09/04/2026
What an incredibly powerful four days last week at Daystar University in Nairobi.
Twenty-five of us came together for an experience of shared vulnerability and courage, deep listening, opening to each other's stories, and trusting in the emergence of deeper understanding and reconciliation. Thank you to everyone who showed up for this process, bringing together students, church and NGO leaders, and others ranging from their early twenties into their sixties.
Over the course of our four days together, as we deepened into the experience, both the women and men took hold of the courage to share more and more of their lives with each other, perhaps for some of the first times telling their stories in mixed groups in the Truth Forums. Stories of violence, abuse, and being failed by the institutions meant to protect them; stories of grief, poverty, and the pressure of expectations they were never allowed to set down.
"For once in my life I felt understood."
"I got the opportunity to share those secret things without anyone judging me. None of them said, you are wrong. They put themselves in my shoes."
It was a heavy day, full of painful stories, too long left unheard. But at the close of the Truth Forums came one of the most consistently remarkable things we find: joy, laughter, appreciation. Even after we closed, we stayed to talk, to hug, to laugh and sit together.
"It is difficult for us men to share, but when you share, you feel light."
On our final day together we shifted, as we always must, to honoring and appreciating each other for all that was shared, with the men and women each creating ceremonies to honor and uplift the other.
The men put their heartfelt creative energy to good work, hand crafting a special gift, knelt to be delivered to each individual woman: a paper vase, each with a flower, and with a scroll that read,
"As men, we love and appreciate you. We recognize you are made in God's Image."
The women too created a touching ceremony for the men, with a handwritten note, signed by each woman, tenderly offered to each man with a flower. As many of the men shared afterwards, with smiles on their faces, it was the first flower anyone had ever given them.
A deep thank you to Daystar University for hosting, and to the facilitation team for your care and heartfelt leadership: Michele Breene, Ticha Masai, Adelaide Amina, Bryan Lepish, Njeru Joyce, and Garrett Evans, with special thanks to Lepish, whose persistence and heart brought this workshop into being.
"This is only the start of a long journey we will walk together."
🤍
