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Life inside the Fearless Summit in Nairobi – Kenya – Part 2
The interesting things i saw and heard-

Bishop Titus Masika who is the founder of Christian Impact Mission shared about the impact of Christianity in the world today. He and his wife Agnes Masika made their presentations with a lot of energy. He has written a book called Mindset Change For Community Transformation which I bought and will read.

He left the comforts of Nairobi city and re-located to a remote area called Yatta where he started several poverty alleviation initiatives that have reported blessed the lives of so many people. We need to emulate his life by finding solutions to the problems that we and our people are facing.Leaders find solutions to problems,not excuses.

He urged that Churches need to fight the dependence syndrome by empowering the people. The answer for Africa’s problems lies within Africa, he said.

To make Africa first world, we need to have a mind-shift. Africans need to leave the box that we have put ourselves in. “Don’t just go for conferences and not take action on what you learn. Get out of the box! Take action,” he told the congregation.

At some moment he asked those who attended the conference last year and had taken some action to impact their lives and communities to stand up for recognition and also, so the angels can ‘take note’.
The bishop stated that a time has come when Christians “must grow” in all spheres.
“We have the capacity to change our families, communities, countries and to position Africa where it is supposed to be,”

Bishop Masika shared stories of how people from the UN, European Union, Israel government have all visited his village empowerment model and replicated it in other countries. I actually plan to visit his projects later this year.

Agriculture is one area that am very passionate about, and I strongly believe that unless if we Uganda start taking commercial farming seriously, this country may continue lagging behind in terms of economic development.

Bishop Masika is using Commercial farming as a vehicle to help himself and his people get out of extreme poverty.
It seems to be a desert in much of the Kenyan village of Yatta but that has not stopped these guys from using modern farming technologies to produce food in large quantities.

Now, God gave Uganda a big blessing in the form of fertile farm land with two planting seasons, very few other countries have this sort of rare blessing.

Uganda has a population of about 35 million people who have to eat everyday.So, in agricultural, we have ready markets, ready money waiting for us.

Now, with all the fertile soils and all the wealth below our soils, why do we Ugandans continue to import food and other stuff yet we can grow our fresh own food? Why do we continue buying imported goods without producing anything for export?
Any supermarket you enter in Jinja town and elsewhere in Uganda, almost everything sold is imported/made in China. So it seems like for every $200 a Ugandan earns, about $180 goes out of the country.
We are therefore not producing enough. If we produced little and lived a simple life that would be okay. But we don’t produce enough and yet want to live a comfortable life based on imported cars, TVs, Phones, clothes and electronics.

We now have a challenge of either taking advantage of our Rare Blessing (fertile lands) and engage in commercial farming or continue languishing in poverty and continue lamenting that Gavumenti etuyambe.

Ugandans who lived in the 1970s lived a simpler lifestyle. They owned fewer cars, TVs and so on than now. Today Ugandans lead a lifestyle we can’t afford. More cars, phones, TVs, motorcycles but export earnings still from coffee as it was in the ’60s. We consume much more than we produce, which is why our international trade balance grows worse every year. And the answer may most likely lie in increasing our agricultural productivity.

In the 1960s when Obote visited districts and towns, the residents of those towns brought him gifts at the rallies. Today MPs who earn over 20 million shs a month are at M7’s mercy for brown envelopes to pass his term limit and age limit bills. How could people riding bicycles in 1968 afford to buy the president gifts but todays MPs earning over 20 million a month in 2019 still need five million from M7? Answer: With our little production, but living a reckless/careless lifestyle today has made us a debtor nation and somehow reduced us to beggars.

I noticed that the Nairobi streets are wide and mostly named after their local leaders and pan-Africans. In Uganda, most of our streets and institutions are named after white colonial leaders. Streets like prince Charles Drive in Kampala, Queen Elizabeth national park,Rippon road,etc. In the 70s, former president Amin advised local governments to change and name streets after local people and pan-Africans. That’s how we came up with streets like Gabula road in Jinja named after the tribal chief of Kamuli district, Lubas road in Jinja named after the tribal chief of Mayuge people, Nasser road in Kampala (Named after Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein who was the second President of Egypt and a pan-africanists), Lumumba avenue( named after Patrice Lumumba who was the first prime minister of the Republic of the Congo and also a pan-africanists) When Amin was deposed in late 70s, our leaders reverted street names back to old colonial names. I sometime fail to understand Ugandans fascination with white stuff. Why can’t we be proud of our own?

