Kenya Update 11/28/09 - Basically Beaker.

Nothing to say that can top this:

Kenya Update 11/25/09 - Orphans and Termites

It's been a fun and busy week so far. It took way too long to recover from our late night of games at the Wakias home...I worry that my college "function on negligible sleep" mojo is leaving me. This would be tragic. I went to sleep at 9:30 last night, so today I'm chipper and awake, and not falling asleep during my English lesson (yeah, that was embarrassing!)

Yesterday I walked to St. Paul's Childrens Home, an orphanage about a 25 minute walk from ANU. I was asked by pastor Gift (from the church on campus) to organize the compassionate ministry for our congregation. I am working with an intriguing fellow named Sylvanus Michael Otieno - he's a retired teacher who is aiming to go back to school, but for now he's just helping with the church. An old football player, he has stories upon stories (which, of course were shared on the way to the childrens home!) The home itself was delightful - we chatted at length with the matriarch (an incredible woman named Margaret) about how the good people at ANU can meet their needs and minister to the kids. The kids are adorable, a little girl sat on my lap playing with my wrist watch the whole time we were chatting. There is also a Norwegian volunteer living at St. Paul's who seems like a great guy. He is a digital design type person, and is aiming to create a website for the school so they can raise money more effectively (for little things like food and water!)

Are there any good people at home who would be willing to take his designs and design the web interface? It would be a "fun" project that would make a HUGE difference in a lot of lives (especially for those kids) here in Kenya.

So for the next few days I'll be galvanizing all my friends to go to this home over Christmas break to do music with them, teach a bible lesson and play games. It is exciting to participate in such a dynamic and practical ministry. Pray for St. Pauls Children's home!

In other news: I made the mistake (or, had the wisdom to) lift up the loose linoleum in my bathroom to see a vast army of termites chowing down on the baseboard and stretching across the floor. A good part of my morning today was spent cleaning up and having a maintenance fellow spray the inside and outside of my bathroom...so it's a mess, but hopefully it will be a bug free mess (in a few hours) so that I can transform it back to a bug free bathroom!

Here are some pictures from Sunday's concert:

Jazz n Folk

Kenya Update 11/23/09 - Jazz, Settlers and British Capitalism

It has been a very fun weekend. Saturday we had "Thanksgiving" - after which I went back to ANU and satisfied my turkeyitis by reading and snoozing my way in Sunday. Sunday morning there was church where I filled in on the keyboard. Our preacher was a masters student named Evans Katanga who spoke on the importance of excellence while serving God - he gave the ABCs of excellence (all I remember is that J was "Just do it!" hahaha).

After church I headed into town to see Immanuel Ashene's jazz combo group do a recital. Immanuel is the choir director here and I do lots of stuff with him (including playing ping pong every day at lunch! Excellent!) It was very fun, he did well (on piano) and I'll post some pictures on Picasa.

After the concert I accompanied Dibo and Jeannette to Ken Wakia's house to spend the night playing board games. Some info on Ken: Ken is the former assistant dean of ANU, but now he is directing a few choirs around Nairobi (one of which I sing in: the Nairobi Chamber Chorus). We played 2 games of Settler's (6 players! awesome.) and 1 game of Monopoly. It was super fun, Ken's British wife Joanna won the first game of Settler's, I won the second, then we both decided at 1:30 am that it would be a tie "power sharing deal". It was pretty brutal, but sleep was definitely the best option at that point!

Sunday morning (during our bible study on Romans) Dibo told a quick fable about faith:
In the midst of a terrible drought 2 men decide to pray that God would send them rain. The first man spends all his time fasting and praying, pouring out his mind body and soul to the purpose of entreating God for rain. The second man prays, but then spends his time planting seed and preparing his fields for the harvest. When the rain came, the first man had to scramble, rushing through the preparations in order to take advantage of God's providence. The second man reaped a great harvest. Which of these men had greater faith?


This story really made me think about where I am in my term of service in Kenya. The semester is ending, and I will not be here long enough to teach another unit. So, I've got a solid 5-6 weeks where my responsibilities are spread thin. In other words, I will have more time than I've had in the first 3 months here (by the way, it's three months today :) ) I want above all to do what God would have me do (my activities the last 3 months is enough to make my resume look awesome. I'm not worried about that, beyond actually getting a job - yikes!), and I have been trying to figure out what exactly that is. It is complicated, juggling intentions and insecurities as I try to divine what I ought to do. Dibo's little fable is great because I'm encouraged to make it a matter of prayer, but to not sit complacently in flat #3 waiting for something to happen so I don't doubt my intentions or second guess myself. I am working on opening opportunities for me to serve in a few different areas, but never outside the context of prayer. That being said: I hope that enough information for some other folks to pray for me as well :)

