It's Beginning to Look a Bit Like Christmas.

Even before we left the US, we knew Christmas in Kenya was going to be different. While we were celebrating Christmas 2007 in the US and then on a quick trip to Ireland, we made a 

game of which Christmas songs would be least appropriate in Kenya:

"I'm Dreaming of a..." Nope.

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way! Oh what fun it is to ride in a

 one horse open..."Nope.

"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost..." Nope.

On the other hand, most of the songs about the FIRST Christmas still work:

Silent Night, Joy to the World,  Away in a Manger....few of the songs about the birth of the Christchild are bound by the Western image of snow and cold. Maybe that's at least partially because the "first" Christmas happened in the Middle East, probably in the spring since the shepherds were watching herds of sheep including lambs. 

We're thrilled that we will have five family members with us for Christmas: Mark's Dad Jay, second-oldest son Andrew and his wife Birge, and favorite daughter Rachel and her boyfriend Rich will all be here for visits from a couple of weeks to a month. We'll do some of the usual things we do with visitors, but it will be great to spend the Christmas season together.

What's Christmas like in Kenya? Each week we have four students or four faculty members to lunch at our house, and for several weeks we've been asking people this question. The answers depend a little on the age or on the tribal background of the respondent, but there are 

some general themes: Certain kinds of food that were rare on a daily basis were featured on Christmas Day:  chicken and rice and chapatis (a kind of East Indian burrito, pictured nearby).

 

Young men would go from door to door in the small, closely knit villages and ask for food that was cooked in the field by the young people as a special Christmas feast--kind of like "trick or treating for protein"!  While it was rare for there to be many gifts to open, everyone got new clothes. Often, people would attend a village church service, led by a lay pastor since ordained ministers were rare in the small villages. Some people, if they thought their clothes were especially nice, would attend multiple church services to let their neighbors see how nice they looked.

What we see around us now is an interesting mixture of old and new customs, African and Western elements. The "Nairobi Christmas" is usually the more Western, especially if families

 have young, media-influenced children.  There will probably be a Christmas tree (like the one in Ya Ya Shopping Centre also pictured nearby) and other decorations. There will probably be more Christmas presents.

The "up country" Christmas is usually more traditionally Kenyan. Most Kenyans have property in the rural areas--called "up country" wherever they are located. City Kenyans travel to enjoy the rural property, see elderly relatives, and slaughter and eat a goat. Christmas decorations are less common. Often, the most senior relative may give a speech of inspiration and advice at the end of the family celebration. 

There's a third variation of Christmas that we are a small part of: the "expatriate Christmas." Several students on the ANU campus will not be able to go home for Christmas: Okon from

 Nigeria; Gift and Constantino from Zimbabwe; a pastor named Agnes and her family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We'll plan to have an on-campus expatriate Christmas. Often, these students are far away from family, have limited funds, and are cut off from the traditions of their home countries. We'll have lots of family around us, so we're feeling very happy about our Christmas, but as the news here is full of stories of violence in the Congo and cholera in Zimbabwe, we'd appreciate your prayers for these expatriate Nazarene students and their troubled countries at Christmas time. 

So do we miss the Western Christmas? Well sure, a little bit, but to make up for that we often

 feel we are seeing the "real" Bible stories laid out before us--shepherds tending flocks of sheep

 and goats; pairs of figures walking down rock-strewn trails, robes flapping in the breeze; herds of camels eating the leaves of acacia trees. 

The Lord is teaching us not to alter our vision of Christmas, not to abandon our affection for snow and evergreens, but to expand our vision of Christmas and to use the timeless elements of Kenyan culture to reconnect to the quiet, star-lit and non-Western realities of the First Christmas.

As we move more fully into the Christmas season, we want to thank each of you who have been part of the journey we have taken this last year. It took us from the violence at the beginning of the year in Kenya, through some personal challenges to the joy and excitement of Christmas with family. As we close, we'd like to wish each of our friends and blog subscribers a very Blessed Christmas, and to share with you some quotations about the religious and cultural aspects of the Christmas season:

• The spirit of Christmas needs to superseded by the Spirit of Christ. The spirit of Christmas is annual; the Spirit of Christ is eternal. The spirit of Christmas is sentimental; the Spirit of Christ is supernatural. The spirit of Christmas is a human product; the Spirit of Christ is a divine person. That makes all the difference in the world. Stuart Briscoe
• They were all looking for a king To slay their foes, and lift them high; Thou cam'st, a little baby thing That made a woman cry. George Macdonald , British religious writer.
• Remember, if Christmas isn't found in your heart, you won't find it under a tree. Charlotte Carpenter. 
• A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together. Garrison Keillor
• At Christmas, all roads lead home. Marjorie Holmes
• The three grand essentials … in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. Joseph Addison

