first post from Kenya

Friday, June 3, 2016

The day before we left, I was checking email a final time and came across our dear friend Kendra Allen’s wonderful post that she wrote about her family packing up to serve in Uganda with International Justice Mission for the next year.  She wrote some profound words that I’d like to share to start off this first update from our family here in Kenya:

“Out of our humanity, very often, we find ourselves living with EXPECTATIONS, which are tied to specific outcomes and often lead disappointments and/or conflict. However, we can endeavor to live EXPECTANTLY, which leads us into a posture of hope, trusting in God’s provisions and goodness yet without attachment to a specific outcome.”

I am so grateful for those words that helped us get off to a great start in looking ahead with expectancy for the gifts God has in store for the summer. 

After hours on planes from NYC to Dubai to Nairobi, we arrived on the night of May 30^th and then drove to a retreat center for our orientation in Ngong which is about 45 minutes outside of Nairobi.  (This is the same retreat center where I came on my first trip to Kenya in 1994 for my orientation.)
 
The last few days have been incredibly rich with cross cultural training, a crash course in Kiswahili, Bible study, worship times, and a scavenger hunt in Nairobi.  After one of our sessions on Tuesday (5/31), I was so grateful for the lessons that we all were exposed to and loved that Anna and Taylor were immersed in this stuff right along the college students with us.

Being aware that we bring a cultural lens to new encounters, here are a few of the key points about how to enter into a new culture with open minds and hearts:

1)      Remember this truth as we are confronted with many aspects of culture that are different from our own: “It’s not right or wrong. It’s just different.”

2)      The rule of thumb about making mistakes: “It’s not what you do first. It’s what you do next.”

3)      Ask this question with any action taken: “Is what I am doing, thinking or saying building trust or undermining trust?” Trust is slowly built but is quickly broken.

This is not just good advice for us here in Kenya. These are good truths for simply being a human anytime and anywhere, and I love that Anna and Taylor are at the age where this can be really foundational for them for life.

On Wednesday (6/1), I was so impressed with how engaged Anna was in the talks about missions and about the good news of the gospel.  She has been telling some of the college girls here in our small group how she really wants a renewal of her faith this summer to live more deliberately in her relationship with God.  Anna took 13 pages of notes in her journal on Wednesday and has been practically on the edge of her seat soaking it all in.  Anna also has gotten to play the flute as a part of the music team and it’s been such a cool thing to see her practice with the students and help lead the team in worship.  

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Taylor has been making friends with his soccer ball in hand. 


There has been another gathering of pastors meeting at this retreat center where we are staying, and it seems that they all know his name.  Students have been great to kick the ball around with him during free time, and he even met a little boy named David who lives near this conference center is. Taylor’s already planning to give him one of the soccer balls we have before we leave.  During the meetings, I don’t know all that he is taking in as I know some of the sessions can feel long for an 11 year old boy, but I am trusting that this immersion experience will shape him in more ways than we realize. 
 

Overall, it sure is amazing to have Anna and Taylor surrounded by this community here who have embraced them and who are rubbing off on them in profound ways (even after only a few days.)

Brian Lee, our fearless director, has been leading most of our sessions (and his wife Debbie who has one of the biggest hearts in the world is his fabulous counterpart- see pictures below):

  This is their 19^th summer to lead this trip, and they have countless stories of the impact this trip makes every summer on the students who participate.  He reminded us all that the purpose of this trip is to see what God wants to do inside of us for the long haul and to let God use this experience to change us to love God and love the world more deeply.   With this in mind, I am expectant and hopeful of the ways this is going to impact our family story through the years.

Yesterday (Thursday, 6/2) we headed into Nairobi for a day scavenger hunt. In many ways, trying to walk through Nairobi felt like we were playing a classic game of “chicken” or “frogger” with cars, motorbikes, and pedestrians.  Let me just say that we are so thankful we all made it safely to the end of the day!  We were divided into small groups with a list of many things to see, but because it is such a busy city and it is difficult to get around, we only got to a few of our suggested destinations for the day.  We walked into the Stanley Hotel to see the famous thorn tree which served as a local message board for travelers in Nairobi for years.  We stood in long lines to get SIM cards for a phone the Global Project team needed for the coming weeks, we enjoyed some fabulous Kenyan fare for lunch, and we visited the Memorial Garden in the site where the US Embassy was bombed in 1998.

As we were heading toward the City Market and then back to the bus, we realized that we were running out of time, and at one point, we tried to save some time by having me finish one of our tasks with the understanding that I would meet the rest of our group at a designated spot. The problem was that when I tried to run up to meet them, we must have each taken different paths to get to the designated spot and it turned into a bit of a wild goose chase.  After about 20 minutes of us searching for each other and praying that God would help me find a needle in a haystack, we eventually reunited and all was well.  Though we all know that we have entered into the culture of Kenya that values relationships more than time and tasks, it is no surprise that we just brought our task oriented selves to the scavenger hunt.  As we were scrambling to try to save time, it backfired and we lost quite a bit of it with the wires that got crossed. 

This was just one of the many incidents I know we will continue to deal with this summer when things do not go quite as planned. 1 Thessalonians 5:16 reminds me to pray continually and to give thanks in all circumstances. So when I find myself running around in circles, I can look to God and trust that He’s got me in His hands. “Mambo sawa sawa. Yesu akiwa enzini.” (Things already better- for the Lord is on the throne.)


(me above with flowers I bought in Nairobi for our bus driver who will be driving us all over Kenya this summer.)
 

I am grateful for a chance to share a glimpse of our time so far.  Henri Nouwen writes, “you know you are living a grateful life when WHATEVER happens is received with an invitation to deepen your heart, to strengthen your love, and to broaden your hope.” May God bless you all with deepened hearts, strengthened love and broadened hope.  Thank you all for being our home team!

Kwaheri (goodbye in Kiswahili) until next time,

Emily

p.s. My running shoes have been so happy to get some Kenyan dirt on them! Jason and I have taken a few students running early each morning. There’s nothing like the sunrise coming up over the horizon to greet the day across the hills of Africa while we get a few miles in and having Kenyan runners here giving us thumbs up as we run by each other.  As my bumper sticker on my car says, “In my dreams, I am a Kenyan.”