Jose and Manuela came to the United States with their two children, Enrique and Maria, nine years ago. Jose was hard working, good with his hands and quickly found a couple of jobs doing manual labor on construction sites around town. Manuela cleaned houses four days a week to help make a little more money for their family.

Together they dreamed of their small hometown in Mexico and often talked late into the night about their plan to return. After working for a few years, they dreamed, they could return home. They would use their savings to build a small grocery store, buy a few chickens and raise their children with plenty of food to eat.

They worked hard. They saved. They prayed. And their children grew older.

Finally, after nine years, the day came. They had saved up enough money to return to Mexico and fulfill their dream!

But then, the unthinkable happened. When they told their children about the plan, Enrique and Maria wanted none of it. In fact, they started crying. Maria held her face in her hands and Enrique stormed off to his room.

Over the next couple of days, Jose and Manuela tried to talk to their children about why they wanted to return, but the kids wouldn’t even entertain the idea. After long discussions, arguments and even a few raised voices, the truth became apparent. Their children did not want to return to Mexico.

Suddenly their simple plan became a whole lot more complicated…

—————–

Ok, so I made up Jose and Manuela. They are not real. But their story is.

To which culture does he really belong?

You see, many Latin American immigrants come to the U.S. each year looking for work to support their struggling families. A lot of them plan to return home once they’ve saved up enough money. But the one thing they rarely take into account is the changes that their children will undergo in the U.S.

That’s one of the things I’ve already been so fascinated with here at Shepherd… watching second generation immigrant children adapt to American culture.

First of all, most of these “third culture” kids are bilingual. They speak Spanish at home, but have perfect American accents when they hang out with their friends.

It’s so interesting to hear the middle-school aged girls in my host family rattling off a whole sentence in fluent Spanish with their parents, only to turn around and say something to me in English just like any other pre-teen American (complete with the word “like” every three words or so!).

Their entertainment is a completely mixed bag, too. In one evening, it’s not uncommon for my host family’s kids to turn off hip-hop music to watch a Disney teen show (with a guest appearance by Hannah Montana, of course) and end the night by flipping over to an epic Mexican soap opera on Univision!

How much does her last name say about who she really is?

When it comes to food, their stomachs are definitely bi-cultural. A common week’s diet might include tacos and Big Macs, enchiladas and pizza, rice pudding and Twinkies… The other day my host family and I started the day with pancakes and ended it with pickled jalapeño peppers!

These kids definitely have a foot in both worlds, and it creates some very interesting situations.

But there is a dark side to this multiculturalism as well…

Children born in Latin America and raised in the U.S. have a very hard time fitting in anywhere. With their American classmates, they discover that they have “weird” customs and eat “weird” food. They face a wall of stereotypes and prejudice from people who wish that they had never left home at all.

But what is home to a third culture kid? Talking to their parents, these kids are baffled by the way their parents think and act. It’s not the way their neighbor’s parents act… Trying to imagine raising goats in a tiny village seems absurd. Why do their parents look back with such fond memories?

With all this in mind, it’s not too hard to understand why so many Hispanic kids end up in gangs. Imagine… a place to belong. A community of like-minded friends with a common ancestry.

In a gang, nobody thinks you’re weird if you listen to Spanish hip-hop. Nobody looks down on you for being “foreign.” Gangs are a place for the uprooted to put down roots.

At Shepherd, many early-learning tools like this calendar are written in English and Spanish.

But it’s obvious that gangs can have dangerous implications. Thankfully, they are not the only place where a new cross-cultural identity can be formed.

At Shepherd Community Center, for example, Hispanic kids are encouraged to value their cultural heritage. Although they teach in English, many of the staff members here have learned Spanish to better communicate with them. Parental classes help first generation adults adapt to the realities of their kids’ changing worldviews.

Most importantly, at Shepherd these kids can find a new cultural identities, not as unwanted foreigners, but as children of God.

Now, I may never fully understand what it’s like to be a child of two cultures, but I do have a brand new respect for the Enriques and Marias of the world.

And thanks to the work of Shepherd, kids like them are finally able to have some respect for themselves…

You’ve already heard about Karura Youth Sports Association (KYSA) and the impact they’ve had reaching at-risk youth through soccer leagues and community service projects.  Now meet the man behind the ministry, Pastor Evans Makatia, who sat down with me after a busy month of community clean-ups and tournaments, to tell me his own story.

WND: First of all, what is your role here at Karura Community Chapel?

EM: My name is Evans Makatia.  I’m the pastor of the church in evangelism and missions.  It’s a big portfolio! There is evangelism and missions, there is the prayer ministry and the Swahili [weekend service] ministry.

WND: And since you are the director of KYSA, can you tell me a little bit about how KYSA was born?

EM: When I came to Karura, there was a church soccer team.  People used to meet as a pastime after services to play soccer.  Through that, people in the community started to come, young people, to play with us. We invited them to church, and that became the sports outreach ministry wing of the church.

At another point, one of the members of a Karura small group, who is the director of MYSA [a youth sports program in Mathare Valley slum], told us, “You guys, we can enlarge this.  Let’s not just think of soccer and bringing people to church, let us think of community development.”  And we agreed, with that small group and the board members, that we would take the MYSA model and bring it here, and put it in our context and add the character development bit to it.  And since then, KYSA has never been the same.

Young, at-risk, boys playing for KYSA's soccer team.

WND: Wow.  Now I’ve heard you say that it’s a miracle you are here at Karura, in this role.  Why do you say that?

EM: It’s because first and foremost, I have a past.  As I grew up, I never imagined I would be a pastor.  As I went through school, my focus was to join the army, because the people I had in my family were all soldiers.  And also, I was not born again.  In high school I answered several altar calls.  You know (laughs), they preach, you’re convicted, you answer, but no discipleship, no follow up, so you end up not really transformed in your lifestyle.

