Brown Envelope...

Those of you who live in Nairobi have heard of 'jobless corner' that area outside the Hilton where you may find frustrated Kenyans some young. some old holding brown envelopes looking all beat with dusty shoes. I once was in that category 'consultants' who were freelancing. Was a few years back just after I'd left campus and it's so easy to forget that dry period once you get settled in the working world. That I did after finally making it to the land of milk and honey after roaming in the desert for a while.

It truly is a time of ups and downs, false hopes, trails that lead to nowhere, some that lead somewhere but it is so gratifying when you find that all elusive jobs. Who likes receiving those all too common regret letters- usually from your dream employer who you may have been praying, even fasting for. Attending interviews some promising, some total train wrecks as you are out of your depth because they're clearly expecting a more experienced person. There are also those that may have even gone smoothly but you never heard back again from the prospective employer!

Graduates usually come into the working world with great expectations and their dream career mapped out in their heads and after a few months you realise what a jungle it is out there. You may have been thinking what a superstar like me with an honours degree? they'll be jumping over each other to snap me up! They are of course th fortunate few who like step out of campus into work and even have to take leave for graduation then they are those who stay for  months even years before getting a job. You really can't predict what will happen next. Then as usual there's those adverts that ask for somebody with x years of experience and you wonder what to do with 0 years! Crazy time it is and the Kenyan job market is pretty much an employers' market and many find themselves snapping up the first thing that comes along.

Inevitably frustration may creep in when you find yourself still hanging there months later, maybe you do an internship or something like that for little or no pay but all of us want that big pay slip at the end of the month. What a relief it is when the waiting finally ends and you get called for that interview and what can measure to the joy of hearing that you've actually been hired for the job? Before then you have to survive on hope and prayer as it's a season that is temporary not permanent.

Well all this hits pretty close to home for me, not the first time as a 'consultant' but have the unenviable title of being between jobs. Experience is a bit more intense as I know what it is like to have an income and so have even greater motivation and sometimes frustration esp when I know I gave something up for what I expected would be better. Of all the virtues we aspire to have patience is the hardest one to cultivate- somebody once said it carries a lot of wait but I know in the end I'll emerge stronger. as for now it's waiting praying and walking around with those brown envelopes!

One of them!

All Kikuyus like money!

All Luos are proud

All Merus are bad tempered

Guess you've heard them all before

All men are dogs

All women want is money

You can't trust men

Maybe you've heard that too

It may be true that some are

It is also true that some are not

But how will you know

Without a chance given?

See all men have their flaws

Women too are not left behind

Life may deal have dealt you a bad hand

There is yet a different tomorrow

Just because the other did it

needn't mean the next one will

Lest you end up giving the label

He is just one of them!

Essential Reading

Been a while since I trudged the land that is the blogosphere but I've come across some Kenyan blogs of late that are a great read mainly due to their humour, wit and great writing

Here goes
http://bikozulu.wordpress.com/
http://diasporadical.wordpress.com/

enjoy!

Be Prepared!

Ephesians 6:10-20





Vs 13: put on the armour so that you may stand in the evil day.





The time to put on the armour is all the time especially when things are good- keep training yourself. Even when there is no war soldiers are constantly training so that when the battle comes they’re ready. Keep exercising your spiritual muscles! ! Tim 4:8



If you don’t prepare before when the battle comes you’ll be exposed and easily defeated. A soldier does not start donning his armour when he sees the battle at hand, he does it way earlier in the barracks before he set out.





What is this armour that we are told to put on? The fact that we have to put it on means that it doesn’t come from ourselves but from God It’s actually described in the order in which it is put on by the typical Roman soldier.


The Belt of truth: Verse 14 The belt was the first item to be worn with leather strips hanging down to protect the legs. As a Christian you are supposed to live a life of practical truthfulness and honesty otherwise how else can you stand against the father of lies? Also just as a belt holds the armour together truth will hold our life together with a sense of direction and  purpose


Breastplate of righteousness: Verse 14b Was made of hard leather or metal and goes all the way around the upper body. This righteousness is not just that of Christ received through salvation but the righteous, practical character of believers. Doing that which is good and right will guard our hearts whereas ungodly living brings on emotional guilt as well as judicial guilt.


