Kenya: Chapter 2 'Beautiful Things'

Maybe after reading chapter 1, you’re a little scared to continue. Don’t worry - this is the fun chapter. GOD IS ~SO~ BEAUTIFUL. There were so many moments when his greatness was so extensive that I just had to stop what I was doing and take it in. We went on a safari the first Saturday that we were there. We woke up and left at 5:30 as we ate our pre prepared sack breakfast in the safari vehicle. It was going to be a rainy day. The safari was incredible - I was with Lauren, Jarrod, Troy, Katie, Kori, and Rob and I could not stop smiling/laughing the whole 3 hours. My cheeks ached by the time we drove out of the gates. Despite the sprinkles, we saw zebras, giraffes, hippos, a ton of different bird species, ostriches, antelope, wildebeest, and a lion. Plus there were a ton of other animals/creatures that we saw the entirety of the trip whether that be on the side of the road or right outside the flats where we were staying: warthogs, baboons, monkeys, dogs, cats (there was a mom, dad and a litter of kittens at the cafeteria where we ate), donkeys, goats, sheep, horses, more birds (very annoying birds), lizards, and slugs. If you’re reading this right now, you should ask me about Steve the slug - it’s a very entertaining story that I might add into the conclusion of this series. My favorite animal is a deer so I was ecstatic that the antelope were the most frequently seen on the safari. However, the baby elephants we visited at the orphanage after the safari stole the show. Each elephant lost its mother and is being cared for until they are old enough to be readmitted into the wild. As we finished watching the first group get fed, it started to POUR. Imagine the hardest rain you’ve ever experienced + almost all of us had left our rain jackets at the flats or in the vans + there was no ledge or roof we could hide under + mass confusion on where to go = we were drenched. When we finally made it back to the van, there was not a dry spot on our bodies. I squeezed a cup full of water out of my skirt. It was one of the greatest moments of the trip for me. One of the items on my bucket list is to be able to dance in the pouring rain … to be able to take a less than pleasurable situation and find pure joy. The morning and early afternoon on the safari and in the elephant orphanage had brought a joy that extended past temporary happiness.

May 22 the group was in charge of coming up with some games for us all (TNU, SNU, ANU) to play. There was a soccer pitch right outside the university so we all headed out to kick the ball around. The sunset was phenomenal. We were in the middle of the game and I knew I just had to stop to take a picture (of course the other team scored while I was gone, but oh well). There were several other days where the sunsets just blew me away - the last Monday of the trip as we made our way back to Nairobi from the rural countryside, our first Sunday as we sat looking out on a valley from the Maasai lodge we were eating, and the night Katie and I went out to the front of the school to take pictures of the magnificent sunset.

The final beautiful thing I will write about is the sunrise. May 23 we had decided that we would wake up and see the sunrise. Lauren came in to wake up Tally and I but we were too tired and told her we were staying in so she went back to sleep. After a few minutes, I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep and thinking that Lauren had headed up with Ian, Victoria, and Mikayla, I walked out to the soccer pitch by myself. Ian, Victoria, Mikayla, and I watched the most beautiful sunrise I had ever seen. I’ve always been more of a sunset girl because (quite frankly) they’re prettier. It was the reason I had been so hesitant to wake up that morning - I would rather sleep than see a subpar sunrise that I could see every day in America. I am now convinced that Africa has prettier sunrises than we do because watching the sun illuminate the clouds and finally burst through the horizon was breathtaking (the sun looks bigger over there, just FYI). The next day we had a bigger group come out with us. There were more clouds so the sunrise wasn’t as cool but even in the subtle beauty of day 2 I sat in awe of the awesome power of our God.

I feel like people often go to Africa and bring back the pictures of the starving children - we all know that those are the pictures that stir hearts and open wallets. When I left for this trip I knew that pictures of the poverty and devastation was not what I wanted to bring back. In case you haven’t caught on, this blog will not focus on the visible debris because Kenya is so much more than what the media has portrayed it to be. ‘You make beautiful things out of the dust’ (Beautiful Things, Gungor). There is LIFE in Kenya - there are so many theologians saying that we should be looking to Africa in the next 10 years for the revival that the church needs. After this trip, I am also convinced that the spark that will light the world and our hearts on fire is about to be ignited in the heart of Africa. I want to demonstrate this hope for the future in some of people I tell you about in the next few chapters. Start listening.

Kenya: Chapter 1 'Stereotypes'

I have a bone to pick with the media and the church.

As I prepared myself for this trip, I tried to go in with 0 expectations. We didn’t have a clear itinerary so I was trying to prepare myself for anything. My main goal was to not put God in a box - to let him speak to me and through me in whatever ways he wanted to. I understood that while many people would go on this trip with the main goal to hang out with the kids we met, I knew that the hidden mission would be to build relationships with the students at Africa Nazarene University - where we were staying. I was determined to stay out of any drama that might arise and try to be kind and bring peace in whatever stressful situations we found ourselves in. I thought I was ready for anything. I was not.

Nairobi did NOT look like I thought it would. It was NOT devastating poverty as soon as we left the airport but rather paved roads, bridges, and tall skyscrapers that looked just like the ones back home. I cried quietly as we drove to ANU, embarrassed that while I had not put God in a box, I had put Africa and Kenya in one. I expected to be living in buildings that were just a little nicer than lean-to shelters. I did not expect the buildings at ANU to have multiple levels. I expected dirt floors. I did not expect it to feel like home. I was wrong. As we walked into the work and witness apartment flats we would be staying in, I was even more surprised as I was encountered with a smell that was very familiar - the room smelled like my Abuela’s house in Puerto Rico (I cried again lol). ANU felt like home from the second we stepped on campus - because it was … and it is.

