Today The World Is Thinking About Love

Today the world is thinking about love. Everyone is celebrating love. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” There are many expressions for love but the one that I am thinking about lately is being present with others. For me, I feel God’s love the most when he is present with me. When I feel joy and know that his arms are all around me or when I am very broken-hearted and can hardly lift my head but I feel his hands lifting my head and I know that he will either change my circumstance or will be with me as I walk through the shadowlands.

In our years in Africa, I learned firsthand what being present for others is. When we first moved to Uganda it was the height of the Aids epidemic.  In some places, as much as one in every three adults were HIV positive. This was before many retroviral drugs were around so there were many deaths. The coffin building business was booming. They would stack their coffins up on the side of the road. It was the small coffins that would really tug at my heart. When someone would pass, their family, friends, and their entire community would gather and sit with those who were morning for days before and after burial. And many would gather a year later to sit and remember. When someone was sick, people would come and sit with you. I think even in my Grandmother’s time it was a part of the culture to sit with those who were sick. People also gathered for celebrations, from weddings to graduations, friends and family were present. Even in the mundane rhythms of life others were present with you, as squeezed into public transport, or when one went to collect your water or do your laundry, and what I loved the most was visitors that would just pop over to your home. I loved all the porch visits. Even among the ex-pats and other missionaries, there was more sitting with others. You go through intense adjustments and you have left your home, family, and familiarity with this new place. So you recreate a new family, new friends, and a new community. Fun parties to sharing deep conversations over coffee are had. Missionary friends Laura Sager and Barb Bennett from Rwanda who was visiting me in Chicagoland and we were recreating our porch time! We have been in North Dakota now about 4 months. One of the main things that we are doing with EADC ( East African Diaspora Community) is building new relationships and a big part of that is sitting with people and being present. Our western culture is very rushed, where busy is worshipped. Many times the people around us are hungry for someone to just sit with them. Hear their stories, see them.  I remember a new Rwandan friend of ours when we had just moved to Rwanda who had also just come back from living in Europe share how he had felt like a ghost there. He said no one saw him. I think what he meant was no one was present with him-- everyone was rushing around. These last few months we have attended many East African events and sat with others and heard their stories. We have been invited into their homes, both in times of celebrations but also in hard times. We have listened, sat in silence, prayed together and have shared with each other God’s love.   A few of us taking a picture by the Christmas tree after attending Adonai Church, a pan African church with Rwandan leaders. In this season where we are all focused on love, may we show God’s love to others. To the single mom who is struggling to make ends meet, to the international student far from home, to the new immigrant family in our community, to the older widow in our neighborhood. Let’s be present in their lives today! P.S. God has even shown this principle to me as our son has been recovering from foot surgery our Goldendoodle, Bailey has laid with him and been present with him during these difficult times. Thank you so much for your prayers and support! We could not do this ministry without you. If you would like to give online, you can give at  GIVE TODAY Or mail a check to  East Africa Diaspora Community P.O. BOX 480 Wheaton, IL 60187

Giving Tuesday Jenkins With East Africa Diaspora Community In Bismarck, North Dakota

After serving as missionaries in East Africa for 19 years the Jenkins moved to Chicagoland where they served as missionaries doing several different things but mainly serving with East African Diaspora. Last year we started a nonprofit East African Diaspora Comunity EADC Website/website which is a project of Faith and Learning: Faith &Learning Website Their most recent news is that the Jenkins has made a move to Bismarck, ND to serve with East African Diaspora that is moving to America's heartland in the second wave of immigration. Dave is also taking a job as a part-time teaching Pastor for Revive Christian Church https://revivebismarck.org/

I am sitting in our new living room in our apartment, an old historic high school building that has recently been renovated into apartments. We love our high ceilings and tall south-facing windows. For those of you who may live in cold climates, we now know how much south-facing windows that let in the light bring so much joy! We are almost all settled in and I have even decorated for Christmas. We are looking forward to hosting an open house Christmas party later this month and have invited all our new friends!

We have had many moments here that have been only orchestrated by God-- I like to call it God prints! One is the woman that cleans our building is a Rwandan who Dave had seen her sons' pictures in the local newspaper on the sports pages.  What a small world! In our short few weeks here we have already worshipped 3 times at a Rwandan church( Dave has preached twice and I have given a small testimony and prayed) We have really enjoyed meeting Rwandans, Congolese, Kenyans, and Ugandans. We are looking forward to building these relationships. Dave has shared more about this in our: missionaries to North America blog.   

