Sunday, December 31, 2006
We are finally in Kenya! Today we had a great reminder of how different cultures approach God and worship. We attended AIC Kapsoya church, and enjoyed a three hour service which included baptisms, testimonies, hymns, individual public confessions, and a sermon translated between English and Kiswahili.
There were many things that differed from our Lutheran church—there were certainly things we missed and the Coca-Cola communion wine was a surprise, but we were also aware of our fellowship with those who love the Lord and seek to live lives that reflect the love of Jesus.
I’ll continue updating as opportunities allow. Thank you for your prayers!
Seeking God’s Peace,
Davis
Labels: Kenya
We are in Kenya! We arrived in Nairobi late Thursday night. Our girls did
amazingly well throughout all 3 flights from Dayton, OH and travel time
totaling 34 hours!! Tovah made friends with her fellow travelers and all
the flight attendants were smitten with Elami.
At the airport in Nairobi, we had two major tasks: buying our visas and
getting through customs. Praise God both were completed more easily than we
could have asked. First, a kind Kenyan officer escorted us to the front of
the line where our passports were stamped with visas without even having to
complete the usual paperwork-- "we don't make babies stand in line" he said
smiling at our girls! Second, at customs we were stopped by an agent who
had hassled us on a previous trip, but because he was busy, he agreed and to
release us to two women agents who had earlier met our girls and chatted
with Davis about our plans said "You are here for two years right? Go
ahead." We did not have to open one bag the entire trip!
We spent one day in Nairobi to rest and re-organize our things and then
drove from Nairobi to Eldoret (about 6 hours over some very bumpy roads) to
spend a few more days with Davis' parents (they met us at the airport).
On Tuesday, January 2nd we will drive up to Kipkaren to check things out and
make a shopping list so we can set up house over the weekend. We'll spend
the next few days here in Eldoret and Davis will attend a conference for all
of the ELI teachers at their site here near Eldoret. On January 8th, school
starts and we will hit the ground running.
We have felt your prayers carrying us so far and we thank you so much for
your part in this ministry. Here are a few ways you can pray specifically:
- Patience as we wait to get to Kipkaren and unpack
- Adjustments for all of us: new people, sights, sounds, foods,
language, etc.
- Good health and strength: we're all catching up on sleep and
"resetting our clocks" and Jen is getting over an ear infection (total cost
to see the doctor and get a course of antibiotics: 3 dollars.)
Thank you, thank you for your prayers and support. We will try to send
regular updates.
God Bless,
The Davises
Labels: Kenya
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
We just celebrated one of those family Christmases that is a celebration of tremendous blessing. We are here in Ohio surrounded by family, everything on the table was abundant and delicious, and the deluge of gifts that we gave each other was amazing—Tovah got enough dolls to play “U.S. Census” and Elami got enough chew toys to satisfy a shark.
We mark this time in our lives with pleasure—and we thank God for it.
Tovah got me thinking this morning about the first “Christmas.” She picked up a donkey from the nativity set, turned it upside down, and said, “look daddy, it has a tail.” We examined the tails of several other animals, until she picked the baby out of the manger, and said, “Baby Jesus doesn’t have a tail.” She thought for a while. “He has a bottom.”
I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to discuss the Christ-child’s bottom—but I complimented her insight and inwardly was impressed by her sincerity and respect for the topic.
Often we think of Mary and Joseph showing up to an inn, and an innkeeper giving them the bad news--all booked. In our story, the innkeeper offers them a warm stable, which smelled sweetly of clover and had a tiny bed of fresh straw to put a baby into. The Bible gives us no such details, so let me suggest some different ideas: Mary and Joseph probably weren’t invited to the stable—they ended up there like squatters. They were desperate just for shelter--ending up in a barn, and it probably smelled like the manure and urine of 6 different species of animals. Lastly, straw may have been in the manger, but also it could have been all the things we feed goats—corn husks, banana peels, papaya skins, crushed sugarcane—all the things we saw in the trough at our recent visit to the ECHO farm in Ft. Myers.
Jesus didn’t show up pretty, clean, or well-planned (by human standards.) He was born during a coerced journey to a teenage mother in destitute poverty.
For many, Christmas has become a celebration of wealth—certainly I enjoyed it bountifully this year. But for many….
Well, you see where I’m going with this. I don’t want to rattle off another, “the true meaning of Christmas” lectures, so I will stop there.
How will you celebrate your wealth, spiritual and financial with someone this next year?
Finally, let me share with you the joy of knowing Christ as the baby with the bottom who showed up among the poor and changed my view on the wealth of the world.
God Bless and merry Christmas from the Davises.
Labels: Christmas
