Johnny Brooks in Kenya

Happy New Year! My prayer this year for myself, and all of you, is that I inch closer and closer to the person that God has created me to be. I say inch, because I move slowly, and get scared when things to to fast.

So what are my New Year resolutions? Hmmmm, let me think…… Resolutions are about changing what we don’t like, right? Well I like my life for the most part, however there are a couple of things…..

• I’m afraid that the first one is private, and I’m not going to share it with you all. Perhaps next year.
• Communicate better what is going on here in Nakuru, Kenya. I realize that so much happens, and I just don’t relay it to you. Well I’m going to do better this year, or at least I’m going to attempt to do better.
• Tell more stories. I want to get more of our stories out there. In written form, video, and even audio. Trust me, we have some good stories. You will cry, laugh, celebrate, and run for cover.
• I will finish downloading Alice Cooper’s Along Came a Spider. Andrew (my 11 year old son) and I are really enjoying it. (digging it, rocking out to it, grooving to it, spinning it, or whatever the new hip terms are now.)

Now for the ministry project church, just what am I supposed to call what we do? I think I will stick with family. So now for some family resolutions:

• Finish filling the beds in Christopher’s House (our boy’s home.)
• Look for suitable land for our family. We want to do some farming, and build houses to our needs.
• Find some folks who are willing to help us pay for that land, and all the other stuff we do.
• Spread the Gospel of the Kingdom to more and more folks here in Kenya, and abroad. We do this by feeding, clothing, caring for, visiting prisoners, and otherwise loving the oppressed, unlovable, and neglected people of this world.

I pray and hope that 2010 will be a good year for us, for those we are sent to, and for you.

Many blessings.

I strongly believe that we can create a poverty-free world, if we want to.... In that kind of world, [the] only place you can see poverty is in the museum. When school children will be on a tour of the poverty museum, they will be horrified to see the misery and indignity of human beings. They will blame their forefathers for tolerating this inhuman condition to continue in a massive way.

... Invisible Berlin Walls must go. We are not even trying to make it happen. Whenever we talk about the people at the bottom or the poor people, our usual reaction is to write a cheque. Okay, take care of them, feed them, clothe them, give them some place to live. But we don't touch the wall. We simply say, let them stay on the other side of the wall, but feed them a little. What I'm saying they don't need your throw-away money, they don't need handouts. They need an opportunity, a fair deal.  They don't get a fair deal right now. Poverty is the denial of all human rights. I am talking about establishing their human rights. If we do that the walls will disappear. Poverty will go ...

If you think creating a world without any poverty is impossible, let’s do it.  Because it is the right thing to do.

We got rid of colonialism, we got rid of slavery, and we got rid of apartheid – everyone thought each one of them was impossible. Let’s take the next impossible, do it with joy and get it finished with and create a world free from poverty.  Let us create the world of our choice.

You can learn more about Muhammad Yunus at:  http://muhammadyunus.org/

-James Matthews