Feet ready with the gospel of peace: Verse 15 The soldier wore hard studded shoes to protect his feet. The Christian should always be ready to go out to defend and spread the gospel.


Shield of faith: Verse 16 This is above all. The shield was large 4 feet long and 2 and half feet wide and offered sufficient protection for most of the body. When we put our faith in God Satan’s assaults cannot penetrate


Helmet of Salvation: Verse 17a Protects the head. A blow to the head will most likely be nearly fatal. The same way a helmet protects the head the "hope" that salvation provides can protect our minds against things like despair and fear.


Sword of the spirit: Verse 17b This is the only offensive weapon in the armour of God. In Hebrews 4:12 the word of God is likened to a sword A believer has to have an intimate knowledge of he bible and not only that but speak specific words into the specific situation


Prayer: Verse 18 It may not be part of the armour per se without prayer the armour would be of no use and we are told to “pray always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit” vs 18. It is a continuous process come rain come sunshine we have to keep praying. In fact when things are going well that’s the best time to stock up your spiritual reserves and build your muscles because a time will come when you will not have the strength to do it yourself and others will have to stand in the gap for you. When Joseph was in Egypt (Genesis 41:17-36) they had 7 years of plenty in which they filled their stores for the 7 years of famine that were to come. However we may not always have the luxury of knowing the coming season but if we are always prepared the battle shall not overcome us.





This message was inspired by a conversation I had recently with some of my friends about a season of trials that came my way recently but somehow before then my spiritual roots had been deepened and it was like God was preparing me for what was to come. If the battle had found me far from God I would so easily have succumbed but thank God that my shield of faith had been strengthened and was able to use the sword of the spirit to wage war. So my final word to you is keep working at it, praying, spending time in God’s word even when your life seems flat you can always stand with those in the midst of hard times and the time will surely come when they’ll stand with you.







Be blessed



P.S  saw this somewhere on facebook





A Christian streaker - someone who puts on ONLY the helmut of salvation! We also need the belt of truth,the breastplate of righteousness,the shoes of readiness to share God's peace, and the shield of faith! And above all, we need ALWAYS to trust in God thru prayer. Barbara Johnson.



and that's the 1st sermon :)

In your Dreams

It's that time of year again where I blog about an exceptional movie I have had the pleasure of viewing. Last year Avatar gave us a visual feast but may have been a tad bit thin on storyline. However this year's pick takes the cake. What's more this is a repeat offender - Christopher Nolan directed my 2008 pick The Dark Night. This time he's taken even more honours as the writer and director of Inception. Similar to Avatar for James Cameron, Inception is a labour of  love for Chris with him having started work on it in 2001 and it was well worth the wait!

Chris has delivered a movie that requires your complete concentration from start to end due to it's intricate multi-layered storyline- bat an eyelid and you may miss something. I suppose if I watch it again I'll pick up some details I missed the first time round. The storyline is pretty fresh too, the last movie I watched concerning dreams was Nightmare on Elm Street though it bears a lot of similarities. Complex as it is that doesn't mean that it's all cerebral as it has a good number of eye catching action sequences to give your eyes a feast. Another thing I liked about it was that the dialogue was pretty clean not laden with profanity like some other action movies.

One thing I'm not falling for is 'Mombasa' They tried really hard to fool us but any Kenyan who's been there will realise it's not authentic. Kind of sad that a scene like that which would have easily been shot locally and done some good for our film and tourism industries ended up being shot in Morocco.

The only negative thing I can think of about the movie is that there was no strong main character but in general it's a good movie which will get nominations for Technical aspects at the Oscars. I'm guessing Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, maybe even Best Director and Best Picture who knows. Christopher Nolan has struck again!

And for my parting shot something I came across on the net- ' Leonardo DiCaprio looks really dreamy in Inception'

Only on paper?

