What now?

So we're home, but our mission trip experience has not ended by any stretch. Every team member's facebook wall is blowing up with photos of the trip (and there are MANY still to come!) and we're all telling our favorite stories over and over to family, friends, church members, and others. Underneath that, though, we're processing through the trip, which is still a bit of a blur in our minds. It takes a while to make sense of the beauty we've seen, the sadness and difficulties we've experienced, the amazing work God has done, and the things He is teaching us through all of this. Of course one mission trip won't solve the problems Africa faces, and indeed now that we've seen these problems through a magnifying glass they sometimes look even larger and more difficult. But we do know that God has done great things on this trip and has called us to continue playing a role in His ongoing work of redemption.

We'll be talking more about this and sharing pictures, videos, and reflections next Sunday (June 24th) at Celebration Baptist Church, so please join us there at 9 or 10:30AM if you're curious to hear more in person. Also please continue to pray for Elise as she is staying in Kenya for another couple of weeks serving at a different nearby orphanage. In addition, keep visiting the blog and the facebook pages of team members to see and hear more!

How we almost stayed in Africa...

The last couple of days have not seen a lot of new mission work, but they have seen a lot of interesting experiences. The most productive parts of the days would be the mission debriefing times we had with Tom and our team. Overall, everything was very well received, and I have to say that I believe even more in this partnership than I did before. As has been documented, we saw people engage in extremely difficult ministry situations with a calm, bold faith that was inspiring. These are the greatest lessons and encouragement I bring back with me. Having people show up at church with HIV or reaching out to the desperate, outcast young street people are just a few of the non-theoretical love-of-God-in-action-through-His-people moments we witnessed...and took part in. Translating that to new levels at Celebration remains the challenge. What exactly does that look like for us in such a very different context? On a different note, we had quite a good time at the Masai Market on Tuesday, which gave us a grand total of about two days in this two and a half weeks that you might consider "touristy." Watching our hosts haggle our take home gift prices was fun for me. Gerald wants to blog in more detail when we are safely home, but in our last two days, we had two drivers "arrested." All kinds of fund-raising goes on in this world. While it was hard to say goodbye to our Kenyan friends, the stress of not having the driver we we supposed to was exacerbated by the next driver, who had promised to take us, deciding he didn't really want to. The clock ticked and we began to have visions of buying more credits for Ahngie's (yes, that's now how you say it) phone to call loved ones with the bad news. I could see Michelle causing an international incident... We finally got a matatu and Tom basically told the driver to step on it, and he did. I was in front, with one of the Kenyan team smooshed between the driver and me. Behind me there was a wall of suitcases and then the rest of our team and a few more of our Kenyan friends. Point being, I was the only one from our team to get the full effect of the insanity that ensued. You know those chase scenes in the movies where they go through ridiculously narrow places and people are scattering out of the way of the cars? Been there, done that, except our driver didn't get in any wrecks. But the roller coaster warning to keep your arms and hands inside the vehicle would have been more than appropriate. Ahngie's window was open and they all swear the mirror from another truck physically ducked in and out of it as we passed. Believe it. I expect to fully unpucker in a week or two... We got to the airport, and even though our flight didn't take off for some time, they said we were too late. Our hearts sunk. As Zach struck the genial role, Ahngie began to work a few tears and Gerald and I began to look vaguely dangerous. Not sure which one of these worked, but they relented and let us board. Praise the Lord!!! As we drove through the city this last time, I once again saw men picking through trash heaps in an effort to survive. One of our most common prayer requests was for work. I was struck by the fact that we live in this amazing country full of opportunity and people are trying desperately not to work. I'm ready to be home, but pray I will remember what God has taught me and trust that the mission was for God's glory. And that we have great work ahead of us at home.

