And that, that's not just some theological statement. No, it's not just some, something hanging out in the ether that goes, well, if you just kind of in your higher consciousness believe that Jesus. No, this is. Jesus is the way and the truth and the life in a very practical, very meaningful, very abundant in this life now kind of way.
Well, hello again and welcome back to the Trim the Wick podcast. I'm, Dan.
And I'm Becky. And this week we're starting off another one of our Kenya episodes.
Yes.
The passion of our hearts.
Right.
We, we love all the cool things, but man, Kenya's got our hearts. One of the things that I've been thinking about a lot recently, probably because we get to see lots and lots of pictures, is the impact that such a simple message has had.
Yes.
Over the years that we've been working there, we've talked to you guys a lot about the ministry that we partner with Pastor Steve and Mariam Bougua in Nairobi Faith Rescue Mission and the work that they do there in the slums of Coyole and Corogocho. Every single time, now that we get pictures of them, they've had T shirts printed.
Oh yeah.
And you see them out in these bright colored T shirts. And it has a very simple
6.
6. And I love that because it invites the question,
6 say?
Satan is the accuser.
Yes.
And Satan always lies and he always takes a little bit of truth and a little bit of, oh, well, that sounds good. And then he just cuts it with a lie. And that passage where Jesus
6, where he says, I am the way, the truth in the life. A simple statement.
But it carries with it so much. And I love, because in the passage, it almost doesn't even make sense when he says it, because Thomas is asking him a question and he goes, lord, you know, verse five, he says, lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? And then Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And if you know me, you know my Father also. And there's this great picture there where Jesus is giving a
simple answer. Follow me. Listen to me. I am the truth. I'm going to be the one that's going to answer the questions. Because that's a question everyone has. Well, what's the way? How do I go? How do I navigate this life? How do I go left or right or Straight. What is it?
Jesus.
Just saying I'm the way, I'm the truth, and I'm the one who's going to give you life. And I think it's such a beautiful picture. And why does that. Going back to what we're talking about here in the slums, why does that resonate in the slums? So. Well, what is the.
It goes all the way back to what we first saw when we were there. Let me paint you guys a picture. The first time that we encountered the slums of Nairobi, we were riding in a little Subaru sedan.
Yep.
going over speed bumps that were like mountains to us. You had to kind of crawl sideways over them with the car.
Yeah. I do not want to see the bottom of the car. After we drove through the streets and.
We kept getting deeper and deeper into the slums, and what you started seeing was just there weren't straight paths. There's dirt roads and you kind of wind around and there's shacks that are built kind of haphazardly through it. Paths. Paths are not clear. If you don't know where you're going in the slums, you don't know where you are.
Right.
There's no street signs. There's no demarcations of any kind. You have to know.
Right.
In order to know.
Yes.
And so if you don't know the way.
Yeah.
You're very, very lost there.
You're completely lost. Because there is no rhyme or reason. It's not like there's a grid system or like, there's no street signs. There's no. And the thing is, is every house or shack or whatever, they all look the same.
Yeah.
So when you plop down in the middle, you turn left or right. It. It all looks the same. You have no idea where you're going in what direction you're going.
It's very disorienting. So it's a place where the way is not a clear thing.
Right.
It's a place where truth is very much missing.
Right.
there are people who have bought into lies. In large part, the slums are populated by people who came with a promise of, oh, there's going to be so much opportunity, there's going to be so much of a better life here. You're going to have this and you're going to have that. And they get into the slums and they find that that's all been a lie. There isn't an opportunity. There isn't a way out. They're stuck here now.
Yeah. And to Put it in perspective or just to get an understanding is that a lot of the people who are living in the slums lived in the surrounding communities. They didn't live in the city. These are not people who were, primarily city dwellers.
And so they were coming into the city for opportunity.
Exactly. They live in areas where they may make, you know, 20, $30 a year salary. And they're coming to the city because the city has money, the city has opportunity. And over the years, people have just flooded Nairobi.
Yeah.
And they're looking for opportunity, but there are no opportunities for people who have no skill set. There are no opportunities. There's a little bit for people who have strong backs, who can dig holes and move things and stuff like that. But outside of a very small group of people to do that, opportunity is not there.
And so what happens is they come into the cities and end up in the slums because they can't make enough to have a well appointed home.
No.