Kenya Update 11/21/09 - Happy "Thanksgiving"

Today was Thanksgiving in Kenya! Okay, not really - of course Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Kenya, but we had a big ol' Turkey-style Thanksgiving meal at the field office with all the missionaries and their family today. The food was wonderful (as usual) and I am always struck by how warm, receptive and kind the Nazarene ministers and teachers who live at Mount Carmel are. It is always an encouragement - especially when I get a plate full of food to bring home! :) It's been a good week at ANU. I spent a lot of time planning a trip up-country to visit loads of people (most of whom I have not met yet!), organized by my pastor friend Peter who I've been getting to know more and more.

Things with the student council are going well - things are starting to get rolling because I've found some good people to work with. The Leadership Training organized last Saturday was a huge success and it gave us a solid foundation of transparency to start building the relationship between the Student Council and the administrative staff. I am optimistic mostly because of the competence Charles (the newly elected Student Council chairperson) has shown. So it's alot of organizational strategy type stuff which I find compelling but most people don't care about! Oh well. It really feels like that I've found a niche at ANU that is using my all my skills, refining them and challenging me.

I have been challenged in big ways while here at ANU, challenges that I am still figuring out how to meet in the way God made me to meet them. I think these challenges can be summed up in one statement: "How can I be a Jesus person in a world full of so much desperate need?" This is a question that you could write a book about, for sure. It's a question I think us Christians ought to ask ourselves daily - not only to remember how important it is to be Jesus people, but to remember how desperate the needs of people around the world are.

I wonder if Facebook will update with this blog entry? Perhaps that will make these entries much more public, hopefully more people can enjoy them. God Bless!

Kenya Update 11/13/09 - Ping Pong Parasites

Awwww yeah three P's. I'm such an alliteration junkie. Anyway I've had a busy week since my close encounter of the microscopic kind on Tuesday. Just to be clear - I have an amoeba that totally wrecked me on Tuesday, but has since slipped into latency. I have amoebacide from the clinic at ANU that should clear me up in a few short days. I am so thankful it has eased up too, because I've had a lot fall into my lap the last few days. A busy weekend looms, and I've been asked to organize the student leadership training on um...Saturday. I feel okay about it, I'm worried though because I would claim that the students and administration are not "practiced" at working together or communicating...so, I hope folks hang their frustrations, immaturity and fears at the door for the seminar I've planned on Saturday!
Also, on Sunday I'm traveling with the choir to some church in Nairobi, followed immediately by a rehearsal for the Nairobi Chamber Chorus which will be nice - it's been a while since I've done some quality singing. Unfortunately, another busy weekend means one less chance to go see some animals. Drat! It will get done - perhaps at the beginning of next week I'll take a day off and hit up the Giraffe Center or something.
In other news: I have found equipment to play ping pong regularly on campus...a pair of NICE paddles that the school is letting me use (keep in my flat so they're not broken like everything on college campuses are broken) a net and some balls. So, my neighbor Riao Yi and I play after our english lessons, and now that I've RElocated my phone (yeah it was missing...) I can give my Ethiopian pal Joseph a call (he's quite the player too). Also, on Friday I skipped down to the lounge to play some students, some of them are very good, but I won 3 games to 2. I felt like this was luck. This did not in any way detract from the thrill of victory. I will update tomorrow after leadership training and my day of singing!

Kenya Update 11/11/09 - Happy Corduroy Day

This morning was wonderful - no vomiting, no terrible toilet time...while it is very confusing, I am not complaining. I got my test results back from the clinic and it seems I have an amoeba! Plus I've had it for a while, because there are not many symptoms at first. Yet as the first generation of amoeba spawn come to life in my stomach there is a violent reaction which is not fun for the host! So I've got my drugs from the clinic and I should be on the path to good health in good time.
This is good because now I can focus on trying to get my students to pass Logic Circuits, elbowing my way into student council and making music with Mr. Ashene! Also, I'm working with a gentleman named Michael from church to put together a compassionate ministry program for ANU students and the congregants of the ...we have our first official "meeting" this afternoon, so I hope things work out and God blesses our work.
Thanks for everyone's prayer and encouragement yesterday. It helped so much and made me realize how difficult (well nigh impossible) it would be to do this Africa thing alone.

