A Quiet Sunday Afternoon

For having been here in Nairobi only a little longer than a week, I've had a delightful range of pleasant activities. Not only have I spent more time sitting outside by myself in gazebos and under tropical flowering trees than I'm accustomed to, but I've enjoyed an immense amount of good company and additional job titles. So far, I've been some form of child control (although only minimally, considering the 2-year-old in question screams "No no no!" nearly every time we're in the same room--which is often, considering I'm living with her), grocery procurer and deliverer, officially commissioned overnight bodyguard, personal chef for from 3-19 eaters, proofreader, ESL teacher accompanist, kindergarten aide, and Kiswahili tutor, to name a few.
I've actually even been doing what I came for, which is turning out to be even more enjoyable than I anticipated. There is just nothing wrong with spending my days meeting people dedicated to God's work and hearing their stories face-to-face. Then I get to sit out on the lawn in shorts in late October, drinking chai and finagling the jumble of my interviewed information into articulate articles. What a blessing to be able to help share stories of God's work! It's more than just the hot coffee that burns my heart as I interact and write.
Please pray with me that I would be able to adequately express the heart of the people I am honored to meet, and to help spark others into fire for God's mission as they read my words. That I would be able to be a legitimate encouragement to the long-term workers here in the small ways that I am able. That whatever is going on in my stomach would take a chill pill. That I would survive without my husband for 2 1/2 more weeks. That I would be able to meet up with my contacts from up North. That Elise would finally stop screaming at me.

Sock-footed in the Airplane

Here I sit, at the time I'm writing this, eyes stinging from saying go away to sleepiness, throat constricting from saying goodbye to my husband, and heart pounding from saying habari to this month of Kenya. Great. It hasn’t even been 12 hours yet since I left Kansas.

And so it begins! I realize that 1) I haven’t blogged in “some time”  2) my next posts will have nothing to do with house-wifery  and 3) I’m not sure throwing in extra writing is my best idea since that’s literally my to-do list for the next 3½ weeks. But I think I’m ready. Ready to see what it will be like and give it a shot, at any rate. My fingers were itching to get started typing and my brain was dictating what I could say on here anyway.

To give a little more background as to what I’m referring: EMM has asked me to come to visit Nairobi, in order to do some researching, interviewing, writing, picture-snapping. How legit is that? That’s right, I’m officially a photojournalist. At least, that’s what we’ll call it. Basically my dream job, to travel, write, and take pictures. This isn’t really a job, but that’s a triviality. I feel like God essentially dumped this opportunity in my lap, since in His father-heart He knew I would need Kenya again before too long.

I have been so blessed in how He has not only worked out the details for this trip, but also in people’s continued support of my passion and the privilege to stay involved and connected in His work in Africa.

God provided me with two great jobs this summer, as a barista and house-cleaner, that have saved me up enough money to pay for this month. They also both recognized the priority and importance of this time to me and are allowing me to flit away from work yet jump right back in when I return.

During my time in Nairobi, I’m planning to obviously get a lot of articles written, but also to meet up with a few of “my people” from the desert, spend quality time with some of my best friends who just moved to the guest house, and eat lots of mangos. I pray that through this experience God will just continue opening doors for my Kenyan heart to stay intentionally connected to both the people I love there and the people I love here. I’m thrilled that you care enough to read my ramblings here.