My Faith, My Call, My Vision:

This blog is a sacred place for me. It is here that I meet with myself, to dialogue, to rant, to fuss, to cry, and to have fun. The blog is to me a journey of faith, of reason, of emotions and pathos. I set sail to seek and wonder. Two fundamental issues define this journey i.e. my faith in God and fulfilling the mission, which I think I am called for in this world. So, a little talk about myself is appropriate.
All that I am and that I have, I owe it to a God who has proven faithful in my life. I was born and raised in a small town in Kenya located not far away from the majestic Mount Kenya(http://www.kws.org/mt-kenya.html). Having been born into a Presbyterian family, I was introduced into the basics of faith and religion. In my formative years, a strict Christian mother, who trained me to be an idealistic and moralistic, taught me to take the Bible literary as the Word of God, inerrant and written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I was also taught to think of sin in very personal ways and such sins were clearly defined. My mother as well as Sunday school teachers taught us that cultural practices were evil, immoral and against God’s will. In Sunday school, the understanding of God, purity and grace was emphasized. Curiously, salvation meant deliverance from spiritual sin as well as African traditional way of life. Therefore, as a Christian child, I was called to arm myself spiritually against the devil that masqueraded in cultural rituals, songs and dances. These cultural practices were condemned as evil, immoral and against God’s will.
From the days of my adolescence when I lost both of my parents to this day, the Lord has literally carried me on his shoulders. Though this has been a life where personal tragedy has sometimes overwhelmed, my confidence and courage to move on have come from faith in this God. At this tender age, we had to face rejection from paternal family (who according to African tradition were to take care of us). From then on, we had to depend on the good will of friends and strangers who happened to know our predicament. Struggling through high school and later on as young man trying to find my place in the society was never easy. Sometimes life seemed hopeless and we could have never dreamt of becoming anything that is worth of living - but somehow, we survived. As I struggled in those youthful years of my life, I also had to deal with the sudden death of my parents. Like many other high school students of our time, I joined the Rastafarian movement in rebellion against Christianity. It was not until June 1987 that I heard the gospel of Christ preached and I made a personal choice to give my life to Christ. I simply believed and surrendered my life to Jesus who has remained a true and faithful friend. I was able to grow spiritually with the help of the fellowships organized by ‘Tukutendereza’ brethren of the East Africa revival Team. In many occasions when I have to make life decisions such as marriage, ministry among others I have done so believing that the step I take is ordered in the steps of the Master. Most of these decisions I had to make alone for I was never able to develop any meaningful relationship with individuals with whom I could share my thoughts. Many are the times that I have faltered and failed but God has remained a true anchor.
It is during the time of spiritual renewal that I received basic theological training through Theological Education by Extension organized by the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. I received the call to ministry in 1991. In the same year, I resigned from my teaching profession to join the Presbyterian College under the auspice of St. Paul United Theological College, Limuru-Kenya for a three-year theological training program. For the first time, I was challenged to critically analyze what was going on in my life, the life of the Kenyan church and of the larger Kenyan community. I had never realized how much I had believed that the Christian gospel is a spiritual enterprise that is concerned only with individual repentance of sin and struggle for holiness. It came as a surprise to see how I had used Christianity as an escape to the land yonder away from the “sinful” world. Theological training opened me up to see new possibilities. Ministry as a Presbyterian minister began after a one-year internship followed by my ordination in 1997.
In September 1998 I received an invitation to attend and represent my Presbytery in a brainstorming “theology and research panel” attended by some of the best-trained theologians in Kenya. In the meeting, we looked into areas that were affecting our ministry as pastors and as theologians. This included such topics as poverty; war and insecurity; AIDS; globalization and economic underdevelopment as well as unstable markets. For a second time in my life, I was challenged to rethink and reformulate my understanding of Christian ministry. The realization of my insensitivity to the pains and struggles of the Kenyan people was profound. The inadequacy of theological propositions and meaningful biblical hermeneutics to deal with issues affecting us as a community of faith were expressed by many in the meeting. The forum left me wrestling with unanswered questions. How can the Church remain relevant in the midst of such great suffering and helplessness? How could we, as Christian leaders, have participated in perpetuation of these predicaments? Is there any hope of God’s promise in our lives’ situation? Behind the suffering, is God still at work and in full control? What is our response to God’s promise and love? What should be the focus of our hermeneutics? I left that meeting with a general feeling of inadequacy and an inner longing to be part of a journey that bring meaning to the suffering communities.