MERRY CHRISTMAS! MARK AND NANCY

The View from Kenya: Election Day USA

First, an important disclaimer: what follows is not a political statement. Mark and Nancy already have a Savior we love more than any American or world leader. The notes that follow will try hard to avoid anything that looks partisan. We understand that not all votes are counted and that the electoral college in the US has not even started its work.  We just thought you might be interested in how election day looks from Kenya. Some observations:

• First, the US Embassy has used the American election season as an opportunity to teach students and staff in Kenyan universities how American politics works. ANU had a representative from the American Embassy on campus last week to explain about the electoral college, about the relationship between state votes and the national vote, etc.
• Several ANU students and staff (but not the two of us, who were too lazy to get up at 4AM as the invitation would have required) accepted the Embassy invitation to watch the returns from the US Ambassador's residence.
• The fact that Barak Obama is half Kenyan has not played in Kenya quite the way most Americans would anticipate it would. Kenyans are VERY tribal. Barak Obama's father was a Luo, a minority tribe. Because of this, members of the Kikuyu tribe, especially, were not initially enthusiastic about Barak Obama's candidacy.
• Even so, as Senator Obama appeared to get closer and closer to winning the election, national pride began to overcome tribal loyalties. It may astonish or amuse you to know that tomorrow has been declared a national holiday by Moi Kibaki, our Kikuyu president, in honor of the victory of Barak Obama, a half-Luo American! Banks, government offices, classes and businesses will all be closed because of an event half a world away.
• Short excerpt from The Standard, a major newspaper in Kenya:  "Kenya’s Kogelo village (Senator Obama's family village) erupted in celebration after CNN projections showed Barack Obama to have won the hotly contested United States presidential elections, beating rival John McCain. After heeding Obama’s grandmother, Mama Sarah, not to celebrate until the elections were over, villagers in Kogelo, who had kept vigil as projected results indicated Obama was ahead of McCain in Florida by 52 to 48 electoral votes, burst into celebration. In Nairobi, residents sang, danced and did high-fives as traditional dancers enlivened the dawn with Dholuo songs and chants of Obama! in several parts of Kenya. 'We won! Victory is ours!' Nairobi residents shouted in the streets as the sun broke through the grey sky."
• The Luo's, most of whom live in the western part of Kenya, have ranged from enthusiastic to wildly enthusiastic. Thoughtful Luo's are quietly appreciative that it's possible for someone connected with their tribe to reach this level. Poor, uneducated Luos (understandably but very unrealistically) have declared on television that they see this as having PERSONL impact: more money, new jobs, gifts from America. (The Kenyan man in the cartoon at the left is asking Uncle Sam for new favors because of the projected president-elect.) This comes from the historic fact that, rightly or wrongly, the person who wins presidential elections in Kenya tends to make sure his immediate family and his tribe benefit directly from his time in office.
• Kenyan editorialists and television commentators have rebuked Kenya based on what they are observing in the US. "How is it," they ask, "that Barak Obama, a Luo, can be elected President of the United States, but could not be elected a Member of Parliament in Central Province (a stronghold of the Kikuyu who oppose the Luo)?" "How is it that America can have an orderly transition in power from one party to another, that Obama can ask McCain for his help and McCain can call Obama 'my president' when even the hint of a transition in power in Kenya can leave 1400 people dead (as it did in January)?" 

Again, we understand that the Kenyan euphoria is not shared by many, many faithful Nazarenes. Even so, just as a historic event connecting Kenya and the US, we thought you would be interested in what the American election looks like from Kenya. 

A Hindi "Vacation Bible School Program"

This past Saturday evening, while Nan stayed home and graded papers, Mark and ANU Chancellor Jerry Lambert accepted an invitation from a professor at the University of Nairobi to attend his temple's annual Duwali Festival--Christmas and New Year's wrapped up in one for the Hindu community. As it turned out, the evening was very interesting but also very moving. The temple itself looked like a modern secondary school with a gym and a nice park-like lawn in the back.

