The Accidental Christian
by
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Every child that we photographed was big and strong, they all looked well fed, and none of them tugged at my heartstrings. Maybe I am just getting hardened to the impossible situation that these children face. I understand perfectly well that just the cost of books and uniforms is a struggle or beyond the reach of many families, and that children with good grades cannot then afford to go on to college or university because of lack of funds. I hoped to start a fund that could grow over the years and hopefully help to pay school fees for lots of children; but by the end of the day, we did not visit a slum and we did not photograph anyone under the age of 11. (When I think of orphans struggling to survive in extreme poverty, I think of young children in ragged clothes, thin from never having enough to eat). I consider the most vulnerable years to be before aged 11 when a weak child can die the first time they catch malaria or suffer from diarrhoea.
My idea was lost in transation. What I wanted to do was help vulnerable children through their early years of struggle, I wanted to help make young children big and strong enough to fight illness. I wanted to try to help improve those damning statistics that scream out from books like ‘The End of Poverty’ – statistics that break my heart – 15,000 Africans dying each and every day of preventable diseases such as Aids, malaria and TB, for lack of drugs that we take for granted.
Yet all I saw was big strong 11-16yr olds. A woman stopped me today and said: “Praise the Lord, my prayers have been answered. My daughter came home from school today and said that her photograph was taken and her education will be paid for.”
It is evening now, and as I sit alone looking at the children we photographed, my eyes are full of tears. All I have managed to do today is give false hope to these children, many will now expect Kenya Brian to provide for them, and I can’t. What have I done? They all look up to me and I can see it in their eyes “please help me, please give me a chance, I am begging you for a chance in life” – and all I can do is build their hopes up, and probably break their hearts. All I have to offer is a game of football, dressing up games and red noses – I can do nothing else but pray for them. Poor health causes poverty; poverty causes poor health; it’s a vicious circle. Orphans who are caught in this trap surround me, they face a lifetime of struggle against chronic hunger and rampant disease and my heart bleeds. Many suffer from malaria but are not treated because often there are no medicines or they can’t afford them. Low cost treatments exist but they do not reach the poor.
As Bono said in the book ‘The end of Poverty in our lifetime’: “If we really accepted than African lives are equal to ours, we would all be doing something to help – it’s an uncomfortable truth.”
I just left a small window open in my mind, I just allowed a small self-doubt to creep in, and the devil came charging in and threw a lifetime of insecurities and doubts into my face: “you’re no miracle worker, you’re just an old man with too many ideas and you’re meddling with a culture that you don’t understand.”
Nobody said that becoming a Christian was easy, but nobody said that it would be this hard. As I try to write these notes, tears are now streaming down my face. The world has consigned these children to the human dustbin and nothing I do will ever change this. How can I look the orphans in the eye tomorrow and encourage them to be strong and courageous in everything they do?
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About the Book
Jeff Lucas, International Author, Speaker and Broadcaster writes:
“Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to go on a real-life adventure?
“Brian Humphreys did, and in this honest, day-to-day account of an ordinary chap getting himself entwined in the purposes of an extraordinary God, we get an authentic taste of what adventure is like. Tellingly he writes that, when it comes to the pain of a hurting world, ‘most of us look the other way’. He did that himself for quite a while, but then his vision, his priorities and his purpose for Mondays as well as Sundays changed.
“And perhaps, so will yours as you read this book.”
Brian Humphreys (author) writes:
“My first visit to Kenya was a blur as I came face to face with the amazing Kenyan race that have a hope, a spirit and dare I say it – a faith – that life will one day get better. My second and subsequent missions made me face up to my own shallow, wasted life. In Kenya, not only did I have to deal with corruption, death and extreme poverty, but also the aftermath of the bloodiest civil war in Kenya’s history as I grappled with my own demons, shortcomings and fledgling faith.
“At times, God and the Devil fought for possession of my soul. There was a time when I lost patience with God and fired him. My spiritual journey took me to heaven and, at times, it took me to hell.
“I went to Kenya to help people worse off than me but they helped me more than they will ever know. I did not change Kenya, but Kenya certainly changed me. I am alive now in ways I never thought possible and my life is a place of joy and freedom.”
About the Author
I’m not a fading pop star or celebrity trying to salvage my career. I didn’t go to Kenya to adopt a child as a fashion accessory, nor did I stay in five-star air-conditioned, flushing toilet luxury. I experienced their conditions, their lives and I felt their pain.
I was your typical ‘Mr Average’ with a house, business, wife and 2.4 children, stuck on the dead-end treadmill of life with no purpose, until Kenya turned my comfortable world upside down. How could I have been so wrong about life?
I still have my home, business and family but I now have a purpose and a burning desire to help those suffering extreme poverty. Kenyans live their lives with such grace, resilience and faith, even though they face a lifetime of struggle and premature death. They deserve better.
I used to look the other way, but watching a community merely survive and doing nothing to help is poverty; but helping them to live is wealth, real wealth beyond imagination.
I dedicate the rest of my life to helping improve the lives of my brothers and sisters in Kenya, the innocent victims whom society has consigned to the human dustbin.
Needless to say, all profits from this book will go Kenya.
Brian Humphreys