Update from Nairobi

Hopefully those pictures I promised in the last post will get up soon. We’ve tried a couple times, but blogger was being finicky. We took some pics of our apt all set up.
Anyway, things have been getting a little better here. The homesickness is still there full force at times, but it’s a bit dimmer. I can forget about it during the day. We’ve tried to stay pretty busy.

One day Jake went out to give some blood at a local hospital for one of the family’s here at NEGST. Their 4 year old son had to get a heart surgery, and unlike America, there is a VERY short supply of blood here, so they charge the patient for any blood they may need during something like that! So, Jake had the kind of blood he needed, so he donated it to him so the family doesn’t have to pay. Also, some other mzungus went as well, even though they didn’t have the same blood type. Apparently if they give a pint of any kind of blood, then the hospital will give the family one for free of the kind they need. It’s interesting to think that Jake’s blood is actually going to a person! Most of the time when one gives blood in the states, it just goes into a big bank—you have no idea the difference that you’re making. So, anyway, that was cool and I was proud of him for doing that on his 3rd or 4th day here.

Let’s see…. What else? Asante is doing well. He’s cruising around like CRAZY, which for those of you who aren’t familiar with that language, it means he’s walking from one piece of furniture to the next, while hanging onto to something with one hand. He’s much more confident in his walking abilities, but I think it will still be awhile before he walks. Funny story—jake and I said to him, “Asante, I think you are going to walk SO soon.” And he immediately shakes his head no very firmly. LOL. I don’t think he knew what we said, but I wouldn’t be surprised. He’s beginning to understand when we say “no” to him, and he’s begun to indicate that he knows some of what we are saying. He’s such a good boy. We’re very blessed and thankful for him.

We’ve begun to hang out some with a few families here… one is from the states originally, and another is from the UK. We all watched the Office last night, neither of them had seen it, so that was really, really fun. I don’t know if everyone liked it, but I think most of them did. We also had fajitas at the family from the states—YUM! I don’t know how they made it to taste so authentic, but it was delicious.

We attended a local church service here of a church called Karen Community Church. I’m not sure what denomination it was—they didn’t really say. But the people were nice and the service was pretty much what we were used to in the states. Some of the songs we sang were English, and a couple in Kiswahili. They had announcements, prayer, new member recognition, and a sermon. It lasted about 2 hours, but it didn’t seem that long. Afterwards all the visitors went to the pastor’s office for sandwiches and tea. It was quite a good idea! It only lasted about 20 minutes, but it was a good thing to be able to get face-to-face with some of the leadership and meet other visitors. In the bulletin they had a quote from Bill Hybels—and from some of the structure, I have a sneaky suspicion that they may be somewhat affiliated with Willowcreek Association. Being the bibliophile that I am, I scanned the pastor’s little library, and saw a lot of books that I recognized, which was kinda strange for me. I guess I expected everything to be a bit more…. I don’t know, African?

But what is African really? I guess that’s what I’m here to learn. My expectations are blown nearly everyday, and today was no different. I was surprised that they had a bulletin with an order of worship- they also had lots of programs- men’s, women’s, outreach, missions, prayer, youth, etc. etc. They had 2 services- the first was for youth and anyone under 40ish who was single. Then everyone else came to the later service. During the later service, those who were in the first service had Sunday school type classes outside, which was pretty fun. Those attending the service weren’t particularly more or less charismatic than what we were used to in the states. Not good or bad, just surprising I’m not sure if we’ll “shop around” or just stick with this community church. We don’t want to spend too much time going from one church to the next. We know there is no perfect church, so we’re just trying to figure out where we can fit in and use our gifts. It’s hard because we feel like while being at NEGST, an entirely Christian community in itself who has chapel 2 days a week for the students and a small group on Fridays, we don’t want to become “overchurched”, something that we were trying to get away from in the states. So, all that to say we’re praying about it and seeing where the Lord leads.
I guess this is enough for now. ☺ I could ramble on for a while. Thanks for reading!