The Oven

When the rains waken us at night here we get excited and thank God before turning over for a few more winks. This is the second day of decent rains. I would guess we have had two or more inches by now and it is still showering regularly. I pray that each inch will save a few million lives here as crops recover. So many live right on the edge in Africa.
The odd trio of adjuncts (George Mitchell of Scotland, Nancy Crawford, and I) had our assigned meal at Dr. Vundi and Lillian’s place last evening.
It’s one of those places you love to go. Big welcome. Joyous atmosphere.
Vundi is a BIG guy – I would guess 6’3” and 260 pounds. He is really dark and I wonder how intimidating he would be in the line next to Vince Wilfork of the Patriots! But he is a gentle giant. He has been a pastor and still goes out weekends to preach. He is on faculty here also, teaching homiletics and pastoral theology.
Lillian is a quiet but cheerful woman who has a bright smile and can surprise you with some humor. Their daughter Tina is a student here still. I had her in class last time. She is bright and a joy to banter with. Later her brother Mark would get in from Nairobi. He was a typical teen two years ago. But when he arrived, in strolls this tall young man in a smart pinstripe business suit, smiling like he had swallowed the canary and had the world by the tail. Impressive.
The meal was superb. Tender chicken, mashed, mixed hot veggies, soup-like something or other. So we laughed and told stories and carried on famously for an hour or so over the meal.
But the highlight was a trip to the kitchen. It’s an old but modern small kitchen with the usual range, sink, small refrigerator, counters and cupboards. Sitting on the floor was something new—an oven that had cooked so much of our meal, especially the cake now coming up for dessert. The cake was like a pound or sponge cake with a sweet taste and crusty top.
But it’s the oven that was of interest. It was made entirely of scrap metal and resembled a sort of oversized camp oven you would use outdoors. You could make one with some casual tools and some iron and sheet metal in a day. Inside the large door (that slanted on the angle of a bulkhead door) were two racks for the food to be cooked or baked on and at the bottom a 10” by 10” drop box where you put the fuel. In this case a few lumps of coal glowing brightly but with no leaping flame. There is a damper system to regulate heat.
Lillian has mastered this simple appliance as skilled cooks readily do. With a pass of her hand inside she knows whether it is hot enough for a cake or some bread or even a chicken. And the unit produces comfy warmth on a rainy evening in a place where houses have no heating system—save for a living room fireplace that looks nice but cannot throw any meaningful heat. And in hot weather you just pick the oven up and set it out on the porch.
This simple technology is something Vundi is producing for his community development work. A number have now been made and given to widows—who often have no means of livelihood in this society. The unit costs about $80.
In Vundi and Lillian’s work, they give these ovens to a widow and teach her to bake for herself and to sell in her village. Seems pretty slim for us. But for them it is a huge step toward some income that means their survival.
Earlier in the day Lillian held a workshop for some nearby widows and they baked and decorated a birthday cake that was still sitting proudly on the living room table. Two layers with flowers and words made of icing. Somewhat short of perfection, but a great first try. These women will probably make some money baking for neighbors and local shops. Young Tina entertained their kids while the moms had their Home-Ec lesson. You know how many single women care for kids often their nieces and nephews when HIV-AIDS has taken its toll.
This is what Dr. Vundi is trying to do for community development—simple things, but things that work and have very low startup cost. He holds workshops to teach pastors how they can encourage their people to provide for themselves with a simple oven and some basic crop-growing tips. He sells improved strains of corn that grow twice a high as the local stuff and yield 10 times more often with less water.
Some pastors have to be convinced that this is part of a good ministry even though it is money-making. The book of James is his text. It is harder than you think to convince leaders that it is spiritual ministry to help people with their material needs.
Later Vundi showed me his new website. This is big for him even though it is just a beginning. I suggested that he should add a “Donate” button. People in the west would love to send $80 to provide an oven for some widows in a rural village. He is thinking about that— he wants not to seem mercenary. “It’s not for you—it’s for the people in need,” I encourage him.
This is a family that realizes it is not enough merely to understand the world but to change the world. Karl Marx made that his motto and blew it by using the force of government to impose it from the top. We know the sad result of that. But Vundi is doing it voluntarily from the bottom up.
You might encourage him by checking out the new website. He said you can Google Vundi and Lillian and find it. (He was obviously pleased with their presence on the worldwide web.) Or try grassrootsdevelopmentproject.com
And pray, too. The district officials are pleased with his efforts because it benefits the people and makes them look good. (Politicians!) But one pastor, when he found out there was no money in it for him, tossed Vundi out and would not allow him access to the people of his church. Can you believe it? Thankfully this is rare. But I could tell Vundi was hurt by this.
God is perhaps stoking his oven for those who callously keep bread from the mouths of the hungry. Made God help us all!
Sometimes I wonder how the Lord can be so long-suffering with the lot of us.
Meanwhile families like that of Vundi and Lillian keep plugging away.