Rose George doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would be preoccupied with poop, and yet, she has made the discussion of human feces her life’s work. Her questions and subsequent research tell the tale of a subject that is so taboo that we would rather let millions of people die than to discuss it.

On a recent trip to Kenya, I was told that many of the people you see walking around every day, from educated professionals to the poorest of the poor, suffer from diarrhea every single day. As you can imagine, such a chronic intestinal issue not only causes major health problems, but also causes other issues like fatigue, loss of appetite and even psychological and emotional disorders – issues that immediately handicap developing nations as they struggle to compete in our global economy.

Yes, poop is an economic driver, a social driver and a killer. Fortunately, we can do something about it, if only we will become more willing to talk about it.

The post TED Talk Tuesday: Let’s Talk Crap. Seriously. appeared first on adammosley.com.

Wherever I go and whoever I talk to about my relationship with Kenya, one point I always try to make is that the relationship between the “developed” world and the “developing” world (in my case, between Americans and Kenyans) doesn’t have to be a one-way relationship. There is a myth that has been advanced by both “first world” and “third world” people that says that those from developing nations must always be on the receiving end of the transaction and those from developed nations must always be on the giving end.

One of the most profound moments I’ve had in Kenya was on my first trip there when I made a simple statement to the church where I was speaking – a statement attached to a request. “I know you want me to pray for you,” I said, “but I think you have something to offer as well. I would like you to pray for me.” The people of that small church were shocked at the idea that they had anything to offer. They had been convinced that they were supposed to always be recipients. The pastor of that church, with whom I am now friends, was moved to tears (very unusual in Kenyan culture). “Who knew,” he said, “that Africans had anything to offer an American.”

With that backdrop, I present to you Richard Turere, a Kenyan boy whose ingenuity not only got outside the box of traditional thinking within one of Africa’s oldest tribes, but whose invention could become a game-changer all over the world. If he had any doubt before, Richard now knows that Africans have a lot to offer the rest of us!

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As someone who has worked in and around non-profit organizations nearly all of my adult life, I had never considered just how wrong some of my own thoughts (and the thoughts of others) are when it comes to how non-profits should spend their money.

Dan Pallotta’s talk is a stark reminder of the disadvantages faced by non-profits as they seek to do some of the world’s most important work. What if a non-profit group could hire a world-renowned expert to help accomplish their goals, rather than relying on whoever is kind-hearted enough to give up a lucrative career?

Here in Texas (and in many other parts of the country), we shrug our shoulders at a college football coach making five or ten times as much as any other faculty member because we understand that football brings in revenue to the school – revenue that can be used for other programs. Yet, we have trouble using the same logic when it comes to our favorite non-profit organization.

Listen to this talk and be challenged. Ask yourself this question: What would be possible if we encouraged moral innovation in non-profits, rather than taking a hard line on frugality?

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One group that we have come to know over the past couple of visits is the team at Start With One. Bill, Chat, Len, Susan, Gina and their teams spend their days working to bring clean water, housing, churches, education and medical care to the very poorest here in Kenya. In addition to their own projects, they are very intentional about connecting with other people and organizations to maximize everyone’s efforts here.

They also have some amazing cooks in that house! I’m pretty sure Bill and Len view their meals as daily Iron Chef challenges. I’ve never eaten anything bad at their place and nearly everything I’ve had was indescribably good. The other night, it was bacon wrapped chicken, salad (thanks Gina!) and something called “spoon bread” which is some kind of cross between bread pudding and what the locals call ugali (kind of like grits). Whatever it was made from must have fallen from heaven because, holy smokes!

Keep in mind that all of this was cooked on a coal-fired grill/oven on the back patio. Cooking in Kenya requires a new level of ingenuity and these guys have it. I keep encouraging them to start a “How to Cook in Kenya” class, but Bill reasons that if they teach everybody how to cook, they won’t ever be able to open a restaurant and charge people to eat their food. I’m fine with that as long as they keep cooking and keep inviting me over!

There are so many other people that we know and are meeting here that it would be impossible to mention all of them. Suffice it to say that there is a large and growing community of people here who are in need of a church to call home and we are excited and humbled to be tasked with starting that kind of church.

