Ruth Mirembe Jenkins' Harambee to Judson University News

Dear Family and Friends,

We’ve heard two concerns expressed recently as those who are close to us observe our ministry.   

One is, “If your work with the Diaspora is so important, why don’t the Diaspora financially support it?”    Another concern is “Your ministry looks so much like a church but doesn’t form like a church.   Why?”

In true missionary fashion let us tell some stories.   

Our family and ministry are supported by Diaspora in much the same way that Diaspora support one another.   Most African Diaspora who come to the United States come along three paths.   Some come as refugees.   Some come having won a green card lottery (or diversity visa.)   Some come as university students.   It is very rare for them to enter the United States illegally.  However,  some get caught in an awkward moment when they can’t keep up with documentation requirements.    African Diaspora are one of the most educated groups of immigrants in the USA.    Yet, they typically start as low income earners.    Many times, you’ll even find a medical doctor driving a cab or a lawyer working as a home health care aid.   Over time most reach middle class viability.   As they do that they send large amounts of their income back to their home nation to do things such as build homes, start businesses and schools, run scholarship programs, and care for sick relatives.   The income they send home in many nations combines to be the largest source of foreign income.   While living in the USA many of them stay connected to other Diaspora from their home nation.   

Though they may become middle class in America, with their immense social responsibility they tend to not be large givers at local churches.   One area that they generally do give graciously is to help fellow Diaspora grieve, celebrate, and make the most of opportunities that the American experience presents.   For instance, if there is a death in the community all rally to the grieving family.   They are rarely alone for weeks.   Food is brought to their home and house work done.    In order, for the extended family of the deceased to fully grieve they need to see the body.   Funds are raised to return the body home.    Similarly, they will rally for a wedding.   The expenses of a large function are met by many bringing food and contributing financially.    You also see this sense of shared generosity in the East African Harambee (pull together) culture.  When an opportunity arises that requires more resources than an individual can muster the community throws a party, and people contribute resources to overcome the obstacle.    

As our family spent so many years serving with Africans we many times contributed to the community needs.   Then as we became more African in culture our relationships and generosity also became quite reciprocal.    

One way this happened was that as our kids graduated from high school and began college we never had enough money saved to pay their bills.    With each graduation we hosted a graduation harambee party.   Each time we were surprised at the generosity of our community.   We never took in enough to pay all the bills, but our community “gave us a push” to get through the first year.   With just a little push each child found a way to keep at it until they graduated. (To get some more answers about our harambee culture please read https://misionarytonorthamerica.blogspot.com/2018/06/frequently-asked-questions-about-ruths.html. )   

This year; our daughter, Ruth graduated from high school.  She was accepted to Judson University in Elgin, Illinois.   Judson is a small Christian liberal arts university with an exceptional photography program.    The total yearly cost is about $42,000.  Ruth through scholarships, grants, and loans had assembled about $34,000.   Thus, we need to discover about $8,000 more to pay for Ruth’s first year at Judson.  Ruth is working two jobs this summer to put together more resources (usually about 55 hours per week as a lead janitor at Wheaton College and sales representative at Furry Babies.)    

We hosted a harambee graduation party for Ruth on June 23.    Dave, Caleb, and Ethan grilled a goat and 200 chicken legs.    About 80 friends attended.    Acholi dancers from northern Uganda / southern Sudan performed.    Several of us made speeches to bless Ruth.    We prayed for her future.    At the end of the harambee our community had raised over $2,600 to get Ruth started at her university this fall.   (If you would like to also contribute to Ruth’s harambee we've set up a Go Fund Me account where you can contribute at https://www.gofundme.com/ruth-mirembe-jenkins-harambehttps://www.gofundme.com/ruth-mirembe-jenkins-harambe.) 

You see the African Diaspora who we serve with do contribute to our family and ministry financially.   

The majority of those who contributed and attended were African immigrants.   Yet, a portion were native born European-Americans.   Some of them remarked that though the function was not a church it shared many church like characteristics.    We concur.    We ate together.   We spoke words of blessing to Ruth.   God’s Word was read.    Songs of worship were sung.    We prayed for Ruth’s future.

You see in our African Diaspora communities our Christian faith is very vibrant and part of life.   Its’ very rare to gather and not have conversations shaped by God’s Word.   It’s very rare to gather and not pray for God’s guidance.   It’s very rare to gather and not praise God for His goodness.   It’s very rare to gather and not try to help one another.   These are the intuitive traits of our Diaspora communities.   You see them when we gather in secular community organizations.    You see them as we visit in one anothers' homes.    You’ll even see them as we gather in cookouts and soccer games through the summer.

Yes, our gatherings look much like a church.   Yet, we’ve found it is almost impossible to get our gatherings into a church like weekly rhythms.    Our community is too spread out geographically to all be together weekly.   Also, the nature of our living and work keeps us busy and scattered.    We’re students.   Many of us are working 2 to 4 jobs.    We never quite know what will arise in a week’s time.   We can come late and stay long for events of great importance.   Yet, to get us all together for only a little over an hour weekly is almost impossible.

Thus, we’re concluding that as America became a Post-Christian nation our ministry agenda must be to primarily provide pastoral care for African immigrants so that they can well adjust and serve as humble missionaries to America.    We thank you for sharing in that journey,

Mungu akubariki (May God bless you,)

Dave and Jana 

P.S. Contributions may be sent to:

Ignite Church Planting
P.O. Box 189
Schererville, IN 46375 

Online contributions can be made at http://www.ignitechurchplanting.com/donate.html
By clicking the "Donate" button you will be taken to a secure site where you can give your donation.  Select "Giving Type" and designate your gift for "Nations Chapel."