Kenya Update 11/10/09 - An Interesting Morning

I knew something was a little weird when I couldn't get to sleep last night until midnight. I woke up this morning around 6:15am and I just felt awful all over. Perhaps it was a tell tale sign yesterday: I was very sore all over my body, but I thought that was just from ODing on pushups before and after bed...but no. I'll spare the "oh feel bad for me" details, I spent the morning vomiting (but only 3 times!), riding the porcelain throne and sleeping. Just around 11:30 I had a big scare: I was taken with a huge case of the chills and dizziness, coupled with that feeling of "here comes an upchuck" as well as the very real need to empty my bowels. Luckily I was able to alight the toilet to take care of the latter of those issues before I passed out (I didn't actually pass out), and I sat there recovering. Now (12:30), I feel better, I'm able to sit up and eat and it seems as if the worst is over. I am definitely going to hit up the clinic after I print some stuff for class tomorrow. I hope I feel better for choir rehearsal tonight - get this: we're singing Christmas music the whole chapel on Thursday. What a riot, but they're some really cool Caribbean feel/west African feel songs that are about Christmas time. So funny. I might play my drum for one of the A Cappella songs.
So I was able to post some pictures I've taken since the sun has come out: they're not many, I'm at 20% of my Picasa storage so I'm aiming to conserve - though I plan to add more pictures of campus so folks can get a better feel for where I live! This first album is going to be an "updated regularly" album of friends I make.

Good People

Now the campus shots:

ANU Campus

I appreciate the prayers as I fight my way back to health!

Kenya Update 11/9/09 - Quite Like Paradise

It has been a good week at ANU. The weather is starting to move towards the post-rain "spring" phase, and everything is beautiful. I will make an album of shots from around campus and post it on Picasa tonight. Several times this week (and especially this weekend) I had to pause, look around, and think (or comment) "you know, ANU is quite like paradise..." Things are green, there are flowers everywhere. I see now the intentionality of the groundskeepers starting to come to fruition, and I love it.
It was a great week working with the Immanuel and the choir, my logic circuit students (who are struggling with flip flops...poor guys) and hanging out with friends and neighbors. It's fun going into the market with Riao Yi and his wife. Folks in Ongata Rongai aren't used to seeing white folks walking through the market, much less a mzungu with a pair of Chinese! Very fun to see the wide eyed children scamper to their mothers and mischievous shop owners try to think of creative ways to get at our money. Speaking of children, on my walks to and from Dibo and Jeannette's place I often run into some kids - their reactions are consistently in one of two categories. They are either intrigued by this mzungu with a drum, or stricken with abject terror. I saw one boy who was perfectly happy walking with his Mom until he saw me coming, he immediately starts bawling and will not stand such that he can see me from behind his Mother. His Mom thought this was great and did her best to dodge out of the way much to my delight and his despair. Other kids smile, laugh and wave shouting the "mzungu salute" over and over "HOW ARE YOU? HOW ARE YOU?"
The novelties of being a racial minority can be enjoyable just as often as they are frustrating and sad. That's what I keep telling myself and I'm finding that if I'm "on purpose" about it - it's true. It's time for me to head out. I will post more tomorrow. Allison reminds me that while things are starting to approach "normalcy" for me, the little things I barely notice (like cows in the streets or homemade carts or even the trees) are still total novelties to most people who read this blog. That being said, I'll work harder to write about my every day life, and take some pictures to go along with it :) Blessings to all. God is good and He is with us everyday.

Don't Panic

Another common and less than positive response to crisis is panic. We had a gang of young boys growing up in our town just outside of Boston. This was gang activity in the best sense of the word. These were the unenlightened days of the late 50’s so it was politically correct to play cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, knights of the round table, NFL football but the thing we loved most was “raiding the girls”. The girls would be playing house or whatever other girly thing they happened to be doing and we would swoop in as marauding bandits, over turn their tea set, frighten their dolls and generally wreak havoc and misery upon their existence.

Well we were enjoying our raid this one particular day when the ground began to rumble and here comes Mr. LeBrun. He was big and we thought ugly and very mad ... steam from his ears ... froth from his mouth ... coming to save the girls and demolish the enemy. Well it was fight or flight time and knowing that fight was not an option I burst into all out flight mode. I began to run ... and lo and behold he starts chasing me ... did he not know my older brother was the ring leader of this nefarious plot? I Put my head down, ducked into a neighboring nursery and began running thru the trees. He was getting closer, I could feel his hot breath on my neck. He was just about to get me when I found myself spinning my legs in mid air ... not unlike Wiley Coyote in the Road Runner cartoon. I had run straight of the precipice of a sheer cliff and was sure I would fall to my death, landing flat on my back after a frightening fall of at least 4 - 5 feet. When things get tough the easiest thing to do is panic ... worry ourselves sick ... do something stupid ... take things in our own hands ... run off a cliff in fear.