We have a new constitution. Last week we went out in our numbers to give our opinion on the proposed law and the overwhelming majority approved of it. This is a long awaited moment in the history of our country, the culmination of a long struggle which started about twenty years ago. No doubt this is a significant event as we put the pieces together for a new Kenya after the tragedy of the post election chaos in 2008 otherwise known as agenda 4. Some have gone as far as to say that we have a new Kenya. In the heat of the moment we would be tempted to make such conclusions but is it really true? Do we really have a new nation or is it just new on paper for now?

A new Kenya spelt out in that document, changes to our political and social order which well executed will have great benefits to all. However for now it remains as a book- a collection of words on paper. It will take human effort from our leaders and the citizenry at large to make it work. For instance since it was approved social ills like bribery, corruption, inequality still exist. Political change is easy on paper but the social change needs to come from the minds and hearts of the people who have to be willing to change, so let’s pull together and make it happen.

Similarly a long time ago a people were set apart by God for special blessings and were given a set of laws by which to live by and God promised them good success if they kept them –Joshua 1:9. They were numerous and covered many areas of life and would no doubt be hard to maintain, looking at them critically they offered a way to walk clean and righteous. However they failed miserably time and time again and suffered the consequences for it by being taken into captivity and in various other ways. Of course I’m talking about the story of children of Israel in the old testament who were called out of Egypt into the Promised Land. They may have failed in keeping those laws but the Lord promised a new better covenant where he would write the laws in their hearts forgive them their sins and would not need anybody to teach them. Jeremiah 31:31-35. A different kind of law where God does not leave them to their own devices but promised to pour out his spirit on them-

The lesson we learn from the Israelites and their numerous failures is that the written law can not produce the desired change, the people have to obey and change the way they live. In other words the transformation comes from the inside out not outside in. How great it is that we now have a covenant where the law is now in our hearts through Christ who is in us Romans 8:9-11 not just the dead letter of the law 1 Corinthians 3:6.

So now as we reflect on change in our country, my question is have you experienced the greatest and most lasting change? That can only come from God working within you and obedience to his will. Be blessed

Microsoft and Safaricom- a comparison

Was thinking about these two companies which have become giants in their respective fields over the years and I noticed there are some similarities between the two that go beyond their dominance. So please take a few min to look at my observations.

We begin at the top of the two companies. Both have been driven by leaders who are similar in some ways, Microsoft had Bill Gates as it's founding president and Safaricom Michael Joseph also known as MJ. They're both said to be bullies and driven by results and another vital element is their vision. Gates' vision was to have a computer on every desk and MJ's driving force was to take communication to the people. Largely both companies have succeeded in that and most importantly their strategy was to go for the common consumer while their competitors went for the niche markets- Apple in the case of MS decided to keep their architecture locked up while Kencell went for the high end of the market. So by catering to the masses they achieved their now dominant positions.

Another similarity os found in their early days. When MS- DOS was chosen as the operating sytem for the IBM Personal computer in 1981 they hit the jackpot. This was probably the event that propelled them to the great heights they enjoy today. In essence they piggy- backed on a bigger company and that enabled them to support the other clone makers too. Safaricom on the other hand were also part of Telkom Kenya and had the luxury of using their infrastructure as they were setting up.

Another thing that I've also touched on a bit is their competitors. Apple produced the Macintosh which was generally considered to be technically superior and had a better interface but had the disadvantage of being more costly. Therefore the average computer user stuck to the good old black and white interface of DOS. Closer to home Kencell too had a more reliable and congestion free network but they also suffered the same disadvantage of cost as Apple did and the masses flocked to Safaricom.

The public relations and marketing of the 2 companies is also similar. MS may not have created the graphical user interface but they popularised it as they did word processing with Word, spreadsheets with excel and presentations with powerpoint. They were alble to package and market the products in a format that was acceptable to everybody. Safaricom too were not the first network to offer for example internet services or airtime transfer but with innovative products with catchy names like bambanet and sambaza they endeared themselves to the Kenyan people.

As far as accusations go they have been 'guilty' of similar crimes. Microsoft have been for a long time accused of monopolistic practices by using their market dominance to undercut the competition. A good example was the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows which led to Netscape's demise. Safaricom have also had their fair share of problems being accused of locking their subscribers in with tariffs that discourage off net calls.

Interesting coincidences can you think of any more?