AVAILABLE TO TEACH AND CONSULT

It is now getting close to 7 years since we left our home in Africa to come to America as missionaries.  In Africa, we were church planting missionaries.   It made sense to try church planting in America.   We were particularly struck by the vast church deserts in immigrant neighborhoods in Chicago land.   We gave our best efforts to start a church we called Nations’ Chapel, but after about 5 years concluded that we were unable to gather a significant enough amount of people or resources to make it a church of substance.  We also noticed that in our constant pursuit of people and resources we were neglecting the people we knew best.   Our East African Diaspora network is not located in a neighborhood.   It is regional to international.  It also doesn’t have one church affiliation.  It is non-denominational.   Thus, we believe our best efforts should go into forming a mission organization we are calling East Africa Diaspora Community (EADC) to meet the needs of our network.  

In starting EADC, we see two teaching needs.  First, we must shepherd Diaspora to be missionaries to America.  Second, we believe we have a role to play as teachers and consultants with the North American Church.

A few ask the question, “What exactly do you do?” as their church or organization assesses our potential.   

A good portion of our pastoral energy goes into matters we must keep in confidence.   We serve as house parents for single moms on the edge of homelessness, Diaspora realities are complex, and we have a disabled son.  We’d rather talk about ideas.   We remember counsel that sometimes when we talk about people as projects we fall into gossip, and we want to avoid that trap.

Yet, it does seem honorable to discuss the fruit of our lives.   We’ve tried since we’ve been back to the USA to humbly listen, ask questions, read, and learn all we can.   In that process, we’ve started to realize that God in His power has gifted us in some very exceptional ways while we have been quite weak.  We want to list several as you assess if we can offer your church or organization expertise as teachers or consultants.

First, we have to offer some skill sets that as we reflect on America, we knew 30 years ago would have been rather ordinary.   Yet, today in a church of 100 people only a few would be as skilled.  Here’s a couple we quickly notice:

1.        We’re skilled Bible teachers.   We’ve both been involved in ministry since our teens.  

We did very well academically when we studied at university and seminary.   When Dave has taught at universities his student reviews have been near the top of the faculty.   We’ve done well-rated radio in Uganda.  The church we started in Rwanda had a significant number from different nations’ embassies, and we can well speak to diverse, educated, and influential people.   We’re read and listen to the Bible most days.  We notice that we frequently are in Bible texts that are underutilized in the American Church.  We believe God has given us the ability to strengthen the local church in the knowledge of God’s Word.

2.       We’re good neighbors.   We look like how our respected neighbors who were in their 50’s looked when we were kids in the 1970s.   Jana is constantly cooking, serving, and gathering.   Laughter comes from our home.  Dave has gray hair.  He’s seen a lot. Dave has calloused hands.  God’s kept him strong and given him work.  Dave has bifocals.  He’s curious and reads.  Our adult children have done well in their education, starting their careers, and starting their families.  We know almost everyone in the roughly 30 homes nearest to ours.   We help when we can.   When there is a crisis our neighbors call us for help.  God’s taught us the art of neighboring and we can teach others.  

Second, we hesitate to say this, but many times we’re in a crowd of thousands and an issue is being discussed from the stage.  We realize that we have greater knowledge and more fruit than the people on stage.   As we list those areas please remember this fruit was developed by humble seasons of suffering.  Not a single item we list has been done alone.  The Lord gave us many good counselors.  We can’t honor God if we don’t share what He has taught us.  We’ll first list those areas that we see are particularly relevant to Illinois.

1.        There is a stunning number of children in the foster care and vulnerable single mothers in America.  Jana has long been utilized by God to help vulnerable children and women on two continents.   Besides our adopting of Ruth and Timothy, she’s facilitated other adoptions and knows the landscape.   She’s nurtured children near death to health.  She’s mentored young moms on a path towards greater health.

2.       There is a stunning crisis with opioid addiction in America.  Dave lives in a measure of daily pain.  At times he’s lost feeling on feet and hands.  At times he’s walked with a cane.  He’s had 4 surgeries on his spine.  Yet, each time he’s suffered he’s recovered well.  Exercise is his means to keep the pain at bay.   He runs, bikes, swims, lifts weights, and now does yoga.   In his 50’s God’s kept him stronger than most of his peers.  He can bench press his weight 9 times and swim a mile in about 45 minutes.  He rarely takes a pill for pain.  Dave knows how-to live-in pain with God’s strength.

