Beginnings...

Everything has a beginning. The beginning of a building is the foundation. The foundation is the part of the building that is used everyday. You can remove a window or a door and the rest of the building will remain but if you remove the foundation: everything crashes. 

Our relationships, work, business ventures, ministry, etc – all have a beginning and this beginning is our foundation. The more established our foundations, the stronger our lives will be. Without a foundation, we will just keep rebuilding but everything will keep falling. Sometimes we struggle a lot with our lives because our foundation is not stable. It would make the whole difference if we made sure that our foundations are right. 

Some of the four most important words ever written,” In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1) – highlight one of the most important principles we must embrace if we are to succeed in anything– God is the beginning and anything we do that does not have Him as a foundation will fall. 

Why are you in that relationship? Why are you doing that business? Why do you do what you do? Do your reasons align with what God says?

Lepta Community

Life360 - impact all round

Like we mentioned in the previous article our lives encompass many things - family, relationships, church, school, business, etc. At any point in time there are myriad of things calling for our attention and the demand is to have impact in all. We want to be the best parents, leaders in church, friends, succeed in our work and business, change our communities,etc. We want to live a successful life all round - this is the essence of Life360. 

Success is best measured from an eternal perspective. If we are the best in everything without getting the approval of the One who seats in eternity then our best is but grass that withers away. 

So is a successful life all round possible? 

Consider a poor widow who lived over 2,000 years ago. We don't know what this woman was good at - maybe she was an incredible mother, a good neighbor, a great friend. Maybe before she lost her husband she had been a good and faithful wife or maybe she was gifted in something else. What we know for certain - she was poor. She couldn't boast of much. All she had to her name financially were two (leptas) - the lowest denomination in the then Roman empire. The amazing thing is that she walked to the temple and gave it all out and the Lord, looked at that area of her life and approved of her. She had such a quality life that even where she was "poor" she still had a lot of impact (see Mark 12:41 - 44). 

More than striving to be the best we aspire to live such quality lives that even in areas we are "poor" in, we still have impact. 

Life360

Recently a Kenyan friend of mine was in Doha for a holiday. She says that as early as 5pm it gets pretty dark that you would think it's 8pm! You can imagine the disorientation that would cause if you thought things are the same as in Kenya.

Knowing the environment you are operating in sometimes makes the difference between success and failure, satisfaction and frustration, peace and fear.

The life we used to live has changed: it is no longer a straight line, it's more of a circle.

Let me explain. We have to some extent been trained to view life as one thing that we need to do before we can move on to the next. In the Kenyan context this would be school first and by school I mean academics. Nothing wrong with that unless of course you are not so good in class but maybe you are a great sportswoman. You could easily end up frustrated and your gift stunted and undeveloped.

The truth is that the life we live now can no longer be just one thing. It just can't be school or church or family, etc. The reality we live in is that we need to be so many things all at once। I am a part of three organizations, I am a husband, a friend, a brother, a son, a leader in church and in my community। All these place demands on my life at the same time। I can no longer just do one main thing for a season and move on the another in a straight line; I need to be a number of things all in the same season; life is a circle and we are at the center of it.

This does not mean we take on anything that comes our way so that we cannot handle it all but it does mean that we cannot afford to ignore things that are a part of our lives and call.

Like I said before the better we understand our environment the more successful we will be in our lives.

The call for Lepta and for you as a part of this community is to embrace 360 living where we seek to experience the most in every segment of our lives. We want to have impact at church, school, home, work, relationships and in our nations.

Look all around you- 360 and begin to experience Life in all you do.

20th October

On the 20th day of October, Kenya celebrates Kenyatta Day; named after the first president of this nation to commemorate the struggle for independence.
45 years ago brave men and women gave their lives to fight for independence from Britain. It was a war fought by men who had little more than crude weapons and few guns against a might empire yet they prevailed. Their greatest weapon was the courage and desire for freedom.

Today we fight against a different enemy but the odds are the same. We fight against poverty, ignorance, disease, poor leadership, corruption and other ills of in our society and the battle is great.

Working in Mathare Valley, it sometimes appears as if the challenges are too big but today we are reminded of the greatest weapons of all, the courage and the passion, the commitment to move beyond present limitations and move into the fullness of life that we should all enjoy in this beautiful nation. A life of peace, security, health, good leadership and so much more – we got what it takes to get there!

You have what it takes no matter what you face!

ICL - USIU Chapter In Mathare

This Friday, we will have about 100 Uinted States International University students who are part of the I Choose Life visiting Mathare. They intend to interact with people living with HIV as part of their practicum. Lepta is acting as the host and will be sharing with them more about Mathare and what they can do to make a difference. 

Five

Its been a while since we last blogged. There has been a lot of growth taking place in Lepta. Our vision of transforming the community and enabling young people from Mathare to access more opportunities is becoming more of a reality each day. This year we have five us sitting for final exams in secondary school. That is a huge deal for us - five who might not have made it through secondary education, who might have been cut off from the opportunities in life that education avails. We are proud of this moment and we are grateful for each of you has been a part of making this difference in these five lives.

Keep moving

We are now in the second term of the school year and we still haven’t paid school fees from the first term. Almost all of those that we work with in Mathare are out of school. For the first time we defaulted on our office rent. The leaders have been holding up but almost every one of us is facing crazy pressure even at personal levels. But this is not about that. We gave ourselves to make a difference in Mathare and we refuse to let go of that commitment. If we cannot give them an education in schools we will do it from their homes, if we cannot work from the office we will still work. We are not turning back. If we cannot run we will walk, if we cannot walk we will crawl but we are not stopping.