Hope does not disappoint

After a lot of discernment, I have decided on a ministry. I actually started the role a few weeks ago at the beginning of June. After six months of preparation – language school, immersion and getting acclimated to Kenya and Mombasa, where I will be living and working for at least the next few years – I’m finally in a position where I can start working with and helping others in a greater capacity. This is why I came to Kenya.

As I understand is the case with a lot of missioners, my ministry is not exactly what I thought I would be doing when I decided to come to Kenya. However, I feel I have made the right decision. I had originally thought that I would teach – most likely computers, or possibly math and science. However, our Lord led me in a slightly different direction.

My ministry role is administrator for the H.O.P.E Project, which serves orphans infected and/or affected by HIV/AIDS across 10 parishes in Mombasa. H.O.P.E. stands for Helping Orphans Pursue Education. The goal of the project is to provide orphans with access to an education and the prospect of a career so that the can be self-reliant and have the best opportunity possible to succeed in life. H.O.P.E attempts to accomplish this by paying for school fees, exams, uniforms, shoes, books and other school supplies based on need. Some students are funded fully and others only partially. H.O.P.E. also pays for transportation and meals and in special cases, boarding, depending on circumstances. Since its inception in 1999, H.O.P.E. has assisted about 2800 orphans. There are 138 orphans currently being served by H.O.P.E.

H.O.P.E. also runs tutorial sessions for the students – every Saturday while school is in session and three times a week during school breaks. There are also number of events hosted throughout the year for the orphans and their families. These range from sports days to seminars to assist with family and social issues to retreat type sessions for spiritual enrichment. 

Kenya is one of the most HIV affected countries in the world, with an estimated 1.6 million people currently affected by the disease and many tens of thousands of new cases reported each year. With approximately 36,000 AIDS related deaths yearly, many children have lost at least one parent to AIDS, while sadly some have lost both. Of the 2.6 million orphaned children in Kenya, close to 1 million, nearly 40% of all orphans, lost their parents to HIV/AIDS. Even if there is a surviving parent, that parent will most likely be HIV positive. On top of this, more than 40% of the Kenyan population lives below the national poverty level and the unemployment rate is more than 40%, so even children with a remaining parent are very often either abandoned or left with a relative. As most often the relative either has school children of their own to support, or simply doesn’t have the means due to the poverty and unemployment situation, these guardians are unable to provide for the educational needs of the orphaned child. Without an education and with no prospect for a job, youths end up out on the streets where they are vulnerable to radicalization, trafficking, exploitation, gangs, drugs and diseases. 

The goal of the H.O.P.E. project is to ensure that no child orphaned by AIDS is deprived of a basic education. Through a holistic approach addressing the orphan’s well-being and the development of a healthy environment in which to thrive, the hope is to provide the best chance of success for each orphan and their guardian/family. Without this type of healthy and safe environment to learn, grow and mature, and the opportunity for an education, many of these children would end up living on the streets where they are vulnerable to exploitation, radicalization, gangs, drugs and disease. Through the power of education, the hope is to eventually reintegrate these children into society as valuable, contributing members.

My role as administrator will be to manage the operation and finances of the project, promote donor relations and funding, maintain project data, coordinate with the H.O.P.E. board of advisors, report on the project, and maintain community relations. Working hand in hand with me will be Florah, who has been a full time social worker on the project for a number of years.

I am taking over the project from Coralis, who was the coordinator for the project early on in its existence and more recently has been the administrator for H.O.P.E. for the past four years. Coralis has been a Maryknoll Lay Missioner since 2000 and has served most of this time in Kenya, but is returning to the US at the end of the year. Coralis was born in the Philippines, but moved to the US after college where she lived in San Francisco and raised five children. Coralis was an investment banking firm administrator before joining Maryknoll.

