Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Fund Raising Needs

Lucy and I will be in the U.S. during December for a visit and also to raise prayer and financial support for our work. Our current financial levels are insufficient for us to continue beyond the next two months.

We need to raise funds for our return air ticket and also broaden our monthly support base and find additional partners in order to continue serving in Kenya. Please consider joining us and making a pledge or contribution.

DONATIONS can be made securely online at www.samsusa.org. Just click on "Donate" and enter the appropriate information. Remember to designate your gift for "Missionary
- David Chaves"

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we
ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” - 1 John 3:16

Prayer Requests

  • Thanksgiving for God's faithfulness and care over our lives during the past year.
  • For God's protection and provision for the Somali Christian community in Nairobi which suffers greatly from physical persecution and overwhelming poverty.
  • For the process of constitutional reform in Kenya which is currently mired in tribal politics.
  • For the many Kenyans suffering from famine across the country.
  • For wisdom in our ongoing strategic planning at Church Army and for planned mission activities in
  • Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia during 2010.
  • For students at Akiba School as they begin preparations for their final exams.

Intern Reflection

The New Beginnings Internship at Church Army has been one of a kind.
Throughout the six months we have all learned a lot, gaining experience and serving in the areas of information technology, media and journalism, administration, missions, creative communications, and video production.
More so, the daily devotions have helped us grow closer to God and more effectively understand and communicate His Word. We have also been able to serve alongside various ministries including: outreach to persecuted Somali Christians, youth empowerment initiatives in the slums, and home visits to orphans and widows affected by HIV/AIDS. The interns Christabel Atieno, Bob Odhiambo, Charles Otieno, Naigine Ochiel and myself, Rebbecca Mwangi, are grateful to God and our supervisors and mentors at Church Army. New Beginnings came at an important time in our lives and has helped us utilize our talents, discover our potential and grow in character, competence, comprehension, community and compassion
- Rebecca Mwangi (Intern)

Back to The Books

It's official. Every Tuesday and Thursday evening, I leave work a bit early.
Classes have begun for a new course in Mission Studies.
Together with seven other classmates, mostly clergy or business professionals, I've been
studying Muslim-Christian Dialogue and Relations in History. Fascinating stuff. The course is part of a graduate program at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology. I'm excited to learn more.


Please pray for Lucy who is also hoping to start classes soon. She is discerning about the
Reading the Qur'an for homework. possibility of ordination in the Anglican Church.
- Dave

In Need of Hope in the Eye of a Storm

All Mondays are tough for me. I always wish the weekends would last longer, so I wake up late drag myself across the floor do everything so slow that I almost get on my patient husband’s nerves. I count myself lucky because it is on one of those terrible MONDAYS, the 14th of September 09 that I found out the importance of family. I was having my usual Monday morning blues plus some unsettled feeling in my tummy.
I didn’t quite understand where the feeling was coming from. At around 10:30am GMT, I received a phone call from my dad who had traveled to Western Kenya visiting family. The minute I saw his call my heart skipped a bit. I knew somehow the call was connected to my
unsettled feeling. It was an emergency. My dad’s younger brother Michael, who is not quite ok, had run away from home and was found in a garbage dump almost dying.
Since we are the only family he has, my dad called me, frantic. My younger sister, my husband and I were the only people who could come to his rescue. To cut the long story short, we managed to get him admitted to a government district hospital (read under equipped and overcrowded). Now it happens that when one goes to a district hospital, the underpaid nurses are there to be seen and heard but seldom do any work. The patient’s relatives have to take care of everything, from feeding to washing the clothes (they don’t have hospital robes) to bathing.

It was while taking my uncle to the ward that I met James. My uncle was to share a small hospital bed with this man. James had the body of a child and the face of an old man. In other words it was the face of AIDS at its best. It was the saddest sight of a human being I have ever seen, skin and bones. Yet James had a very kind heart and warm personality. He welcomed my uncle warmly and offered him the pillow. That really caught my attention because normally when one is sick they don’t want to be bothered, leave alone share a bed or give
up their pillow. So we left my uncle, who in comparison to James looked ten times better, in the care of James.
The following day my sister Pauline and I took turns visiting my uncle. We agreed that she would go for the lunch hour visit and I for the evening visit. So my sister prepared some food and took it to my uncle and I came later in the evening. It was on that visit that I got curious why I hadn’t seen anyone visiting James, so I asked him about his family. James had no family.