Mark and Jerry arrived 40 minutes early and could see that a worship  service was going on in a room on the second floor at the back of gym. As 

people saw them, they made motions to join

them in the worship room. As Mark and Jerry took off their shoes and entered the room, they were hit by a wave of heat from perhaps 10 gallon-sized pots with foot-tall flames of incense burning above them. Since most of the program participants were going to be children, it was

 mainly children in a variety of regional Indian traditional clothing

 gathered around each incense pot with adults in chairs around the outer edge of the room. The part of the

 service we witnessed included an explanation of Duwali, a prayer by a child and some singing by 

an eldery priest who accompanied himself on a "harmonium", a portable, hand-pumped organ with room for a hymnal on top.

Jerry and Mark stopped for awhile on a balcony after the service, so most of the seats in the front of the gym were taken, but a very determined, elderly Indian lady met them at the door (does your church have a

 greeter so determined to welcome visitors?) and, in spite of their protests that they could sit anywhere, ushered them down to the FRONT ROW. As it turned out, the determined woman was the wife of the temple chairman, kind of like the "chairman of the board of trustees", who was a distinguished and kindly-looking professor of mathematics at a respected government university. 

As the program began, the fact that he was a teacher became even clearer. He would lean over to Mark and whisper part of what the

speaker was saying or the singer was singing: "When the sun goes down, a little candle gives great light." "The greatest success is the greatest humility." "Nobility of spirit is God's wish for his people." Not everything was serious. There was a Hindi comedian telling corny and familiar jokes: a man who said his newborn twins should be named "Pete" and "Repeat." A man advised to have his daughter eat an apple daily to avoid the advances of an undesirable doctor because "Everyone knows an apple 

a day keeps the doctor away." Mark and Jerry silently cheered for a little girl in full, elaborately embroidered Hindi costume who was clearly terrified but began to smile as she concentrated on the dance she had

 practiced. Same for a 10-year od who had been asked at the last minute to play the "tabla", a set of Indian drums for the adult traditional singers.

Parts of the program felt alot like a Hindu version of a "vacation Bible school" program: : A lady MC who kept forgetting that the microphone stayed on even when she went behind the curtain. A "rap" by some teen boys in sunglasses that the older people pretended to enjoy to affirm their slightly rowdy boys. After the service and program, we stayed for a great vegetarian Indian meal and fireworks! Great, great evening with good folks. 

What's the moving part? The songs reminded us that there are some common yearnings of the human heart, put there by God: love of family, a yearning for something more than money or earthly success, a desire for virtue and, for want of a better word, "wholesomeness."  Jerry and Mark were not tempted to join the temple, but they were reminded that in the strangest setting, with people who seem very different than ourselves, there are pathways to conversation about the living God and His son Jesus. We'd ask you to pray that God would give us the right time and the right words.

Another "tale from the road"

It's beginning to look like we could volunteer to do a whole missionary book on "things that happen on the road." Epaphras, one of the ANU drivers, and Mark were headed toward Kenyatta International Airport about 7PM last Sunday evening in ANU's venerable Mitsubishi Pajero to pick up Dr. Jerry Lambert, our new chancellor; Dr. Tom Parks, dean of the MVNU School of Business and his son Thomas. Traffic was heavy. For those of you who've been here, remember the "rough dip" just after you've left Bomas and before you get to Nairobi National Park? As they started up the hill traffic was fairly light on our side of the road and heavy on the other side. So far, so good. 

Perhaps three city blocks ahead of them in the distance they could see th

e headlights of a car that was pulling out of the oncoming lane and coming toward them in our lane. They assumed he was trying to pass several of the cars in his own lane. It didn't take long for Mark and Epaphras to begin getting nervous, however. The car continued to close the distance between them. Finally, the inevitable happened: The Mercedes bumped into the front of the ANU Pajero with a crunch and a tinkle of glass! Since the Pajero is equipped for rough travel, it has an after-market front grill made of strong pipe which was not damaged.

Mark and Epaphras could clearly see that the other driver was seriously drunk. In a couple of minutes, as they watched in astonishment, the Mercedes driver put the car in reverse, turned the steering wheel slightly, put the car in drive and hit the Pajero again! At this point, the Mercedes driver lumbered out of his car and walked shakily to the collision area. Epaphras also got out to hear the Mercedes driver say in Kiswahili what was true: "My car is damaged but yours is not. Drive on!" 

As Mark and Epaphras pulled around the Mercedes on the busy Langata Highway, the Mercedes driver had left the car running with its lights on and driver's side door opened and was trying to climb up the bank to reach the fence where Kenyan men traditionally answer the call of nature. Unfortunately, because he was drunk, he was climbing and sliding, climbing and sliding as Epaphras and Mark drove on toward the airport.

