There is a stone wall enclosing a tent made from striped white and blue tarpaulin at a place called Ridgeways, opposite the junction branching into Garden Estate and Windsor Resort and Golf club, and right before the road branching into Runda Estate as you head towards Kiambu Town from the Nairobi City centre. It is a Catholic Church, and on Sundays, you will find cars parked into capacity in every available spot around it.

Last year I became curious about this church. For one, all the Catholic Churches that I know are grand stone and stained glass structures, and this is the first one I had ever seen operating from a tent. The second reason is that in contrast to the humble church, the many cars parked around it all bore top class models; Mercedes Benz, Range Rover HSE, Lexus, Toyota SUVs and so on.

And so, on one morning that I was passing by I decided to drop in, just out of curiosity. The church was already filled, and I had to stand outside the tent, but within the stoned wall. The preaching was well under way, and I only heard the last part of the sermon before the final prayers. The message was that doing good should start from right where a person is before it is spread to other places.

And so, today I am thinking about that day as I consider the issue of being of service to others. And I can perfectly understand what the preacher must have meant especially on looking back a few years ago when I decided to work for an NGO in order to make a difference in the world. And that is how I ended up in Somaliland on the strength of my skills, and the strong case I put forward to my employer about my yearning to serve during the interview. However I was to realize that unlike what many people think, working for an NGO is more about doing a job and getting paid fit it, rather than being of service to others. That becomes clear when one interacts with others in the same field, and even more especially when one questions his or her motive for being in a place like Somaliland.

It is ironic – almost obscene – being chauffer around in a huge car whose fuel cost from your house to the office is enough to feed a family for a few days while being protected by police bearing automatic weapons, to protect you from the same people who you are there to help. Just think; what would the reason be for anyone to want to harm you if you are truly helping that person? If you ever visit Mbagathi Hospital in Nairobi where the largest infectious disease clinic is located in Kenya, you become petrified on entering a ward full of people coughing their lungs out, knowing pretty well that many of them are suffering from TB and other air-borne diseases. A 30 minute visit to a patient is an ordeal, and yet the hospital staff works there day and night, even coming into physical contact with the patients. Despite the obvious danger they are exposed to, they never need to ask for police with Kalashnikovs to protect their lives.

I am not saying that NGOs should not help people, neither am I saying that aid workers are not in the world trouble spots out of a genuine need to help. All I am saying is that service to others should not wait until a person gets a job in Darfur or any other place in Africa, or in Asia or Latin America. When service calls, it does not start or end anywhere, and neither does it wait for one to be ready, or something to happen. Above all, true service does not need to be paid a hefty salary, given free accommodation and transport, and expense paid holidays once every several weeks. For the people who do not work for NGOs – and even those who do – the people who need help are all around us, and very close to us. They are in our families and among our friends. And so as you can see, we already have a lot of helping to do to the people we know before we move to strangers in our countries, and even citizen of the rest of the world.

The biggest challenge in life is heeding that calling that comes from deep down inside. That kind of calling is often averse to glamour. But interestingly, a person’s calling need not be so gloomy for it can lead them to unexpected glory in the most unusual way. Just pass by Ridgeways and see the many prestigious cars packed outside the tented Catholic Church! In the meantime, let us continue to pray to God to help us walk away from vanity and give us the courage to be what we need to be.