Not only does this light that floods our new apt with light it also brings warmth and we are praying that God will bring his light and warmth through us to those that have traveled here from afar and are trying to make a home here. We hope we can come alongside them and whisper " God has you here for a reason. It is not just for your education, career, or because you had to flee your homeland but God has called you such a time as this! You have a voice! You have a rich Christian heritage, you have unique gifts that you can give to the American church and her post-Christain status!" 

Help us as we have answered God's call to serve as missionaries here in North Dakota. We are thankful for Dave's part-time pastor job as it basically covers our housing but we need more support to do the work we are called to. This giving Tuesday please consider giving a one-time gift or becoming a monthly partner with us.   

To give you can either send a check to:

 

East Africa Diaspora Community

P.O. BOX 480

Wheaton, IL 60187

 

Or make an online donation at GIVE NOW

Thanks so much for all your prayers and support! We could not answer this call without your partnership! 

2018 Year End Newsletter

Dear Family and friends,

Can you believe 2018 is coming to a close? This has been a year of transitions for our family and ministry. We got our first granddaughter, Peniel Angelica Cardillo who has been such a joy.

Jana enjoying a visit with Penny in the fall

Caleb and his wife Sarah moved into the apartment building next door. Love having family as neighbors. Ethan is finishing his last classes at Wheaton college and applying to grad school. Ruth just finished her first semester at Judson University and Timothy, although it has been a rough fall for him with his health, was named to the 2018 U.S. Paralympics Track & Field High School All-American team.

Timothy with his first place medal at Junior Nationals 

Dave and I went from working 4 different jobs down to focusing on two ministries. We are still serving as houseparents for homeless mom’s and their children here at Jubilee Villiage. Secondly, for those that are following us on FaceBook and in our past newsletters we have shared about us starting a non-profit, Diaspora Outreach Community (DOC). We have been serving in these roles as missionaries to the East African Diaspora here in Chicagoland since we returned from Rwanda 6 years ago. Now we are able to put our full focus on this. This has been a leap of faith and we are counting on your support and prayers to carry us through.

Some of the highlights this year in our ministry has been helping to host an East African summer cookout. Coming alongside the Tanzanian community to reach out to other East Africans and we were thrilled with the over 300 attendees.

Tanzanian East African Summer Cookout 

New friends were formed and connections were made. Networking with some credit unions to find help for our East African Community in the future with low-interest loans and financial advice. Celebrating with those in our community over becoming U.S. citizens. Grieving with those who have lost loved ones and helping our community grief from afar.

Last night we had a young man who graduated from KICS( the Christian International school we helped to start in Rwanda) and has just finished his college degree from Trinity and is now living close by. It was nice to hear about what is happening in his life, help him brainstorm about his future, and we are hoping and praying he finds a fulltime employment as he was recently laid off.

Dave receiving an award for service at the Ugandan Christmas Party

We love going to parties and hosting gatherings in our home. We find that God is using us in these times to encourage others and speak His words to those who are struggling. Please continue to pray for us as He uses us to bless and disciple others living in diaspora here in Chicagoland.

We would love for you to prayerfully consider giving a yearend one-time gift. We are also looking for more monthly contributors. We have limited funds at the moment so we were only able to send this newsletter out to our short list. Congratulations you were on it!⇁😃 (Now we are sharing this in Jana's blog)

Some of you are already giving to us and we want to say thank you so much. Your support really means a lot to us.

If you would like to contribute to our ministry send a check to Cornerstone Christian Church, 312 Geneva Road, Glen Ellyn IL 60137 and put Diaspora Outreach Community in the memo. Thank you very much (Asante sana. Webale nyo. Murakoze cyane.)

We hope you and your family have a blessed Christmas and a joy-filled New Year!

Blessings,

Dave & Jana Jenkins

Support Update

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Hopefully, you have read our latest newsletter, or seen our FB posts and live

videos where we have shared that we have started a nonprofit or parachurch

organization to enable us to better serve East Africans as missionaries

here in Chicagoland.

Friends and family that joined us for Thanksgiving last year

 We have been working on filing papers and all the things you do to get
a new organization started.  We are having to move faster than we had hoped
and have run into a few roadblocks. We are thankful to share that
Cornerstone Christian ( this is the church where Dave has officed
at over the last 3 years and where we are currently worshiping)
has stepped up to receive our missionary support as we get
DOC -- Diaspora Outreach Community up and running.

