Unique Offering

Every once in a while I experience something that reminds me, in a good way, that I'm not totally and Kenyan and some things here are still strange to me. This is one such story...

This past weekend I attended church a little outside of Kericho and joined in the celebration for several recent graduates of the Theological Education by Extension (TEE) program. I was there to film and help create a short story about the program and graduates. At the end of the service a special offering was taken. I was surprised here to see a woman bring forward a live chicken and give it to the pastor. Honestly, I should not have been surprised, this is not really an uncommon occurrence in rural African churches, but it did catch me off guard. I actually started thinking of my church back in Michigan and wondered what Pastor Dave would do if someone brought a live chicken and set it in the offering plate. I started picturing his face and laughed a little to myself.

What I had forgotten, or had never known, was what is done here with chickens that are given in the offering. Once all the congregation had been given a chance to give their gifts the chicken was auctioned off to the highest bidder! So Pastor Dave, if someone brings you a live chicken for offering that's what you do with it! The chicken sold for about $6.35. Later I found out that if I went to the market to buy a chicken like that I could expect to pay about $3.75 for it.

In this area people mostly live off their live stock and what they can grow on their farm. Most families will have at least one parent involved in some kind of small business, but the money from this mostly goes toward paying for the children's schooling. The chicken that this woman brought could have been a meal for her family, it's possible that it used to lay eggs for them even and she probably gave it because she had no money. Today I've been thinking about the gift she gave and how God used that small amount to instantly bring in an even larger return. If she had come with the 300 shillings the chicken was worth, that's what she would have given, but because she brought forth this chicken she was able to give that amount and God was instantly able to multiply it! I guess this just made me think of how we can bring so little to a God who created everything and He can use it to do amazing things!