Stereotypes of Kenya were not the only ones challenged and broken on this trip. God broke down stereotypes of America too. On May 16 Janice, Jacinda, and I met Edwin and Kelvin. Edwin and Kelvin are two of the funniest, most loving, joy-filled people I know. As we talked about the 40-60 security dogs the campus releases every night to keep the students safe, Edwin told us that he could show us where they keep the dogs during the day. The next afternoon, Jacinda, Lauren, and I were walking down to see the dogs. Edwin was talking about how after he showed us the dogs, he was going to go wash his cousin Pauline’s car. When I was younger, my Uncle Gary lived in Nashville and he would wash his car once a week. He taught me how to wash a car - you can’t forget the wheels! I asked Edwin if we could help him wash Pauline’s car and he was surprised. “It’s not that fun”, he said. But I insisted saying that it could be fun if you’re washing with the right people. Before we helped wash the car, we stopped by Pauline’s apartment (she is the director of the sports department at the university) where she prepared coffee and honey rolls for us. Edwin’s little cousin Lynn drove the car up to an area with a water hose and we (Lauren, myself, Edwin, and his cousins Lynn, Stefany, and Jeff) started at it. When I say that car was spotlessly clean, I mean it. I taught them how to clean the wheels and they taught me the importance of cleaning the plastic on the inside of the car. We went over the car 2 or 3 times to get it spotless. Kelvin had walked by and asked to join. We didn’t have an extra rag so I gave him mine and decided to use the bottom of my “mission trip” skirt. Edwin and Kelvin were both shocked. They asked me “why are you helping us clean this car? I have NEVER seen a white person clean a car before. They sit and watch us do it. Plus why are you using your nice skirt? You’re getting it all dirty!” I explained that my skirt was just a skirt and that my parents had set a good example for me growing up to be hardworking. I chose not to say anything about God - I don’t know why. I felt bad about it later. I guess I wanted to show my faith through actions, not just words. That night at debrief, I didn’t tell the rest of the group of the adventurous day Jacinda, Lauren, and I had experienced. I don’t post this to get you to say “wow what a humble servant Erica is” or “way to put your faith to practice sweetie!”. I shared this story to say 2 things - first: this was one of the first moments I had in Kenya where I was not intentionally trying to build relationships or show God to others. It was real, it felt natural, it was authentic. Secondly: do you see what is wrong with this picture? Americans - especially American Christians - are perceived by the world as lazy, selfish, and entitled individuals and yet “American Christianity is the way things should be”. What kind of example have we been setting??? Earlier that very day Jacinda had helped cook lunch at a school and the lead cook had told her “I never thought a white woman would be in my kitchen… you must be so humble to be cooking food with us”. Stop it church. Stop looking for excuses. Stop sitting back and letting relationships, moments, and kingdom work fly by because you ‘don’t feel like it’ or the ‘style of worship/preaching isn’t your thing’ or ‘you’re too tired’ or ‘you’re comfortable where you’re at’ or ‘there are other people who can do it better’ or ‘you’ll do it tomorrow’. God’s kingdom is here NOW. You’re not promised tomorrow. What are you going to do with today? Pray that God opens your eyes to the communities around you - you don’t have to fly to Africa to love on your neighbors. Stop giving a hand out and start giving a hand up. We as American Christians cannot continue to live in this cycle of comfortably living our privileged daily routines when there is a whole world out there that needs love. Plus it’s not that the world specifically needs our help. We are in desperate need of the lessons that the world is waiting to teach us. Humble yourself enough to stop talking and to start listening and learning. Ask God to reveal the stereotypes you have - the mud that needs to be cleaned from your eyes - so that you can start to live into the selfless lives he’s calling you to rather than the dirty, selfish, entitled position we are currently comfortably sitting in.

Kenya: Prologue

When I said goodbye to my family and walked through the security gate of the Nashville airport, I had no idea what God had in store for me. I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would be one of ~those~ people that embark on a mission trip to Africa and return completely changed… those people that find God, themselves, and peace thousands of miles from home.

To say I have never experienced any trip, especially a mission trip, like this would be the understatement of the century. I was face to face with hidden stereotypes I held that were about to be flipped upside down. I got to see a modern city, the beautiful rural countryside, a school in the slum of Mathare, a Christian University in the heart of Africa, and a safe place for God’s most precious children in a small town.

God knew my heart was aching, still trying to heal from brutal heartbreak that found me in 2017. He knew that Satan had come this past semester and tried to take the joy and strength I had built up. He knew the lessons I needed to learn before my 2 month internship in Puerto Rico that starts in about a week. He knew the inner desires of my heart - that all I truly wanted was to be made WHOLE in Him.

I found God in Kenya. It took over 8,000 miles to finally jolt me awake, to set me on fire again, to expand my view on the world and on God. I found God in the unexpected places. Sure, I saw him in the children we met there… but He had so much more to give than a few good pictures to add to my instagram aesthetic (no images of the children will be put online, FYI, so if that’s what you’re looking for, go find another blogger).

I found God through students at ANU, a car wash, a starry sky, a gust of wind, a ~downpour~ of rain, a slug, a chapel service, little conversations, fellowship over meals, a cemetary, a teacher, a bridge, a camera, a hymn book, personal stories, a rainbow, a couple bracelets, dancing in church, doing something that terrified me, a kind & giving soul, a sunrise, a paint brush, Kenyan tea, and a water bottle.

I left my phone in the US - the greatest decision I’ve ever made. The second greatest decision I’ve ever made was holding myself accountable and journaling every night of the trip. I have 70 pages and 2600+ images full of memories that were 99% free of the distractions of technology and home. Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing my stories: experiences, relationships, and a few pictures as I process this gift from God. Welcome to my journey through Kenya - I hope your read today shows you a glimpse of God’s goodness and faithfulness.