Friday - June 28 2019
The day we’ve planned for since April 2018 is finally
here. Today is the day our teams in
Texas will leave to come this way. I’m
both excited and terrified. My prayer is
for them to come with a flexible, willing, teachable and loving spirit to serve
with us. The plans we have are written
in sand at best. It all depends on so
many circumstances coming together at the right time in the right place. My prayer is / has been / will be that we
serve what our Kenyan friends need, not what our task list reflects. For me, those two are often too far apart. I talked with Bryan Pinson, our missions
pastor, just as he we arriving at the Midland airport to prepare to leave. This is exciting!
As for me and our work here in Nairobi, today we begin our
journey with the Bible college students.
This was a vision Bishop presented to me in the fall of 2016. I’m honored and excited to share today and
Monday with these students. They will
also join our pastoral training next week in another town. We're on our way!
So it’s 6:36 PM and I’m back at Magnet. The day spent teaching was incredible. There were 14 students crowded into a 12x12
room. They shared desks and didn’t seem
to mind the close quarters at all. They
were eager students and ready to learn.
All but two are in their late teens or early twenties. The other two are the lecturers – both in
their late 20s. I was oldest by double –
or at least it felt that way. The
students were all committed to ministry training and asked great questions all
day. We probably spent 1/4th
of our time on their questions which suited me fine. I had to modify my plans for the day given
what I was observing in what they needed, but it was a trade worth making.
The building also has space for several small, modest apartments
and thus that’s where the students lived.
All of them. I stepped into one
of their apartments and was pleasantly surprised at how cozy it felt. They had dressed it up well. One of the lecturer’s is married and his wife
has just had a baby. It really seemed to
bring the building alive.
After class, as I waited for Bishop to come pick me up, I
talked with some of the students. I
learned that three of them were products of Magnet school. They had come here as their next step before
university studies. As I talked with
them, they confessed that all three were from the Maasi tribe. One of them even volunteered his belt as proof! I laughed with him and told him I’d never
seen a belt it’s equal. He smiled
broadly and with pride.
The drive out was easy – as easy as any we’ve had since I got
here. Very little traffic and a breeze
really to navigate, even if all I ever do is ride. When Bishop picked me up, however, it was 3:50
when we left there. We arrived here at
the school at 6. It’s that bad. The traffic is shocking. Ongati Rongai, the “suburb” where the school
is located, has somewhere around 80K who live here. There’s one two-lane road in. If it sounds insane, that’s because it is. To make matters worse, the omnipresent motorcycle
taxis, the “Sacco” van taxis and the busses are all paid per passenger / trip
so there’s incentive for them to “cheat the street” by (a) driving into oncoming
traffic, (b) driving where people should be walking and generally (c) being in
far too big of a hurry. We do see
police, but you have to do something BAD for them to act. These drivers make Midland look great. I cannot wait to get home and drive with the
people who drive like I do – bad, but in a sensible kind of way!
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