It is in this context and the belief that the Lord will order my step that I made the decision of seeking further education in the USA. Quest for intellectual relevance served as the driving force in my advanced theological training at Emory University (http://www.emory.edu/). Even though life in the USA was to prove difficulty, God stood by my side. I successfully completed my studies. In the same faith, I made the decision of moving on with my studies and surely, doors were opened for further education. This far I have come because of the belief that the Lord has been walking with me. The decision to attend my post-graduate studies at the University of Birmingham (http://www.bham.ac.uk/.) was an action taken simply in faith. In fact, it is a miracle that I have survived four years of studies in Britain and away from my family. My intellectual quest has been geared towards developing a hermeneutic that is both transforming and liberative.
I long for the day that I will be serving the Kenyan and African community not only as a priest but also as an academician. I have worked very hard sparing nothing and stopping at nothing in order to make this dream come true. In the USA, it has always been tempting to direct my attention elsewhere but I had made a covenant with my community of faith, God and myself that I was going to America to receive further training for the benefit of the faith community. Besides, I have asked hard questions about the future of theological studies in Kenya and Africa in general. I have dreamt of a time when I would be among those who are willing to take bold steps towards reshaping both theological and moral thinking of the African Christian communities both in the motherland and those in the Diaspora. One of the factors which, I believe may have contributed to theological deficiency in Africa is inadequate biblical hermeneutics.
My cultural background is one in which the Bible remains the most influential and the most widely translated text. It is cited by politicians and writers even when being critical of modern Christian enterprise. The Bible is also part of the education curriculum in high schools, colleges and universities. Though many people take it as a manual for life, the Bible has also been used by others to legitimized obvious social, economic and political injustices. In many occasions, the Bible has been used to discourage stirring of revolt against oppressive or discriminatory practices thus promoting attitudes of resignation and complacency. This may explain why most Christians never consider material deprivation, exploitation and violations of human rights as concerns for their Christian living and witness. Any community which fails to challenge such use of the Bible becomes responsible for its inability to become an empowering body to the disenfranchised and marginalized. This, I have believed, cannot happen unless we are willing to engage critically as well as intellectually with our Faith and Theology.
Further, my experience both in America and Britain has revealed to me that the struggle for relevance in Christian circles is universal. As such, as a PhD student at the University of Birmingham in England, I am focusing my research on biblical hermeneutics and how ideological vision feeds itself and its implementation not only through physical force and direct domination but also through persuasive means such as autonomous intellectual and aesthetic stories. I believe that biblical texts must have meaning that is not confined to a single ideologically driven interpretation. This is because interpretation and writing are tied to the question of interest evidently seen in aesthetic and historical discourses. I am of the opinion that there is no biblical interpretation which is ideologically, sociologically or linguistically neutral. Biblical interpretation is thoroughly social and a product of the imaginative and intellectual activity of a community. As I continue in my search for meaningful engagement with the Christian faith, I feel obligated to take a closer examination on ideologies and biases that form the basis of any interpretation and how such an interpretation affects our Christian witness.
In addition to my intellectual quest and formation, I also see my call as principally pastoral. While I may not be able to comment on the experiences of many Africans who come to America, I can attest from my own experience that life for the Africans is very difficult. In private conversations you can tell that people suffer from wounds untold through their interactions in America. It is possible that after such experiences some return to African very bitter and would use any available opportunity to retaliate. A friend of mine who is doing his PhD in intercultural studies concentrating on the experiences of African community living in the US says that many Africans interviewed express bitterness and resentment because of the treatment they have received as immigrants. Personally, I am looking in ways I can positively impact the lives of Africans in the Diaspora. I believe that we ought to build relationships with Americans of good will in order to build genuine relations beyond racial boundaries. I have, in the course my stay In USA found genuine love and warmth which attest to the fact that there are genuine people who seek the good of humanity and with whom I can join to celebrate our fellowship in diversity.