March Update with Lots of Pictures

Hello friends of Africonnection and ANU, LINKS churches, relatives and visitors! Just a note about this blog posting: it will have more pictures than our previous entries. A young friend (these days, that's anyone under 50!) reminded us that his generation loves pictures, and there is that pesky saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. At that rate, you're going to get nearly 10,000 words worth of pictures. If the email you receive doesn't include the pictures, you can go to www.africonnection.org to see them. Thanks as always for your emails, snail-mail letters, phone calls and prayers.

Settled In. It's a little hard to believe we're entering our fourth month in Kenya. Our crates (Thank you Ray Burwick for helping build the crates and Bob and Kim Cantrell for storing them before they were shipped) arrived on March 11 with some things we remembered packing, some things we didn't remember packing, and some things we couldn't figure out WHY we packed! We're nicely settled into our home and had our first guest (the new ANU Chancellor Dr. Jerry Lambert) this past week. The picture to the left is of our living room looking south into the dining room. The second picture is of a sunrise taken from our balcony which overlooks the Maasai plain. The scaffolding of a new faculty-staff 8-plex is visible to the left of the picture

Loving Our Work. Mark's office (pictured left) has a view out across the Ngong Hills, made famous in Out of Africa. Nan's office looks out over the Nairobi National Park and the city of Nairobi in the distance. Major items on Mark's "to do" list are rewriting the faculty handbook, revising the strategic plan, overseeing the committee planning for graduation, chairing the committee that is doing facilities allocation, assisting young faculty in beginning to do research. Nan is the University Alumni Director and is helping a sharp young group of alumni (when your University is less than 15 years old, all your alumni are young!) elect officers, establish a web site and start tracking alumni.

District Assembly. About three weeks ago, we attended a Nazarene district assembly in Nakuru, about two hours northwest of Nairobi. This was the district whose superintendent intervened to stop two warring tribes from fighting right after the election. Two of the churches on the district had had their whole congregations flee the violence, but amazingly the mood at the district assembly was good. To the right is a picture of a Maasai tribeswoman who was a representative to the district assembly. To the left is a picture of one of the 10-12 heart-breakingly sweet children who are part of the host church, a tin-clad building surrounded by basic public housing.

Trip to Amboseli. Last weekend we went to Amboseli National Reserve at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro (pictured to the right). Amboseli is in the middle of Maasai country (Maasai women under a tree pictured at left) on the border with Tan-ZAN-ia (accent on the second syllable here). We travelled in a nifty van whose roof could be raised so we could stand and look at the wildlife from the safety of the van. The park is famous for elephants, and it didn't let us down on this trip. We saw perhaps 18-20 elephants during our three-day trip, including a number of baby elephants. We also saw an event that seemed to come right out of a National Geographic animal show: two jackals seemed uncommonly interested in pestering a Thompson's Gazelle in high grass. In a few minutes, the truth came out: a baby Thompson's Gazelle darted out of the high grass and away from both the threat of the jackals and the protection of its mother. For the next 10 minutes the mother and another female Thompson's Gazelle alternated between running from the jackals and chasing the jackals away from the baby gazelle. When we drove away, the baby gazelle was still alive and the jackals were still hungry.

Precious Students. We always want to introduce our friends in America to people in Africa. Here are some sketches of some of the students at ANU. If you're moved to do one thing by this blog post, we hope you'll chose one or two of these students to pray about on a regular basis. We're purposely not including pictures in this section to preserve the privacy of some precious young people who told us their stories over meals at our home (sloppy joes are a huge favorite--go figure):