And so they end up in the slums. And so there's this compounding effect of we're lost in a place that has no way out. We are entangled by a lie to the point that we now have no resources to change our situation. And so then they come to a place where, you know, again, the opposite of I'm, the way, the truth and the life is that there is no way, all lies and nothing but death.
Right. And what you do see a lot in the slums, in that last category of nothing but death, you see people that are so under it all that escape is the only thing left to them. And so they are escaping by means of drug use. They're escaping by means of alcohol abuse. They are seeking to make their own ways out by turning to prostitution and gang violence, which is leading to sickness and death in a
multitude of different ways. So I mean, the slums just kind of embody the antithesis of Jesus being the way, the truth and the life. And so what's really been amazing to watch is one of the very first. Well, the very first time we were there and we encountered all of this and it just, it breaks your heart. You kind of almost don't even know what to do with it. It's so heavy.
Right.
Because this is not what we walk in in our day to day. There are different waylessness and lies and death in our culture, but it's so in your face in the slums. And so that very first time we were there, God laid on your heart a message where he took you, took the congregation to Genesis, where Satan was absolutely lying because, you know, it's what he does. And how in this answer that Jesus gives in John
6, he literally directly opposes Satan's lies in Genesis. He says, no, no, no, there is a way, there is a truth, and there is life in me and only in me. When that message was brought, again, because of how things are culturally there, access to the Old Testament scriptures is very limited.
Right.
And so they had heard
6 before.
Right.
But they hadn't heard it in the context of. No, this is Jesus answering Satan's lies.
Yeah.
And this is Jesus offering humanity all the way back to the beginning, a restoration through himself. Because of the clarity and simplicity of that message, it is now the message that is being walked out in their ministry, in Pastor Steve and Pastor Mary's ministry, every single day. And they wear it emblazoned on their shirts. And this slogan of their ministry has now become. It's so simplistic and I love it. It is, drugs are not the way. Prostitution is not the way. Alcohol is not the way.
Jesus is the way. The truth and the life. And there is so much restoration that's being brought through that simple message.
Yeah. And again, I think of how desperate when you're there in the slums and when you talk to the people, there is a desperation because they are lost. They are hurting, they are hungry. The lot of disease, a lot of sickness, all around them. And it's a scary place. I mean there's a lot of crime, there's rape, and there's assault and drug addiction and alcoholism is everywhere. I mean, we, we do services and there will be people who
come into the services and you know, they're drunk. I mean, you can smell the alcohol off of. So you get, you know, just drunks coming into the church because it's just so prevalent. It's just everywhere. What Pastor Steve and Pastor Mary, this idea they just kind of taken and run with, you know, is that we don't have to be these great orders of biblical teaching and theology. And you know, for a lot of people, they just need to have Satan basically punched in the nose.
And corrected and shut up with. Listen. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life what you've been given, the life that been put in front of you is a lie and it's destroying you and it's killing you. You need Jesus. And that's the message that they're putting in.
It is that simple and that straightforward.
And I do, I Think about how so many times we make it more, we make it harder than it has to be, is that we need to live that Jesus is the way, the truth and life. And for us, it encourages us because it keeps us on the narrow in our day to day life. When we're trying to make decisions and trying to make, choices, it's like, no, wait, let's focus on what Jesus said. Let's focus on what Jesus, he's the way, the truth and the life. I need to
follow him to have abundant life. I need to follow him and have eternal life and I need to follow him. He's going to keep me on the straight and narrow way so I don't fall into all these other, other problems and other issues. We've seen this church that is, in a real tough slum and all the slums are tough, all the slums are
bad. but one of the things is that we've seen how the people who are now going to this church, the members that are there, how they've embraced this and they've taken it outside the walls and this is where it has really taken on. So the ones that were there who have been impacted by this message and changed dramatically, now they're taking it outside the walls. And you can walk the streets around the
church. It's interesting how when we first went, the first couple visits that we were there, you know, we literally went from the car to the church building car, you know, I mean, and Steve parked in a way to where our door opened and we walked right into the do of the build of the church building. Now we walk the streets. Now we walk the neighborhoods and we go into people's homes and businesses. We just walk in and we're free.
To pray there and we're free to bring light there because they have begun to see that there is a different way.
Yes.
a lot of them don't understand it, but they understand the change that has happened. They understand that there are people who were in prostitution who are now building thriving businesses, earning a living wage, you know, doing hair or, you know, sewing things or washing cars. Washing cars. any number of different honest, industrious things that do not bring death and destruction to themselves and others.