So after high school I did drugs.  I smoked marijuana for more than 10 years.  I was addicted.  I could not sleep without a roll of bhang.  Also I was a football player, and before I entered the field I used to smoke.  So I used to smoke cigarettes, I used to drink alcohol.  I was violent.  If you place your camera close you’ll find some scars… This one is actually a bottle of beer I was hit with (pointing to the bridge of his nose).  Nowadays I’m violent in the spirit.  The energy you see me put in ministry, then used to go to the things of the world (laughs).

And so that’s my past.  When my father died, there was no one who could help to connect me to the army, because in Kenya it is who you know.  Rarely do you just go by merit.  I had not gone to college, so I started working as a casual laborer on building projects, the people without any training.  But I was not born again, so because of my drunkenness, I lost that job.

And after that, in 1998, I made a prayer one night after reading T.L. Osborne’s book How to be Born Again.  Since then, I’ve never looked back.  By the grace of God, I’ve survived the ups and downs.  When I got saved, I went to Nairobi Lighthouse Church.  I really thank God for that church.  They are good in discipleship.  Retention of newborn believers: the best church around.

Now when I got saved, people would not believe it, because of my reputation.  There are people who said, “Now, you’ve lost your job, that’s why you’ve gotten saved.”  But I told my friends, “Listen, God helped me.  I want to be a model so that people will look at me and say, ‘yeah, there is God, there is salvation.’”

Through Lighthouse, I was [involved] in many small groups, and that birthed in me the passion for ministry.  It gave me a platform to learn.  I became a leader of other small group leaders.  For two years, I did a diploma in Biblical Studies.  My desire was to be a pastor.

WND: And how did you find Karura?

EM: Pastor Mike (the first Christian I met after I got saved) was in the process of planning a church plant of Karura.  So I teamed up with Pastor Mike, and for two years I served there.  And I prayed to tell God, “If you want me to serve in church full time, confirm it.”

Then one day, I picked up the church bulletin [at Karura], and I found they had advertised for interns.  I told God, “I’m going to apply for this.  If I’m called, then I’ll know you have called me.  If not, I’ll go look for a secular job out there.” And I fasted for 3 days.  After a few weeks, I was called.  So I came for the interview, and I passed the interview.

Four months into my internship, my supervisor, the pastor who was in charge of outreach resigned.  He wanted to concentrate and finish his master’s degree.  And so I found myself in ministry without the pastor, and I thank God through that, the elders were able to see my ability.  In my tenth month of internship, they chose to give me the job as their pastor in charge of outreach, evangelism, and prayer, and then to start the Swahili service.

And so that’s why, for me, it’s a miracle to be here.

Through the ministry of KYSA, these kids are given a chance to avoid the dreaded Mungiki.

WND: That’s an incredible story.  So how has your past affected or enhanced your ministry in KYSA?

EM: Being a former footballer, and knowing what happens on the football pitches, being able to connect with the footballers, knowing their way of thinking, and speaking their language, but now from the transformed point of view.  Understanding their challenges, and now being able to minister to their challenges.  That has helped me.

WND: Now to focus on the youth leagues.  KYSA chose Banana Hill as their target zone for beginning youth teams.  Why was Banana the place to start?

EM: We chose Banana because it seemed to be, in terms of challenges, a more difficult area because of the militia groups.  It’s considered one of the headquarters of Mungiki.  One of the strongholds within the entire country.

WND: And what’s Mungiki?

EM: Mungiki is a militia group that believes in traditional worship.  They recruit young men and women, they take blood oaths, and they basically extort money from people to survive, causing a lot of insecurity.  They kill those who are against them, and they kill people in bad ways.  They mutilate their bodies, take off their heads.  They are just causing havoc.

And Banana being the headquarters [of Mungiki], we decided, “Let’s do it.”  But it is a tough place, and as a church, we asked ourselves, “How can we respond to the Mungiki?” apart from praying for security, praying that they’ll be saved, how can we go and start to love them? And have access to the community?  And we said, “Yeah it’s a good place to begin.”

WND: What gets you excited about KYSA, where it’s at today?

These kids have a real reason to celebrate!

EM: What gets me excited is the mobilization that has happened.  Getting young people to know KYSA, to be committed to KYSA leagues and clean-ups.  When we say, “We will have a clean-up,” they are there.  And getting also volunteers mobilized at the grassroots level.  It shows me the opportunity we have to transform a community.  I look at the under 16s, under 14s, under 12s, and I think, 10 years from today, these are people we’ve interacted with, prayed with, taught, we’ve modeled Christ to them…what kind of community we will have.  It’s big, it excites me.

WND: How many kids are involved with KYSA right now in Banana?

EM: Right now, in Banana we have more than a thousand kids, but there are new zones in Gathanga, in Girigiti, in Kiambu.  In total, we are more than 2000 kids.

WND: Can you sum up your dream for KYSA in the next five years?

EM: Hallelujah!  In five years, my dream is that KYSA leagues, like what is happening in Banana will be in all our [6] zones.  Every Saturday, and everyday during holidays, KYSA leagues are going on.  KYSA kids have taken up the shopping centers for clean-ups, planting flowers, planting trees, watering them.

When you hear of Banana, you don’t hear of Mungiki, you hear of KYSA.  You hear of a KYSA under-16 girls team that went to the US and won a tournament, went to Tanzania and won a tournament.  You hear of a player from Banana who is now playing for the national team.  You hear of life transforming stories.  KYSA is a door for transformation. There is no Mungiki, because all these kids are in KYSA.