idea magazine

The hope of the world

May / June 2007

The Church in Kenya has a lot to teach us about local involvement. 
Jonathan Francis, World Vision's church education officer, reports...

Bill Hybels' comment, "The local church is the hope of the world", has become something of a mantra for many Church leaders in the UK. Visit Willow Creek, Hybel's church in Chicago, and you are confronted by the size and challenged at the commitment of its members. But what does this mean in the context of the British Church? Are there lessons Church leaders across the world can teach each other in their struggle to fulfil this declaration?
One of the world's biggest challenges today is Aids. Its yearly death toll has been likened to that of 20 jumbo jets crashing every single day for a year. The natural beauty of Lake Victoria in Kenya belies this terrible disaster that is decimating the population on its banks.

In Kisumu, Kenya's third largest city, the prevalence of HIV and Aids is up to 40 per cent of the area's population. Dave Richards, Rector of St Paul's and St George's in Edinburgh, went there with his wife Cathy to see how the Church was offering hope in the face of this pandemic. They found local churches responding to the needs of the people around them.

"We met some amazing people and were deeply impressed by their commitment, humility and integrity," he says. "We met children having to bring themselves up, church members taking orphans into their own homes, and church leaders whose weekly sermons included appeals to their members to take more orphans into their homes."

What can we learn from these examples? How can we in the UK take the hope we have and pass it on to others? There are many differences between the churches in Kenya and in the UK. Most significantly, 95 per cent of the population of Kenya attend church, which of course means they are one of the best-placed organisations to reach out to communities. While the situation is very different here in the UK, the potential of the Church here to deliver care and support to thousands of urban and rural communities is undeniable.

"Where would people in the UK look if they were faced with Aids or a similar problem?" Richards asks. "And if they did look to the Church, what answers would they find?"

Facing tough issues

Churches across Kenya have been engaged with issues like HIV and Aids for some time. Progress might be described as slow but it is noticeable none the less. Church leaders are facing up to tough issues with courage and are consolidating their position in society as trusted members of the community who are not only part of the solution themselves, but are leading government agencies, health services and ordinary people in delivering that solution.

"In the UK we are often marginalised, ignored or positively excluded," says Richards. "Three years ago a large city in the UK decided to host an Easter Parade. The local churches asked if they might have a float. 'Why?' they were asked. 'What has Easter got to do with churches?'"

Are there reasons why the vast majority of British churches are not involved in transforming communities? Have we just stopped caring? A tough question will need a multitude of answers. But with the issues of human trafficking, abuse of children and loneliness within our own communities, the need for Church involvement is great.

Beyond church walls

The people Dave and Cathy met in Kenya believed they could make a difference, they believed they could change Kenya - and they have a great track record. Their voices stretch beyond their church walls, into the communities and into the corridors of power. They speak with conviction and a tenacity that we could do with here in the UK. Dave returned home with a fresh vision of Church and an answer to the question, "Is the local church really the hope of the world?"

"We returned to the UK as different people - humbled by the examples of compassion, service and love that we had witnessed from the local church in Kenya. But we also returned resolved to make a difference ourselves - to the situation in Kenya but also the situation in Scotland and the UK. We returned home with a fresh belief that the local church really is the hope of the world. Why? Because we had seen it with our own eyes."

Remarkable  yet ordinary

"Mummy, are you HIV positive? Who will you leave us to?"

It was the lowest moment of Mary's life. She had decided that her children were still too young to know her status. But her heart sank as she realised that some of her best friends had been gossiping about her behind her back.

Her indignation at the treatment and stigma towards her prompted Mary to go public. She began by speaking about HIV and Aids in churches, schools and in the marketplace. It was the start of an incredible journey towards being founder of Day Aid Care Centre, a refuge for people who are affected by HIV and Aids. Today the centre reaches out to more than 200 adults and over 100 children. Yet it happened just one step at a time.

Mary met others who wanted to share their experience of being HIV positive and they began meeting in her house. Wanting to gain more knowledge about HIV and Aids, she joined various organisations that gave her training. Eventually the group realised there was an overwhelming number of orphans as a result of HIV and Aids, so they began offering daily food, school uniforms, nutritional support and medicines. Now Mary's dream is to open a comprehensive care centre where people are taken care of by others who are HIV positive - and who understand them.

The most challenging thing about Mary is that she's just an ordinary person who is determined to live out a vision God has given her. She sums it up in one phrase: "I look at myself and ask, at the end of the day, what have I done for my God who has given me life?"