I take comfort from the original apostles in the book of Acts. None of them knew how to start a church, let alone a worldwide movement. But through a lot of prayer and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, they would eventually do both. Fortunately, changing the world has very little to do with what you know and whole lot to do with who you know. The Creator of the world also has an incredible ability to change it, if only we are willing to listen and follow.

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Let me tell you about some of our friends. First are Doug and Sue Brown. They pastor the Karen Vineyard Church in suburban Nairobi. The Karen Vineyard is unique in that it is what is commonly called an “international church.” The phrase is somewhat loosely defined, but one visit to the Karen Vineyard, and you understand what it means.

Doug calls the church a “mini-U.N.” where dozens of nations are represented on any given morning. The culture and style of church is very much “western” – a term used here to describe the non-African cultures of Europe, the UK and the Americas. In many regards, it is a church that would be right at home in the U.S. For this reason, it has become home to many Americans, Europeans, Australians and the like.

It has also become home to many Kenyans who identify with western culture as much or more than Kenyan culture. You see, many of the brightest Kenyans end up attending British or American boarding schools and then go on to university in the U.S., Europe, the UK, etc. Then, when they return to Kenya, they sometimes have difficulty adapting back to the Kenyan way of life. Some would argue that this “westernization” of Kenyans is a major problem. Others would say it’s a major advancement. From a church perspective, we have to recognize that it simply is the reality for many Kenyans and that they, like the expat community, need a church where they can feel at home.

What Doug and Sue and the leadership at the Karen Vineyard have done is to create a place where no one feels like the odd-ball. It is truly an “every tongue and tribe and nation” sort of place where everyone is welcomed. As you can imagine, the Karen Vineyard is a huge inspiration and a place that Melody and I will educate ourselves as we step out to plant an international church in Nakuru. Doug and Sue are an incredible blessing to us personally and in ministry. We are looking forward to partnering with them to serve the international community in Kenya for many years to come.

The second friend I’ll highlight today is Trena Ivy. Many of you know Trena as the director of His Cherished Ones, an organization providing care for orphaned babies among other initiatives. Trena has an incredible heart for the people of Africa, especially for the babies in her care, many of whom have been abandoned and left for dead. As an adoptive mom herself, Trena knows that caring for these children and placing them with loving families will have a lasting impact not only on these kids, but on the world.

What most of you probably don’t know is that Trena served as a catalyst for our decision to plant a church in Nakuru. It was during a conversation with Trena two years ago that I began to realize that the international community in Nakuru needed a church. They needed what the people in Karen had. They needed what the people back home in Texas had. I left that conversation thinking that somebody needed to plant a church here.

Fast forward two years and it has become obvious that the “somebody” was us. And Trena has been an encouragement every step along the way. It is rare that we have a conversation that doesn’t involve her saying “I can’t wait until you guys get here.” She has also been very instrumental in beginning to gather people together who could one day form the nucleus of Trinity Vineyard Church Nakuru – missionaries and relief workers who pour themselves out 7 days a week and are now able to come together on Sundays for a time of refreshing and renewal.

It’s evident that Trena not only has a heart for the people of Kenya, but for her fellow co-laborers in the Kingdom of God and beyond. The world could use a few more people like Trena and we’re glad that she is a part of our family!

That’s all for now. There are more friends to talk about, but I’ll save them for another day.

The post Great Place. Great Friends. appeared first on adammosley.com.

How can we change the world? The answer is simple: we can’t. The world must change itself. More precisely, the people of the world must be the agents of change to bring justice and opportunity around the globe.

Perhaps it would be beneficial (although probably not) if the people of Africa, for example, would just listen and follow the instructions of some foreigner coming in to tell them how to grow food, start businesses, care for their families, etc. The problem is, the people of Africa, Asia and anywhere else don’t want someone else to tell them how to live their lives.

Imagine that scenario happening to you. Let’s say some stranger arrives in your community from some foreign land. This person is very successful and she wants to give you the keys to be just as successful. First, you must embrace some communist ideas, including the suppression of free speech. Second, you must force out of your neighborhood any neighbor who disagrees with you. Third, you must wholly submit yourself to this woman’s authority. Are you interested in obtaining success through her methods?

