What I'll Miss About Kenya...

Kenya has once again become my home.  For those of you who didn't know, I attended boarding school here in Kenya for all of high school.  I left in 2005 and returned last September for a program through my graduate school, Nazarene Theological Seminary, called 365m.  365m sends students all over the world for practicul intercultural experience and to continue taking classes online through our school.  I've been based at Africa Nazarene University and have loved (or come to love) every second of it.  Here are some of the top things I'll miss:

1. The people.  They are amongst the kindest I’ve met anywhere.  I'll miss walking down to the tuk tuk corner hand in hand with Lucy's kids.  
2. Their hospitality.  The very first weekend I was here some new friends invited me to spend the weekend at their house.  They and others have cooked elaborate meals for me, over which I’ve learned much.  Other times I've been in the middle of town with thousands of people around me when some kind soul comes up and offers to take me where I need to go, and have even paid my bus fares along the way.
3. Church.  The church I’ve been attending is the local Nazarene church on campus.  We’re very diverse with a huge group of students from many countries in Africa.  We also have probably the largest kids group on the East Africa Field for the Nazarene Church.  Our church is vibrant and does some incredible things for the community.  Just today I paused and listened whilst everyone around me sang his or her praises to God.  I got the chills and a couple of tears in my eyes.  Gonna miss Sunday’s here.  
4. The students on campus and their diversity.  Our students come from multiple countries, ethnicities, and tribes.  They speak hundreds of languages (combined).  I have learned so much from our dialogues during and outside of class. 
5. My co-workers in the religion department, especially my office mate Rev. Gift Mtukwa.  He (and the others) has become a great friend.  I’ve learned much about God and how he works in the world. 
6. Incredibly cheap and handy public transport.  Some kind of transport will take you almost anywhere you need to go.  People with cars hate matatus, but for those of us inside them, it’s nice to have them skirt around traffic illegallyJ
7. Wildlife/nature.  I live right next to Nairobi National Park.  97% of the nights I’ve been here I’ve heard hyenas.  I’ve occasionally heard the distant sound of lions.  I’ve also encountered several snakes.  A lengthy Rock Python slithered right between my legs whilst I was mid-stride.  Countless birds chirp starting about 3:30 in the morning till late.  The park provides great scenery for many a run along its borders. 
8. Slow pace of life.  At times I have hated this, but I think the majority of the time I’ve enjoyed it.  You never really have to worry about being late, as it’s not that big of a deal.  You rock up when you can in Kenya.  It’s gonna take some adjusting getting use to a more scheduled life in the States.
9. The food.   The Kenyan staple foods are great.  My favorite is probably chapati.  It’s a flour based bread type of food half way between a tortilla and a crepe in texture.  Kenyan’s used it to pick up other foods like stew and the like.  I’ll also miss the price of food.  Kenyan food from local joints is especially cheap.  There’s a place across the street where I can eat to my heart’s content for just under two bucks.  Non-Kenyan food is also quite cheap.  A relatively classy meal here is way cheaper than the US.
10. The rains.  I’ve written about this elsewhere, but the rains in Kenya and Africa have what seems to me to be a greater significance than I’ve noticed in the other places I’ve lived.  In the US, the places I’ve lived have received moisture all year through rain in the summer and snow in the winter.  Here, there are two seasons: the dry season and the rainy season.  The moment the rainy season begins, life comes back to creation.  Things turn green again, bugs come, animals regain their lost kgs from the dry season, the mud returns, etc.  

There are other things I'll miss as well.  Maybe I'll write a part II with these sometime.  