Although I didn’t necessarily want to work in a ministry role as an administrator, the more I learned about the H.O.P.E. project, the more I got hooked. I was initially concerned about not working directly with people, but although nominally an administrative role, that is not the case with H.O.P.E. I will work with a number of different groups of people in my ministry job. First and foremost, I’ll be working with the orphans – getting to know them, their life situations, and their educational needs. I’ll also be tutoring them in our weekly sessions and three times a week sessions during school break. I’ll be working with the guardians’ who are responsible for the children and doing home visits to understand their home life situations. I’ll be working with H.O.P.E. board of advisors on strategy, assessments, and candidate applications. I’ll be working with the schools that the orphans attend, meeting the school headmasters and in some cases teachers . I’ll be working the community of health care professionals and health care volunteers, who identify the candidates and provide health care services to the orphans and their families. Finally, I’ll be working with Florah, my good friend and coworker. Florah is a Kenyan and has been working with H.O.P.E. as a social worker for many years. Florah is the sister of Anne, in whose home I am currently living together with her husband Richard and two children Joel and Hope.

Prior to discerning doing my ministry as the administrator for the H.O.P.E. Project, I looked at a number of other potential ministry jobs, including teaching computer classes at a technical institute. In fact initially, I thought that this might be the ministry I ended up choosing. While I know that I would have been completely happy teaching at the school, which is wonderful environment and would have provided me the opportunity to work with students all day, which is what I thought I wanted to do, I ultimately decided on H.O.P.E. Even after I made my decision, Coralis and I discussed potentially working on H.O.P.E. only part time and also teaching computer classes. In the end, I decided against this as I think it is better that I focus on one thing for now. The more I learn about H.O.P.E. the more ideas I have on new things that I want to try to implement. I’ll be sharing everything I’m doing on H.O.P.E. in future blog posts. Right now, however,  I need time to not only learn all the details of administering the project (luckily Coralis is around until the end of the year), but also want the opportunity to start exploring some new things. All of this is in addition to the normal day to day activities of the project that are ongoing. If in the future, I feel I have some spare time and want to supplement my H.O.P.E. ministry with teaching computer classes, I think the door will still be open for me to do that.

While I’m completely happy with my H.O.P.E. ministry role, it does present a few challenges, but which in the scheme of things, are relatively minor. The first is that we have two locations for H.O.P.E. – Changamwe and Mbungoni. While the two locations are less than nine miles apart, traveling between them is not pleasant. It takes slightly over an hour door to door and involves walking, which is fine when it’s not pouring rain, and two matatus, the infamous minivan/minibuses that serve as public transportation here. I’m not yet certain where I’m going to live once I move out from Richard and Anne’s home, but as I can’t live in two places at once, some commuting is going to be necessary. If there was just one location, I would simply find a place close to it and problem solved. On a positive note, Maryknoll treats the commute as part of your ministry work day. So although the commute doesn’t necessarily mean more work time, I’d much rather be spending my time doing something “productive” rather than riding matatus. However, as Coralis keeps telling me, I need to get over that type of mindset. Everything we do here can be ministry. It’s all in how we do it. Being present to those riding the matatu with me is ministry. I’m unfortunately still working on fully accepting and internalizing this. The second unpleasantry is that I will typically have to work on Saturdays. That is when the tutorial sessions are as the children are in classes at school during the week. My work week is now Tuesday through Saturday, with Sunday and Monday off. I guess it doesn’t really matter that much that I’m shifting my weekend, except for the fact it makes it difficult to do weekend activities with others. However, as all the other missioners here in Kenya, with the exception of Coralis, have been able to negotiate their work schedules as to work Monday to Thursday – same number of hours, just more hours per day – and have a three day weekend almost every week, this makes working on Saturdays and even harder pill to swallow. :0)

I thought it providential that the Second Reading yesterday, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, talks about the virtue of hope – just as I begin my ministry on the H.O.P.E. (hope) project.

“… we boast in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint …” (Romans 5:2-5)

As St. Paul tells us, hope in the glory of God because it does not disappoint. Yes, there will be afflictions – struggles, challenges, and disappointments, but persevere. God will give us the graces we need to endure, but more than just that, to thrive. The struggles that we face will transform us if we allow them to, if we open our hearts in trust to our Lord who loves us without limit and gently prods us along the path of sharing our life together with him.

As I begin my ministry here in Mombasa, Kenya, I am both excited and grateful that God has given me the opportunity to service him in this capacity, but at the same time anxious as I want to do a good job in serving those I’m called to help. I fully know and expect that there will be many challenges ahead, but I trust in God and know that all things will work out for good as hope does not disappoint. I boast in the hope (H.O.P.E.) of the glory of God. Please pray for me as I begin this new phase of my journey.

God is good.