• Mbior was an armed aide to his uncle who led a rebel faction in the Sudan. After his uncle was killed in a mysterious helicopter accident, Mbior came to ANU and became a very passionate Christian. He wants to go back and assist the Sudanese people and says young Christian leaders are the answer.
• Yvonne is the daughter of a single mom in Western Kenya. During the post-election violence they were barricaded in their home with machete-wielding young men outside. Her mother struggles to pay Yvonne's fees to the extent that she has had to move from campus housing to a room in the city.
• Fidel was a Nazarene pastor's kid in Rawanda. When the Tsutsi and Hutu conflict broke out, he saw his father killed and his mother raped. He was filled with rage until he said he was out in a clearing in the jungle and the peace of God came down upon him in such a dramatic way that he surrendered his hatred.
• Jackson (the saxaphone player) also plays guitar, drums and keyboard. His mom runs a temporary labor service with 200 people. He knows he needs to find a "real job" to support himself but wants to make a CD of jazz and R&B.
• Akon is a Nazarene ministerial student from Nigeria. Traditional people in several African countries believe that when people die, unless a huge funeral is planned--with relatives receiving gifts, food and entertainment--the deceased will cause bad luck to the family who remain. When Akon's father died during his junior year in high school, his uncles came and planned a funeral so elaborate (including a post-funeral disco dance!) that Akon had to postpone his final year of high school because his relatives had used his school fees and sold some of his father's land to pay for the funeral. Akon vows that when he is a pastor, he will guide families into more responsible and Christian funeral observances.

Finally... Several of you shared prayer requests with us in a post last month and we have been praying about a number of those things. Some of you have shared answers to prayer. Other prayers were answered in God's way rather than our own. We'd ask you to pray for the students we mentioned above and for ALL our students as they enter final examinations in a couple of weeks. We'd also ask you to pray for our Chancellor Jerry Lambert and our Vice Chancellor Leah Marangu who are at a US-government sponsored conference for faith-based institutions in East Africa. Finally, we'd ask you to pray that some conversations campus leaders have had over the last week about pastoral education and compassionate ministries in Africa will result in real breakthrough's at ANU, in East Africa, and in the entire continent. Thanks for your love and prayers and support. More later.

Diaries and Busy Days

We both keep journals. In fact, one of the things we did while we were dating was to exchange several years of our personal diaries. It was a little scarey, but since the diaries were our personal, sometimes happy and sometimes unhappy thoughts, it was a very good way to get to know each other very well very quickly.

The trouble with diaries is explained by the Irish poet William Allingham:
"A man who keeps a diary pays
Due toll to many tedious days;
But when life becomes eventful--then,
His busy hand forgets the pen..."

Life has been eventful and rich, and that's part of the reason we haven't written in awhile. We'd like to share some pieces of our work and lives with you...

Some prayer pieces:
Things are going well for us. We are sleeping well and getting exercise walking on campus and up the four flights of stairs to offices and meetings. We would ask for prayers for other people and things:

• Remember Kenya. The peace talks with Kofi Annan appear to be bringing the two sides together, but the bitterness and tribal conflict that have occurred will not go away without intentional tribal and even interpersonal peacemaking. People must participate, but it will take God's healing spirit to bring about real change.
• Remember Eugenio Duarte, our wonderful Africa Region Director; Professor Leah Marangu, the legendary leader of ANU; and Rev. Don Gardener, who is working mightily with pastors and congregations who have been disrupted and threatened by the disturbances.
• Remember our students. Kenya's future and Africa's future genuinely depend on whether students like ours can sustain hope in an embattled continent, learn both job skills and leadership skills, and grow in their relationship to the Lord. That's easy to write down but very hard for them to do right now. Please pray for them.
  

Some people pieces:
We're meeting some wonderful young people, and since one of the purposes of the blog is to introduce to you African people, we'd like to share with you some of the young people we're getting to know and to ask you to pray for them as well:

• We attended a one-day retreat for student leaders. Nancy spoke on "Celebrating Diversity " as an example of excellent leadership. The style of student leaders at the public universities is very confrontational, but Dennis, the student chairman this year, has a much more cooperative style. He already has a law degree from a public university but is working on a degree in Mass Communications at ANU.
  