Street boys - reflections

Street boys - ponderings As I consider my reactions to the street boys, I recognize how easily a Godly desire to help someone can be corrupted into the original sin - the desire to be like God. I wanted to help the boys, and when they refused I started thinking about how to take the drugs from them, or to forcibly take them to somewhere to detox and go to school and experience what it is like to be loved. But all of those would require that I remove their ability to choose. If I was standing by Adam and Eve, would I have knocked the apple out of their hands? Maybe tied them up so they couldn't pick it? Put a fence around the tree? God gave them the ability to choose, but I would try to take it away. I would make them do right, meaning that I would take away the key thing that distinguishes man from creation. Rocks, trees, animals all obey God, and always and only act as God made them. But man can disobey. When we try to make someone do right, we are saying that God didn't get it right, and that we could make the universe better if we controlled everyone. But, even if we had the power, we would be going against how God made people. My other immediate desire is to alleviate the suffering. But would I have let Adam and Eve stay in the garden after their sin? God says that He disciplines those He loves. Would we step in between a human parent and their own loving discipline of their child? "I know Mommy said you can't have another candy until you finish your school, but you look so sad so here is another candy". Much suffering is on a different scale, to be sure, but human sin and God's wisdom are also on a different scale. What should be a two part reaction - awe at the amazing power of people to choose great good or great evil, plus sadness when the choice is evil; gets corrupted into a desire to fix God's mistakes and to reduce another human to a blindly obedient object of creation, or one that does not merit the discipline of a loving God. We demote God and simultaneously dehumanize the person. If we were God, we would only have made attractive, always obedient, rocks, instead of people. A lonely universe we would create. It is very hard to watch evil created by human choice (I have been surrounded and immersed in it for two weeks now), and we should look earnestly for where we can help brothers in need. Do not let that good get turned into even more evil by discounting the fundamental ability of humans to choose, and trying to reorder God's universe so that sin has no consequence or God cannot discipline. A few principles that appear right to me (although I am always open to more wisdom from God). Alleviate suffering caused by sins of others (help victims) where in my power. Do not lie to people and pretend that their sin is ok ("did God really say not to eat the apple?"). Do not lie to people and help them pretend their sin will not hurt ("if you really don't feel it anymore, maybe it is better if you divorce"). Be very careful that you do not try to make yourself feel good for helping when you are really undercutting God's discipline. Appreciate that the human ability to choose to do great good, necessarily is matched with ability to choose to do great evil. I do not like to admit that I cannot prevent or defeat all the evil in the world, but that is the case regardless of whether I like to admit it. Do the good works God ha prepared for me to walk in, instead of being overwhelmed by everything else.

Street boys

We went to city park. Lots of monkeys, they are cute waiting for you to give them food, but you have to be careful since they have no fear of you and get aggressive if you are too slow feeding them. There was also a group of street boys at the park who followed us around begging. The details of their condition would break your heart, as it did ours. I can't imagine how I would ever communicate with them. But our Kenyan friends, some of who came out of similar backgrounds, talked with them, asked them about their drugs (they proudly showed off their glue and pills), and offered to go with them right now to the center where they could get food and school. The boys had run away from places like that already, and said they had no interest in going back. I felt so good knowing that our Kenyan friends could reach these boys, and then so helpless when the boys turned them down. I wished for some way to make them be helped, but the reality is always an individual decision. Even Jesus didn't force people to follow.

Celebration, African style

So, there has been another very cool happening. The day of the well launch party, Pastor Sylvester announced he is starting a new church in that area. We had done a crusade meeting at the village center called Sidundo, a mile or so from the school/well site. After we left the village, Tom and his team did another crusade and had a very strong response. Then, Sylvester had his first worship service for the church he is starting on Sunday. He found a place to meet that would hold about 40 people. The problem is that about 70 showed up! Today, when Sylvester was telling Tom how everything had gone, he asked if, in light of the last several days of work and interchange, he could call his new church "Celebration!" How cool is that? Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to talk to Sylvester and confirm our excitement at this honor.

