Calvary Chapel Kampala

My wife and I recently visited Calvary Chapel Kampala. “CCK” is set on the side of a hill. Unlike Calvary in Israel, CCK is in the heart of the city on the top of a business plaza. Movement through Kampala at peak time is one big traffic jam. Even during off peak hours traffic remains a hive of activity. After working hard to get to your destination, you need a place of relief. That is how I like to think of our Chapel visit. We came to a place of relief in the center of the hustle and bustle of everyday life.  We found it high up on the fourth floor hall overlooking the thriving commercial activity all around us, we experienced the relief that can only come, in the literal sense, from above.

We came to Kampala to share the story of Family Strategy. A concept we put together in a book to spur families to realize their full potential on earth. No, we did not have a full house; we experienced the power of transformation among the people who came. Life is like that. Transformation, like a revolution. It starts with a few people excited about a simple message of hope.

Speaking to a people in a different country and culture got us thinking deeply of what we had travelled 1000 miles from home to do. What did we expect to see or find in this land? We thought of the much shorter journey that Jesus took to get to Calvary and what he had come to do. We came to deliver a message and went home with our hearts filled with hope for generations to come. Next time you visit Kampala and want some relief or are looking for some hope visit Calvary Chapel.

Allan Bukusi

Here is what some of the people said...

“My husband and I have been blessed tremendously. Previously we had no knowledge of the things shared”.

“Awesome is the experience you have placed in my mind and believe me you will place in other people’s minds too. Thank you for dedicating your time for this.”

“So grateful for what they have shared with us and pray for them to take this information to universities because there are students who do not even know what to do in their families”

 Also Read

Two Principles of Family Finance

Family Strategy

What is Family Strategy

Family strategy presentation

Family Strategy – Friends

Family Strategy - Green Pastures

Calvary Chapel – Kampala

What is the family strategy – toolkit?

How to use the family strategy toolkit

The Art of planning a future for your family

Lucky are those who hear.

Lucky are those who hear. Blessed are those who implement.

Allan Bukusi

The Battle for Africa's Soul

A friend of mine wrote a letter to her people called “Kenya Arise”. To whom was she speaking? Was it to you or to me? When will Africa arise? Is this a people’s initiative or is this a pipe dream. When will the Spirit of Africa be stirred up into a storm to rain showers of blessing on our hungry land.

All I hear and read is that Africa needs help. No my brothers, I sense a new Spirit. If all we live for is help, then it must be better to die in shame. I am tired of reading about aid to Africa as if Africa is another universe with a low-grade sun. I am tired of reading about poverty as if it is a locally manufactured product. I am tired of reading about potential that does not turn a profit. No my sisters, we must throw off this yoke, this ornament of pity. Brothers and sisters, to what have you sold our soul?

I can no longer stand the contempt of those who call me “African” meaning, “I need help to be what God made me to be”. I refuse to believe that I am inadequate and that nothing good can come out of me. I refuse to believe that religion, politics or gold will save me. I do not believe that I have nothing to give to better this world. I think, I do and can be; therefore, I am. That is all I need to change my world. I do not agree that the west, east, north or south has the key to what God has in me.

Who will stand with me? Who is with me? Let him stand. Who is with me? My sister, stand in all your God given beauty. Who is with me? If we have to beg you to join us, we do not need your help. Who is with me in this battle for Africa’s soul? Who is with me!

Allan Bukusi

 

The beginning of anything is a decision, but the end of a thing takes faith.

The beginning of anything is a decision, but the end of a thing is faith.

Allan Bukusi

AMAZING SLUM ECONOMICS

Most of us would agree that slums should be destroyed from our cities and wiped off the face of the earth. Yet we are surprised at their ability to crop up and cling to cities like parasites in the most unlikely places. Sometimes in the city center. Sometimes right beside posh suburbs. Sometimes on a railway line and at other times in the heart of industrial waste. There does not seem to be a way to predict the location of their formation.

However, all slums have an economic code that holds the key to their life. In economics, only profitable things survive and thrive. Though slums are ruled by poverty, cheap goods, shanties, poor sewage and absent social services, slum economies have an amazing capacity to sustain themselves in the face of such appalling infrastructure. Slum economics must be profitable!

It takes an evening to set up a shanty house at a cost that will be recovered in one week's rent. Compared to an up market home that takes two years to build and twenty years to pay the mortgage. The shanty makes financial sense. By the time you pull down a slum dwelling, the owners have made a return on investment many times over. They are ready to begin the next project as soon as they can find ten square feet of unoccupied space.

