dawn: adventures of a journeywoman

Wild, wild, wild. This past week it was difficult to tell the human adventures from the animal ones. Late one Saturday night a few weeks ago, I waited with eager expectation for a glimpse at two faces I had been waiting to see for five weeks: Anne Snyder and Cay Perque. These two lovely ladies felt a stirring after I sent out an invitation to join me in exploring the animals and the people that bring me so much joy in Kenya. After many vaccinations, daily pills to prevent malaria, stocking up on playdough, ankle-length skirts and plenty of peanut butter and chocolate chips (for the missionaries), and prayfully preparing their hearts they embarked on a trip across the ocean. After arriving in Kenya, they joined me at a missionary guesthouse (where we met a wide variety of ages, professions, and personalities that qualify under this title). We attended church the next morning at Nairobi Baptist Church, which I regard as the African equivalent of the Crystal Cathedral: stadium seating in plus chairs, television screens scattered throughout for a better look at the lyrics to the worship sounds, luminescent stained glass windows, a 30-plus group of young people belting in harmony leading in a mix of Swahili and English songs, a group of 10 elders blessing all the new babies, and a traffic jam of Mercedes as we exited. It was a stark contast from the slum church I attended weeks before. Yet I realized how much in common we had with the parishoners. All three of us attend a church in our capital city and there are members with varying levels of influence in both public and private sector. And the way people of influence daily experience and encounter God does have some distinctions from a people seeking spiritual peace in the midst of poverty and suffering. Yet, we are all children of the same Father and approach the cross with equal brokenness and need.

Though I had originally invited several female friends to join me for a week of safari and a week at the village where I served on my previous trip to Kenya, Cay and Anne requested to volunteer at Kijabe Hospital. After some arrangements both well in the future and spontaneous, I was moved at the ways God used the two of them in just a week. They both were interested in BethanyKids, a special part of the pediatric ward at Kijabe that cares for children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus (both severe congenital neurological conditions). For more information on BethanyKids, you can watch this short Youtube video produced by Sarah Seaton. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSmRP9ID6QM

On the pediatric ward, they assisted a chaplain named Mercy (how fitting!) in meeting and praying with each family and patient. They shared not just prayers, but testimonies and scripture as well. I was a bit unsure about how well they would fit in (I wasn't able to give them an introduction to the hospital or staff). But I was hardly surprised to learn through the grapevine hours later from hospital staff that Cay had taken a microphone, belted some songs, and goofily imitated a dance of a music video playing in the background. And the kids loved it. Later in the week, Anne and Cay designed an entire party to throw, complete with a homemade pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, pass the parcel (Anne wrapped several toys in layers of paper that children could unwrap when the music stopped-much like hot potato meets Christmas), and several rounds of Uno (a great universal game of colors and numbers if you ever find yourself with a language barrier).

Anne also learned to cook traditional African cuisine in the hospital cantine (equivalent to the cafeteria) very early each morning. Both Anne and Cay also spent an afternoon with Steven Phiffer, a CNN Hero of Kenya Kids Can!;
http://kenyakidscan.org/
attending one of his semesterly food dropoffs and learning about his incredible testimony. And after the goodbye dinners and desser parties, and two overnight calls in my last week the three of us were on to our next trip, known in Kenya as safari.

Anne, deep in thought
In between breathtaking sunsets, close encounters with lions, and visiting traditional tribal homes the three of us have been able to bond. Asking questions about the many deaths I witnessed in the hospital, they allowed me the time and space to process. Seeing their reactions to clashes of cultures taking place before our eyes (Somalis, Luos, Massai, Kikuyu, Europeans, atheists, Christians, Muslims, elite, impoverished, beggars, and exploiters) helped me understand my own emotions and understandings about the diversity swirling around me. And sharing spontaneous singing and laughter over cheesy African music videos, losing a hat in the middle of a gamepark (and imagining how lovely a warthog mama is looking in it), the bumpy rollar coaster (otherwise known as traversing the unpaved roads of Kenya) sunk joy deep down in some dry crevices.

Cay sporting her hat before the warthog mama stole her sytle

The past two weeks have made me so grateful for the great friends who are willing to support me, personally explore the contrasting beauty in the people and landscapes of Kenya, and join in some good, clean, wild fun. At some points it has been hard to distinguish between the wild herds of zebras and the wild pack of the three of us (the zebras may or may not have bathed more freqeuntly than we did). But through it all, we have been able to encourage, stand beside, and celebrate the others. I have had to pinch myself as I dwell on precious a gift these two women have been in this Kenyan journey.

How wonderful, how beautiful, when (brothers and) sisters get along!
It's like costly anointing oil
flowing down head and beard,
Flowing down Aaron's beard,
flowing down the collar of his priestly robes.
It's like the dew on Mount Hermon
flowing down the slopes of Zion.
Yes, that's where God commands the blessing,
ordains eternal life. Psalm 133:1-3