Training Leaders

Many of you received an email from us last month telling you about our desire to equip and train the leaders of Community Christian Church on computers. We had the pleasure of hosting our first recipient, Paul Lupempe, last week.

Paul is the manager at the Kajiado Training Centre on the eastern side of the Rift Valley. He is also pastor at the Miton Community Christian Church (featured in my facebook photos as the site of the baptisms and ordinations earlier in the month), secretary for Community Christian Church at large, and serves on another board within CCC. He is a very busy man! The picture below is of Paul and his lovely wife Rose. They have two children - a boy named Sare and a girl named Sinandei.
Here is a bit of background about Paul and a glimpse into Maasai culture:

Paul is the first born son of the first wife of his father, who ultimately had four wives with a total of about 24 children. He died in the 80's leaving Paul, as the first born son, to care for all of his children and their mothers. In order to do this, Paul had to delay some of his studies, although he did eventually finish high school and went on to get a certificate in accounts. Seeing him take to the computer as he did, I have no doubt he would have gone much farther given the chance. Instead, he has worked hard to put his remaining siblings through school, trying to ensure that there is an educated male within each of the mother's households to help share this burden. This is now true of his father's second wife and soon to be true of his father's third wife. Unfortunately, the fourth wife did not have a son.

Many of us would hear this story and wonder why the wives did not seek employment themselves or remarry. My guess is that they are not educated enough to be employed as the thought of educating women within Maasai culture is still trying to gain ground. Remarriage is not really an option within Maasai culture. As I reflect on this story it makes me wonder where our responsibilities lie for our family. I think that as Americans, we can err on the side of neglect, putting our loved ones on the back burner or leaving them to someone else's care. At the same time, my mind can't help but wonder where Paul would be today if he hadn't had the responsibility of his father's children...