3.       A much-neglected area in the Church is care for those with disabilities.   Our son,

Timothy has right hemiplegia cerebral palsy (cp).  As he’s become a teenager, we’ve learned the cp is much more complicated than we had foreseen.  It affects digestion, respiration, academics, and neuro-psychological function.   Learning to manage his complex health is exhausting.   Exercise, nutrition, and pace have been the lifeblood for improvement.   Our family keeps Timothy active.  We feed him consistently and with great discipline.   His Ugandan heritage gives him good genetics, determination, and a cheering crowd.  In the last year, we’ve discovered Paralympic sports.   Timothy has excelled.  He’s gone to a development camp for the National Paralympic Soccer team.  He won his classification in the long jump this summer at the Paralympic Junior Nationals.   He’s been named to the 2018 USA High School Paralympic Track team for his 200-meter dash and long jump.   

4.       The Daily Herald occasionally mentions that most families with school-age children in Illinois are low income.  We’ve found the same statistics in school data.   Yet, our observation is that most churches in America are programmatically serving the upper middle class.  Other research we read on the United States as a whole concludes that the middle class is declining and an increasing number of families live near the poverty line.  When low-income families are served in many local American churches sometimes, they are seen only as a project.  Their dignity sometimes is neglected.  The gifts God has given them are sometimes not utilized.   Our early years of adapting to Chicago land have been ones where we live like most families with children.  We see that as a mark of God and look to theologies of incarnation that teach empathy to understand.   In that process, it seems we may be better educated than some low-income families.  The thank you notes that we have sent to the organizations that have helped us with our health care has become their newsletters, blogs, and stories to their financial partners.   We believe that God has given us the ability to articulate the realities of low income families in America.

5.       Though relatively small one of the most rapidly growing by percentages of

immigrant groups are those from Africa.   We estimate there are 5,000 to 10,000 East African Diaspora in Chicago land.   In the heartland of America African immigrants are reshaping demographics.   For instance, in the last 8 years the number of African immigrants has increased 5 fold in the Dakotas.  Due to the means of entrance, most are documented.  They are well educated, speak English, have high marriage rates, excel academically, athletically, and creatively.  They are church attending.  They are entrepreneurial.  Many struggles with adjustments to the American culture.   We don’t know anyone in Chicagoland who knows the landscape of East African Diaspora as well as we do.  We believe we can help local churches and organizations understand this niche and make the most of this immigration opportunity.

6.       We do notice that there are many people getting on airplanes at O’Hare to do mission work in East Africa.   We believe we can give them good counsel.   Our specific area of expertise is the intersection with a rapidly growing middle-class economy and a transformational Revival movement.  As a child, Jana was a part of the middle stage of the Christianization of Africa.  As adults, we were on the tail end of the movement to Christ while on the front end of that movement being led by professional middle-class people.   We know well the 3 nations of Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda; and are well connected with many of their leaders.   

Lastly, we are dreaming.  As we list what God has done with us, we do have a hope that the latter years of our lives will be spent building a relationship and philosophic foundation for renewal in North America.  We particularly hope that God will use us to train African Diaspora as missionaries to America.  We hope that God will use us to equip the North American Church as a missionary receiving church.  We hope that will bear pragmatic fruit ranging from growing churches, families, and middle-class viability.

Thank you for taking your time to read this blog.  We look forward to finding ways to partner together.  May God’s richest blessings be upon your hopes and dreams,

Dave and Jana Jenkins

Dave Mobile: 630-649-4350 Jana Mobile: 630-649-4695

mzeedavejenkins@gmail.com    jananrwanda@gmail.com

P.S.   We’ve decided not to charge a fee for speaking or consulting.   We want to be consistent in how we deal with both Diaspora churches and fellowships, and with the more established North American churches.    All we ask is that some type of love offering is taken to compensate us for our time, fuel, and wear and tear on our vehicle.