You can survive for a month on slum meals at the price of one lunch at MacDonald's. In a slum, you can sell sweet by sweet and make 200% profit on each sale. You can sell one biscuit at a time instead of a whole box at once and still make more money by selling the box on its own. Capital can be accessed from shylocks at horrendous interest, but a good business like selling second hand shirts can pay back the interest in a few days. Security is a risk for outsiders not insiders. Nobody talks about "tax" while "legal vs illegal" is just a moral argument. There is really no place in the world where you can get such amazing returns for such small investments. No wonder people flock to slums while big retail chains make sure they have secure outlets in slums. Slums never leave; they find a place to live.

Allan Bukusi

  

APPLIED ACADEMICS

There is no subject like applied academics taught in any school or university I know. Yet I think it is a very important science.  Nevertheless, I doubt that any university can teach a person to apply what they learn for the simple reason that students have to leave school to prove that they learned anything in school. Learning, in school, is a waiting game. The game starts when you graduate. Reflecting briefly on this last sentence makes you realize that you need to have a very personal reason and very specific goal for going to college because academics alone will do nothing for you in life if you cannot or will not apply it.

Academics gives you power to do everything that relates to a degree, but does not show you how to apply knowledge. One reason for this is that the context of application is so vast, varied and so tied to personal circumstances that it is impossible for a teacher to prepare everyone to deal with everything in life. This is the reason why teachers can only teach principles. You have to figure out how to make those principles work for you. This paragraph not only validates the need for training, but also implies that training is a very specific science of getting people to do what they know by equipping them with the know-how to do the job.   

Unfortunately, there is a misleading global assumption that people know how to use knowledge. We forget that there are major gaps between knowledge and skill, between skills and expertise and between experience and wisdom. These gaps are bridged by training. No amount of knowing can change any - thing. But a little doing can change things by a long stretch. Applied academics is about doing things, changing things. It's about   doing things right and doing the right things. Applied Academics is about training a person for life.

Also see

Aligning Staff Behaviour

Proudest moments

The Master Trainer is finally here

Applied Academics

Train, Train and Train some more

We urgently need 2.5 Million enterpreneurs!

We do not have enough entrepreneurs to make vision 2030 a reality. This article by Allan Bukusi explains why.

http://www.mediamaxnetwork.co.ke/thepeople/76144/vision-2030-needs-risk-taking-entrepreneurs/

Maybe you have a sewage problem?

The other day the sewer "blocked" on our compound. It began to overflow from the wrong end and caused a mess all over where it should not. No one really wanted to attend to the problem so the people closed off the bathroom and chose to seek relief outside the building. It was plain annoying to have a facility within your reach that you cannot use. One bright chap volunteered to" permanently cement off" the offending manhole where the blockage was located.

I came back a few days later and soon found out that people were not using the bathroom. When I asked why I got the full and detailed explanation above. I then asked if anyone had had a look at the problem. I was told, "no". I then asked why and was advised that we should call the plumber. After a little discussion back and forth, I pointed out that it would be unwise to call a plumber before we know what the problem was. As soon as I made that statement, I realized that no one was willing to look at the problem.

At this point, I took off my coat and set aside my tie. I armed myself with a shovel, to deal with anything that might come forth, and asked for help to remove the lid. As the lid was lifted away, all I could see was soil and roots. I soon realized that the root problem was a nearby harmless looking little Fern that had managed to wedge its roots in between the plastic waste pipe and the cement trap box. The Ferns roots had completely covered the sewage outlet. As you can imagine it took me less than three minutes to extract the crime to the amazement of the bystanders who had been suffering for a week.  As the lid was put back on the box, I felt like a surgeon. Then I realized that when no one wants to face the problem, it becomes a job for a consultant.

Allan Bukusi

Friends are the family you choose.

Friends are the family you choose.

Tabitha

What you say gets attention!

What you say gets attention. What you do gets noticed.

Allan Bukusi

The clearest among us

The clearest among us is that one who is clearest about destiny.

 

Allan Bukusi

NEW BEGINNINGS

New beginnings come after an end, a close or death of something important, significant or conventional. The beginning of anything is a challenge because it is not known, understood or a habit. The fact that new beginnings require a huge amount of work, energy and focus is enough to tire anybody before the beginning begins. New beginnings redefine you, refine you, and make you anew. New beginnings require that you let go what defined you in the past and draw up new posts to define you in future. In other words – you must be born anew.

The world and everything around us changes regardless of whether we think it should or not. Because we change, whether we like it or not, new beginnings are certain and normal. Whether we should be prepared for new beginnings is a very good question. But even if new beginnings take us by surprise, we must be willing to follow through. Failure is failure because it will not begin anew.

Born again is not religion. There are many seasons of new beginnings in life. Some joyful others tragic. Finishing school, moving to a new town, starting a new job, going to college, getting married, parting ways, earning a promotion or losing a job. We live and die every day. In all of these, the old dies and the new begins. No one said it would be easy. However, transitions do not define you – only you do. When you face a new beginning, remember that the challenge is not letting go of the past or facing the monster of the new. The challenge, in due course, is that you must be born anew.

Allan Bukusi