His mother passed away in 1999 of AIDS, and your guess could be as good as mine, he was born with AIDS. When he was born, nobody would speak about AIDS openly. People would not even mention it by name it was only mentioned by nicknames (in my tribe they called it ‘Chira’- which is another name for bewitched).
So that explains why he never knew of his condition until he grew older. When his mother died, James and his younger sister had no one to turn to because their relatives turned them away. They dreaded the disease, they never knew their father. As he sister grew older she lost her mind and now wanders the streets. James had survived by hopping from one friend’s house to another or by sleeping at parking lots and eating food from the dumpster. He narrated his story with a lot of pain in his eyes, but he wasn’t able to shed a tear.
He could have, but there were no tears, not even enough to moisten his sore throat. He summed it up for me: “Lucy I wish I had a family!” In all his pains and struggles, all he ever wished for was a FAMILY!
The following Sunday, we visited James again. Even though he could barely stand and had no place to go, the doctor wanted to discharge him. Unfortunately in Kenya, there are no hospices or care centers for people like James, a discharge would mean sudden death. ‘Lucy, my greatest problem is that I don’t have a home’, he told me. So there I was, a good “Christian Lady”, where was I going to start, how was I going to tell him that God cared for him? What in his life was evidence that God cared for him? How was I going to reach out to this 22 year old who felt like killing people at times? I had no immediate answer for this puzzle.
All I managed to do was to tell him that we are God’s children and we were his family.
- Lucy

PHOTO COMPILATION 2009


“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. . .”
2 Corinthians 5:18

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Reflecton Of The Past Year

It has been twelve months since I last returned to Kenya. What an incredible year! At this time in 2008, I was struggling to fund raise, unsure if or when I would be able to make the trip back to Nairobi. Despite one of the greatest economic downturns in history, God has been ever faithful to provide. He provided missions supporters, a place to stay, a great work environment, exciting opportunities, and a wife! As Lucy and I prepare to visit the U.S. in December, we look back with wonder and gratitude for what the Lord has accomplished during the past one year. Here are some of the highlights:

Ministry Highlights
1. Dave and Lucy supported the mission work of Church Army Africa, which during the first half of 2009 saw:
i. Over 100 evangelists trained through grassroots initiatives.
ii. Over 200 youth leaders reached through grassroots training.
iii. 16 new churches planted in Dioceses across Kenya (January to June 2009)

2. Dave assisted with services and was involved in the leadership of a ministry to persecuted Somali Christians. Many Somali refugees have been coming to Christ from a background of fundamentalist Islam. (January to September, 2009)

3. Lucy was re-elected to the Parish Church Council of Christ Church, A.C.K. During 2009 she served as an active leader of the youth ministry, worship ministry, and marriage enrichment ministry. (February 2009)

4. Dave and Lucy were joined in marriage in Nairobi (March 7th, 2009).

5. Lucy planned and coordinated an induction Ceremony for the new General Secretary of Church Army with attendance from Anglican clergy across Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. (March 2009)

6. Dave and Lucy worked with Church Army to help launch Vision 2015, a strategic plan to bring transformation to African communities through planting and development of over 3000 holistic churches across the continent. (March 2009)

7. Dave developed and led an internship, discipleship, and missions training program for six young people from Kenya and England. (March to September 2009)



8. Lucy planned and coordinated a Commissioning Ceremony for 33 new evangelists in the Anglican Church. Bishops and clergy from across Eastern Africa participated in the event. (June 2009)



9. Dave worked with Church Army to launch a video production center to empower young people, communicate stories of God's faithfulness, and raise funds for the work of mission. (June 2009)

10. Dave and Lucy planned, coordinated and helped lead a visiting Global Engagement Team from The Falls Church. The team helped landscape and build pit latrines at Light and Power Center and met with teachers and students at Akiba School (June to July 2009)