What does it take to be the hands and feet of Christ?

it takes courage.

recently, i think that God has been placing people in my life for a reason. as i noted in previous posts, i took a course called the gospel of luke as a module course here at seminary. in that class two of the biggest subjects we dealt with were the hospitality of God and liberation for the poor. well, low and behold a few situations have occurred in the past several days that have dealt exactly with this.

last weekend, my sister and i had just finished grocery shopping when a lady motioned at us and came walking up. then she began her story. generally i just start to tune them out when that story starts and look for some change to give to them. but thankfully, my sister helped me not to do that. the lady's name was rochelle. she worked on the side of town where we were shopping, but lived with her young children at least twenty minutes away. she and they were hungry and cold and she didn't have a way to get back to them. we offered to take her to the bus depot, and she didn't want us to bother. but she did want us to pray. there in front of aldi's we prayed with her.

then tonight after a week of reading more into the gospel of luke, where just this morning i read about the good samaritan, about helping to usher in the kingdom of God, about asking God for our daily bread; libby and i encountered another similar situation. a gentlemen named terrance came up to us in westport, kansas city and told us of his young girls who needed diapers and nutritional milk. again, i longed just to end the conversation with me sticking my hand in my pocket and taking out some coins i got at the tip jar as a barista today, but thankfully yet again my sister continued in dialogue with the man. we went down to the local grocery story and got him what he had asked. he didn't come in with us, because he said he was already caught stealing some diapers earlier. this man had said that he had come to kansas city in hopes of a fresh start. he'd been a druggie in chi town, and wanted to take proper care of his wife, azetta and his girls.

it's times like these that we're faced with decisions. we can either just say, sorry i've got to go, or look to the scapegoat of some loose change. or, we can physically try to help these people. sure, there are cons out there. maybe even these people were cons. but we cannot be the judges of that. we're called to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the least of these. it's something that takes courage. it takes courage to take that step of getting out of our comfort zones and helping strangers.

yet, i also know there's so much more that can be done. i hope that i can find some meaningful ways, and i hope that the church can find some meaningful ways to help the rochelle's, terrance's, and azetta's which are all over our cities, our world.

what i've learned in seminary this semester: modules

so this semester started for me two and 1/2 weeks ago on january 17th. i was in a module class. a module class at nazarene theological seminary is a two week intensive course. they are just that, quite intense. my module class met every week night for 4 hours and 45 minutes. some people take two of these and so they are in class for 9 and 1/2 hours. most modules have pre course work, course work, and post course work. they are crazy.

i was in the gospel of luke. i was pretty excited for this class. the learning started right away. my favorite book before the course started (during the pre course work) was Jesus and empire by richard a. horsely. this book really gave me an in depth look at what the roman empire was like during Jesus' day. i really discovered how brutal the empire was. in fact this book helped me during my writing of a sermon that my sister Libby and i co-prought (past tense for preached) at our parents church, salt lake city first church of the nazarene, the day after christmas. it was entitled the refugee God. basically we talked about how Jesus was born into life as a refugee, for his family fled to egypt right after his birth because of the brutal killing of male babies which herod imposed on the people. maybe i will post our manuscript on here sometime.

during the class the biggest themes which we talked about were hospitality, liberation and jubilee. the liberation and jubilee themes were talked about in relation to leviticus 25 and how this chapter talked of the year of jubilee which would be practiced every 50 years by the people, where debts were forgiven, where land would lie fallow, and where basically everyone would have a new start (it's a lot more detailed than that, so you can go look it up if you like). liberation was highlighted in the fact that Jesus brought liberation to people who were oppressed, both spiritually and physically.

lastly, we talked about hospitality. i was in a group which focused on the book "the hospitality of God" by brendan byrne. this book focused on how luke highlights the fact that Jesus practiced the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers in the gospel of luke. this all started through God's gracious hospitality which he extended to his people through sending his Son Jesus to them. then we saw how Jesus extended hospitality to those he came in contact with and how some of those who came in contact with him did the same.

my friend Jared brought up a good point, that maybe as wesleyans we would refer to this as prevenient grace. i think that i tend to agree with him, because God was preceduous in his extension of his hospitality through his love, both throughout the old testament, but also through sending his son to us.

it was definitely an intense couple of weeks of study. i enjoyed learning from my peers and learning from our gracious professor as well. i'm really glad that i took the class. it's opened up my eyes to how Jesus lived his life and how we are called to replicate this.