Most of us would say no. And yet, this is the kind of thinking that we so often subject others to. In the name of trying to help them, we are actually trying to “convert” them – to a way of thinking, to a culture very different from their own. We have a lot of great ideas – ideas that are born out of our culture and our experience – but we fail to take into account the culture (which goes back thousands of years prior to ours) and the collective experiences of these people.

One of the keys, I believe, to working with people around the world is to understand that they aren’t less intelligent, less skilled or less able than us and ours is not and should not be a teacher/student, master/servant or parent/child relationship. We are brothers and sisters – each one learning from the other, each one giving and receiving and each one sharing from our own unique perspective.

If we want to help others, we need to take Dr. Sirolli’s advice. We need to shut up and listen!

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Today was one of the days I most looked forward to on this trip. It was the day I got to return to Ilbissel and visit once again with our Maasai friends from the four Vineyard churches in that region. To truly understand my excitement, you have to understand a little about the Maasai. Here’s a visual for you:

This is a typical Maasai family on a typical Maasai homestead. While not approved by the church, polygamy is still widely practiced among traditional Maasai. This means large families and large homesteads, with each wife inhabiting a hut like you see in this picture. This particular property belongs to the cousin of one of the Vineyard pastors here (all of the pastors have only one wife, which is very hard for the rest of the community to understand.)

On this property, there is one man, his five wives and 50+ kids ranging from adult to infant. Along with the humans, there are 150 goats and 60 cows. This man is one of the wealthier residents of this community. The homes like you see in the picture are made of sticks, interwoven with vines and covered with cow dung. They take around 3 months to build and last about 3 years. You can see the outline of the foundation for a new home in the lower portion of the picture.

The Maasai are traditionally a warrior tribe – trained to fight and hunt from a very early age. A Maasai can kill a lion with a spear or thrown club and is revered even by fellow Africans. The land on which they live is inhabited by all kinds of wild beasts including (in the area where we were today) lions and other big cats, elephants, ostriches, wild boar and others. This, I remember thinking on my first visit, is real Africa.

But once again, we weren’t out to simply take some pictures and document people. We wanted to get to know them. In Massai culture, and indeed, in most of Africa, you do so by sharing a meal or tea. And that is what made this day so special. You see, this was supposed to be a day like many others we’ve had here. We were to meet with church leaders, have a time of worship, a word from “the visitor” (that’s me) and pray together. But in this world, things rarely go as planned. Two of the groups that were coming had gone in search of water this morning and were nowhere to be found when we arrived. So, in an effort to kill some time, I asked one of the pastors, Eric, if we could possibly visit a Maasai home.

I had made a quick visit to a home when I was here 18 months ago, so I kind of knew what to expect, but I didn’t expect the treat we got. Upon arriving at the property, we were greeted warmly by the women and children (the men drive the herds out each day for water and food and then return home in the late afternoon). We talked to them about their life, the number of kids in the family and their livestock. Then, one of the women invited us into her home.

After ducking under the 4 ft high entry and squeezing around the corner, we found ourselves in a very dark (it took a while for my eyes to adjust) and smokey room – smokey because there was an open fire in the middle of it. On each end of the hut were beds made of sticks covered in cow hide. The only openings in the house besides the protected L-shaped entryway (which didn’t let in much light) were three small round “windows” which served more to allow the smoke to draft out of the house than they did to let any light in.

But as we sat in this house, with our hostess preparing to make tea, I was reminded of what an honor this was. Not only was it an honor for us, it was an honor for her. The fact that she got to make tea for a mazungu (white person) and that we actually drank it, will likely be the big story in this family for the next week. It is strange to be so well-respected just because of the color of your skin, but I can truly say that I feel even more honored by these people than they do by me.

After tea, we returned to the church building – a wood and tin structure that looks like it could fall over if you leaned against it – and, since the other groups still hadn’t arrived, we went ahead and ate lunch. Again, we were sharing a meal, which meant we were getting to know these people. Lunch consisted of roasted goat (the head of which we had gotten a look at earlier), goat and potato stew and chapati, a traditional African bread similar to a thick tortilla (and one of my favorite Kenyan foods). This is the same meal that I was served the first time I visited this land, though it is not what Maasai typically eat. A feast like this is reserved only for the most special of occasions – like when a mazungu comes to visit. Again, I was struck by receiving the royal treatment.

