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 :)