Greetings from Kenya

I will not be able to fully explain all that God is/has been doing throughout the first week here.  The peace that I have cannot be explained in mere words.  God is certainly at work and I am thankful to be a part of what He is already doing.   I have been blessed with so many new experiences.  We started language school, met with the head master and teachers at the school where we will be working, fellowshipped with a young adult Bible study group, and experienced Sunday morning worship at Ridgeways Baptist Church, just to name a few.  There have been many lessons as well as challenges and I am thankful for both.

 

1 John 3:17 (NIV) states: “If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion- how can God’s love be in that person?”  What does it mean to ‘live well’?  My understanding of what it means to ‘live well’ is definitely changing with each experience that I have here.   My first lesson in determining the difference between need and want and developing a better understanding of what it means to ‘live well’ came immediately after getting off the plane in Nairobi.  After watching everyone else’s luggage come and go we realized that our luggage was not in Nairobi with us.   It would take a few days for our luggage to arrive and we had only what was in our carry-on.  It was here that we realized that we had more than enough.  We had a change of clothes, soap, and a toothbrush and toothpaste.  We learned to wash our clothes out in the sink and keep it moving.  If the truth is told, we had more in our carry-ons than many of the natives have as their life possessions. 

 

We also have had many cross-cultural experiences.  I would not have ever imagined how challenging a trip to the grocery store could be.  There were so many factors that played into this cross-cultural experience.   First of all, we did not know what foods we liked and which ones would not sit well with us, we had to try to convert shillings to dollars so we had an idea of how much we were spending, and we were unfamiliar with the lay-out of the store and what was ‘safe’ to eat and what was not.   In the midst of our shopping experience the electricity went out in the store. (This is common in Kenya.   Electricity is a want and not a need….. It has been out several times this week, both at home and in public places.)   A trip that would normally take us less than twenty minutes in the States took over three hours here. 

 

The fellowship with the ladies from Ridgeways was amazing.  It was interesting to watch Kenyan’s interact with each other and with us in such a natural manner.  Their testimonies, choices of conversation and their personal relationship and devotion to God blew me away.     They have over-come obstacles that many of us could not fathom and persevere with resilience and determination in a manner that would be uncommon at best in the States.  These ladies are wise beyond their years and it was apparent that God is working in their lives.

 

The collective experiences of the week have certainly stretched me in many ways and are working to reshape my worldview.   I am thankful to be able to see a glimpse of how God is working in this culture.   I am just starting to understand the importance of not putting God in a box.  God is so much bigger than our minds can begin to fathom.