As the day progressed, it became more apparent that the rest of the group was not going to arrive. No one knew what had held them up – whether it was a minor setback or something major – but around here, things happen and you have to go on. So on we went.

We worshiped together, I shared from 2 John a very timely word for the women of this community, we prayed together and God was there. This is the second time I have been to this church and the third time I have gotten to worship with many of these people and each time, the presence of God was palpable. Regardless of the fact that we live completely different lives, thousands of miles away from each other, we worship the same God. And coming together to do just that is one of the most special experiences in my life.

As I sit at my hotel, where my 1 person room is the size of 4 or 5 Maasai huts, I have to wonder how I am so lucky. Not only do I have an incredible family and great church community, but I also get to fly half way around the world and have tea with a woman who is living a lifestyle that dates back to biblical times. And even stranger, God is using me to encourage them. Of course, he is also using them to encourage me.

They remind me of the importance of family and community, of faith at all times and of hope for the future, even when the future is so uncertain. They remind me that the role I get to play in the life of our church is a privilege and that no matter what my stresses are, there are so many who have much more difficult circumstances to deal with. But most of all, they remind me of the incredible reach of God – one who can speak to every tribe and tongue and nation and encourage us to move and act as one to help change his world.

So, to my Massai friends, I will say again, the only Maasai word I know, “Ashe”…many thanks!

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A visit to Kenya can be overwhelming in any number of ways. Nearly everything is different and sometimes your brain just fails to take in and process all of this information. However, for me, it hasn’t been the country or the people that have overwhelmed me. What has thrown me for a loop (in a very good way) is God himself at work among these people. Over the past two days, we have gotten to see how God is using the churches here to empower people in ways that have the potential to change families, communities and an entire nation.

On Thursday, we spend the day at Nairobi South B Vineyard, a church made up of primarily 20-somethings and small children. South B Vineyard is located in a large slum in Nairobi. During our time there, we got to worship with this community – led by a band made up of people who didn’t even play instruments 2 years ago. We got to hear story after story of transformation out of lives of alcoholism, crime and prostitution. We even had an opportunity to hear from a person who was very much still “in progress” (as we all truly are) who told of how he used to be a major alcoholic, but now, he was not drinking as much. “Even now,” he said, “I am a little drunk…but not that much.” It was a refreshingly honest comment that highlighted the nature of transformation recovery.

But God’s love was overwhelming at South B and the heart of Jesus was communicated throughout. Alice, the pastor of the church, spoke to her young congregation as a loving mother. She explained how Jesus welcomes everyone and how he, and the people of the Vineyard church, want everyone to join the family. And we saw that exhibited over and over.

Investing in Changed Lives

After lunch, Alice took some time to take around to some of the shops that the church has helped it’s members set up. One that really stood out to me was a small sausage vending cart owned by a young lady. In this slum, many young women in search of food and provision turn to prostitution or to having babies out of wedlock for the purposes of getting the father to pay some support. For this young woman, however, she was able, with the help of a program called Vineyard Economic Empowerment, to start a small business selling sausages. Now, she makes enough money to feed her family and she is looking to expand her business to the other side of town.

Stories like this are becoming more and more common in the South B Vineyard, where everyone is encouraged to stop being idol and instead to discover a way that they can both contribute to their community and earn a living. Among the group we visited were a group of guys who had started a sports viewing business (they have the TV and satellite connection and charge guests a small fee to come watch soccer matches). There was also a former gang member who now sells shoes, a group that is teaching music lessons and another group that is looking to start a small daycare. God is working in some very “naturally supernatural” ways here.

VEE

Today, we had the pleasure of spending some time with John Gitau and Elvis Githinji, two Vineyard leaders who are helping to empower small businesses through a program called Vineyard Economic Empowerment. This is a church-led micro-financing and business training program that teaches people basic business principles, encourages them to launch new endeavors and, after a process which involves creating business proposals and budgets, offers small startup loans to get these ventures launched.

