Meet Father Lawrence

Rain slammed against my windshield as I slowly piloted my news unit into an East Charlotte neighborhood. Usually I’m looking for flashing blue lights and yellow crime scene tape when driving around neighborhood streets I don’t usually ride through. Tonight I was on a different mission. One with a higher purpose.

I found the familiar house I was looking for and pulled into the driveway. Rain soaked through my jacket as I grabbed my camera and a light kit out of the back of the truck. I ran up the short side walk to the door wishing I had worn my rubber boots today instead of tennis shoes.

Thankfully the front door stood under a porch roof. I rang the door bell and waited for the owner of the modest two story home to peak out and see his camera toting guest standing on his porch with handfuls of electronic equipment. The door swung open to reveal a short stocky man dressed in khaki pants and a shirt unlike any I’ve seen anyone wear around this town. The shirt looked like it was made out of black canvas instead of cotton and every inch of the material was covered with swirling abstract designs. What struck me about the wild designs was that they weren’t printed or died on the heavy material like most shirts I buy at the local department store. The designs were embroidered on the shirt with miles of bright white thread. No matter how many times you put this shirt in the washing machine, the design would never fade or peel off.

My friend noticed me looking at his shirt and said, “I thought I would wear something authentic for the interview.” I felt a grin stretching across my face as I stepped across the threshold of Father Lawrence Mbugua’s home.

As you can tell from Fr. Lawrence’s name, he was not born in America. Fr. Lawrence came to the U.S. from Kenya ten years ago to attend seminary school. In the past ten years he has earned two bachelors degrees from two different seminaries and will earn a PhD soon. A busy man according to American standards. But, education isn’t the only activity taking up his time. He has a family which includes two teenagers and a toddler. He is active in many organizations and fills the role of associate priest at my church. I asked him how he finds time to meet all of the obligations expected of him. “Well, I believe four or five hours of sleep are enough each night,” he tells me. Four or five hours? I hardly function on eight hours of sleep.

Tonight I’m at Fr. Lawrence’s house to interview him about another noble task he has taken upon himself. For the past several weeks Fr. Lawrence has worked diligently to organize a fund raising dinner to raise money for Grace House. Grace House is a rehabilitation center under construction in Kiambu City, Kenya. The dinner will help raise money to complete the construction of the center and furnish the building with furniture and equipment.

At the dinner, Fr Lawrence will give a presentation on why Grace House is so important to the community of Kiambu City. I’m going to help put some zing into his presentation by producing a short video about Grace House. My goal is to draw the attention of diners away from the authentic African cuisine piled high on their plate to focus on the important message Fr. Lawrence has to deliver. Quite a challenge considering how tasty and delightful African food can be.


While interviewing Fr. Lawrence about Grace House I discovered some interesting information I felt I needed to pass along. Above, I mentioned all of the activities and obligations Fr. Lawrence has on his time. I didn’t mention how over the past ten years Fr. Lawrence has worked various different jobs to save up enough money to buy land and build a three story, nine unit apartment building in Kenya. The apartment building Fr. Lawrence built from the money he earned here in America will house Grace House Rehabilitation Center. He built his own building, now he just needs a few dollars to hire employees and purchase equipment.

I asked Fr. Lawrence why he built Grace House. He has many reasons that I will write about later. But one sums up the whole idea behind the center and why he leads a team of missionaries from my church into the suburbs of the capital city of Nairobi every year. He said he wants to give back to community he lived in before coming to America. He has seen so many people from his community leave for the States never to return home. They leave to find jobs and a better life only to forget about the place they came from. The only way to improve the community of his birth is for him and others who have left to return home and share with the community what they have learned from their experiences in America.

The idea of “giving back” inspired Fr. Lawrence to begin recruiting folks from the church to go to Kenya and lend a helping hand. This year the church will embark on its third mission trip to Kenya. Each year a couple of more folks find the inspiration to raise money and take all of their vacation days from work to go with Fr. Lawrence and Fr. Dan on the two week journey. This year will be my year. While I’m there, I will visit Grace House and shoot as much video of the center as time will allow. After the trip I will produce another video on Grace House so Fr. Lawrence can continue to raise money for the Center and fulfill his vision of “giving back” to his community. Maybe I’ll get one of those cool shirts while I’m there.