Thank you so much for supporting us. Ignite is no longer receiving our funds,

the director of Ignite is serving on our board so it has been a smooth transition.

If you have any questions or would like to hear more details from us please feel

free to write us or call.

This has been a tough month for us as Jana has had major surgery

and Tim has been sick and has missed almost 3 weeks of school.

Family and friends have really helped out during this time.

We really appreciate all of you who have brought food, cook,

bought us groceries and who have just come and sat with us during this time.

Please send your contribution to Cornerstone Christian Church,

312 Geneva Road, Glen Ellyn IL 60137.

Please put Diaspora Outreach Community in the memo.

If you want to set up a direct deposit please contact us

and we can help you set it up.

Thanks again so much for praying for us and

supporting us as we serve as missionaries here in Chicagoland.

Blessings,

Dave and Jana

6 years in our America Mission Posting

So we have been in our new posting in America for almost 6 years. Sometimes it has felt like one long extended furlough and I am ready to go back home--to where ever that is???

When I look back over these last 6 years, and ask myself what have the Jenkins been doing? I see several themes. One big one is relearning and trying to find our groove back in our passport country. A lot has changed in the U.S during the two decades we were gone. Did we idealize America, when we served overseas and have returned a bit dissolution? We tried very hard when we first returned not to make too many harsh judgments but to try and look at America through the same missionary lends that we did other postings.

We thought we would return and fit back into middle-class living but unfortunately, we have had to learn how to live in poverty. The last 5 years we have teetered on the poverty line. I almost hesitate to write this as we have had so many given so sacrificially over the last 6 years of which we are so thankful. But we have also had several years where we could not keep up with our monthly bills, where I would hear a truck go by in the night and think it was the repo guy coming to take our van away. Thankfully today all our cars are paid off ( 2 of them were given to us). They are older vehicles so we occasionally have maintenance cost but we are thankful. Our kids have received free lunches or reduced lunches at school, we have stood in line for free food. We have continued to host people and serve meals to those that God brings our way.  When you are at this level for an extended period of time, it can really wear on you. We are constantly in survival mode trying to figure out how to make everything work. There have been some helpful people that God has placed in our lives that have helped us to navigate the system to get some much-needed resources. It is hard, to be honest about this. We were on food stamps for a season and have had help with Health insurance. When we have sat in American churches we have felt marginalized at best. Judged at worst. Many times we feel like a project. One thing that I can share is that it has helped us empathize with others that walk this similar journey.

Another is trying to use our gifts, experiences, and relationships and answer God’s calling in our lives. We love our friends and family from East Africa. Many are in and around Chicagoland. We have been able to go to parties, and host parties and fellowships with those from East Africa. We have laughed together, prayed together, and cried together. We have had weddings, celebrate births, and mourn the loss and buried some. Over the last few years, we have tried to plant an international church. Challenging our East African friends to be missionaries here in America with the idea to reach other multinationals. As we have spent time and energy doing this, we have spent less time with the larger East African community pastoring them. Ironically, as we have done the day by day of trying to lay a foundation for our church plant and doing the weekly set up and service we actually feel we have discipled less. We know from past church plants that in the beginning you need to delay gratification and there is a lot of drudgery and grind. This phase has lasted longer this time around. We know we need more core people and resources to get to the next stage. Are we stretching our community too far? Are we asking too much from our partners? Is the American church not ready to receive missionaries?

We have tried many things in this season. Currently, we are doing 4 things. First, we are still trying to serve our East African community. This last month, we hosted a couple of concerts for a Ugandan Mother and Daughter Christian artists. Dave helped to raise money to send the body home of a Rwandan friend that died too young. Dave also spoke at several East African social and spiritual events.

Secondly, we are houseparents for a transitional home for single moms, this is a volunteer position that provides housing for us. We have enjoyed mentoring these young Mom’s and serving with a great team here at Jubilee Village but it does take time and emotional energy. Here is a story of one of the girls on our floor . https://www.outreachcommunityministries.org/jalenas-story/

Third, we are planting Nations Chapel. We have a great place to meet at Outreach Community Center in Carol Stream. We are so thankful for this location. We are meeting Sunday afternoons and usually share a meal together after worship. We are still just a small core that is consistent. Ignite’s monthly financial commitment was up in December 2017( they have been helping with $1000 per month) but they are still receiving funds for us from other individuals that support us as missionaries in America.

