By Benjamin Bradley


Your plane has landed. Nairobi, Kenya.

The sky is overcast. It’s crowded. The air smells of car exhaust. You have been traveling for the last twenty-four hours, half-way across the earth. And while you’d like nothing more than to lie down and sleep, the leadership conference you’ll be teaching at is set to begin in only a few hours. My advice for you? Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Have faith.

Faith that you will say the right words to people who call the slums “home.” Faith that you will have the strength and endurance for vigorous leadership sessions. And, of course, faith that your driver will deliver you safely through the utter chaos that is Nairobi’s rush hour traffic.

Close your eyes. Take a deep breath.

***

In August, the Alliance of Renewal Churches (ARC) had enough faith to send a few of its leaders to Africa. And while the main objective was to teach on leadership and invest in the lives of young leaders along on the trip, the team came prepared to learn from their hosts.

“I want to equip future leaders with the ability to distinguish what the essence of the Christian faith is,” said ARC leader Michael Bradley (young ARC leader, Heidi McClure pictured on left, praying with Kenyan women). “[The Kenyan people] have been living out a Christian life, facing challenges we can’t even dream of. So we have a lot to learn from them, in order to go back home as leaders and do a better job of Christian mission in our own culture.”





The team began their trip by speaking at the 2011 Soaring Again Conference, which was held in Kabiria, one of Nairobi’s many slums. Hosted by Rev. Emmanuel Kisemei (pictured below, right) at his church, Life Changing Sanctuary, ARC leaders spoke on a variety of leadership-related topics, including community outreach, growing in genuine leadership, and evangelism (pictured left with children from Kabiria are team members Debi Bradley and Tara Mabry). Kisemei, whose church is part of a broader organization called the Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya (FPFK), then led the team south to a town called Loitokitok, where the FPFK Leadership Gathering was held. Throughout the trip the team built numerous relationships with local leaders, and along the way they encountered several troubled individuals who came to faith in Christ, receiving them as new members of the church.


The team, representing several organizations and churches, included leader Dawn Lundgren, an ARC pastor (pictured left with Pastor Kisemei, praying with a man to receive Christ as Savior and Lord); ARC Administrative Assistant, Heidi McClure; ARC pastor Bob Mabry and his wife, Tara; Jan Erickson and Marcy Braman; and ARC Director Michael Bradley, his wife, Debi, and their son, Benjamin.

The lessons learned are certainly difficult to articulate.

Each day was met with the confrontation of a new reality that few Americans can truly comprehend. In Kabiria the houses are nothing more than tin shacks, packed shoulder to shoulder. According to IRIN, a global humanitarian news service, the population density of Nairobi’s slums can reach alarming numbers, with around 2,000 people per hectare (roughly two and a half acres). Trenches are dug along the side of the crowded streets to be filled with human waste and garbage. For many, basic necessities like water must be obtained from boreholes or purchased by water trucks at an inflated price. Although a liter of water can cost only a few cents, every purchase is trying for families whose net income is around thirty dollars a month.

Braman, who has been on several mission trips and four times to Kabiria, paused when asked about the emotional changes she underwent before and after her first trip. “I don’t think we have the capacity to even ask the right questions…coming back, we don’t even understand,” she said. “Maybe it would be better to ask my husband or my family what the difference is [when I came back].”

Yet, while the people of Kabira face many hardships they are not without hope. Kisemei, who lives in Kabiria with his family, stands a true example of leadership. He lives in Kabiria by choice, experiencing the same conditions as his congregation, and does not see escape as the answer. Instead, he has worked with the community of Kabiria to improve the conditions of the slum. Currently in his eleventh year as lead pastor for Life Changing Sanctuary, Kisemei has seen change come slowly but surely. Last December he connected Norwegian Pastor Anita Nystrand and her church, The Way, to build a much needed water well, which now supplies the community with clean water at a minimal cost. The profit allows the facility to be maintained and, when the time comes, to be replaced so the people will continue to have access to clean water.