This is a brand new program and already they have 25 trainers operating in four different areas who have trained 90 individuals. In 2012, they anticipate making $20,000 in small business loans. Keep in mind that many of these businesses only need $50 to get started and you see that $20,000 will go a long way.

As we spoke with John and Elvis, once again I was overwhelmed by God. The fact that he has assembled the people that he has – a group of atypical, foreward-thinking individuals – and has already begun to greatly expand the reach of their ministry shows me that he has something great planned for this organization and the people of this country.  It made me want to jump in and help out…and in some way, I’m sure I will.

God is alive and active here in Kenya and I consider myself privileged to be able to witness his work first-hand!

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Today was our first real day in Kenya and it was what I like to call a cultural whiplash day – a day in which you encounter such vastly different cultures that your brain struggles to keep up. I remember my first cultural whiplash day. It was my third day on my first trip to Kenya. We had spent the day visiting churches in a very rural, very traditional (and very poor) region where people often have to get by just drinking goats’ milk for weeks. Then returned to Karen (a suburb of Nairobi) and had an exquisite gourmet meal prepared and served by the house staff of a friendly church couple.

Yes, that’s right. I was talking to starving people one moment and the next, I was gorging on an incredible meal. It was cultural whiplash and it is a moment that stays lodged in my memory.

Breakfast

Today, I managed, somewhat unintentionally to orchestrate a little cultural whiplash. The day started off with a nice breakfast at Nairobi Java House, a restaurant and coffee shop that caters to those of us with “western” tastes (“western” here meaning “west of Kenya” – mainly Europe and the U.S.) After our breakfast and a quick shopping trip, we headed off to Tenderfeet Education Center in Riruta.

Tenderfeet

After a short, but incredibly rough ride, we were greeted with a smile by Margaret, the director of Tenderfeet. Margaret is a teacher and mother who took it upon herself to create a place where the poorest of the poor could receive and education. Today, Tenderfeet is serving well over 100 kids age 2 through 4th grade. There is so much to say about these incredible kids, but I’ll save that for another post. For the sake of time, let’s just say that the work they are doing at Tenderfeet is incredible. We discovered just how incredible when we went to visit the home of one of the families being served by Tenderfeet.

Kibera

The family lives in Kibera – one of the largest slums in Africa. In their one room home (yes, one room, not one bedroom), live 7 people – Grandma, Aunt, Uncle and 4 kids (1 of whom is also an uncle). In Kenya, their story is all too common. The kids’ mother died from AIDS, their father, too. They are being raised by their grandmother, who is also taking care of their 20-something uncle who has AIDS and recently contracted TB.

All seven people live in a room a little smaller than the size of a typical American dining room – a home that requires a long walk from the street through a maze of shanty houses and open sewers. They cook, do homework, sleep, eat and bathe all on in the same room. However, in spite of their challenges, all of the kids are tops in their class. The oldest girl, Immaculate, is a class monitor and, even in our brief time together, demonstrated her quiet leadership with the other kids.

After visiting briefly with this family, we spent some time with leaders from the Kibera Vineyard. This church, made up of residents of Kibera, is a church that truly understands the value of coming together as a family and pursuing God’s plans. Not long ago, they were given a sum of money by a visitor in order to help buy some food for the members to eat. However, in their desire to see the church flourish, they chose to sacrifice their new-found food money for something greater – a facility that they could not only gather in on Sundays, but also use as a ministry throughout the week.

Our time with the Kibera church was incredible. We concluded with a time of prayer led by my friend, Kelly Hughes. Over the course of the prayer time, several people came forward to receive prayer. The last person we prayed for was a little girl, Mary Ann, who had a stomach condition that the doctors were unable to diagnose. We prayed, then we prayed some more – the kind of specific prayers that you only pray if you think God is actually going to heal someone. And when I asked her how she felt afterward (and it was translated into Swahili), her single word response? “Better.” Then Moses, our Kenyan friend and guide pressed her a little more and then looked up at me and said, “She insists that she is all better. The pain has gone.” From that point until the moment we left, that little girl had a bright smile on her face as if she had just received the greatest gift of her life. I don’t know what God did or is doing with Mary Ann, but something (or someone) made an impact on her life today.