Unfortunately, the Pajero did not QUITE emerge undamaged: the combination of rain and a frayed headlight wire meant they completed the trip to the airport and back in the rain without headlights! University Chaplain Randy James came out with his own car to light the way for the Pajero to get back to campus (it's a metaphor!). 

Regularly our good readers like you write us or tell us in person--"we're praying for the two of you." We know God expects his children to use their brains and to be careful. Even so, more than anytime in our lives, we're feeling those prayers. 

Passing of Mark's Mom

Tuesday, while we were having lunch with four students in our flat, Mark got a call from his Dad to indicate that his Mom Charlotte had passed away during the night. Those of you who have been reading our blog for awhile and our friends know that she has been in decline for a number of years and has been in a care facility beginning early this year. She suffered from memory loss, but continued to be sweet and cooperative and to be loved by all around her.  The funeral service will be in Brazil, Indiana this Saturday, with burial at the family plot in Morristown, Indiana, east of Indianapolis. Mark and Nan will be flying to Indiana this evening to be part of the service and celebration. Charlotte Pitts was a wonderful wife and mother, an excellent elementary school teacher, a warm and welcoming hostess, and a vibrant lover of Jesus Christ. Nancy says when people are pressed, their essence comes out, and Charlotte's essence was sweetness.We will miss her physical presence, but we rejoice in her home-going. 

An Encounter with Bandits

First, the good news: Nancy and Mark, our son Isaac and our automobile are safe on the ANU campus with no physical damage and after a good night's sleep. We have a better understanding of God's grace and mercy, and are a little less skeptical about warnings regarding bandits in Kenya.

Now, the story--on our way into town on Wednesday, a Kenyan Muslim holiday--we noticed a huge sign from the Ministry of Transportation announcing the completion after a couple of years of the new Langata Bypass. Since Langata is a road that leads toward ANU, we decided to take it as we headed home. About 5km down the road, 6 men in dark clothing came out from behind a mound of dirt with pangas (machetes) and what looked like guns and motioned for us to stop. For the next ten minutes, they took watches, cell phones, rings, the car radio, Nan's "second best" camera, and billfolds. Mark remembered a story Wellington Obote, a Kenyan, but now a mission coordinator in Malawi, had told him about reminding his captors that Jesus loves them, and so he told his captors the same thing as they did their work, and Nancy said a blessing on "her" bandit.

Just as they were finishing with us, a car came roaring toward us from the opposite direction and then seemed to lose his nerve and slow down. The bandits yelled at us to get in our car and get going so they could attend to this new "customer." As we moved to do so, we could see that the new driver's speed had angered the bandits. They pointed their guns at him, but the motions they made convinced us that they were either pellet pistols or toy guns...who knew? As the new driver stopped, they knocked out the driver's side and passenger side window, unlocked his door, pulled him out of the car and threw him on the ground. As we drove off, they were slapping him with the flat side of the pangas, which was actually a good sign that they were not interested in doing real injury with the blades. We remained worried about this second customer, but glad he wasn't being cut and glad to have our car and to be uninjured.

After waving down a couple of cars we encountered to warn them of the danger ahead and taking Nan and Isaac back to campus and picking up the University security head, Mark drove back to the Karen police station to make a report, and then to go with the security head and two policeman back to the scene of the crime. They found the broken glass on the road, but no sign of the bandits or the man in the second car.

Last evening, we had a steady stream of staff and students who came with food and cards and to say "pole sana", "so sorry." As we mentioned earlier, as a result of the lightening-fast Nazarene grapevine, we have gotten expressions of sympathy already from around the world.

As you might imagine, we're still kind of processing this. You may not be able to believe it, but we slept well last evening and are able to laugh and joke without effort today. Mark has written earlier about "living in stereo", and that is what we are doing: this robbery happened, but as followers of Christ we can't allow ourselves to be fully defined by our challenges. We must be defined by the "hope that is within us." We are reminded again of the importance of salvation and education in Kenya.

When you pray, we are so grateful for your prayers for us. We always need them, but more importantly, we would appreciate your prayers for Mark's dad as he begins this new chapter without the love of his life. We also can't get those bandits our of our minds. One of our students who is the son of the pastor of the Nazarene church in the slum from which the bandits come said--"I bet I know one of those guys." The police who accompanied Mark back to the scene said they have killed 10 of the bandits in 2 months. We are safe and secure. The bandits are in immediate and eternal jeopardy. Would you join us in praying that the Lord of Second Chances will use Christians in the lives of these young men to bring them to the Lord while there is still time? 