This was not our usual Ugandan Balookole conference where by some pastors just come on stage to boast of how they bought shoes from America and how if we also sow the ‘seed’, ‘wonders’ will happen to our lives as well. Of course there may be nothing wrong with telling people to give, provided people are told of the processes that lead to prosperity other than just speaking big, giving people new hopes and ambitions at the end of each year and leave them at that.
People need to be told that if they do nothing with their lives, nothing much will happen, as simple as that. God blesses us through work not big idle pronouncements.

After the end of the conference, I had to quickly head back to Uganda to continue with my engagements which I had temporally put off. Using a friend’s phone, I called a Taxify tax, a lady who was also heading to Uganda joined us. The guy drove us straight to the airport and on checking his meter, it said we pay KES 800, when I handed the guy my KES 1000 note, he claimed that when he stopped at the check point, the police had stolen his money and refused to give me back the change.And somehow the money that the police “stole” equaled the change he would have given me!! oh my..I didn’t want to urge with him, so I just laughed and let him go.

I checked in with my colleagues and boarded the JamboJet airline, a sister company of Kenya airways, a Bombardier type of aircraft, very small inside and with limited luxuries compared to the big airlines. This seems to be a budget airline for people who cannot afford the big airlines like KQ.Flying over the Kenyan and Ugandan skies,It could only go in the skies up to about 22,000 feet. I sat on the window side,would hear the funny noises,in some moments even thinking(may be falsely) that it could be a junk plane.
I used the opportunity of a window view to marvel at the wonders of this world and God’s creation.

Iam glad I attended the Summit, a lot was learnt and a lot needs to be put in practice. We all need to change our mindset, be agents of change and help our communities transform.
Bishop Masika quoted Acts 1:1- The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach. Jesus Christ taught his people, but also engaged in real actions.We need to do likewise.

I believe the circumstances of our lives are largely dictated by our own decisions, our own behaviors and the choices that we make. The habit of blaming politicians, bosses at work, parents,colonialist, mentors, pastors, etc for our problems will most likely not help us.

We need to develop a mindset of self-reliance through Prayers, self-education, taking action and personal initiative so we can create the life we desire and not just act as mere victims of circumstances of life

Blessings- Edward

                                                          Life inside the Fearless Summit in Nairobi – Kenya – Part 1

On early Wednesday morning of 5th June 2019 last week, I boarded a Kenya airways flight to Nairobi, Kenya to attend the Fearless Summit (www.fearlesssummit.org) that was held at Mavuno Church, Hill City Campus, Arthi River, about 20kms outside of Nairobi City.
This was my second time to travel to Kenya by plane, the first time, it was in January 1998.

The summit attracts people from all walks of life to talk about life issues, especially issues that are generally hindering the growth of communities and the church in Africa with hopes that ordinary people like I, Edward, a villager from Buwenda, can be turned into a Fearless Influencer of Society. This year’s theme was about being ‘Brave’

Before departure, I had changed my money into Kenya shillings at a bank and also loaded some on my debit card.I also loaded enough airtime on my cell-phone numbers. Downloaded a worldwide map which can give you locations anywhere in the world without internet, and learnt some more of Swahili language to get me around incase need arose.

My journey started with an early morning drive to Entebbe international airport. As I was accessing the departure lounge, a lady who looked like a security operative looked at my passport and told me that since it’s an old type of passport it may not be accepted, I firmly told her in her face that it will; she quickly backed off and let me proceed.

