Clinging to the comfort of God

 Dear Family and Friends,

The last eight months have been a wild ride.  The last couple of weeks have been especially hard.  We’ve had to pause and remember.  A part of the Bible that has greatly encouraged us is 2 Corinthians chapter one.  We’ve read a multiple of translations and J.B. Phillips resonated the most with us.  It reads,

 ^“May grace and peace come to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he is our Father and the source of all mercy and comfort. For he gives us comfort in our trials so that we in turn may be able to give the same sort of strong sympathy to others in theirs. Indeed, experience shows that the more we share Christ’s suffering the more we are able to give of his encouragement. This means that if we experience trouble, we can pass on to you comfort and spiritual help; for if we ourselves have been comforted we know how to encourage you to patiently endure the same sort of troubles that we have ourselves endured. We are quite confident that if you have to suffer troubles as we have done, then, like us, you will find the comfort and encouragement of God.

We should like you, our brothers, to know something of what we went through in Asia. At that time, we were completely overwhelmed, the burden was more than we could bear, in fact we told ourselves that this was the end. Yet we believe now that we had this experience of coming to the end of our tether that we might learn to trust, not in ourselves, but in God who can raise the dead. It was God who preserved us from imminent death, and it is he who still preserves us. Further, we trust him to keep us safe in the future, and here you can join in and help by praying for us, so that the good that is done to us in answer to many prayers will mean eventually that many will thank God for our preservation.

 Now it is a matter of pride to us—endorsed by our conscience—that our activities in this world, particularly our dealings with you, have been absolutely above-board and sincere before God. They have not been marked by any worldly wisdom, but by the grace of God. Our letters to you have no double meaning—they mean just what you understand them to mean when you read them. We hope you will always understand these letters (as we believe you have already understood the purpose of our lives) and realize that you can be as honestly proud of us as we shall be of you on the day when Christ reveals all secrets.”

This text so much describes the last few months.  We hope that God will keep us in North Dakota in our current roles.  If we want to minister well, we must suffer to understand others struggles.  This first year in western North Dakota has been one to stretch and learn.  In our seasons in Africa and in Chicago we saw a multiple of times in which painful situations prepared us to serve others. 

To start with news: As I came out of surgery on my spine on July 6 the pain running down my right leg

was largely gone.  Also, I could again start to feel the top of my left foot and had more movement of the toes on my left foot.  The surgery removed the pressure on the nerves going down my legs.  I’m very thankful.  Though I was making progress on healing my broken ankle, full healing would have been impossible without some resolution to my spine issues.  My next doctor’s appointment is on August 23.  Until then I am restricted from bending, lifting, and twisting.  I’m limited in my work.  If things look good, then I can start lifting up to 25 pounds and do some minimal work after this first appointment.  

The final appointment is scheduled for September 23.  I hope at that point to see the spinal fusion has healed and be told I can go back to work and life.   Currently, my days consist of walks on the prairie, rest, reading, and doing all I can to heal well.  

I had expected to receive 60% of my salary on short-term disability.  Yet, last week I only received $22.69.   I’ve made phone calls and sent emails but have yet to get an answer concerning what our finances will look like while I am on temporary disability leave.   We’re almost out of money to buy food and fuel.  

It has also been a difficult season for our son, Timothy.  We thought we should also let you know how things are going for him.  In August last year his supplement security income from social security for his disability was stopped.   We’ve appealed and are waiting results.  When we visit other families with children with similar disabilities denial and appeals process have been common recently.   That has meant a loss of about $800 per month and with that loss limited how much forward progress he can make.   We had been hopeful that he would have a good summer with Paralympic track.   He had worked hard and was stronger and more explosive than in past years.   However, he came down with a case of Covid and missed being able to go to meets.   When he’s at his best his times and jumps are close to being internationally competitive.  Yet, we’ve had several summers in which he becomes injured or is sick.  It’s been quite disappointing.   For the last two weeks he has been struggling with headaches and stomach pain.  He has had one seizure in the last two weeks.   We’re making appointments with specialists and hopeful he’ll eventually turn a corner.

Lastly in our difficulties has been the health of our goldendoodle, Bayley.  We have her as a therapy dog and she’s far exceeded our expectations.   Last month, we noticed blood in her urine and a cyst on her bottom.   We’ve spent approximately $1,000 hoping a less invasive option would cure the problems.   However, our veterinarian now thinks that Bayley will need surgery to remove bladder stones. 

Through all of these struggles of the last month, Jana has taken great care of Timothy, Bayley, and me.   I don’t know how she does it to get us to health appointments, keep our household organized, and keep all of our spirits up.  

My pain has been decreasing and I have almost gone a week without prescription pain medicine.  We are hopeful that this season of struggle will end.   I am scheduled to do interim preaching at 3 churches later in August. 

We are very thankful for how gracious so many of you were last year when I had my first surgery with a broken ankle and was out of work for several months.   We ask again that you help get us through this season.   We are resolved to stay on this course.  If you would like to financially share the journey you can mail a check directly to us, make it out to Dave and Jana Jenkins and mail it to 11309 Main St., Killdeer, ND 58640. Or if you would rather give online through Venmo our Venmo account is @Mzee-Jenkins. Any amount would be helpful.

Thanks so much for your encouraging messages, prayers, and support so many of you have given.

Mungu akubariki (May God bless you,)

Dave

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.