In 2007, as Mal and I returned from Rwanda, a cancelled
flight meant that we had to spend several extra nights in Nairobi before we could
travel home.
God provided the Tongoi family. There’s much more to the story, we
have become very good friends, enjoying each other’s company in both Kenya and
in Australia, but today I want to write about the wonderful project that has
captured Irene’s heart and hands for the last 20+ years. Irene has helped in
putting this short history together for my blog.
More reading than usual in this blog post but, in my opinion, it's a REALLY good story.
In 1996, the Tongoi family was involved in founding Karura
Community Chapel, a daughter church of the Nairobi Chapel. Mandated to reach the affluent neighbourhoods
of Runda, Muthaiga, Evergreen and its environs, the elders of the new
congregation were soon confronted at Sunday service attendance by some
extremely materially poor people from the neighbouring informal settlement of Huruma.
The following year the church leadership had to begin
addressing the needs and peculiar challenges presented by the growing number of
the poor. Irene had a major struggle
based on the assumption that these people were coming to church only because
they hoped their material needs would be met.
She considered their interest in joining the church as a
distraction. In 2001, Irene attended a
Vision Conference focusing on two themes; Biblical Worldview and Holistic
Discipleship. The conference enlightened
Irene on four profound truths that turned on a light in her life and
dramatically changed her perception of the poor.
*
Lies/deception is at the root of poverty
*
All human beings are created in the image of God
but sin’s effects disfigure them
* The local church is God’s
agent of transformation for all the nations of the world and
*
By its disciplines of love, using local
resources, church members can show the light of Christ by being the salt they
were called to be.
Along with other women from the Karura Community Chapel
Women’s Ministry, Irene paid a visit to Huruma Village in 2003. This visit
opened her eyes to a myriad of the residents’ challenges. The level of poverty was astonishing as it
had rendered the community helpless and vulnerable and the sense of
hopelessness amidst them was palpable. She
felt burdened to do something but felt inadequate.
God provided an opportunity to run a Vision Conference for
100 youth from the Huruma and nearby Githogoro informal settlements. Following the conference there was a huge cry
for a return to school by 80 of these young people. New Dawn High School became
a reality in 2005 with the majority of students being young men and women who
had long dropped out of school but had their dwindled hopes fanned back to life
through the Vision Conference. The initial
class comprised gardeners, house helps, security guards, farm hands and
sons/daughters of parents from a similar background. Others were destitute orphans who had lost
hope of ever making good of their lives. Huruma community members surrendered small plots of land to New Dawn and
initially temporary wrought iron structures were put up in the village.
In 2009 the centre’s first formal classroom structures were
constructed using fabricated steel shipping containers. Today, New Dawn
Educational Centre comprises four classrooms with a capacity of 40 students
each, two science laboratories, a computer laboratory, a library, staff
offices, a staff room, school kitchen, appliances storage and a multipurpose
hall - all in shipping containers!
Lucy and I visited the school with Irene, here with the cook who feeds the students lunch every school day.
The day we visited there was a group of young people from a local church visiting the older students and sharing the life-saving message of Jesus with them.
We met the staff in the staff room. One member of staff is an ex-student who is now a qualified secondary teacher - good story.
The shipping containers that make up the school
are looking wonderful
in amongst the trees and garden
don't you think?
Driving through the village of Huruma, where New dawn is situated, with Irene, was a moving experience. Irene is a very well loved woman. Not surprising.
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