What have we learned or been reminded of by the death of Mark's mom and the encounter with bandits: A good marriage is a wonderful thing, a faithful life is its own epitath, the Christian life must be lived in stereo, God is faithful, God's people are warm and loving and prayerful, and the calling of God on our lives becomes purified and tempered as it deals with trials. 

Thanks as always for your prayers and for your interest in us. We are privileged to call you are friends. In closing, two Kiswahili exclamations:

Asante sana (thank you very much) and Bwana asifiwe (Praise the Lord)!

Winter Update

CHANGE OF SEASONS.: One of the things we're having to learn is that, while the climate here is one of the best in the world, the seasons are more subtle and BACKWARD from seasons in the US. All that to say--as you move into autumn and prepare for winter, we are moving into spring and preparing for summer. We continue to enjoy our cozy home, and although you can't see it, we often lit a set of candles in our fireplace which did a passable job of taking the chill out of the air. Many days during the winter months, since none of the buildings have central heating, the temperature in our offices at the beginning of the day was in the "brisk" low 60's before we turned the space heaters on. Nan's sister Patti was here most of August, and to warm ourselves up during one of the coldest (50-80) months of the year, we took a wonderful trip to Mombasa, Kenya's principal seaport city on the Indian Ocean. More on that in another section.

YOUTH CONFERENCE SUCCESS: Two weeks ago we had our first "Africa Ablaze" youth conference: 230 student delegates from 14 different African countries joined excellent pastors, academics, and business leaders who gave presentations on personal purity and holiness, male-female relationships, dealing with the mass media, integrity versus corruption and other issues relevant to African young people. Nan and Patti and I were privileged to attend several services and breakouts, and the wonderful Sunday services featuring Dr. Eugenio Duarte, our Africa regional director, and an evening praise and worship dinner. During his part of the presentation, when Mark asked students if they pledged to take the "fire" from the Africa Ablaze conference to their home institutions and countries, every hand went up. ANU students have pleaded first to do another conference in December (their next break--not possible!) and then to be SURE we do another conference next year, and that's already in the works. Please be praying that the Lord will use these students' enthusiasm and passion to set a fire in Africa that will impact the continent for the Lord!

AFRICAN FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES: We are very much enjoying the people we're working with and want to introduce you to some more people. The handsome man with the mustache to the left is Professor Isaac Kigatiira. (At some Christian institutions in the US, being called "Professor" sometimes means you don't have a doctorate. Here it means you have fully arrived professionally.) He is the foremost East African expert on bees, former director of the Kenya Beekeepers Association, Ph.D. from Cambridge, and the chair of our dryland farming department. That may seem like an obscure "major", but with 85% of Kenyan land arid or semi-arid, there is a huge need for people to teach farmers how to use water carefully, grow crops with low water need, etc. Professor Kigatiira has a wonderful sense of humor and is a passionate Christian. We attended his daughter's wedding on Saturday, and Nancy was asked to pray the blessing on the newlyweds. He just received a second million shilling government grant to support African women who are using bees to grow sunflowers, pressing the flowers into sunflower oil and selling both the oil and the honey! It's changing lives in Africa. When you pray, you might pray for Professor Kigatiira's daughter Kinya and her husband Enoch as they begin their new lives together. You might also pray for the women in Professor Kigatiira's sunflower project, that they can continue to learn how to support themselves and their children.

The gentleman to the right is Dr. Raphael Kiugu. He is a wonderful, positive and pleasant colleague. His office is just down the hall from Nancy's and he is officially Mark's assistant, but they work cheerfully together without having to talk much about reporting lines. He received his Ph.D. at SUNY-Albany and worked for a few years as education coordinator for a Catholic Diocese in New York State. Right now, he is in Germany by invitation of a University there attending a Quality Assurance conference. When you pray, you might pray for safe travel for Dr. Kiugu and that he can stay on top of the important tasks he's doing for the University.

The lady to the left is Charity Waithima, our "examinations officer." Exams are a very big deal in Africa, but Charity, who has a masters degree herself and whose husband is in a doctoral program in South Africa, is up to the job. She was dramatically saved as a high school student and now, in addition to her duties at ANU, is a powerful preacher often called upon to preach in her church or to speak in women's retreats. Just last week when she and Mark met to prepare for Faculty Workshop today, they prayed that her husband might find school fees to do the next semester of his doctoral program. That prayer was answered, praise the Lord, but when you pray, you might pray that the Lord would open similar doors when next semester's fees must be paid.