The Kenyan airways aircraft we used seemed to be suffering from effects of old age and the in-flight staff seemed to have low morally for their work. This didn’t so much surprise me because I had heard of stories of how the Kenya Airways (KQ) company is financially struggling. So these guys who call themselves the Uganda airlines which I hear was recently launched should take note of these developments and also be prepared for stiff competition from well established airlines like KQ which has plied the Entebbe Nairobi route for many years. If they try other routes, say Addis-Ababa, they should also be prepared for stiff competition from Airline giants like Ethiopian airlines. It will be good if someone can train all workers of Uganda airlines in Customer care, and encourage them to put the learnt skills in customer care in practice.

Anyways after one hour and a few minutes, we landed at Jomo Kenyatta International airport, cleared immigration. As I was exiting the airport a lady approached me for taxi/cab (special hire)services, I asked her how much it will cost to take me to Mavuno church at Arthi River, she said KES- 3000(UGS.1110,000/=), I quickly declined it and told her that if she does not bring it down to less that KES-1000(UGS. 37,000/=), I will call a Uber, sensing that she may lose business,she quickly brought down the prices.

As the cab driver was driving me from the Airport to the Summit venue, I saw that soil is not as red as that of Uganda.
Kenya has about 40% of arable (farmable)land while Uganda has about 60% and it seems ours is far much fertile than that of Kenya. There are unverified rumors that Land in Mafubira sub-county in Jinja district may be the most fertile soil in the whole world. I have no evidence of this, but this is what some people say.
Kenya’s GDP (all its total wealth) is about USD.75 billion while Uganda’s is USD 27billion. So we are far much behind Kenya in terms of economy size but if majority of Ugandans got inspired and decided to engage in commercial agriculture and agro processing,it would give us a big push.

I reached at the Fearless Summit on the first day at around 11:00PM, the weather was chilly, the first session was still taking place. Lots of people in attendance. This space attracts a lot of professionals and young cooperates from the church and the market place.

Later in the day I connected with my host, a Kenyan born Uganda who was very generous and let me stay in his house for the duration of the conference. Our Leadership Institute had paired us with Fearless Institute leaders in Nairobi for accommodation. He drove me to a home with other Kenyan Fearless Institute hosts and Ugandan guests who were extremely nice to me. This was the first time in my life to meet Kenyans who were more hospitable than Ugandans. I had always thought (may be falsely) that via friendliness/politeness towards strangers, Ugandans beat Kenyans. But these Kenyan ladies proved me wrong.

The Fearless Summit is a leadership ministry of the Mavuno church under the leadership of pastor Muriithi Wanjau with branches spread in many countries around the world. He, just like Pastor Mosze is a man with so much influence but lives a life of simplicity and humility. In his book, the 5 levels of Leadership, Dr. John Maxwell talks about the lowest level being the positional level. Sadly many of us African leaders fall under that level. All we do is crave for titles, positions, etc. Yet true leadership according to Maxwell is not about positions but influence.
I pray and hope that many of us can go past level one of leadership. I tend to be turned off by Ugandan Pastors and other leaders who want to surround themselves with airs of importance.

On the first day, one of the speakers talked about the need for Africa to start finding solutions to its problems and thereafter start blessing other nations. I liked hearing this so much, why? Because I meet so many Ugandans who think that solutions to our problems don’t lie with us Africans but with people from far away countries, especially Bazungus. What a Joke!!

Accepting individual responsibility for our lives, our habits, our behaviors, our decisions, our thinking and the people we surround you with, gives us a ladder to help us climb out of our current circumstances.
Blaming others for our life circumstances does us absolutely no good; when we accept individual responsibility, we become growth oriented. We continuously seek to improve ourselves.

When we assign blame, we become victims. We develop a Victim Mindset. As a result, we are unable to grow and improve.
Taking individual responsibility for our life circumstances, forces us to change. That change makes us better than we were the day before.

Other speakers emphasized that Christians need to live beyond the four Church walls. “We need to be transformed beyond our selfish ambitions, our limitations, our horizons and start living for the transformation of our societies as we expand the Kingdom of God,”

Speakers included Worship Harvest lead Pastor, Moses Mukisa; Pastor Muriithi Wanjau lead pastor of Mavuno churches and Bishop Masika among others.

Pastor Moses challenged us to move past a Powerless Christianity to Changing our world; he actually got people on stage to demonstrate how commotion at the gates doesn’t do us any good.

