Introductions #2

In this entry, we'd like to introduce the Vice-Chancellor (President) of Africa Nazarene University and a recent graduate. Both Nazarenes, both passionate in their relationship to the Lord, and both working for the Kingdom.

Professor Leah Marangu grew up in a poor, hard-working family on the slopes of Mt. Kenya. Her father, a Methodist minister with a 3rd grade education, was the best-educated person in the village and wanted his daughter to go to school. Over her mother's objections, Professor Marangu worked as a housekeeper to pay her way through elementary and secondary school in the Meru District. Later, she followed her husband John to Olivet Nazarene University where she earned her bachelors degree, followed by a masters degree and Ph.D. from Iowa State University.

She is the first woman in Kenya to become the head of a university and is well-respected and well-known all over the country. In 1969, she was the recipient of The International Award from Iowa State University for outstanding leadership qualities, character and personality. In 1983, Kenyan President Moi appointed her the chairperson of the Jomo Kenyatta Foundation. She helped develop and prepare school syllabus and textbooks suitable for Kenya’s education system. In 1987 the president honoured her with the Silver Star of Kenya for her contribution to the development of education. In 1989 she received the Maggie Sloan Crawford Award from her Alma Mater, Olivet Nazarene University. It was given to women whose lives and accomplishments mark them as outstanding role models.

An appreciative article in the East Africa Standard newspaper quotes Professor Marangu pointing to the central influence in her life: "I accepted Christ as my Lord and Saviour at the age of 13 years ...Whenever things took a turn for the worse I would cry to God and ask Him to help me, and He was and continues to be faithful." For the Church of the Nazarene to have one of the very few doctorally prepared Ph.D's in all of Africa as the head of its denominational university is evidence of God's blessing on the church and on ANU. More on Professor Marangu later.

Phillip Friday. OK, please take this test: Pastor Friday is the youth pastor and interim senior pastor of the Nazarene Church in: a) Kikuru, Kenya; b) Los Angeles, CA Eastbrooke Church; c) Labourna, Uganda d) Lamoure, North Dakota--read on for the answer. Phillip Friday is the son of Rev. Ganda Friday, a Nazarene pastor, district superintendent in Kenya and now global missionary in Sudan. At the age of 10, Phillip was invited to a Nazarene service in the Lake Victoria District to honor and exhibit the calling of God on the lives of children. Some children who felt a call to Christian music sang or played instruments. Some who felt a call to Christian art displayed their work. Phillip was given an opportunity to demonstrate his call to preaching by delivering a sermon on the 23rd Psalm before the audience of 400 people. He says it was an event which shaped the direction of his life til now.

Later, as a student at Africa Nazarene University, he got a chance to develop his preaching and pastoral skills as the assistant to then ANU chaplain, Michael VanZant. While Phillip was at ANU, his parents were doing missionary deputation work in the United States. As they spoke in churches, they showed pictures of and told about their children, including Phillip who was studying for the ministry and about to graduate as a religion major at ANU.

The following year, the Church of the Nazarene in Lamoure, North Dakota remembered about Phillip as they looked for a youth pastor. At the same time, Phillip was trying to figure out how to get to Nazarene Theological Seminary to complete a masters degree. When the Lamoure church called Phillip with an offer of the youth pastor, he saw an opportunity to serve the church AND to begin his graduate education. He accepted the position and made the trip to North Dakota. The people have always been warm, Phillip reported, but the weather was not. The first winter, the low temperature was 45 degrees BELOW zero! Nevertheless, Phillip has persevered and the youth group has grown. Today, the group regularly has more than 25 teens at activities, and since the senior pastor took another position, Phillip has been filling in.

We had lunch with Phillip in the Headquarters cafeteria last week, and were so impressed with Phillip's warmth, his intelligence, and his deep commitment to God. We are so lucky to have people like him as members and pastors. Oh, by the way, you can help us pray for one of Phillip's challenges: as much as he (genuinely) enjoys his work in North Dakota, he feels a calling to return to Africa to do pastoral and leadership training. Before he can do that, he needs to pay off his NTS debt. We know the Lord has a way to take care of this need, but we'd invite you to join us in praying for financial assistance as he completes his studies at NTS.

What We're Reading #2

We both like to read and are (usually) enjoying being students again. We thought you might be interested in one quick idea each from several books we're assigned to read or that we've picked up in our "obsessive collecting of books we can't possibly all take on the plane with us":

• From The Psychology of Culture Shock by Ward, Bochner and Furnham, we learned that the ability to balance the conflicting demands of head office versus local office is a key skill for expatriate managers.



• From Cultures and Organizations by Geert and Gert Jan Hofstede we learned that the distance between bosses and employees is greater in countries who speak a Romance language (French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish) than in countries which speak a Germanic language (Danish, Dutch, English, German, Swedish).



• From the wonderful, classic African novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, we are learning the very delicate balance between traditional African culture and the Christian faith.

Thank you Greencastle and Cloverdale!

This past Sunday, we spent the day with some wonderful folks from the Greencastle and Cloverdale Indiana Nazarene churches. In the morning, we were with Pastor Bob Muncie and his wife Jane at the Greencastle church. The Muncies spent many years as evangelists with the Church and Pastor Bob is a wonderful pianist and songwriter (http://www.bobandjanemuncie.com/ ). After church, we had a tasty deer roast with all the fixings at the Muncie's house and got to spend time with some folks from the church, hearing more about Wes and Laura Sampson's experiences in Malawi and an amazing story about rare stamps in the church children's department from Julian Jarvis.

After the obligatory Nazarene nap, we spent Sunday evening with Rev. and Mrs. Ross Kirkman and the other folks at the Cloverdale Church of the Nazarene. The Cloverdale service was lively and fun. Ryan gets the "most attentive and responsive listener ever" award and Tony played a great offeratory on the piano. They were both scheduled to be baptized after the service with a couple of other folks. Hope that went well. Thank you to BOTH churches for making us feel so welcome and providing more evidence that the Church of the Nazarene is alive and well and serving the Kingdom in Southwest Indiana.