking back from where we are now, I am amazed at how God put it all together, in spite of our best efforts to do it the way we saw best. I know one thing, it certainly all came together much easier and better doing it God’s way…a lesson we seem to need reminding of time and again.
But how did Ukarimu Ministries get to where it is today? Ah, that story’s for another time…
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