David Kuria a communication strategist talked about how the church is facing a perception crisis. In Uganda,some people,especially the religious ones, generally like to capitalize on the weird behaviors of a few pastors to define all of us-what i call blanket judgement. I remember one time some years ago going on a street to get a loan, the moment I told the lady that am a pastor, she first hesitated to give me the money, on inquiring why, she told me that people who call themselves pastors have been her most stubborn clients.

David also talked about how the LGTB community is investing heavily in the mass media to change perceptions and thereby gain acceptance and recognition. He also cited examples of how a western security outfit invested heavily in the mass media to clean its tinted image.

All Kenya’s leading churches social media accounts when combined are not even a match to the social accounts of Kenyan celebrities. The case is not any different in Uganda.

So the church still has a lot of work to do to increase our visibly in the mass media, to share our transformation stories.

In tomorrow’s story, i will write about Bishop Masika who left the comforts of Nairobi city to move to his rural area of Yatta where he started several poverty alleviation initiatives that are reportedly blessing the lives of so many people.

Blessings- Edward

My second airplane ticket- By Edward

The first time I bought (actually someone bought it for me) an airplane ticket to Nairobi was in January 1998, it was my first experience traveling by air. The day of travel I was full of excitement and village maloo. I have since made a few trips back to Kenya but by bus.

Last week I walked into the Kenya Airways offices in down town Kampala and bought my second airplane ticket to Nairobi, Kenya almost 21 years since I got the first one. If I had an option I would have still traveled by bus because its ‘cheaper’ and am not doing well financially these days, besides I like seeing the country side. But as part of our leadership course requirements, we are supposed to travel by air to attend the fearless Summit (https://fearlesssummit.org) scheduled for next month in Nairobi, Kenya. And I think they have a point, because as a people who are being groomed to be strong influencers in our different spheres of influence, we need conducive environments that will enhance our growth and networks.

Now as I walked into the Kenya airways(KQ) offices, the plan was to buy a return ticket from Jumbo Jet (a sister company of KQ) since its ‘cheaper’ wooo..Ugandans we crave for cheap things.
Unfortunately I found their travel dates not in conformity with my schedule, so I decided to buy a one way ticket with Kenya airways and a return with Jumbo Jet.
Then I noticed something, Jumbo jet dollar to shillings exchange rate is far much higher than that of Kenya airways(Remember both airlines are owned by the same company) two, their luggage allowance is also much lower than that of Kenya airways, any extra kilos of luggage is charged highly. So cheap things are many times not that cheap. People who say that we should avoid them have a point.

After leaving Kenya airways offices, I went to UNEB offices in Ntinda to get a password for our e-registration PLE portal that we missed getting when the UNEB officials visited Mayuge district for training/issuing out passwords.
The UNEB official handed me a list of requirements for all those schools that missed the training. Requirements that would take time and resources to get. The guy hinted on the fact they are trying to teach a lesson to those who missed the training so that next time they don’t miss. My attempts to explain to them that I already know about the law of the pain yield no results.
As human beings we tend to learn things the hard way, I wish it was easy to learn from other people’s failures.

In John Maxwell’s 15 laws of personal growth,Law of pain no.8 which is basically the concept of learning and growing from our mistakes, he says “Each time we encounter a painful experience; we get to know ourselves a little better. Pain can stop us dead in our tracks. Or it can cause us to make decisions we would like to put off, deal with issues we would rather not face, and make changes that make us feel uncomfortable. Pain prompts us to face who we are and where we are. What we do with that experience defines who we become”

Blessings- Edward

The Life of Ugandan Pastors and their wives – By Edward M

Of recent the mass media has been awash with news of a ‘prominent’ city pastor who is reportedly experiencing extreme marital/character issues.

For the last couple of days, I have been coming across many people,some Christians ,majority are religious (Moslems, Catholics, Protestants, etc) while others are unchurched who ask for my opinion on the alleged moral/character failings of  a one city pastor.