By the end of their stay in Kabiria, the ARC team had the privilege of seeing the foundations of a new church building being constructed. Kisemei hopes to raise the rest of the funds needed to finish the project and make room for new members. As the church continues to grow there may be a need for more land as well. The going rate for an acre in their neighborhood is 3.5—4 million Kenya shillings (roughly $43,300 U.S. dollars). In the meantime, his church continues to be a cornerstone of support for the community of Kabiria—a community that is not waiting for the aid of others, but building.

This encouraging image was needed before traveling south, where the team’s work grew more demanding. In the dusty town of Loitokitok, located at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the team only took breaks for their meals. Teaching sessions doubled. Evenings included speaking at crusades, where ARC leaders would preach on stage to the general public, with people coming to faith in Christ each evening. And when the sun had gone, the team would return to the Loitokitok church for one final session before getting some well-deserved sleep. Then they would wake up to do it all over again.

The ARC speakers taught on lessons ranging anywhere from Lundgren’s “You have an appointment with God,” to Mabry’s “You have beautiful feet” (see Isaiah 52:7) (ARC Pastor Bob Mabry pictured here with Kenyan interpreter and pastor, James). Powerful, striking, and at times particularly quirky, each lesson helped break down cultural barriers and impart important insights on leadership.



Bradley discussed the importance of such cultural validation later, saying that “Unless what you’re teaching can be taught in every culture in the world, it’s not truly Kingdom of God teaching, it’s cultural teaching.” Such opportunities, he said, allow leaders to better understand the core strength of their lessons and build upon them as they return home.

Bradley (pictured left with his son and team member, Ben Bradley and ARC pastor, Bob Mabry) especially understands how such experience is invaluable to the ARC organization, as it seeks to develop young leaders. “Trips such as these will help us be very intentional about investing in and developing the growing number of young leaders in the ARC,” said Bradley. One such leader, Heidi McClure, proved to be more than a capable. McClure not only taught at both conferences, but spoke at two evening crusades—preaching in a town square where locals set aside their daily routines and listened to her message.

Later, McClure would meet with Bradley to discuss her experiences. “Leaders are not built in a classroom, leaders are built in the context of relationships with experienced leaders,” said Bradley. “Much of leadership is learned in the context of being ‘with’ someone who is a safe place; someone who is whole and healthy enough to share their life experiences of victory and failures…to spend time helping a young leader process and integrate all they’re learning.”

Next year the ARC will be preparing for trips to South Africa, Brazil, and Kenya, where it hopes to continue to offer younger leaders a chance to broaden their global perspective. According to Bradley, these trips “Expand the world view of young leaders,” and lead individuals away from a westernized perspective by bringing them closer to a “biblical worldview.”

Throughout their journey the team had many powerful encounters. They prayed over orphaned children. They received several individuals who were troubled by alcoholism and drug abuse as new members to the church (ARC Director Mike Bradley and Kenyan Pastor, Daniel are shown here praying with a man to receive Christ as Savior at an open air crusade). In one particular case, a woman came forward bearing a rope. She was prepared to kill herself. But after listening to the message that morning at church, she had found God. Her hands still shaking after the service, she handed the rope to over to Lundgren.

***

Exhale. Open your eyes.

On the last Sunday service of your trip the clouded sky finally clears. The sun shines down on your shoulders. A cool breeze travels across your neck. And while the church comfortably seats a hundred the service must be held outside. There are simply too many people. Wood columns hold up a make-shift tarp roof, made up of flour bags that are stitched together. A new church is under construction to meet the demands of a growing congregation, the second church you’ve seen being built in two weeks. Nothing looks so promising as the piles of red earth that have been dug up to lay a cement foundation.

And as the lead pastor of the Loitokitok church thanks you and says goodbye, he leaves you with this message from 1 Corinthians 15:58: “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”