Can we state the obvious: the stereotypes about Americans are both kind of true and often very not true because individuals can't be captured by any stereotype, any preconception. The same is true here. These are real, wonderful people: bright, very well-educated, capable, passionate about Jesus. We feel privileged to be working with them.

Mombasa Trip--Mainly Pictures

On Friday, August 22 Nan, Mark and Nan's sister Patti took University transport to the Nairobi train station downtown for our trip to Mombasa. In spite of some challenges mentioned later, it's a wonderful adventure: one of the classic train trips of the world, and for a first class cabin and two meals it's a bargain at around $50 US.

Since we arrived an hour early, we were directed to the station restaurant where we grabbed sodas and samosas (kind of meat-filled triangular egg rolls) while we waited for the train. A little after 6PM we were allowed to board, and promptly at 7, the train started its trip south east from Nairobi to the Muslim port city of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean.

We had signed up for the "early" seating for dinner, so we headed to the booth-filled dining car around 7:15 for meal service starting at 7:30. The place settings in the dining car were almost a history of East African railroads. SOme silverware was marked "UR" for "Uganda Railway." SOme was marked "KR" for "Kenya Railway." Some was marked "EAR&T" for "East Africa Railway and Transport." The linens were marked "RVR" for Rift Valley Railway" the current owner of the railroad we were on. We were offered first soup, and then lamb, or chicken or vegetable curry. We opted for the chicken which tasted good as we ate later than usual. So far so good. When we got back to our cabins, they had been made up with crisp sheets and pillowcases and nice blankets but, long story short, even though we were all sleepy and there was the appropriate rocking of the railroad cars, we could not get to sleep. We dozed, we woke up, we GOT up, then started the cycle again. We were conscious of the train stopping often to pick up and drop off passengers during the night, but we could not get to sleep.

About 6AM, we gave up, got up, got dressed and started looking out the windows. The next few pictures are some of the things we saw. After this picture series, a bit about Mombasa itself.

After a good breakfast and four more hours of travel, the train finally pulled into the Mombasa train station at 11AM--SIXTEEN HOURS after we had left Nairobi. A driver we had arranged for picked us up and took us to our hotel--a kind of faded resort directly on the Indian Ocean. We mainly crashed the rest of the afternoon, but took a walk on the beach in the evening and then spent the next day exploring Mombasa. It's famous for the ancient doors on several of the buildings in the old city. More pictures follow.

Left to right above (if the formatting holds!) our local guide, who for the equivalent of about 8 dollars led the three of us through the old city, past ships under repair, the old Portuguese "Fort Jesus", and the famous arab doors of the old city. We finished up our trip with a visit to the spectacular "Tamarind" restaurant located on a hill overlooking the harbor and Mombasa island. It's their black door you see among other doors below...

Bob and Kim Cantrell from our home church in Nampa are coming in a week and planning to spend part of their time in Mombasa. These are some of the things they will see, and if you come, these are some of the things you will see as well. At the risk of "spiritualizing" things (we're glad to take the risk), the Muslim movement is on the march in Africa. There are many mosques--large and small--in Nairobi and the overwhelming number of places of worship in Mombasa are mosques. We'd ask you to pray for the Nazarene churches and for other Christian churches in the Mombasa area, that God will move in a mighty way and that people will understand the transforming Good News of the gospel.

Matchbox Collection

In the US, there are lots of choices for lots of things. There's an almost endless selection of fast food restaurants, kinds of toothpaste, and varieties of potato chips. Even so, there are some things for which Kenya offers more choices than the US. Obviously, there are many more kinds of animals and birds and fruits and regularly spoken languages in Kenya than there are in the US. Another area where there's more difference is in different kinds of matchboxes.

As best we can remember, there are only a couple of kinds of matchboxes on offer at Walmart or Safeway or Albertsons. Even these boxes are very utilitarian--either decorated with company ads for matches given away by 7-11 or other companies, or with obvious labels like"Safety Matches." Most matches in the US seem to be used to burn trash or to light cigarettes. Even barbecue grills seem to be lighted more with the fancy propane lighters than with plain matches.

In Kenya, we rarely see people smoking. People mainly and constantly use matches to light charcoal cooking fires or propane stoves, and stores offer them lots of options both in terms of "cover art" and in terms of country of origin. Matchboxes are small works of art and geography lessons. At every grocery store or quick mart, several different kinds of matchboxes are on offer: small, 40 stick boxes; large 200 stick boxes; and packages of 10 or 12 small boxes.