Some even falsely think that the actions of the said pastor is evidence of how bad the entire Balokole faith is, how we are hypocrites and a good reason for them to run in the opposite direction, to possibly even comfortably continue in their witchcraft and other evils. I meet many Ugandans who are always looking for excuses not to go to church, so they use (or find comfort in) situations like this to justify their continued indulgence in evil ways.
Of course in situations like this, given that the balookole have high moral standards, it would be ‘understandable’ for religious and unchurched ignorant people to come up with all sorts of allegations that are in line with their biases and be very quick to point out our failures.

I don’t mean to condone the alleged failings of this pastor, and if what’s being said is indeed true, it would be very sad and disappointing as Christians more so pastors, we are supposed to live exemplary lives.
Law 13 of John Maxwell’s 21 irrefutable laws of leadership says that people do what people see.
It summarizes what is often observed in human nature. People tend to mimic the behaviors of their leaders. So I hope that the people close to him and those associated with his congregation may not be so much affected by his alleged moral failures.

With that said, a few questions come to mind.
Is this a problem unique to balookole pastors only, or it’s widespread and prevalent in other faiths too and the wider Ugandan society?
Should all the entire Balookole fraternity be blamed and made to suffer blanket judgment for the alleged failings of one man and one woman ?
When one pastor and his wife do something not in line with Biblical teachings,does that taint the entire faith and everyone associated with it?

I would suggest and think that instead of throwing a blanket judgment and looking at all balookole as a people who have gone astray, we can first and foremost take a deeper look at the Ugandan society, it’s in dire need of good leaders and prayers, the moral decadency is prevalent almost everywhere.Mayuge district (full of religious people) is featured in the news almost every day for bad things. The case is not any different anywhere in Uganda. Remember many pastors and their wives are not superhuman and do emerge out of our broken societies tainted with evil. The Balookole faith has also been highly infiltrated by suspicious people who are posing as pastors but with questionable motives.

So does the fact that there may be bad apples within our faith mean that all of us are bad? I wouldn’t think so. That kind of thinking would beat my understanding.
I don’t know how many times I have heard of stories of moral failures/scandals of Moslem clerics, Catholic fathers, protestant priests, etc. I don’t know how many times I have been cheated by boda-boda riders,lawyers,cement sellers,shopkeepers,taxis,teachers,politicians,etc. Should this be a good justification for the Balookole to also go astray yet they are supposed to lead exemplary lives? it isn’t, but it also teaches us that bad apples are everywhere, be it amongst doctors,,Anglican priests, lawyers,boda-bodas,cement sellers,Moslem clerics, Catholic fathers, teachers ,etc. It also says alot about the urgent need for discipling our people.

Should we condemn all Muslims just because a one Jamil Mukulu engaged in alleged terrorist activities? I don’t think so. So some in our societies who don’t like Balookole should go slow on judging them and not reflect the failings of one man on the entire faith. Even in the Bible, God says that we will be judged on the basis of what we have done as individuals not as a group.

So personally I don’t see any cause for celebration by anyone, including those who may have any axe to grind with the ‘troubled’ pastor. Print and electronic media who are taking advantage of this situation to grab headlines or express outrage further destroy any hope left for the family to re-unite. God is a God of redemption and he writes better stories than we do.

People should also bear in mind that pastors and their wives face a lot of temptations and hardships; many are in the middle of their own sanctification just like the people to whom they minister to.

Another point to note is that balookole churches, just like any other church are full of people who have struggled and some continue to struggle with various sins in their lives. The bitter fact is that we have a fallen nature and we war against it–sometimes without success, which makes our failures all the more visible to the world, a world that’s almost negative by default. Being a Mulookole does not mean we are perfect. Being a Mulokole Christian means that we recognize our sins, try to turn from them, and try to act like Christ. But obviously, we sometimes fail. It’s the grace of God in Jesus Christ as the only answer to our struggles.

I encourage everyone to pray for our country, pray for our pastors and their wives to be protected from the deceitfulness of sin that we all are so prone to. We should also go slow on continuously feeding our minds with negative stuff, they don’t build us at all, Instead of hate, revengeful thoughts, we can respond with more love, care,and forgiveness.

Blessings- Edward