Gifts at Korogocho

This picture was taken at a Catholic church in the Korogocho slum in Nairobi, Kenya. The people up front have come forward to pray over the tithes and offerings. If you look closely, you might be able to see heads of lettuce, mangos, avocados, eggs, and other agricultural items. The people give what they have, and often what they have is not money. Most families in the slums get by on one modest meal a day, so giving up food is a real sacrifice felt in their bellies. Watching these devoted followers come forward with their offerings was humbling. I give to my church too, but what I give doesn't come off my dinner plate. I don't feel the sacrifice in my stomach when I lay down to sleep.

So why do they do it? I think it's because they know the poor. Intimately. Food offerings given to the church are distributed to the poorest of the poor, but who isn't poor in Korogocho? Why is it that people in poverty often have an ability to be generous that far surpasses those of us who live comfortably? Maybe because they have a more realistic sense of the suffering of their neighbors. because they too are suffering. Comfort keeps us safe and separated in a way that makes poverty seem like something you watch on television. Even in our churches we rarely encounter poverty. The lives of our suburban American churches are not typically lived out along side those in poverty. We tend to save poverty mostly for special events. It's easier to cope with that way.

Derek Webb in his song, "Rich Young Ruler," says it this way:

We're all living so good.

We've moved out of Jesus' neighborhood.

Where he's hungry and not feeling so good, from going through our trash.

I think Derek is right. I think many of us have carefully picked neighborhoods where we don't have to meet Jesus (as Mother Teresa said) "In his most distressing disguises. " And the cost of living in our neighborhoods guarentees that the "least of these" will not be able to get in. But Korogocho is Jesus' neighborhood. And it's definitely distressing. I'm amazed and humbled by the faithful who live there and care for Jesus with every last egg and mango they have. Now those are Christ-followers. Nobody can argue with a faith like that.