A few extra thoughts on the village

So, I know Zach Aleady covered the village, but I wish I could convey the impact of the questions we received. I fielded questions that were heart-wrenching. A woman asks, "what if a woman marries a man thinking she is his only wife, only to find he secretly has another?" And on they went. Pastors looked pleadingly to me for training, advice, and counsel. On Thursday, as I taught thought the circles and theology, when I made key points, the "eh's," "amens!" and applause were even raucous. It was an amazing day. When the time came for us to answer questions, they were almost all in regards to family and the brokenness of the relationships. In some ways, the problems here and the questions I get are very similar, but there are huge differences as well. The embarrassment of riches for us extends to our heritage. One person told us that evangelical Christianity did not make it to the village until the 1980's. oh, that we would apply the abundance of our knowledge. As Pastor Sylvester looked at Zach and I, making a plea for us to return, he said, "you have spoken boldly about many things that others fear to tell us." one of the coolest moments ever. So, I had promised the pastors in the village I would make sure they received copies of the matials I have written, since we had none left after the week in Nairobi. Friday was the H2O kickoff, which I will let Angie share abut, but it was cool to see Pastor Sylvester there. He had been one of the keenest listeners and questioners the previous two days. Well, as we went to empty our duffel bag of the gifts for the children and all, Zach exclaims, "Dave is going to love this!" I look over and he is holding a good sized stack of the Pastors' books I wrote. No big deal? We just thought we had given tham all out? Draw your conclusion, but I am giving God full credit, however He did it. It was perfect. Sylvester was there and I was able to walk through some things with him, and became completely immersed in it. There are some good people with hearts to serve God in the utterly remote corner of the world. I pray to be able to help them...and be reminded again of the eager desire to learn the truths of God. May we never grow tired or too familiar in our spiritual pursuits.

The Village part II and reflections

Soon after we awoke on our second day in the Village, we learned that a change of plans would bring the team back to Nairobi sooner and leave us with just one more full day in the Village. Still short on sleep and overwhelmed by the sheer remoteness of everything about our surroundings, not to mention the uncertainty of changing plans, we were faced with what in some ways was bound to be a difficult day. That said, the graciousness and receptivity of the Village leaders was beyond amazing. Upon hearing that we were to leave sooner, several pastors and deacons from the church came to our homestead at 6AM to understand and see how they might learn and benefit as much as possible from our time with them. For me anyway, God used their eagerness to put my mind in the right place to serve for the day.

We sent the girls and my dad out to the school for the day to spend time with the kids at Udamayhi Primary School and work on memory verses that outline the Roman Road. There are great stories from the time with the kids in the Village, not least of which was God doing some fish-and-loaves with our teaching materials. I’ll leave the detailed story-telling to others (and they may have already put a lot of it down on the various blogs).

David and I went up to the church again and David gave the second half of his teaching to a church full again of eager listeners, and I followed after lunch with some key points from the Worldview material. We went through the circle diagrams, which David’s translator illustrated enthusiastically by pulling chairs from the front row to represent the three kinds of man. It took a lot of explaining and re-explaining, though, to help people understand and accept that the second circle was the right place to be, which really paints a picture of everything here. The church in Africa is so passionate, but so young. They will stay up literally all night at a prayer meeting, but do not have any of the Scriptural background that influences the way we think about all of life. That said, they receive the Word eagerly and we pray that after we leave, they will be faithful to put it into practice.

And this will require some tough decisions on their part. After the second teaching session, we did about an hour of question-and-answer, and the questions brought reflected the difficulties faced by the church here. Marriage was the toughest topic, as it’s very normal for men in the Village to have multiple wives and “girlfriends,” even among church members. We didn’t shy away though, speaking very clearly about the truth of God’s Word and the implications on the life of a society and a church. We pray God would move the church to grow to maturity, and especially for those church members who we sense may be willing to challenge the culture and push for these changes that are so essential. The church here truly is like the ones Paul wrote to in the New Testament – a vibrant, fast-growing work of God, but clearly a work in progress. I was a little disappointed to have to end after just the second day, but also know that God allowed us to bring some very needed instruction and encouragement during our time there.

The rest of the team met us at the church and we headed home for the evening around 6:30PM. That night, as others have posted about, we spent two hours worshiping with our Kenyan family, which was one of the sweetest times of the entire trip. The following day we all headed to the school for the H2O launch party, which was a good time and further confirmed our desire to support those in the Village who are truly teaching and giving their lives for God’s truth. Pastor Sylvester is one such man – a young-ish pastor who can bring God’s truth like crazy and also wants so desperately to learn more. In another fish-and-loaves moment, we found some extra of our materials (we thought we had run out in Nairobi) and are going to support him in some unique ways going forward as he continues his work. Prayer is clearly the most important. Following the launch party, we made our way back to Kisumu via matatu in a journey that has been well-chronicled by others already. We spent the night and following day in Kisumu on Lake Victoria (which was a very needed time of rest), then headed back to Nairobi overnight Saturday. Pray for our last couple of days here and our safe (and soon!) return!