This blog post includes pictures of several diffrent kinds of matchboxes. With the understanding that not everyone is fascinated by matchboxes :-), here's a little information about each one:

• Falcon--Made in Pakistan. The back of the package gives the company founder's name: Hussain Almoudi.


• Flora--Made in Kenya. This is a good thing. In some respects, the fact that nearly all of the matches are made outside the country is a lesson about one of Kenya's challenges: it needs more national manufacturers and fewer imports.


• Zebra--Made in South Africa and imported by a Nairobi company.


• Leopard--Made and purchased in Malawi. Back and front are identical.


• Sparky--Made in Pakistan. The back of the box says "Approximately 45 splints."


• Farasi--Made in Kenya. Farisi means "horse" in Kiswahili. One travel blog writer calls these the "best matches in the world" because they are coated with wax to make them almost 100% waterproof.


• Rhino--Made in India. The back text says, "The right match at the right price! Manufacturing perfection, Excellent Quality, That's your Rhino."


• Three Stars--Made in Sweden. This is a larger box with 200 matches compared to the smaller 40-45 match boxes.


• Rambow--Made in Pakistan. The back text says, "Carbonized Damp Proof. Average 45 Sticks. Superior Quality."


• Kangaroo--Made in India. On the back is a picture of Augustine Okocha, a Nigerian football (soccer) player, although on the matchbox his name is misspelled "Okicha."

May Update--Yes, with lots of pictures.

Wow--alot has happened since our last entry, which may be why it's taken so long to get it out to you. Before we go further, we need to say AGAIN--thank you, thank you, thank you for your e-mails, prayers, occasional letters and other indications of support for us and for the work at Africa Nazarene University. This only works if we are "global partners"--working together, praying for each other and for the good of the Kingdom.
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GRADUATION
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We held our 11th graduation on Friday May 29th (Nan and Mark with several good-lookin' graduates and the University mace above). The graduation set several records.

• First, we graduated a record 210 students in 7 undergraduate disciplines and 2 graduate degrees: the Master of Arts in Religion and the Masters of Business Administration.
  
• Second, for the first time we held graduation in our new 3000+ seat Helstrom Student Centre (picture at left of academic procession moving toward the Centre). Dr. Ron Benefiel, President of Nazarene Theological Seminary, preached a powerful graduation message about the importance of reconciliation in a broken world.
  
• Mark was designated to lead the academic procession and carry the very impressive (and probably 35 pound!) University Mace. Enterprising Kenyan photographers come uninvited to take pictures of public events and try to sell the pictures to attendees. Mark had to have University security help keep the 30+ photographers out of the path of the procession as it moved across the campus and toward the Centre.
  
• Nan marched in the faculty procession and took all of the graduation pictures you see here. She is teaching "Christian Beliefs" to over a hundred(!) students and volunteered her class so the platform party could "practice" some new graduation procedures.
  
• There were several features of the ANU graduation that we didn't have in last year's graduation at NNU, our previous institution. One of them was the presence of a Maasai Choir and Dancers you see to the left. ANU has a special relationship with the church to which these Maasai belong and has hired some of its members and is currently working on scholarship opportunities for some of the Maasai young people.
  
• On Sunday afternoon Dr. Jerry Lambert, the new University Chancellor, led a pre-planning session for an important meeting next April about the direction of theological education in Africa. The group, including Vice Chancellor Leah Marangu, Regional Director Dr. Eugenio Duarte; Regional Education Coordinator Fili Chambo; Dr. Benefiel, Dr. Ted Esselstyn and Mark, met to begin planning. SPACEPACE

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MERU "ROAD TRIP"


On Wednesday, the brother of Dr. Raphael Kiugu, Mark's assistant, passed away of a massive heart attack. On Friday, Mark drove with Mr. Raphael Wanjohi (in his classic Peugot 504 Sedan), Mr. John Opiyo (the finance officer), Mr. Paul Kang'ori (the Dean of Students), and Mr. Timothy Kihiko (the Registrar), to the funeral just outside of Meru east of Mt. Kenya (picture to the left is of the mourners gathered around the grave site in a banana grove belonging to the man who passed away).
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This is the second of these trips Mark has taken to a funeral up in the mountains north of Nairobi. Each time it's an education and a special privilege to listen to these men talk about their childhoods, their observations about Kenyan politics, their thoughts about faith and marriage and a hundred other topics.

