Kenya Update 1/18/10 - Borrowed Time

It seems like 2010 is not the year for writing in this blog. It's definitely not for lack of activity, as I've been here and there and everywhere for the last couple weeks. My time is running very short in Kenya, I will be home soon! It is very surreal, being so close to coming home. I have really grown to love the people here, my little community at ANU, and Kenya in general. Consequently, it has been an emotional roller coaster, every 8 hours or so I swing from being so excited to come home and see everyone I love and miss so much, to being extremely sad to be leaving this place that I've grown to love and will miss so much. Once again, it seems the best things in my life are always bitter sweet.

Last week on Thursday one of the more significant role models and mentors in my life died of cancer. John Williams was an incredible man who was in love with Jesus Christ. This love inspired every word and act of his life. His love of Christ and consequential love of everything transformed everyone he came in contact with. Near the end of his life he became increasingly positive and shared more and more love with everyone around him. John's faith was unshakable. He was absolutely and unequivocally convinced that everything he did, and everything that happened to him would bring about God's will. John finished his life epitomizing what it means to be a Christian - finding increasing measures of joy in the face of sorrow and suffering, finding a real vision for God's plan not only through his life but through his death and beyond. It takes real faith to look in the face of death and smile. How I long for that faith! How I long for that vision! John's life has helped me see that it is possible.

Like I said earlier...some of the best things in life are bitter sweet. Life is a peculiar dichotomy between sadness and joy. One of the many things I learned from John is that when you are following Christ, there is nothing in life, whether it is cause for mourning or celebration (or both!), that is without hope.

I have quite a few goals for the next just-over-a-month, I will definitely be busy. Yet, I will need prayer to find the wisdom to identify the most important needs I can meet, and realize the discipline to work hard and leave this place better than how I left it.

In other news, I went to Mombasa! I explored around with Dr. Mark Pitts' son Ben and my friend Graham. Check out my Picasa albums for all the bloody (not really) details. I am quite sun burned, but happily so having experienced a true tropical paradise. Also, I retrieved my pictures from my trip to Luo-land in December. Included is a link to that album on Picasa!

Christmas in Kenya

Mombasa, baby!