IT IS FINISHED

Ruben Centre Patron Br. Frank together with director Liz Mwangi

‘It is finished’ (John 19:29), and Jesus breathed his last, Well, at 4:30 pm last Thursday, I didn’t breathe my last; however, I did utter to myself those three words at the beginning of this reflection.
A new director had just been announced by the Ruben’s Trustee Chair, and I was done.
The event on that October 2nd Thursday was for the launch of a new 5-year Strategic Plan (2026–2030) for Ruben Centre, and this new director is to bring alive this plan.

Fifty years after beginning my mission in 1975 at Ballarat, Victoria, and forty-two years after leaving Australia for foreign lands in 1983, I was finally the words of the Australian pop artist John Paul Young’s song of 1975, ‘Yesterday’s Hero.’ Youtube link

I was interviewed by a film crew covering the launch and asked, “Why have you called time?” and I repeated my long-held belief: “An institution such as Ruben Centre, its nearly two hundred workers and sixteen projects, must always be bigger than any individual.”
Of course, the next maybe obvious question was, “Brother Frank, we heard that you put the first Ruben Centre plan together in October 2010, and now the fourth plan in October 2025. Just how do you feel about this moment, and what are you most proud of with these years at Ruben Centre?”
I don’t like the word proud, but pressed more, I answered, “Just living fully the three values adopted by all Edmund Rice International Ministries, namely PRESENCE, COMPASSION, LIBERATION, and on show in the Good Samaritan parable.”

The fatal mistake made by that Good Samaritan of Luke’s gospel was his crossing the road for a closer look at the beaten-up traveller lying there half dead, and yes, it is fair to say that by becoming present to that poor sod, the Samaritan’s heart was moved to act, and act he did by loading him on his donkey, and the subsequent medical attention was a true act of liberation.
Having crossed that road, there can be no going back, and I guess that too was my fatal mistake.
Ruben Centre’s vision is to strive for a just and empowered Mukuru (slum) community, and as I said during my few words at the launch, “The vision and mission of 2010 remain unchanged in 2025.”
The specific actions to achieve this liberation of the people from what is weighing them down may have changed over time, but not the basics.

So, returning to that question about being proud of what, I named the establishment of a birthing unit for the Mukuru mothers as that standout action of liberation.
Birthing babies in their slum dwelling without the necessary professionals present and essential equipment was a burden often too heavy to bear for too many women, clear in the maternal death rates quoted to me all those years ago in the community’s cry for help.
Creating a free, safe, and dignified entry into the world for all babies was our goal. Babies are not born poor, but rather made poor by unjust social structures and cultural ignorance.
Looking back to those early years, I remember refusing “to cross the proverbial road,” knowing that a birthing unit was a 24-hour presence and accompanied by significant costs.

Mortality Rates (From Kenya Demographic and health survey)

However, this follower of Founder Edmund Rice, the man moved by the Holy Spirit to open his whole heart to Christ present and appealing to him in the poor, did eventually cross that road, and in the crossing, the childless brother would become like Abraham, “the father of a great nation.”
Yes, since May 2018, well over 7,500 babies have entered the world at Ruben Health Centre, and nearly 8,000 mothers have been treated like royalty, especially those who needed our ambulance, referrals, and the appropriate surgical interventions. In this time, there have been less than one percent of neonatal deaths and only two maternal fatalities, and both occurred at government hospitals—with one tragically outside the hospital as entry was refused due to a government nurses’ and doctors’ strike.

However, back to the interview, I was now fully engaged and on a roll. I said, “Ruben Centre and the Mukuru slum have truly been the privileged context to live the gospel and its two commandments—to love your God and your neighbour,  It is kinda easy in here.”

Maybe there is a hint of pride after all, and something that prompted me to make that fatal mistake of crossing the road—or in my case, crossing the sea to the Kingdom of Tonga in 1983—but as my father often would quote, “I wouldn’t want to be dead for quids.” (slang for UK pounds)
“I have come that you may have life in its fullness” (John 10:10), and being on this journey has allowed me to reverently touch the holy grail—and what beats life in its fullness?
Co-creating this life for thousands of others made poor!

Story by Ruben Centre Patron Br. Frank O’shea

Edits by Benson Kagwima