Greentree Community Church

"Jeem! Jeem! Jeem!" Some 40 children chanted the name in animated excitement. They had been waiting in the hot sun for our group to arrive. They ran next to our taxi for about a mile - it was a slow ride due to the rut that was mistaken for a road. As we got out of the taxi at the campus of Bible Faith Church, children swamped us, chattering with uncontained exhilaration. The impact of Greentree Community Church's visits to Kabenguria in Kenya was obviously deep. It had been two years since the last group had visited, but these children had been so deeply impacted that they were delirious with anticipation. "Jeem" is "Teacha" Jim Kerber, the inspiring and indefatigable leader with twice the energy of two teenagers combined.

Jim and Tom Moller worked in the school, teaching classes, befriending children and sharing the love of Christ with enthusiasm. Jim got involved in a soccer match with some girls. One of them picked up the ball and they started tackling each other and throwing the ball hand to hand. A memory etched in my mind is of Jim Kerber playing rugby with a horde of school girls in the tropical sun of Kenya. He came home with a hand bruised and swollen from the game, but a face split into a grin as big and sunny as the Sahara. One afternoon Jim and Randy walked to some public schools nearby. They were greeted with enthusiasm. They were shown into the office of the principal, and on the wall, next to a picture of the President of Kenya, was a picture of Jim Kerber!

The 3 nurses on our team were the "All Stars" and "MVP"s of the trip. Pam Voss, Jill Moller and Alan Bovey (not from GTCC) teamed up with 3 Kenyan nurses, and under the capable leadership of Samuel Kendagor and his RN wife Margaret, visited rural clinics under primitive conditions. Primitive, as in a 6 hour bone-jarring ride that shook every cell down to its neutrino, a house with no plumbing, clinics under the trees and long drop toilets. Hundreds of people showed up and Kevin Voss and Randy Moore did effective crowd control and relationship building. Some folks were in need of the comforting sound of a human voice and the touch of hands filled with Christ's love. Others had truly complex medical situations that required far more than even a fully equipped hospital could provide (It was gut wrenching to the extent that I was totally unable to participate in the medical mission). The heart and soul wrenching aspects linger and the issues of poverty exercise the mind to the point of exhaustion. Ultimately, the only answer lies in reflecting that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we in wee measure follow that pattern. Faith grasps this truth, and then the wonder of the Word, who did not cling to his rights or privileges, comes home with breath taking awe.

Randy Moore was pleased to find some of the micro-business enterprises, which had been started on a previous trip, starting to employ others and pay back their loans.

My role was to teach in the Bible School. There were 6 Pastoral candidates, and 15 other students consisting of veteran Pastors, wives and folk hungering for the Word. These 6 hours of daily teaching were made more intense because the normal student/teacher interaction was hampered by language and culture. The first day I saw huge eye-whites staring implacably at me and it was impossible to get a read on what was being grasped. On the second day the group relaxed and we were able to take questions. By the third day the flow turned to a pleasing chatter as they relaxed into the situation and warmed to the stranger from afar who came to walk a mile with them.

One student walks 25 kilometers (19 miles) every Saturday. He ministers and preaches on Sunday, and then walks back again. I asked how many were in the congregation. He said 10 people.

I am not worthy of tying his shoe laces.

Short term mission trips like these are questioned in some quarters. Their value cannot be audited in mere worldly standards. At Kabenguria there is now an orphanage, a school, a Bible College, a well producing clean water, a clinic with outposts and soon a dormitory for another 100 children, as well as the start of some micro business enterprises. It is a place of refuge where abused women, refugees from violence and orphaned children now call home. That was the vision of the leaders of the Church.  GTCC came alongside to be encouragers and provide the resources.

But the greatest return on investment lies in the changes that God makes in those who go. To experience the generosity of poor people alters the wiring of the brain in a way that sending money is completely unable to do. We were offered something more precious than all the gold in South Africa's rich mines, all the diamonds in the Congo's enormous territory and all the oil in Libya's vast reserves: they gave us their sincere friendship demonstrated in simple but generous hospitality.

In the grip of His love,

Anton Hoffmann