Finally, since January, Dave has been interim pastor at Lighthouse Fellowship Church in Huntley, IL. https://lfchuntley.org/ This is a congregation made up mostly of retired people. We have enjoyed getting to know them. They are a wise group of people. In addition to being with them on Sunday, we usually spend one day a week visiting the members and Dave attending the deacons meeting. We are finding ourselves falling in love with this community.

Dave has also been spending extra time with our son, Timothy in this season as he has had some health challenges with his Cerebral Palsy. In addition, I have had some health difficulties that started out with having melanoma skin cancer in my left arm and has sent me on several Doctor visits and many tests. Thankfully most things have come out fine but they did find a mass on my tailbone, at this point, it is benign but needs to be removed. I am having an MRI next week with a follow up with the surgeon on how to proceed. We would appreciate all of your prayers for this and also Timothy’s health.

As you can see it is a very busy season and we are struggling to do our best in all four of the ministries we are involved in plus family life. We would also like you to join us in prayer as we seek God to give us wisdom as to how to hone down some of what we are doing. We feel we need to focus on two instead of four things so that we can better serve. We are trying to hold things loosely and asking God to make clear what He wants us to do. Thanks again for your support and your prayers!

Blessings,

Jana and Dave

P.S. We are excited to announce that we are grandparents and we will meet our grandbaby face to face in July when he/she decides to make an appearance. We have enjoyed having Matt and Sophia here for Easter. It was a real blessing to have our whole family together.

 
                                           ( Ruth, Sophia, and our daughter-in-law Sarah)

Journey Home Part Two

As much as I enjoyed the smells, tastes, and sights of my Uganda home, what really makes a place a home is the people--the relationships that one has built. It was great to reconnect with David, our driver and his wife and beautiful children. We all went together to Kampala Church of Christ in Old Kampala. Unfortunately, this was the same weekend as the National meeting for NTC leaders and many of our dear friends were not at church. However, we were able to reconnect with several members that were there. It was good to see and hug several of them. After church we met Areyantu, a friend of ours for lunch. She treated us to a Ugandan buffet---the food was delicious but the rich conversations were priceless. She uses to be the editor for Relate magazine but now holds marriage and family seminars. It was good to hear about what was happening in the churches in Uganda, both the growth and challenges they are facing. I enjoyed hearing her and Dave dream about an online Christian East African newspaper….maybe someday in our next chapter….

Jeff Cash a missionary serving in Fort Portal, Uganda for over 20 years came with his 14-year-old son to pick us up and take us to their home for a couple of days before we went on to Rwanda. I can not tell you the joy that I had seeing and hearing Dave and Jeff talk and solve all the world problems!

Hearing them tell stories and laugh together and process common ground was a treasure!It was also breathtaking watching the view of the Ugandan countryside.

As we were driving, hearing Dave and Jeff's visit made me think this is what it is like to live in the same town with someone, go to the same church, being lifelong friends and sharing similar life experiences. Living a life as a missionary has a lot of blessings, you get to have many rich relationships with people from all over the world. The negative is that friends come go. I remember on furlough, about 6 really good friends moved away from Rwanda while we were gone. Several new families moved to Kigali, so as expiates do I made a new set of friends. Your relationships tend to build deeper fast because you both are experiencing being stretched in a new culture and in life there you tend to be very interdependent on each other.  For example, many times you spend holidays together like family.

I was getting eager to see Cheryl and the rest of their kids. Even though, we had not lived in the same country for many years, we kind of grew up together in our time in Uganda. We had overlapped with the Cashes, 10 of our 11 years in Uganda. These were the best of times and the worst of times, and they did life with us. We have a similar journey and as we moved to Rwanda we still would visit each other and would pick off where we left off. Thanks to FB , blogs and phone calls over furlough we had kept up. This had been the longest time since we had shared the same space. Sitting at the dinner table that first night was so rich. Hearing how their kids were turning into young adults, so wise beyond their years, and seeing the unique friendship that missionary siblings develop, warmed my heart.

Although our time with the Cashes this trip was brief, only two nights and one full day, we soaked up our time together. I enjoyed sitting on their porch and visiting with Cheryl.

