World Renewal International

New Field “Kibera” World Renewal-Africa We have entered a new relationship with Pastor Imbumi and Martha Makuku in Kenya, Africa. Kibera is a neighborhood of the city Nairobi and is the second largest urban slum in Africa. We are thrilled to have Pastor and Martha Makuku. [Shown above]

There are four areas Pastor Makuku and his congregation, Kibera Reformed Presbyterian Church are focusing on. Here Pastor Makuku describes Kibera and those ministries:

Feeding Program  [Sponsors Needed]

Feeding Program

Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, was originally known as “Nakusontote”, Maasai for “the beginning of all beauty”. It also was known as “Uaso Nairobi”, the place of cool waters because of the millions of wild animals from the surrounding savannah grasslands that came to quench their thirst. The East African Railway, built to connect Uganda to the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, reached this beautiful spot in 1897. The railway engineers found in Nairobi an ideal spot to stop over and make provisions for the hard task that lay ahead of building the railway through the steep inclines of the Rift Valley. Abundant wood for fuel from the Karura forest and ample supplies of food from the surrounding Kikuyu farms made Nairobi a welcome place of rest and refreshment for the arduous task that still lay ahead. As the engineers moved on, the city that began as a provisioning depot in 1897, providentially grew to become the capital city of Kenya. The beauty of the town was not retained for long as shacks and slums immediately began to sprout in the Indian bazaar as the railway workers trooped back to Nairobi after the completion of the railroad. Within a short period of time, bubonic plagues broke out and the solution was to burn down the infected area down as a way of containing the menace. Thus slums and informal temporal housing structures became part of the landscape of the city from inception. The Indian influence on the emerging Kenyan nation was thus felt from the onset not only in shanty housing but in foods such as samosas, chapattis, bhajia and the various curries that the African population took to with much gusto. Then of course there are the ever-present pull carts that still dot the city in huge numbers. The city has grown over the years and now is over three million people all striving to eke out a living and improve their lives. As modern housing is very expensive, the slums absorb the majority of the newcomers as they can stay with their relatives while they try to get a foothold in the city. The city has over 200 slums where the vast majority of the inhabitants are poor, illiterate, engage in early marriages, act as a pool of vote banks for the politicians, the surroundings are filthy, have little privacy and lots of insecurity of tenure and marauding gangs of young men that are outside the ambit of the law. Rape and prostitution are rife with the majority of the young people opting to drop out of school at an early age. The city is perched on the verge of crossroads leading to collapse or to becoming stronger if the needs of the majority poor are justly addressed. Out of the 3 million people in the city, 2.65 million are densely congested in 200 slums that occupy 1.62 per cent of the land mass. Kibera has a high density of 826 people per acre while the neighborhoods for the rich such as Runda and Muthaiga have 2 households and one household respectively occupying an acre of land. The gap between the rich and poor is replicated all over Kenya and has made the nation the 5th most unequal country in the world. The center will not hold for long and something must give way in addressing this issue of. The vast majority of the slum dwellers are restless young people as they see no hope of becoming part of the city’s mainstream life. They see their parents poorly paid for backbreaking work over the years who then retire to the countryside with little to show; they see the thousands of factory workers and casual workers wake up very early in the morning begin the long trek to work for a pittance and unable to make headway in terms of providing for their families. THE KIBERA REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH It is in this kind of environment that the Kibera Reformed Presbyterian Church has been called to serve. The church began in 2002 as a ministry that practices both word and deed in witnessing for the Lord Jesus. The church has a very strong foundation based on preaching the Bible under the unction of the Holy Spirit and then seeing how this practically unfolds in the community. The church takes seriously the practice of Christian disciplines so that it is healthy for an effective outreach to the community. The church as a result of this runs a school, a rescue shelter and also an outreach to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
A: KRPC MAMLAKA PRIMARY SCHOOL The school is an outreach to the children of the slum as the vast majority is not able to get into the formal schooling system because of the obstacles put in their way. Education in Kenya is universally free but in a place like Kibera where there are only about four schools run by the Nairobi City Council, the vast majority of the kids are left out and have to settle for education provided by churches that minister in the slum. KRPC has a school with 175 children who are mainly destitutes and orphans. The church through sponsorship and well-wishers provides the children with textbooks, pays the teachers and helps with a feeding program. The church also caters for the medical needs of the kids where possible, to those with persisting conditions. The education is meant to give them a foothold in the market place by equipping them well so that they can compete on equal terms with peers from other parts of the city. The educational sponsorship outreach helps the children to go on to high school and other instistutions of higher learning to eventually attain the necessary competencies for the job market. The children sponsored by the church are from destitute families in the community; those who have been glue sniffers and scavengers for metals and plastics. Some of the children were in very severe circumstances and the church has a shelter for them. The girls live outside the slum while the boys stay at the church compound as their family situation is totally dysfunctional. The school motto is “Education for Exultation” blending academics and doxology for all of life for the students. Over the decade that the church has been in existence, those who have gone through the program now form the core of the teaching staff. The young people that have gone through the program form the core of the worship team, the Sunday school teachers and also lead the youth. We are as of now taking three of them through training for the diaconate.
