The First Recorded Example of a Refill

1 Kings 17:16

Those of you who have lived in the U.S are familiar with the concept of
refills. Buy a certain size of a drink and you can get refills of that drink for free or
for a few cents. This works like a charm when you find yourself with challenges in the
pocket book.

The prophet visited a household and requested a mean. But the people
from whom he was living with were out of food. So they made a final
meal and presented it to him.
He asked them to get a many empty vessels as they could.
As long as they did this, the amount of flour and oil would not run out.
And so this went on for the duration of his time there and possibly longer...
we have no message regarding an end of this supply.

Maybe this was a sign to our generation. Maybe some of our companies need
to think about a new way of marketing their products so that instead of creating
more waste we can end up using less.
What if you created fill up centres for mukwano products so that i can take my
container of washing powder to a centre close to my home where you can fill it up for
less than the cost of buying a new products.

If your key product is not plastic, then you have no stake in selling plastic...if your product
is detergent on the other hand refill centres make much more sense!

Altars, Sacrifices and Horns

Today i received a message from a friend remind me about the historical
value of Ambraham's deed. Classical scriptural thought seems to carry with
it two major ideas which i would like to lay some emphasis on.
First the power of sacrifice.
Secondly the importance of the altar and the horns as symbols of power.

The desire to write this is energized by a need to shed some light on certain aspects of our African culture that are much more similar to ancient Jewish thought than we realize.  The first, though rather negative is an increase in the cases of
ritual sacrifice. The basis of this seems to stem from the first reference of scripture in which Abram responds with some swiftness and rushes to give away his first born son.
Before he is able to complete this task, he is interuupted by his maker, commends him for his willingness but instead provides him with a replacement.

Oh that those who seek the same would find themselves interrupted!

The second thought that came to mind was regarding a man who sought to gain the throne from Solomon. Adonijah which means my lord is Jehovah. He makes use of the Horns (an ancient symbol of authority and power) of the altar, when he finds himself pursued, he seeks refuge by grabbing a hold of the horn of the altar.

It is almost impossible for a day to go by before one hears of a story about
a village that invades a household destroying it because of accusations of having (mayembe or horns) which in our local cultures are viewed as an abomination and often connected to wizadry.

The Story described above is better explained in its entirity by Charles Spurgeon
(http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1826.htm).


The point is an old symbol of power has managed to creep back into modern life albeit in a negative manner and now begs to be understood and explained.

Change across all landscapes and horizons?

Every so often out of necessity I often take the long road home. This Is the road from Lumumba to the city centre through Kyagwe road all the way down onto Kamplala rd up along the Sikh temple and onto old kampala where I have a choice of passing the historic old Kampala high school onto Namirembe road where connect to Balintuma rd. 

This often feels more like a circle because the simpler journey should lead to Balintuma through Wandegeya and Nakulabye. The latter is equally challenging and full of historical places like the great ivory tower famous for training and equipping myriads of leaders and influencers as well as the hospital (often not too far from ones sights).

Necessity for me means many things and even when we begin to prepare for changes in our transportation systems (as a railway line is revived and the silver smoke breathing snake sputters to life) one cannot help but shudder at the amazing pace at which change has appeared on everyones door step.

On a recent ride down the same road, I heard two people lament about the new realities in the city and the markets where in their view, rich and prominent men will become more separated from their lesser endowed foes or colleagues.

In some of my previous posts I have written about how few of us really can appreciate or embrace change. And it is all over this route. There is a proposition to expand the road and the shops which populated the road side are now gone. In their place are concrete slabs of previous memories like uninhabited shells devoid of hope turned up side down. Dwellers gone and long forgotten dreams and hopes upstaged and transferred. Relationships long vanished. 

If change continues to take on the shape that I think it will and if she extends her aggressive gaze on humanity in the manner I which she seems intent, I suspect that she will treat us all the same like lady justice. And if in her urge to do her bidding she turns to those graced with polished seats to purge us of our liturgy she may leave us no choice but embrace her.

Lessons for Government from church governance?

Its been a few months since i sttended the concert/event organized by the Kampala Pentecostal Church (Watoto Church). 

But the thrust of my blog is not really about the event. It is about
governance and leadership. 


Background


Its been about 20 years since i was at the Nairobi Lighthouse Church.
The church was quite a stunner...in terms of numbers as well as following. After
registering some success and growth, the church and its leadership made a decision to move into
what was referred to as the Cell movement. The concept emerged out of the Church in Korea
under the guidance of Paul Cho. He was a pastor whose church was rather large and who as a
result came up with in 

new method to govern or lead it. 

The Name is derived from the Cell. Small but effective and containing
all the essential elements 

for the growth of the larger group. 

The Belief was simple. As the church grows larger, it must become
smaller!


So small groups of six to eight people were created. The groups each had
a leader and an intern. 

Aspects of its governance such as worship and teaching were done by the
leader under some supervision 

by other heirarchical leaders. 

Above the Cell leader was a section leader. He was in charge of five
cell leaders or 40 people (5 X 8 people per cell).

The section leader was then answerable to the District pastor/location
leader (if i recall correctly).Those in charge of locations 

has 5 sections under their leadership or 200 people.


The pastor was therefore in charge of the coordiation of four district
pastors. North, South, East and West. 

The SUnday message was used and created and then sent down the line for
feedback. Other messages were also coordinated in this manner.

There were training session that were used for those who were aspiring
for leadership. 

The Lesson


I attended the celebration at Watoto Church North and was amazed at the
smooth flow of events and the organization. 

There is central, South, East and West and North...much like the current
state of affairs in Uganda. 

But the ability to run things smoothly is what amazes me the most. 


Challenges


The leader of the cell group was expected to multiply the cell group
after about six month. 

There were struggles to getting this done but it was important to keep
the group growing. 

Some of the struggle centred around the subject of people pleasing...but
that was the exception rather than

the norm. 

In addition to this, great care was taken to ensure that growth was
referred to as multiplication and not division.

Question


But like the system at KPC, why is it that leadership in most of these
circles is only possible if the top is 

foreign? Is it because foreigners are immune to local causes and
cultural issues and that they can therefore lead

with little or no limits or hindrances? Perhaps leadership at this level
is based on core principles in a book

(constitution) and performance is measured solely in terms of active
service and in the broad terms of a word called 

love!