Kenya. It was not on our original route (as you have undoubtedly heard me say before), but the World Race logistics team found a contact who could get the World Race into Kenya once again. Racers often went to Kenya in the past, many alumni racers referred to it as a “staple” of the race. However, after some riots, terrorist activities, thefts, and other fun stuff the World Race deemed that it had become a bit too dangerous for teams to go in and they have not been in Kenya for at least three years. This year we partnered with Manna Worldwide, a larger organization than the World Race often partners with, but this partnership we were able to go into Kenya with more protection, more safety, and more structure.
James and I thoroughly enjoyed the two weeks we got to spent at the schools. We played, sang, and did devotions with the preschool through eighth grade kids. We had been hesitant at first, neither of us consider kids our strong suit when it comes to ministry, but we enjoyed the weeks a lot. James led a great devotion about knowing a tree by its fruit. It was great watching him use simple examples to connect with the kids. It was great watching the kids be fascinated by the words that God was giving him.
The kids often climbed the trees to get coconuts when they could. James asked if they had ever climbed a coconut tree to find a bunch of bananas, or have they ever climbed a mango tree to find a bunch of coconuts. No? You know a tree by its fruit. And if we have goodness, if we have God, in our hearts, then our actions, our fruit, should show it. James delivered this with enthusiasm and passion. It had been fun to watch him grow in his speaking throughout our race so far and this month it was fun watching him speak to the kids.
I had a great time playing volleyball with the kids at the first school. At the second school I made a few special friends and often ran around with them or watched them play rope. At both schools we taught them the “human knot” game and the “Go Bananas” song. It was a hit.
Our last week and few days were spent painting and scraping. But that church/high school auditorium never looked so good.
So . . . this month marked the second month that we got to share a bedroom! Two out of the three months so far we got to have slumber parties with some of our team. Sharing a room was something that we knew we were going to have to do sometimes, we just didn’t know that it would be this often (as I sit writing this in India our “room” is our tent out on a patio, close enough. At least no one else on our team is snuggled up next to us! Haha).
Not only does this make it difficult for cuddle time, but fighting is difficult as well. We had very limited time alone. We could not go off by ourselves very often, and we couldn’t use public transportation. We had one assigned driver that we had to use strategically. Taking our usual half-day date day got a little bit more tricky. We are encouraged/almost forced to take a date day once a week. The first two weeks it was hard to tear ourselves away from the kids. We had only a little time to spend with them and it was hard telling them, and the teachers, that James and I would be leaving for half a day. Taking marriage days are great, but sometimes we had to fight off guilt of leaving our team behind to do the work and guilt of leaving the people we had come to care about.
But, at the beginning of the month we knew we would have to make a conscious effort to fight for these days. With just one driver and limited freedom it was definitely hard to get away some weeks. (So to any of you who are married and are about to head out on the World Race, be prepared to make this a priority, be prepared for it to be hard some months to get away, and be prepared to fight back those feelings of guilt. Overall, it is better for our team and our ministry to take our time to ourselves, so we are not being selfish, we are doing what is healthy for our marriage and for our ministry. – And yes, I still have to keep repeating that phrase in order to convince myself of this truth.)
Working out our little day to day marriage kinks got a little hard. Fighting in front of a team is awkward. It makes us fight a little fairer sometimes, but other times we know this is going to be a discussion that needs to be hashed out without anyone else around. So what do you do? Do you sit and stew in silence until a golden opportunity of solitude appears? Or do you just hand out popcorn and let your team enjoy the show? The suggestion of not letting the sun go down on your anger is good in theory, but this month it was very hard in practice.
But overall, we grew. It was a good month. I described it once as “growing pains” as we keep learning more about each other and how we interact within our community. I have never spent this much time with James. Back at home we leave each other for 8-10 hours a day, five days a week. Now I live and work beside him almost 24/7. I get to see how he interacts with others he works with. I get to see how he handles “stress at work” and how he problem-solves with other workers and builders. James again connected easily to one of our “work buddies”. Jacob was one of the painters who was in charge of helping to paint the church. Jacob and James seemed to click almost instantly, and I looked to both of them to keep me busy, give me tasks, and show me what to do. Jacob even gave me a beaded Kenyan ring (after asking James if it was okay first!)
Kenya was a hard month. It was a different month. We have lots of stories. We had lots of struggles. But looking back and I see growth and I see God.