B: CHURCH HEALTH OUTREACH The health program of the church grew out of the realization that the vast majority of the adults in the slum were suffering from HIV/AIDS. Two weeks before the church began in 2002, one bedridden mother that we had visited over and over came back to the Lord. She died in great joy knowing that she would be with her Lord and savior and that the church was going to take care of her three young children to ensure that they were protected and had a good education. By God’s grace, one of her two kids is now a volunteer teacher at the school while waiting for college. The health program caters for the health needs of the adults through helping with the education of their children and providing for them fortified flour that helps them for about two weeks. This grew out of the realization that without proper nutrition, the medicines for AIDS that they were taking was too strong for them and a number would die as a result. The church also has a Bible study for the AIDS patients once a week since 2002. Where possible, we also host visiting medical teams to care for them and the rest of the community. One of our future visions is to have a medical team that is mobile which can spent at least one day a week in the slum treating both body and soul.
C: CHURCH OUTREACH The KRPC is in the slum for the long haul bearing witness to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The church has a solid foundation in teaching and preaching the Bible throughout the week. The church has over the years ensured that we have Sunday school for all ages, Bible studies, youth rallies and services, camps and retreats for all ages, Vacation Bible schools, Bible clubs and marriage seminars. The church has also over the years been part of slum pastors outreach through provision of study Bibles and a small reading library where slum pastors can come and prepare their sermons using solid evangelical books. KRPC has also regularly held retreats for slum pastors where we have teachings in the mornings, prayers in the afternoons and then revival meetings in the evening. All this is meant to encourage the pastors in the task that they have been called to as for many it is a very lonely work and largely unappreciated. The church knows that it is only God who can change the lives of the people and through concerted times of seeking His presence in prayer and His help in the great task of spreading the gospel. The church knows that without His presence, the dark forces of hell will continue to wreak havoc in the lives of the slum dwellers. The church seeks to plant other churches that have a likeminded vision of working amongst the poor in word and deed. As of now, it has other sister churches working in similar situations that it meets with for mutual encouragement in the great task of reaching the poor with the life changing message of the gospel. That is our only hope in impacting Kibera.
 D: THE SHUNEM SHELTER The shelter has grown out of our outreach to the community where we came across children who were in very difficult situations such as child labor, being household heads at a very tender age, orphans, sexual molestation and danger of early marriages and motherhood. The rescue shelter is a place where they can blossom and begin to see their full potential come to the fore. They attend school and come back to the shelter where they receive nurture and healing through the tender care of the caregivers. The housemothers help them with homework and other life issues so that they will be able to successively navigate through life. The children at the shelter are twenty in primary, secondary and some are waiting to join college. Their time at the shelter is one where they are able to grow in confidence, have higher aspirations for life and also put into practice Christian values that they have learnt both at the rescue center and also at church and the youth meetings and camps that the church hosts for them. The extended family visits the children monthly so that the connection to their people is not lost. The girls at the home form the bulk of the worship team and also help in Sunday school and youth leadership teams. During the school holidays, they help with chores at the house so that the value of hard work is instilled for a successful life. Twenty acres of land in the Kiserian area of Nairobi at the slopes of Ngong Hills is being farmed and also the first shelter for the girls being built and hopefully will be finished by the end of 2012. The land continues to be used for farming at the moment with the vegetables and maize being used to feed the kids at the shelter and also at the school. The land has temporary shelters that are used by the younger kids for room and board while they wait for the first shelter to be finished. The temporary structures are used also for camps and conferences that are held by the church in the course of the year. The long-term vision for the twenty acres is to have four houses built for the rescued kids, a school, vocational training center, a church, administration and staff housing, agroforestry, poultry keeping, dairy cows, a guest house and a playground and nicely landscaped picnic site. Presently, the land has water from a borehole, electricity and the temporary housing being used by the kids and caregivers.
CONCLUSION The KRPC, in short, seeks to restore the beauty of the urban poor through presenting Jesus Christ as all lovely and all sufficient for the transformation of the people. He continues to transform the inhabitants as His word is taken to heart. Thanks so much, Rev. Imbumi Makuku Pastor of KRPC