The SIAFU Guidebook

Introduction: Welcome to the Mother of All Battles

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of the Kingdom of God in America’s inner cities lies with urban Christians – identified, inspired, trained, and released for Christ!

One of the great challenges of urban Christians is their sense of isolation and aloneness, their inability to connect with others who share their dreams and struggles. The SIAFU Network intends to learn from the siafu ants, who have mastered the art of living in and for community.

The African Siafu Living the Principle of Networking Community

As Individuals

As a Community

Nest is 20 million strong Mobile networked colony Feared by all Dynamic vision Nobody messes with Consume 2 million pests daily Only stopped by fire Can bring down anything

1 - 15 mm long Blind, tiny, and tender

Vulnerable No purpose Intimidated Are a pest Easily stopped

A small brown speckled frog hops through the leaves of the Riverine Forest floor. It creeps forward for a few seconds and swallows whole a bright green grasshopper that was sitting beside a flower. It hops again, this time misjudged, rubs its face in pain and tries to hop again, lands on its back and is swallowed in a rippling mass of dark red bodies. Ten minutes later, nothing is left of the frog, but the four-inch wide highway of red ants remains. Biting red ants, or “Siafu” in Kiswahili live in colonies, but unlike most ants, do not have a permanent home. The ants range from 1 to 15 mm long, hunt at night, and hide in a hole in the ground or in a tree during the day, They shift locations as the insect, and sometimes frog-like, prey is exhausted. The Riverine Forests of Serengeti, being dark and moist, have Siafu hunting all night long