• Paul and Beatrice are a young married couple from Ghana. Paul is a Nazarene ministerial student (who has training in textile design on the side) and Beatrice is an accomplished seamstress. They live along the dirt road between ANU and the paved road and we often see them as we travel from campus to Nairobi. They have one more year at ANU before they return to Ghana and they begin their life as a pastoral couple.
• Lillian and Lulu and Becky are three young women students we had to our house for dinner last Wednesday (more on that evening in a minute). Lillian and Lulu went to high school together. Lillian lives on the Ngong Road which has been the scene of so much unrest in Nairobi and her concerned father asked her not to come home until things settle down. Lulu is a singer and had parts in "Grease" and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" in her high school's musicals (isn't it fun to think what those productions might have looked like?). The girls are struggling to be hopeful about their future lives in Kenya.
  
• Last week we went out to pizza with Jeanette and Bekka (an American student from Oregon and an American volunteer from Rochester, New York). Jeanette brought her best friend Yvonne, a young Kenyan student who is among the most impressive young women we have met--here or anywhere. She was reluctant to come with us but finally agreed. The American students did most of the talking at first but Yvonne eventually began telling her story: she is the youngest child of a single mother who has four children of her own and has cared for as many as 15 orphans in her home in Western Kenya. Right now the mother, three of her own children and 5 orphans are barricaded in their compound in Western Kenya. The mother is clearly a strong, caring woman for whom Yvonne is a source of intense pride. The family is eating food brought to them by kindly neighbors who can get out because they belong to the dominant tribe. Yvonne lives in a small room by herself in the town near the ANU campus. Her attitude in the midst of these family and personal challenges? Realistic about her family and financial challenges but quietly confident and hopeful. She wants to help other people once she graduates from ANU and has a kind of quiet strength and wisdom that will serve her and Africa well. We'd ask you also to be praying for Yvonne's family, life as a student,financial challenges and her future. She's our personal favorite so far.
  

Some events pieces:

• Water and snake Wednesday--While Lillian and Lulu and Becky were having dinner with us, we heard a splashing sound from the other side of the house. When we went to investigate we discovered that because of the addition being built for the Jameses, our neighbors, a drain had been clogged and our washer backed up spilling an inch and a half of water on the floor in four rooms! The three girls who had dressed up to have dinner with us rolled up sleeves and pants legs, grabbed mops and towels and went to work with us. In a few minutes we had dumped seven buckets of water outside! When we bragged on the girls they said--"It's nothing. We work much harder than this at home!" Later that same evening as we were shutting out the lights, we saw the guard whose post is behind our house throwing rock after rock at the ground. Turns out his target was a "spitting cobra" that had been slithering across the car park behind our house. (The one behind our house was "only" about 3 1/2 feet long and not as scarey, at least in the dark, as the one pictured to the left. ) As the guard held it up on a stick for us to see, he told us that almost exactly a year earlier and in the same place, a similar spitting cobra had spit its toxic venom into his eyes, blinding him. He praised God that the blindness had only lasted for four days, and Verna Stanton, a missionary nurse, said he was very lucky the blindness wasn't permanent. This was the first snake we've been aware of, and the staff reassured us that they spray twice a year to keep the snakes to a minimum.
• Furniture arrives! The University has been very thoughtful about putting a few, temporary pieces of furniture and appliances in our apartment while we look for permanent furniture that we like. We went to stores, to a furniture factory in a Catholic orphanage, and to some of the "sunshine stores"--little shops with piles of furniture out in the open along Ngong Road . Last week we got a bed and chest custom-made by a roadside shop and four "camp chairs" with canvas seats for the balcony. Today, much of the furniture arrives: five bookcases made by the estate staff of the University; a comfortable living room suite; three area rugs; and a stove, refrigerator and clothes dryer. It may be awhile until our four crates arrive from the US, but in the meantime we are glad to be getting some of our furnishings in place.