Right.
And so there's starting to be this curiosity in the slums of. Well, wait a minute. I thought, I thought that drugs and prostitution and were my only way out of here. I didn't see another way.
Right.
But I'm beginning to see another way in you. Who is this? Jesus?
Yeah.
Can I walk that way too. And it's changing everything.
Yeah.
It's restoring life, it's restoring hope.
Yes.
It's restoring direction and purpose in lives.
Yeah.
And it's a beautiful thing.
Well, and, you're seeing the transformation that Jesus can make in an area when people are changed by Jesus, their lives are changed. everything around them changes. They have an effect because now light is entering dark places, and you're seeing that. And, you know, the church that Steve and Mary started has gone from 12 people m. To now it's hundreds. You know, we've done services where We've had over 200 people in this building, and the building has grown three times, and
they're continuing to grow. And this is where our partnership, where we want to connect with them and love with them, and the work that they're doing is. Steve really has a vision to give them even more paths, you know, of training in business and training in electronics and things like that, and teaching how to, you know, work in mechanics and stuff like that. Start training these men to give them skills that they can use to find jobs, skills for some of these women to use so they can find
jobs. So that the only path is not a path of destruction, and alcoholism and prostitution for money, but they can actually support themselves. And you're starting to see that happen over. I mean, it's been seven years, eight years since we started going there. And we've seen a dramatic change in the people in the church and in the community. And that is our heart
and that is our passion. And that's where we kind of bond with them in this idea of portraying to the world, portraying to the slum around them is Jesus is the way.
And that. That's not just some theological statement. No, it's not just some, something hanging out in the ether that goes, well, if you just kind of in your higher consciousness believe that Jesus. No, this is Jesus is the way and the truth and the life in a very practical, very meaningful, very abundant in this life now kind of way.
Right. And, you know, it goes back, and this is where I made the connection, is that if you go back to Genesis chapter 3, Satan the Accuser and the liar and the one who wants to kill, he confronts Eve and basically throws down three lies that God told you not to eat from this tree. You're going to trust him. You're going to think that he has a better way for you.
Well, yes, because he is the way.
Right. Also tells that, well, surely you're not going to die. You know, God was a liar is what Jesus, or what is what Satan says.
And Jesus counters it with, no, I'm the truth.
And then he's. He says that, well, guess what? You ate from the tree. You're not going to die. And guess what? Everything died.
And yet Jesus restores to life and.
Says that I'm life. And so that is the thing that is being preached and being taught is that all of these lies that you've been told, where Satan put these roadblocks, put these things in front of you, and you bit, you bit on the apple and said, this is where I'm going. Jesus says, no, I'm the way, the truth and life and Steve and the ministry they're doing there, and Mary, they're telling the people, you don't have to listen to those lies and eat from that apple. You need to come and eat from
Jesus. His body, his blood, who he is. He's the one who's gonna give you life. And again, we.
And the truth of that is being lived out day by day.
Yeah.
In the slums to the point that former prostitutes, former addicts, former gang members, former murderers, former, you know, name, name the crime or name the sin. There's. There's a former. One of them right out there walking the streets of Nairobi wearing a bright colored T shirt
6, and inviting people to meet the way, the truth and the life.
Yeah. So, guys, thank you so much for hanging out with us again this week. As you can tell, we love Kenya.
We do.
We love the Lord. We love to see what God is doing in Kenya. And if you want to partner with us and the work that we're doing there, you can go to our website and you can click on the tab Mission Work. And it gives you an opportunity where you can buy food. We feed children there in Kenya every week in the slums and also in western Kenya. In the slums in western Kenya and Katale, you can partner with us as we continue to grow this ministry there.
we want to eventually have a learning center and a school and a technical center to start training so those who are there in the slum can get business, can get technical training, engineering training, things like that, so that they can get jobs and transform the slums from the inside out. If you'd like to be a part of that, you can go to our website, click on that and that will give you some opportunities to support the work that we're doing there. Well, I think that's it. for this week, so.
Yeah, so we'd love to have you join us in what we do over there. But also, you know, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, wherever you are, too. So if. If there are lies, or if you see destruction in your life, or if you are feeling like you don't know which way to turn, look for Jesus. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life.
Amen. All right, we'll see you next week. Love you.
Bye.