Whiplash Complete

After an exhausting day of driving, meeting people and trying to take it all in, we returned to our hotel. We had started the day conversing over pancakes, french toast, eggs, bacon and lattes and had ended our day praying over people who didn’t know where their next meal was going to come from. The whiplash was complete – a stark reminder of the economic disparity in this country and a horrific reminder of the fact that we can’t help everyone.

And so, having experienced the whiplash, Kelly and Jonathan came back to the hotel, ate dinner and crashed. I haven’t heard a peep from them since. It’s 7:04PM now and I think I’m about to join them in LaLa Land.

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There’s just no way around it, getting to the other side of the world takes a while, even in a jet flying 500-600MPH. Let’s face it, whoever designed the interior of those planes has either never flown half way around the world in one, or they get the company upgrade whenever they fly. So, as I sit here trying to recall what took place on this very long day, I’m just glad that my bed is much softer than seat 37K on KLM 565.

Hiccups

Before you even leave home, you’re bound to have hiccups. For me, things went pretty smoothly. The only slight bump in the road came from the pesky appearance of what have, of late, been daily thunderstorms in Houston. Not that big of a deal, except with all the extra bins I was taking with me to Kenya, a couple had to ride in the bed of my truck. They got a little shower, but were otherwise unscathed.

For my traveling partners, Kelly and Jonathan, they had a couple more setbacks – mostly just the typical “getting out the door” stress. Then, it came time for security. It seems that peanut butter and Nutella are on the no-fly list (terrorist food, I suppose), so Kelly, having just gone through security had to take his carry-on bag back to the ticket counter and check it (leave no delicious nutty spread behind!) So, about 20 minutes later, he rejoined us, having checked the back and gone through security again.

McAmsterdam

The flight to Amsterdam was relatively uneventful. I managed to watch Hunger Games (good flick) and bits and pieces of some other movies that failed to keep my attention. I read some books, played some games, listened to some music – nothing too exciting.

Upon arrival in Amsterdam, we all had that “what time is it” glazed look on our face. The answer was, of course, “It’s time for McDonald’s!” That’s right, the golden arches greet you at the Schiphol Airport in grand fashion (along with a nice big Starbucks). We grabbed a quick meal (lunch food, even though it was breakfast time locally) and, as much as I wanted to go for it, I skipped the McKroket, knowing that I had another 8 hour flight ahead of me. What is a McKroket, you ask? Well…nobody really knows exactly, but it’s McD’s version of a local fried meat sandwich – what kind of meat is open to interpretation.

After our McMeal, we jumped on another big blue flying whale and headed south to Nairobi. This leg of the trip was just as uneventful, but even more exhausting because, well, when you’ve been up for over 24 hours, everything is exhausting.

The First Time

The first time landing in Nairobi is a unique experience. It is one that you never forget and yet, it’s so overwhelming that you can’t really take it all in. This being my third trip to Nairobi, I didn’t experience the same things that I experienced the first time. Instead, I was left to watch Kelly and Jonathan and to remember what that first “entry” was like – the sights, the smells, the sounds, the world-class maniacal driving. I remember walking out of the airport for the first time, breathing in the air and thinking, “I’m in freaking Africa!” This time, Kelly and Jonathan are in freaking Africa with me.

Oh yeah…that

As I sit here in my room typing this blog post, I’m reminded of a few things that I forgot to mention to Kelly and Jonathan – some of which they may even be talking about right now. Things like:

1. Yes, there are gates, barbed wire and locks everywhere. That doesn’t mean you’re in the ghetto. In fact, the wealthy neighborhoods just have bigger gates, more barbed wire and bigger locks.

2. When you plug something in, you’ll need to flip the switch on the plug to turn it on. (If they haven’t figured this one, they will eventually).

3. In America, we concern ourselves with water pressure. In Kenya, if you’ve got water at all, you’re doing great. (trickle, trickle, trickle)

4. We’re just getting started. This week will change your life – not because of anything I’ve arranged, but because somehow God seems to like to use trips like this to alter the course of our existence.

Tomorrow, Kibera. I’m guessing there will be less grumbling from all of us about uncomfortable airplane seats after what we experience tomorrow. Good night (or afternoon for you guys)! And may the odds always be in your favor!

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