One of the common mistakes missionaries made in the past and (please Lord) are trying not to make now, is failing to listen and failing to be student as well as teacher. Mr. Wanjohi (to the far right in this picture) has an undergraduate degree from the US and in spite of encountering some racism as a student in North Carolina in the 1960's, has a deep appreciation for his American education and his American experience. He's been an especially helpful guide for Mark to Kenyan customs and politics. Professor Marangu's brother Cornelius (a very successful businessman in the hat) had employed the man who passed away and after the funeral served as our guide to the Meru area. Mark and Nan are both so much richer for the interactions we are having with bright, thoughtful, capable African Christians at ANU and beyond.
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A STUDENT TO PRAY ABOUT
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In our standard deputation message last fall, we talked about a student named Florence who came to ANU for one term, had to leave because of finances, and then came back because 100 people in her village and church had given money to support her return--a wonderful, inspiring story. Do those of you who heard our deputation message remember that story? Well to the right and below...HEEERE's FLORENCE!
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The good news is that Florence is faithful and courageous and hopeful--the kind of young woman you'd like to have for a daughter or member of your Sunday school class or a friend to one of your own children. She's at ANU now taking classes and has already received half of this trimester's tuition and fees from a wonderful, faithful correspondent and blog reader in Indiana, herself struggling with some health issues. The bad news is that her village has given all it can and that Florence needs help to complete the five trimesters she has left in her undergraduate requirements.
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In her testimony, Florence explains how God has been faithful to her through the support of her church, small government grants, and the love and goodwill of the people at ANU. She writes,

"...the role that my church played in my education has remained a challenge to
me. It is the prayer of my soul that God willing I go back and appreciate the
community and church. I have a vision of computerizing all church activities and
starting an IT school for my church."

Such a school would allow other students from her community to gain skills and advance themselves and their families. We're not worried about this young woman. We have seen God's faithfulness through his church and his people. If you have a particular ministry in your church or your community that you're supporting, we praise the Lord for that and you shouldn't fret about Florence.
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If you feel a tugging about this young woman, though, we'd encourage you to get in contact with us so we can connect you with her. We're help Florence a bit ourselves, and at the end of the day it doesn't feel like a we're doing her a favor. It feels like a privilege to use some of God's blessings to us to help change a life and a small, rural community in Africa.
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PRAYER REQUESTS
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Thanks for your continued prayers. We wouldn't say we don't need them AT ALL ourselves, but we're doing fine and we'd really ask you, as you think to pray, to keep these requests for others primarily in mind:

• Please pray for our young pastoral students at ANU. They are far from home. They don't have alot of money. They struggle as all students do with grades and making friends. Please keep them in your prayers.
• Pray for this meeting in April about theological education in Africa. Pray that God will break into our conversations and just TAKE CHARGE in a way that is clear to everyone.
• Pray for Verna Stanton, longtime Nazarene missionary who lost her father over the weekend and has returned to the US to attend the funeral.
• Please pray for the Nazarene church in Kenya. Some churches were split apart by the tribal violence early in the year. Healing is happening, but slowly. Please pray that God will guide pastors and district superintendents, and that the church will be a model Christian community that can spread to the nation of Kenya.
• Please pray for Mark's dad and mom. Mark's mom broke her hip several weeks ago and although she is in rehab will probably never return to the home. This is difficult for her and for Mark's dad who has been a model care-giver.

Thanks to each of you for your communication and faithfulness. We love you all. We have received word of a Nampa First Church team coming somewhere in Kenya and we hope to see you all while you're here. In the meantime, please let us know if there are ways we can be praying for any of you. We want this to be a true partnership, and would love to join you in prayer for issues in your lives.>
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FUN PICTURE COLLECTION
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Sometimes we just see things that tickle our funny-bones or make us think or that we believe you'd like seeing. Kenyans are deeply exposed to Christian ideas. Sometimes--as in the USA we would hurry to say--these ideas and themes are deeply held and life-changing (see Florence above). Sometimes, they are seen as a kind of good luck charm for a business enterprise.





We've already written about our affection for ancient Kenyan trucks--particularly the Isuzu F-series. Here's an especially decrepit truck with an especially relevant message across the top of its windshield. If you look closely you can see it reads: "All Things Are Possible In Jesus Name"--the fact that it's on a truck windshield doesn't keep it from being absolutely true--hallelujah anyway!
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On the other hand, the bereaved family had hired a bus to bring visitors from Nairobi to the funeral. Mark and the men in the Peugeot gathered with others to drink sodas at a shady site as they waited for all attendees to arrive. Across the red dirt road, this business caught Mark's eye. We'll leave it to you to try to decide why the business owner decided on this name. We're fresh out of credible religious applications :-).
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Well, that's it for now, but..."more later."