On August 1st, our team was supposed to board a bus from Nairobi, Kenya and ride to Kampala, Uganda.
We boarded that same bus, but stopped after only three hours in Nakuru, Kenya.
We have been here ever since.
This is now our month eight, or as I like to call it, “Kenya- Take Two.”
Thanks to an Ebola outbreak in Uganda, the Adventures in Missions office decided that it would be better for our team to wait out the situation in Nakuru, Kenya. For one week we hung out with half of team Intimate Grace and did a bit of ministry with them, but mostly waited. After five days we were told that we were to stay in Kenya for the month. Going back to our previous ministry in Nairobi was a possibility, but en lieu of the lovely attempted suicide bomb at a Kenya Air Force base, our month 8 ministry now lies in Nakuru.
At first I was rather disappointed. My “11 countries, 11 month” mission is now TEN countries in eleven months. It doesn’t sound nearly as cool. It also doesn’t help that Kenya month seven was rather low on the “Months I like best” list, and the addition of eleven countries on the WR was going to bring my list of visited countries up to 30. That would have been pretty sweet.
I may have whined a little bit to God, but he was very gracious in my unhappiness. He pointed out some pretty good things to me.
- It’s not about number of countries I visit or how long I spend in each one, but what happens there that is so much more important. Empirical information seems solid but in reality can be twisted a multitude of different ways. I refuse to let this year be labeled by numbers or lists or anything that can be typed out in just a few words… to do that would be to limit what God has done, and that’s definitely not what I want to do.
- The living conditions of this month are what I have been praying for for the last six weeks. We have running water, HOT water, I have a nice bed that I share with my darling Amanda, the family we are living with is amazing, the house is super clean, and the laundry situation is ideal (once a week washed for us, team budget pays.) It sounds a bit petty and I had to admit it, but being dirty the last two months has been really draining for me. It’s extremely difficult to stay clean (and healthy) without running water. It’s tiring to be on an intense guard against parasites (which I’ve had three times now) when the sanitation situation is a bit precarious at best. This month WE wash the dishes, which puts my mind at ease, and our lovely housegirl, Joyce, is OCD about cleanliness. She even scolded us for using a dish towel to wipe water off the floor… this secretly made me really happy because it confirms how hard she works to keep everything clean, and also reminded me of my own dear mother).
- We are with an awesome team, Graceful Avalance. This team is made up of the three women of Intimate Grace who also spent month 7 in Nakuru. Their other three team members are men, and all of the D Squad men are in South Sudan this month. The other half of their team includes to women from the only other co-ed team on our squad. We weren’t originally supposed to be with this team, but I love being with them. Two of their members, Amanda and Julie, were on my last team. We haven’t been together for two months and I’ve loved having them around again. Three of the other ladies on this team are people I haven’t been with since month 1, and two of them I haven’t ever been placed with. I’m very happy that God has put me back with some squadmates that I haven’t seen in awhile and some that I haven’t seen much of ever!
Ministry this month is relatively laid back… four days a week we visit different places from about 10am to 3pm. So far we have gone to two different children’s homes, a girl’s high school, and a juvenile detention center. On Saturdays we spend a couple hours in the morning cleaning the church, Sundays we go to church, and Monday is our day off. It’s been great to have plenty of time to spend together as a team, read and journal, and also be able to invest in my other squadmates and our contacts.
At the very beginning of training camp, AIM staff asks all future racers to abandon expectations and any sense of entitlement. I still felt entitled to eleven countries, but this must be where God wants me and my team. Ebola in front of us and bombs behind us have given us very little wiggle room… so Nakuru it is!
Plus, who WOULDN'T want to spend a month with this cutie? This is Tiffany, my new four year old host sister. She has an older brother, Timothy, and her parents are Ruth and Pastor Ayub. They are an awesome family.