We don’t need to panic. We are not alone as our God is an ever present help in time of trouble. We are not alone as the family of God is a help and support. A loving God sends his Spirit to comfort, strengthen, and lead. We have a guide in the words of God and as we listen and seek the wisdom of an infinite God he will show us the next step to take when life shakes you up.

I am quite sure the next step taken in obedient response to the words of God will not be off a cliff. Then what we find is that our place of greatest fear and danger is most often the place of greatest blessing.

… our place of greatest fear and danger is most often the place of greatest blessing.

Real Life Ain't Disney World

Real Life Ain’t Disney World


I love Disney World. Every employee is ingrained with the core value that the guests are the most important people on earth. Everyone smiles. There is a sense of peacefulness that is not reproduced in the typical theme park. Employees do not rush into work, throwing on their apron at the last minute. Rather they are actors who enter the park through specially camouflaged doors. I love Disney world but I couldn’t live there. It is nice but not real.

People do not always smile at you. Good fortune does not always fill your life with sunlight. There are times when the darkness of pain, trial, suffering and injustice consumes your existence. Facing the facts, living by faith involves an acceptance of the trials and suffering of life … not a pain free life but a deep rich abundant life. Accepting the facts is more than a passive endurance of pain but is also a decisive turning from a self absorbed obsession/pre-occupation with personal comfort, convenience and pleasure. It is as we accept and even embrace the reality of suffering that we come to know and understand God’s working in us.

It is in the real finite struggles of life that an infinite God reveals his love, grace, and power to us as well as to those around us. Skye Jethani quotes Dallas Willard, “We are not to try to get in a position to avoid trials. And we are not to ‘catastrophize’ and declare the ‘end of the world’ when things happen. Jethani goes on to say, “the trials of ordinary existence are the divine curricula for spiritual maturity. These are the laser beams God uses to put our old self, with it’s misappropriated desires, to death and then resurrect a new self with new desires focused on a more lasting joy". In other words although I really prefer comfort and a painless existence … that is neither my deepest need nor the way of greatest happiness. My greatest joy is in facing the trials with the empowerment, grace, inner strength and joy of a practical relationship with a personal God.

Kenya Update 11/2/09 - Chakula na Rafiki

It seems alliterations don't translate well from English to Swahili. This weekend was full of good food and good people. Friday night I was invited to stay at the Crawford's at the field office complex (Mount Karmel) down in Nairobi. There was a potluck to bid farewell to Dr. David Graves and his wife. Dr. Graves is the newly elected General Superintendent for the Africa region. We spent dinner listening to some wild stories. If you ever get a chance - ask me how they tenderize meat in Sudan. It was a very fun night especially considering how good the food was - and that I watched Stargate with the Crawford's afterwards! They were very kind to let me stay in their home, I really enjoyed visiting with them...plus they let me borrow the complete Colubmia recordings of Simon and Garfunkle, which is 5 more CDs of music to enjoy!

Also, Amy and Greg got me into "Facebook Scrabble" which is called Lexulous. It could be a ministry, perhaps. I am so bad at that game that anyone playing against me will feel like a champ. So, if you need an ego boost, feel free to challenge me and I'll do my best against you (to no avail!)

Saturday afternoon was pretty lazy, I watched a movie with Graham and visited with my family in New York. My niece is one seriously happy baby when she wakes up. Then Pitts invited me over for home baked PIZZA, which was delicious, and some episodes of the West Wing. The pizza was great, and I got to take some pieces home!

Sunday was a good day. Ombui wasn't there to play keyboard so I stepped in, which isn't as much fun now that it means I don't get to play my drum! The service was good, but I was tired. After church I slept for 2 hours...which is an unusually long nap for me. BUT it was good thing I rested up because yesterday right before sun set I tromped on over to Dibo's home with my djembe. We spent the night eating and playing music in his finance's Jeannette's flat by candlelight because the electricity didn't come on until about midnight. So, Dibo and I shared a bed last night, and he will be the first to tell you how crazy his sleep cycle is. He listens to LOUD music all night long; he says he enjoys listening to worship music and reading the verse on his desktop background as he falls asleep! Luckily, he was gracious enough to turn it down a little bit so I was able to sleep. I really enjoyed staying with Dibo - he is a solid man of God who is focused on where he is going.

This week my goal is to see some animals! I figure I've been here for over 2 months, its about time I hit up one of the safari's or animal centers around the area. So: cool pictures to come! I miss my family and my Allison very much. Thanksgiving is coming up and so is Christmas - prayers would be appreciated as I search for constructive and Godly ways to avoid letting homesickness drag me down!