The doctor and the other volunteers, in conjunction with the MCF medical team, helped to treat hundreds of Yatta sub-county residents. The 10-day exercise took place from July 2 to 12, 2014. It saw over 2,000 people from the Ndalani, Yatta, Kithimani, Sofia and Matuu areas given specialized diagnoses and the treatment of various ailments such as malaria, typhoid, fever, body pains, common cold and arthritic related complications, among other diseases. Specialist doctors were also on hand to handle issues related to dental and eye problems.
Their team leader, Annie, said they were in Kenya to use their medical skills to give back to the society. She said, “We thank God for the various skills and knowledge that He has given us, and we want to be useful to the suffering people of God.”
All of this caused me to reflect on what God has accomplished in my life. As a child, I would never have predicted my life would have turned out the way it has. Who could possibly have imagined that all this could happen? And yet, when I think of the greatness of God—how awesome, powerful and loving He is—I see how His faithfulness has made everything possible.
Chapter Two: Humble Beginnings
It is amazing to realize all that God has accomplished in my life from where I began. It reminds me that God is never limited by our circumstances.
I was born on January 7, 1949, in Kathithyamaa village in Kangundo, Machakos County. I am the firstborn among ten children, nine boys and one girl. Our childhood was very difficult because our poor parents could hardly provide for us.
We lived from hand to mouth, one day at a time. My father, Daudi Kaleli, was a squatter with no land of his own. He occasionally worked on farms with my mother, Rhoda Mukina, in order to feed us. In most cases, whenever they could not provide for us, we had to seek other means of survival for ourselves elsewhere.
In an attempt to cope with our difficult life, my father would often stay away from home. He would only come back at night, and often very drunk. He developed violent tendencies, which added more domestic problems to the already existing ones.
Our clothing was nothing more than tatters. Our housing was ramshackle. I led the life of a street child. The only difference between me and the present-day street children is that I never roamed around in town streets or sniffed glue. Still, I had many similarities with them. I regularly begged for food from neighbours and wandered a lot in the village, to the point that I became a nuisance. Some children from well-to-do families laughed at me as I asked for something to eat from their parents. It was humiliating. But I chose to be ashamed and embarrassed rather than to die of hunger.
When I was six years old, my parents left for Molo in the then Rift Valley province to search for employment. They hoped to earn a living by doing menial jobs in the expansive agricultural farms. I was left in the care of an aunt, who was also very poor. Together with my siblings, I led a life of begging for food from neighbours and other well-wishers. It was not an easy thing to do. But the survival instinct has a strange way of helping to overcome feelings of shame. I regularly moved from one relative to another seeking help, just trying to hang on in life, doing nothing more than existing.
My day started with standing under a scorching sun. I would eat sugarless porridge on those rare occasions when we were able to have something to eat. I would then plot my next move to find some manual job to do in the village. Some days we found work and eventually got some food. But often there were no jobs. And that meant no food.
Despite the harsh economic and social challenges that surrounded us, I had a burning ambition and desire to succeed and make a difference in my life and the lives of my family members. So I tracked the whereabouts of my parents to the city of Molo, where my father was working in white colonial settler farms. Here I started class (grade) 1. But life continued to be unbearable. Not only did we not have food or clothing, my drunken father had sunk even deeper into alcoholism.
I returned to Kangundo a year later and joined the Kyamulendu primary school. I later transferred to Kathithyamaa, where I lived with my relatives. By the grace of God, I was able to complete primary education (grade 8) in 1966 at the age of 17. Unfortunately, I never proceeded to secondary school, due to a lack of money for the fees.
With so many struggles, I began to lose hope in life. I felt that my fate on earth had been sealed—that I was bound to suffer throughout my entire life. I developed a feeling that I would never progress in life. I saw myself as doomed.
I even contemplated committing suicide.
But little did I know that God had good plans for me. He had a purpose for my life. He had designed me to carry out a specific calling.
Yet all of this would happen only in His perfect timing.
During that period of suffering and confusion, a friend invited me to a church event taking place in the nearby town of Kangundo. I decided to go, even though I was not born again and had little interest in the Word of God. I was raised in a society where the Bible was hardly ever mentioned. God was not on my mind. However, I chose to attend this event out of curiosity to see how Christians did their singing and dancing.
When I arrived at the church, I saw a huge crowd. As the pastor preached, I felt he was talking about the very things that were happening in my life. He talked about Christ’s invitation to those who were carrying heavy burdens in their hearts to come to Him and find rest. He talked about God being able to create a way where there seems to be no way and that He turns around difficult circumstances.
“Come to Him, those who labour, and He will comfort you,” the preacher said. “Cast your burden unto Jesus, because He cares for you,” the pastor went on to beseech the gathering. He then added, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” He summed up by reading a Scripture that said, “I am the way and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). I felt the fire of salvation burning within me, and without hesitation I gave my life to Christ that day. I became a born-again Christian. I found a new bearing in life and a renewed hope in God. I was able to relax and allow God to take control of my life.
I went back home a very happy and relieved young man. I had been battling with so many needs, worrying about many things in life—poverty, a lack of education and a bleak future. The more I worried about them, the more difficult they became. I now resolved to allow God to take control of my life and carry my burden. I acquired a small New Testament Bible, which I carried with me in my pocket wherever I went. I mandated myself to read it at least once a day.
As I read the Bible and committed myself to God, I was impacted by 1 Peter 5:5–11:
You who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Yes, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” As a young person, I felt that this section of the Bible was directly addressing me. I chose to obey it fully. Prior to the Kangundo gospel event, I had become desperate. I had thought that taking my own life was the only way out. I saw nothing good in life. But this portion of Scripture reminded me that God cares for me.
At that moment, I was weak both physically and emotionally because I lacked most of the things I desired in life. Yet this verse revealed to me that the “God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will