Thanks again for reading this blog and for responding so warmly and often. We have been so blessed by the number of you who say you are praying for us and many of you have honored us by sharing your OWN prayer requests with us. Right now we're praying for a friend facing severe health challenges in Idaho, for a couple we met in Kansas, for the work of a DS in the Northwest, for an older couple in Indiana and many others. We appreciate your prayers and we'd love to be praying for you. If you have a concern you'd like to share with us, we'd consider it a blessing if you let us know about it at mnnkenya@gmail.com so we could join you in prayer. In the meantime, blessings on you and we'll write again soon. Next time, unless something else intervenes, we'll write about what we're learning about God from the people and the Creation in Africa.

Living in Stereo

Several years ago, while we were chaperoning the NNU choir on a tour of England and Scotland, we spent an afternoon in Festival Hall on the South Bank of the Thames in London. We were drawn in by a really wonderful big band that was playing songs from the 40's and 50's. Instrumentalists and vocalists gave their full talent to the lively, happy songs and a large crowd had gathered. Sharing the hall with the band, however, was an exhibition of the prize-winning photographs of international journalists. While there were some happy photographs in the collection, many of the photographs were of tragedies--fires, earthquakes, victims of war or crime. It was hard for us to get our heads around the fact that the happy music and the sad photographs could exist in the same place.

Fast forward to Kenya today: it's human for us and for our friends to expect Kenya to be "all something." We see the news and think perhaps Kenya is all tragedy or danger. We live our daily lives here and begin to think Kenya is some version of normal. As GK Chesterton pointed out, the world God created is full of paradoxes: we are both the lowest of creatures and the children of a King; earth is both a temporary resting place for heavenly creatures and the place God created with his own hands as our home. Kenya is also a paradox.

Last night the Kenyan news (there are three national TV channels and multiple newspapers) interviewed several people who have been displaced because of the violence. Children in Kenya see education as the one great hope of improving their lives, and one bright junior-high aged boy cried to think his dream of being a doctor was being delayed or destroyed because he was far from his school and without funds for books or the required uniform. An elderly woman seemed fatalistic about ever getting home. We hear sporadic reports not just of battles between protesters and police, but between different tribal groups. Five people were killed with machetes in an isolated village. A heroic priest in Western Kenya invited minority families into his monastery and frantically phoned for police help as young toughs burned the families homes and tried to get into the monastery. (The police arrived in time.) Some of our students arrive with stories of violence in their home towns before they arrived on campus. Several students have arrived a week late and some will not be able to return this semester because of the unrest.

And yet, and yet--outside our windows in the afternoons and evenings we can hear the laughter of students catching up on their friendships after the extended time away. A young gardener named Samuel is creating a tiny Eden around our home as he builds stone walls and stairways, plants palms and flowers and grass. We began our "Holiness Week" emphasis on Monday with Rev. Chanshi Chanda, the director (called field strategy coordinator) of the French Equitorial Africa field. One of our faculty members just received a Fullbright Scholarship to serve as a visiting scholar in an American university. We are beginning the process of introducing distance learning to better serve Africa. Nancy and I saw cheetahs, pygmy hippos and a rhinoceros the size of a tank on the Safari Walk at Nairobi National Park and fed Betsy the giraffe at the Kenya Giraffe Center in the suburb of Karen on Sunday afternoon.

What are we learning, what are we being reminded of: We do not live our lives in monaural. We live them in stereo. There's enough good in any bad to give us hope. There's enough bad in any good to make it worth praying about. With the need for prayer in mind, we'd thank you again for your prayers for Kenya and for ANU and for us, but we would encourage you to continue praying:

• For the talks between the opposing political parties which are to begin tomorrow, led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan;
• For the physical protection of members of minority tribes in isolated areas of Kenya;
• For ANU to continue to be a lighthouse and a model of Christian unity in Africa, and to be even more effective in training its students to be effective, godly leaders in a needy world;
• For Nan and me that we might see and do what the Lord would direct us to do on behalf of the Kingdom in this part of the world.

Oh, by the way: the Student Council at ANU is raising money to help the 250,000 Kenyans who have been displaced by the regional violence. If you'd like to make a donation to that effort drop us a line at mnnkenya@gmail.com and we can tell you how.