ELDORET, Kenya
NYACK, New York
Two cultures
Two continents
Two worlds
7,000 plus miles apart
………….and yet not really.
It was 12:00 noon as we made our way to our last house during a morning of house visits. We were welcomed by a women as we entered her yard, who we later learned was the owner. We were prepared to share a word but she was the one to encourage us first. She was thrilled to meet fellow christians from America. She said she was encouraged to meet us as she had heard that the United States was falling away form the Lord. We shared our story and told her what we were doing all the way over here in Kenya.
We began to ask her more about her life. She told us that she is a mother of four and is an English teacher. Two of her children are already married and the other two are studying in America. We became interested when she said they were in the States so we asked where. Then she said New York and of course my interest was stirred even more. (For those of you who do not know, I went to Nyack College outside of NYC so I thought I might have heard of the school they attend.) She said they went to University of Bridgeport. I had not heard of a Bridgeport in NY but I knew there was one in Connecticut. I do not profess to knowing all of NY so I figured it was just a school I did not know.
We preyed together after which she invited us into her house for some lunch, African style. We entered her lovely living room and shared a meal of maize and avocado. As we sat there she pulled out her phone and called her son in America. She talked to him for a minute and told him we were there with her. She passed the phone to Cody and her son began to search for Cody on Facebook. Imagine that, we were on the phone with someone from America and they were on the computer at the same time. We have been so disconnected from technology that this completely shocked us. Cody told him that I went to school at Nyack and asked where exactly he was studying. He knew Nyack because get this……He studied at NYIT(New York Institute of Technology) and then transferred to Univ. of Bridgeport in Connecticut.
So there I was sitting in this women’s living room, eating lunch in Eldoret, Kenya, as Cody is on the phone with her son Brian who is miles away in Connecticut studying engineering. While playing softball at Nyack, NYIT and University of Bridgeport were both schools I remember playing against them. It is just crazy to think once again how small of a world this really is. I have flown all the way to Africa to meet a mother who has children in America who are studying just miles away from where I just spent the last four years of my life.
I left her home feeling encouraged. I was not the most thrilled about going on home visits that morning but the Lord provided a blessing, a little encouragement when He did not need to. It was an encouragement to meet a fellow Christian, someone who thanked us for spreading the Good News in Kenya.
Wednesday we say “good bye’ to Pastor Patrick, Emmy, Jeremy and Eldoret, Kenya as we make our way to Nairobi. We spend just short of a week in the capital for our month 8 debrief. Then Onto the Next One a.k.a. Uganda on the 6th.
Until Next Time
Annalisa