I love her wise counsel and enjoyed catching up with more details of their joys, struggles-- both their victories and trials. We also laughed a lot! Remembered good times and not so good times…. But could both bear witness to God’s hand through it all. In the evening, we went to a beautiful lodge that overlooked one of the many breathtaking crater lakes that surround Fort Portal for dinner. After dinner we sat by the fire, we were the only ones at the lodge that night… it was good to visit and hear about all the things that God is doing through Jeff and Cheryl and their family. They have been a presence of light in and around this region for over 20 years. They are recognized in this community for doing good, as community leaders, wise teachers, and evangelists. We are so blessed to call Jeff and Cheryl our friends!

Journey Home Part One

They say home is where the heart is but I am afraid my heart is broken into pieces because I have several homes. We were blessed last month to travel to a few of my homes. We arrived at 3:00 in the morning to Entebbe International Airport, I was greeted by the fresh night air with a bit of asphalt and exhaust fumes...such a familiar smell. We were one of the first off the plane as we were seated on the back row. This was nice as we were able to rush through the immunisation check and onto the visa office. It was nice to hear a familiar accent and kind welcome from the officer as he perused through our worn passports looking for an empty page. “ We would like an East African tourist visa” we asked, but he answered you are not tourists...Dave shared, “ Yes, we use to live here for 11 years many years ago”. He quickly gave us our visas and we moved to get our bags. Thankfully all 6 were there and we left the airport with ease but as we glimpsed the crowd of taxi drivers we did not see our friend, we called him on the phone and realised he was on his way. We quickly found some seats with a table in front of a coke kiosk.

      As we sat , we all committed that we had that feeling of belonging and that sense of home that we had not felt yet since moving to Chicagoland. It is funny how when you have not felt a feeling for over 4 years and you feel it again, it is kind of a surprise….a nice surprise...we knew exactly what to do in this situation. There was no thinking or guessing what the crowd was thinking or how we should respond ...it was second nature to us. We felt very comfortable even though everyone was staring at us. Many were asking at first if we wanted a ride but when we sat down they left us alone. Dave went into the shop and bought some chapatis (flat bread) and some passionfruit juice. Now we were really feeling at home! Such familiar sensation in our taste buds.

  Our friend that use to be my taxi driver but now has his own tourist business came and picked us and drove us into Kampala. It was now about 4:30 A.M as we drove on the airport road into Kampala. My mind drifted back on that first drive over 24 years ago when my sister had picked us up at the airport and we had driven this road for the first time. Back then the thing that had jumped out to me was all the coffins that lined the roads from the coffin stores. This was sadly due to the Aids epidemic that was at its highest point , where one in every three people were HIV positive. This time, I could not even find one coffin shop. What struck me, this time was all the houses and businesses that lined the road… and lights, lots of light.

We were being dropped off at the old American Club, which was one of our favorite haunts that we frequented often. Every Monday like clockwork our family would spend our day off at the club. Swimming pool, playground for the children, gym, and American food was such a special treat. It was also a fun social time as many other missionary families would also be around. Even missionary friends that lived up country would come and stay in the guest rooms. This would be our treat for our first day back in Africa to stay one night at the American Club which is now called the Makindye Country Club. I had sent an email requesting an earlier than usual check in of 5:00 AM. We found that the room was all ready. After unloading the car which the staff generously helped us with, we collapsed into our beds.

I was the first to wake up at about 9:00. I was eager to look at everything in the light of the sun. Everything was much as I had remembered with a few renovations and additions done over that years. The breakfast was one of my favorite things that were served at the club. I went and sat in our usual spot, comfy chairs that overlooked the pool area.

As my coffee was brought to me , my mind was flooded with all the memories of conversations that had taken place in this same spot. I was glad that I was up alone. I was able to have some sweet fellowship with the One who had drawn near me all these years and who has been my sweetest confidant these last 4 years in our transition.
As I was sitting there I could almost hear my kids laughing and playing with their friends. As if 20 years ago had not happened yet...I could see my three toe heads bouncing around with little Ruthie running after them ….and later Timothy would be on my lap...no!... Time had past and we had moved to Rwanda after 11 years in Uganda and then had moved to Chicagoland , where we have been living for the past 4 plus years. My oldest daughter had graduated from college and wedded, my two older sons are finishing up their university time, little Ruthie is now a junior in high school and baby Timothy is turning 14 years this month...I reminded myself. No these were not my little kids I saw swimming and laughing in the pool….time had passed...but I could remember and savor those sweet memories...I could be thankful and rejoice that God had allowed us to journey in this land for a season. I was thankful that we had been given a chance to return and to be reminded again that this life happened and it was real!